I know I haven't been here in forever and usually I don't have a very good excuse for my prolonged absences; but this time I have a few decent excuses. Our life has been busy busy over the last couple of months... We took a beautiful holiday to Fremantle and the Margaret River region. We drank (and bought) lots of gorgeous wine while we we there and returned in just enough time for a busy week of catch-up before Joe went in for surgery. Ha ha!! See? I do have good reasons? I win....
My poor husband had been having horrible problems with breathing that were growing steadily worse over the last six months. Sleep was eluding him (and by proxy, me) and slowly, breathing during the day also became a real hardship. He started up with a horrible hacking cough, his asthma returned and every cold virus and allergy irritation seemed to be attracted to him. It all happened so gradually over a period of months that neither of us really saw the true impact that it was having on us. We were both exhausted, we were getting sick constantly and poor Joe could hardly breathe! He finally got a referral to see an ENT specialist who took one look and told him that he need surgery and soon...
Basically, everything in Joe's breathing area (Please don't be intimidated by my fancy medical terms - I'm really just like you) was swelling up and slowly cutting off his airway. Nice right? Additionally, he has some genetic malfunction where his esophagus is weak and will continue to swell and get irritated if not taken care of... The long and short of all this gross medical talk is that Joe had to have surgery. In this surgery, he had his adenoids and tonsils removed - he also had part of his soft palate shaved back and he had his entire esophagus cauterised, widened and scored with little cuts to ensure a strong esophagus for life.
It was a rough procedure and there was a whole lot of pain involved. A whole lot. Joe could tell you a lot more about the specifics of the pain; but let me tell you, it was hard just to watch him go through it. It was made much worse by the fact that the dose of pain meds that they gave him wasn't even half strength. He wasn't eating or drinking and I started getting concerned. Thank goodness for my lovely sister Julie who is a nurse. She gave me all the proper info on what safe dosages were, I called Joe's Dr., he agreed and we went forward with better pain management. That's when things started turning around and the healing process began. Yesterday was just 3 weeks out from the surgery and Joe is feeling like a whole new person. He still gets a bit tired and sore when he talks too much and he still has to concentrate a little bit when he's drinking so as not to allow the liquids to come out his nose!!
The best part of this whole procedure has been the sleep. Oh! The Sleep!! Neither of us realised (again, as it al happened so gradually) how little sleep we were actually getting through the night. It has been absolute heaven to go to bed every night and wake up feeling truly rested. As the sleep has improved, everything has improved. We are in good moods all the time, we want to go out and do things, we are happy and life is beautiful. I know that anyone reading this who is a parent will understand what I am talking about when I say that 6 solid months of interrupted and crappy sleep can make life seem like a very dark place.
Anyway, if you add together the general misery leading up to the surgery, the surgery, the recovery and some other largely life-changing decisions that have gone on in the last week and a half (and no, I'm not preggers) than I would say that I have some darn good excuses for neglecting you for the last month or so.
I promise I'll be better from here on out - and really, with this much sleep in my life, I am feeling like there is not much that I can't do right now.
More news to follow in the coming weeks - we are welcoming summer, our first overseas visitors and some big changes here so there should be plenty of writing material!
Gorgeous Picture of Watershed Winery in Margaret River - stay tuned for more posts on this later
My poor husband had been having horrible problems with breathing that were growing steadily worse over the last six months. Sleep was eluding him (and by proxy, me) and slowly, breathing during the day also became a real hardship. He started up with a horrible hacking cough, his asthma returned and every cold virus and allergy irritation seemed to be attracted to him. It all happened so gradually over a period of months that neither of us really saw the true impact that it was having on us. We were both exhausted, we were getting sick constantly and poor Joe could hardly breathe! He finally got a referral to see an ENT specialist who took one look and told him that he need surgery and soon...
Basically, everything in Joe's breathing area (Please don't be intimidated by my fancy medical terms - I'm really just like you) was swelling up and slowly cutting off his airway. Nice right? Additionally, he has some genetic malfunction where his esophagus is weak and will continue to swell and get irritated if not taken care of... The long and short of all this gross medical talk is that Joe had to have surgery. In this surgery, he had his adenoids and tonsils removed - he also had part of his soft palate shaved back and he had his entire esophagus cauterised, widened and scored with little cuts to ensure a strong esophagus for life.
It was a rough procedure and there was a whole lot of pain involved. A whole lot. Joe could tell you a lot more about the specifics of the pain; but let me tell you, it was hard just to watch him go through it. It was made much worse by the fact that the dose of pain meds that they gave him wasn't even half strength. He wasn't eating or drinking and I started getting concerned. Thank goodness for my lovely sister Julie who is a nurse. She gave me all the proper info on what safe dosages were, I called Joe's Dr., he agreed and we went forward with better pain management. That's when things started turning around and the healing process began. Yesterday was just 3 weeks out from the surgery and Joe is feeling like a whole new person. He still gets a bit tired and sore when he talks too much and he still has to concentrate a little bit when he's drinking so as not to allow the liquids to come out his nose!!
The best part of this whole procedure has been the sleep. Oh! The Sleep!! Neither of us realised (again, as it al happened so gradually) how little sleep we were actually getting through the night. It has been absolute heaven to go to bed every night and wake up feeling truly rested. As the sleep has improved, everything has improved. We are in good moods all the time, we want to go out and do things, we are happy and life is beautiful. I know that anyone reading this who is a parent will understand what I am talking about when I say that 6 solid months of interrupted and crappy sleep can make life seem like a very dark place.
Anyway, if you add together the general misery leading up to the surgery, the surgery, the recovery and some other largely life-changing decisions that have gone on in the last week and a half (and no, I'm not preggers) than I would say that I have some darn good excuses for neglecting you for the last month or so.
I promise I'll be better from here on out - and really, with this much sleep in my life, I am feeling like there is not much that I can't do right now.
More news to follow in the coming weeks - we are welcoming summer, our first overseas visitors and some big changes here so there should be plenty of writing material!
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Oh you tease! I wanna know what the changes are! I am so sorry to hear about all of the troubles Joe has been having. I hope this gets him back on par and you both are doing better!
So glad all of that bad stuff is behind you, and I look forward to you writing more. I wish I could say I was getting more sleep, but what I can say is that I know those very dark places where you end up when you *don't* sleep! I miss you and love you and hope wonderful things are just around the bend!
julie, the wonderful nurse referred to in your post ; )
@ Kim - Don't you worry - There will be news a plenty over the next couple of weeks :) All good stuff and all very exciting! Joe is feeling SOOOO much better - it was truly a life-changing surgery :) Hope you are enjoying being back in the States?
@Julie the wonderful nurse - I'm sure you (and all other parents) know much more than me what sleep deprivation can do to someone!! And yes, there should be lots more writing coming out of me in the future - I am so excited about it! And I love you :)
I had caught bits and pieces of why Joe had to have surgery and what exactly he had done, but this it was nice to see it all laid out. I am astounded! You two are good at not complaining ... I would be whining all over the place. :-) It's good the Joe is not the type of guy to resist getting something like this done even when it's for the better. I know many people who would benefit from just grabbing the bull by the horns and getting it over with. No doubt healing has been tough, but hopefully that will be a distant memory soon.
I only wish there were a surgery that I could schedule for Jack so that he'll let me have some sleep! (Kiiiiiidddding!)
Natalee