Weekend Happenings

Good Friday morning!

First things first. The doctor was right and Mom's surgery gave her foot instant relief. Also, we have a nifty tip. If you arrive 15 to 20 minutes early, happen to get on the elevator with the surgeon doing your surgery, and ask him sweetly if you can go first, they bump you on the surgery schedule. Not really. We did all of the above, but he told us we were still scheduled second or third. However, numbers one and two didn't show up on time, so we did get to go first! HA! (I am way too competitive.)

That being the case though, we were out of surgery before 7:30 and heading home around 8:15 or 8:20. All of my favorite moments happened except eating breakfast in the cafeteria. There was no time! Oh, and I found out even if you go to bed at 9:00, when you have get up at 4:45 a.m. it takes away from the early bedtime thing. But, Mom's doing well. She's not taking any pain meds, and she's walking around (with a boot on) like nothing happened. (If you have to have an out-patient procedure, I would highly recommend this one as opposed to some of the others.)

Since we're in hospital mode today, I'll share a little hospital story with you...

I had a little black mole on the side of my wrist. I watched it for several years, and one day I noticed it was growing. Well, you know what they say about little black moles that grow. So, I made an appointment with my doctor and went in. They advised me to have it removed, and I went to a dermatologist who was going to perform the "procedure" in his office.

The nurse came in and told me to "disrobe" and put on the infamous paper dress. "For my wrist!" I thought. The more I thought about it, the more adamant I became. I was not going to wear the paper dress for my mole removal on my wrist!

When the doctor came in, he raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked me why I wasn't ready. "I just don't understand why I have to wear the paper dress for a mole on my wrist. Explain to me why, and I'll be glad to comply." I sounded like a Dr. Seuss book.

"Well, one reason would be we have to remove the mole from your WAIST, not your WRIST," he said showing me the chart. I quickly showed him my wrist. He just as quickly changed the mistake on the chart. YES!

He started examining my wrist, told me it would take a couple of shots to deaden the area and then a couple more minutes to remove the mole. No biggie. That sounded fine to me, except I believe in being really, really numb. "Can you feel that?" the nurse would ask. And I promise I thought I could, so they gave me another shot. "Can you feel that?" the nurse asked again. I nodded, pretty sure that I felt some sort of sensation. By the time we were through with the deadening process, I couldn't feel from my shoulder down... but that was okay with me.

Now, for the removal part. I looked away and in a couple of minutes, the doctor announced he was finished. I waited... and waited... and waited a little more. "Is there a problem?" I asked.

"Well, I'm just waiting for the bleeding to stop so we can stitch it up," he said applying pressure and holding my dead arm up in the air. (I would have helped him hold it up, but as stated before... dead arm.)

"It takes me a little while to stop bleeding," I said.

"Are you a hemophiliac?" he asked, and the nurse started looking through the chart.

"No, I just don't clot very well," I responded.

"That's what a hemophiliac is," he explained. "Have you ever passed out from blood loss?"

"Nope. I'm one of those people who is painfully aware of any and all unpleasant circumstances she may be in... always," I replied, a little bitterly.

"Well, I have other patients. I'm going to let the nurse handle this, and I'll come back in a little bit to stitch you up," the doctor said, and left.

"I'm going to be here for a while. Can I order a lunch tray?" I asked, hopefully.

"Not in a doctor's office," came the curt reply.

Very long story short, a couple of hours later I was on my way back to work with a dead arm, and a wrist bandaged with at least one entire role of gauze.

When I walked into my law firm and my attorney saw me, he said, "Good grief! How many stitches did you have to have?"

"Three... but they were big ones," I replied in my defense.

"Why on earth are you bandaged that way?"

"I'm a bleeder. Yep. That's me... Belinda the Bleeder."

"You're white as a sheet. Why don't you take the rest of the day off?"

I already had my purse and was walking toward the door. He made a clerk take me home because he was afraid I would pass out from all the blood loss. Little did he know... I may be a bleeder, but I am not going to pass out... EVER.

Remind me to tell you about the cyst removal on my chin sometime. Now that's a really good "Don't read me before breakfast" story, too!

Our weekend is full of family and church activities. Before the weekend is over, we'll have eaten with my cousins and my grandmother; gone to a basketball game and eaten with Mike's parents, sister and brother-in-law; and visited with my mom a couple of times to check on the foot situation. Austin and Roxie will have participated in BLAST which is an entire weekend of staying at host homes and going to Bible Study and doing mission projects before returning home after the Sunday morning service (and sleeping the rest of the day). Josh is spending the weekend with his cousins. Busy, but full of potentially wonderful moments!

Book of the Week

As I noted yesterday, this is a very good book to read aloud to children in the six to ten years-old range. It is called Freddy the Detective by Walter R. Brooks. It is just a pleasant story about a pig and his barnyard friends and their many adventures. It is an easy read, and the chapters are just the right length for a "chapter a night." The book is good for boys and girls, and if they enjoy the first one, there are 22 others. They are classics, and I highly recommend you trying at least one.

I hope you have a great Friday, and an even greater weekend! Next week is totally devoted to Valentine's Day. Monday's Party/Event is something we've been doing in our family for years. It is easy, fun and very doable. The three perfect criteria for any party or event.

Talk to you on Monday!