Holy S***. I'm Pregnant!

I think the title says it all. This has been the craziest couple of weeks of my life. Much of what I'll write here will be completely cliche, but:

This is...
Surreal.
Completely mindblowing.
Awe inspiring.
Exciting.
Frightening.
Nerve-wracking.
Unbelievable.


From the moment that pregnancy test read "Pregnant", I've been floating (or bloating, rather) along in a daze. My nights are mostly sleepless or restless--the kid seems to have turned cranked the inner thermostat up past 90 degrees. Yay for wet towels on the belly and big ice packs...not to mention an incredibly patient husband who is intent on making this as easy as possible for me.

He's already started coping with my newly found cravings...

Boston Market Mac & Cheese...KFC biscuits...and Chinese food. LOTS of Chinese food.

2 months down...7 more to go!

Article on "Death Panels"

I was reading this and felt like writing something about it. I keep hearing arguments against a single-payer health care system. Most of the arguments boil down to one thing to me: Selfishness.

In the article, it was pointed out that in 2000, the Institute of Medicine found that 18000 people had died due to lack of insurance; and between 2000-2006 the number of deaths was estimated to be approximately 137,000.

In a country that touts itself to be the best in the world, we have an health care system that bankrupts its citizens while making record profits for insurance companies; we have a system that allows insurance companies to cancel coverage for any reason; pre-existing conditions keep millions from getting adequate coverage...

We spend an incredible amount of money on insurance and health care. My husband and I spend about 12K a year on ourselves alone. And we are some of the lucky ones.

Most members of my family are currently uninsured, but it wasn't always that way. When the economy tanked, dad lost his job. There went the insurance. Not to mention the heart attacks he had in 2002...the cost for that alone bankrupted them. They never recovered. This happens every single day and there isn't enough outrage about it.

Something must be done.

A Look at Other Healthcare Systems Around The World.


More to come soon...

Thursday.

I had a fantastic couple of days with Uncle Gayle. I went over on Wednesday with dad. He was taking Aunt El grocery shopping. I sat with Uncle Gayle upstairs and chatted with him while we watched DVDs of old Nebraska Football games. All in all a very nice visit. Aunt El told me she wanted to work a half day on Thursday, but wasn't comfortable leaving Uncle Gayle alone...could I come over on Thursday to keep an eye on him and keep him company?

On Thursday, I woke up early--much earlier than I have in a very long time. Was out the door by 7:15am and at their place a little after 7:30am. Walked into the house, put my Vera Bradly bag down on the loveseat in the living room and found a giant spider crawling across the carpet...nearly passed out. Managed to not pee myself, grabbed paper towels from kitchen, captured spider, sent it on its way. Chatted with Uncle Gayle for a while, helped him with some phone calls and then made him breakfast. I stripped the sheets off of his bed and washed them--it is always wonderful to have freshly laundered sheets on a bed! I also brought him a giant case of movies to watch. I went back downstairs and took care of laundry and checked in on him periodically. Came up to give him more water and found him watching The Breakfast Club. Good movie. Managed to get quite a bit of lyric writing done and have some new ideas for a couple more songs. His appetite was much better--made him a ham sandwich for lunch (no crusts), gave him some more graham crackers and some sherbet. Didn't want him to feel like I was hovering or smothering him, so just let him watch movies until he called for me to get him something. Aunt El came home around 1 and I headed home. Felt VERY tired yesterday...sick to stomach. probably something I ate. Hope I don't have "E Coli." (Thanks, George Lopez!)

Surgery day.

We just got back from the hospital. Uncle Gayle's surgery seemed to go well. The doctor believes the cancer was isolated--it doesn't seem to have spread anywhere else. They took it all out and sent it to pathology. Now we wait and see. His ileostomy went well. It seems to be fully functioning.

We got to peek in and see him, just for a moment. His color looked good, but we could see that he was very uncomfortable (pain level at about an 8) and was just worn out. Left earlier than I thought we would, but I'm sure Aunt Ellen and Elena want him to just rest and not worry about company.

Today, though difficult, was a beautiful day. In the small moments of silence I had while walking through the halls of the hospital I had a bit of time to think about everything and pray a little. The hospital was undergoing renovation and so our large entourage took up a whole lot of space in the minuscule cafeteria dining room. Was nice to see just how much Uncle Gayle is loved. There were a hell of a lot of people there from 6am-about 3:30pm. We'll see how he's feeling tomorrow.

First Post.

So, I've decided to have this blog to write about the goings on in my life. I have another blog dedicated solely to writing...that doesn't get many visitors. I'm cool with that. Really.

As I am a fairly boring person, you must be crazy bored to be reading this. Yes, I am judging you. *glare*

Not much going on today. It has been raining non-stop since last night. I've been baking some banana walnut muffins this evening and am trying to find a good diabetic friendly muffin or dessert recipe. My husband's uncle is having surgery tomorrow and we'll be off to the hospital early in the morning. I thought it would be nice to take something for everyone to snack on since we'll be there for at least 6-8 hours.

I'm hopeful thing will turn out well for him. I know he's nervous. Who wouldn't be with a major surgery like that? He's having an ileostomy done. He found out on New Year's Eve that he had Colorectal cancer. This is just another step in the process. Hopefully, he will be in remission soon and back to enjoying life.