I love Halloween. I love staying home to answer the door and see all the cute kids in costume. Highlights for me so far this year include:
1)Marcus just answered the door for trick-or-treaters, and the kid exclaimed, "You're big!!" in his chirpy voice.

2)There was one kid dressed in a scary mask, and a little ninja turtle was too frightened to choose his candy from the same bowl. His mom kept repeating, "He's just in a costume like you, honey." Poor little ninja turtle may be a fierce crime fighter--just not when someone's wearing a scary joker mask.

I'm continuing to improve since surgery. I'm taking drugs less often, and I even went to Zumba today. I was less than awesome in my hand motions during class, but I made it most of the way through. I'm down to ibuprofen during the day and one muscle relaxer at night. Overall, getting better.

Keep those prayers coming...
B

home and doing well

Hi All,
A brief update to let you know how surgery went:
It was quick and uncomplicated. The vascular surgeon reported that "everything went exactly as it should have."

I'm feeling pretty good considering they cut me open yesterday. Most of the pain is in my right shoulder. It feels like I did about 300 shoulder raises using 100 lb weights. Immediately following my pretend "workout", then Marcus punched me as hard as he could in my right shoulder.

Certainly, the pain is not unbearable (especially compared to abdominal surgery)--but I'm certainly not comfortable either.

The doc says that I should be pretty much back to normal in about a week. Until then, Marcus is opening and closing my car door for me, just as a proper gentleman would do all the time. :)

I consider any uncomplicated surgery a miracle. And I'd been kinda freaked out about surgery all week, and then woke up the morning of the procedure feeling a peace that transcends all understanding which could only come from God. Thank you all for your prayers.

Love,
b

Hi All!
Just a quick note to say that I'll be heading in for outpatient surgery tomorrow to get my port put in.
Please pray that the procedure goes smoothly and that I can heal quickly from it. :)
My doctor's name is Bryan Lange, and he is a vascular surgeon. We saw him on Monday, and are so pleased that he'll be doing the surgery. We liked him so much that Marcus and I did high 5's on the way out of his office. He came very highly recommended to me from my nurses, an contradicted several of the things the first doctor had told us were "truth."--just further confirmation from God that we are now in the right place.
The funny part of my story is this: I returned from my workout class yesterday morning to discover I had a voice mail message on my cell phone.
I called the woman back.
She explained that she was from Swedish Hospital patient registration, and she was calling to pre-register me for my procedure on 10/27.
I interrupted and said, "Wait! I that this coming Thursday? Like, in two days?" She replied, "Yes. It's two days from now."
Me: "Um, I'm sorry, ma'am, but what procedure am I having done on Thursday?!"
Her: "It looks like you're having a surgical procedure with Dr. Lange."
Me: "Oh, that's great! I just hadn't heard from the doctor's office yet." (I had been in and spoken to the doc about the procedure, but hadn't spoken to their scheduler yet.)
Just then, my home phone starts ringing. It was the doctor's office calling to let me know that they'd been able to squeeze me in and that I'd be receiving a call from the registration lady soon. I let her know that they'd already called.
The nurse and I broke out laughing, and she said, "My! Aren't they efficient?!"
I chuckled, and said, "Yes, it's the most interesting way I've found out about surgery so far!!"

Just another comical adventure in the land o' medicine.

Hugs to you all.
B
Sent from my iPhone

The past couple of weeks have been trying, to say the least. Immediately upon returning from California, I came down with the stomach flu. If you can imagine, it was awful. My normal days include puking and sometimes crying from cramping and pain. With the flu, I got dehydrated twice as fast, and went back to just puking my own stomach juices--without eating or drinking a thing. I was forced to pop pain pills one night, which I really don't like to do, and didn't really venture off the couch for a week.
Also, I am still in need of a port. A port is permanent access to your veins. Its a long, thin tube that goes in the lining of the vein, keeping it open, and then a small plastic part (about an inch long) gives access to the tube. The funny part of this story is that last week or maybe two weeks ago, I was sent to a Dr. F in the Vascular Surgery Dept of the hospital. After having a venous ultrasound, and a long consult visit, I was placed on his surgical schedule for 10-27--until yesterday afternoon when I received a phone call from him.

The gist of the conversation was that he thought I ultimately needed to get a port put in. He just didn't want to do it. His reasons varied from, "I don't think you really need one, even though it seems like it's medically indicated," to several alternative abdominal ideas--most of which included surgery or naso-gastric feeding. All of these things the GI docs have already tried, and I haven't tolerated--except for the one surgical procedure that he recalled being done "about 30 years ago"--which they have since stopped doing because it didn't work. I was irritated by his suggestions to say the least. Why does he think he's such a genius--able to solve my 14-year-old intestinal problems after talking with me for an hour?!? Sheesh.

So, I have an appointment with a new vascular surgeon. Although Dr F works in the vascular surgery department, he was only a general surgeon. Ugh. The silver lining of this story is that Dr F will not be touching my subclavian veins. Ever.

So, my next consult is on 10/24-with hopefully a surgery on 11/1. I'll be sure to keep you posted.:)

One of my great friends shared this lesson with me the other day...
"Try to stop yourself when your thoughts get too far into the future. When that happens, you are no longer thinking of the strength that God will give you to get through that difficult situation--and you don't factor in the provisions that He will make for you between now and then."

The lesson was amazing, and I'm doin' my best to stay in the moment, to live in the present with the grace, strength, and wisdom that God provides now.

Hugs and love,
B

For some reason the end of my blog post didn't post last night. So, here it is:

Medically, I am hanging in there. This past week, my GI doctor had to turn down my pacemaker because I was getting shocked too often. Basically, I got shocked every day, all day long for 5 days--until I was completely miserable. So, he turned it down.

I'm also getting two IV infusions a week to keep my dehydration at bay. It's working nicely, but each time they hook me up, my veins are blowing--which is as painful as it sounds. The nurses and doctors have suggested that I get a port put in sometime in October.

I think that's all for now.
Hugs, Brelin

This is the fortune cookie that I opened about a week ago. It was right!! We are in LA visiting some friends, Andy and Heather and their two kids.

We are having an amazing time so far!! We've enjoyed Knotts Berry Farm, Beach camping near Santa Barbara, and shopping in cute boutiques. Mostly, we are laughing our butts off with them.