The new Look-

After a long few months of TADs (temporary anchoring device... mini implants) in his mouth, Tim finally graduated on to full braces. Doesn't he look HANDSOME? He looks some ten years younger... kinda like a little teenage, junior high school boy. He's beginning to understand the luxuries of braces: his teeth are hurting so he loads up on ibuprofen, and each meal ends with a ten minute tooth-brushing episode. Fortunately, he won't get made fun of at school because he's a "brace face," but only because all his friends are aspiring dentists and think that braces are cool.

Buffalo Wild Wings, Anyone?

Wings, basketball, and good friends. There isn't much else you need to enjoy a Friday night out on the town. Since we don't have cable and Tim doesn't get the pleasure of watching the Blazers games at home, we found an alternative that is almost as good as watching the game live (here at the Rose Garden). At Buffalo Wild Wings, the walls are covered with some 50+ TVs showing all the sports games (they even have a tv at each urinal in the men's bathroom). What better way to enjoy a good manly sport's outing than with buffalo wings, no silverware required. We had a blast and to top it off the Blazers WON.

It's not too far away!

With school coming to an end this next year the question always comes up of where are we going to live once Dental School is over. Although we lean towards Arizona, there are still so many unknowns: Potential practice opportunities, the unstable economy, and seemingly a surplus of dentists in areas that we like. At least we have the NHSC scholarship (working in underserved usually low income rural areas) to stay excited about for the next two years. It should give us a feel for what family life is like as a dentist, get Tim some added clinical experience, and live in a unique place we normally wouldn't chose otherwise.

We always think it would be nice to live close to family and to be in a clean, family friendly, suburban area. It would be an added bonus to have a decent commute. The funny thing is that it still isn't time to decide where to live for a few more years. Regardless, it gets brought up as pillow talk every couple weeks.

Welcome Weston...

Macy's first boyfriend was born today. Hurray! She's growing up so fast, yet she can hardly wait until these boys are out of the womb so that they can start dating. (I mean "play dates", of course.) Weston Lamoine Saunders was born this morning weighing in at 8 lbs, 8 oz and 21 inches long. (I really think that his hands are bigger than Macy's.) The little guy tried his hardest but after three hours of pushing the doctor decided to do a c-section, much to Lisa's disappointment. Both mom, dad, and baby are doing well and should be home by the end of the week.

My Valentine...

I had a wonderful Valentine's Day complete with gorgeous flowers, a night in with friends, and a great surprise from my amazing husband...

TICKETS TO WICKED!

Hurray... I can't say enough just how excited I am! :) Thanks Tim.

Finally... Going Home!

I knew it was a good sign when they started letting Tim drink clear liquids. Sure it was just chicken broth, jello, and apple juice but it sure beats the ice chip diet that they had him on the last three days. By Friday he was on a regular diet. (Both inside and out.) They took the drain tube out of his gut, which extended a good 12 inches inside of him and cleared him to go home. Since then, Tim has been unable to lift anything heavier than Macy. So, he just hangs out doped up on Percocet.




Lesson Learned: Tim routinely makes light of grime situations. Usually it is a good thing but he is learning that he needs to be more careful to avoid serious problems. Like we waited so long (Day Four) to go to the ER the doctor said he almost had to resect part of his large intestine. If that were the case Tim would be walking around with a poop bag coming out of his gut. Yuck! Long story short: Don't make light of important matters.

Mastitis

It all started out as just a little lump, or so I thought that was all it was... Around the six week mark (January 12, 2009) after having Macy I found this little lump on my right breast, ask the doctor about it and all they said was to watch it and see if it got bigger. Well, it did. Slowly over the following weeks I kept noticing this lump getting bigger and bigger. At first, I wasn't so sure that it really was getting bigger, but it was getting more and more difficult to sleep at night (sleeping on my stomach was so bad, that I stopped sleeping on it all together). Finally, when I went in for a checkup on February 27th, I asked the nurse about it. When I told her about the lump she kinda looked at me and said, sure thing, acting like it was nothing. Yet, when she saw it she said.... "Wow, you ain't kidding." She was a bit stumped by this problem and went to ask the doctor on call what to do. Thank goodness for Dr. Karlsson's nurse who thought that it was a big deal and scheduled me to come back and see Dr. Karrlson the next week.

Dr. Karlsson put me on some antibiotics and scheduled an ultrasound just to check and see what was really going on in there since it was so painful., scheduled an appointment with a special doctor, and gave me some yummy Vicodin to tide me over. My ultrasound was scheduled for the next week (they weren't too worried about it and thought that the antibiotics would help it get better). By the next Thursday, two months from the initial problem, I finally had an ultrasound and got it checked out.

I went into Epic West on the 12th of March. The technician didn't tell me much as she did the ultrasound but made some interesting noises as she went along. A few minutes later (it felt like forever to me though) the radiologist came in and told me the news. I had a breast abscess the size of a grapefruit. We had a few options on how to proceed but she needed to talk it over with Dr. Karlsson to see what she wanted to do. After a nice half an hour talk with the doctor they decided that it would be best to preform an I&D (incise and drain) and see what they could get out and go from there.

I can't even begin to describe the pain as they stuck me with a needle to numb me up. Ouch is one word but it felt like I was a pin cushion (looked like it afterwards as well). To say the least, it did feel a bit better afterwards but I would have to say anything would if you had a quart of fluid (200+ cc of fluid) in you. It was disgusting. But at least I can say I was relieved that it wasn't cancer. (The thought was on the back of mind the whole time. Whew.... That was the good news anyway.) The Radiologist would preformed the I&D said that this was the worst breast abscess that she had seen and the most fluid that she has ever drained from one of these. Crazy, huh?


(I just had to have a picture of the syringes of all the gross fluid that they got out of me.)

Well, that was only the beginning. The antibiotics that I was on (had to be taken three times a day on an empty stomach) didn't do much and the lump started growing again. Geez... I kept thinking to myself haven't we had enough trouble this year with Tim that we didn't need things to go wrong with me as well.

I was supposed to go in and see a specialist the next week as soon as I could but of course the doctor was out of town and so I spent a lot of time trying to figure out who to see and when... Finally, I got ahold of Misha at Dr. Karlsson's office who told me that I needed to get in to see someone ASAP to make sure that it was all gone especially since I thought it was growing again.

Tuesday of the next week, March 17th, I made an appointment to see Dr. Morris downtown (a surgical oncologist who was on call for the doctor I was supposed to see). Dr. Morris was really sweet and was able to drain my abscess again. She only pulled out like 60 cc this time (still a lot but nothing compared to the first time around) and put me on a different antibiotic. Thankfully this one I could have with food and went down much easier.

I'm happy to report that now three months later, I am free and clear from this silly infection and hope that it won't happen again, although there is a possibility with each kid. At least I know what to do if it does.

The never ending sickness...

Tim has had a rough week. It started with the last blog entry although when the throwing up ended we thought it was getting better. Oh boy were we wrong.

Sunday morning Tim woke up around 5 a.m. with a really sharp pain in his stomach, rolled over, and eventually went back to sleep. A few hours later with the same results, we gave in and called the on-call doctor up at OHSU. His advice was to proceed to the Emergency Room to get checked out just in case. The pain really worried him.

We arrived at the Emergency Room at Providence Saint Vincent's Hospital at noon on Sunday, checked-in and settled down for a long wait. The nurses said it was the busiest that they had been in five months, predicting around a two hour wait. The whole while we waited, we were preparing ourselves for a quick check, for a nurse to tell us that everything was ok, that it was just food posioning on its way out, and to send us home. Four and half long hours later, Tim was finally taken back and given a room. They sent him to get a CT scan, but forgot to give some magic CT juice so he ended waited an additional couple of hours (and the juice was so nasty, Tim offered to throw up again to get out of drinking it). By the time the transport team got him back to the Emergency Department the doctor was waiting to tell us the news: Tim's appendix had ruptured and he would need surgery immediately.

Tim was taken into surgery at 10:00 p.m. The doctor had told me the whole thing would take just an hour or hour and a half. Macy and I settled into the Main Lobby for a little wait. Only this little wait, ended up being a three hour wait (I thought for sure Tim was a gonner). Finally, Dr. Phinney came out at 1:30 a.m. to tell me the news. Tim's appendix had indeed ruptured but was encapsulated. The most likely cause of his pain was that there was an abscess on his large intestine and the whole package had been sitting on top of his bladder. It didn't help that his His incision was about twice as large as he had originally planned and Tim would most likely be in the hospital for four or five days. The good news-- We finally knew what was causing his pain.

Tim has been filling his hospital time with a variety of fun things:

Sucking on a little sponge. Food is out of the question for now.

Walks in the halls of the hospital... He has to get things moving before he can move on to food. That yummy cheeseburger is just going to have to wait. It was even snowing today!

Daddy time... Limited to just a five minute hold here and there.

Lots of tv, card games, and the newspaper.

"I have never felt so miserable before in my life." -- Tim

I felt bad all morning but it really started halfway through my Thursday morning appointment when I was forced to make a dash for the sink in the lab where I arrived just in time to see breakfast come up(multi-grain cheerios). Feeling a bit better, I thought I could finish the appointment without any more problems. I was wrong, round two came up 20 minutes later (all the cheerios were gone this time). I was able to quickly finish and send my patient home just in time for round three. After round four I gave up and called Brit for a ride home... but she didn't get there until after rounds five and six. The next few rounds were a bit more colorful. There was a ginger-ale yellow, a Pepto-Bismol pink, and a strange stomach acid green. It was difficult to keep count but the tally quickly rose to 15 rounds of vomit in 12 hours. On top of it all (this may be a bit graphic) I couldn't "go". As much as I felt like I needed too.... I just couldn't. It wasn't until the next day when finally I went... and I went. The whole experience was awful but in the end I learned one thing: Diarrhea is better than constipation.

Two months old already

Seeing as Macy turned two months old on Monday, I thought it was an appropriate time for another little photo shoot. This picture is my favorite. What a doll.

Along with the photo shoot, Macy also had a trip to the doctor this week, weighing in at 11 pounds 8 ounces (50 to 75th percentile) and 23-1/2 inches long (90th percentile). She's going to be a tall one just like her daddy. I can't believe that two months have already passed. I love having this little girl in my life. She is such a blessing.

Love you Macy Girl!

Diaper Cakes

With the multitude of baby shower these past few weeks my creativity for presents has been drained significantly. I was sick of the same ol' every day items. Finally, as Megan and I were shopping for Calie's baby shower present this week, a brillant idea popped into my head. A DIAPER CAKE. Kari made one for one of the girls in book club a few months ago and although extremely cute, I was a little afraid of how much time it would take.

As soon as we got home, Megan and I sat down and started following the instructions I found on the web. Cutting ribbons, rolling diapers, and trying to hold 30 diapers together at one time was quite the experience. Not quite the job one person could do by themself or so I thought. The cake turned out cute and was a hit but I learned a few lessons that I put to use for the next cakes.



Cutting ribbons and trying to tie bows that don't show was a huge waste of time. Intead the next time I made cakes with Calie, I decided to use rubberbands to hold the diapers rolled up and together. Brillant, I tell you. Calie and I made two cakes in half the time that it took Megan and I to make the first one.



For all of you creative minds out there, this is all it takes:

Tons of diapers, 60 to 80 (any size really works but I used size 1-2).
Rubber bands (one for each diaper and then a few for each tier on the cake).
Spool of ribbon (1" to 1-1/2" works best).
Cardboard or a plastic platter (for your base).
Baby Bottle of any size filled with candy.

Roll each diaper (I rolled from the opening of the diaper in) and hold together with a rubber band.

Fill bottle with candy.

Using the bottle as your centerpiece place 8 diapers all around and hold together with a rubber band. This is your top layer. Tie with ribbon (you can either tie a knot, a bow, or just tape the ends together in the back).

Your second layer, I used about double the diapers. Tie together in a circle and hold together with a rubber band. Tie again with ribbon.

The third layer, I just used the rest of the diapers I had (probably double of what your second layer is). Tie together in a circle and hold with a rubber band. Tie with a ribbon.

Place the bottom layer on your platter or cardboard cut out in the shape of a circle. You can use a few pieces of tape to hold the diapers on but be careful not to use too much that the new mother can't use the diapers.

Repeat with the other layers, taping just enough to hold together.

I used a piece of ribbon (or anything else works) to tie around the bottom of the cake to hold it together.

Stitches

Tim has been on rotation in Oral Surgery for the past two weeks and loving every second of it. While there he has been able to preform tons of extractions and assist with surgeries as well, even on this little four month old boy. One of the things that comes with the territory is tons and tons of stitches. Lucky for my mom that is.




A few weeks ago, my mom cut her finger on a broken dish and it just wasn't healing. So, Tim had the fantastic opportunity to be a dentist at home not just once, but twice. (It's said that dentists place the best stitches and I think they're right.) It was great to see Tim in his element as he pulled out the anesthetic and all of his tools. The first four stitches he put in stuck around for just a day or two before they started to pull out. Luckily, the second set is still holding strong.