Surgery, Sick, Lana del Rey

Thomas had a surgery on his arm on Monday, September 18th. He had been having significant pain for a while and had tried lesser invasive methods with no luck. We had to be at the surgical center at 6am. The older kids leave for school at 605 and we didn't want to leave Luke by himself to wake up, get ready for school, etc. With some help from friends, we had it worked out, but then Sunday night, Jack didn't feel well. He ended up staying home from school Monday, which alleviated the childcare concerns. Thomas and I got there at 6 and they took Thomas back shortly thereafter. They let me wait with him for a few minutes. Then, they wheeled him away. 

pre-surgery Thomas. They wanted to make sure they cut into the right arm!

The surgery went well--we think. The surgeon called when the surgery was done, but it was an odd conversation. The waiting room was full of people, I wasn't expecting to hear from him in a phone call, so I didn't ask the right questions. I thought we would speak in person. He said that the surgery went well and the nerve was really tight and he thought this would fix the problem (or words to that effect). I was surprised by the non-committal language. 

Eventually they let me go back to see Thomas. It took longer than expected because he was in a lot of pain and they had to do a nerve block. I got all the instructions and we left there around 1pm. Thomas was pretty out of it, he asked me repeatedly if I had his sneakers. He was very worried about leaving them behind.

Because of the nerve block, Thomas couldn't feel his arm at all for the rest of the day, which was weird for him. We are now 10 days out. There is still a lot of pain and Thomas obviously can't use his arm, which is frustrating for him, but hopefully he is on the road to full recovery. He has met with a physical therapist a couple of times and will meet with the doctor next week to hopefully get some additional answers as to what they saw and did during the surgery.

He was allowed to take the bandage off on day 5. It looked like a withered, wrinkly mess!

Day 10, looking a little better.

In the meantime, my throat was kind of sore all day Monday. It was mild, so I brushed it off. Jack also had a sore throat. On Tuesday, he still wasn't ready to go to school. Luke also stayed home with an upset stomach. By Tuesday afternoon, my throat really hurt. At this point, Jack was feeling mostly better and was planning on going to school Wednesday. I tested him for Covid and it was negative. Anna's throat hurt on Wednesday, but her test was also negative. She ended up missing a day of school as well. I took Wednesday off from work, but felt considerably better on Thursday.

By the weekend, I felt pretty good, tired, but no sore throat or anything. Saturday, I took Anna to her skating session in Lakeland (stayed far away from everyone else). It did not go well. We knew her coach wouldn't be there, but she assured us the other coach would run Anna's program. He didn't. I was really annoyed. We don't need to get up at 430am and drive to Lakeland for her just to skate, she could do that at a more reasonable time and much closer to home. We left there and I came home and took Luke to his baseball tournament (Thomas couldn't drive yet). 

I was super tired, probably a little from being sick and a lot from not sleeping enough. It had been more than a week since I had gotten a full night's sleep, which is probably why I got sick in the first place. Sunday was more baseball tournament, they played three games, including for the championship. They lost the championship game and finished 2nd out of 15 teams. We were home by 3 and I was able to take it easy the rest of the day. This was important because Monday night was Lana Del Rey!

No shame in second place!

Kara LOVES Lana del Rey. She is a musician I had never heard of prior to her becoming Kara's favorite artist a year or two ago. I am not sure if I wrote about buying the tickets. If not, I will just say it was a bit of a fiasco. I didn't grasp how popular she was and got tasked with buying tickets for Kara, her friends and myself. Thomas and I both attempted to get tickets right when they were released, but trying to get 5 proved impossible. Eventually we bought two tickets, while still trying for 3 more (figuring that would be easier than 5). Well, we never got the 3. So, I had to resell the 2, one of the friends backed out, and we bought 4 on the resale (aka ridiculously priced) market. Kara was incredibly excited. I was super nervous when I got sick, but fortunately, I was over it before the concert and more importantly, Kara never got sick.

So, Monday night, I drove Kara and 2 friends to Tampa. The drive took about 2 hours, thanks to traffic. We stopped at a Wendy's, Kara's choice, for a quick meal and arrived in plenty of time, which was important because the merchandise line took 53 minutes. The girls got matching tour shirts and we were in our seats to watch the opening act (Nikki Lane). Then, there was a 30ish minute break before Lana entered the amphitheater to 20k screaming fans. Lana was a great performer and the girls loved the concert. They screamed, cried (at least Kara's friends did) and sang-along. I served as videographer. It was a fun atmosphere (except for one idiot smoking marijuana); people dressed up to look like Lana's various album covers. The girls all said it exceeded their expectations and they were super sad it was over. We got home shortly after midnight.

Wednesday, I took Anna to Lakeland for skating again. She had a lesson with her coach and it went really well. I dropped her off and then had a meeting with my dad. We did a tour of his community's assisted living facility. My dad was under the impression that he had a life-care contract. However, we learned he is merely a renter and assisted living would cost him over 5k a month, which he cannot afford. We are still hoping he will recover from the cognitive issues, which I am 100% convinced were the result of his surgery, but if not, we will need to figure something out. For now, he is going to stay where he is. 

Practicing for her program. Less than 3 weeks to go!

And, now, I am fully caught up!

Disney, HHN, Broken Toe and More.

Kara and I have been trying to get our money's worth from our HHN passes. We have gone five times. It has been nice having the multi-night pass. We still did the one super-long night, but our other visits have been shorter. We get in, get some houses done, have dinner and/or snacks and then leave when it starts getting more crowded.

Thomas and I did a Wednesday date night and went to HHN. He doesn't usually like those type of events, but I was pretty confident he would enjoy several of the houses. We weren't trying to see either of the two most popular houses, so we were able to take a more relaxed pace.  We had dinner and then ended up doing 6/10 houses and Thomas enjoyed all of them. He appreciated the elaborate sets and costumes, just like I suspected he would. In fact, he wants to try and go again. Unfortunately, Kara and I are at the end of our multi-night pass and I am not sure we will be able to get there, for reasons that will become clear below. (ohhhh, foreshadowing...)

Date night in the fog!

On Friday, Thomas and I took the day off and went to Epcot. We rode our favorite rides (Guardians of the Galaxy, Test Track, Soarin', and Spaceship Earth) and hung out in the aquarium for a bit. We had a nice lunch and then headed home. I bought Genie+ but we didn't use it that morning, because I spent the day stacking lightening lanes for our planned evening at Hollywood Studios. We bought our passes in May and have been wanting to ride Slinky Dog at night ever since. We have tried two or three times but were always thwarted by bad weather. 

Jack watched Luke and Thomas and I took the girls. We got there around 4:15 and immediately began using our lightening lanes. We rode a lot of rides and had a relaxing dinner at the ABC Commissary, where we played with all the Disney filters in the app and waited for our lightening lane for Slinky.

Then, the skies got cloudy and Slinky closed. We rode Toy Story Mania and Swirling Saucers and waited. They told us that the ride wasn't closed for weather, but for technical issues. So, we decided to try and wait it out. We rode Millenium Falcon (Thomas and Kara were stellar pilots) and then saw it was reopened. By now, it was after 8 and the park closed at 9. It definitely looked like it was going to start raining at any time and we were really nervous we would be thwarted again. We got to the front of the line and could hear the downpour. At this point, we were dry in the line. But, we got on the ride anyway and off we went. In the pouring rain. Let me just say, it was not fun. We could not see anything, the rain was cold and it was coming down hard and it hurt! But, everyone on the ride was laughing because it was just ridiculous and so uncomfortable! 

The ride didn't close because there was no lightening and when we got off, there was no line, because who would be crazy enough to ride it in the heavy rain? Us apparently. We walked right on (to a ride that is normally at least a 90 minute wait!). I wore my sunglasses (shared with Thomas) and could at least keep my eyes open. We ended up riding 4 times. Each time, the rain was a little less. It was hilarious and something I foresee us talking about in the future (remember that time we rode Slinky Dog over and over in the pouring rain?). I was sad the boys weren't with us. 

I love that the girls always managed to pose for the camera.

Zoomed in on Thomas and I on the first ride :)

We were soaked! This was after our first ride.

We would have kept riding, but the park closed. We hadn't intended to stay quite so late, as Anna and I had to leave for skating at 445am, but we couldn't help ourselves. We were still home and in bed by 10. It is nice to live so close.

On Saturday morning, I took Anna to skating. She went over her program and did a few classes, both on and off ice. We were at the rink from about 545-945 and then went and visited with my dad. He is doing slightly better. Meanwhile, Thomas and Luke had an eventful morning. Thomas went running and ended up tripping on a curb. He took a hard fall and broke his big toe and sprained his right wrist. Luke's hand was swollen from an ant bite he received on Thursday night, so he couldn't play baseball. But, Thomas still took him to the game and he served as a bat boy and was a good sport, cheering on his teammates. They were kind of a sad mess (Thomas and Luke, not the baseball kids).

And that, is another week in the life. I never got the part I was foreshadowing (Thomas had surgery on his arm--unrelated to the fall and I have Covid). But, this post is getting long, so stay tuned for another exciting post where I highlight this week's events. 

HHN, my Dad, Household Annoyances & Some Happier Stuff

I am pretty far behind in my blogging. As you can possibly tell from the title, lots has been happening here. I am going to a summary style because I don't really feel like writing, but I also don't want to fall further behind. So, in rough chronological order:

Kara and I have season passes for Halloween Horror Nights. So far, we have gone three times. The passes are only good for the first three weeks of September, so we are trying to get in as many visits as we can. We went on opening night and got drenched. It was an insane rain storm and we were stuck right in the middle of it. We went another day and stayed until past the 2 am closing, doing ten houses in a single night. The third time, Anna came with us. She was nervous, but wanted to try. She ended up doing 6 of the 10 houses and would have done more except we were all tired. She was surprised to discover she liked it. We had to go on a school night because I needed to take my dad to the doctor on our originally planned day.

Opening night monsoon! Kara and her friend, Shannon.

A mother-daughter tradition.

With both my girls :)

My dad had a procedure done a few weeks ago for a bladder/prostate issue. I don't want to invade his privacy by writing about his issues, but I will say that I had never heard of post-operative cognitive decline for older people who undergo anesthesia. However, it is a very real, and very common, problem. It can take up to 3-months to resolve and according to at least one study, may never resolve in about 10% of the population who experience it. Anyway, I took the day off on Friday and took him to the doctor. It is really hard to see parents get older and especially hard with the recent surgery after-effects. But, I am glad that I am (relatively) close by and can help.

While I am writing about bad news, we had to replace our water heater. We could have fixed it, but it was 19 years old so we knew we were on borrowed time. They told us eventually it would go out and probably create a flood in the garage. So, we spent way too much (about 3x what I expected) and had them replace it that day. Then, guess what happened? It created a leak and a flood in the garage. The installers fixed the leak, but claimed no responsibility for the water damage or the hole they had to cut in the drywall. Essentially, the installer connected an old pipe from the wall to a new pipe attached to the water heater. It was a concave connection and that is where the leak was. They said it was the fault of the old pipe. So, they fixed it by replacing the old pipe, but basically said they were doing us a favor. It makes no sense, but we are probably going to let it go. At the same time, we had an unrelated issue with our air conditioner. I think it is all resolved now, but I can't believe how many issues this house has! It feels never-ending. If I ever buy again, I want new construction.

In good news, Luke had his first tournament with the Vipers, which consists of most of the players from the Leones. They won the tournament for their bracket, which was a nice way to start the season.

The kids are now about four weeks into school and it is going well. Luke really likes his teachers and is enjoying 4th grade. He is working on reading the Sunshine State books and has read 7/15. Band is in full swing for Jack. He likes it better this year and has made some good friends, two of whom live in the neighborhood. One of them lives just down the street and we have been carpooling to all the band stuff, which has been amazing for everyone involved. As mentioned, Kara and I have been frequenting HHN. Anna is still skating part time in Lakeland and part time in Kissimmee. Her next competition is less than 5 weeks away! So, as always, we are busy, but (mostly) happy. 

Two final pictures:

Running the bases at a Flying Tigers game.

A fun night at Islands of Adventure