I know I promised a story about the snake, but it will not be appearing in this post.... As it hasn't happened yet chronologically and I don't want to confuse myself.
Every year our primary school puts on a Rhythms program in which the entire student body participates. It is fantastic. I especially loved this year's because it was dancing from around the world. The kids performed traditional dances from many countries across the world. It was so fun.
Ansel's class did one from Africa called "Jambo". It was great. The kids had a great time shaking themselves all over the dance floor.
Calder had the unique experience of being one of the announcers. He introduced the kindergartener's dance, "the chicken dance" and then preceded to do their dance with them, because they were one short. He was giant next to all the kindergartener's but he LOVED performing their dance with them. (he is performing that dance in the collage below, in the top left photo). Then he also performed with his class a traditional Indian dance named something like "daboori". It was so cool with the swirling scarves and graceful movements. He got several compliments from other parents who had to tell me that Calder was such a natural, graceful dancer, and really fun to watch. He kind of got to be a star for the day, since so many people noticed him announce and do two dances. He stands out with that mop of curly golden hair.
Baseball season started up, here is Ansel at his 1st game. (More to follow, in later posts.) He loves all sports and has the most focus of any of my boys. He is a heavy hitter in baseball, and was really pleased that the opposing team's coach told that team to back up because Ansel was a power hitter. "Back up, back up, we have a power hitter here!!". The soft smile on Ansel's face was priceless, when he heard that.
Easter came and went without too much fanfare. We colored the eggs, hid the eggs, found the eggs, then ate the eggs. What else is there to say?
Here are the boys in the various Easter related activities of the day:
The day after Easter I had a consult scheduled with a surgeon. KK and I headed there after a long day of volunteering at the school and his swimming lessons. It turned out very fortuitous that he burned a lot of his energy before we got there. I had no idea what I was in for.
At first it was the usual office visit, the nurse taking your blood pressure and weight, etc. The lovely doctor's gown. Then it started to get strange.
The first odd thing was the doctor's inspection. (I went in for a consult about a lump on my sternum that my regular doctor had done an MRI on. Because it was in an odd/difficult place he wanted me to talk to a surgeon about how to remove it.). It started out as I would have expected, but then he got out a marker and started drawing on my chest! I was thinking to myself "There is no way that will stay until surgery, why is he doing this now?". Next he had me lay down to look at it, and before I knew it, there were some very nasty looking implements next to him. I sat up with a start and said "Wait, are we doing this now?! I was told this was a consult!". All he said in return was "Well, they told you wrong.".
I begged a couple of minutes to get Kaelan set up watching Dora on the iPhone, and then laid down to get cut open. It was a nightmare!!! It took him an entire hour, i bled so much he had to send his nurse out to get the cauterizer. Uck! What a smell.... Burning flesh is not a pleasant odor. He got creative after a while, stuffing gauze up inside me, (I felt like a turkey being stuffed for Thanksgiving) The coppery smell of blood was so overpowering that I almost threw up.
I received no less than 12 numbing shots, so that after the 6th or so, I started weighing the pain of the shot against the pain of him cutting into un-numbed flesh, before yelling out in pain. Those numbing shots are so painful, a very intense, searing, burning pain! Before long he realized that he was in way over his head, but here we were, past the point of no return. He even resorted to sticking his hand inside me, up under my ribs in search of the elusive lump that had gone AWOL as soon as he cut into it.
Oh how it hurt. Here I was in a tiny office, laying down with my knees bent up and my feet tucked into my backside, on a tiny half exam table, for an entire hour, going throughout the most barbaric experience in my life, with my 3 yr old son in the room! All of this done with Dora blaring in the background. At one point the doctor just blurted out, "Dora, it is a whale for crying out loud!". I laughed pretty hard at the exasperation in his voice.
Half way through I just started chuckling uncontrollably and the doctor asked what was so funny, and I said "My day is so not over yet". Joe was in California, the boys were going to be home soon and piano lessons still had to be attended to. What an ordeal. It felt so surreal!
Finally, he had had enough and decided to just sew me up even though he hadn't gotten all of it. Kaelan was oblivious the entire time, so great is the pull of Dora on the iPhone. I was really grateful for that, considering how awful it would have been if he had even once looked up and seen what was going on, or seen the huge pile of bloody gauze on the tray... Either way. I call that a great blessing.
Here we are just minutes after the surgery waiting for my prescription for Vicodin to be filled, KK took my picture:
(look at my face.... Don't I just look like I went through something awful!?!? I am completely flushed)About an hour later I had a third breast located right centered between the real ones! The swelling was huge. The next day my entire abdomen was black and blue, all the way down to my navel. I have pictures of it for medical record's sake, but I will spare you the brutality of it. It stayed that way for two weeks.
Very quickly the doctor's prediction, of a 2 day recovery, was proven wrong, and I went into my real doctor's for a follow up. He was very grim faced about it and told me that I was not allowed to exercise for a month and that I would have lingering pain for 3 months. What!?!? That was way worse than my recovery from gall bladder surgery exactly one year previous. BTW I promise I am not making a habit of spring time medical procedures.... Even though I have had one the last 4 years in a row. Let's see.... There was a tonsillectomy, a birth, a gallbladder removal, and a supposedly minor Lypoma removal. All taking place in either May or June, each one year apart from one another. Yeah, that kind of tradition is definitely gonna stop. This time it cost me my race (the Lake Run) and undid 3 months of training for said race, and for the Hood to Coast. I was really ticked about that.
I finally got the go ahead this week to start training again, and I ran three miles, at about a 10.5 minute pace, slower than my usual 8.5 minute pace, trying to ease back into running after the long hiatus. But, that still wasn't slow or short enough, apparently. I was sore for two days afterwards. How depressing! How come it takes 3 months to get to that level of shape, and only a month to lose it! So not fair. But at least I can do it now. I will just have to settle for the freedom.
So, you made it this far in my long narrative, I think that i will reward you with this hilarious video of Kaelan going bonkers. I have no idea what he was thinking, but the result was fantastically nuts!
Here he is, Crazy KK:
And a short one of Swimming KK:
(He is taking lessons at ClubSport right now. He can swim on his back proficiently, and is getting steadily better at the front crawl.. His teacher is excellent)
The next weekend after my surgery, my mom and sisters came up and we had a girls weekend. It was so fun for all of us to be together, no kids in tow. We did the Seattle Space Needle tour, and ate at the restaurant at the top. It was really fun. I don't know where all of my photos of that trip went, but here are a few I found:
And that was the last half of my April! Next up, May.
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