Friday, August 19, 2011

Crazy Week

At this point, I just hope I survive through September.
  • Monday - recovery day, nothing special otherwise (honestly, I just don't remember Monday)
  • Tuesday - awesome 6 mile run, blah work
  • Wednesday - mom had surgery to remove a 20mm pre-cancerous polyp from her right colon.  I took a vacation day so I could be the "responsible child".  Got up at 5 AM had an "eh" swim practice (I think I'm going to switch teams AGAIN - this one just isn't doing it for me). Then I got home and figured while I was taking a vacation day and didn't have to be anywhere until noon, I should get in a bike ride.  Normally I just ride on the trails by my house, but since it was after 8 AM I thought it was safe to ride on the roads.  I managed to pick a ridiculously hilly route, which had wind from all sides.  Went a whopping14.8 mph for 16 miles.  Left a bit too late to run any errands, so I went straight out to pick my mom up.  Got there 5 minutes late (she was waiting on the front porch).  Got the hospital right at noon, got her checked in, and waited and waited.  Her surgery was at 3. They didn't call her back until 1:30, which meant lots of anxious waiting.  Poor thing couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight.  I was thirsty and starving, but felt really rude eating/drinking in front of her, so I suffered as well.  They took her back at 1:30 to prep her (hospital gown and an IV).  I went back ~20 min later, where they told us her surgery was pushed back by 30 min to 3:30.  She was a bit of a wreck so I distratcted her with random facebook photos of people she may know.  They wheeled her off at 3:30 and I was free to eat and drink.  Headed across the street for a bite and beer.  I felt sorta guilty about the beer, but I also thought I earned it.  The surgery people said I'd get a call ~30 min before the close of surgery, sort of a notification to get my butt up to the waiting room so the surgeon could talk to me.  I didn't like the waiting room so I hung out somewhere else.  At 5:15, I decided I needed to head up there, sat down, and 2 min later the surgeon showed up fully dressed.  What about my warning call?  Surgery went well, except instead of removing 2 inches, they took out the whole right colon, which is about 5 inches and included her appendix.  At 7 PM they wheeled her into her room, where she was awake but loopy.  She asked me the same series of questions about 3 times.  And I'm a bad daughter and didn't ask the right questions of the surgeon and therefore didn't have good (detailed) answers for her.  I helped her eat her "dinner" (clear liquids) and left at 8:30.  LONG DAY.
  • Thursday - decided to sleep in and ditch my run.  Got to work and realized my laptop power cord was making a popping noise and wasn't working.  I called IT at 9 AM to tell them I needed a new charger.  At 11, my laptop battery died.  Meaning there was no work to be done.  I called again, and was told to wait.  I called again at 2 PM - same response.  Considering I was now using my vacation time to sit in my cubicle waiting for a power cord, I decided to just head home.  So I did.  And played with the critters (Swift, my cat; and Molasses, my mom's tortoise who we are pet-stting for the next month or so).  At 5 PM, Will and I head over to the hospital to visit mom.  Not a bad visit, she's doing better but was still on IV pain killers and a liquid diet.  Left at 8 PM.  Ate pizza at this place by the hospital that we went to ALL THE TIME as a kid.  That was trippy.  It hasn't changed at all.  And was YUM.  Then home to feed/medicate Swift.  And at 10 PM bedtime.
  • Friday - skipped swim practice.  Not getting much out of it, plus I have a race Saturday, and I'm really tired. Alarm went off at 6:30, Swift came upstairs to greet us, only instead of meows and purrs, she's breathing so hard it sounds like she's gagging.  SCARY.  Will took her downstairs and she was doing better (slightly).  Breathing hard but at least her mouth was closed.  Gave Swift her 2x/week cancer pill, and went to work.  I hate waking up and then trying to figure out right away if  I'm going to have to put another cat down.  Ugh.  Patching things together for work to full my day (there's not much going on right now) but at least I have my laptop charger.  Then after work its off to the hospital, dinner, and home for race prep.
Yeah, I have an olympic distance triathlon tomorrow.  Not sure why I thought this was a good idea.  Part of it is because I'm sponsored now and I have to get in 5 races between now and January, and there aren't that many tris to do between now and then. Its also my tri club's race, and I will have friends and support there. Also, I thought I needed the distraction.  Well, I'm distracted (and pulled in 4 different directions).  Hopefully the race will go well. :/

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