The Good, The Bad, & the Nuts! ...ANYONE GOING MAY 8-15?

[mom3sonstt]

Best wishes on your surgery Tanya. And, congrats to your son on the play. I'm sure he's having fun doing that.

I had to laugh when I looked at your signature....it says "organ donors save lives" and then above it "looking for a new ticker", but I know that a 'new ticker' is not the organ in question.

I had never noticed that either! Thank goodness that isn't what I mean!

He will never admit it but he loves doing the plays. This one was written by him and 3 other students, based on a concept that he submitted. So cool!

 

[mom3sonstt]

Loved the photo book, Tanya.

Good luck with the surgery. I will watch for updates on Facebook.

Thanks Kathy - I have the actual book now too. A couple of the pictures that I took on my phone didn't work out so well, but good enough. I like it.

I will probably be able to get to FB easier than here. Most of you are already FB friends so I should have most people covered.

 

[KatMark]

Thanks Kathy - I have the actual book now too. A couple of the pictures that I took on my phone didn't work out so well, but good enough. I like it.

I will probably be able to get to FB easier than here. Most of you are already FB friends so I should have most people covered.

And I could always post an update here for you too.

 

[KatMark]

I spoke to Tanya on FB today, and she asked that I pass on this information:


Surgery went fine. Went in at 1:30 was closed up at 3. Was in my room by 5:30. I haven't seen the dr but she talked to Danny. Said the kidneys were a "couple footballs". My incision is up an down from my bra line down almost to my belly button.


She is sore and drowsy, but pretty much ok.

 

[mom3sonstt]

I started to type up a TR of sorts of my "trip" to the hospital, but after rambling on incessantly, as I am prone to do, I lost everything.

So to try to keep it short - Surgery was scheduled for 1, but I had to be at hospital at 11. Surgery actually started at 1:30. We were told it would take about two hours or so, plus another couple hours in recovery, so Danny should plan for 5 hours or so. I went in at 1:30, by 3:00 they were closing. I was in my room by 5:30.

Doctor told Danny they took a "couple of footballs" out of me. Think about that....a kidney is supposed to be about the size of your fist, mine were described as footballs.

I had my first, and hopefully last, NG tube. Once again, most of my pain from surgery does not come from the actuall surgery, but all the other stuff they do to me! After the transplant it was the oxygen tube down my throat, this time it was the NG tube (runs through nose down to stomach). Fortunately, that and the catheter both came out the next day.

I was sent home on Thursday, less than 72 hours after surgery.

My incision runs straight down the front of me from the bottom of my breast bone to the top of my belly button. It is all taped together.

My old kidneys have gone off to the pathology lab to be photographed, weighed and checked for any other problems (like tumors). I have a post-surgical visit on Tuesday, hopefully we will have some statistics by then. I have been told they were "ugly". Don't believe me - google "polycystic kidneys" but don't do it before a meal.

I have learned that if I ever plan to become addicted to drugs I will choose morphine over vicodin! I had some really bizarre and terrifying dreams while on the vicodin, and some killer headaches. Bizarre in that the one that woke me up terrified was about a kitten. I had somebody else's kitten in a box, it got out and took off up several floors and was walking around on the ledge of a guardrail about 3 or 4 floors up (picture WL lobby where the floor overlook the lobby) I was irrationally afraid it would fall and I was supposed to be "babysitting" it. The morphine in the hospital just made me drowsy....much better.

I feel great now. I can't bend over real well, or reach very high, and I am not lifting anything or doing stairs yet. I probably could do a little more than I am, but am in no hurry.

I have lost 12-15 pounds and definitely notice a difference in the shape of my abdomen. I am hoping as I heal more that a little more will come off too, but the majority of the rest of it will all be up to me to work on. Hopefully with all that bulk out of there, and a working kidney I will be up to doing something about it. If nothing else, I won't have any more excuses. Well, except for my hip but it's been "wrong" all my life so I don't really know any different than how it is.

I really do plan to come back and do something about my August trip. I still have all my questions and everyone's answers. I also would like to get caught up on everyone else's reports. I was almost caught up before I went in and now I am back to being 2 weeks behind again. At least I see most of you on Facebook and still feel connected that way.

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving and survived the Black Friday craziness!

 

[KatMark]

Tanya, this is all great news. And I have a feeling you'll be shedding a few more pounds on that trip in January.

 

[mom3sonstt]

Tanya, this is all great news. And I have a feeling you'll be shedding a few more pounds on that trip in January.

I may be....but then again, with all the yummy food down there I may be lucky to break even!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

A couple of footballs?!

I'm glad to hear that you're feeling good and recovering. Hope you're up and about soon!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Tanya - so happy to hear your surgery went well and you are doing okay, too. One more step to check off on your list!

 

[mom3sonstt]

I really didn't fall off the face of the earth..I promise!! I hope all of you were too busy enjoying the holidays to spend much time on here, also.....(so it will be easier to try to catch up!)

December was post-surgical dr appointment, regular nephrologist appointment, 3 day trip to southern Illinois for oldest son's college graduation, Christmas eve at Danny's grandmother's, followed by youngest step-son & family coming over for their Christmas with us. Christmas morning at home with the 3 boys then lunch at my folks. The rest of the week we did nothing....sat around watching movies and TV shows. Hubby did get some pictures hung up that I'd been wanting hung, but he ran out of steam half-way through the job . I had 3 of the boys' Sr pictures hung over the tv (the 2 step sons and our oldest) the other 2 boys' pictures had been sitting on the floor behind the speaker for 1&2 years. Those pictures got moved to a different wall

This is our "tall wall". The wall between the living room and kitchen is extra tall because it follows the roofline, but only part of the wall (43") goes all the way up, the rest of it has a gap....you can see that on the left...that is where all of our old Disney mugs are.

Then over the tv we hung these

The large picture is what Sean (#1 son) got me for Christmas. It is a puzzle that he put together and framed. The pictures under it are some that we had picked up at WDW several years ago and framed then piled in our room and did nothing with. Those are centered over the tv...but not centered on the wall. So now, to the left of them is a large 27x40 collage frame that I am going to fill with pictures from our trips over the years. Right now it is filled with some lovely pictures of some nice random African American family having fun with their children. I've had this frame for 2 years now also.
On the 30th Sean went back to Carbondale and took Ryne with him. So Mark has been an only child for a while. I don't think he cares much for that because he has to pick up the slack that Ryne used to do.
New Years Eve Mark went to Step Son #2's house, while we stayed home and ate junk food and watched tv. Pretty much like any other day. The plan was to watch the Jurassic Park trilogy that Danny got for Christmas. We watched the first one, then he piddled around on the tv for awhile and we wound up ringing in the new year to RFD TV. Jim Ed Brown, Frankie Ford, Dody Smith (?), one of the Ronettes, uh...a bunch of other people that are way past their heyday. If you haven't heard of some of these people...ask your parents...or maybe grandparents.

Tuesday Danny went back to work and I had labs...would you believe they wanted 12 vials of blood and a urine sample! Luckily my veins cooperated and she was able to actually find one and get enough blood out of it with only one stick!

Wednesday did nothing...made a batch of oatmeal cookies and dough for chocolate chip cookies that needed to refrigerate overnight.

Today made the choc chip cookies....and walked to the post office (.48 miles round trip) in sandals!! and a tshirt (and jeans....but it's a commentary on this beautiful weather...not scaring the neighbors!) Discovered I do still need a scooter this trip, but want to try to keep walking daily when the weather cooperates so maybe I can ditch it altogether at some point.




On the Disney front - Sean and I are going to WDW on the 24th and coming home the 31st. This is his graduation trip. He was going to go solo or try to find someone who could afford to go. He couldn't, so he started planning a solo trip. Danny kept telling me he would send me with him. I kept saying no that it's Sean's trip. Then the airline prices went on sale. I posted on Facebook, thinking Sean might see it and could either comment or ignore as he saw fit. I didn't want to flat out ask him because I didn't want him to feel obligated. He never did comment on my post so I resigned myself to not going, then he called and asked if I wanted to go. I still said "this is your trip I don't want to horn in on it" but he was ok with it. We will be at Beach Club the first 3 nights then OKW the last 4 nights. Right now we have breakfast at Cape May Friday the 27th and lunch at Prime Time on Saturday. He is going to Cirque the night we get there and wants to go on one of the tours. So I will have plenty of time on my own....maybe the whole trip - I don't know if we will do parks together or not. Although I think we will go t AK together because we have a photo scavenger hunt he wants to do.


And that in a nutshell, is where I've been the last month or so.

Now I have to get caught up! I have a little notebook next to my computer that I am listing all of the TRs on so I can keep track of what page I am on so I can get caught up.

See you on your TRs!

 

[glennbo123]

I'm glad to see that you're doing all right Tanya.

Nice pictures of the boys, and I like the Disney pictures. I'm impressed at how they're lined up so well. I'd have a hard time getting them hung looking so nice.

Sometimes I have to jot down what TRs I need to check on too!

 

[mom3sonstt]

I'm glad to see that you're doing all right Tanya.

Nice pictures of the boys, and I like the Disney pictures. I'm impressed at how they're lined up so well. I'd have a hard time getting them hung looking so nice.

Sometimes I have to jot down what TRs I need to check on too!

Thats what happens when you marry a math geek. I now know that that little section of wall is 43" and each frame is 13" wide, and that we only wanted to go down 55" from the top. And there are 15 1/2" on either side of the Mickey pictures. The reason he didn't finish is because the little shadow box shelves I wanted him to hang he was having fits over finding the exact measurements to hang them. We have it all graphed out now, we just need to make adjustments for where the holes actually are....a template may be created....

 

[MAGICFOR2]

HI Tanya! Nice to see you back!

I'm excited you get to go on a trip with Sean. I hope you make some wonderful memories together!

I totally understand the decorating stuff at your house - I started on our bedroom about 3 yrs ago with my BFF - we had some ideas, I hung a few things up - have since taken down the "inspiration piece" when we moved the bed. Never finished, and now we are packing up to move, same story in the den. So we are moving out after 9 years without ever finishing the decorating

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

like glenn said kudos on the wall hangings, i would have just eye balled it.

 

[mom3sonstt]

HI Tanya! Nice to see you back!

I'm excited you get to go on a trip with Sean. I hope you make some wonderful memories together!

I totally understand the decorating stuff at your house - I started on our bedroom about 3 yrs ago with my BFF - we had some ideas, I hung a few things up - have since taken down the "inspiration piece" when we moved the bed. Never finished, and now we are packing up to move, same story in the den. So we are moving out after 9 years without ever finishing the decorating

My living room is like a photo gallery - we had the "boys wall" Sr pics and baby pics, the "wedding wall" our wedding pics and the 2 older boys, the "family wall" a pic of all 5 boys (Mark, who is now 18, was a baby at the time), the boys school pictures, the grandkids pictures. Then the back wall turned in to our Disney wall with cute shelves and shadow boxes and stuff. Well that has taken over! Plus now that all the boys are out of school it was redundant to have a school picture along with their Sr pictures, so we are re-vamping. The kitchen has no wall space - so no decor there.
I did do the bathroom in a lighthouse theme (based on the lighthouse at Old Key West main pool ) and our bedroom has exactly one thing hanging on the wall - a wall mask of Elvis I think it's ceramic or something breakable, it is a silhouette of him in his younger years. I bought it for Danny when we got engaged.
Mark's room looks like a sports bar....baseball, NASCAR, golf, football - its everywhere.

like glenn said kudos on the wall hangings, i would have just eye balled it.

I eyeballed the ones I hung in the hallway....it looks like I was drunk when I did it!

 

[mom3sonstt]

My new Disney hat!

No, it's not technically a Disney hat...but it will be. I have a bad habit of destroying all of my hats. I love the lightweight straw hats, but they seem to not like Florida rain very much. Last August I bought a golf hat that seemed a little sturdier. It didn't fare any better...

In October Danny and Walt went out west and came across some Tilley brand hats. They are made for outdoorsmen and come with a guarantee. They will replace them for free if they wear out, they have the highest UV protection available, are lightweight, have a string for windy days that tucks away on nice days. But they are pricey. In their catalog mine was $84 but on Amazon it was only $71, and due to a messed up "Lightning Deal" that wasn't charged correctly, I had an $8 credit at Amazon. That covered the shipping and took a couple bucks off the price of the hat. So if this hat lasts for 3-4 trips it will have "paid for itself".

It comes with 3 different colored bands, but I hope to find a Disney scarf that I like to add to it.

I ordered it last night (received a picture of it and the "go ahead" to order it for Christmas) and just received an email that it shipped. So at least I know one thing that I will be packing this trip!

 

[mom3sonstt]

Since I can't seem to get caught up and stay current on everybody else's Trip Reports, odds are pretty good if I try to do one of my own I will fall even further behind. But I did do a quiz. So in lieu of an actual TR I will give the answers, and fill in a little info along the way. So you won't hear a blow by blow, (primarily because I don't remember a lot of it ) but maybe by virtue of answering the questions I will remember some and give you a basic feel for the trip!

Question #1 was

What time will I get to my room on arrival day? (Flight due in at 8:19PM)

The guesses were: (yes, I guessed too....I wanted to see how well I knew me )
Rosie: 9:45
Dan: 10:24
Jen B: 10:20
Kathy: 10:30
Lessa: 9:45
Marv: 9:52
Glenn: 10:15
Tammie: 10:30
Me: 10:10
JenBear: 11-11:30

I flew out of Moline, which is about 90 minutes or so from home. They charge for parking at that airport, so Danny took me up there and dropped me off, they weren't leaving until the next day to drive down.

Here is my suitcase, all dressed up in its Mickey luggage strap and Magical Express tags ready for its trip.

Going through security I had a random pat down. This is a very small airport...I was the only one going through the line at the time. Didn't think I was that suspicious looking....maybe they were just bored. Then my tote bag got the once-twice-thrice over. They wound up taking it over to a table to root through it. Apparently my sun screen stick and nail clippers (with no file), or possibly my house key, were threatening. Nah....I really think they were bored. It was 2 in the afternoon, there were half a dozen of them standing around, and I was the only customer there at the moment.

My flight took off a few minutes early and we wound up landing at 7:50 instead of 8:09. Originally it was supposed to land at 8:19, then a couple days before they moved it up ten minutes....but they only moved the departure time up 5 minutes.

When I got to Orlando I got my carry on and tote bag and walked straight over to Magical Express. This is where I got the first clue that this trip was going to be different than others. I was actually walking, steadily, somewhat briskly.....and I wasn't panting and longing for a place to sit. Yay for good healthy working kidneys!!!

At the ME booth the CM sent me through the Boardwalk line and I went straight to the front. My first thought was "Oh no, I'm the only one going there, I'm going to have to wait until there are more to fill a bus " But no! After standing there about a minute or maybe 2 they motioned me over to a bus that was waiting. It was a Mears bus instead of a Magical Express bus so no movie. The driver tried to be helpful by sharing information with the riders. Unfortunately some of what he was saying was incorrect. I can't tell you specifically what he said wrong...because my notes only say "Driver "helpful" with some "misinformation" "

At Boardwalk there was only one person ahead of me. I was not putting money or a card down on the room since I would only be in it a couple days before the guys arrived. My scooter was ready and easily found so off I went to find my room. The room was lovely (studio at Boardwalk) except for one thing....

See all of this extra space over here in the corner....

Well, there is no outlet there Well, full disclosure, there is one behind the tv cabinet/dresser, but not where I could reach it.

So this is where I parked my scooter to charge it

Its just a little alcove - the scooter blocked the closet and was in the way when I would use the sink...but it was just me there, so I was ok with it.

And for the record

I was in the room at...........9:19


So the winners of Question#1 are Rosie and Lessa with 9:45!

Rosie - 1 point
Lessa - 1 point
everybody else (including me ) - 0

 

[mom3sonstt]

Despite all evidence to the contrary I am still alive and kicking! And I do think about all of you and DIS regularly. Unfortunately (well, actually fortunately) I have been too busy actually going to WDW to spend time on here reading and writing about going.

In January Sean (#1 son - 22) and I went down as his college graduation trip. While there he applied for a job and made it quite a ways in to the process. Far enough so that in February he flew back down for an interview.

That one seemed to go well and he was told to expect another call.

In March we had a family trip, well, family minus the youngest son. He did not want to go back He is so used to taking a friend with him and nobody else's dates worked, so he decided he didn't want to go. If he had we would have gone during his spring break. Since he didn't we went the following week. Sean had another interview while we were there. He thought it went well.

In April....well, nobody went in April, but Danny offered to send me back down again, so in April I was booking a trip for May. This time #2 son (Ryne - 21) is going with me. He is my "lifeskills" kid. He has never been able to go off at the parks on his own, he has always had to go with either Sean or Mark. This trip he seems to think he is going to go do some things by himself. We will be trying that out primarily at Hollywood Studios, where the main thing he wants to do is try to see every single session of American Idol. yeah, he can do that without me. But we have decided that we will go to the parks together, and he will take his phone with him, and that he won't leave the park without me, and that we will meet up for meals, and other fun stuff.

When I get home from that trip (May 8-15) I need to start getting serious about looking for a job. During my "dialysis years" I didn't work. I did do some temp work at a Plumber's office a few times. Twice for Amy's maternity leave's, and twice for the owners family vacations. In the office were Jim (owner), Diana (only there sporadically, owner's wife), Mike (owner's son-in-law) and Amy (I don't know what her title was). So during family vacations Amy would be left there alone. But basically, in the past 5 1/2 - 6 years I have worked approximately 18 weeks. It's a great gig if you can get it! Danny can't seem to buy the correct lottery ticket, so it looks like that gig is about up for me! Cross your fingers and say your prayers that in this crazy economy, that somebody who basically hasn't worked for about half a decade will be able to find something.

I hope to try to get back into catching up in some shape or form when I get home, since there will be no more trips for awhile (maybe September, but we'll see how that whole finding a job thing goes!) I did want to check in to see if any familiar faces will be down there next week? We will be at Saratoga May 8-15 Tuesday evening - Tuesday morning......

 

[KatMark]

Have a great time, Tanya.

 

[englishrose47]

Tonya !!Dan and Cathleen will be there from May 10th - 15th !!! They will have a group of 8 Dev. Disabled with them so if you see them say Hi !! Dan is the Disser, Cathleen at least knows it exists !!