Welcome Back! We're Staying Put

This is a long overdue post. The Mister arrived home from Afghanistan safe and sound February 27th. If we are Facebook friends, friends IRL, or family, you already know. But for those of you that don't want to be friends with me on Facebook :( this is news to you. The homecoming was pretty neat. Their flight didn't get back until about 9:30 at night so I wasn't expecting anything special at the base but there ended up being a band and lots of people and fanfare so it was nifty.

As for our contest, the Mister won by less than 1/2 a percent. He opted to get a new set of golf clubs as his prize. I have to wait until at least May 27th before I can buy a new purse, lol. I made up for it by buying some new sunglasses though. ;) Honestly, I was disappointed and surprised that I lost. He ate ice cream every day for dessert and had steak every Sunday and barely worked out. I, on the other hand, dieted and ran at least 12 miles a week on my elliptical machine and I also did aerobics at least once a week. I really expected to win. AND!!!!! Since he's been home, I've gained freaking four pounds back. Sheesh, gosh, and holy freaking moly! I am so not happy about that. He's such a bad influence, lol.

Also, we had decided that we were moving out of base housing while he was deployed. Our property was vandalized twice in three months. Not to mention that base housing just sucks in general. So, one day after the Mister touched down on home soil, we started looking for a new house. We didn't really tell too many people about this because I didn't want to get a certain somebody's hopes up. Now I'm glad that I didn't because finding a rental that would accept our two Boxers was harder than I thought it would be. So, we gave up and decided to stick it out in base housing for a while. I finally unpacked the rest of our boxes this past week. An entire year here and we still hadn't finished unpacking. I think this contributed to our overall feeling of dissatisfaction with our living situation. All of the things that makes a home a home, knickknacks, whatnots, photographs, etc., we had left packed up in boxes. Living like that gives you (at least it does me) a feeling of instability and being temporary. I missed my things and I'm glad they're out and about now.

Anyway, that about brings everyone up to speed. The youngest is doing well. The oldest is taking her 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. and NYC next week. The Mister is back to work. And I'm up to my same old shenanigans.

Bailey's Saga or The Murphy's Law of Deployments

The original surgery

If you’re familiar at all with deployments, you know, if something will go wrong, it’ll go wrong during a deployment. The Mister’s other deployment, I temporarily lost my eyesight in my right eye. That’s real fun when you’re alone with two kids. This deployment, my dog Bailey has been keeping me stressed out.

On September 24^th, I took Bailey to the vet for a pre-spay checkup and to have one lump and two bumps checked out. One common health issue of Boxers is that they get skin bumps and lumps, some of which turn out to be cancer. One bump was nothing and the rather large lump under her front armpit was just a fatty cyst. However, the other bump had the vet worried that it was cancer. She recommended that it be removed and biopsied. Not wanting to take chances, I agreed to have this procedure done the same day Bailey got her spay.

September 28^th, I dropped Bailey off at the vet bright and early and scheduled to pick her up at 4:30 the same afternoon. Everything went off without a hitch. I was pretty shocked at the size of the incision where the bump was removed. It was the size of a pencil eraser yet the incision was about three inches long. When I picked her up, she was still recovering from the anesthesia and pain meds. She cracked the girls and I up running into things and leaving her tongue poking out of her mouth for several hours. She looked like she had partied hard the night before, lol.

It's hard to tell, but this was right after her 1st surgery. She's loopy here, lol.

On October 2^nd, I noticed that Bailey’s bump incision was looking kinda red and it was oozing more than it had been so I took her to the Pet ER to have her checked out. They said the incision actually looked pretty good but that I should make sure and keep her follow up appointment I had scheduled on October 8^th. By the time I got her into the vet on the 8^th, the incision was infected. Instead of getting her stitches removed, they sent me home with antibiotics and instructions to wash the area with a warm washcloth 2-4 times a day and to bring her back in on the 11^th for a recheck. However, I noticed on the 9^th that her incision had a gap in it about the size of a penny and whenever I applied pressure to wipe it with a washcloth, fluid flowed out of it to the point it was dripping on the floor (sorry, TMI, I know.) I don’t really consider myself to have a squeamish stomach, but this was pushing my limits. It was all I could do not to puke on the floor. So, I called the Pet ER and described what was going on. They told me to stop washing it and instead apply a warm washcloth inside of a ziplock bag as a warm compress. So I did this and by Sunday afternoon, her incision was almost completely open from end to end. By this point, I’d had enough and I trooped her to the Pet ER. After sitting in the waiting room for almost 2 hours, the vet finally looked at her and said that she needed another procedure. The infection wasn’t allowing her incision to heal and had caused it to gape open instead. So, he had to clean out the infection, create new edges on each side of her incision, and then apply dual-layered sutures to close it back up. Oh. And he put in a drain, which was just lovely. I spent almost the entire day on Sunday at the Pet ER. I am totally thankful that I even have one nearby.

Now, it’s three days after the second procedure.

The incision now, 10/13

I took Bailey into her regular vet for another wound check today. She’s doing so well that they were able to take the drain out. The vet apologized profusely for everything that I’ve had to go through with this ordeal. It’s been over 2 weeks (13 days to be exact) and Bailey still isn’t healed. I have to take her back again on the 18^th to hopefully have the stitches removed provided nothing else goes wrong.

This was almost more than I could take. I’ve had Bailey at the vet’s 5 times in the last 20 days, two of which were weekend runs to the Pet ER for a total cost (thus far) of $1500.00 give or take a couple dollars. I guess for three surgeries and three different medications, that’s not so bad. I’m hoping and keeping my fingers crossed, that this is my deployment “thing”. I’ve paid my dues to the angry deployment gods and will now be left alone in peace to wait for my husband to come home. Sounds fair, right?

7 Things I Did to Take Back Sunday

Having the Mister gone this past week has been an adjustment. I find myself getting sentimental over the dumbest things. For instance, I can't make myself erase our last Blackberry Messenger conversation off of my phone even though it makes me sad to see the little red "x" next to his name that means "Contact is Unreachable". It's pathetic, I know.

The girls have been really good all week. I don't think anyone believes me when I tell them that all three of us are doing okay, but we are. Every once in a while, I catch the oldest being too quiet or staring off into space and I know she's thinking about her dad and today, the youngest told me she was missing her dad. Still, over all, we're getting in lots of girl time, just the three of us.

Today, Sunday, I decided that I was going to take Sundays just for me. All week long, I work and take care of the house, kids, dogs, and whatnot. I've decided that Saturdays are going to be my commissary days and little shopping excursions for the girls. That's what we did this past Saturday. But Sundays, I've decided that they're going to be days that I get to do whatever it is that I want to do. I think I need a bit of time to ease into this new idea because this is what I did on my first "Me Sunday".

1. I did my laundry. Again, I got all sentimental because some of the Mister's clothes were still in the hamper.
2. I changed the sheets on my bed.
3. I helped the girls with their chores.
4. I vacuumed the downstairs, the upstairs hallway, and my bedroom.
5. I cleaned the downstairs half bath.
6. I hung wall decorations (it only took me 6 months) in the living room, entry way, and downstairs half bath.
7. I cooked dinner.

Maybe by next Sunday I'll have figured out how to relax. ;)

The Great Sandbox Challenge

The Mister left on his deployment yesterday. When I got home from dropping him off on base, (which, btw, I was up at 1:30 AM!!! because of it.) the first thing I did was go to our room. When I hit the switch to turn on the overhead light, the bulb blew. I really hope that’s not indicative of what this deployment is going to be like for me, lol. I think deployments are what made Murphy’s Law a thing.

Anyway, I was able to talk to him last night from the airport in Bangor, Maine. He was leaving the country from there. :( I’m not sure when I’ll hear from him next. Today is his birthday. I’m sure, while it’s not an ideal situation, it’s one he’ll never forget. ;)

So, what does my post title have to do with anything? Well, the Mister and I have a bet going on while he’s deployed…The person who loses the most body weight percentage wins a prize. The prize that I have picked out is a new purse and the prize the Mister has picked out is a bicycle. The rules are that I cannot buy a new purse while he’s deployed which really SUCKS! but he won’t have an opportunity to buy a new bicycle so it’s fair. Also, the loser has to wait a minimum of three months to buy the prize that they lost because let’s face it, I will buy a new purse eventually, lmao. Now, he has somewhat of an unfair advantage. While in The Sandbox, he has to wear a bullet proof vest which weighs 35 pounds. Add 100 degree heat to that, and he’ll lose weight just walking around. However, we both want to lose approximately the same amount of weight which means that if we both reach our goal, I will lose the greater body weight percentage because I weigh less than him.

I really want to win!! Buying a purse, guilt free, would be a nice change of pace, heheh. I need motivation! Nag/ask me about it. Nag me here, on Facebook, Twitter, on the phone, nag me in the snail mail. I’m really good at getting started with exercise and eating right, but I lose motivation and fall off the wagon after about 3 months. With the holidays coming up, this is going to be a real challenge for me. I want to wiiiiinnnnnn!!!! Can you imagine the trash talk I will get from the Mister if I lose? Plus, that would be 9+ months without a new purse. Ouch!

Wish me luck on both fronts. ;)