Ever since I had my surgery, I’ve wanted a milkshake. Not sure why. It was like one minute I’m passed out on the operating table, and the next minute I wake up dreaming of something I know I shouldn’t have. And the more I think about it, knowing I’m not allowed, the more I wanted it. Finally, yesterday I went to my doctor for my post-op appointment and was told that it would be perfectly fine for me to have a milkshake.

So Luis and I made plans to go to Sonic after 8 p.m. (because their milkshakes are currently 1/2 off after 8 p.m.). So I wait all day long for it. Then when 8:00 rolls around, Luis was still working on stuff for his classes, so I had to be patient and wait some more. Then we make the drive all the way to Sonic and order (I got a caramel milkshake with extra caramel and a banana on the side so that I could slice it up and put it in my milkshake… never tried it?…. do yourself a favor and go try, it is delicious).

So then we wait and wait and wait some more, and finally the girl comes rollerskating out to us. I carefully start to slice my banana while giving Graciela pieces of banana to eat in between my slices because she seems to think she should get to eat anytime I eat. Then I take the first spoonful of what is meant to be heaven in a cup. To my horror, the milkshake might as well have been flavored milk because it was pretty much that consistency. And if this was the “extra caramel” milkshake, I don’t even want to know what a “regular caramel” milkshake tastes like because this was so far off from any caramel flavor I could not even believe it. In sets my temper tantrum and I begin to pout and get angry.

Luis tries to make things better by offering me his milkshake. I turn him down. Then he says, “Wait, do you think my shake tastes like caramel?” Sure enough, he had been drinking my milkshake all along! Urrrrrr. So now not only do I have a runny milkshake, it is 1/3 gone!!! I wanted to throw the whole thing out the window, but I stopped myself from doing it and waited until I got home to finish eating (by then Graciela had eaten most of my banana so I had a banana-less caramel shake). Then, of course, because there was no more banana, Graciela then insisted that I share my milkshake with her. The audacity of that child! Good thing I love her and I was upset with the milkshake gods, so she got a couple of bites.

In the end, I finished what was left of my shake and realized that I was throwing a temper tantrum over such a silly little thing, and I got back to my happy place. Moral of the story? Life would be so much easier if my caramel milkshake order is just given to me correctly in the first place.

On the ride over to the store Luis asked me if I knew what size we needed to get. I didn’t know how many different toilet seat sizes existed nor did I take any measurements before we left the house. So I told Luis that we would just have to sit on them and see if they felt the same as the ones we have at home.

Does anyone know why commercial toilet seats are U-shaped instead of oval?

Anyway, we selected our toilet seat (not the commercial U-shaped one, in case anyone was wondering), and were headed to the check-out when I saw the backyard furniture displays. So I did what any normal person would do. I made myself comfy and pretended like I was having a grant time next to the pool in my imaginary backyard entertaining my guests.

Now I just need to buy a house with a pool so I can buy a set like this and then actually invite people to enjoy it with us. You would totally come over if we had a great set-up like that, right? Ok, I’ll get right on it!

You start diluting your peach, grape and strawberry punch with water.

I think I’m finally starting to feel better. Initially, I really wasn’t in very much pain at all. Just a little sore and uncomfortable. However, by Saturday night, the pain was definitely there.

Sunday was no different. Luis made the executive decision to postpone Mother’s Day (though he had brought me flowers on Saturday so I think it still counts). I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to go to church, but Luis recorded the primary kids singing their mother’s day songs and emailed me the file so it was almost as good as being there.

Since Sunday hadn’t gone very well, Monday was a stay-home-from-work day. Sad. I really had hoped to be back at work on Monday. I woke up at 8 and stayed awake just long enough to send my boss a text message telling him I wasn’t coming to work and to help hold Graciela’s morning bottle (she is able to hold it herself, but gets kind of lazy sometimes). Then it was back to sleep until 10:30 a.m. Oh how I love sleeping in.

The rest of the day, honestly, was just sitting around. As long as I don’t move much , I feel perfectly fine :) Fingers crossed that the worst part is officially over.

It is not perfect (obviously) but it is good enough for me.

As I wrote about here, I’ve been having some issues with my gallbladder. I had been scouring the internet to find out what to expect from gallbladder surgery, and I didn’t find a whole lot. Guess people don’t really like to blog about what they went through and how it felt. But just because other people may not want to write about it, that won’t stop me. I had every intention of taking pictures of the entire process, but I didn’t end up keeping my phone with me once I was admitted, so the above photo of the hospital is all you get. (Feel free to stop reading now if you get grossed out by such things).

3 days before surgery, I was told to go pick up some paperwork at the doctor’s office and then go preregister at the hospital. Since I really hate missing work, I had Luis go pick up the paperwork for me. Once I got to the hospital to preregister, I did the whole paperwork thing (which was really not a whole lot because they already had me in their system), and then it was time to get blood drawn, urine sample (to make sure I wasn’t pregnant), and then chest x-rays.

The night before surgery, I was told not to eat anything past midnight. I had to shower the night before and then they had these special wipes that I had to use under my armpits and all over my stomach. Then they told me no lotion, perfume, or deodorant after the wipes. No deodorant??? Seriously? Yes. So I followed the procedure.

On surgery day (Friday), I didn’t need to be at the hospital until noon. Since I wasn’t allowed to eat anything, I decided to go into work for a couple of hours just to keep my mind off of the fact that I wasn’t allowed to eat. Funny how I normally don’t eat in the morning, but if I know I am not supposed to eat (like on fast Sundays), I am suddenly ravenous all day long.

So I worked until 10:30 a.m. then returned home to cuddle with Graciela for a little bit and get ready to go to the hospital. I had Luis drop Graciela off at our friends’ house (I didn’t go because I was scared that I would cry having to say goodbye to her), and then we were off to the hospital. I was a little nervous/anxious but it wasn’t too bad. The waiting to be called back is probably the worst part for me because once I got there, I just wanted it to be over with.

Finally, my name was called and off I went. We didn’t know if Luis was supposed to come back with me or not so he stayed in the waiting room for a little while before leaving. Turns out, he could have stayed with me all the way up until they actually took me back for the surgery. Oh well.

Once I was in my sort-of room (there were only 3 walls and a curtain), I got into my hospital gown, my uber-sexy compression thigh-highs, and the standard hospital grippy socks. The nurses were all really nice, but every single one asks the same exact questions. What are we doing today? What is your name and birth date? Is your name spelled correctly on your bracelet? When was the last time you had anything to eat or drink? Are you allergic to any medications? Any other medical problems we should know about (etc., etc., etc.)

After all of the regular procedure, all that was left was to wait for my doctor to finish the other surgery he was performing before mine. While I waited I got to watch…. any guesses? TLC, or course! As I’ve mentioned before, TLC is the only thing I miss about not having cable, so any time I have access to a TV, that is what I flip to. I watched an episode of Say Yes to the Dress, Bridesmaids. I had never even heard of that show, but let me tell you, it is bizarre. Who do those bridesmaids think they are? It is the brides’ day, and you wear what she wants. If you don’t like it, then plan your own wedding and make everyone wear what you like.

When my doctor was finished, he came in and asked me the same things the nurses had asked. He told me he would try to have me back in court in no time, and asked if I had any questions. My only question was how soon after surgery I would be able to eat (it was about 2:00 by then and I was staaarving). He said only liquids until the following day.

So then I got wheeled back into the operating room. My first thought was, man this room has bright lights, too bad I don’t have my camera to take some pictures for my blog. The room was also very cold and I was surprised by how narrow the operating table was. At first I worried I might be a little too wide for it, but I was fine. The anesthesiologist came in, and I expected that once he started the anesthesia that I would get drowsy and fall asleep. Oddly, I didn’t. One minute I was laying there thinking about blogging and that narrow operating table and what they would do if someone was too fat for it, and the next minute I was opening my eyes in a different room and a nurse was asking me about my level of pain. Strange.

I really didn’t feel any pain at all. I couldn’t tell if we had finished the surgery or what was going on, so I just asked what time it was. 4:30. So the surgery must have already happened and that was why I felt like I couldn’t really move. As the feeling in my body started coming back, I agreed to take some medicine. She asked if I wanted morphine (I think) or something a little less strong. Less strong for me. Percocet to be exact.

Of course, Percocet shouldn’t be taken on an empty stomach and the nurse offered me a variety of things to eat: graham crackers, saltine crackers, animal crackers, jello, or pudding. I chose pudding. Vanilla or Chocolate? Chocolate, please. So she brought me my chocolate pudding with a spoon. I tried to eat the darn thing, but it felt way too thick… kind of like I was trying to eat frosting. I apologized and asked if I could have jello. She was super nice and accommodating and brought me my jello.

As I attempted to eat a couple of bites of the jello, the nurse asked me what I did for a living. Divorce, child custody, you know the fun things in life. I then took my Percocet and was taken to another 3-walled “room.” By then Luis had been called already and was on his way to pick me up. I started feeling really nauseous (apparently I didn’t eat enough before taking the percocet) and had to be given some zofran (oh zofran, my old friend, you and I go way back… back to those nauseous pregnancy days I wish I never had to see again). I found that as long as I didn’t try to move a whole lot, I felt ok. But they told me I had to pee before I was able to be discharged so off to the bathroom my nurse and I went. She stood there watching me. I would expect to feel awkward in such a circumstance, but I really didn’t. Maybe it was the drugs. Idk. I was supposed to pee into a little bucket. I missed it completely, but she said she heard enough coming out that I was fine to go home.

And that was exactly what we did. Got dressed, got wheeled out to the car. I was told I was not competent to make any major decisions for the next day or two, and Luis would have to sign my discharge form. I had refused to be wheel chaired out to the car after I delivered Graciela. This time I knew I should just follow directions because walking to the bathroom around the corner from my “room” was enough of a challenge for one day. And then we went home.

Since then, I really haven’t been feeling very much pain, though that is probably because of the medication. I do feel sore and it is difficult to stand up or sit down. Moving around makes me get kind of dizzy, but there is really not a whole lot of actual pain. I took a shower this morning like the doctor had recommended (fortunately my shower has a little stool built into it so I was able to sit for the most part… showering is hard work). I really want to eat a big ol’ slice of pizza, but I know I can’t. For the next week or so, I’m only supposed to eat fairly bland foods. No greasy, fried, or spicy foods.

Luis and my brother, Felipe, have been taking good care of me and Graciela. Graciela is a little bummed that I won’t pick her up, but she has been able to sit on the bed next to me so she has been ok for the most part. And that, my friends, concludes my extremely lengthy surgery post. I am hoping to be back to work by Monday (at least for a few hours), but we’ll see how things go. The doctor told me that the recovery itself should be approximately 48 hours, and that I might still feel sore after that so to just wait and see what happens.

But we’ve never gone West on Charleston to go out to the actual red rock canyon.

So we figured now was as good of a time as any (and by “now” I really mean last weekend).

They have a pretty cool visitor’s center with all sorts of exhibits including live tortoises.

And structures which look fun enough to climb, but say “No climbing allowed.”

Gracie wasn’t too sure about the bunny ears, though.

I wouldn’t profess to have a very active lifestyle, so I picked one of the “easy” hikes.

And for some reason, this “easy” hike was not exactly just a nature walk like I expected.

Maybe it was the fact that I was carrying an 18 lb. child (she might even be 20 lbs by now).

Never mind that there was a family of 6 with little kids at the top.

Or maybe I’m just out of shape and use my child’s weight to make myself feel better.

I was completely exhausted and super hot by the time we got to the end of the hike.

Graciela was apparently hot too because she tried to swipe my water bottle from me. I did let her have a drink… which she then spilled all over both of us. I’m not gonna lie, it actually felt pretty refreshing.

Otherwise I’m afraid we’d be taking advantage of their happy hour way too often.

$3.33 for the both of us which included 2 drinks and 2 sandwiches? Yes, please!

]]> http://mertinso.com/2012/05/happy-hour/feed/ 0 http://mertinso.com/2012/05/doppelganger/ http://mertinso.com/2012/05/doppelganger/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 13:00:44 +0000 Natalia http://mertinso.com/?p=7552 Three times a week I drop off my brother at physical therapy on my way to work. A couple of weeks ago we arrived to find that the doors were wide open. And to our astonishment, our mom was inside!

Now we always joke about whether or not our mom is going to be there to watch him :)

The DK Crew! They were just passing through town so we met up for an early dinner.

Our friends Jake, Cami and their son, Bentley (aka Gracie’s bf), joined us for dinner.

And then we finished off the night by going over to their place for a rousing game of Ticket to Ride.

Normally I refuse to play games that I know I stand no chance of winning, but since it was a holiday, I made an exception. And I didn’t even pout during the process.

I’ve been wanting Kneaders for breakfast for months now. So that was our first stop as soon as we rolled into town on Saturday morning.

Those treats looked so good, but we were here for one reason and one reason only: their french toast made with their very own cinnamon toast bread.

I looked up to take the picture and Graciela used this as an opportunity to try to swipe my food.

For dinner we met up with our friends, the Bindrups. They chose to go to Brick Oven.

Brick Oven is great for pizza. But when you are trying to avoid middle of the night gallbladder pain, pizza is probably the last thing you should eat. So I went with the salad/soup/pasta bar (Luis followed suit).

I’ll be honest, it was a little disappointing. I wish I could have had the pizza.

This was not part of the plan, but after hearing Suzy talking about going to get milkshakes at Iceberg, I decided I wanted one too. We waited in the drive-thru for a good 15-20 minutes, but it was oh-so-worth-it!

This picture does not accurately portray how truly monstrous my “mini” shake was (there is a smaller cup inside the larger one, but it was still huge for a “mini”). I ordered a caramel shake with bananas. Seriously such a good combo. If you’ve never tried it, do yourself a favor and go get one… now.

Breakfast was had at our hotel Sunday morning (which was free… well, included in the price of the hotel). They had Belgian waffle irons so we could make our own waffles. Honestly, I wish I could have one of those freshly-made, golden waffles right now!

In the end, we ended up not going anywhere new or trying anything new like I originally planned. But you know what? It was a-okay.

I love visiting homes-turned-museums like this.

And it was neat because not only was it free, but we had our own little tour guide to tell us about the home (had another group of people arrived around the same time that we did, we likely would have had to share our tour, but lets just pretend they gave us special treatment because we are just cool like that).

Lest you think all of Brigham Young’s 53 children somehow fit around this table, apparently only one of his wives regularly came to this home with him. And she had no children. I wonder if the other wives were resentful that she got to go to his get-away home and get away from the frigid cold of Salt Lake City during the winter months.

I had asked the tour guide a couple of questions. He didn’t know the answer. So I stopped asking questions because I didn’t want him to feel embarrassed. Besides, he still had interesting information to share.

Like the fact that Brigham Young supposedly had “helpers” but would never call them “servants” and treated them like part of the family. I don’t know that I believe that. Not sure if the tour guide just said that because he didn’t want to offend us brown folk.

I also learned that Brigham Young was a short, yet hefty man. I had always wondered why Joseph Smith had no facial hair, then all of the sudden Brigham Young comes along with a full beard. I am now starting to think that he just didn’t want anyone to know that he had a double chin.

They had all sorts of crops growing in the yard. I would love to have a yard that looks like this (though I do not see it in my Las Vegas residential future).

And who wouldn’t want to have a wrap-around porch? I would, that’s for sure.

]]> http://mertinso.com/2012/05/st-george-trip-brigham-young-winter-home/feed/ 3 http://mertinso.com/2012/05/st-george-trip-the-temple/ http://mertinso.com/2012/05/st-george-trip-the-temple/#comments Fri, 04 May 2012 13:00:16 +0000 Natalia http://mertinso.com/?p=7503 Our second day of my birthday weekend getaway was considerably shorter than the first. Since it was Sunday, I saved the more churchy things to do on that day. Our first stop being the St. George Temple visitor’s center. It felt so strange to think that I had walked those same grounds 20 years ago when my family stopped for a visit.

I love visitor centers because anyone can go check it out (even babies in strollers). This visitor center was really neat, and full of interesting little exhibits. This one had a replica of the town of St. George back when the temple was first built.

In another room, they had a pioneer painting exhibit. I snapped this picture and then Luis immediately scolded me because there was a sign that said there was no photography allowed. In my defense, I didn’t see the sign. By then I had already snapped the picture and it was too late to undo it (ok, maybe it was not too late and I could have easily deleted the picture, but I obviously didn’t).

There were rose bushes all over the temple grounds in pretty much every color.

As we were getting in the car to leave, I noticed a bus pulling up full of tourists, and they were clearly from all over the world. I began wondering what all of these Europeans and Asians were doing in St. George, Utah. I mean, think about it. St. George isn’t exactly a huge metropolis. There is no Disneyland. No famous people live there (as far as I know). So what brought them there? Idk. But they were pulling up by the bus-fulls.

I didn’t stop to ask them because I was too busy figuring out how to get to our final stop of the trip.

This was where Graciela rode a carousel for the very first time. All of the other kids were going to go, and Suzy didn’t want Graciela to be left out. So Suzy’s daughter graciously offered to ride with her.

(I’ll be honest, watching that thing go round and round was making me a little nauseous).

After playing for a little while, we headed back to the tabernacle to take our seats.

One of the things I find fascinating about these old buildings is just how thick their walls are.

There is cute Bella playing her pieces. At the age of 12, Bella was by far the youngest performer. I think the next youngest was in his 30′s and the rest were all in their 40′s and 50′s.

Graciela only stayed quiet during Bella’s performance (I think maybe because she probably heard those songs on a daily basis at Suzy’s house), so then I took her outside so she could scream as loud as she wanted.

And after a quick run to get me a milkshake and grab a movie at Redbox, we concluded day 1 of our St. George Trip. Next up, day 2!

I must have been really tired too because after about 20 minutes of looking, I’d had enough and had to get out of there. Maybe next time I’ll think of what I want in advanced so that I don’t spend my time wandering their gigantic store for nothing in particular.

We then headed over to our little hotel to check in and get ready for the evening. Luis immediately got his computer out.

And Graciela got going on eating some snacks.

And I got everything ready so that we could go out for part 3 of our trip.

We parked at the visitor center and then hopped on the shuttle to make our way up the canyon.

I did a little bit of research and found a really easy, 1 mile hike that the 3 of us could do.

These three little old ladies even attempted the hike, though they only made it about 1/4 of the way.

After the hike, we stopped at the grassy area in front of the lodge to let Graciela do a little crawling on the grass.

And then it was back to wait for the shuttle to take us to our car.

After such an eventful morning, Graciela slept the entire drive back to St. George.

I have no idea what this is exactly or what it is for. If any of you have been here, please enlighten me. From what I could tell, it was a gift shop/ice cream shop literally in the middle of nowhere. It had a little play area where kids could pretend to be in the old west. Each of those buildings are probably only about 8 or 10 feet tall. They were super cute. Too bad I couldn’t convince Luis to get out with me (he said he didn’t want to wake the baby… likely excuse).

Then it was back to St. George for part 2 of our trip.

Sadly, just about the second the sushi started being delivered to our table, she woke up ready to chow down.

Luis opted against the all you can eat, and just ordered a couple of rolls for himself. Smart move on his part. He didn’t go home in pain like I did.

Once we were finished with our sushi, it was on to dessert. Felipe chose the fried bananas with ice cream, chocolate sauce and nuts. Had he known the ice cream was going to be so small, he would have ordered another roll.

I ordered to mango mochi ice cream (the outside is mango-flavored mochi and the inside was mango sorbet). This thing was pretty small (about the size of a golf ball, cut into 4 pieces), which normally would have made me very disappointed. However, since I had stuffed myself with sushi until I felt like I was going to explode, this was the perfect size little dessert bite to end my meal.

The place we went to is pretty small. And as you can see, it was totally packed that night. There was another person there celebrating a birthday and the entire restaurant sang to him. I threatened Luis that if he did that to me, he would have to walk home.

Our good friends came over after all of this and brought me a cute little red velvet cake and a gift. I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but by then I was having excruciating gallbladder pain and just didn’t think to get out the camera. Luis got a video of it, but it was dark and you can’t see much of it so I won’t bother uploading it here. All in all, I had a great birthday celebration and am relatively happy to be one year away from the big 3-0 :)

Graciela was particularly fond of their waterfalls and wanted to jump in. I had to hold her back. All I wanted was a picture, but the kid is really strong and kept turning around trying to escape.

Happy Birthday to my sweet, beautiful, funny, amazing wife!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, we definitely could not eat Brazilian food without drinking some guarana (a Brazilian soda).

These gigantic things are what is called “pastel.” Essentially it is a deep fried dough similar to wonton wrappers, that has been filled with a few tablespoons of a variety of fillings. The pastel itself looks huge (which it is) but the puffiness is just from the deep frying, it is not completely stuffed with the filling (remember, only a few tablespoons of filling are put in it). But they are really yummy. Some of my favorite fillings are heart of palm and cheese.

We also couldn’t pass up the coxinha de galinha. Now this actually is completely stuffed. It is a deep fried dough (a very doughy dough) that is filled with a chicken mixture. Delish!

Thankfully Luis is a good sport about trying new restaurants with me.

The particular night when we went they had feijoada. I don’t particularly care one way or another whether my beans have meat in them, but since they had feijoada, I felt I would be unpatriotic if I didn’t order it. Of course, it was definitely a bonus that they were served with a side of collard greens :)

Hopefully this little one will love this food just as much as I do.

They had all sorts of really cool artifact that have been rescued from the bottom of the ocean.

They recreated some of the rooms on the Titanic so you could see how things really were on the ship.

They even had one huge piece of the side of the ship.

At the end of the exhibit, they had a wall with the names of all those who lost their lives on the Titanic, and it was just absolutely crazy to think that those lives could have been spared.

1) When I was 10/11 years old and broke my toe on the vault in gymnastics
2) Last July when I couldn’t feel my baby kick and the doctor sent me in for a non-stress test just as a precaution
3) Last August when Graciela was born
4) Saturday morning

So this is what happened

4:00 am – I’m awaken from my sleep with pain behind my ribs on the right side. I think it is no big deal bc I’ve been having this pain on and off for months and it usually goes away after about 30 minutes and throwing up whatever is left in my stomach from dinner. I’ve done my online research and based upon my symptoms I assume I’m having gallbladder problems (thank you WebMD).
4:20 am – The pain gets worse and makes its way towards the middle of my stomach. This has never happened before and it makes me nervous.
4:25 am – The pain isn’t going away and I decide to wake Luis to tell him I’m going to the emergency room.

4:30 am – Throw up and then put on a jacket. I tell Luis I need a t-shirt and he literally gives me the shirt off his back.
5:00 am – Luis drives me to the emergency room (it is times like these where it is so nice having my brother living with us bc we were able to just leave Graciela at home in bed). I insist that Luis just drop me off and go home since there is nothing he is going to be able to do for me and I know I’ll probably be sitting waiting for several hours.
5:15 am – Get checked in and have my blood pressure checked.
5:25 am – Get an EKG and told to wait for the doctor. I’m told that it sounds like gallbladder.

5:30 am – Listen to nurses complain about the hospital administration while I wait for the doctor.
6:00 am – Doctor finally comes, asks more questions and checks my heart rate again. He says he thinks it is my gallbladder and that I need to get some blood drawn and an ultrasound. He asks if I want any pain medication, but by now I’m almost completely over the pain so I decline his offer.
6:15 am – Wait for the nurse.

6:20 am – Nurse comes and draws 6 vials of blood from my arm. I’m told to go back out to the waiting room and that they’ll call me for the ultrasound.
7:00 am – I’m called in for the ultrasound. I am asked if I’d like a wheelchair By this time my pain is completely gone and I kind of want to just go home. But since I have had this pain for a while, I figure I might as well wait and finish getting it checked out. They no longer have the gel warmers like they did when I’d get ultrasounds with Graciela. I’m told it is because of bacteria. How wonderful.
7:15 am – Back to the waiting room to wait for the doctor to come get me with the results.
8:20 am – I get called back in to triage to talk to the doctor.

8:38 am – The doctor finally stops in to tell me that I have gallstones. I can try to just modify my diet by not eating fatty foods (which I honestly haven’t been eating a whole lot of it anyway) or go see a primary care physician who will likely recommend surgery to remove my gallbladder altogether.
8:40 am – Doctor leaves and I wait for my prescriptions and discharge paperwork.
8:50 am – I am given my discharge paperwork and a nurse tells me the only way I’ll get better is to get my gallbladder removed.
9:15 am – Luis picks me up and all I really want is to go out for a big pancake breakfast. I settle for cereal and a nap at home instead.

Today is my wonderful father’s birthday. When I was a teenager and would get mad at him, he would always tell me, “Someday you’ll be living far away and you’ll tell people about how much you love and miss me.” And it is true! I love and miss you :)