So much for 2 posts a month. Sorry about that- but I'm sure you all understand how crazy things get during the holidays.
A lot has happened since October. To sum up, I am no longer working, Michael officially passed his last classes and is completely finished with school, I had bunion surgery, we had two wonderful Thanksgiving dinners, I turned 24, Michael's parents drove up to Utah for Christmas and my brother Scott got home from his mission in Switzerland!
Since I'm guessing that's not a sufficient update, I'll go into a bit more detail.
Thanksgiving
We are extremely blessed to live in Utah at the moment (despite my misgivings about certain aspects of the culture, but I'll save that rant for another day) especially because we are so close to family on both sides. My littler brother Adam graduated high school early and started at BYU living in Y View. We moved in August because Michael's great Aunt & Uncle's basement opened up so we live up by the Provo Temple now. Because of that, Michael's sister Sandy, her husband Kevin and her kids (who were living in the basement of our first house) moved upstairs and Kevin's single brother moved in downstairs. Michael's brother Tom and his wife Whitney (the one who did our wedding photos) now live in Sandy and his sister Annie lives in SLC. So, since the only members of the Lewis family that were missing were Michael's oldest brother David and his parents, we decided to hold Thanksgiving dinner at our place the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving since some of us already had plans.
Bunion Surgery
I lost my job and felt it was the Lord's way of saying that I needed to take a break and get my health in order (check out my story about PCOS if you're interested) and part of that involved bunion surgery I'd been putting off for several years because of dance. Now because I wasn't working, I wasn't too excited about the idea of paying loads of money to get cut up and be in pain. So when my cousin-in-law mentioned a pain medication study he was involved in (he's a podiatrist) where you get bunion surgery for free and then get paid for the research study parts, I got the info and signed up. After lots of paperwork, I finally got to surgery on Nov. 30th, the Monday after Thanksgiving. Michael took the morning off work to be with me and I couldn't have been more grateful.
I have to admit that despite everything that happened (you'll understand more in a minute), getting my IV put in was the worst part, which is saying something. One nurse dug around in my right hand and couldn't get it, then another nurse dug around in my left and I was beyond tears at that point. Finally the anesthesiologist numbed my left wrist and then got it in first try and I didn't understand why they didn't start with that. Ugh. I vaguely remember them putting the nerve blocker in my left leg but don't remember going into or coming out of surgery. Michael says I'm pretty hilarious when I'm high and that I made some comment about him being pretty and then the curtains being pretty. Apparently the curtains were actually quite ugly.
I was taken to the Research Study center and given a room and taken care of quite nicely. I especially loved the study coordinator, Libby. She was such a wonderful, caring person to have looking out for me. The nerve blocker was removed around 4am and by 9am I rated my pain at a level 6 (on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being none and 10 being worst imaginable) and was given the first dose of the study drug. An hour later, I still wasn't feeling any better so I was given another dose. By 11am I think I was at 7 or so and I was allowed the rescue medication, 2 ibuprofen tablets.
To make a long story shorter, I got the placebo. However, in order to get half the money from the study, I couldn't drop out and ask for more pain meds besides the 2 ibuprofen every 4 hours in the 2 days following my first dose of the study drug. That was the longest 48 hours of my life. I got up to a level 9 at one point and only the thoughts of the things I'd buy with the extra cash (plane ticket to surprise my brother at the airport coming home from his mission and snorkel equipment for our cruise), Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, quick visits from Michael and calls home got me through it. A few times I felt guilty and thought I might be overreacting, but my podiatrist later told me that he had a patient who got shrapnel in the Vietnam war and also had bunions and said he'd take shrapnel any day over bunion surgery, so I don't feel so bad now.
I made it through and was put in the second portion of the study where I was given the real study drug to take home and use until my pain level was a 2 or less upon waking. The study drug was an extended release form of percocet and I only had to take it every 12 hours. It was beautiful but had a side effect of extreme sleepiness and I'm still not back to a normal sleep schedule because of those days sleeping 16 hours a day. That part of the study lasted 2 weeks and then I got my stitches out. A couple days later we realized it had gotten infected and my wonderful podiatrist called in a prescription.
Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the prescription with me when I flew to Oregon to meet Scotty off his mission, so Dr Royal was again amazing and called the prescription into a pharmacy in Tigard. To make a long story shorter... I finished the antibiotics but it wasn't good enough and I had to get the umm, wound "cleaned out" and was given this magic blue foam to cut to the size of the wound and change every day.
Scotty got Home from Switzerland
So, I flew home to PDX the same day that Scotty was finishing his journey back from his mission. I arrived at the airport a few hours before he did, so I stayed behind security to surprise him at his gate. Unfortunately, I miscalculated how alert he'd be from traveling for 24 hours and expected him to be ecstatic that I was there (since I'd e-mailed him that I wouldn't be able to afford to be there and would see him when he got back to Utah for school). He was just confused when he walked through the gate. I'd found another lady nearby and asked her to film the exchange as soon as he got home, but Scotty thought she was one of my college roommates or something (which also shows that he was out of it since I've been done with school for over a year and am married) and he was confused as to why the rest of the family wasn't there. So he just kinda looked like a tired deer in the headlights.
The camera turns off and I explain that we have to go through security before we can see the rest of the fam and I hadn't seen them yet and the lady filming was a brand new acquaintance. He finally gets it, thanks our new friend and in true missionary mode, gives her a pass along card :D
We go through security and meet the fam for pics and drive home with a stop at the pharmacy where I realize that I've lost my wallet somewhere along the way. It turns out I left it at the register in the SLC airport when I stopped to get a smoothie and we picked it up on the drive back to Utah.
Oh, and while I was in Oregon, I picked up our Anniversary cake. Our wedding cake was 2 layers instead of 3 because they had this deal that you could come back a year later and get a 1 layer version of your cake made fresh for your anniversary instead of freezing the top layer. So here it is:
Christmas
I realized I told that out of order and skipped Christmas. Sorry. We had a great Christmas. It wasn't our first Christmas being married, but it was my first Christmas away from home since Michael and I went to my house for Christmas 2010. We bought a tree from Home Depot right after Thanksgiving so I didn't get to enjoy it that first week. And it was pretty dead right after Christmas. Note to self: wait a week or two. But that will be hard since I'm one of those sorts of people who starts listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. Oh well. As long as we have a decorated tree by my birthday, I'll be good.
My Birthday
Oh yeah. Man I am really out of order here. Pause on the Christmas stuff. For my 24th Birthday, Michael took me to Chef's Table in Provo. It was wonderful. I ordered salmon and Michael ordered steak, of course. What I really loved was the quality of service and the little nuances like a small spoonful of lime sherbet to cleanse the palate. I really think this dinner kick-started my love of fine food. The way food can be arranged on a plate to look so amazing, it's truly art. An art that I decided that I want to achieve. But more on that another time.
Back to Christmas
We decided I'd have a decor budget for Christmas, but I decided not to use it before Christmas and just make do with the box of stuff Mom handed down to me and the ornaments I'd collected (I got one every year as a kid) plus the extra ornaments Mom decided not to use anymore (cinnamon ornaments, bells, etc). Our tree looked pretty good and frankly, was that piece of home I needed since I couldn't actually be at home. I realized though, that I will never really be at home, feeling like I am home ever again. Michael and I have our own home and I especially realized that after the road trip back from Oregon. Wherever Michael and I are together, that will be home. Cliche, I know, but it really clicked this season.
Michael's parents drove up to Utah from San Diego and stayed with us for the holidays. Christmas Eve we had all the siblings together except David and it was lots of fun. Sandy took pictures so I'll add them when I get them from her. Later that night I tried wrapping presents, but felt completely overwhelmed. I now have a new respect as to why my parents never wanted to get up and start Christmas morning at 7am like us kids wanted to. I flip flopped back and forth to whether it was even worth it wrapping presents since we don't have kids. I got pretty upset from stress and tiredness and gave up after an hour and went to bed. I slept a few hours and woke up and finished the rest of my presents for Michael and went back to bed. He wrapped his while I was on skype with the fam and Scotty the next morning. (My camera is being stupid and won't upload those pics. When I fix it I'll post them.)
We decided to get ready for the day and go to Sandy and Kevin's to watch their kids open presents. It was pretty fun and reminded me that it's been a long time since I was that excited for Christmas and Santa. But it also got me pretty excited for having kids of our own to make Christmas special for.
I think that's a pretty good summary of the past few months. If I think of anything else, I'll edit. Ciao.
A lot has happened since October. To sum up, I am no longer working, Michael officially passed his last classes and is completely finished with school, I had bunion surgery, we had two wonderful Thanksgiving dinners, I turned 24, Michael's parents drove up to Utah for Christmas and my brother Scott got home from his mission in Switzerland!
Since I'm guessing that's not a sufficient update, I'll go into a bit more detail.
Thanksgiving
We are extremely blessed to live in Utah at the moment (despite my misgivings about certain aspects of the culture, but I'll save that rant for another day) especially because we are so close to family on both sides. My littler brother Adam graduated high school early and started at BYU living in Y View. We moved in August because Michael's great Aunt & Uncle's basement opened up so we live up by the Provo Temple now. Because of that, Michael's sister Sandy, her husband Kevin and her kids (who were living in the basement of our first house) moved upstairs and Kevin's single brother moved in downstairs. Michael's brother Tom and his wife Whitney (the one who did our wedding photos) now live in Sandy and his sister Annie lives in SLC. So, since the only members of the Lewis family that were missing were Michael's oldest brother David and his parents, we decided to hold Thanksgiving dinner at our place the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving since some of us already had plans.
Bunion Surgery
I lost my job and felt it was the Lord's way of saying that I needed to take a break and get my health in order (check out my story about PCOS if you're interested) and part of that involved bunion surgery I'd been putting off for several years because of dance. Now because I wasn't working, I wasn't too excited about the idea of paying loads of money to get cut up and be in pain. So when my cousin-in-law mentioned a pain medication study he was involved in (he's a podiatrist) where you get bunion surgery for free and then get paid for the research study parts, I got the info and signed up. After lots of paperwork, I finally got to surgery on Nov. 30th, the Monday after Thanksgiving. Michael took the morning off work to be with me and I couldn't have been more grateful.
I have to admit that despite everything that happened (you'll understand more in a minute), getting my IV put in was the worst part, which is saying something. One nurse dug around in my right hand and couldn't get it, then another nurse dug around in my left and I was beyond tears at that point. Finally the anesthesiologist numbed my left wrist and then got it in first try and I didn't understand why they didn't start with that. Ugh. I vaguely remember them putting the nerve blocker in my left leg but don't remember going into or coming out of surgery. Michael says I'm pretty hilarious when I'm high and that I made some comment about him being pretty and then the curtains being pretty. Apparently the curtains were actually quite ugly.
I was taken to the Research Study center and given a room and taken care of quite nicely. I especially loved the study coordinator, Libby. She was such a wonderful, caring person to have looking out for me. The nerve blocker was removed around 4am and by 9am I rated my pain at a level 6 (on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being none and 10 being worst imaginable) and was given the first dose of the study drug. An hour later, I still wasn't feeling any better so I was given another dose. By 11am I think I was at 7 or so and I was allowed the rescue medication, 2 ibuprofen tablets.
To make a long story shorter, I got the placebo. However, in order to get half the money from the study, I couldn't drop out and ask for more pain meds besides the 2 ibuprofen every 4 hours in the 2 days following my first dose of the study drug. That was the longest 48 hours of my life. I got up to a level 9 at one point and only the thoughts of the things I'd buy with the extra cash (plane ticket to surprise my brother at the airport coming home from his mission and snorkel equipment for our cruise), Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, quick visits from Michael and calls home got me through it. A few times I felt guilty and thought I might be overreacting, but my podiatrist later told me that he had a patient who got shrapnel in the Vietnam war and also had bunions and said he'd take shrapnel any day over bunion surgery, so I don't feel so bad now.
I made it through and was put in the second portion of the study where I was given the real study drug to take home and use until my pain level was a 2 or less upon waking. The study drug was an extended release form of percocet and I only had to take it every 12 hours. It was beautiful but had a side effect of extreme sleepiness and I'm still not back to a normal sleep schedule because of those days sleeping 16 hours a day. That part of the study lasted 2 weeks and then I got my stitches out. A couple days later we realized it had gotten infected and my wonderful podiatrist called in a prescription.
Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the prescription with me when I flew to Oregon to meet Scotty off his mission, so Dr Royal was again amazing and called the prescription into a pharmacy in Tigard. To make a long story shorter... I finished the antibiotics but it wasn't good enough and I had to get the umm, wound "cleaned out" and was given this magic blue foam to cut to the size of the wound and change every day.
Scotty got Home from Switzerland
So, I flew home to PDX the same day that Scotty was finishing his journey back from his mission. I arrived at the airport a few hours before he did, so I stayed behind security to surprise him at his gate. Unfortunately, I miscalculated how alert he'd be from traveling for 24 hours and expected him to be ecstatic that I was there (since I'd e-mailed him that I wouldn't be able to afford to be there and would see him when he got back to Utah for school). He was just confused when he walked through the gate. I'd found another lady nearby and asked her to film the exchange as soon as he got home, but Scotty thought she was one of my college roommates or something (which also shows that he was out of it since I've been done with school for over a year and am married) and he was confused as to why the rest of the family wasn't there. So he just kinda looked like a tired deer in the headlights.
The camera turns off and I explain that we have to go through security before we can see the rest of the fam and I hadn't seen them yet and the lady filming was a brand new acquaintance. He finally gets it, thanks our new friend and in true missionary mode, gives her a pass along card :D
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| Back together again after 2 years! |
We go through security and meet the fam for pics and drive home with a stop at the pharmacy where I realize that I've lost my wallet somewhere along the way. It turns out I left it at the register in the SLC airport when I stopped to get a smoothie and we picked it up on the drive back to Utah.
Oh, and while I was in Oregon, I picked up our Anniversary cake. Our wedding cake was 2 layers instead of 3 because they had this deal that you could come back a year later and get a 1 layer version of your cake made fresh for your anniversary instead of freezing the top layer. So here it is:
 |
| It's Lemon Poppy-seed with a Raspberry filling. |
Christmas
I realized I told that out of order and skipped Christmas. Sorry. We had a great Christmas. It wasn't our first Christmas being married, but it was my first Christmas away from home since Michael and I went to my house for Christmas 2010. We bought a tree from Home Depot right after Thanksgiving so I didn't get to enjoy it that first week. And it was pretty dead right after Christmas. Note to self: wait a week or two. But that will be hard since I'm one of those sorts of people who starts listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. Oh well. As long as we have a decorated tree by my birthday, I'll be good.
My Birthday
Oh yeah. Man I am really out of order here. Pause on the Christmas stuff. For my 24th Birthday, Michael took me to Chef's Table in Provo. It was wonderful. I ordered salmon and Michael ordered steak, of course. What I really loved was the quality of service and the little nuances like a small spoonful of lime sherbet to cleanse the palate. I really think this dinner kick-started my love of fine food. The way food can be arranged on a plate to look so amazing, it's truly art. An art that I decided that I want to achieve. But more on that another time.
 |
| Not just water on my birthday ;) |
 |
| Lime sorbet to cleanse the palate. |
 |
| Baked French Onion Soup - Amazing! |
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| 2nd Creme Brulee of my life. |
 |
| It's Creme Brulee... |
 |
| ...Of course I'm licking it clean! |
Back to Christmas
We decided I'd have a decor budget for Christmas, but I decided not to use it before Christmas and just make do with the box of stuff Mom handed down to me and the ornaments I'd collected (I got one every year as a kid) plus the extra ornaments Mom decided not to use anymore (cinnamon ornaments, bells, etc). Our tree looked pretty good and frankly, was that piece of home I needed since I couldn't actually be at home. I realized though, that I will never really be at home, feeling like I am home ever again. Michael and I have our own home and I especially realized that after the road trip back from Oregon. Wherever Michael and I are together, that will be home. Cliche, I know, but it really clicked this season.
Michael's parents drove up to Utah from San Diego and stayed with us for the holidays. Christmas Eve we had all the siblings together except David and it was lots of fun. Sandy took pictures so I'll add them when I get them from her. Later that night I tried wrapping presents, but felt completely overwhelmed. I now have a new respect as to why my parents never wanted to get up and start Christmas morning at 7am like us kids wanted to. I flip flopped back and forth to whether it was even worth it wrapping presents since we don't have kids. I got pretty upset from stress and tiredness and gave up after an hour and went to bed. I slept a few hours and woke up and finished the rest of my presents for Michael and went back to bed. He wrapped his while I was on skype with the fam and Scotty the next morning. (My camera is being stupid and won't upload those pics. When I fix it I'll post them.)
We decided to get ready for the day and go to Sandy and Kevin's to watch their kids open presents. It was pretty fun and reminded me that it's been a long time since I was that excited for Christmas and Santa. But it also got me pretty excited for having kids of our own to make Christmas special for.
I think that's a pretty good summary of the past few months. If I think of anything else, I'll edit. Ciao.
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