Season of Surgery Part 2

Now to the second half of the story...

About a month ago I had a pretty severe allergic reaction at while at work. It was the worst reaction I have ever had, with hives all over my stomach and chest and large welts running up my throat. It was great fun to receive a shot of Benadryl in the ass by a coworker, not awkward at all! We think the reaction was something I encountered while cleaning out the supply closet in our office. Looks like somebody else gets to clean that bitch from now on because I'm forbidden from going in there!

When I went in the next day to see the allergist (thank you Kathy) she took a look at my nose and was horrified. They did a scan of my face and her gasp and the look on her face let me know she was even more horrified. When she asked me if I had ever suffered any facial trauma I knew it was bad. The she told me I had the "worlds worst deviated septum". WINNING! Yep, that may be why I can't breathe. Huh.

We decided our plan of action would be to fix the nose first, then do the allergy testing after I healed. She sent me packing with a prescription for an epi pen, other allergy meds, and a date for surgery.

The surgery went well and I felt like a million dollars when they woke me up. The doc was laughing at me because I wasn't acting like I just had surgery, I felt amazing! I could take a deep breath with ease, I could feel the cool air going up my nose and hitting the back of my throat. Yes Charlie Sheen, I too felt the 'tigers blood' flowing through my veins.

Rob was an amazing nurse and took the best care of me. I know I am a horrible patient, but he was the best.

I felt like a new woman for the first half of the day. I even told Rob to tell my coworkers that I would be ready to go back to work the next day. That's when the swelling and congestion set it. It was MISERY. There is nothing more uncomfortable than feeling you have the worlds worst cold and not being able to blow your nose. How people are able to go through life as mouth breathers is beyond me. I hated every GD second of it. To top that off, I didn't sleep for a week. I would doze off breathing through my mouth, but the second I fell asleep I would try to breathe through my nose and I would wake up. Try doing that over and over and over again. I had about three serious meltdowns. I discovered that one week with no sleep makes me one very ornery girl!

When I went in a few weeks later for my allergy testing we discovered that I am allergic to EVERYTHING, or as the doc said, I am allergic to the planet. I started with the weekly shots on Monday, so let's hope when this is all over I'll be a little less defective...

Season of Surgery Part 1

You may (or may not, if not I will understand and will try to forgive you) have been wondering why the silence on the Marriott Family Blog the last four months. What is the reason behind the lack of our interest in the blogosphere? Well, we started 2011 off in style, with a couple of surgeries.

Rob ran into some issues with his hyenas (reference from Sixteen Candles, I promise I actually do know how to spell hernia) and had to be taken into the ER while on shift. That was a really fun phone call for me to get, always love it when the conversation starts off with " I'm okay, but the guys are taking me to the hospital". No immediate need to worry, everything was fine. BUT the Dr. there gave Rob a very stern warning that if he didn't get his three stomach aliens repaired, he would run into some serious complications.

Fast forward one week and Rob is in surgery. The day got off to a very early start. Rob had his surgery up in Ogden by a physician recommended by his father. They wheel Rob off to get cut and I make my way to the waiting room. All in all I want to say the surgery took about an hour. No complications and Rob was feeling more than fine. He may or may not have made reference to the body parts of some of his friends, but that tends to happen from what I'm told. I hadn't used the bathroom since Rob went in and I really, I mean REALLY had to pee (I was really concerned for Rob, I wanted to be there in case anything happened, so I waited until I knew he was okay). I find the nearest bathroom and open the door, and OMG! there was someone in there, on the toilet. I was so unbelievably embarrassed. I booked it to the next bathroom (in a jam packed waiting room I might add) and again opened an UNLOCKED door only to find a woman who had just finished and was lifting up her pants. Holy shit. I was sick. FYI, there is a big sign on the door reminding people that they need to lock it. Thanks asshole for your inability to do that, and BTW - I think the whole waiting room got a vision of your lady parts. It's bad enough when that happens once. But twice, one immediately following the other? Yikes!

I get clearance to take Rob home after about half an hour and he seems to be feeling dandy. We stop and I grab him some soup, get his meds filled, and take him home. As we are sitting at the kitchen table eating he tells me that he all of a sudden doesn't feel so great and he thinks he is going to vomit. I make my way over to him to help him to the bathroom wondering what to do because the last thing he needs to do is heave now that his abdominal area resembles something from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. When I try to help him up he all of a sudden turns bright red, starts sweating profusely, starts shaking, his eyes roll back and he smacks his head on the table. That was terrifying. My head was filled with all the worst things possible that could be going on. Scary things.

I've only had to call 911 once before, when a neighbor tried to shoot himself in the head (he missed and hit the neighbors house) and then was running down our street in a panic with a gun in his hand (they did TAZER him in our driveway which was pretty impressive, I always thought they peed themselves when that happened, but I was wrong). Rob came to quite combative when I was on the phone with dispatch and he was adamant that they cancel the ambulance that was on it's way. Luckily they didn't listen to him and came anyway. He needed them there. I needed them there. I can't even begin to tell you how incredibly comforting it is to have members of your own department, people you know personally and are friends with, show up in an emergency situation. We really do work with the most amazing people, and they gave Rob the best care imaginable.

We spent a few hours in the ER, but everything checked out just fine. Turns out the staff at the surgery center sent him home waaaaaay too early and that was just a reaction to him being under anesthesia.

It was a long five week recovery for him, but he is healed and back to work now. His scars are starting to keiloid up and he is very excited to show them off. Just ask him he'll show you.

A SuperBad Experience

Disclaimer: I must warn you that what you are about to read is highly disturbing. The events of the story below are factual, and happened to me while at work. One would think that such a horrible experience would only happen at a truck stop gas station, but no, it was in the office building where I work. (For the record, the light was out above the toilet and I couldnt see anything until after the fact. I normally check, but due to the low lighting, I couldnt tell what was there until it was too late.) Below is an email exchange between me and a gentleman I work with who is over our Building User Group (BUG) after the event occurred. I debated for a while whether or not to share this with you all, but I figured that many of you read our blog because you appreciate our sick sense of humor. Plus, when something like this happens, isn't sharing your story part of the healing process? So what the hell, I'll post it. While the story is quite comical to me now, I was highly traumatized at the time. I drove home in tears, holding back my urge to vomit. I immediately showered when I got home...read below if you dare... 

Hi, Matt.

I have a suggestion for discussion in our next BUG meeting...bathroom cleanliness. Yesterday I had the misfortune of sitting in somebody's dried menstrual funk left on a toilet seat in the main floor bathroom (how you get THAT where it was is a mystery to me). I’m sure it’s not the product of anyone who attends the meetings, but maybe they could pass on a reminder to their people that if there is transference of nastiness from their body to the outer part of the toilet to please clean it up.

If you’ve seen the movie Superbad you’ll know how I felt. I still want to throw up...

It has since been cleaned up and I don’t want you to think this is a complaint about the janitorial staff whatsoever. I think they do an amazing job and the crust of menstruation was probably left by the person who used the bathroom right before me.

Thanks Matt!
Meisha


Okay…we’ll talk about it; but, it’s going to be a challenge for me to come up with an appetizing treat after this discussion ensues! I’ll make it the last item on the agenda; and, I’m sorry you got funked in the trunk. I got douched by one of the men’s urinals downstairs last week trying to get it unclogged (who but an asshole would attempt to flush hand towels down a urinal unless they intended to flood the men’s basement bathroom). So, I went home sopping wet from the waist down after that experience (totally pissed on and pissed off I might add)…and, you might recall that about four years ago I had all the plumbing fixtures replaced with manual operation devices throughout the building, and got rid of the automatic flushers and faucets. The cause of this event was me hovering over one of the women’s toilets full of menstrual funk and poop, so as to change the batteries in the automatic flushing device. That was the last straw for me…yuck! I feel and appreciate your gag response…..regrets, Matt

An Actual Artificial Tree

Fiber optic no more! We now have 7.5' of pure artificial pre lit pine sitting fully decorated in our living room. I must say that it's the best looking tree in the neighborhood. Bring it on Griswold!!

First Snow

Little Jeety, or should I say 'snowball' having a great time enjoying the winter wonderland in his backyard.

Scooby Dooby Doo

Halloween was a little different for us this year. Rather than having the usual attitude about the holiday (is it considered a 'holiday'?), we decided to actually participate.

It's always been such a pain to have trick or treaters come to the house because they ring the doorbell and the dogs go completely apeshit and wig that somebody is at the door...not so much fun when it happens over and over again for a period of three or so hours. I usually (I know I'm going to hell for this) throw an empty bowl on the porch with a note that says "please take only one piece of candy", turn the lights off (it can't look like we're home) and retreat to a room where we can watch a movie and not be bothered. You still get some stragglers who knock on the door, but not many. In the six or seven years we've been in our house this method has always worked well for us so I don't know why we felt the need to switch it up this year. I can assure you though, after experiencing the greedy little monsters we had come to the house this year, the empty bowl tactic will be used EVERY year from now on.

This year halloween fell on a Sunday, so abiding by the usual Utah guidelines, it was observed by trick or treaters on Saturday. For some unknown reason we actually decided to buy candy and leave it out on the porch. I had the bowl out for maybe 20-30 minutes before the little hyenas started pounding on the door demanding more candy! When I checked the status of the candy bowl, it was flipped over empty. Our Winder cooler had even been raided - I found it open, sitting in the middle of the porch. The worst part is that even with the lights out, an empty bowl AND an empty cooler, they didn't stop ringing the doorbell and knocking on the front door until after 9pm...I felt like a prisoner in my own home! I thought the worst was over after Saturday night, but I was wrong. They came back out in droves on Sunday night too. WTF? Seriously?

Friday night we went to a party at Matty's brother Michael's house dressed up as the characters from Scooby Doo. Our costumes ROCKED, a lady even stopped us at the store (had to get some beer) and told us that we would for sure win the costume contest for whatever party we were going to. We had a great time dancing the night at away Michael and Tracy's although we were the only ones out on the dance floor. Why is it that people don't like to dance?

We didn't win best costume, it rightfully went to Scott and Kelly for their Shera and Heman costumes...

Bieber Fever and Tim Hortons

This year I was lucky enough to be chosen to attend a records management software class in Vancouver, Canada. VANCOUVER!!! The class was put on by the software company I use to track employee information, which is based out of Canada. The company has a conference and classes every year, but UFA employees from our IT department have always been chosen to go. This time I won the department sponsored learning lottery. The best part is that Rob was able to join me!

What an amazing city Vancouver is. I loved everything about it, especially the food! I was so excited to be reunited with Tim Horton. Oh, how I have missed him. I don't know if you know this about me or not, but I love donuts, I mean LOVE them. Remember about a year and a half ago how we drove all the way up to Alberta, Canada, just so I could have a donut from Tim Hortons?

It was full scale 'Bieber Fever' when we pulled into our hotel. Apparently Justin Bieber was in town for a concert and was staying at the same hotel as us. Winning! Well...I guess if you're 13. I personally think he is a bit of a douche, but that's just my opinion. We were greeted by about one hundred screaming, crying girls. We even had a Bieber sighting, white pants, purple shirt and all! We also had another celebrity sighting in an elevator at our hotel. It was the lady who always does the I love the 80's on VH1. You know, the blonde with the mole that also does 100 Calorie Snacks commercials.

We were able to make the trek up to see this insane bridge we have photos or Rob and his family visiting when he was a kid, and we also took in some local attractions such as their Olympic Cauldrin.

All in all it was a very fun week! Anytime they decide to send me to another conference is just fine with me!