Friday, March 23, 2012

(6) Places and (5) Foods and (1) Major Freak Out.

Let's start with the "Major Freak Out," shall we? Shortly after I posted about Logan's bicuspid aortic valve disease, a good friend of mine (I used to watch her little boy during the day) contacted me and told me that her cousin's son had just had the surgery and was up and running 4 weeks later like nothing had happened. Ok, easy peasy, no big deal... and then I went to her page to ask her if she thought it would be weird if I contacted her cousin so I could kind of talk to a parent who's been through it... and that's when I saw her status update about the cousin's boy having OPEN HEART SURGERY. Which of course, lead to a massive Google investigation on just what the surgery options are. Of COURSE the only logical and effective surgery for the long term is the replacement of the valve with either a grafted and formed replica of a tricuspid aortic valve. Which of course, involves OPEN HEART SURGERY. The kind of surgery where they're put on bypass and their core temp dropped to a hypothermic situation. Color me completely in panicked. I didn't really begin feeling the panic until I talked to my Mom about it. It was the first time I'd spoken aloud about, my child... having his chest cut wide open... putting him on bypass and OMGFREAKINGTHEFUCKOUTGETMEOUTOFTHISCARBEFOREIOPENFIREONEVERYONE. I just... shit. Needless to say I will be calling the pediatric cardiologist WHILE in therapy so I can lose it in a safe place. ((i.e. not in front of my son who still doesn't have any idea what's in store for him.))

Now that we have that out of the way... let's talk about more pleasant things.

 

Places I've been that I never left the airport, but the airport was enough to peak my interest to go back.
  1. Aruba. I did a turn around flight from Boston to Aruba and back to Boston all in less than 24 hours. I never got to see anything out the window upon landing/take off as it was night time... but Aruba sounds really lovely right now in comparison to "Pollen Storm 2012."
  2. Amsterdam. We refer to the Netherlands as "The Mother Country" around here. The Husband's family came off the boat not too long ago in the grand scheme of things from Utrecht. ((Well, that's where I traced them to.)) I try to incorporate little bits of Holland into the house, because I am completely enamored with the place. The 6 hours I spent stuck in the airport KILLED me, but we weren't allowed to even step out because we didn't have visas. BOO. It was from that short period in the Amsterdam airport that I found a sick love for Stroopwafels. SO much so that when I was 8 months pregnant with Lillie and found out my Father In Law was headed there for business, I all but held a gun to his head and threatened his first born (aka, my Husband) if he didn't bring me back as many as he could carry back on the plane with him. Luckily for all parties involved, he followed through.
  3. New Orleans. I KNOW. The most of I've seen of the place is the tarmac... and I'm pretty sure it's a short(ish) drive for us. What are we waiting for???
  4. France, never been. EVER. Never even landed there, but it needed to make the list because HELLO, France you guys!
  5. Tucson. I got a tasty burger in the airport, but that was as far as I ever got in Arizona. I've been to New Mexico and NEVERWANTTOGOBACK (another story, another day.) 
  6. Venice. Been there, but never got to leave the airport. Lucky for me I got to have authentic Italian pizza and gelato in the international concourse. We landed in Aviano and bussed over to Venice to fly back to Germany. I slept through the entire damn drive even though I forced myself to stay awake, which that only lasted all of 5 minutes. THANKS, PREGNANCY, YOU ROBBED ME OF ONE FOR THE MEMORY BANKS.
 As for foods, let's talk about my top 5 favorite foods that I would quit any diet for a bite of.
  1. Dark Chocolate anything. Oh, you have snails dipped in dark chocolate? Don't mind if I do!
  2. White Pesto Pizza. But it has to be made just right. I worked for a local pizza shop in High School, and lucky for me it was right next to the school. So I would go there before my shift after school let out and do homework and gorge on the best pizza in the planet. The owner was Italian and he had the recipes for his sauce and dough sent over from his Italian Grandmother. It was so good. SO GOOD. A simple hand tossed crust with a thin pesto spread, garlic, fresh ricotta and feta, piles of mozarella and then (my addition) spinach. Oh shit, I'm hungry now. Too bad the new owners don't use the old recipes. Actually, it's probably good for my waistline that they don't.
  3. Cherries. I invested in a pitter... worst part is, my son is almost/maybe worse than I am. I was pitting them for a pie and I looked over at the bowl of cherries I'd pitted, I found my son popping them all in his mouth. Obviously he thought I'd bought the pitter for HIS convenience.
  4. Cake. All kinds. Cupcakes, 5 layers, cakepops, Little Debbie zebra striped, cake donuts, I have a problem.
  5. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. BUT ONLY the ridiculous holiday limited edition ones. The peanut butter tastes fresher and it's like a damn party in your mouth.

And this concludes our lists for the day. Now I have to go and clean something, like I don't know, laundry perhaps! The kitchen! THE BEDROOMS! The possibilities are endless, so long as they involve staying inside out of the yellow fog.


7 comments:

  1. Beware the yellow fog! Ugh.

    I'm giggling VERY HARD at Little Debbie zebra striped. But I am saying mmmmmmmmm at cherries. MY GOODNESS BUT I AM A CHERRY WHORE. That sounds so...dirty. I like it. I like it a lot. I used to barter with cherries at work when I was pregnant: need help with something? Buy me cherries. You want me to stay late? Pay me in cherries. (But my love of them extends far outside pregnancy).

    As for your baby...shit. Also, fuckfuckfuck. Alls I got is listen, take notes, ask questions. Do NOT end a conversation with the doctor feeling like there's something you don't understand or didn't ask. Just be as informed as possible, then decide how much you want to share with him about what may happen during surgery. And yes, I am still saying fuck.

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    1. Oh girl, we should get together over some cherries. Fuck squared times infinity. I made the mistake of Googling for support groups last night and got to watch an open heart surgery instead. I DIDN'T SLEEP MUCH.

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  2. Ditto the above from Arnebya.

    Your boy and your family will be in my prayers.

    What I'd do for cupcakes. They are my favorite!!! Like cakepops too. I like Ho Ho s over zebra cakes hands down! Any Reese's, even the pieces, will do for me!

    Stay strong!

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    1. Making Oreo cupcakes in the morning, because why the Hell not at this point! Reese's anything are indeed fabulous. I could eat Reese's Pieces by the pound. :/ But I won't, because I am very happy in the fact that I don't look like I'm carrying deflated twins in my stomach anymore. Let's not talk about the fact that I mentioned making cupcakes in the morning. I am very obviously delusional. Helicopter.

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  4. Alrighty, settle in, dearie.

    1: Your interest didn't peak, unless it's declined since then, which is possible. It piqued. I wrote a whole blog post about that and would link to it right now if I weren't on my cell phone in a fast food restaurant in San Antonio.

    2: Tucson? Really? Nah.

    3: You know Marie is going to losehereverlovingmind about New Orleans, right? Her favorite city, ever. So here's a thought. What say we all meet up in The Big Easy one day? No, seriously. Mini BlogHer? You're bringing the cupcakes.

    4: Logan. Oh, honey. Listen, this is a big effing deal. And? Doctors deal with it All. The. Time. Which means there are professionals who can help you deal, process, and understand. Call from your therapist's office. Ask questions. Know *you* are loved, as is he, and yourwholefamilyeventhoughI'veneverseenyou IRL. Hear me, sister?

    That is all. Hugs.

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    1. Ok, so now that I've deleted your extra comment it makes it look as if you were totally inappropriate. I'm here to confirm that is not, in fact, true.

      1.) You and my English Major Mother should go out for drinks sometime. I love languages, but (don't stab me), I don't sweat misspellings of homophones. Especially when I don't even realize I've done it, unless it's their/there... and then I become twitchy.

      2.) He left behind family in Tucson. I've never been outside of a connecting flight. To me it's just one of those weird romantic things where I'd like to see where his views were formed and venture to all his old haunts, ya know?

      3.) Don't tell Marie! I'll totally bring the cupcakes though if we can ever manage to make our way to a mini BlogHer. ;)

      4.) See my response to Arnebya's comment. I've not quite reached "acceptance" yet. I'm still at "bargaining." Example, I find myself wondering about second opinions and maybe since he's survived 4 years without it effecting him, he could survive 40 without ever needing open heart surgery. Maybe if we'd never even made the appointment we wouldn't be going down this path and MAYBE everything would still be fine! Let's just do this whole thing over, ok? OK! WHO'S WITH ME!?!?

      Hugs and more Hugs.

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