You'll All Know the Cause When I Finally Go Postal

Many of you know that the Papoose's surgery scheduled for last Wednesday was rescheduled for the next day, then canceled and rescheduled for today, and that today didn't happen either.

We got up at 4:45 am, as planned, got on the road with the poor, sleepy, whimpering girl at 5, arrived at the surgery center at 6:05, only to be told that they couldn't "find her on the schedule." The receptionist made a bunch of phone calls while we sat in the waiting room for nearly and hour with our daughter crying and screaming for mum-mums, until the receptionist told us she'd called the surgeon's office and they didn't have us on the schedule. She sent us home and said we'd have to reschedule. There was much breaking down on the way home on my part. The Papoose was just happy to drink her milk, finally.

After we got home, before we got her off to school, the liaison from the surgeon's office (not the surgery center) called the Husband and was like, "Um...did you forget something?" And he was all, 'Um...NO, did YOU?!?' and explained what happened. So, the woman from the surgeon's office was like, "WHAT?!?! Dr. Christoferson's standing in the operating room right now, scrubbed in, and the anesthesiologist's team is all geared up."

Somewhat satisfyingly, she was all kinds of indignant on our behalf, made some phone calls and called us back. She said it was very much on the schedule everywhere EXCEPT at the surgery center, for some reason, and someone there must have somehow deleted it from their schedule. So, it somewhat soothes me that it's not the fault of the surgeon's office again (though, seriously, how many clowns are involved in this procedure?), but I am IRATE that as the woman at the surgery center obviously LIED to me about having spoken to someone at the doctor's office and told me it was their fault, I teared up, saying something about this being the FOURTH time and WTF happened?, and she was all sweetly, "I'm sorry, hon" and I was all, "No, it's NOT YOUR FAULT." BUT IT TOTALLY WAS!!!

FML.

Anyway, we're rescheduled for tomorrow morning. Send every positive thought you have, please! My nerves are shot.

It's Like a Greek Tragedy over Here with the Knees

So, every day's not working thus far. In my defense, I've worked all three days that the Papoose has been at day care this week. And I REALLY need to be cleaning house in preparation of my brother-in-law's arrival tomorrow morning. He's flying in for the weekend to help the Husband with the kitchen remodeling. Is that sweet or what? We like him.

In the meantime, we seem to have triggered mass hysteria with our overly brief mentions via Facebook and email of the Papoosekin's pending knee surgery, so let me lay it all out with some bullet points lest our friends and family make their way here to lynch us on the grounds of incomplete detail-sharing.

• The Papoose's knees have snapped, crackled, and popped since she was a newborn. I seriously remember her being weeks old and us commenting on how her knees sounded like mine already - all loose cartilage and crap. We probably should have mentioned that to someone earlier, but we were dealing with other things that seemed more important at the time, like, you know, jaundice and feeding her through effing tubes and her lack of weight gain and my PPD and Hey! Let's move across the country! You know, that stuff.
• This past fall, we started hearing the popping more and kept catching her popping the knee herself, like, as a fidgeting motion, over and over and over. Luckily, the Husband's father is a retired pediatric orthopedic surgeon AND he happened to be visiting for Thanksgiving.
• He examined her while he was here and suspected a discoid meniscus. Now, for all of you who are reading the word "meniscus" and remembering my surgeries from almost ten years ago, yes, same part of the knee. Mine was torn. Hers has too much cartilage: instead of being c-shaped, hers is solid. This is preventing the bones from sitting properly in their little space and causing them to slide and twist and pop out of position.
• She had an MRI last week. It sucked. It's very scary to see your baby in a hospital gown. It's even scarier to see her with an IV in her hand. And oh! It's LOTS of fun to have her go limp and unconscious in your arms as they sedate her, and have to leave her tiny body on that huge MRI table, surrounded by half a dozen adults in white coats and have to exit the room for an hour and a half.
• I also realize that in the grand scheme of things, this is NOTHING. It's fixable. We are truly blessed if this is the biggest health challenge we have to face with her. I know that very well; I work in a hospital. But still. It's my baby.
• So, the MRI showed that there is now a tear in the meniscus, so it's going to get worse if they don't operate. Also, when it pops, she falls, and that's happening more and more, and resulting in secondary injuries (minor, but still, a busted lip here, a banged head there, it's no fun). We don't think she's in any pain.
• The surgery will be Wednesday. It will be arthroscopic, just like mine were. We expect to be stuck on the couch with her for about a week. Like with my surgeries, she will be weight-bearing, so it's just a matter of when she feels ready to walk on it. I can't find much online in terms of suggestions for dealing with post-op toddlers other than that now is not the time to worry about how much tv or sugar they're getting.
• The Husband will be granted some time off work, too, so it won't be me stuck with what's sure to be so much fun in dealing with toddler pain management and entertainment all week. Still. It's gonna blow.
• Please don't tell me that it's good that she's so young because she won't remember it. I remember having to have knee surgery. It wasn't traumatizing; I could talk her through the scary parts if she wasn't two. If you have any ideas on how to explain to a two-year-old why she can't run and jump and play and climb and get out of the g-d house for a week THAT would be information I'd be interested in hearing because THAT'S the major problem. That, and why she's in so much pain and why mommy can't fix it.
  

FML. I'm just sayin'.

In Which I Claim YET AGAIN to Be Back

Okay, so another two months have slipped by with no blogging. The holidays were busy, yo! I cannot seem to keep up with my life. Here is a list of excuses, in no particular order:

• kitchen remodel (you want pictures, I know. It's all still totally demoed, though. There's nothing new to see yet, but I should at least give you some before and during shots.)
• holidays
• purchased a vacation home
• Papoose's second birthday
• started working again: per diem for our local hospital, and in two weeks will start per diem for a Nashville hospital as well (it will be every Wednesday at the Nashville hospital, some Fridays, and then a more traditional as-needed basis at our local hospital)
• um, I have a two-year-old
• my house is a constant disaster due to kitchen remodel (have I mentioned that I have no sink? no food prep area? I'm lucky to have a working fridge, toaster oven, and microwave, but it's still not like I can cook anything because there's no way to wash any dishes or utensils. Except for the occasional bag of dirty dishes we cart over to Ouiser's house and sneak into her dishwasher when she's not looking.)

So, I'm not doing the whole New Year's resolution thing, but I'm going to make an effort to try to blog every day for the next month or so. Just to get back in the habit. I think I've just gotten into a routine of putting blogging behind all my other priorities so I never feel justified to spend the time to write these big long posts with lots of pictures, etc., like I used to. So be prepared for some Twitter-like posts as I try to get back on board with this whole blogging thing.

As for today, we spent the morning rearranging some furniture in the dining room/kitchen to try to beat back the crazies that are trying to take over my head. We got the china cabinet out of the hallway and back in the dining room. Things are newly configured so that there is space for the Papoose's kitchen to go, whenever it gets finished. (He was this close to finishing it when our dishwasher went kaput in September and we had to start this whole remodel thing.) The Husband is working his fingers to the bone every. single. night. on this remodel. Seriously. He comes home from work and goes to work in the kitchen until midnight-ish or later. He spends all day, every weekend, on it. It's like a second full-time job, no exaggeration.

My plan this afternoon is to pack up the rest of the Christmas stuff. The tree is down, but not packed, and the stockings are still out. I'm vowing to get that done before Valentine's Day...