The beginning of May has started just as busy as April. We started off the month going to a wedding for our niece, Michaela. She got married at the Newport Temple. We joined the family for a reception in back in Ramona.
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The next weekend, Caitlyn had oral surgery to get her wisdom teeth removed. That was super stressful. They put her under general anesthesia but had trouble getting the IV into her veins. The first one collapsed, they missed her vein entirely on the next one and it was quite painful. They switched to her hand but for some reason they didn't like it. Caitlyn is super stressed at this point and they had to get out some special equipment to find her veins. They also gave her some nitrous oxide to get her to calm down as she was shaking at this point. They finally got in a good place on the fourth try, but she came out all bruised from the ordeal.
I was waiting for her in the waiting room the whole time but when she came out, they tried calling me on my phone...which didn't ring for some reason and then they had Caitlyn trying to text me while she was all groggy from the anesthesia. I heard them discussing about where someone might be and I peeked up from my seat to see her doctor talking to the support staff in the from but they were across the other side of the office. The doctor was blocking my view of Caitlyn but I recognized Caitlyn's leg and walked over to see what was going on. Apparently, they made a half assed effort to call my name from across the room and then tried to call me but was not able to get a hold of me. No one thought to walk across the room to find me in the waiting area where they told me to wait?!
Anyway, I had to run out to get the car as the parking lot was full when we arrived with idiots who fill the center on the weekends because they like to go biking from there, and picked her up. They wheeled her out on a wheel chair as she was still not very stable yet.
She was super tired after her ordeal and still somewhat under the influence of the anesthesia. We tried to get her settled in her bed to rest but we wanted to get some Gatorade in her first as she was not able to eat or drink anything prior to the procedure. I ate a quick lunch and headed to the pharmacy to pick up her meds while she rested. Not only did I have to drive across town to get to the pharmacy, but I then had to spend the next hour and a half twiddling my thumbs. They said that it would be about 15 minutes but the screen said that sometimes it would take up to an hour. When it passed the hour mark and the people working the desk asked the pharmacists about how long the wait was currently, they replied about 10 or 15 minutes. That's when I lost it and went up to ask them where the hell my order was. They found two of the three items just sitting to the side. They rang me out for those and put a rush on the last prescription for me. I had to wait another 10 or 15 minutes before they were able to fill it and I headed home.
At the same time as all this was happening, Christian was also home sick. Initially, he was helping me replace Caitlyn's gauze but we realized that it would be really bad if he got her sick on top of all the trauma her body was going through. Anyway, back at home, I had to start dinner but since Caitlyn was now on a liquid diet, I had to make her a separate dinner. Needless to say, by the end of the night, I was so exhausted. So, it was appropriate that we all spent the rest of the night sitting back and watching movies and falling asleep as needed!
The next day was Mother's Day. The original plan was to go visit with my mother. We actually had Emily stay out there for that purpose. She helped Wei, the lady that had recommended her for her internship, clean her house because she was moving. She did that on Saturday, while Caitlyn was getting her wisdom teeth out. But, we realized that we were in no condition to go. I had lots to do to just take care of my two patients and neither of them was in any condition to go out visiting anyone. We didn't do much except recuperate while watching movies once again. I spent some time thinking and preparing meals that Caitlyn could eat for the next week or so.
On top of all the rest that Caitlyn had to deal with, she had to learn how to swallow pills, which she has never done and has resisted trying. It did not go well and added much to the stress and trauma of the situation. She eventually figured out a way to swallow her meds, but it was not smooth or pretty but did the job.
Caitlyn had prepared for Mother's Day in advance, however, and had bought a couple of nice plants for me prior to her ordeal. She spent an afternoon helping me clear a ton of weeds to help me plant them. So far they are doing well and are flowering beautifully.
Christian also got me a spare battery for my new camera. While we were out in Utah for his Spring Break, I had left my camera on overnight and it was dead in the morning. We hardly used to turn our DSLR camera's off while out on our trips and never had a problem, so I had forgotten to turn my new mirrorless camera off but apparently, they still eat a lot of power even in sleep mode. Now I have to make sure I remember to turn it off constantly when I am using it but it is definitely necessary to have a backup battery.
Emily has been doing some 3D puzzle things on her downtime in the evenings while hanging out with her grandmother. She bought and put together a neat Hyacinth one for me for Mother's Day.
Christian had taken the prior Thursday off for his illness but ended up going back in on Friday because the video for the lesson he prepared for his students failed. He ended up getting sicker over the weekend because he pushed himself to make it through Friday. He stayed home again Monday but forced himself to go in once again on Tuesday because he just had too much going on at school and if he is gone too long, his kids would be out of control. His students are usually checked out mentally by the last month of school (actually, probably two months if we are being honest). It is by great effort and sheer will that he keeps his students engaged until the end. Anyway, he never quite gets enough rest to fully recover so he ends up with this lingering illness for weeks.
Caitlyn handles her liquid diet fairly well at first but I think after several days, she is just slightly hungry and frustrated. Towards the end of the first week though, we were able to move her to soft foods. She was much happier with that.
Emily came home that weekend but Christian had to work all day on Saturday. He had to go help out at some robotics competition. The girls and I decided to head out to the outlet mall for some distraction. Caitlyn's cheeks are still a bit puffy but not nearly as bad as it's been. She still has some bruising along her jaw line, arm and hand from the botched IV attempt. We stopped for lunch but there wasn't much she could eat still as she can't really open her jaw very wide. We figured she could have some fries and we could find some other things that can hold her over but she managed to work some Chicken McNuggets into the side of her mouth. It wasn't ideal, but it worked.
We got back just before Christian made it home. We had thought that we took too long and that he would beat us home, but he had an even longer day than we had expected.
Afterwards, Christian and Emily worked on putting her new dresser together. Emily was previously using an antique dresser from her great grandmother, who brought it back from France from her tour of the continent. It was useful but we were not overly attached to the piece. Aron had a piece from the same set apparently that we didn't have room for. She decided to gift the set to Michaela as a wedding present, so she wanted to buy it off of us. We didn't want anything but a replacement for Emily's dresser as she still needed something to put her clothes into when she is home. All the furniture shops that we used to use are not really in business anymore, so we ordered one through Amazon. It was cheap and functional but still mostly solid wood.
Besides that, we just enjoyed the brief amount of downtime together. Christian and Emily are working on building his new project, a new, much smaller 3D printer, the Micron.
Caitlyn is working on learning some elementary sewing skills. She's working on hemming a pair of slacks she found that fit great but is way too long.
Of course, our time together was too brief and Emily had to take off early this weekend as her cousin is graduating from college and wanted her to be there.
Lauren's boss got them special VIP seating in the third row, which was pretty nice for them.
Emily has been able to spend a bit more time with her cousins lately since she has been living with her grandmother. Lauren had a art show for her senior art exhibit a couple of weeks ago and Emily went to that as well after work.
Plus, she met up with Collin to teach him how to change the oil in her car!
And lastly, Caitlyn ended up breaking things off with Ty. We noticed that something between them seemed to have changed from the last time they were home from school. We are sad that things didn't work out between them. Nothing really happened, she just decided that he wasn't the one I guess.
