Monthly Archives: June 2009

June 24, 2009 · 1:19 pm

She Doesn’t Even Know Him

As usual, we all forgot to bring our toothbrushes on our trip out of town. That’s what happens when you put a toddler in charge of packing the oral hygiene products. So we had to do the obligatory run to the drugstore for the family. While the adults got the Walgreens brand, Lolo got a Crest Sesame Street toothbrush with a little picture of Elmo on it just because that’s what they had. It’s very different from the plain, translucent, BPA-free, marketing-free, excitement-free one she uses at home, and it’s now the top pick of our bedtime routine. She actually giggles with joy when I give her the toothbrush to use. (This is a dramatic shift from the normal closed mouth clamp she displays when we whip out the old toothbrush.)

What’s funny is she doesn’t even know “MehMo” in a real way. Lolo does get a set amount of TV each day (gasp!) but we never sit down at the same time to watch so she sees what happens to be on PBS Kids or Noggin at the time. She loves Sesame Street but he’s not always on so she sees him less than occasionally. (And Mama also likes to watch YoGabbaGabba.) But, this is how it starts. Before I imagine a future of cartoon character bedroom decor, I’ll rest easy with her simply gazing at a toothbrush and cackling like she’s getting away with eating cake for breakfast, which really would be fine if it was whole wheat cake.

Summer means chalk

“Toda” to Keren B. for the hip hot dog shirt I lusted after once I saw it on Neko. Some things you can only find in Brooklyn!

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June 20, 2009 · 2:01 pm

Me know.

We’re back from South Carolina after showing off the most famous granddaughter on the planet. While she was a superstar on the plane, it was still an exhausting job to entertain her and make her think it was awesome to be strapped in a car seat for an hour and a half on a vehicle that you could not tell was actually moving. All in all, it was really quite successful especially since she didn’t poop while we were in the air. You know that was a show I was dreading.

She’s still catching up on sleep and so am I. And, then I started thinking about how tired I have been for the past month. And, then I started thinking about how “off” I have felt even though allergy season is over and I’m no longer on antihistamines and nasal sprays. And, then I started to mentally investigate possible culprits for these symptoms (other than something fairly logical like being a busy mom, the ree-donkulous amount of rainfall we’ve had, lack of sleep, etc.).

[By the way Internet, it’s really unbelievable how much rain we have had this spring and summer in the Northeast, more specifically in my state, in my township and on my block. Unfathomable. Unfair and untenable. It’s obviously bad enough for me to mention it on my non-weather-related blog.]

And, this is where I turn to search engines to find me a new paranoia. So, now I am convinced that more than a year after I started it, the Mirena is rotting my brain. (Go ahead, google it.) And, it was all I could think about for a full 24 hours until it was time for another mom’s happy hour (where ladies such as myself head out sans diapers, husbands, toddlers and snack traps to drink and be merry). And, that’s when I left the worries behind to kibitz with my gang.

Don’t be too shocked, but we were hit on by a group of college kids home for the summer. Yes! I’m not kidding. There we were, a bunch of thirty-something mamas literally talking about doulas and birthing when we were approached by some dudes asking if we were available. Holy mother of a 16 month-old. We still got the magic. Let’s just hope they didn’t do it on a double-dog dare. Maybe the Mirena’s not so bad after all.

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June 9, 2009 · 12:54 pm

Recreational Doctor’s Visit Camp?

It’s looking as though I should have signed up for a mommy-and-me “visit the doctor’s office” class rather than the Wee Whales swim class we registered for this Spring. I haven’t documented every single trip to the pediatrician simply because it’s the same thing every time, right down to the timing.

Scenario: Child gets fever Sunday or Monday. Child is cranky and not self. Child tugs at ear once and only once. Child sleeps through the night. Perplexed parent makes appointment Tuesday or Wednesday. Child diagnosed with raging ear infection. Parent and child must skip swim class and instead head to CVS. Seriously. She has never gotten an ear infection on a Thursday.

I feel like we have a VIP card at the doctor’s office, too. We walk in to a packed waiting room. One of the nurses peers at the door to see who walked in. “Hi Lolo,” they say. No sooner are my quads doing the work necessary to sit in a chair than they are calling us back to a room. I could have totally just jinxed myself and will now be punished with a 2 hour wait time today. But, I’m weary especially when you add in my own trips to the doctor this season. I’m so worn down that I release her in the waiting room to actually touch surfaces. I don’t have the energy to convince her that it’s much more fun playing in my sanitized arms than to squirrel around with a pile of worn out Time magazines.

If Murphy’s Law comes into play today, I will have finally self-diagnosed her with an ear infection only to hear, “Her ears look fine,” from the doctor.

It’s drained.

Come with me on a medical adventure.

I had my appointment with the podiatrist yesterday. Since he wasn’t my original doctor (who is on vacation), I had to explain the whole history of this cyst and the sippy cup debacle. I started out by saying, “I have a ganglion cyst on my foot.” He smiled and said, “Heh, I can see that,” while staring at the prominent lump. (I knew I would like him from that moment on.)

As soon as I got my story out, he explained that this is old hat. He needed to aspirate the cyst and take out the insides. My response to the aspiration would determine whether I eventually needed surgery or not.

[Side-note: You may be wondering where Lolo was in this whole scenario. Well, she was a superstar sitting in her front row seat, the stroller. When we’re in any sort of doctor’s office, she is a wiggle worm who wants to investigate everything UNTIL the doctor comes in. Once the doc is on the scene, she turns into the perfect audience. I think she senses their authority and that they are going to do things she’ll want to watch. Still, I was a little worried. I had my blood pressure taken recently, and she freaked out when she saw the big band around my arm and the nurse doing something to mama. In the end, she found it all utterly fascinating.]

[Warning: This could be a little gory depending on your tolerance for Discover Health shows. If you’re at all squeamish, skip to the sentence near the end in red.]

First, he numbed the whole side of my foot with an injection of lidocaine which I neglected to watch. Then he pumped the cyst up to twice its size with some sort of fluid. And, then for the peak of drama, he used an 18-gauge needle (which in my state of shock looked as thick as a coffee stirrer) to suck out the cyst’s innards. It turns out that you don’t really drain a cyst because the filling is thick like jelly. He even showed me what he was able to pull out, and I was surprised to see that it was less than a teaspoon. He then finished it all off with a shot of cortisone.

To be frank, it was magical. As soon as he sucked the jelly out, I felt no pressure, no pain, and the bump was reduced to half its original size. Even with the lidocaine, I could feel the release. I have a follow-up appointment next week and am supposed to keep it tightly wrapped until then. He said the success of the treatment greatly depends on the compression I administer with bandages.

All was good. I went home. I performed all the normal evening activities and then went to bed.

With a surge of pain, I awoke around midnight startled by the fire in my foot. I guess the drugs finally wore off and the effects of forcibly disrupting the cyst were setting in. I tossed and turned in distress for 4.5 hours. Motrin sort of eased the misery, but not really. I fantasized about hitting my left foot with a hammer so that the pain in my right foot wouldn’t feel so bad. Alas, morning came and the ache subsided.

I will post a picture once I can kick Matt off the big photo editing computer upstairs. In the meantime, I am off to soak my foot in epsom salts. Nothing like a good foot soak to make you feel old.

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Tagged as cyst, ganglion, life

June 3, 2009 · 1:34 pm

Are You Wearing a Gumball in Your Sock?

I officially feel like a mutant. A few weeks ago, my ganglion cyst came back larger than ever.

For the first couple weeks, it loomed large on my foot but didn’t hurt. Now it’s angry and sending throbs of blood pumping pain up my foot. For some reason, it’s worse at night when I am finally off my feet.

Today at music class, instead of just taking off my flip flops to join the circle of mamas, I reached into my purse to put on socks. I didn’t want anyone to suffer from seeing my freakishly bumpy foot. It looks like I am saving a gumball in my sock for later. Only, I’m not.

Ok, so my toes are a little odd, too. But, they won't make children run to their moms in fear like the growth on the side of my foot will.

Ok, so my toes are a little odd, too. But, they won't make children run away in fear like the growth on the side of my foot will.

I’m going to the doctor tomorrow to see if he can temporarily relieve my pain. It makes me cringe to even think that he could maybe, possibly, in a way “drain” it. God, that makes me want to throw up.

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