A surgery & Tucson

Ok...I know its been a while.  Not much has happen around here until this past couple weeks.  First off, about a month ago my pelvis/back pain started to get really bad to a point I was cranky EVERYDAY and couldn't get up that much.  So I went to go get some serious pain killers from my Doc. until I have the Endometriosis surgery.  Well, since she didn't know why the pain got so bad so fast, she decided to do a ultrasound.  WA-LA, the ultra sound turned out I didn't have endometriosis but I have Pelvis Congestion Sysdrom which would cause lower back and pelvis pain due to a varicose vein in the pelvis.  With that, she stated I had to have a histerectomy which I didn't want to have but when I frowned she said she would go ask her fellow co-workers to see if there was another option.  Sure enough there was...but there is only 1 Dr.  in the whole Phoenix valley that does it, so now I have to get a referral which means...serious pain meds until I get my surgery.  Anyways - when the new dr. called, I told him I had 2 kids at home and in charge of things at church and I can't be laying around in pain all the time.  SO...the next day, I had an MRI/MRA & a MRV (have no clue what all those stand for!) anyways - spent 2 hours in the tube and that Friday I was in for surgery.  BUT  here is the catch.  While they were in there, they found that vein so engorged that it spread to ALL my other veins.  :(  So because of that, they had to cut all those other ones and apparently you can be under for only 6 hours at a time, so they only got the right side done instead of both.  :(   So my couple hour procedure turned into a all day thing and I didn't get home until 9:30pm that night since I didn't want to stay over night in a hospital.  After two days, my right side of my back felt 100% better.  When living with pain so long, you forget what its like to not have pain.  I noticed I could stand more than 10 minutes at a time now!  woot woot!!!  Anyways - on a downside, of course recovery sucked when your a parent.  Joshua was scheduled out of town therefore, I was the single parent and also in recovery, therefore...it was a cartoon week considering the high pain meds would knock me out cold for hours at a time. and when I was up, it was for getting the kids food and I could barely walk since they went in through the main vein in my pelvis (if you tear a barbie leg off...its right where that leg attaches to the body, I know...random description but that is the only way I can describe it) So being all bruised up on both sides and having a area open that gets torn open every time you walk...was not fun.  Anyways - its been a week now and though my left side of the back feels like a train hit it, my right back is good.  My next scheduled surgery is June 1st and considering how well this one went...I am kind of excited! 

Anyways - a week after surgery we had planned a trip to Tucson with our friends so they could watch our kids for a quick date night.  So we booked the condos and away we went!  

First up...swimming!  

What do you think of Theodore's hat?  cool eh? 

By far...this was the deepest kiddy pool I have seen.  It said 1.5 ft, but it was really 2ft.  Therefore, since Charlene weighs hardly anything any slight wave would fling her around and she was scared if she didn't hang onto us. 

Charlene's friend Mylie came along, and she was a water LOVER!  She would come up from below and scare Theodore and he would laugh so hard at her.  :) 

Then we turned around and Mr. Theodore Shark chased her.  :)

This is outside the clubhouse.  Which on our way in...found a pretty large bird dead.  Looks like it hit the side of the building and died.  Charlene of course was deathly afraid and did the bloody murder scream so we had to carry her into the club house.

The next morning Joshua and I got up and headed to the Biosphere 2.  Funny part is...Joshua had a list of things to see in Tucson and I saw this on a groupon a while ago so I bought it thinking it was the Missile Silo that he REALLY wanted to go to.  Joshua of course knew what this was, but when we showed up and I saw plants and not Missiles I was bummed.  LOL  Should have looked it up before purchasing!  ha-ha

After our couple hour date day, we got back, picked everybody up, and drove to the Pima air museum since kids were free and Theodore LOVES airplanes. 

Theodore hitting the "bad" airplane.  LOL

Charlene found this cute little bumboo bee airplane.  

This next picture cracks me up.  So Roxeanne was on the outside of the window and as the kids were playing with the buttons she said "oh, you guys are taking off"  Both Charlene & Mylie freaked out.  Charlene trampled down Theodore screaming and Mylie wasn't too happy either.  LOL  It was pretty funny. 

Roxeanne gave the kids each pennies and they had races down the penny bank. 

They each got a smashed penny also.   

We are big toy addicts when it comes to taking things to the park.  So we bought a wooden helicopter.  Here Joshua is teaching Charlene how to do it.   

On the way down to the air museum we passed a housing development that when I saw this door, I knew on the way back we had to stop at.  :)  

Here is Mr. Theodore!  16 months!   

This was the door I saw as we passed.  awesome looking!  :)  Anyways - I only got a couple shots because apparently Joshua had a pacifier in his hand and Theodore spotted it.  :(

Then all the photos turned out like this!  ha-ha, so yeah...guess its time to wing him off that thing.  and I have a feeling its going to be harder than Charlene.  :(