Mercedes’ blog

I went to the Dr. for my post op follow up. I told him about my tumble yesterday. He said it would take a heck a lot more to disturb or pull any of the sutures. He took a look at all my incisions and everything is healing as it should. He told me that I will feel pulling for a few more weeks cause there are sutures still in the muscles. Those take longer to dissolve. He also shared the lab report. I had 3 stones that were approx. 2 centimeters each! Along with a lot of smaller stones. They also found a polyp that was benign so no cancer. So all is well. My mind is now at ease regarding the fall. Some people are not meant to walk and talk at the same time...that would be me :)
Oh also since the surgery I have NOT had any indegestion, bloating, pain, chills, nausa or vomiting after eating!!!!!!!!I actually had pizza AND Baja Fresh this weekend (not the same day) and didn't suffer the consequences of eating any of it. Which could be a bad thing but for now it is a good thing. If you know what I mean ;)

Gosh darn it all. I got up this morning feel pretty good. I walked to the gym with my kids. Worked out for 35 min. on the elliptical, no weights I am not cleared by the Dr. yet. We stopped at the New Seasons market to pick up something. I don't like New Seasons it is waaaaaaay over priced on everything but it is the only place on the way home from the gym. Anyway, when we exited the market and walk down the sidewalk a bit my left foot stepped in the plant bed and my right foot was on the sidewalk. For some reason when I made that step I fell :( My water bottle went flying along with my purse. I stuck out my right hand to catch my fall, than down to my elbow onto my back. OUCH! I didn't feel anything pull in my stomach (remember I had gall bladder surgery 2 weeks ago today) but it freaked me out. Now my hand and elbow hurt and so does a couple of my incisions. I am so paranoid that I may have done something really bad. I am just not feeling as good as I have been. Maybe it is all in my head. Thankfully I see the Dr. tomorrow for my post op follow up. I hope I didn't do something. Hubby thinks that I may have just jarred my body and that all will be fine. When did I become such a hypochondriac?

I am personally fed up with the whole efx2blogs drama. Vox will be my home. I will mirror my posts at efx2 cause I want to be in contact with my friends there. I like Vox, I love that it works. Efx has become more trouble than it's worth. It truely is a ship with out a captain.

Friendships are very hard for my son. He has aspergers syndrome a form of Autism. To see him you would never guess he was on the autism spectrum. He has good eye contact and is connected when spoken too. He is very smart and is starting to get a sense of humor (not a natural thing for kiddos on the spectrum). His biggest deficit is social skills. He does not know how to maintain a friendship. He has a double handicap as far as that is concerned, having aspergers and being male. He is really really down right now because he wants to hang out with 'friends' the problem is those he thinks of as 'friends' are not truely 'friends'. Oh, they are all very kind to my son and very very supportive of him. Most of these friends don't know he has aspergers while some do. But none of them have made themselves available to hang out with my son. A couple of them are just plain busy during the summer with various sports camps and family vacations. One friend that my son has been trying to get together with just wont answer his emails. My son knows he is around cause he sees him on Myspace and tries to IM him there but again no answer. It is heart breaking. I just don't know what to say to my son. I end up just saying maybe he is just busy or something. My son says he keeps trying to get this kids attention that he just wants to hang out. I am afraid now that my son may have tried too hard and has freaked this kid out. This kid is a nice kid. He was one of my sons roommates on the DC trip, not be choice but by assignment. They got along fine on the trip until the last night my son found out that this kid had to transfer to another room because of a conflict with one of the guys in their room. My son was assured it had nothing to do with him. One of the chaperone's even told me it had nothing to do with my son that his kid has some issues that was best handled by moving him to another room. This move really upset my son and he let this kid know. I am afraid my son may have come across needy and clingy. And is doing that now. I feel so bad. He has gone thru' most of his life with out having friends. For the most part it didn't bother him but now at age 16 he is noticing that he is lonely and wants friends. Goodness, I just don't know what the answer is anymore. It was so much easier when he was younger.

This is NOT an original recipe but one I stumbled on on the internet. I have made them twice. Once to test and see if they were truly the ultimate brownie and a second time for company to see if they thought that they were the ultimate brownie. The verdict? They truly are the Ultimate Brownie! So I thought I would post the recipe here for you all try.

 

The Ultimate Brownie is my absolute favorite brownie. It is tall like a cakey-brownie, but is dense like a fudgy-brownie. I'm sure it will be one of your favorite brownie recipes too.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

• 8- 1 ounce squares of unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup butter
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2-1/2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13 pan.

Melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat; set aside. In a mixer, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla at high speed for 10 minutes**. Blend in chocolate mixture, flour and salt until just mixed. Stir in the nuts. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes. (Don't overbake.) Cool and frost if desired, but that is not necessary.

** It's not required, but this is when it's very nice to own a stand mixer.

Recipe found here

 

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My notes: You truely need to beat the eggs 10 mins! I baked mine at 35 min. I didn't want to risk overbaking. I didn't frost them. Also, I don't like nuts soooooo I used a cup of semi sweet chocolate chips. These brownies are really really good. So good that I've had dreams about them :) Really :) 

I promised to post some pictures of my garden/yard. On the right side of our yard we have a waterfall/pond. It is surrounded by Birch trees, Daylillies, pine type bushes, a Butterfly bush, Chinese Maple and an Apple tree. On the left side of our yard is a terraced rock garden with a deck at the bottom and a brick patio behind the roses on the upper part. We have nine rose bushes, a couple of lilacs, another Butterfly bush along the left fence and couple of very large pine trees along the back fence along with a beautiful tree that has dark redish leaves (I don't know the name of the tree). Not all of the yard is in the pictures but you can get the idea. It is not a large yard but it is our piece of paradise. We get tons of Robins, Gold finchs and Humming birds. Along with a lot of butterflies and dragonflies. We get the occasional unwanted guest too. Kingfishers and Blue Herron!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a post of complaining so ignore if you don't want to hear me bitch and whine.

Okay I know I should just give myself some time to heal. The surgery was only on Monday but I am really tired of not being able to do for myself. Not feeling 'normal', worrying if everything is alright, retaining enough water to fill a small pond, my stomach is still very swollen and my throat is still sore from the breathing tube! Gosh darn it I hate this.

Whoever said this was an 'easy' surgery was wrong. Ya it wasn't as bad as the hysterectomy I had 4 years ago but I wouldn't label it as an 'easy' surgery. Maybe, my perception of easy is different.  Maybe being as it was an outpatient surgery and I was home by early afternoon the day of the surgery made me think it wasn't a big deal and now I find that it is a bit if a bigger deal than I expected. Ya, each day is better then the day before so I suppose I am doing fine. I should worry if I wasn't noticing any change or feeling worse. Right?! 

I do not make a good 'sick' person. I want to be all better by now.

Good heavens everything at efx is a mess. It is not looking good. Seems like I've been down this road before being a Modblog refugee and all. At least this time I am better prepared. I will be spending some serious time transferring all my old posts from efx to here before I loose the whole kit n kaboodle. It really is a shame. I hope I keep in touch with all my friends. I have learned how to use the rss feed thing in IE now so I can keep up on everyone's posts no matter what service they are using so that is helpful.

Please leave me your new blog site so I can subscribe via rss to keep track of you all....Okay?

This is where you all can find me. I rather like Vox cause of the group and neighborhood feature. Never did adjust to blogger.

Make sure you all stop by and say hi. Don't forget about me :)

Well the surgery went well yesterday. The Dr. had a couple of problems one was that the incision he made at my belly button was too small to take out my very large and full of stone gall bladder. So he had to make the incision bigger than normal to remove the gall bladd with out cutting it up. In the process of enlarging the incision he knicked his finger with the scalpel! Oh my. He said absolutely no blood of his got to me be my blood did get in his cut. So he asked me to consent to a HIV test. Of course. I told him he didn't need to spend a lot of time worrying about it but understood the protocol. He said he was't worried that I seem extremely low risk but it is something he has to do. Outside of that all was text book. I was out of recover in an hour and half and off to home.

When I got home I proceeded to lay on the couch a doze all afternoon. Girlchild cooked speghetti for the boys and made me chicken noodle soup. For not eating since 9:00 pm that night before I wasn't at all hungry but it did feel good to get something in my tummy. Even today I am not hungry. I think it is the pain pills that cause that.

I didn't sleep much last night. My kidneys and bladder decided to wake up from the anesthia (sp) I had to pee all night long :( Not to mention I could only sleep on my back cause it hurt to lay on either side :( I can not sleep on my back worth beans. Even with the pain meds all I could do is doze, once I start to dreft off a bit I had to pee.

This morning I feel a bit better than yesterday. My stomach is grossly swollen especially above the belly button. I have an icepack on it now. I will attempt to eat some oatbran cereal and take a small walk outside. Talking it all very slow for a couple of days.

Thanks to all who have prayed!!! I truely felt them and had a peace the entire time!!!

I haven't been able to read anyone's post on efx2blogs all weekend :( I see the homepage and the chat box. Looks like no one can read the blogs. I have notice I can post on my blog but what's the point if no one can read it?

I have my surgery tomorrow morning. I am really nervous. I really want to get this over with. The good thing is that most everyone who has had the surgery has told me that it wasn't that bad. That helps a lot!!!! Thanks to all who have shared with me your experiences. I will post as soon as I am able. Which if all the reports of how easy the surgery is is true would tomorrow afternoon maybe. Although, if I do post tomorrow sometime I might be drugged and therefore should be a pretty interesting post ;) Either way it should be fun.

 I hope efx is up soon! Have a good Sunday.