X-man's state list

X-man's been to: Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, D.C., Texas, California and now... Missouri. 

We're sitting at Zeno's Steakhouse and Motel in Rolla, Mo., post my cousin's wedding but before the reception. X-man is very thankful for the pre-school room at the First Street Methodist Church, where he and I spent the 25 minutes before the ceremony and the 15 minutes during the ceremony and the 10 minutes after the ceremony playing with Little People and cars and trucks. 

We've just finished our Happy Meals and now X-man is playing on the floor with his bus and his Cars cars. 

Melissa and I are alternating changing Mom's bandages on her burns. Mom's eating regular food these days though, which is good. But she has formed a new attachment to the Hazelnut iced coffee from McDonald's. 

It was a long 4.5 hour drive down here, but we made it okay. X-man, Uncle Chris, Aunt Melissa and myself have been in the hotel pool twice. X-man shows no fear of the pool, which freaks me out a little. He seems to know not to jump off the ledge without me there to catch him, but will step off a stair into a deeper section of the pool without thought.  So, the three of us are all over him all the time. We also played at a park full of dinosaur climbing parks and slides. 

The "outpatient, non-invasive, no-restriction" surgery

At 2 p.m. yesterday my sister and I finally got to swap places. I drove X-man over (he fell asleep in the carseat). She met me outside, drove him back to the house and put him into bed for a 2.5 hour nap.

I sat with my mom. She was having incredible throat pain 24 hours after the surgery. It was preventing her from drinking and hence urinating.

While I was there the doctor came in. We asked him a bunch of questions about the throat pain. He dismissed it as a passing issue. When he had first told her about the surgery, he had told her that she would have it in the morning and go home later the same day. But when she talked to his office before the surgery, they changed it so that she would spend a night in the hospital

Since that changed, Melissa, Mom and I kept asking if she had any restrictions. He kept saying, "No." The last time Mom asked, "So technically I could be out mowing my lawn tomorrow?"

"Yes," he said.

Then the discharge paperwork came.

No driving for 4 days. No bathing for a week. No exertion for 4 days. No lifting over 10 lbs for 3 days. And it made me wonder what the hell "No restrictions" meant to him.

Last night we changed Mom's bandages on her burns. Melissa showed my mom's best friend Cathie and I how to do it. So we're all in the know-how. The doctor said the burns came from the chemicals in the adhesives used putting things on her back. There are three. One is definitely a large (size of the palm of X-man's hand) second-degree burn. I'm not sure we're supposed to be happy that it's a chemical burn rather than a heat burn, but whatever. She's schedule to get them all rechecked at her regular doctor's office next week.

Mom's throat still hurts, but she was able to swallow some applesauce for dinner. We also got them to prescribe her some pain meds (Tylenol 3) for the throat and burn pains. My sister went home last night to do some laundry and go to work today. She's coming back tomorrow. The plan had been for MacTroll to take the bus from O'Hare to Rockford and then for us to go home this afternoon.

I'm going to wait and see how it goes. We might leave later -- or just wait until tomorrow afternoon. (Quigs, if you're reading this, I'll give you a call when we know what's happening).

Either way, this was way more invasive than anyone ever told us. And it makes me scared of what it would be like if she had gone through something far more serious.