Surgery, love and job loss

S1 had surgery this week. He has been having problems for YEARS with his sinuses and has been telling everyone that he couldn't breathe at all out of his LEFT nostril. **

**This is as far as I got with this post that I started WEEKSago...those of you that know me on Fbook, have heard some of this. I can't believe how long it has been since I have come here and bitched about something.

The story gets much more interesting. To continue......he ended up having a golf ball removed from his RIGHT sinus. Okay, it wasn't really a golf ball, but the whateveritwas was the same size. It took about an hour and a half with teensy little instruments shoved up his nose and into the sinus to remove it. They doctor casually said while S1 was signing the consent, that they are working very closely to the brain and eyes during this procedure and there was always the chance that one of them could be damaged. Nice.

So if you noticed, I said he was having trouble for years with the left side, but the whateveritwas was on the right. Poor kid. The whateveritis took up the ENTIRE sinus cavity so no air was being exchanged there......and on the left side, his airway was as thin as a hair. I can only imagine how smart he would be if his brain had actually been getting oxygen all these years. We then found out that to correct the thin airway they had to break his nose. Lovely.

So, we were a week out...all was good...then the panicked phone call came. He woke up on day 7, rolled over and started gushing blood out of his nose. Now, S1 has a very low panic threshold when it comes to medical things so I didn't panic until I heard his girlfriend in the background talking about the amount of blood. It was obviously time for a trip to the hospital.

They went to the car, but we had an ice storm and the car was frozen. Did you know that panicking when you are bleeding makes you bleed more? Now you do. It became obvious that 9-1-1 needed to be called. They came, transported to podunk general in S1's town. The ER couldn't stop the bleeding so they called the surgeon (40 miles away) to see what they should do. His order was to get him back in the ambulance and bring him to realhospital where the surgery had been done.

Needless to say I was at the hospital before the ambulance arrived. S1 looked like hell when he arrived and my heart rocketed up to my throat. It doesn't matter how old your kid is, he is still your kid. They got him a room and we waited. We waited for him to quit bleeding, then when he did quit bleeding we waited for it to stay quit, or whatever you call it.

He was in for 4 nights. 4 very long nights. Not because of him, he was doing great. His room mate was a drug seeking, loud, demanding SOB. The nurses were so patient with this guy but at one point even they were done with him and told him he was cut off from his drugs. The one drawback, is the only time he was quiet was when he was stoned, so we were in for more obnoxiousness.

So S1 was discharged, and because this had scared the shit out of him, and the surgeon said no work for a week, he came home instead of going to his apartment. I have loved having him here, but this is the part we come to the too much cooking and laundry. You see, his girlfriend is here too. She is wonderful, we have grown to love her, but I have also learned that she really doesn't get the concept of day to day things. She is very smart, but not too bright. Last night she ate late and didn't bother to put the milk, burgers, cheese etc in the fridge before she went to bed. I got up this morning and they were all on the kitchen counter. I have seen a little pattern developing here. Lessons in housekeeping will be given but I will be so slick about it, she won't even know. She will wake up one day and it will all be in her head.

While S1 was recuping at home he asked me how to tell if a diamond is a good one. HUH??? Oh shit, I knew where this was leading. So, we sat and talked about size vs quality vs price, picking it out ahead or asking then letting her pick it, and I really didn't want to say too much. I don't want it to come back and bite me in the ass, so I gave him several answers and told him to pick one. He has to save a bit more (he is a cash and carry kind of guy) but he is ready. SHE IS THE ONE. He is trying to think of a good place/way to ask her....romantic but not uncomfortable...memorable but not over the top.

Thankfully we love her (except for the lack of common sense in the home area) and it will be a good match (I hope). For her birthday we went out to dinner with her dad, brother, and grandparents and had a blast. I am sure the waiter hated us, and the 6 tables surrounding us were hanging on every word BigD and BigE (same line of work so there was a lot of shop talk going on) were saying. I am sure we looked like a motley bunch from I.rish to Afri.can Ameri.can with skin tones from pale as a marshmallow, to dark as the night and none of us stopped talking for a minute. I'm gonna like these people :-)

So, the announcement was made public on Tuesday at work.....doc is closing his office and joining a group. So, where does that leave me you ask?? Who the hell knows. He said we will be offered positions at the (established with full staff) group, but they may or may not be: our same position, our same pay-scale, our same location..blah, blah, blah. So with gas hovering around $3.50 a gallon, none of the satellite offices would make sense unless I would get a significant bump in pay. Since I still have my business (though it is swirling down the proverbial drain with changes in healthcare) I don't want a typical 9-5 M-F job. Not because I think I am too good for that, just because I do have commitments to the remaining clients I have to still complete their work.

In a perfect world I would snag new clients and be able to work from home and only shower when necessary. My second choice would be to sleep with one of the practice partners and take pictures, and tell him that if I didn't get to stay in the local office, with a raise, work M-F but only from 7-12, the wife would get the shots of my glorious self with her cheating SOB husband. Third I could go out and try to find a "real" job, but that's too much work.

The timing of this really couldn't be worse either. I am in the middle of redecorating two bedrooms and am only 1/2 way done. I have to finish because BigD has a big-wig muckety muck coming to town in May and he (and forgodssake, I just found out his wife) will be staying here. If it was just the guy I wouldn't be as stressed. But you all know that we women are judgmental bitches so things really have to look nice or I could be featured on a reality show...a cross between h.oarders and old whiny people. (Big-wig has a relative in that production arena).

So kids....that is a brief update on what is happening at chez OHN. There are many more things I will update, but right now I have to go figure out how to finish two bedrooms with things I find on peoples tree lawns, in the dark, the night before trash day.