Realization…

 I prefer to read actual real books that I hold in my hands and have to flip pages. But I also realize the value and practicality of ebooks. I have an old e-reader that is probably horridly obsolete, but I generally just download books from the library to read on my phone. 

I struggle to read books on my phone. 

Why is this? 

I *think* it’s because I’ve been conditioned not to stare at my phone for long periods of time. So I only read a page or two before I get squirrelly and have to do something else.

Not the case with a real book. I will stare at these pieces of dead tree, with their little black markings, and hallucinate vividly for hours. And If I hear someone coming to interrupt me (generally for some absurd reason like requiring food or making sure I’m still alive) I will rush into the bathroom, book in hand to continue reading in peace. 

So… basically… another one of those self-realized quirks

But it also sounds like I’m describing an addiction. 

So I just want to clarify… I’m not addicted to reading so much as I am addicted to books.

3 Days Post-Surgery Post

 After crazy days of stress and pre-surgery, it's kinda nice to slow down and say that there really hasn't been much to post about. Dom came out of surgery and is doing his best to recover. He was able to be moved out of ICU on Wednesday as planned, and came to the regular pediatric cardiac ward. We really lucked out and got a private room (prior to this stay we had always been in semi-private aka one roommate on the ward), which has made the choice to stay overnight with Dom super easy. Anywhoo, Dom slept a lot of Wednesday because moving units is exhausting. Not only did he kinda get jostled around while physically moving him to a new unit, but then there are [what seems like] a million people that need to meet him and us because they are all part of his care team and they all need to get to know him asap so they can provide the best care... but just makes for a very busy day. The night was also a struggle, between Dominic waking up repeatedly and his nurses needing to check vitals and give medication throughout the night, neither of us slept well.

Thursday morning, Roland came over from the hotel to be there for rounds (only one parent is allowed to stay overnight) and shortly before he arrived the team took out Dominic's main chest drainage tube. The tube was not really draining much anymore, plus he still had the smaller tube, and they also thought it would make Dominic more comfortable. I must say that I had to agree after the fact, because Dominic really just slept most of the day on Thursday. I myself also went back to the hotel after rounds (when the doctors, nurses, and other parties involved in Dom's care, like physio, nutrition, etc meet with us to talk about his plan moving forward from that day) , did some laundry and had a super hard crash nap. But definitely not a bad day. Although Dom himself was super tired a lot of positive things were coming back about his recovery. Numbers were coming back positive, his colour was good, drainages low... he just needed to get back to being himself.

Thursday night was a much better sleep for both of us and Dominic woke up in the morning seeming far more like himself. I even got a smile out of him! His other drainage tube was removed as were 2 of his IV lines (still has 1 more), he went for another couple assessments today, a chest x-ray and a lung profusion scan, both came back with happy results and the first serious talks of being discharged, possibly over the weekend, took place. Dom was awake for much more of the day and watched Peppa Pig on his iPad A LOT. He was also asking for cuddles with his mamma, which were dearly missed and I was happy to oblige. 

It seems strange to be talking about coming home already after Dominic just had MAJOR heart surgery, but it's incredible how quickly he's recovered. If someone told me a week ago that we would only be in Edmonton for only ONE WEEK start to finish, I would have called them crazy, but now here we are with the distinct possibility we could be on our way home soon. Part of me feels like I should be nervous about bringing him home already, but I'm really not. Thankfully I have the time off to help him recover and we do have a fantastic Cardiology Team back in Saskatoon if we need any help. I feel like we've got this!

So keep your fingers crossed for us! We may be home within the next couple days!

Surgery Day

 These days are always the toughest. As much as we are prepared for them, and know it's for the best, and know he is/will be in the best, most capable hands, there is still a lot of stress

Thankfully, Dom and I both got good sleeps last night (Not so much for Roland, he tends to be a big ball of stress at times like these). Dom was bright eyed and bushy tailed before my alarm went off, which frankly, wasn't ideal. It's better when he sleeps right up until it's time to get ready, then he's distracted by getting ready and we're out the door before he realizes he's hungry. But what did he ask for as soon as he realized I was awake this morning? Breakfast. 🙄😅 So we distracted him with some water (allowed until we left for the hospital) until we were ready to go.

Dom was a total rockstar. Thankfully, we only needed to be to the admission unit 50 minutes before his surgery. So the wait wasn't too long and Dom was cool with it. Once we were on our way to the OR, he rode on the stretcher without issue and just made sure he knew where Roland and I were at all times. I got to walk him directly into the OR and he was so calm the whole time. This little man amazes me. 

About 4 hours after we sent him to the OR, we were notified he was out of surgery and his surgeon came and talked to us and told us that everything went as expected, there were no complications and everything looked great! SUCH a relief to hear those glorious words.

About an hour after that we were able to go see him in his room in the ICU, he was still asleep but he looked great. In true Dom fashion, as soon as he did wake up, he immediately tried to sit up in bed. However, the medical prefer to take things a bit slow after Open Heart Surgery (go figure), so he needed to be a bit sedated until his breathing tube could be removed but Dom kept sitting up as soon as he was even slightly awake, SO what could they do? Moved up the time to extubate him! And he rocked it. No going back. Also in true Dom fashion, was asking for drinks. Once again, staff were hesitant, but we gave it a try by just getting sponges wet and letting him suck the moisture off and he took about 60ml that way. Crushing it! I mean... he did have a little bit of a setback later when we did the same thing again and he threw up... but I have it on good authority that it happens to pretty much everyone on "anesthetic tummy". So I'm taking it in stride.

I've been told he's been slated to move off of ICU tomorrow assuming he has no setbacks and there is room on the cardiac recovery floor. So here's hoping!

All around good day... still stressful and exhausting, but it couldn't have gone better. :) 

Pre-op Day!

 So we're back in Edmonton, checked in to the same hotel we stayed in last time, got settled last night, and then we were off to Dominic's Pre-admission Clinic today.

Not gunna lie, it was a long, tedious day. Dom's not a big fan of long days. It also helps if he gets to move around frequently, but no such luck today. If anyone had asked (which they didn't, not that they should have, they don't have time for that) having him move back and forth from the preadmission area would have helped bit, but they are far too efficient for that. We sat in Preadmission from about 7:00am until 10:00am meeting with multiple people that have some interaction with Dominic throughout his stay at the hospital. His Surgeon, Fellowship Students, an Anesthesiologist, Physiotherapist, a lady from a program called Child Life... then procedures... blood work was done in the clinic so he was grouchy for that one, chest X-ray (he was a champ for, probably because he finally got to see a different room), he was a monster for his Echocardiogram, because he again had to sit still, plus it was getting close to lunch (we're still functioning on Saskatoon time, so 11am was more like noon and Dommers gets HANGRY), then his EKG and I could not wait to get the eff outta dodge. 

But we are now all ready for tomorrow! We got to keep our First Case spot, which means we have to be at the hospital at 6:30am for them to come get him at about 7:20. This is the best scenario, in my opinion. Dom isn't allowed to eat anything after midnight and can only have clear fluids in the morning, so the less time he spends hungry the better it is for everyone (see the above HANGRY comment).

Surgery is said to take about 4 hours from when we leave him to when we can see him again, but sometimes things take longer. I'll update a full post later in the day (hopefully).

Wish us luck! Keep sending those good vibes!

Here we go again...

 Hello...

So... this is kinda awkward...

I keep saying I'll be back. And I have great intentions of being back, but at one point or another I end up losing my drive, or life gets too busy, or I don't feel strongly enough to do a post about anything... things like that.

I honestly thought that Covid would give me the time to read and get back into the blog groove... but NOPE!

However...

It's now the time again that we will be heading to Edmonton to replace the conduit that Dom had put in when he was born. He has now outgrown his baby one and we're going to get a bigger one put in for my strong boy (If this sounds like I'm downplaying it to make it seem like it's just switching out a lego part, I am... I'm in a bit of denial and I have already cried and I'm freaking out a bit... so just let me live in this 'it's not a huge major open heart surgery' bubble for just a bit longer)

I did feel that posting on the blog during Dominic's tough times was very theraputic, as well as functional in letting everyone know what was going on with him. I think the biggest traffic I ever got on my blog was when Dom was first born and we were in Edmonton for his heart surgery, so it's a good way for people to know what's happening, without being concerned about ASKING what's happening with him. Not that I mind! Ask away! But sometimes... it's just easier. 

Dominic's surgery is on MARCH 8, 2022. He will have his pre-op assessments done the day before, so we will be heading out on Sunday to get to Edmonton. 

Wish us luck!!

The Lake House

Living on her family’s idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure…One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined.

Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as an author. Theo’s case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather’s house in Cornwall. While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old estate—now crumbling and covered with vines, clearly abandoned long ago. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone...yet more present than ever.  

~*~

I'm not really much of a mystery fan, but I really enjoyed this one. I don't even know if it is officially classified as a mystery, but it definitely has some mystery novel elements to it. Even just the most basic one of there being something that is being worked towards being solved almost the entire book.

I feel that Morton did some amazing character development within this novel and I would even go as far as to say it is probably one of the greatest strengths of this book. I really did feel like I knew these characters, even to the point that when they suggested certain scenarios about what may have happened, and it picks so-and-so as responsible, I would know pretty accurately if the theory was correct or not.

I found I was a pretty good audience for this book as I didn't get ahead of the big reveals or see any of the plot twists coming until just before they happen. I feel I reacted when I was supposed to react, which I think makes it a pretty good novel for me. Although sometimes it makes me feel smarter than I am if I beat the author to the reveal, more often than not it just leads me to being disappointed in the book. 

I also felt pretty attracted to a theme (I may have created in my own mind) in the novel about the lengths that parents will go to to protect their children. There are plenty of kids in this book and we get to know them throughout different stages of their lives, all of them have very different relationships with their parents and grandparents. The lengths these parents go to protect their children (or not protect them) from a variety of potentially harmful situations is enlightening. I don't want to say too much about this, because it starts to get into spoiler territory, but I will say that it was a very prevalent and enticing element, and a theme I was very interested in from the beginning of the novel to the end. 

Solid recommend from me on this one!

I've Got A Bunch Coming!

 You may have noticed (or maybe not, I'm not that big of a deal) that I've been on a little bit of a hiatus again. But not to worry! I have not lost my mojo again!

I was fortunate enough this year to get a FULL MONTH of Lake time in July. The new teaching job I have guarantees me 4 consecutive weeks in the summer off if I want them. (Just to clarify this statement, we get a number of "unassigned days" for the school year, we work the same number of days during the school year as regular teachers, but we can take our holidays whenever we want. So whereas a teacher in the regular school system has very structured and predetermined days off, we can take ours whenever we want because our school doesn't have Easter break, Christmas break, etc. So if you don't want a big chunk of time off in the summer, you are welcome to take more time off in December, or March or you could take off a day every week... it's totally up to you) So I was very happy to get back into my reading groove. I haven't read three books in a month for YEARS because I wasn't authorized to do so by my two miniature, home made bosses. But now that the bosses are a little older, I can often squeak in a bit of reading time. This made me feel SO MUCH better about myself as a parent and the role modelling I'm doing for my kids. I am totally guilty of just sitting, staring at my phone for hours, playing games or being on social media or whatever. I feel like a better parent by just letting my kids see me reading instead... Anywhoo... I digress...

As I mentioned previously, I managed to finish THREE books this summer when I had limited internet access, and I have started blog posts for all of them, but with getting back into the groove of work, I have yet to complete them. But they are coming! Stay Tuned! I hope to have the first one up next week. It's almost done, but I need to tweak it a bit, and I'm not going to have time this weekend. 

Thanks for reading and getting back into reading my blog after I've been so unreliable! You [sir or lady], are the best!