Mud Mountain

Sunday was the day before my big surgery. I was on a liquid diet in addition to having to take the bowel prep solution that would clean me out. On bowel prep days (I've had many due to needing colonoscopies every couple of years) I am grumpy and best left alone.  So I mainly stayed upstairs.

My mom flew in Sunday morning to be here to help take care of the kids while I am in the hospital (dad, just back from a trip to Big Bend in Texas with my brother would come on Tuesday).

The kids were also scheduled for a flu shot that afternoon, and on the way back, Zac let them get out and play on the big dirt hill near a construction site at the end of the neighborhood. We'd been driving by it for a long time, and today they finally got to see things from the summit.

The rest of the day they just played, while I emptied my poor diseased colon for the last time ever.

Simon's tomato

Our neighbors gave us a tomato plant at the beginning of summer. Simon and Alice kept a close eye on the plant as it slowly grew and produced one green tomato. Simon would check on the tomato every morning to see if it was ripe yet.  And today was the day he finally got to pick his red tomato. He was so happy!

Farewell, frittata!

Today was the last day I would eat solid food with my colon intact. Tomorrow I would be on a clear liquid diet to prep for the surgery. Since June 15th I've been on a restrictive diet in an attempt to curb this disease by eliminating refined sugar, dairy, grains, gluten, certain other carbohydrates like potatoes, and all processed foods. To avoid spending my entire day in the bathroom, I also only ate cooked vegetables and eliminated most fruits except applesauce and  bananas.

After nearly starving to death by being on the strictest version of the diet for the initial 20 days, I added back in rice and oatmeal. But still, I suffered. No bread, no pasta, making everything from scratch...it was stressful, time-consuming, and not very tasty. Ultimately, it wasn't enough (hence the surgery). But I've kept it up until the very end, figuring that although it wasn't leading to remission, it was at least keeping the diarrhea in check and enabling me to make it through the work day.

For several months, I had eggs for breakfast. I did this because my blood tests consistently showed I was really low on albumin, which was what was causing my legs to swell up all the time. I read that egg whites had a lot of albumin, so every morning I ate eggs (plus I was encouraged by my doctors to eat as much protein as possible). I used to hate eggs, but about three years ago I came around to liking them. After months of my homemade breakfast frittata (with ground turkey, spinach, cheese, and sweet peppers), I do not want to eat eggs again for a long time.

The good news is that after the surgery, I should be able to eat almost anything again.  I can't wait!

Here I am, skinny at about 110 lbs. Much of my hair fell out, so I got a shorter haircut so it wouldn't be long and and stringy. I'm smiling, but I'm so tired.

I took this picture of the kids to keep on my phone while I was in the hospital, to motivate me to get released as soon as possible.

I got this pre-surgery card from a friend at work whose son has my same disease.

Ring Toss

Simon is getting pretty good with the discs.

My kids in my classroom

On Friday I needed to go in to school to access my materials in order to finalize sub plans, but the kids' school was closed again.  So I brought them with me.  They did pretty well, and my friend Amy, who was also at school working on break (the life of teachers) offered to take them outside for "recess" after lunch. It worked out well, so they had a chance to burn off some energy and I could work without interruptions.

Since I'm going to be out for about six weeks to recover from surgery, my school hired a former English teacher (and parent of a student at our school) to sub for me the whole time. She'll be teaching my 9th graders To Kill a Mockingbird and my 10th graders Macbeth. I would be more sad about missing so much school, but I am so exhausted and miserable that I just don't care. I haven't been a very good teacher this year since, due to my illness, I have no energy or patience, two things you need a lot of as a teacher. And of course, this is the year I have very challenging classes.  So, weirdly, I'm looking forward to the surgery not only to provide relief from this disease, but also so I can just lay around and de-stress while recovering and not have to deal with the students. I'm sure once I'm feeling better I will not have such a negative attitude and will not find them so challenging.

Bones & Volcanoes: Fall Break

Thursday and Friday were my fall break from school, and I was looking forward to having two days to myself to get caught up on everything and make some sub plans before my surgery. However, the school system got spooked by Hurricane Michael and cancelled school on Thursday. It just rained. I did enjoy spending the day with the kids.  They did a good job keeping busy in the house.

Alice made some additions to the Halloween cards Nelson & Stana sent.

Then they played with Mr. Bones in terrifying ways.

They did some work at the art table.

And Simon really wanted to do the volcano.

Alice gives Simon a hairdo

Alice convinced Simon to let her brush his hair. With a toothbrush.

Once I realized what she was doing, I convinced her an actual comb would be more effective.

Grandparent Lunch with Linda

Alice's school had a special lunch where kids could invite their grandparents, or, as the form said, their adopted grandparents. Since all the grandparents live too far away to come for lunch, I told Alice she could invite our neighbor, Linda, who has kindly taken an interest in our kids and befriended Alice. Linda was delighted to be invited and sent me these pictures.

Radioactive Cat

drawn by Alice

Snakes Alive! (Umstead)

Zac took the kids to Umstead today, to hike down to the river and climb on the rocks.  It looks like they also saw a deer and found a lot of snakes!

Viewing a deer in the woods

Our friends Kate and Rob got Alice started on the idea of pretending to be a statue when standing on a stump. The tradition continues, even although they abandoned us and moved to Colorado.

Snakes!

  

It looks like they had a fun day. (This blog will be more interesting once I can actually go on the adventures again. Hopefully the surgery will make that possible again.)

Simon's buildings

He often takes an idea or building method and repeats it a lot, sometimes with slight variations.

Playdate with Donovan

Simon had an epic playdate with Donovan today. They started at the Home Depot workshop. Then they went to a park. Finding it insufficient, they then went to another park. It looks like they had a lot of fun.

Morning peace

This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find both kids in Simon's room, quietly entertaining themselves. Simon was experimenting with mixed media building (blocks and books), while Alice was reading a scary Halloween book (or maybe just looking at the pictures).

Tower Smash

This morning I challenged Simon to try and build a tower taller than himself.

He succeeded!

And then he smashed it.

Another biting incident

Alice claims it was an accident.

Surgery scheduled!

I went to UNC hospital this morning to meet with the surgeon (Dr. Sadiq) recommended by my GI doctor. I wasn't sure what would happen at the appointment. My doctor had been floating the idea of surgery (removing my diseased colon) for a while but said there was still one more drug I could try.  Seeing as how all the other drugs had failed to bring me any closer to remission, I was really hoping to just get my colon removed and be done with this whole bloody business. But I wasn't sure what the surgeon would say--if he would say I should try more drugs first, or make me wait to gain weight or if he was fully booked for months.  I really had no idea.

What happened was both surgeons (I think one was a resident) unequivocally said I should have my colon removed.  They scheduled the surgery right then (for Oct 15) and even had the ostomy nurse come in and mark the spot where my stoma would be.

It all happened so fast. I wasn't expecting to leave the appointment with surgery scheduled for less than two weeks later.  But I'm happy it happened this way. I'm not sure how it will be having the ostomy bag, but at this point I am so miserable and so desperate for relief, that I can deal with anything if it means less suffering.

I'm super skinny but I have a huge bloated belly making me look pregnant. Just one of the many fun things from this disease.

Sleeping Simon

Simon fell asleep with his light on, so when I went in to turn it off, I couldn't resist capturing his sweet slumber.