California Vacay!

Last week Eric and I got back from a week long trip to California! One of Eric's friends from med school, Jordan, is doing his residency in Ventura, which is right on the beach! It was cool and rainy most of the time but we loved it since it is still pretty hot and sunny here in Phoenix. Another one of Eric's friends, Matt and his girlfriend Erica also came. he is doing his residency in Iowa. It was so much fun to re-unite with everyone.  Timmie, Jordan's wife, showed us the best hospitality, and we just enjoyed our time exploring California! Here are a ton of pictures:

We went to Santa Barbara for a night and this is before we went to the beach!

The beach by Timmie and Jordan's house

The first winery we went to outside of Ventura

Matt and Erica at our wine tasting

Our second wine tasting at the Ojai winery

The view from Meditation Mount

We grabbed some to-go food and ate it on the top of Meditation Mount

Drinking our new wine on the beach one night in Ventura.  The cold ocean air felt so good!

Our resort in Santa barbara...We literally felt like it was ours...we had the 2 pools and 2 hot tubs with an ocean view all to ourselves because it was a little cloudy, but the water was so warm...it was amazing!

We could have stayed there forever!

The four of us on the balcony to our room

The Malibu Winery...it was warm and sunny in Malibu!

The girls!

The winery has a ton of space where they have picnic tables...you can bring you own food in and  just hang out in the gorgeous weather! 

Loved the wine shelf and the wine bottle chandelier!

In the middle of our wine tasting: Me, Eric, Erica, Matt, Jordan. 

Love you and than you for a wonderful vacation!!! 

Love,

Megan

A Pirate Birthday

Girl pic..(these uploaded out of orders, sorry!)
Leah, Megan, Susanne, me, Gwen

Gwen and me

Eric and me before we left

Gwen and the birthday girl, Libby

:)

Jim and me

Chee Chee, Gwen, Libby, me

Susanne and me

Gwen, me, and Johnny Depp

Julie, Nick, me

Libby before cutting her cake

The amazing carrot cake!

Self pic!

The junior, his wife, and the chief.

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

Love,

Megan

Post-Op Day 6

Yesterday was an okay day.  I was feeling pretty good all day until Eric and I went to Home Depot.  I wanted to get a book on beginning to build things since I am going to build a console table. We we walking around and for some reason my left knee kind of buckled and the hyper-extended. It hurt so bad! My knees are hurting less and less when I am just resting, but because of this and the fact that they aren't as stiff I'm not as careful when I'm up so it's easier to twist or move the wrong way and then it hurts really bad :( I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to take the rest of this week off work which I'm not too happy about :( I can't wait to get back to normal and be able to work and go to the gym again! Plus I miss all of my work friends a ton!

I HAVE to get out of the house more today so I'm going to do my best not to take a pain pill so I can drive to Barnes and Noble and finish reading The Help today. This way I will be out of the house but I wont have to be walking around.

Last night we had a pretty good thunderstorm here! It was awesome. There was rain, lightning, and huge claps of thunder. Loved it! We are hoping this "monsoon season" will bring us some more of those, but nothing beats a good day-long Oklahoma thunderstorm which we miss so much!

I'll probably just do one more daily update tomorrow because that will be the one week mark, and then I'll just update as something new happens.

Happy Monday everyone!

Love,

Megan

Post-Op Day 5/ Random thoughts

Yesterday was a pretty good day all together. I woke up in lots of pain around 5 something when Eric left for work. So I hobbled downstairs and ate something so I could take my pain pills. I hate taking those things because they make me loopy and then make me feel like I have to sleep for hours. But it's definitely worth it not being in pain. I was so hesitant to start taking them because the first couple of days I didn't need any, just the Aleve/ibuprofen. But I am pretty sure this is because I wasn't doing any sort of movement at all...I was hardly walking around, and barely did any activity. Now that I am trying to do more normal activities and am really trying to push myself with my physical therapy, my knees hurt more. They hurt the most after being on my feet for about 30 minutes (I have been trying to make dinner,clean the kitchen etc), if I accidentally twist too fast, bending (Eric did some squats in front of my yesterday and it literally made me nauseated thinking about doing one myself), doing my physical therapy, and going up/ down the stairs...ohhh those stupid stairs we have. 

Anyways, after I slept for a while yesterday morning, my pain was pretty tolerable so i decided to make some cookies! They are my mom's homemade oatmeal cookies and I looooovvvvee them! i was pretty proud of myself for not eating any of them right out of the oven or just sitting in front of the TV eating the dough! I did eat 2 after dinner last night though :) After hanging around the house for a while after that, Eric was able to come home from the hospital (he's on call this weekend). I was dying to get out of the house and read my new book, The Help, and Eric had to read a bunch of journals so we went to Starbucks and hung out there for a few hours. It felt SO good to get out of the house. I showered, put on makeup and real clothes instead of lazy clothes, and even blow-dried and straightened my hair. This was a LOT of standing up without a break so my knees were pretty sore. But we sat down for the next few hours at Starbucks so they were okay. I am so done being lazy and not being able to work and hang out with people.  I am ready to be back to normal! I know it will happen sooner or later. I can't wait to read more of my book today. I am only about 1/4 of the way through and I love it already. You should all read it. I need to finish it soon because I have another book I am dying to read as well :) 

When we were at Starbucks, Eric told me that he decided he is pretty sure he wants to specialize in urologic oncology. Before now he was trying to decide between that and female, but now he is pretty sure he wants to do oncology. This means he will have to do a 1-2 year fellowship after we are finished here at Mayo. Who knows, maybe fellowship will be at Mayo Rochester? :) This also means life will be a little more difficult when Eric is working on his own as an attending.  This is because with oncology, there are many more sick patients in the hospital than with general urologic surgery, and they stay there longer for obvious reasons. They are actually sick, where most urology patients in the hospital are just there for a few days recovering from a surgery. This means more rounding at the hospital, and patients just requiring more time. I am happy with his decision, because I believe if he is happy and has job satisfaction, he will be happy when he is at home with me and our future kids. I just want him to be happy with what he is doing and I could never be so selfish to suggest he do something he isn't truly happy doing just so I would have him around a little more. 

We were also talking about how lucky we are to be in both of our jobs right now. We were talking about how we can both say with 100% honesty that we love our jobs. Of course if we could have it any way we wanted, we would have these jobs and everyone we knew here with us because we miss everyone from home SO MUCH. But not many people get to say they love their jobs and for that we are very grateful. I really do find myself stopping randomly throughout the day and thanking God for the situation we are in right now. I am also so grateful for Eric's chief Urology residents, Nick and Leah. They are SO nice to him, to me, and they give Eric tons of learning opportunities. Leah will do a fellowship after this year and then come back to Mayo as an attending, which will be Eric's chief year! 

This is random, but I have decided to learn how to build. I have been looking for a console table for a long time to go on the back wall in our living room. I can't really find any I like and if I do, they are about $1,000 or more. I found a site with step by step instructions on how to build one and i am going to try it. It doesn't sounds too hard...it's all straight cuts and everything, and the website said the hardware store usually will cut your lumber in the lengths you need it free of charge. This way I cant paint or stain it exactly how I want it. Plus the challenge of building something and then being able to look at it and know I did it all by myself sounds super awesome :) HERE is the website. It has all sorts of things to build. Lots of them are copies of things you can find at expensive stores. The console table I am making is a copy from one that is i think $1,200 at Pottery Barn! I probably wont start this for a while considering it will involve lots of bending, but as soon as my knees are ready, I'll be at Home Depot buying my materials!

Well, that's all for now. Sorry for another long-winded post but that's what you get when I can't really do much else :) Hope you are all having a nice weekend!

Love,

Megan

Knee Progress

I'm sure most of you aren't that interested in my day by day progress post-surgery, but I am extremely bored, Eric is at the hospital, and I can't leave the house because I had to take a pain pill a while ago. So, here you go :)

TUESDAY- Surgery Day

I got to the hospital at 10:30 in the morning.  My good friend/twin Jodi brought me on her way in to work AND she brought me a big bag of movies that I have been putting to good use this week! :) She's so sweet! I got to the waiting room and texted Kassie, my pre-op nurse (employees get to pick their whole entire staff if they have to have surgery...pretty cool). She said she had a big hamburger waiting for me, and promised she wouldn't tell anesthesia I ate after midnight :) (I really didn't eat after midnight, don't worry). I only had to wait in the waiting room for about 15 minutes before they got me in my room and went over all of the paperwork, got my IV started, and got me all prepped.  After that, my anesthesiologist, Dr. Seamans came in and talked to me, and let me know I still had about 3 hours to wait. Kassie offered me some versed, a medicine that calms you down and makes you sleepy.  I didn't think I needed it but after an hour of watching TV and the clock, and having to get up to pee (I seriously peed 4 times before surgery... nerves I guess because I know I was dehydrated), Kassie convinced me the versed was a good idea. She gave me the first milligram then informed me she hates wasting such good meds so she would be glad to give me the other milligram later :) I fell fast asleep and lots of time passed, and before I knew it Dr. Clarke came in to inform me we were only about 30 minutes away from taking me back. I got the other milligram of versed from Kassie.  About 45 minutes later, Ellen, my CRNA and Allison, my OR nurse came to get me to take me to the OR. Allison used to work with the Urology team before she switched to ortho, so Eric and I both know her and she is the best! Ellen and Allsion wheeled me back to the OR, and I remember talking about my weird Hoffa's disease and how they didn't even know we had fat pads in our knees.  Then I remember switching from my stretcher to the OR table, and seeing Josh, Dr. Clarke's PA who we go to church with. I also remember seeing the syringes hooked up to the 3 ports in my IV tubing. Ellen must have pushed the big one full of Propofol after that because I don't remember anything from that point on. I thought I would remember being wheeled into PACU, being hooked up to all of the monitors and stuff, but the next thing I remember is waking up seeing Sarah, my PACU nurse charting on the computer. I think I asked her if she was my nurse. I just remember being SO tired I could hardly keep my eyes open. I kept de-satting (My oxygen percentage would go down) to 88%. I remember hearing the alarms and then focusing on taking good deep breaths but then it would happen again. I was so tired I couldn't take enough deep breaths. I remember Jamie, one of our team leads coming over to see me and she said, "Are you really at 88% right now?!" haha. Then I think I asked her if I said anything stupid, lol ...she said I would have to ask Sarah but she didn't think I did. Then I remember Katie coming over and showing me she finally changed her name on her name tag (she got married recently) and she was so excited. I remember trying and trying to wake up because the physical therapists left at 7:00 and I was so scared I was going to miss them. I forced myself up with physical therapy and I felt awful. Awful to the point of tears.  Like I was going to pass out, and nauseated. Like, not just nauseated in my stomach but all over my whole body.  Luckily Becky and Jodi (2 of the girls I worked with at Good Sam) were there to help me while Sarah was on a break I had to pee so I made it to the bathroom but then had to get back in bed immediately. I got compazine and didn't feel much better. probably because it was a pill and not IV. Then I finally got my vistaril. It is a shot it your muscle. It took care of my nausea almost immediately but made me even more sleepy. Eric said he and Dr. Clarke were talking to me and I slept through everything they were saying. Then suddenly i woke up and felt pretty good. No more nausea and I felt like I should take full advantage of this opportunity to get out of the PACU and go home. Eric went and picked up my meds at the pharmacy, and Sarah and Brittany wheeled me out/carried my crutches and cane lol. I could barely keep my eyes open in the car, and as soon as we got home, it was all all I could do to make it to the couch without falling asleep. I slept for 2 hours at home before Eric woke me up to tell me he was going to bed (I couldn't walk up stairs so I slept on the couch and he slept in our bedroom). I slept the whole night on the couch without waking up at all.

WEDNESDAY- Post-op Day 1

Eric woke me up at 5 something to tell me he was leaving for work.  I slept until about noon. Then I thought I should probably get up. I tried to make it to the bathroom but the whole dizzy/nausea all over my body/pass out feeling came on so strong I couldn't make it. I plopped back on to the couch and slept another 2 hours. I tried to get up again because I was starving (hadn't eaten anything since the day before surgery except some shortbread cookies before my compazine pill). I managed to heat up and Eggo waffle but before I could eat it I thought I was going to pass out again. I was so hungry and wanted the waffle so bad, I threw it to the couch from the kitchen, hobbled as fast as I could back to the couch and went back to sleep. When I woke up I ate the now cold waffle. Finally after this nap I was able to get up with less of the pass out feeling.  When Eric got home we walked around our condo complex and it was awful. I was nauseated, my knees we hurting, and it was so hot outside. Then we made a trip to Sonic to get a drink and to QT to get some Gatorade and granola bars so  I could have some fluids/snacks handy if I still felt like this the next morning. This night Eric carried me up stairs and I was able to sleep in our bed!

THURSDAY- Post-Op Day 2

Before Eric left for work we walked about the condo complex again. I got nauseated and dizzy and wanted to quit but Eric wan't allowing that! He said that nausea sucks but it won't hurt my knees or cause any damage. I guess this is what comes with working in medicine...we see people go through things MUCH worse than knee scopes every day so I know i shouldn't get much sympathy....but it still felt horrible! I went back to sleep for a few hours then when I woke up I felt pretty good. I drove to the gym (a 30 second drive thank goodness), and did 10 minutes on the stationary bike. i was supposed to do this on Wednesday but there was NO way. I would have passed out I know it. I walked into the gym and people stared at me the whole time. I know i looked pretty funny. I still have "YES" written on both knees from where Dr. Clarke marked my surgical sites. The bike was going so slow, it wasn't even on! But I did it. When I got home I did my PT exercises then iced my knees and I was so tired. I rested a while and then I even made spaghetti for Eric and me for dinner. After this I was hurting pretty bad and even had to take a pain pill. I was upset I had to take a pain pill because before this I was just treating my pain with round-the-clock Aleve, but I guess my "active" day was a lot for my knees to take. I slept very well that night though!

FRIDAY- Post-Op Day 3

I woke up feeling good this day so I got up, showered, and got dressed right away. I did my PT exercises, then decided  I wanted to make oatmeal cookies. I went to the Fry's by our house to get the ingredients. I was walking SO slow and again I got several stares. After walking around the store for about 30 minutes, I was finally ready to check out. The lady at the check out asked why I was walking so slow and I explained to her i had surgery on both my knees 3 days ago. She acted like she felt really bad for me and she helped me get my items onto the conveyor belt and basically did everything for me. When I got home from the store, I was hurting the worst I had hurt yet, so I took 2 pain pills and fell asleep. Then when I woke up I felt pretty groggy/nauseated, and felt like this the rest of last night. I was able to do my PT again, but it was pretty painful. Eric and I had dinner, he cleaned up the kitchen which was a mess, then we went to bed. 

Thats it so far! I have my first official physical therapy session on Wednesday. I'm not looking forward to it because I know it will hurt. But I am really looking forward to getting back to work and being able to do normal activities because I am SO SO SO bored! I'm also looking forward to finding out if the surgery worked and if it took care of my knee pain. I'm hoping and praying to be able to do a triathlon in the fall!

Thanks so much to all of my co-workers that put up with me on Tuesday, and for all of the offers to drive me home if Eric wasn't able to, and to stop by if I needed anything at home. And for all of the sweet and encouraging texts and facebook messages from everyone. they are much appreciated! I'll update again later...hope you all have a great weekend!

Love,

Megan

The weirdest day.

What a weird day today was...well mostly this morning.  Yesterday I wasn't feeling great.  Eric and I went to the Pre-Op/PACU luau last night.  We didn't stay long, but when we got home i was feeling worse and just wanted to go to bed. I took a benadryl because my nose was stopped up and I cannot sleep with my nose stopped up. i usually just take half of a pill because they make me so groggy, but for some reason I didn't even think about it and just swallowed the whole thing. It didn't take me long to fall asleep. I'm not sure exactly what time it was, but it was a little before Eric's alarm went off, when I woke up in SO much pain...in my eyes....what? I had no idea why they would be hurting so bad. Since I was so groggy from the benadryl, I was able to fall half asleep again...until...beep.....beep....BEEP. So loud, about every 30 seconds.  I was still groggy and so confused at what was beeping. Eric was already up by this time and getting ready for work, so I knew it wasn't an alarm clock.  When he was telling me goodbye, I asked him what was beeping and he said it was one of the smoke detectors. I asked him if there was anything I could do to make it stop and he said to take the battery out.  By this point my eyes were on FIRE. Like, I cannot think of many things I have gone through that have been more painful. It was awful! And my body was so confused because it wanted to sleep so bad but my eyes hurting and the beeping wouldn't let it. So I get up (it was about 5:45) and go to take the battery out of the smoke detector when I see that Eric already did that before he left for work. I didn't know what to do so I googled "how to make a smoke detector stop beeping".  It took me about 5 minutes to even type in the search because the light on the computer hurt my eyes so bad. What I learned from my google search: if a smoke detector is beeping and you take the battery out, it will beep more frequently. One of the suggestions on the site was to hold down the "test" button on the detector and it will reset it. So I tried this, and then another smoke detector starts beeping!!!!!! I could not believe this. I finally decided I was going to have to change the batteries. It took me so long to come to this conclusion because: 1. I knew we didn't have any 9 volt batteries in the house and 2. I couldn't fathom driving anywhere to get any...i could barely keep my eyes open. So I put my glasses on, and realize it is blurry. I look at my eyes and notice my eyes are red in a perfectly round circle, just the size of my contacts. I slept in my contacts. I NEVER do this. My eyes are pretty sensitive and I usually can't wait to take them out. But even if I do sleep in them, it never makes them hurt this bad. I think with taking the benadryl, it just dried my eyes out SO bad. I take out my contacts and i figure my eyes will start to feel better now so I get in the car to head to Home Depot (I figured if I was making a trip I might as well go there to pick up the paint we picked out for our living room/kitchen). When I was in the middle of the store at the paint counter I literally had to stop talking to the man and close my eyes. they were hurting so bad. The poor man I think thought I was a seriously unstable person and didn't really know what to do when I looked like I was crying at the paint counter. Haha! Well I got through that, then started walking to find the batteries. When I see a lady who works there, I ask her through barely open eyes where the batteries were.  She looked at me like I was nuts and it took me a few long seconds to notice the huge wall of batteries right behind her. Wow. When I was driving the 2 miles home from Home Depot, I thought I might go blind. It was a little after 7:00 am and the sun was SO bright. It was making my eyes hurt so bad i couldn't keep them open. Luckily I hit a red light and was able to close them for enough time to make it home. I honestly can't believe I didn't get in a wreck. Well I get home and finally fixed the two smoke detectors. Finally there was silence and my groggy body could go back to sleep. But no. My eyes were so painful I was actually crying...like writhing in pain.I fumble around for my eye drops I got from the doctor when I had a corneal abrasion and thought those would help...but the bottle was empty! Then I decided to just use the steroid drops. Those things stung my eyes like you wouldn't believe! I couldn't take it any more...I had come to my last resort. i open up my medicine cabinet and found the Lortab I had gotten from my car wreck. I cut one in half and took it. Now, I am NOT a pill popper. I hate taking pain medicine. After my car wreck I only took ONE of those pills.  I didn't even care though. I needed relief. The half Lortab finally kicked in and at least took the edge off so I could keep my eyes closed without writhing in pain.  I slept until 11:45.  My eyes still hurt but not as bad and I didn't want to take anything else. I still feel groggy from the benadryl and the Lortab, but hopefully tonight I will be able to sleep it off.  It was such a weird day!

I hope you all had a not-so-weird day today :)

I will post pictures of our weekend soon!

Love,

Megan

Ocker Wedding

I realize this is really late...Sorry!

Over Memorial Day weekend we went to Dallas for Jimmy and Nicole's wedding.  It was so much fun! it was like a mini vacation, and we actually got to spend the whole weekend together, which was much needed. We also got to see a lot of our good friends from home which was so great. We miss them so much! It was especially great to see the Bentons :). Nicole looked beautiful and Jimmy was on top of the world. it was so great to be a part of their special weekend and I know they will have such a happy marriage. Congrats to the both of you. We love you!

That's us!

Rehearsal Dinner 

Dark, but Eric giving his awesome groomsman speech that started out with, "Well, I left the breast pump at home tonight..." Haha, you had to be there.

With the soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Ocker!

Hanging out at the Ritz in Dallas

At the ceremony...it was so beautiful!

All the groomsmen...can you spot my hubby? :)

Sweet Aimee! I just love you so so so much!

My love!

Talking with the GORGEOUS bride!

With the girls! Could Nicole look any more stunning?!

All the guys with the groom

Couples

With the wonderful Bentons

Aims and me with the groom

Eric and Jimmy on the dance floor!

The happy couple!

I love weddings! they remind me of the day I got to marry my best friend, and that was the best day ever :)

Love,

Mrs. Wise