November 01, 2005
Holloween 2005
Posted by aellis at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)
May 06, 2005
Angel Shrek
Posted by aellis at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2005
Popsicle Face
Posted by aellis at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2005
Accelerated Recovery
Apparently my wife's body is so happy to be rid of that mutant adrenal gland that it cranked up the healing process. She is cleared to come home today. Claudine sounds very happy on the phone this morning albeit a little tired. The one thing she kept repeating was how *different* she felt. I guess all those chemicals that the mutant gland was pumping for the last couple of years really put her out of whack.
Also on the schedule today: Take the kids to see Robots. Since Claudine wasn't supposed to come home today, I thought going to the movies would be a good distraction for the kids. But now that they've been looking forward to going, I can't not take them now. So movie first, then my mom is coming over to watch the kids while I go pick up Claudine.
Posted by aellis at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2005
Medical Woes
Sorry about not updating more often. Things are a little wacky around here. Claudine went into the hospital this morning to have her left adrenal gland removed. After it was over, I looked at her and said, "You seem *less* of a woman to me now". Meaning - ha ha - you are missing part of your body, there is less of you now. Which isn't really *that* funny. At all. Fortunately, she was still groggy from the anesthesia so I don't think she really heard it at all.
She had a really rare thing called a pheochromocytoma which I believe is Latin for thing on your adrenal gland that fucks you up. Possibly. Or not.
Anyhoo, Claudine had been having all sort of wacky 'episodes' where she would experience hot flashes, anxiety, rapid heart rate and the urge to kill the children and me (I might be making up the last one - it's possible she just wanted to kill me). Our regular doctor heard all these symptoms and said "I'm sure you don't have a pheochromocytoma - why don't you take this test and rule it out." Which turned out to be the best thing he could have done because if a pheochromocytoma goes untreated, it just keeps pumping chemicals into your body until your heart spazzes out and you die.
So this morning we went into the hospital really early and had them take the sucker out. Now she's in the ICU being monitored around the clock to make sure her blood pressure doesn't ramp up or drop to low. Because an adrenal gland containing a pheochromocytoma has the ultimate defense mechanism. When it senses that something is invading the body to remove it, it sends out all sorts of nasty, unregulated chemicals into the bloodstream. Kinda like a bee that knows if it stings, it will die. That gland pumps stuff out with its drying breath (if, in fact, glands could breath).
Claudine should be in the hospital until Sunday or Monday. And then she'll be out of work for 1 - 2 weeks. After that, she should be better than she's been in a long while.
Posted by aellis at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2005
She can clearly see she's getting older....
Although February was pretty crappy for me, there were two notable things that happened to Claudine. One was that she turned 36 at the beginning of the month. The other thing was that she had Lasik surgery. It's basically the same success story that you've heard from others: She couldn't see anything without contacts/glasses and now her eyesight is 20/15. Now I have an appointment with her doctor to see if the same can be done for me. Although my eyesight is not nearly as bad as hers was.
Posted by aellis at 06:16 PM | Comments (0)
December 27, 2004
Christmas Aftermath
Christmas has come and gone in the Ellis household. We are slowly recovering.
I think we may have spoiled the kids a bit this year. At least the boys. We went a little crazy this year and bought the boys some instruments. Jake has been talking about playing the drums while Bobby has been interested in playing the guitar. And we were dopey enought to enable them.
Posted by aellis at 03:21 PM | Comments (1)