Valve Replacement

On April 3rd at 11a Brian will be heading to the Hospital for open heart surgery to have his defective Aortic valve replaced. We had a good long talk with the surgeon today. It seems he feels that the surgery is not urgent but this is a good time to get it done. He is not likely to put it off for that much longer anyway. He will not be able to lift anything over 10 lbs for 8 weeks. Wow, that is a long time. The kids are going to have big adjustment with this. He also won't be able to drive for 4 weeks. He will probably be in the hospital for 3-5 days. I hope closer to the 3 days. He is also going to have an oblation to eliminate his A-fib. The whole surgery is going to take 4 hours. This is just a little crazy. He is worried but glad to a least have a date now and know for sure what is going to happen. Brian has decided with a little encouragement from me to go with the biologic heart valve. He could get a mechanical valve that would like last forever but he would need anticoagulants forever too and the risk of stroke or excessive bleeding is 1-2 percent a year. He does not have to worry about the biologic valve for about 15 years may be more. Also the surgeon did not seem too worried about doing another surgery down the line. He could still change to a mechanical valve at that time.

So I did weigh-in today. Yea!!!! 160 lbs. I get to use my Starbucks Gift cards this weekend. Ok, 150 and 140 here I come. I need to get running this week. I need to look at my 150 reward. I forgot what it is.

Wednesday Weigh in

So Brian still has 5 days before his appointment with the Cardiothoracic surgeon. I think he has realized that having the surgery soon rather than later will be beneficial. There are too many risk factors with delaying the surgery. He is nervous but doing ok. The kids were sick the first part of the week and then gave it to me. I had to work because I don't want to lose any time off with Brian likely needing surgery soon. Macey had her eyes checked because I wanted to make sure that she doesn't have any lazy eye or serious problems with that droopy eyelid. The doctor said she has a "prescription" but her eyes are working well together and wants to check her in another year.

So I weighed in at 161 lbs. I have been too busy to post but my mantra all week has been 2 lbs 'cause thats my goal to use my Starbucks gift cards. I want to go buy some cups. I think, I can lose that other lb this week but I had been eating like crazy for about 2 weeks before my period. I was so hungry and wanted to eat everything in sight. Thankfully, thats over but I still get really hungry in the evening when I get home and end up eating too much. My ultimate goal is still 140 lbs and thats a long way off at this rate.

Yard and Kid Pictures

Killing grass. We put down cardboard and woodchips. We can't plant anything in the ground for at least 6 months but I am going to put in raised bed for some garden veggies very soon, which should be ok.

Just like a cat: empty drawer, box, basket must be made for climbing into.

The kids wanted to try out my old halloween wig for fun.

Macey had just gotten out of the bath, but I guess she wasn't done since she hopped back in with her shirt on.

Elliott accidently hung himself on his pants but did it again for drama and attention a few minutes later.