MRI

MRI

Monday, March 5, 2012

Had my MRI done today!  I'm pretty excited to find out what is actually wrong with my knee.  I'm pretty confident I've torn the ACL and probably the meniscus but I'm curious to see what the damage is for sure.

It's a little bit comical how very little I remember about my MRI five years ago.  The only part I remember is being told to "stop moving!" several times throughout the procedure.  My knee kept twitching due to the injury and the radiologist was not very happy since she couldn't get the images she needed.

This time the radiologist was so nice and I tried really hard to keep my leg/knee/foot extra still.  She kept telling me over the speaker "you're doing great!"  So different from last time.

So basically here's how the MRI process works.  I filled out paperwork.  Signed a pregnancy consent.  They made me dress down into hospital pants and a hospital gown.  It was really cute, I promise...

I had to take off any metal.  Wedding ring, bobby pins, earrings.  Basically everything.  Then she brought me into a room with a GIANT machine, had me lay down on a little bed and place my knee into a contoured cushion.  Then she told me to keep my leg very still and be careful to not wiggle my toes.  Then she gave me some earplugs, told me the machine was really loud and obnoxious and said it would take 20-25 minutes.  She left the room, my little bed moved into the machine (feet first) until about half my body was inside the machine, then spoke to me over the speakers.  "Okay the first round should last about 2 minutes.  Let me know if you get cold and I can bring you a blanket."  Then these insanely, insanely loud beeps came on.  SO crazy loud.  She was right that it was really obnoxious.  They went for 2 minutes straight.  The baby was freaking out a little bit and moving around like crazy!  I guess he did not like all those loud noises.  We did like 8 series of beeps, each lasting 2-4 minutes.  Then finally we were finished, she came back in and I asked if she was allowed to tell me what she saw.  She said no.  I didn't think she was allowed to but I thought I'd ask anyway.  Then I changed back into my normal clothes and picked up a CD of the images to bring with me to the dr.

My appt with the surgeon is on Thursday so we'll find out what he says.  I might have Dr. Gibson (my boss) try to look at the images tomorrow to see if he can figure anything out.  He's a podiatrist so I know he doesn't see a lot of knee images but he can probably decipher them better than I can.  Everything looks like blobs to me.  All I can tell is that there's a lot of swelling which I already knew.

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Clingy Carpet

Clingy Carpet

Saturday, March 3, 2012

I seriously am desperate for help.  My carpet is so CLINGY it drives me nuts!!  So we have a Shark Navigator vacuum which I absolutely LOVE.  We bought it when we lived in Wymount and it worked fabulously.  Then we moved into the yellow house where it also always worked like a charm.  Then we moved here.  And the vacuum still works wonderfully on the tile floor but my carpet is so darn stubborn that the vacuum does pretty much NOTHING there.  I'm pretty confident it is NOT the vacuum.  When I asked for advice on FB I don't know how many people told me "get a new vacuum" or "buy a Dyson" even though I clearly stated my vacuum was not the problem.  Maybe some of you have advice.

Here's what happens.  I vacuum the whole house.  Kitchen, bathroom, entry tile all looks fab.  Carpet, not so much.  Any loose crumbs get vacuumed up but any hair, string, or anything the carpet can grab on to stays behind.  This is what my living room looked like right after vacuuming today (and I do a thorough job, I don't just run the vacuum really quickly over the carpet):

Can you see all the little strings/lint?

Even with the close-up you can't see all the hair but I promise there are hundreds of strands lying around!

So if I actually want the carpet to look like I vacuumed then after I vacuum I have to take a lint roller to the carpet.  My apartment is small but still this takes FOREVER and I can only imagine how much more difficult it will get as my pregnancy progresses.  This is what the lint brush looks like after a few swipes (this is maybe from like 1 square foot):

Gross, right?

Disgusting.  I counted this time how many lint roller papers I went through for the living room.  Any guesses?  25!!  And by the time I was "finished" they were still totally filling up just after a few swipes.

I'm at such a loss as to what to do!!!  It seems like the carpet is static-y and that's why everything gets stuck (because it's even hard to pick the strings up with your fingers...the carpet just really holds onto them) but I've tried everything imaginable to "remove static" and nothing works!!  So I feel like it is just the carpet that is horrible!  I've tried rubbing dryer sheets over the whole carpet.  I tried spraying a solution of water and fabric softener.  This morning I used an entire bottle of static removal spray on the carpet.  Which, by the way, was probably a bad idea being pregnant.  The house seriously REEKED of fumes.  I opened all the windows and ended up leaving after a little while to go shopping because it was so strong.  I did spray the whole bottle, after all.  By the way, it didn't do any good.  I tried to vacuum after that and nothing.  I still had to lint roll.  If we weren't already planning to move out in August I would totally be looking for a new apartment.  Even though I love pretty much everything else about this place.  I've wondered if I asked the complex to replace the carpet if they would but I seriously doubt it.  They have no reason to since we have a contract through August so they know we can't just move out if they don't.

I seriously need help.  Any ideas???

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Bursting

Bursting

Sunday, February 26, 2012

I'm a little worried I might just burst with excitement.  I just cannot wait for our little boy to arrive!  How am I going to wait 21 more weeks!?!?  Now that we know he's a boy I've been loving browsing Target, Old Navy, etc for little boy clothes and accessories.  All of the big stuff (crib, crib bedding, nursery accessories, etc) is going to be gender neutral so we can reuse if we ever have a girl but there are so many fun BOY things to look at!  Clothes, bath towels, bibs, etc.  And everything is just so darn cute!!  I want to go on a shopping spree so badly but I figure I should wait until after the baby showers to shop so I don't overload on anything.  I wish I could be setting up the nursery or SOMETHING but since we will be moving right after baby boy arrives there is no sense in setting up a bedroom for him.  So although I'm desperately wanting to plan, buy, set up, etc I'm stuck just mostly browsing.  But browsing is fun too! - just a little bit of a tease.  Want to see some of the cutest stuff?




See? You cannot deny the cuteness!!! We have a long way to go still but I am just so excited to meet this little boy!!

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It's a....

It's a....

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

BOY!!! and holy cow, are we excited!!!  Tom was pretty surprised...he thought it would be a girl.  Me, not so surprised.  I was leaning more toward boy.  I feel like I can imagine the baby so much better now!  I love being able to picture outfits, the nursery, etc.  Our ultrasound was so fun!  It was the first time T got to see little baby!  He was so squirmy (the baby, not Tom) so the tech was having a hard time getting some of the shots he needed.  The tech told us he was 100% sure it was a boy!  He said "normally I do at least a 5% margin of error, just in case, but THIS is definitely a boy!...I mean, if it's not a boy, there is something wrong with your kid!"  Hahha.  Our little man was not shy at all about spreading his legs and showing his stuff!  He was also pretty keen on grabbing himself.  I was a little embarrassed for him.  In my head: "you know we can all see you? stop that!"  Then he moved on to grasping his umbilical cord.  The tech said usually their hands are up by their face but little Baby Wallace was either grabbing himself or flailing those arms everywhere!  We got everything we needed except for a good look at the heart.  He said the baby was positioned so that the ribs were shadowing his heart so he couldn't get a good view.  So we will need to do another ultrasound at my next appointment in 4 weeks.  That will be U/S #4 for me!!  I guess I'm lucky but at $500 a pop they are really killing us!  Guess we will meet our deductible faster than we thought!

Everything else at the appointment went really well.  My dr OK'd my prescriptions from my dermatologist for clearing up my skin - yay!  Baby boy has brought me back to high school with all these blemishes!  Ugh.  Little boy's heartbeat is at 150bpm which is slower than it was at 13 weeks but that's normal for it to slow down and we are still in a good range!  We also talked about my knee and my OB wants me to have an MRI done and then meet with a surgeon and discuss whether I should consider having my surgery now.  While surgery has some risks (blood clotting, small anesthesia risk to baby), the doctor is worried about my knee giving out with all the extra weight I will be putting on.  He's worried about a fall which would also (obviously) pose a risk to little one.  So my MRI is in the process of being pre-authorized by insurance and then once I get it done I will take a look with a surgeon to see what he says.  If he thinks I have enough support left for my knee to hold up throughout the pregnancy we'll hold off until after Baby arrives.  If not, we will prayerfully consider having surgery now.  I feel nervous about surgery because of the small risks it poses to Baby but I would also be worried if the MRI showed I had little support left.

Pictures we got of Baby Boy Wallace:

It's a boy!

Profile

That is ALL boy!!!

Spine

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So curious!!

So curious!!

Our ultrasound appointment is in 1 hour, 16 minutes and I am just DYING I'm so excited!!  I have been so anxious all day.  I barely slept last night because I was so darn excited.  My mind just kept repeating "boy or girl, boy or girl, boy or girl?"  All morning I have been so anxious that I'm almost (I repeat, almost) sick over it. There are some serious butterflies in my stomach.  Not to mention the baby has been so wiggly ALL morning so that makes me feel funny too.  I guess the baby is also excited that we will finally be finding out what it is!  1 hour, 14 minutes...

CAN'T WAIT!!

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