While he doesn’t outwardly show emotion like “normal” kids and teenagers do (my thirteen year old brother is also autistic), he said himself that his level of excitement on a scale of 1-10 was an 8, and he’s been glued to his new laptop non-stop since we gave it to him.

Happy (early) Birthday, baby brother!

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Are we really the parents of a seven year old?!

Hi Jason!

Food!

Presents (and Dan’s aunt N)!

Krystal, myself, and Amanda! I’m so glad they finally met each other. The three of us got along fabulously, and MUST get together soon. ♥

Hello blue eyes!

Piñata time!

Present time (for my brother-in-law, whose birthday was October 29th)!

Present time!

Ryan gets consolation presents.

I think Alyssa approves of the Monster High doll Dan’s aunt C got for her.

Surprise confetti bomb (some of it is still stuck in the eaves, whoops)!

Post-present and post-confetti aftermath (yes, we cleaned it all up.).

Hi mini Amanda!

Birthday cake! Nom nom nom.

Krystal stole my headband (she gave it back later).

Newlyweds. ♥

Mother & daughter. ♥

I know it looks like I’m photobombing, but I swear this was posed (those are Dan’s brothers, in case you didn’t know) (yes, Dan is groping me – purposely. That’s just how he rolls – with a boob in each hand, preferably).

I don’t even know. I was eating candy and de-packaging presents with Alyssa and Sophie¹ while Dan, Jason and maybe a few other people were putting food away (Amanda took this).

Here’s the entire photoset from yesterday, set up in a snazzy little slideshow that’ll save my bandwidth and your load time!

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Whoo! We’re leaving in about twenty minutes, even though the park is just ten minutes away and the party doesn’t start until 2:00pm. We need setup time, especially since we have two cars to unload. I made like six pounds of meatballs, two big party-sized trays of Stouffers’ macaroni & cheese, and 48 (yes, 48) hot dogs. We’ve got buns for the meatballs and hot dogs, slices of provolone cheese to put on the meatballs, toppings for the hot dogs, and chips and pretzels for snacks, and of course a birthday cake. This year’s theme is Littlest Pet Shop, and it just so happened that our local grocery store’s bakery had a Littlest Pet Shop birthday cake theme. Win!

In addition to family (Dan’s), Amanda and Krystal are both coming to the party. Yay! I can’t wait to see them both (even though I just saw Amanda on Wednesday, heh).

Thank you for subscribing to Jenn.nu's RSS feed! ♥ Jenn | Flickr: kiss-my-kitty | Twitter: @kissmykitty

The only difference this time, since I had a colonoscopy in addition to the endoscopy, is I had to undress first – I went into the procedure room wearing nothing but a hospital gown and knee-high hot pink socks with polka-dots. Sexy, I know. Also, the procedure took about twenty minutes longer.

When I began to come to, I was back in the prep room I started out in, still on my left side. I can’t remember whether or not Dan was there. I do remember making some kind of comment to Dan about never having anal sex again, to which he replied with a mortified comment — apparently the nurse was there in the room with us. Oops. She made me roll over on my back, took off the oxygen, and a few minutes after that, my IV was removed. I was brought bottled water and Cheez-Its for sustenance (a common practice after endoscopies, since you generally have to fast for that entire morning; and for a colonoscopy, you also fast the entire day before).

Then the doctor came in. Aside from a long and redundant colon (sexy, I know), everything from top to bottom looks normal. Normal is good, right? In my case, no, because it confirms what my bariatric surgeon, myself and the doctor who performed the endoscopy and colonoscopy suspect: abdominal adhesions. There is no non-surgical fix for them. Almost as sucky, they’re hard to detect. In the case of abdominal adhesions around the small intestines (where mine most likely are, given the location of the pain), they can only be detected some of the time if a CT scan is performed while a painful episode is occurring. Otherwise, the intestines will look perfectly normal, since there’s nothing constricting or twisting them.

So what’s next? Well, my bariatric surgeon, who originally referred me to my general physician in order for him to refer me to a gastroenterologist, said she would do exploratory laparoscopic surgery in order to find the adhesions and fix them. But first, the plan is for the doctor who performed the endoscopy/colonoscopy, and/or the gastro, to write up an order for me to have (either a physical copy of, or a copy in my file), so that when another painful attack occurs, I go to the in-network hospital during the attack so that a CT scan can be performed right then and there to hopefully pinpoint the location/possible source of the attack. I can then take that info to my bariatric surgeon, who’ll have an easier time of performing the surgery, which may not be so much exploratory as it is get-in-there-and-fix-the-adhesions.

Jason took me to the hospital back in April during a rather long pain attack so that they could perform an upper GI (what was recommended at the time) to check, but since nothing was in my file and the ER doctors refused to listen to what I was telling them or make contact with my surgeon or her assistant, the trip was a waste. But this time around, with a doctor’s order in hand and/or on file, it’ll be a much simpler process. Plus, this hospital, Hospital A, is much more efficient that way; whereas Hospital B, the one where my surgeon works at, isn’t always quite so efficient (though they’re excellent when it comes to surgeries themselves and patient care!). Part 2 of this “plan” is for me to have the actual contrast drink that’s required to be consumed prior to a CT scan on hand. Part of the problem with having gastric bypass surgery is that I can’t drink a lot of liquid at a time, or very fast; so by having the contrast drink at hand, if an attack occurs I can begin chugging it as quickly as I can as we make the 20-30 minute trip to the hospital. However, to get all of this situated — a doctor’s order for me to have, and/or one in my file; and contrast drink on hand — the doctor needs a week or so in order to get all of the ducks in a row, so to speak. But hopefully everything will go without a hitch, and when the next attack occurs I’ll be all set with contrast drink to consume and a note to give to the attending physician in the ER, and I can get the CT scan done right away, and it’ll reveal the exact source of the pain, and possibly even the cause.

So that was my morning. After I came to and was “with it” enough to leave, the three of us went to Old Country Buffet for lunch (I nommed on protein and veggies), and then to Party City for supplies for Alyssa’s birthday party. We chose Littlest Pet Shop – I was torn between a cute owl theme and a girly girl theme, which Dan noticed the Littlest Pet Shop tucked away at the end of the aisle, next to iCarly. Jason picked out a ginormous Hello Kitty card and a Hello Kitty balloon for Alyssa, I grabbed a few rolls of wrapping paper, and then on we went to the grocery store, to pick up a few food items for Thursday night (Alyssa requested hamburgers and hot dogs for her birthday dinner), and to order the cake for Saturday’s party. Which is now next Saturday’s party, seeing as how it is going to FREAKING SNOW SO MUCH THAT WE COULD HAVE UP TO SIX INCHES OF ACCUMULATION AT THE END OF OCTOBER WHAT THE EFF??!¹ on Saturday. Then home, where I lounged in bed (two nights of crappy sleep + four days of no vitamins + 28 hours of no food = half-dead Jenn) and wrapped presents while the three of us watched Dr. Who.

It wasn’t long before my brother was home from school, and then Alyssa and Ryan arrived home, and then it was time to shower the birthday girl with PRESENTS!

(We gave Ryan a “consolation” gift.)

The rest of the night was pretty quiet. Dinner, followed by birthday cake, followed by Ryan’s night at Boy Scouts (to which Alyssa tagged along to, because the boys love Alyssa and voted for her to come to the meetings), which Dan volunteered to take care of; while Jason and I ran to the bank and then Toys ‘r Us. Then it was back home, putting things away, tucking kids into bed, and then crashing myself.

Now it’s 11:41pm on a Friday night, and I was seriously ready for bed like three hours ago. I’ve been on the run with Dan since 3:00pm, and while I loved EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE. of our “us” time together, and we accomplished a lot and even picked up three Christmas presents (one for Ryan and Puff, one for Ryan, and one for Alyssa or Puff – we haven’t decided yet), and a cake pop maker (I made those fuckers from scratch two years ago, and will happily take advantage of the convenience an appliance can offer), and a clearanced crockpot, and a few food/household items (toothpaste, shredded cheese, cat food, etc.), etc., and even grabbed a quick bite to eat from Sonic; I am SERIOUSLY TIRED. So tired, in fact, that I may be a bad Jenn and not even take a shower before going to bed tonight. I just want to crashhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Thank you for subscribing to Jenn.nu's RSS feed! ♥ Jenn | Flickr: kiss-my-kitty | Twitter: @kissmykitty

Then:

Now:

Happy 7th Birthday Alyssa! I love you!

Thank you for subscribing to Jenn.nu's RSS feed! ♥ Jenn | Flickr: kiss-my-kitty | Twitter: @kissmykitty