I had a really fun zoo day planned

Tonight I was planning to write about being a singer and how sickness affects the voice and confidence. A topical issue since I've been sick and had my first WSU gig last night.

But something more exiting happened today.
At 1:00 I was playing with Ruby and lifted her up onto my left shoulder. She started to slip and as I adjusted to catch her, I felt my shoulder pop.

I instantly knew that it was dislocated.

Did I mention that we're in the middle of a new music festival of which 

Dr. Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn is in charge?

Thankfully Nana is in town and came over right away to help with the girls.

2 hours later I was at the clinic (with my super amazing, supportive husband, who left a festival event to be with me) getting x-rays of my shoulder. After seeing the pictures the RN said, "yep, you dislocated your shoulder."

"No sh#@!"

This was seriously the worst pain I've ever been in. The RN said that they could try to get it back in at the clinic, but sometimes the muscles have seized up too much and if that was the case they'd have to send me to the ER.

I told them I'd take them to dinner if we could get it taken care of right then and there.

So here's how it went down:

They had me lay on my back on the table and wrapped a sheet under my left arm and around my torso and one doctor held the ends of the sheet. The RN held my left arm out to the side. So while the doctor pulled the sheet and my torso to the right, the RN pulled and gently twisted my arm.

Forever in my mind will be ingrained the moment we all heard a little pop, I felt a huge jolt, and the RN excitedly proclaimed, "that was it!"

So, now I'm wrapped up in a sling and on an ibuprofen regimen to help calm down my angry arm muscles.

And here's the best part: I have to stay in this sling for 3 days. 

Which means I can't change my shirt for three days. 

Or wash my hair. 

Or put on deodorant under my left arm. 

And of course, because it was my day off, I'm wearing a t-hirt that, unfortunately, accentuates my assets.

Unfortunate because I have to work tomorrow. 

If I'm not careful, my students are gonna get more at their lessons than they bargained for.

Ugh, is this craziness over yet?

It feels like we've been getting hit with one thing after another.

At least I'm not bored...

An unexpected trip

Since moving to Wichita, things have been a bit rough.

It's been hot. Like too hot to go swimming. And stuck in the house hot.

Right away the washing machine broke and we had to wait a week to get it fixed. It actually got to the point where we had to buy more underwear.

Then we got ants. After trying to kill them for several days on our own, we decided to have someone come and take care of them.

Around the second day of the ant invasion, I noticed a lump on my neck.

Two days later our refrigerator broke.

I spoke with my doctor in Pullman and after hearing where the lump was placed and some other details, he encouraged me to have it looked at.

Due to our complicated health insurance situation, the most cost effective way to have this thing looked at was to fly back to Pullman and do a biopsy there.

We decided on Wednesday that we should go. Thursday morning we boarded a plane with one way tickets. Packing for this trip was hard. Worst case scenario, I would be there a few weeks to get a cancerous lump removed. Best case scenario, we'd know by the weekend that it was nothing.

Thursday afternoon I was here.

And about 10 minutes after checking in I was here, where they discovered that the lump was on my thyroid.

About 20 minutes after that, I had this on my wrist, a precursor to the biopsy.

I could write 3 full paragraphs about the biopsy itself. You know- the needles, the cute radiologist, the needles, how I wasn't supposed to swallow, the needles, the gown to keep blood off my dress. Stuff like that. If you want the details, let me know and I'll send you an email.

When the doc finished, he took the last needle out, and walked the sample to the lab that minute.

That might not sound like a big deal, but here's the thing. They all knew my situation and were doing their best to get the fastest results. The courier was waiting for my sample and paperwork. The lab guy who would do the tests was on call specifically for me. I would know Friday at the earliest, Monday at the latest.

(see the bandaid on the left side of my neck?)

Friday morning I got a call from my doc.

It is benign.

Even now as I type, I'm not sure that I've fully accepted how stressed and scared I was. For about 5 minutes, at the beginning of all this, my mind went to that awful place. Thinking about not being around to see my girls grow up and to help Aleks raise them. And then, that was it. I couldn't let myself go crazy with the worry.

(kind of looks like I got a hickey from a snagle-toothed vampire)

We had champagne Friday night.

There are 2 more parts to this story.

1. What happened to the refrigerator?
We had someone come out and look at it the day before we flew out to WA. Apparently the motherboard was dead. So that was replaced and the freezer was thawed.

I was worried that we were going to come back to our house and see ants invading our kitchen and have a refrigerator that wasn't working. BUT, no ants! and the fridge works!

2. On Saturday Maia and Aleks went to the Farmer's Market. When they got back I noticed that Maia was limping. After talking with our doctor we decided to head to the hospital to get some x-rays taken.

(in the waiting room reading Sports Illustrated)

Maia knew that she was going to have pictures taken of her leg. She also knew that it wasn't going to hurt. However, that didn't stop her from scream/crying through the entire process. The poor x-ray lady. After the ordeal, Amy (the very tolerant x-ray lady) went to get some stickers for Maia. When she came back Maia said, through crying induced hiccups  and with her adorable stutter:

"f-f-f-f-fank you for the pictures. f-fank you for the pictures of my leg"

That girl gets me every time.

What's the deal with her leg? No obvious fracture. Today she was still limping a bit, but hopefully that will disappear in the next few days.

This week was made so much easier by our friends and family.

My mother-in-law, who made it possible for the entire family to go to Pullman to be with me and was willing to be wherever we needed her.

My mom, who was on standby to fly to Pullman to help with the kids if I had to have surgery.

My dad and father-in-law, who offered to do whatever needed to be done.

My doctor and friend who helped with making this whole process go as quickly as possible.

Our friends Keri and Andy, who let us stay in their house while they are in Thailand.

Our friends, the Whitneys and Yens, who were there for emotional support and make it feel like we have family in Pullman.

It's been a crazy 5 days. Aleks thinks that it's been the hardest 3 weeks of our married lives. I agree. 

I also think that all this was so much harder because we're not settled anywhere. Going back to Pullman this week didn't feel like going home. But Wichita doesn't feel like home either. 

So, I guess for now, this is home:

and this.