A Few Things!

Our trip to the orthopedic doctor yesterday went pretty well. Hubby got some soft tissue x-rays to see if the splinter was visible (it wasn't) and the doctor wants to see him again next week for a follow-up. In the meantime we're soaking his elbow in warm water and epsom salts 6 times a day for 15 minutes each time... That's supposed to help draw the splinter out. That option is a lot more appealing than going down the surgery route, anyway. We have an appointment for next Wednesday afternoon so hopefully by then the damn thing might have come out, or it might at least have moved to a point where it's no longer causing any pain. If that's the case I think they'll probably leave it alone.

In 2 days my Dad is arriving, so I need to get the house tidy before then! I could do it today but I know that it would still need doing on Thursday anyway, so I might as well do it then. His flight gets in at 6.40 if it's on time, but I know from my experiences of flying direct into Phoenix that the immigration process usually takes around an hour. Every time I came through there were only something like 3 or 4 officers to process everyone, and there were a lot of passengers! At least that gives me the whole day to clean the house. I mean, it's really not that bad anyway but it means I won't have to rush.

We took the pug-pug to the dog park yesterday and she had a great time! She played with so many dogs, and even stood up for herself when a couple of bigger dogs were playing with her (playing a bit rough for her!). Then after a while there were 7 pugs all playing together, it was so sweet! Some that we'd met before, others we hadn't. They were all such lovely dogs, so friendly and happy. One of them who we'd met before was an adorable little 11 year old pug-girl, her little tongue hangs out and she's such a sweetie. I just had to give her lots of cuddles - she loves it! Her little tail was wagging the whole time and she kept snuggling into my neck. I wanted to take her home!!

Unfortunately though our little girl now has hives though so she must've had a mild allergic reaction to something at the dog park - not sure what, but I guess it could've been something on the grass or on another dog. You can see where the bumps are, they're on her sides and her fur is kind of sticking up around them. She was itching a bit last night, poor little thing. I'm going to give her a bath today, her doggy shampoo is good for calming skin conditions so hopefully it'll help. She doesn't seem bothered by the bumps anymore, she's fine in herself. It just looks weird and it's probably a little uncomfortable for her at times. The bath should soothe her skin a bit, anyway.

Early this morning I spoke to my two best friends on Skype, one of them was back in our hometown for the festive period so they were both together in my other friend's house. It was nice to see them both at the same time and have a good chat!

A Splinter Update

We finally had our Christmas dinner last night - just a day late! Hehe. I did all the cooking and it was the first time I'd done a roast dinner. It actually turned out great, which was a nice confidence boost! We had roast turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables, gravy and cranberry sauce. Pug-pug got her little doggy bowl filled up with the same, lucky thing! It was really nice.

Hubby called the orthopedic doctor's office first thing this morning and managed to get an appointment for this afternoon. Originally the receptionist said it would be Wednesday at the earliest, but she spoke to the doctor and came back to tell him to be there at 2.30pm today. Thank goodness - we really want this sorting out as soon as possible. I'm hoping they'll do an ultrasound to locate the damn thing, because although hubby can still feel it in there it's no longer visible under the skin. I really hope that the doctor today will be able to get it out without too much trouble, I'm dreading the thought of hubby having to be put under for more invasive surgery. If that does happen, though, we have a plan of action. Basically, we'll need his parents to have pug-pug for the day and I'll go with him and wait for him to come out of surgery. Unless his parents can drive us we'll have to get a cab both ways, because he won't be able to drive after having an anesthetic, and I can't drive regardless.

This whole thing has come at a bad time, obviously because it was Christmas day when it happened so that kinda ruined most of our first Christmas together, but also because my Dad is arriving on Thursday night and hubby is actually on-call all of this week, including the weekend. With it being New Year and everything, I doubt that anyone else will volunteer for it so he's likely to be stuck with that even if he's not really up to it. Luckily his boss has been fine about the whole thing (although really they do kinda have to be - I mean, it was an accident and what can you do?) and he is able to work, although typing is taking him longer than usual (understandably). He's told them about his appointment and they're cool with it. Hopefully by the end of today all of this will be sorted out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be relatively easy for the ortho doc to remove the splinter and that will be that. In the back of my mind though I'm worried that it won't be that simple and he will need 'proper' surgery. Please don't let it come to that...

Merry Christmas! Well, kinda...

OK, so today started off really well - we got up, had breakfast and opened our presents (everyone was very happy with everything they got). My Dad called (finally) and we spoke to my Mom on Skype. Then we went for a walk with pug-pug. Our next door neighbors had cut back our palm tree out front, which is fine, because it was planted in a silly position and although it's on "our land" it hangs over their driveway. They'd left the huge palm leaves on our side though, so hubby went to get rid of those. Well, he came back in with a huge splinter in his arm, near his elbow. In the process of trying to break them up a bit to put them in the trash, something somehow splintered off and got stuck in his arm. It looks like a BB gun pellet under his skin, and the entry wound was tiny! He tried to get it out himself but without any success, so at 1.30pm we went off to the ER. The number one concern was infection, and also the splinter itself is causing him pain. Well, we were there a few hours and one of the doctors gave him a local anesthetic, sliced his arm and attempted to retrieve the foreign body but to no avail. Damn! He said he was worried that it might end up in the elbow joint, which would obviously cause more problems. They dressed it and gave us the number of an orthopedic clinic to call on Monday. The hope is that they will be able to get the damn thing out when they try, otherwise he will probably have to be put under and we're really not keen on that idea if it's at all avoidable. Better still would be if the splinter works its own way out in the next couple of days - that'd be the best outcome.

So, hubby has a 10 day supply of antibiotics and some painkillers, and we need to change the dressing twice a day. What a way to spend Christmas, eh?!

I had to leave the room while the doctor was digging around in hubby's arm, I was able to stomach it for a while and then it just became too much and I left, as I felt as though I would either vomit or pass out. Hubby himself was quite happy to watch the whole thing - I think that made me feel worse! What a wuss I must be!

By the time we got back from the hospital it was after 5pm and we'd already called hubby's brother to let him know Christmas dinner was cancelled. We would have started cooking at around 2.30pm but obviously that didn't work out. So I'll cook our turkey and all the trimmings tomorrow, instead. Brother-in-law won't be able to make it because he's working, so now it'll just be the two of us and pug-pug. I have to say, I'm really worried about the prospect of hubby having to have proper surgery to get this thing out, I really hope it doesn't come to that. I feel so helpless in all of this - I couldn't even drive him to the hospital, seeing as I don't have a license. I'm really sad that he's hurting. The fact that it pretty much ruined Christmas is crappy, but not the main thing. We'll have Christmas dinner tomorrow, and Christmas is only another day after all. It just sucks that this whole thing happened at all.