Shelby Cass’s Weblog

Saw Dr. Li yesterday.  This will be a boring Dr. Li entry because I was not my usual peppy self, but rather a sleep deprived grumpy scratchy throat version that no one wanted to be around, including myself.  I did manage to ask “What’s the difference between me and Toni that she feels better enough to go back to work today?”  To which he had a one word answer: Tonsils.  Okay.

To make myself feel better I have been eating 1-2 tsp of frosting a day.  Better than a cake a day, right?!?  Guh.  I tried eating stuffing but that started to pull my own stuffing out, so I had to stop.  Imagine having to stop eating stuffing after like 2 bites!!!  Torture. Pure torture.  I’ve taken to heating up cheese soup minus the extra cup of milk so it’s all goopy, then adding avocado and taco sauce.  It’s pretty num.  I also stopped at Safeway today after bringing boyfriend iced latte and taking stroll around Goose Poop Lake.  I bought deviled egg potato salad, artichoke dip, split pea soup, and creamed spinach.  Dr. Li says I can start eating real people food tomorrow but it won’t be like a nut party or anything.  Just softish real people food…so I stocked up.  Also, I’m allergic to some nuts, so that would probably never be a good thing.

This morning was nice though.  I woke up to modest kitten:

and a package arrived at the door!  I was immediately accused of online shopping since the box was from one of my favorite sites (thinkgeek.com), but I plead innocent!  Turns out, it was a GIFT for ME!!!  From my dear dear friend Nicholas.

Can you not hear it?  Let me turn it up.

Oh yeah, that’s right.

Have I mentioned how much I love my friends?  My friend Cynthia sent me a get well soon gift on itunes…Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog…OMG.  Can’t stop watching!!!  With my freeze ray I will STOP…the world.

First of all, I had my sleep study.  And I wanted to share, as is my nature

That was Sunday night.  Monday I was TIRED.  I did dream a lot so I know I slept, but sheesh, I was awake more than asleep that’s for sure.  On Monday morning when the tech was removing the electrodes and as much glue as possible from my head, I asked “Can you tell me if I had any events?  He paused and said “You had a lot of hypopneas.  Well, that explained the headaches and the fatigue, but I figured it still had to be TONS better than before my surgery, right?

Had my preliminary study faxed to Dr. Li who called me on my way to work on Thursday morning.  Here’s the conversation (on my headset of course):

DL: Shelby, this is Dr. Li!

me: Yes.  Hi Dr. Li.  How are you?

DL: Shelby.  You still have sleep apnea!

me: Can I swear?

DL: Yes

me: F***************CK!  Ok thank you.

And then we went on to talk about things like me coming in to see him on Monday at 3:30 and him looking at my airway to see if tonsils need to come out.  And he also said “Shelby, I’m going to tell you something you don’t want to hear.”  I said “I have to wear the freaking machine.”  He said “No.  You have to lose weight.”  And I said I’ve never had a problem with hearing that.  And he said “Yes you did!  We were fighting!…Oh wait, oh yeah, we were fighting because…”  And I said “Yes.  We were fighting because you said Courtland was leaving me for a younger model.”  And he said “Oh yeah.  Ok.  So: More sushi, less pasta.”

I went to work and was sad.  Not because of the sushi prescription which I could do in a hearbeat, but because…what do you mean I still have sleep apnea?  Then again, now I know why I kept looking at Court on the weekends and saying “I don’t know what it is, I could just sleep all day.

On my way home I called Dr. Li’s office and asked Daisy…or Juanita (I cannot remember who had to bear the bad news) what my number was.  I figured if it was originally 43 (when I had zero body fat because I was dying) it should be at least down to 20 or something post surgery (yes I know I’m a big girl right now)…but I was NOT prepared for the number: 34.8

That’s all I have to say.  Until after Monday when Dr. Li looks at my airway I cannot deal.

Keep in mind I am happier and healthier than I have ever been…so even this cannot change that.  Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July! I’m BBQing some ribs with Court and Cynthia and David’s coming over later.  We’ve got Lego Indiana Jones on the Wii and the sun is out.  Plenty to keep my mind of Suckfest 2008…but hey…maybe if he removes my tonsils I’ll lose weight *giggle*

So, today…Christmas Day…2007. Hard to imagine exactly a year ago I was preparing to go to bed wearing a CPAP machine FOR THE LAST TIME.

In all my CPAP chinstrap glory

Pre-Knife (or was it a hacksaw? How DO they cut through bone these days?)

The Recovery Begins

Day 2

The Day (2 months post op) I tried to eat Pizza (yes, I was frustrated, how can you tell?)

The Day Nicholas brought me LIQUID CANDY. mmmmmmm

All I needed was my cat and my drugs.

Ah, sweet sleep…and sweeter dreams. NOTE: Lack of CPAP machine. w00t!

Best Holiday Wishes to all of you and yours…and Sweetest Dreams Possible.

Love,

Shelby

This should satisfy those Mochi-watchers out there.  She’s only 1.5 lbs lighter than Rira now.  Crazy belly baby.

Today I saw hot Doctor Steve my dentist (he has a Shelby too) and he filled Mr. Crapity sans big needles full of numbing drugs.  I mean really, I’m still numb on my gums, a little nerve action shouldn’t bother me.  Actually, I don’t like getting numbed, so unless the doc knows they are going to touch/expose the nerve, I go numbless…  There were actually 3 people (including me) today who declined drugs in the office.  So I guess they’re crazy too.

Off to Hawaii in 3 days.  Life sucks.  Again I ask…how on earth did I get friends like the ones I have?  I mean, loan me your house in Hawaii?  Yeah…I dreamed that.

Aloha!!!

Today was my ultrasound of my kidneys. They made me drink 24 oz. water 1 hour before pressing very very hard on my belleh…that’s just mean! Well, I found out that more fluid=more pain. So I’d like not to do that again, except that they keep telling me to push fluids. Blech.

One would think (well, I was hoping) that with all this nausea and lack of appetite I would have squeaked a little closer to my OTT goal, but alas, I am still in the 149 range, though one morning I saw 147 and almost broke the scale jumping in excitement. So I guess that diet is on hold…or done with and the new one is called…Operation MMAniversary. So maybe one year after my date of surge (December 26, 2006) I will be the ALL NEW, ALL IMPROVED Super chomping and gleaming tooth action super hero I would have dreamed of being, if I could have had normal dreams. How’s that for a mouthful?

Speaking of a mouthful, I went to a movie yesterday called “Wrist Cutters. A Love Story” Okay yes, bad title…but AWESOME movie. And Tom Waites is in it, so…BONUS. I loved it…and you know what else I loved? POPCORN. A whole frikkin bag of it with MY NAME ON IT. I was shoving that stuff in and getting my hands all greasy and Courtland almost lost a finger trying to snag a kernel. Oh I was loving that. And then I flossed last night WITHOUT the stupid threader thingy…Heaven, I tell you. Absolute Heaven.

And just because I’m so excited to have slippy slidey teeth, I will show you again…

Had to check to make sure it wasn’t a dream.  Yeahoooooo!!!!!

Well Gollllyyyyy! So this is life post-braces. Bring out the gum!

Let me tell you a little story about my yesterday.

Walked into Dr. Quo’s Mid-Peninsula Orthodontics and saw my name on the big screen, hailing my soon to be un-braced status. Christina greeted me with her usual lovely smile, checked me in, and away I went…

Christina

There are many awesome women working with Dr. Quo, but only one lucky woman was going to get the honor of prying pieces of porcelain from my teeth. Turns out Jamie got Shelby detail.

BEFORE (ugh self portraits while lying in a dentist’s chair…I don’t advise this for your portfolio)

and….

drumroll….

Where’d they go?!?

Oh, you thought we were done.

NEVER. BWA-ha-ha-ha This is another self-portrait. I kept cracking Jamie up because she’d maneuver all this goop in my mouth and while waiting for it to set, I kept pointing the camera back at her.

Dr. Quo makes her first appearance on my blog! She calls everyone “my dear” and is full of awesome. Right before this picture was taken, the whole team got together with noise makers and screamed congratulations and gave me a bottle of the bubbly. Bubbly what? Martinelli’s of course. It’s chilling as we speak.

Today I saw my dentist Dr. Steve and found out I got one little cavity (I have named it crapity) on the back of one of my top teeth, but ooh how I love me some slippy slidey teeth!

It’s official. I have reached New and Improved Shelby Status! I have cool night breathing action and BONUS slippy teeth! Buy one, get one free! Limited quantity. Hurry now!

First food post-braces: See’s candy butterscotch lolly (no teeth used, but nummy just the same)

First action post-braces: FLOSS (without a stupid threader!)

Second action post-braces: Totally DISCO dance in front of the entire office.

Regarding my surgery here’s what I have noticed. I can now feel (that sounds weird, but it’s the only way I can describe it) the places that are numb. Turns out I have one spot on my lower lip still MIA and most of the fronts of my gums are on haitus in the sensitivity department. My teeth are SOOOPER wiggly but I can’t tell since there’s no feeling in my gums…but Dr. Steve had fun wiggling them around a little.

I now move into official post-post surgery status. And so it goes…

Dr. Quo said, and I believe, that my braces come off today. So here are the last pictures EVER taken of me with braces…(so far)

OUTTA HERE!!!!

Dreaming of slippery teeth…ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Ah, the loveliness of the world that is timeshares…and if you JUST SAY NO you can get FREE trips to Vegas.  But if you say yes, you’ve bought yourself a monthly payment that you get to will to your kids.  Won’t they love you?  Anywho, before all the kidney fun and braces banding and shredding of my lips, I had “won” this trip, so Wednesday night saw us sliding onto a plane to Sin City, and what followed after that…well, I know what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas, but I’m going share, as is my nature.

First of all, I couldn’t get Courtland to NOT work, so of course he brought his computer and I figured, heck, if he gets to geek out, I can at least check my email.  So I checked…and found out that a fellow Kasey’s Kid (that would be another person who had the same surgery for sleep apnea) was in town…so we arranged an impromptu meeting.  It just underlines the fact that I cannot go ANYWHERE without running into someone I know…  So SeattleBill, Courtland and I met up and hit the town.

  Courtland and Bill reenact the tragic Sigfried and Roy event.

mreow

And then it happened.  Only hours before our flight home, we stopped for lunch at what appeared to be your typical diner…but no.  On the menu was something that made my heart (and cholesterol) leap.  It read: Barbeque Pulled Pork Nachos.  It must be mine.  So I ordered, and the waiter IMMEDIATELY said, “Um.  It’s BIG.”  I said, “Okay” and he said, “No, I mean REALLY BIG.  4 people could share it.  It’s like our house specialty.  People get their pictures taken with it.”  And I looked at Courtland and he said “Get it” and I said to the waiter, “You can charge me full price and make me a mini one” to which he replied, “No.  But you can take the rest home with you.”  So we got the camera out, I took the rubber bands off of my teeth (I’m sure the waiter was wondering how the heck I was going to eat anything talking through clenched teeth like I was), and we waited…and it was worth it.

And with that, my diet was over.

The eyes in the Entire restaurant followed my nachos from the kitchen to my table and people were staring so much and so shocked at the enormity of it that I invited everyone over to try some.  No one took me up on it…they just stared.  And I ate.

And I ate.

And I ate.

Our waiter was so impressed he asked to have his picture taken with me.

To be completely honest, Courtland helped a little.  he had like 5 chips, so I didn’t do it all myself.  And to be even more honest, I really just took a fork to that mountain and ate all the BBQ pulled pork off the top of it, then asked the waiter to bring the plate back empty.  But don’t get me wrong.  I ATE A LOT.  And it was good.  And I am so glad that I hate Las Vegas and won’t go back anytime soon because more than one mountain of BBQ Pulled Pork Nachos in one’s lifetime is probably quite enough.

*burp*

Do you remember those sexy C&R commercials? Oh boy, I wanted me a fireman. okay anywho…

So yesterday I was guy smiley…until smiling became not my friend and my lips formed an odd attachment to hooks and…well, don’t click on this picture if you don’t want to see extreme ick closeup.

notice the LACK of smile

So taking the bands on and off is NOT an option since it takes me and my butterfingers at least 10 minutes to try and try again to get every single tooth hooked…and obviously the corners of my mouth are not happy with that game either.

The good news is (and yes, there is always good news) that Operation Birthday Suit is progressing in leaps and bounds (thank you sick diet!) and I am very very close to my OBS goal. I fit into another pair of pants that have been collecting dust since Operation Cake A Day, and I believe I weigh less than my boyfriend. Awesome!!!!

So, have a good evening. Eat something. Chew and revel in the chewiness.