Wednesday, June 19, 2013

It's Been One Week

Today was my one week checkup for my Lasik.  Things still look great.  While doing the eye test, I missed one letter on the 20/15 line and I was only able to read one letter on the 20/10 line.  I'm okay with that though.  There was no way in heck I was expecting eagle vision.  The tear duct plug in my left eye had popped out some time over the week and the doctor put it back in.  She told me to come back at any time it pops out.  It popped out again after I got back to work.  So yes, I was at the Lasik office twice today.  The doctor put in a smaller plug in hopes the plug would stay in, but that didn't work either.  She said my tear duct in my left eye may be shallower than my right and that's why I am having issues with them staying in.  Since I haven't been experiencing dry eyes, she took the plug out of my left eye and told me to come back for a permanent plug if there is dryness.  So far, so good.  My next checkup is July 10 and I am hoping I can get every single letter on the 20/15 line.

For Carleigh's birthday parties, I ordered a Hello Kitty (this week) and a Dora the Explorer (next week) cake.  I love the cakes from Sam's Club.  We ordered her an Angry Birds cake last year from that and it was delicious.  Carleigh wanted a Minnie Mouse cake, but no one had just a Minnie Mouse cake and I didn't feel like going to a cake shop to order one.  Maybe next year I'll get her a really cute fondant Minnie Mouse cake from one of our local bakeries.

After work on Friday, I'll be getting the Jaguar a much needed bath.  That car hasn't been washed since before we left for Phoenix over Memorial Day weekend.  It's a disaster and totally embarrassing to be cruising around town in a dirty car.  There is no rain in the forecast so far.  I'm sure we will get some surprise storms roll through a couple of days after the car is washed.  It always happens.

There will probably be no more updates to my blog until Monday since we will have family in town over the weekend.

Friday, June 14, 2013

My Lasik Experience

Lasik, how I love thee!

Yesterday was my Lasik procedure and things went great!  Heath was my ride to and from the office.  The night before and right before the procedure, I was so nervous.  Before the procedure, I was taken into the exam room to have another round of eye drops put in and to down a Valium and another pain reliever, Tylenol.  The doctor came into the room to introduce himself and let me know what to expect.  A couple of people were ahead of me, so he told me to wait a few minutes and he'd come and get me when it was my turn.  I kept watching the people in front of me walking out and they were not blind, so my nerves started to calm down a bit.

Once it was my turn, I was taken into the procedure room.  It was a basic room with a couple of laser machines and comfortable leather chairs.  I was told to lay back, keep my hands to my side and the whole thing would begin.  The doctor talked me through every single step of the procedure.  The only time there was any type of "pain" was at the very beginning.  I can't even call it pain, it was just a lot of pressure for the first 20 seconds of both eyes.  He put some thing over my eye and you could see white dots, colored dots, and then darkness.  The dots were pretty.  After that, your vision came back and the laser came in to do its thing.  The only thing that was a little weird was when the machine was cutting the flap.  It made a weird buzzing noise and had a smell to it.  It wasn't nasty or anything.  You could just tell something was burning/being cut.  Each eye took about three minutes.  The doctor told me, "Okay, your right eye is done."  My response, "That's it?"  His reply, "Yes.  That was it."  No pains, no headaches, no nothing!

After both eyes were done, I put on the sunglasses given to me in my kit and Heath drove me to get some lunch before going home to rest.  My vision was a bit cloudy/blurry right after the procedure, but that's a given.  My biggest annoyance with the whole thing was the teary eyes and the feeling of having sand in my eyes.  Those are common too, but those two bothered me the most.  I went upstairs to sleep, since it's suggested you do so for at least four hours after the procedure.  The whole time in bed, it felt like I was bawling my eyes out because of the teary-eyes.

Once the nap was over, I got to start taking my prescription eye drops and using my artificial tear drops.  I've never used eye drops of any kind so getting used to it is a bit much at first.  Since I wasn't allowed to watch television, use the computer, read books, etc.. the entire day and evening was boring.  I'll admit I did use Facebook on my phone to let people know I wasn't blind.  Other then that though, I sat on the couch with my eyes closed.

At night, I have to wear goggles to sleep.  It's to avoid rubbing or scratching my eyes.  Those have to be worn for the first 2-3 weeks after the surgery.  It's easier to sleep in them than I thought it would be.  Carleigh told me she likes the goggles and that I should wear them all the time.  She's a dork.

Today is one day after surgery and things are great!  I had my post-op checkup at 10:30am and my vision was 20/20 in both eyes.  My right eye is 20/20 and my left eye is lagging a bit at 20/30.  My eyes are still healing, so I hope by my one week check up I'll have 20/20 in my left eye too.

If anyone was ever thinking of getting Lasik done, I would highly recommend it.  I got the All Laser Premium Lasik and it was amazing.  It's the best thing I have ever spent my money on.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Changes

I made some minor changes to my blog today.  The background I chose has more of a Vegas appeal to it.  There is still more things I want to do with it, but I'm not sure what it is yet.  Everything is basic and simple since I'm not a web designer person.

The pre-op appointment for Lasik is scheduled at 3:30pm tomorrow.  My eyes are getting dilated and I find out what time I need to be there for Thursday.  I won't be able to read or write for four hours after the dilation.  Whatever will I do.  I'm starting to get more nervous about the surgery.  I already have my cute pair of polarized Wayfarer's waiting for me to wear, so I just keep looking forward to that.

Carleigh is going to be home from preschool soon and will want to play on her favorite learning website, ABCYA.com.  So I will make this short.  Next update will hopefully be on Saturday, if I'm not blinded from the surgery.  ;)

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Summer Colds

For the past week, I've been stuck with a cold.  It started Friday morning when I woke up with a sore throat.  It really hit me Tuesday when I could barely talk, had a nasty cough, and a runny nose.  I took the day off from work so I could let my voice come back.  On Wednesday, I went back to work when I should have just stayed home.  My nose was dry and having the dry heat here in Las Vegas definitely was not helping.  I got a bloody nose three times at work and once at home.  It was awful.  While at work yesterday, I requested today off in case I needed it.  I'm not as sick as I was on Tuesday and Wednesday, but it was a good idea to let my body heal itself.  We, as a team at work, will be doing volunteer work at Goodwill tomorrow.  It's something I really want to do and don't want to let the team down and skip out because of an illness.  So it was a good idea to stay home and rest.  My voice isn't 100% back yet, but at least my nose isn't a faucet today.  My only issue is the coughing fits I get.  The cough medicine helps.

Next week is my big surgery date for Lasik.  I am really looking forward to it.  I'm more excited to go shopping for a pair of sunglasses this weekend, even though it's going to be 111 degrees.  At least the mall has air conditioning.  I also have to purchase decorations and order cakes for Carleigh's birthday parties.  She will be having two since our families will be flying in on separate weekends.  The parties will be on the 22nd (Heath's family) and the 29th (my parent's).  It would have been nice if everyone would just agree to come out and visit for the same weekend, but whatever.

My biggest rant with family coming out to visit is the time frame people chose.  Everyone is flying in on a Friday evening, landing around 10pm.  That means that will arrive at their hotels around 11:30pm-12am.  Then they fly out on Monday afternoon.  That means we will only get to visit with them on Saturday & Sunday.  The parties will be held on Saturday afternoon.  My mother-in-law wants to take Carleigh shopping on Saturday for her presents, but we won't have time to do it.  She can go shopping before stopping over at our house.  The party starts at 1pm.  So yeah, I'm not really sure how these two weekends will turn out.  My dad has a $100 dining voucher for the casino they are staying at and they want us to eat with them to make sure they use it all.  That means, let's eat $100 worth of food on Sunday.  They don't really need us to eat with them though.  This is Las Vegas.  It's easy to spend $100 at dinner with two people.  My parent's chose a casino that is kind of far from our house and I'm really not in the mood to drive that far, but again, whatever.  No one ever listens to me.  When I tell you a casino is far from our house, and then give you a suggestion for a casino much closer (and off strip), maybe you should take my advice.  After all, I live in this city and know my way around and which casinos are good places to stay.  And to finish, since everyone will only be here for two full days, they will all complain and say, "I really wish we had more time to spend with Carleigh."  And my reply will be, "Well, I didn't book your flights."

I just had to get that off my chest.  Feels great.  :)

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Vacation and Lasik

It's so hard to believe today is the beginning of June.  Carleigh's birthday is just a few weeks away.  It's been awhile since I've updated, so this post might be a little long.  I need to get caught up.

We went down to Phoenix over Memorial Day weekend.  It was our first family vacation.  After we got checked into our hotel on Friday, we went to Rawhide.  It's an old western town on the Gila River Indian community.  Carleigh got to go to the petting zoo and check out all of the neat old western themed shops.  She had more fun in the jail.  Should I be worried?  We also ate dinner at the steakhouse and listened to some good country music.  I love their food there and wish I could eat there more often.  We aren't rich and I don't want to be fat, so that won't be happening.

On Saturday, we went to the Phoenix Zoo, which was the main reason for our vacation.  Carleigh really wanted to see the tigers and lions.  Since those two are big cats, you can imagine what they were doing that day.  Sleeping!  Carleigh still got to see them though, so no complaints.  We also saw zebras running in the field and playing.  We got to see one of the elephants up close.  Since it was a little warm out, the elephant was hanging out near the misters and fans.  I wanted to do the same thing!  There was just so much fun and excitement.  We were at the zoo for five hours.  Great times!  I would love to go down to Phoenix again for the Zoo Lights event in the winter.

Sunday was our relax and do whatever the heck we wanted day.  Heath wanted to check out a brewery in Chandler, so that's exactly what we did.  We had some good food at SanTan Brewing Company.  I'm not a beer drinker, so I cannot comment on the goodness of the beer, but Heath seemed to enjoy it.  After lunch, we went back to the hotel to go swimming.  We went down to Mill Avenue in Tempe in the evening.  It was nice getting a walk in with the family.  On Monday morning, we drove back to Las Vegas.

Moving onto the second topic, I went for my free consultation to see if I was a good candidate for Lasik and it turns out I am.  On June 13, I will be going in for my surgery.  Originally, I planned on doing this surgery in July, but was able to find a good time to get in before family started flying into town for Carleigh's birthday.  It will be so nice not to have two pairs of glasses anymore.  Right now, I have my glasses and then prescription sunglasses.  I hate lugging around two pairs of glasses everyday.  This coming weekend, Heath is taking me shopping for some sunglasses that I can wear after the surgery.  I'll be taking the Friday off after the surgery to get used to my "new eyes".  Technically, I can go back to work the next day, but why bother?

I hope to get another post or two squeezed in before my surgery.  It's going to be hectic in our house the end of June for Carleigh's birthday.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Happy Hour

It's Happy Hour time in our household.  Not alcohol.  Starbucks!  I noticed this afternoon that they had their half priced frappuccino's back.  We got two venti drinks for $4.96.  Holla!  Now that I am caffeinated, I have the energy to blog.

One of our plants in our front yard died and we had to replace it.  I walked around Star Nursery for awhile looking for the perfect plant and the Dwarf Bottlebrush stuck out to me.  The plant attracts hummingbirds so I knew it would be a win for our house.  Heath put it into the ground yesterday and it looks so great.  I want to get more!  There is another plant that looks like it's struggling.  I keep clipping off any dead branches.  If it won't flourish back to life, I'll replace it with another Dwarf Bottlebrush.

Mother's Day is next weekend.  Where has this year gone?  Heath bought me a touchscreen aftermarket radio for my Jaguar.  I'm excited to get it installed and be able to sync my phone and radio with the Bluetooth.  The radio should be here by the end of the week.  I can't wait to play around with it once it gets installed.  Heath wants to go to the local butcher shop to get some filet mignon to grill for Mother's Day too.  All I need is some good steak (or salmon, I'm not picky), sweet corn, and a bottle of wine (as long as no positive pregnancy test appears within now and next week) and my Mother's Day will be complete.

Carleigh has made quite a few new friends recently.  There were two kid's who recently moved in across the street.  The family who is renting the house next door have a little girl too.  So they are always outside playing together.  All of the kid's have those Razor scooters, but Carleigh doesn't have one.  Since her birthday is next month, Heath & I are going to get her a scooter.  My parent's sent me money to buy Carleigh an ATV power wheel from Sam's Club for them so they won't have to go shopping after they get here.  Carleigh is going to lose her mind when she sees what she gets this year.

Work life has been kind of slow.  I'm waiting for it to get busy again.  I hate slow periods.  So here's to hoping we will get more busier over the next few weeks.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Time For Another Baby?

Heath & I decided that we would like to try to conceive another baby.  We feel we are in a good position to add another family member.  We finally have a house of our own and my car will be paid off in February.  We still have the baby crib that Carleigh used as a baby as well as the stroller/car seat combo.  Carleigh is going to be four in June, so we think it's the right time to have a second child before there is a really huge age gap.  If we are successful this month, the baby would be due in January.  I do not expect the first month to be successful since I know conception can be a challenge.  I am really hoping whenever I do get pregnant that it will be smooth and no complications.  I've had a couple of miscarriages in the past before becoming pregnant with Carleigh.  The miscarriage fear is always in the back of my mind.

Heath spent all of last week in Salt Lake City for work.  He had to fly up there to train the guy at that location and clean up their shop.  It is odd they would send a manager from Las Vegas to a location that isn't even his to train someone else.  So I am hoping his company is looking at him as a possible district manager.  The district manager for that location was just promoted, last week, to a higher district manager position.  Not sure of the exact title, but that means the company probably needs to fill her old position.  It would be nice if Heath received that job promotion.  He would go strictly to salary, but at least it would be more money.

Carleigh starts her new preschool tomorrow.  She is really excited about it.  We went to the grocery store yesterday to pick out different foods she would like me to pack in her lunches for the week.  It's such a change to pack her lunches for her since her previous preschool provided breakfast and lunch for us.  Her new preschool only provides morning/afternoon snacks and milk or juice for lunch.  Carleigh picked out a really cute Hello Kitty lunch bag, which I am sure she will want to show off to all of her new friends tomorrow.  I cannot wait to ask her about her day tomorrow when we pick her up after work.

Since Heath's car is out of service right now (it needs a new radiator), I will be dropping him off and picking him up from work for a couple of days this week.  The only positive I like about it is that he will be able to drop Carleigh off with me for her first day at the new preschool.  The negative?  Using all of my gas again.  Right when I got Carleigh to a new daycare where I don't have to use so much gas, I still have to drive in that direction to drop Heath off.  At least he works right off of the freeway I need to get to work.  His radiator should be here by Tuesday.  It's coming from Arizona.  So let's hope it shows up when it says it will so I don't have to play taxi.  Heath said he was going to use his floating holiday the company gave him for working so many hours last month to fix his car once the radiator arrives.

This post ended up being longer than I thought it would be.  Please send your good vibes for the conception of our second child.  Thank you!