Thursday, March 10, 2011

Actual Surgery- Mandibular Cyst

The Girl had her surgery two weeks ago.  It took three days before she was willing to let me take her picture with chipmunk cheek, which formed the next morning.  She also got a nice purpley-green bruise, which has just about faded away now.

The surgery was very quick and uneventful.  We left the house at 5:31 a.m. (yipes!) had a tough snowy drive down there, and were on our way home by 8:15.  I was able to stay long enough to see them put the laughing gas mask on her (think big blue clown nose with tubes) and the cannula in her arm, and then I had to leave.  I don't think the procedure took more than 20 minutes, though.  When I came back in, they had moved her to a curtained recovery chair. She was seeing double, as they had said she would, and was pretty panicky.  She just kept asking over and over again whether it was over already, and had they put the stitches in, and were they going to do anything else, and were the stitches already in, and was there anything else, and how was it over so fast...I had to try hard not to laugh.  She also had a gob of gauze in her mouth and didn't know it, making her really hard to understand.  When I finally convinced her to stop talking to me and rest, she went back to sleep for 15 minutes.When she awoke again, I knew she felt better because her eyes were clear.
Then the doctor came in to tell us what he found, which was...nothing!  No cyst.  Only an air pocket and a little clear fluid.  There was nothing to send to pathology for testing.  The tooth came out whole, so the surgery was uncomplicated, and he just scraped the bone to encourage bone regrowth, and stitched her up.
I am not sure how I feel about this.  On the one hand, I wish he could have aspirated the area first and found out that it was air, and then perhaps we could have saved the tooth.  It's hard to reconcile myself to putting her through all that, when there was nothing there, but apparently we couldn't have known that.  It makes me wonder what the CT Scan report said, but I looked at those scans myself, and something was there.  So, is it a healing?  Maybe.  Basically the doctor treated it as if it were the worst possible type of cyst, and it wasn't that.  I am thankful because she won't have to have the follow-up x-rays as often as he originally said.  We will get one in 6 months, and go from there. 

After the surgery, we had a harrowing ride home in the snow.  I took Todd's little car because mine is no good in the snow, but I still didn't like the ride.  The  roads looked as if they hadn't been plowed, even when I was traveling 1/4 mile behind a snowplow.  The ride took almost 2 hours, including a stop at McDonalds for a smoothie for her (without a straw!) and some breakfast for me.  I was so happy to get home, but the car got stuck in the driveway when I stopped to put up the garage door.  Then, after I rocked it back and forth in the snow to get it into the garage ever so carefully, I heard the hiss of all the air leaving the front tire.  Of all the places to get a flat tire, I think one's own garage is the best!  Last Monday, we canceled the Girl's recheck on the surgery because of another blizzard, and then it snowed last night and this morning!  Now, it has rained all day (sounds like freezing rain now), and will rain all day tomorrow too.  Tomorrow is the new appointment for follow-up.  I hope it is the end of the story.  For our next adventure, we get spacers for orthodontic work on Monday.

Edit 4/7/11- The actual name for the cyst is "traumatic bone cyst," which is really no cyst at all. We'll have a follow-up x-ray in 6 months at the dentist's office.  

Sunday, March 6, 2011

History of the World with Veggie Tales

Todd and I invested in our first Veggie Tale before The Sleeping Giant was born.  It was 1997 and some friends were playing their theme song during a bonfire, and told us about them...singing, talking veggies with no hands.  I didn't quite get what the fuss was about, but a few months later we were at the Christian Book Distributors warehouse sale and picked one up for $9.99.  It was the Very Silly Sing-Along.  The next one we acquired was "Rack, Shack and Benny," and I still remembered how horrified I was when I thought they had botched the ending! 
As the years went on, we developed quite the collection of these videos on VHS Tape.  We were big fans.  In fact, when we briefly lived in Chicagoland Todd sent an application to work at Big Idea.  I took a class at Wheaton College with Scottie May, their educational Consultant and one of the creator's mothers.
Somewhere along the line, our collection began to convert to DVD, of course.  After Jonah, the company was no longer owned by Christians and we became slightly less enthusiastic. 
Then, we sold our house in 2007 and began our life as nomads.  In order to downsize, we put all the VHS Veggie Tales into a box at Grandma's house, and out all of our DVD's into big binders without their cases.  I did ask for DVD's for Christmas to replace the VHS's, but it never happened because there were always new ones coming out instead.  Suddenly last year I realized that our deprived younger kids weren't following our quotable lines because they'd rarely seen a classic Veggie Tale:  The Mayor didn't remember the ones he'd seen before the move (he was 4), and the poor Princess had never seen them.

So this year when we began our study of history, beginning at the beginning and focusing largely on the Israelites, I took advantage of the opportunity to reintroduce Bob and Larry.  I've missed a few, but I've been trying to use the videos to include the Princess in our "studies" by showing them at the right time.  I thought the other day that I would share the list in case someone else wanted to do this, and wasn't as familiar with the Classics (read "as much of a dinosaur") as I am.  Hopefully, it helps me not take school too seriously to include some Silly Songs here and there.

Abe and the Amazing Promise tells of Abraham and Sarah.
The Ballad of Little Joe brings the Israelites into Egypt.  Next, watch just a portion of Duke and the Great Pie War which includes a story of Moses and Miriam.  Save the Petunia story for later.
Next comes Moe and the Big Exit~ the Exodus.

Josh and the Big Wall occurs during the Wandering in the desert.

Gideon, Tuba Warrior is set in the period of the Judges.
Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush makes reference to this time period.
Dave and the Giant Pickle stars a young King David.  Now you can watch the rest of Duke and the Great Pie War, which tells the story of Ruth.
King George and the Ducky gives an interesting treatment of the touchy subject of adultery/polygamy.
Next, you'll want to watch Jonah, who was a missionary to the neighboring, conquering kingdom of Assyria. 

Rack, Shack and Benny and Where's God when I'm Scared? are both set in the book of Daniel, when the Jews were living in Babylon.
And finally, we just watched Esther, which is set in the Persian Empire. 
When we get to Jesus, we could watch some parables in action in Are You My Neighbor? and An Easter Carol. 
Next year, when we study the Vikings, we might watch Lyle the Kindly Viking.  And in Sumo of the Opera there's a brief bio of St. Patrick appropriate for this time of year or during our study of the Celts. 
So, you can do a crash course in Jewish History with just these videos.  As a side note, I really believe in studying history chronologically.  It has added rhyme and reason to our studies.  Enjoy!