Americanuck

Well, we are on the home stretch now. Sean’s surgery is scheduled for the week after this coming and in anticipation of his diet of milkshakes and other mushy things I went out and bought a milkshake maker. Yeah it’s a fugly green but whatever, I don’t expect it will last that long, I mean the sucker is made out of PLASTIC. I remember the days when small appliances were made out of metal. geesh.

It had it’s maiden voyage on Friday. I mean we HAD to try it our right? I was experimenting with the amount of milk vs. ice-cream and syrup and I think I got the right amount of thickness. Straws will be a no-no after the surgery as you don’t want to cause any stress to the surgical site, after all there will be stitches in there. I plan on adding some protein powder to the shakes and also supplement with ‘Boost’ or another type of meal replacement, of course also in liquid form.

I wonder how long it will take before the novelty of milkshakes, pudding, jell-o and all the pop you can drink will wear off. He’s gonna be off solids for a while anyway and even after that we’re talking scrambled eggs and fish as far as “solid” food goes. This boy despite appearances eats like a pig and constantly. I’m sure visions of pizza and Chinese food will be dancing in his head before long, not to mention chips and other snacky foods.

I’m also REALLY looking forward to my time off work, I have never taken three weeks in a row ever. The first week wasn’t planned, it was added on when Sean’s surgery was scheduled. We had really no idea when it was going to happen, it depended on how he progressed with his braces so in a way it was handy that it was scheduled around my already booked vacation as I would have had to have taken the time off after it anyway.

I’m just sorry that the vacation Sean is having with his family isn’t exactly fun and games. Well hopefully once he’s on his feet we can take some day trip to take photos around town, we all enjoy that. Depending on how he does and how well he heals up, once he goes over to his Father’s, Tom and I may try to sneak a few days away if we can find a good last-minute deal. If not, no big, we can try to swing something sometime in the future for the two of us. At least we had our vacation at Seascape on Monterey Bay in March. Ahhhh all that beachy goodness… *sigh*

I heard there was a nasty oil pipeline breach in Burnaby with oil spilling for ages out into roads, all over workers, nearby homes and cars. How insane! The saddest part is it also spilled into Burrard Inlet.

Was just reading about it online.

Gonna have to catch the news to see what’s what. Crazy.

Chris decided to treat himself with a new Ibanez E- guitar. He’s been really good with working and saving so moments like this are saaa-weet.

We went to the local music store and Chris was like a kid in the proverbial candy store. He stood gazing at the wall o’ guitars with that glazed look in his eyes. The guitar that caught my attention was this kind of smoke grey colour and quite stylin.. turns out it was 1500 bucks *choke* so we passed on that one. The guy at the store was asking Chris was type of music he plays and if he was into metal. Uh, that would be a yes. So he pointed out some guitars that were mid-range and I guess ‘metal’ friendly. He plugged him into an amp and set him loose.

There is only so much to do in one of those stores while you are waiting for a guitar junkie to find his latest fix and listening to the distortion from a teenager playing metal. While wandering I found the practice room for drum lessons. MAN! I have always loved the drums. I mean talk about therapy, bashing away at those things! Of course I have no idea if I would be any good at them but they look to be good fun.

Chris was kind enough to pass his older first guitar down to Sean who also developed an interest in playing this last year or so (he still has another guitar, I guess three was too many even for him). I’m super jealous of the fact that two of my offspring have the same musical talent that many of my aunts, uncles and even my sister has. Of course I still can’t play a note

Passiveagressivenotes.com has another winner in my book. It amazes me how far kitchen wars can go. Thank goodness there are people with a sense of humour out there.

Cheers!

We had the visit with the Maxillofacial surgeon today to get all the measuring, moulds and photos taken pre-op.

I realized I had my little portable camera AFTER Sean had those hilarious plastic cheek spoons (no idea what the official name is) that pull your lips and cheeks away from your gums in order for them to photograph your teeth and gums. I think Sean was grateful I didn’t remember and was already rolling his eyes at the fact I was in tears laughing at how silly he looked holding those with this gums and teeth all exposed.

They used a flavoured goo to make the teeth impressions and Sean spent about five minutes picking the residue out of his braces.

In another few weeks is the Orthognathic surgery. It sounds like it’s a fairly short operation and the surgeon says that the pain is no greater than that of surgical wisdom teeth removal, although of course as we are talking cut bones and bone plates and screws the healing will take a lot longer and there is more post-op care.

The one bright spot for Sean is post surgery they want him to take in as much sugar based liquid as he can hold until he can have the softer solid foods. This means all the ice-cream, shakes, pudding, jell-o, soft drinks etc he can handle 2-3 litres minimum a day. Holy sugar high Batman! The concern here is that he will lose weight post-operatively and he really doesn’t have any weight to spare. Too bad you can’t donate that eh?

These are ALL items banned or near banned on his braces diet so he’s quite chuffed about it. The assistant at the surgeons office said that will be the only time you will hear anyone that has to do with dentistry encourage that. Also there is no flossing as there is no solid food not to mention they said there would be too much swelling anyway.

So before all this goes down, he is supposed to try and put ON some weight and eat eat eat. I dunno, the boy already eats like it is going out of style. He out eats every one of us and he’s still sniffing around for snacks after dinner. The nurse was looking at us like we starved him or something. When she said he had to eat lots  Sean goes “That won’t be a problem, or rather ISN’T a problem!” She looks over at us to confirm that he’s telling the truth. “Oh yeah he eats a lot alright!!” we both say. She was probably thinking “Poor kid they probably starve him or something!”

He will be getting full on Mothering though so I will be keeping an eagle eye to make sure he does everything that he is told and get him well on his way to healing before school starts in Sept. It will take a good 4 months to completely heal and we were told that unless an infection develops the bone plates which are titanium will stay with him for life. He also promised they will not magnetise in case he ever needs any kind of scans later and they won’t set off anything at the airport.

I still hate the thought that my baby will be going through this!