perspective

perspective, originally uploaded by andyrobe.

on our way to florida. made it to birmingham al. for the night. more details later. off to bed.

CO OP

CO OP, originally uploaded by andyrobe.

just working at ProSource today with Tim. cleaning floors and moving displays. i am aching to take some pictures up here, but our cameras are either battery dead or still packed up. soon enough though i guess, we'll get to it. we unpacked all our clothes and everything else last night, everything but my computer. it's so nice to not be living out of boxes and suitcases. too bad we will just have to pack it all up again in less than two months. moving sucks. we leave for florida tomorrow around noon or so. i will definitely have charged the cameras by then. gotta go move tile around...

we made it to indiana. but we all have colds. yucky icky colds. so that's no fun. but it's wednesday and we leave for florida on friday! so that's good news. now if we could just get to our boxes of clothes. the trailer that has all our stuff is stuck in a field that got three and a half inches of rain last night. so we are waiting on a four wheeler to rescue our stuff. and i have been wearing the same pair of pants for a week. so boo on that.

my daughter eats more than i do

don't worry. i'm still alive. but i'm not quite sure how. except for the love of my wife and the incredible power of demerol. i don't really remember much at all of the last week of my life. i remember the pain. and the swelling. and the blood. and snot. and blood. and snot. and pain. i remember constantly feeling like i could vomit at any time. i remember my nose completely packed. therefore the only method of breathing available to me was through my mouth. this was terrible for two reasons. first, obviously, being that i just had my throat sliced and diced and was thus swollen and raw. second, my mouth was dry. and dry doesn't even describe it. open your mouth for a minute or so. you know how dry it feels, and how you get that nasty film coating over your teeth and gums and tongue and lips and throat and everything. now multiply that wonderful feeling by a week. a whole week of a mouth so dry, so nasty, so painful that i was honestly beginning to loose my mind over it. i remember that by friday, popping the lortabs and percocets just wasn't cutting it anymore. so for the weekend i lived on demerol, 50 mg, every 4 hours, day and night, from friday through tuesday. and it still felt like i had strep throat on a bad day with no painkillers. i couldn't swallow, couldn't breathe, couldn't talk without tremendous pain. i lived everyday off a few sips of water, and maybe 6 oz of yogurt. anything else was simply unbearable. yesterday was my first day out of the house, and it wore me out. today was my first day alone taking care of finley. amazingly i made it without passing out or hemorrhaging. yesterday i was finally able to drink more water and a milkshake or two. it still hurt, a lot. but at least it was possible now. today has been about the same. food is still out of the question. anything thicker than ice-cream feels like swallowing a cactus. and i have no motivation to force the food down. mostly because everything (EVERYTHING) tastes like snot, dissolved nasal packing, and iron (maybe from the blood). so it's just not worth it. i'm sure i'll get my taste back, maybe even better than before. it just might take a while. This week has been terrible, but i certainly don't regret it. it has been worth it already. on monday, one week after the procedure. i had my first post-op visit with dr. zajonc. (rhymes with science). he took the gauze off my nose, clipped the stitches in my nostrils and pulled out the plastic stints. the packing that he had stuffed my nasal cavity with had dissolved throughout the week (running down my throat, choking me, tasting like death, helping me lose my mind) he took a tool, much like the spit-sucker at the dentist office, and sucked the remaining snot and packing out. i could feel it pulling all the way from my throat. he finished and told me to close my mouth. now breathe in he said. i did. and i did. through both nostrils, which i have never previously been able to do in my whole life. and it's only improved since then.

so i can breathe. i just hope i can eat by the time we make it to florida. i crave food so badly right now. and all the ice-cream, yogurt, milk-shakes, and pudding you can eat is really overrated!

ouchy

well here i am. feeling a little better. not bleeding as much. drinking and eating more. Larry, Christy, and K brought dinner. it was amazing. i only ate half a slice of meatloaf, half a scoop of mashed potatoes, and some pudding. but it was so good. Thanks friends! I guess i am still kinda loopy. apparently my mom and sis came by today, i don't remember much of that. I also don't remember putting that last post up... but i did. but thanks to everyone who has called or come by. i realize i am just a zombie sitting on the couch, but it's nice to know that people still want to be around.

morning air (breathe)

morning air (breathe), originally uploaded by andyrobe.

i am sore as hell. the pain pills are working quite well, i feel like all i've done the last 24 hours is sleep (and bleed). i am feeling better today though. I was so so out of it yesterday. i actually do remember coming out of the surgery this time, unlike when i had my wisom teeth removed and I don't remember anything until the next morning rolled around. so here i sit on the couch, in a drug induced state, with the driest mouth i've ever had (cause i can't breathe at all through my nose for all the packing, and stints and bandages) a really sore throat, and blood dripping down my throat and out of my nose. what a life!

Surgery

This is Crystal, posting for Andrew, who is currently passed out, recovery from major surgery on his nose and tonsils.

Warning: The following pictures are rather graphic, but Andrew asked me to post them, so you all could see the process in which he heals.

This first picture is a BEFORE picture that I took of Andrew's nose, prior to surgery today



This next picture is a close up of his tonsils. Pretty gross, huh?

Now, this is what Andrew looks like under his bandages. It's pretty nasty. I have to change them every 2 hours or so. I think it looks like he got in a fight. I told him I always wanted a man who would fight for me!

Here's after I cleaned him up a bit. Check out the bloody goo that constantly drips from his nostrils. Awesome, isn't it?

Here's a side view of the new nose. I think it looks different.
Here's another bloody shot. He looks out of it, mainly because he is!

Thanks to everyone who kept Andrew and our family in your prayers. Please continue to pray for quick healing!

fire on the mountain... run boys run...

so we came home tonight to find the mountain in our back yard on fire. Supposedly (supposably) it's not threatening any houses. but it's also not a controlled fire, and it is on steep terrain therefore difficult to fight. it's a little frightening.



this is the view from our back porch. check out the notes on my flickr to get the perspective. (www.flickr.com/photos/andrewshawn)

this one was taken by one of my flickr buddies (http://www.flickr.com/photos/hogslopper/) from the cherokee elementary school parking lot.

in the news...

http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2008-05-07-0032.html

all in a day's work

all in a day's work, originally uploaded by andyrobe.

found this in an old set of pictures i had taken at the end of last summer. i remember driving out through the country and how dry everything was. it hadn't rained in weeks. i've been playing around with a watermark. what do you think of it. anyone...

willow springs park

Finley and I went for a much needed trip to the park yesterday. It was such a beautiful warm day and we had a lot of fun.