the letter B

B is for-
Boys- I have the blessing of being mom to the two best boys in the world.
As a preschool teacher, the naughty, ornery boy was my favorite to teach.I loved the challenge, I loved their curiosity.
Blessings- I have so many. My family, my friends, my home, my car, we eat good food every day. We have access to good medical care, I have a hobby I love, and so does each member of my family.
bath and body works- warm vanilla sugar
bread machine- love to make rolls, and warm pretzels.
baby animals- aren't they cute??
baskets- I love baskets!
butter- real butter, no margerine here!!
bassett hounds- joels favorite dog

I also wanted to blog a bit about my dh. This is the one year anniversary of his heart surgery.
After an average weekend morning of yardwork, chores ect, my dh came in and ate lunch. Shortly after that, we came home from picking up a fish tank for my youngest ds. My dh was helping carry it in and he said he needed to rest. I thought he was messing around w/ me because he was not really in favor of this fish tank. He sat down, and drank some water, and told me he was really having trouble. I went and sat next to him, and he was very clammy and agitated. We called an ambulance, and they rushed him to our local hospital.
There, they were monitoring him because his symptoms were indicitive of either a heart attack or a diabetic shock. Every test was normal though, and my dh was still in extreme pain, and said he could not see. They decided to do a CAT scan to see if there was any damage to the aorta.Bingo.
He had an ascending aortic dissection ( a tear in the upper aorta). You have three walls to the vessel, and two were split. If the third splits, he dies immediately. This is the condition that killed John Ritter, and I firmly believe that his death brought awareness to this condition, that was formerly not even thought about in emergency rooms since it is fairly rare.
He was airlifted to University Medical Center, which is one of two heart hospitals in our state. The hospital is about an hr from our local hospital. My mom and dad met me, for my dad to take the boys, and for my mom to come with me.
My dh "refused" to go into surgery until I could tell him that is what he should do. His wonderful, wonderful icu nurse hooked up a phone so he could talk to me. He does not remember the flight or my phone call, but he agreed to go into surgery w/o me being there.I got there about an hour after they started the surgery.
We waited anxiously during the 6 hr surgery. His nurse came out occasionally to let us know how it was going.
His doctor, who we later learned was the top heart surgeon in this state, came out later to tell us " Your husband almost died but he is fine now" LOL- that was all he had to say.
A few hours later they let us see him, and then they said that they would be keeping him sedated the rest of the day and night. My mom and I went home so I could get my meds and to make further arrangements.
His recovery took a long time, much longer than we had expected. He almost died twice more, and was in a medically induced coma for 2 weeks. He got a nasty bacterial infection and it was just yukky all around. He had the best care imaginable,and everyone at the hospital, from the cafeteria employees, the houskeeping staff, to the doctors were all helpful and extrememly kind.
He came home on New Years day, and he still does not remember most of the first two weeks at home( due to pain meds). He was off work for 3 more months, and then went back PT, and eventually back to full time. We have had a very tough time financially this year ( nothing like being out of work and having extensive medical bills to do that to a one income family,lol), but I still feel like his care was a bargin, and that we are so blessed to all still be here this year.