Anesthesia

An = without. Aesthesia = sensation.

Anesthesia = without sensation.

I. Do. Not. Like. Anesthesia.

It frrrrrreaks me out.

It has to be about as near dead as you can get without actually being dead.

With a mere mortal pumping you full of poison and holding your life in their hands. Ooh heart rate is dropping, just add a dash of this poison medicine to bring it up a smidge. Oops blood pressure is a leetle low, just add a splash of this poison medicine to even it out a bit. Okey-dokey the ventilator is giving this near dead person just the right amount of oxygen to keep him alive. All done, Surgeon? OK here's an itsy bit of this stuff to *poof* wake this person right up!

Does this not freak anyone else out???

We are fallible humans by design. Yes, even anesthesiologists are humans. Shhh, don't tell them though. And humans can and do make mistakes.

I understand that anesthesia allows doctors to do things they never could do in the olden days. The olden days when leeches provided "bloodletting" treatment as a sort of cure-all for illnesses, including asthma, convulsions, cancer, indigestion, scurvy, and tuberculosis for example. The olden days when people had surgery while awake because there was NO anesthesia. Gruesome.

Did you know leeches can drink 7 or 8 times their weight in blood?

The second most popular cure-all of the olden days was several glasses of wine. Now THAT kind of medicine I still practice today ;o)

I know anesthetics are a blessing. Lives are saved because of long, delicate operations that never ever ever would have been performed prior to anesthesia. Not with any sort of positive outcome anyway.

Our munchkins are having dental work done under general anesthesia. This happens at the outpatient surgery center in a regular ol' operating room. (D is done, S is scheduled in a few weeks.) We are grateful because the munchkins will be spending lots of time with our dentist and orthodontist and we only want them to remember positive experiences. Not remembering having their mouths cranked wide open while the dentist drilled and filled 5 cavities is a-OK by me.

And lip and palate surgery is sort of an anesthetics-required sort of thing, eh?

That being said, the near-death experience of anesthesia still freaks me out.

Melodramatic-shmelodramatic. Whatevah.

Anyhoo, when I know anyone who is going in for any type of surgery I always pray for the doctors. I start praying the day before so the doctors are well rested. I pray when I wake up for the doctors to be healthy and clear-thinking and that God will use their hands as His instruments. I pray more for the doctors before and more for the patient after...

So being the surgery-phobe that I am... this being the Mama to two munchkins who need multiple surgeries gig is helping me practice old fashioned cure-all wine therapy stretching me a bit.

I find that I am leaning more and more into the One who loves us beyond what our little brains can imagine. I first heard "Let Go, Let God" in Al-Ateen... long ago and long before I was a Christian. All we have to do is let go of our worries, let go of our need for control, let go of our fears, and let God do His work in our lives. Easy to say. Lots of work to do.

I find that because I have to consciously let go of my worries and fears including those about anesthesia, that I talk to God more. I think about God more because I am paying attention to turning it over to Him. Letting it go and letting God handle it. Remembering that His love is so big and complete. For me, it keeps me leaning into Him.

Give God the glory, for all that is good is a gift given with love from Him.

Even anesthesia.

(((hugs))),
chris

Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

Just a Little Funny Fer Ya

I am madly in love with my police officer husband....

(((hugs))),

chris

To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God.   Ecclesiastes 5:19b

A Beautiful Boy - video

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=FCJ2CMNU

(((hugs))),

chris

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
      and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
      Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
      as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.       Psalm 139:13-15

Dreaming of Gardening...

When we moved into our current house three years ago, we said goodbye to our big beautiful cheaper than a therapist vegetable garden. Our new house came with beautiful landscaping in the front, a big deck in the back with a pergola, a pond & waterfall, but there was this funky piece of lawn on the west side of the house. It sat between two six-foot privacy wing fences - one from the front wall of our house to the edge of the property, and the other from the back wall of our house to the edge of the property. It was sort of a head-scratcher as to what the purpose of this little manicured, landscaped area was for. We decided to make the back wing fence into a picket fence (*poof*) and turn the green lawn into a vegetable garden (*blam*). So this is how it looks in the winter:

The sleeping garden

Jason with his magical *poof* and *blam* abilities built the raised beds and the picket fence and set up the sprinkler system, and even moved rocks (I haaaaaate moving rocks) to make a compost pile and a couple extra small growing areas. I call those the crop circles hehe. I wasn't sure what to use for mulch in between the beds. Rocks or wood chips would wash down the slope in the rain... I decided we should use green indoor/outdoor carpet in between the beds. It does look a little weird did take some getting used to aesthetically, but it does the job of suppressing weeds and doesn't slide around at all. I expect it will hold up for it's third season this year just fine. Not bad for a $30 investment, eh?

As soon as the holidays are over the seed companies have the most perfect timing by keeping our mailbox full of seed catalogs so I can start dreaming of next season's garden. In the meantime I feed the critters in the yard.

One of our well-fed fat squirrels

Check out this Coopers' Hawk ~ probably waiting for a little bird to come to that feeder...

So our plan this year is to grow the following:

• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Peppers - bell & hot
• Bush beans
• Garlic
• Onions
• Carrots
• Radishes
• Kale
• Dry beans (first time trying this) - both pole & bush varieties
• Zucchini
• Snap peas
• Cucumbers
• Raspberries (I want to add more - shhh don't tell my hubby)
• Melons
• Th-th-that's all folks

I usually grow lots of winter squash like spaghetti and acorn and butternut but decided this year to skip a year to rotate squash out of the garden so we don't get squash-loving bugs. I'll have the melons and cucs (those are squash cousins) and zucchini in another area of our yard.

We also have two pear trees and two apple trees. For the first two years, we grew lots of apples but the bugs and the squirrels got them. The first year we saw no fruit on the pear trees. The people who owned the house before us told us that the other two trees were peach trees, so imagine our surprise when a handful of pears grew the second year! Surprise! Late frosts must have killed the pear flower buds in those first two years. Last year we got smart and sprayed for bugs, and got a huge crop of pears. Some of you may remember my post that included the munchkins eating pears. For some reason we didn't get any apples last year, but I learned that skipping a year can happen in fruit-world. We'll spray again this year for sure, and wait and see if it is a pear-year or an apple-year at our house.

I'm heading outside to cut back the perennials now. Feeling the need to get my hands dirty :o)

(((hugs))),
chris


For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:13