and then this happened...

you would've thought that having a newborn would be enough excitement for one family to handle, but apparently not in the McCool house. just 12 days after Miss Pink exploded out of my belly, i started to notice a stiffness in my elbow. i just assumed it was part of the new "mom arm" i was acquiring from the constant feeding and carrying, but once the pain started and the swelling...yikes! i like to think i'm pretty tough, but after letting it go for a few days, it was obvious i had to do something other than popping the leftover pain meds from the c-section.

after a call to a friend (who just happens to be family with an orthopedist) we were immediately on our way to get some answers. the first diagnosis was severe arthritis (aka tennis elbow), but even the doctor wasn't 100% on that. he knew it didn't look right, and just having had a baby just complicated things. i was sent home with instructions for ice and ibuprofen. well, a couple days later the swelling and pain just got immensely worse. it was to the point where i couldn't hold Miss Pink, i couldn't burp her, i couldn't change a diaper, i couldn't even get myself dressed. my arm was so jacked up, and did i forget to mention that on top of the pain and swelling, my arm was pretty much immobile. so, after another call to the doctor, we were off for an x-ray (which didn't see much) and then for a MRI. i'm going to skip over the MRI description, because it was by far the most painfully horrific experience i have ever endured. still with no answers to what was going on, we headed to an E-care place to get some blood work done. well, i guess i looked pretty bad, because after 3 hours at the E-care place i was put in an ambulance and shipped off to the closest hospital.

i'm not going to lie, i was pretty damn scared at this point. not knowing what's going on with your body is pretty scary, especially when you have a 2 week old baby at home. the first night in the hospital wasn't so bad, except for the constant monitoring from the nurses, having to get up and pump & dump (just another painful thing to do with a 2 week old) every couple hours, and the constant beeping from machines. i was seen by 3 different doctors, an internal medicine doc, an orthopedic surgeon, and the infectious disease guy. talk about fun times. the consensus was that i had some kind of infection, but no one knew what kind or from what. i stayed on IV antibiotics for the next 4 days. by the end of the week, the surgeon said they were going in to surgically drain the fluid from my arm and remove and infected areas. what the what?! exactly what i said.

let's just say that surgery went extremely well. they removed the bursa from my elbow, which was the most infected area. i was told it was septic bursitis and cellulitis, but still no clue how i got it. after a few more days of IV antibiotics, the swelling finally went down. i spent 7 days in the hospital from some freak unknown infection. i was away from my family for a week, and it wasn't even a vacation. you know you've been in a hospital too long when the food there actually starts to taste decent. i will say that i was lucky to have the best family a girl could ask for. my mom was here, my mother-in-law came, and my sister left her own family to come take care of mine. and i can't forget the awesome group of friends who also helped take care of my family. i might have been eating some fabulous watered down mashed potatoes, but the rest of my gang was happily eating some well prepared meals from some very caring friends. 

i've been home for a couple weeks now, but it's been tough getting back into the swing of things. surgery alone is tough to recover from (and don't forget i just had a c-section a couple weeks before this), but then throw in a newborn and 3 active boys...WTF?! wonder what the rest of the year has to offer...

this week in sports...

here i go again...completing slacking in the upkeep of the blog. i'll keep it short, but there were a few highlights from the last week or so...

P-Donculous started off baseball season with a huge win for their first game...20-3! since it was the first game, we're going to say it was a bit of luck that they completely blew the other team away, and they only played 4 innings. in our small town baseball is kind of a big deal, so they have this huge opening ceremonies shindig where all the teams from t-ball on up to the big leagues take over the ball field. they announce all the teams and have them run the field. it's really kind of cute, but when there are over 500 kids playing baseball, it takes a long time to get all of them out on the field.

in the same weekend we also had to squeeze in a soccer game for C. his season has been going on for a while now, but i took this shot and had to post it. this is a typical play for him. he's become known for 2 things 1) being king of the slide tackle and 2) crazy headers. please take note of how high white boy has jumped and how high is hair reaches off his head. it's almost time to put a ponytail in that mop!

last week was another crazy weekend. on top of the usual soccer games i decided running a relay in the Dallas Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon would be fun. my mom flew in and ran the other half of the relay. i'll have to admit, we make a pretty good relay team. i almost feel guilty about making her run the first half, which was entirely uphill. we made excellent time and finished in 1:49:09 (it would've been a little faster if i hadn't stopped for a beer around mile 10). according to the results we ended up finishing 3rd in the lady relay division...not too shabby...

hating on the elf...

i normally won't post about silly little things, but for some reason this really bothered me. it seems there is a little backlash towards the Elf on the Shelf. i've been seeing quite a bit of re-posts of a certain person's blog (that i'm not even going to bother re-posting). apparently there are those out there that are offended by the antics of some little elves. how can you be offended that some people just like to put the extra effort in to having fun with their kids during the holidays? as you can tell, i'm on the side of the "over achieving elf on the shelf mommies". our elf, Rex, likes to get into trouble. he may not be mischievous everyday, but he does know how to have a good time. the kids really get a kick out of getting up every morning to see what he's been up to the night before. i feel sorry for the kids whose parents aren't really into it. if they don't enjoy the antics of the elf, then why did the elf come visit their house in the first place?

how can you not find the humor and fun in something so simple? even if your elf rummages through your underwear drawer and replaces your stockings with the family skivvies....get over it people and quit being so crabby, it is the holidays after all...

World Series...

there's no question that The Husband is a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan, so baseball season this year has been quite interesting to follow. when the Cards made it to the World Series, he was on the prowl for scoring tickets to a game. well, leave it to my husband to not only make it to one game of the series, but 3, yes 3! he was on a work trip in Arkansas last week, where he then proceeded to rent a car and drive to St. Louis. he met his brother and picked up his Grandma (serious Cardinals fan) and went to game 1. he stayed around for game 2, where he managed to get himself noticed on the t.v., and then came home.

well, today is game 5, and sure enough he drove the older boys down to Arlington to "try" and get tickets. and would you believe he just called to tell me that he got tickets?! and by got tickets, i mean he scored FREE tickets. how in the hell he managed that i don't even know, but apparently a very wealthy man found my husband and 2 boys quite charming in their Cardinals gear...

52 weeks