Still Miles to Go

As you may have noticed, I’ve been mostly absent from the internet for over two weeks now. Following an internet snafu at our apartment that took far too long to remedy (thank you, Comcast…), I’m baaaack! And we are now the proud owners of a land-line with a Massachusetts phone number! Yahoo!

I must say that it was somewhat nice not having internet. I didn’t stress over e-mail or Facebook or even the weather. Whatever happened, happened. It’d still be there when I got the internet back. I was able to check for important e-mails and monitor bank accounts and the like by borrowing internet from friends every few days, but it was for minutes at a time and just for the essentials. It was almost as if I were back in the 1990s! And I loved it!

But now that I’m back, I’ll give you a brief update on the last 18 days, you know, in the few hours I wasn’t catching up on sleep! 😛

Sans internet for over two weeks, I…

1) Spent time with my brother, father, and grandfather. A week with three generations of Hertzogs is sure to drive anyone batty – excluding, perhaps, the last Hertzog girl.

2) Threw a rocking Baby Shower for a very special young woman.

3) Battled a nasty, week-long GI bug.

4) Developed aspiration pneumonia (again) from aforementioned GI bug.

5) Developed an infection at my tubie site (shocking my doc since I managed nearly 2 months sans infection!).

6) Started Domperidone (for GI motility) with no to very little success.

7) Began a 20-day course of antibiotics for aforementioned pneumonia and tubie infection with great success.

8 ) Initiated planning for an upcoming mito event (which is still under wraps).

9) Beat 3 new games for the Nintendo DS.

10) Went back to work with the most amazing 10-year-old after nearly 3 months off due to 40 days in the hospital and the ensuing long recovery.

11) Managed to keep my apartment clean despite the efforts of 4 not-so-clean boys!

12) Demonstrated how to start my TPN and tube feeds for my brother who has now deemed them “not so scary.”

13) Got hooked up to 5 more wires in the form of a holter monitor (portable EKG) for 48-hours to monitor my wonky heart.

14) Spent some much needed time with my sisters-at-heart, playing games, watching movies, listening to music, and just-plain-good-ol’ talking.

15) Finally reached my goal weight – the highest in YEARS! – thanks to Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) and 24-hour D5 (which is a solution that is 5% Dextrose, a sugar).

16) Played numerous rounds of Arkham Horror (a board game), Dominion (a card game), and Lego Rock Band (a video game) with my best friend and husband.

As you can see, I managed to keep myself quite busy. But now I’m back and there is so much to be done. I’m not sure where to start, but I think taking a deep breath is high on that list.