Sean and Ashley celebrated their first wedding anniversary on March 21st. They left for Southport on Friday, March 19th, and came back on Tuesday, March 23rd. It was a little cool (60s) and rained or drizzled a few times, but they enjoyed their time away. I'm glad they did, but I'm more glad that they were safe. As a mother, I always worry.
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Easter was April 4th. Possibly my favorite holiday. I feel like the older I get, the more I love it. Thankfully, the weather was gorgeous. Temperatures in the low to mid 70s and clear, Carolina blue skies. I went to church (as did my mom, Sean, and Ashley), but Charlie stayed home to avoid the possibility of being exposed to covid (which would delay his surgery) and Kelly stayed home with him. I was sad not to have them with me. Easter would've been perfect if they had been.
As for what I wore, this was probably the cheapest Easter ever. lol (Except for the year when I didn't buy anything.) I paid $17, before shipping and tax, for an Anne Klein dress off of eBay, around $20, give or take before shipping and tax, for a pair of heels from Amazon, and about $20 before tax for a straw purse from TJ Maxx. The purse I wanted was about $40 at DSW, but they were sold out. :-/ I wore an ivory/beige Calvin Klein shrug that I've had for about 10 years or so. So I spent probably less than $75 total. That's less than what I've paid for just a dress. lol Poshmark, eBay, and Mercari have made me kind of cheap now when it comes to what I pay for clothes and shoes. lol
I love this dress!
This ended up being too small. I struggled to fit the absolute necessities in it - driver's license, debit card, a little cash, my little iPod, a bottle of medicine, Tic Tacs, a pen, my cell phone, and my keys.
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Charlie went to Wesley Long on Monday, April 5th, for his covid test. Which was negative. Then his surgery was on Thursday, April 8th, at Moses Cone. It was supposed to start at 2:00 and take 3 hours, but they didn't start until almost 3:00 and were done between 4:30 and 4:45.
I was in the waiting area on the 2nd floor/main entrance floor from about noon (we arrived shortly before that) until around 4:00. It was a noisy waiting room. It's open to the main hall/concourse that goes from the main entrance to several rooms, elevators, stairways, and branches/hallways. So there was a lot of foot traffic and some people were pushing carts and things. Plus, every couple minutes someone's cell phone would go off. (I had my phone on silent.) And a few people in the waiting area were having conversations. I felt like my brain was being assaulted.
I had passed the time reading a book (Days of Danger by Jack Hunt), getting on Facebook on my phone, dozing off, and just looking around. When my stomach started growling around 4:00, I went down to the first floor to get something from Panera. I ordered a pepperoni flatbread pizza (it was alright) and a bottle of water.
That area of the hospital was much quieter. I sat at a table near the windows across from Panera and enjoyed this more peaceful area. I was about halfway through eating my food when I got a text (they had been keeping me informed this way throughout the day) after 4:30 telling me that Charlie was out of surgery and was being taken to recovery. The doctor called shortly after that and left a message saying that everything went really well. He removed the bad part of Charlie's intestines and the rest looked great.
A few minutes later, I went back up to the waiting area where I had been. They said they were going to move him to a room in about an hour, but that didn't happen. I may have dozed off a time or two while I waited.
Sometime after 6:00, they said that they should be moving Charlie to a room soon and that I could go to the waiting area on the 6th floor. I was there for about an hour when they texted me again and said that he didn't have a room yet, but that I could come to recovery to see him since visiting hours would be over in less than an hour. So, back to the second floor I went.
A nurse named Mackenzie (don't know how she spelled her name) met me outside the doors near the bigger waiting area where I'd spent most of the day and walked me to recovery to see Charlie. I spent less than 30 minutes with him before I had to leave.
Charlie was in the hospital until this past Sunday. Of course, I went to see him every day. He was in quite a bit of pain (he said an 8 out of 10) and had some periods of nausea every day. Sean came to see him once or twice and our pastor spent a few minutes with him.
The day Charlie came home, he had texted me late that morning saying he expected to get out some time after 1:00. I got in the shower shortly after that text and while I was in the shower he texted again saying he could leave right then. He then texted Sean (since I didn't respond) in a group text with me and Sean went to get him. I had just stepped out of the shower when I saw that Sean was leaving to get him.
Charlie has been sleeping in a recliner in the living room since getting home. He tried to sleep in our bed his first night home, but it was too painful to lie flat. He wasn't in the bed a minute before I had to help him up so he could sleep in a recliner. He tried again tonight/last night, but it's still a bit too painful. I told him it hasn't even been a week yet since his surgery and not to rush things.
He can go back to work in 2 weeks as long as he doesn't do any heavy lifting.
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Sean's 24th birthday was April 9th. I hate that we couldn't spend the day with him since Charlie was in the hospital and of course I was with Charlie. Charlie had taken Sean to play golf a couple times before his surgery, so I guess that was Sean's birthday gift from us. I gave him a birthday card from us. Actually, Sean came to the hospital on his birthday for a few minutes, so I sang "happy birthday" to him in Charlie's hospital room. I'm pretty sure Ashley made him a cake.
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On Monday, Charlie wanted to go with me to get groceries so that he could do some walking. I also had to go to Petsmart to get filters for Loki's cat fountain. (The one on Wendover didn't have it and neither did Petco on Wendover. I found it at the Petsmart on Lawndale.) I told him that if it got to be too much that he should go sit in the car. He did fine though. We went to the pet supply stores first and then to Cugino Forno for pizza (we were the only ones there) before getting groceries at Food Lion and Walmart.
He wants to go tomorrow to buy new flooring for the house from Home Depot. We had decided on which one we wanted before his surgery, but they were sold out. I filled in my email address on the website and they emailed me a few days later saying that it's back in stock. Hopefully it still will be when we go tomorrow.
We also have to go to the vet to get one of Milo's medicines and the pet pharmacy to get his other medicine.
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~*~Nocturnal Queen~*~
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