The quarantine continues...

 This was another week on quarantine. Toni still has to go to the office because her job is considered essential. I've been working from home and the girls have been doing school through Google Classroom. It's really crazy times that we're living in.. Thursday I went to the dermatologist for my follow up. She's happy with how the cyst is clearing up and said that it may take a few more months for the swelling to clear up completely. If there's any change, I'll need to go back. While I was there, she was able to remove the age spot on my face. As you can see in the pictures, it's very dark right now and looks like it's scabbing over. Hopefully sometime this week the scab will come off and the mark will be gone. The procedure to remove it wasn't bad. She used liquid nitrogen which wasn't bad at first but the longer it took, the more it started hurting.

Today Toni gave me a haircut. My hair has been thinning and receding over the last several years and I decided that I'm no longer going to deal with it or worry about it. Toni gave me a buzzcut using a #1 guard and I think eventually I'll just take it all off with no guard on the clippers. Toni likes the new look and enjoyed giving me the haircut. It was a cool bonding experience.

Last night I introduced the girls to The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of The Ring. We watched the movie and they really enjoyed it. We'll have to watch the other other 2 soon.

In other news, Toni was recognized on Instagram by her employer for 20 years of service. Take a look at the picture to see what they wrote. I still can't believe she's been with the company for 20 years!

Everyone here is doing good health wise. The only weird this is that my heart palpitations have suddenly returned. I'm going to start keeping track of everything I'm eating to see if I can figure out what's causing them. Since I've already gone in for heart tests and they said there's no problem and the palpitations aren't anything to worry about, I'm not going to worry too much. But they are a pain. I hope everyone has a great week and stays safe!

Shut Down...

These are crazy times we're in for sure.. This week was the second week of Spring Break for the girls. During the week the school announced that the school would be shut down indefinitely and that teaching would move online. My job also announced that the university would be working from until further notice.. People are hoarding toilet paper grocery stores are empty. I never thought I'd see something like this in my life. So far, we're doing good. We've got enough food to last for a while and should be ok. There will definitely be an adjustment time but we'll get through it. Other than that, this week I have a followup appointment with the Dermatologist for my cyst. The infection seems to be gone but it's still kind of puffy so I don't know if they'll need to drain it again or not. If they don't drain it, I'll have them remove the age spot from my face that I've had for a while now. I hope everyone has a great week and stays safe.

Spring Break

So this week was supposed to be a nice vacation week for us. We had planned on going to a hotel called The Antlers Inn that had train cars converted to rooms. We were planning on going to a nearby vineyard and exploring some caves. Unfortunately that didn't happen. On Monday we started the day going to my followup with the Dermatologist. She drained the cyst again and said that the actual cyst itself looks like it broke down and surgery won't be necessary. I have to continue taking antibiotics for a couple more weeks and then go back on the 26th for another followup. It's been nice to be able to sit and lay down without pain. There is still a small lump but it seems to be clearing up and doesn't look as red as it had been. Surprisingly the culture that they ran on the drainage came back with no infection. The Doctor was kind of shocked by that. Hopefully the remaining swelling will continue to go away and it will be 100% healed soon. If she doesn't have to drain it again I'm going to have an age spot removed from my face during my next appointment. I had her look at it and she said it's nothing to worry about but I'd rather get it removed. It should be pretty quick and painless.

The rest of the week we really didn't do too much. On Wednesday Toni had a Doctor appointment so while she was doing that I took the girls to Best Buy where Caitlin got herself a clicky gaming keyboard that she had been wanting for a long time. She had been saving her money for a while and she's very happy with her new keyboard. On Thursday she went in to have 4 baby teeth pulled. She was initially very nervous but she was able to stay calm and did great. After it was over I told her how impressed I was with how well she did and she told me that the reason she did so well was because there were no needles involved. When I told her that the Dentist had given her 2 or 3 shots to numb her she said, "So that's what that pinch was!" Toni had called the dentist beforehand to explain Caitlin's fear of needles and they did a great job of not letting her see the needle. She said the laughing gas really didn't do anything for her after she realized that the gas wasn't what had numbed her mouth. After the appointment she was really hungry so we stopped for some ice cream. As a reward, I had promised her that if she did good I would get her a gaming mouse to go with her new keyboard. So the next day we went to another Best Buy and she got her new gaming mouse. I also got her some Robux (Money for use to buy things in the Roblox game she plays on her PC). I was so proud of how well she did!

On Friday we also found out that the kids have another week off for Spring Break because of the Coronavirus. Luckily my boss said I could work from home next week since I'd rather not leave them home alone. It's really crazy how much has shut down because of this. Yesterday I went to work for a few hours at the downtown campus to help out with a cooling issue that was happening in the datacenter down there. I hope everybody stays safe and this virus is contained quickly. Stay safe!

Surgery.. Almost...

So the week started out weird. On Monday I went to the Dermatologist to have the cyst removed. We get there and after 4 weeks of waiting to get an appointment again with this lady, she looks at the cyst and says that it's too big to remove and that she'll need to send me to another Doctor in her practice who has more experience dealing with larger cysts. It had gotten to nearly 2.5 inches across and looked like a golf ball was under the surface of my skin. That was going to take another 2 weeks to get in to see him. I was absolutely floored that a supposed "Specialist" could do absolutely nothing to help me. After leaving that office I got on Google and found another Dermatologist near us. I called and begged for an appointment. They were nice enough to see me immediately which was incredible. She looked at the cyst and decided that it needed to be drained immediately. She drained an insane amount out of it. I think they used all of the gauze they had in that room. They sent a sample of the drainage to the lab to figure out what kind of bacterial infection I have and they put me on antibiotics for now. The cyst felt so much better after she drained it. Over the entire week I had to deal with some crazy eruptions from it which was absolutely disgusting. Today the cyst is barely there though and I'm actually able to do things like sit in the truck or lay on my back to sleep without insane amounts of pain which is awesome. The swelling is down about 90% and the redness looks so much better. It no longer looks like it's infected. I haven't had any drainage since Friday which has been a welcome change. Tomorrow morning I have a follow up appointment at 9:00. I think there's a good chance that she'll be able to do the surgery to remove the actual cyst which will be nice. I'm looking forward to this thing being gone. Luckily my boss was extremely understanding and I was able to work from home all week last week. With how much it was draining, I didn't want to be at work and have it open up. Hopefully tomorrow goes smooth and if I do have surgery it's no big deal. I'll be off all week for Spring Break with the kids so at least I'll have time to recover.

This weekend Toni and Emma spent some time making their own brand of hand sanitizer and surgical masks. With the Coronavirus coming, better to be safe than sorry.

The girls visit the Zoo!

This week was fairly uneventful when compared to the other weeks of 2020 so far. I was on call so I pretty much stayed home. This weekend we didn't do too much. Yesterday Toni and the girls went down to the San Antonio Zoo for a few hours. They had a great time and I'm looking forward to my back healing up so I can get back out and join them next time. While they were at the Zoo, I went to another therapy appointment. It went good and I'm happy with the progress so far. 

This week is going to be busy. Tomorrow I have my surgery scheduled to get this cyst removed. While I'm a little nervous about the procedure, I'm ready to get this taken care of. It's been 6 weeks of constant pain and discomfort and I'm really ready to get healing so I can get back to living my life. I'm really looking forward to being able to do even simple things like driving without pain. I really want to get back to walking and working out again too. Saturday we're supposed to go on a small vacation and I'm really hoping my back feels good enough to do so. I'll keep everyone posted and I hope everyone has a great week.