PUT A RING ON IT

Since quite a few of you have been asking about my Instagram picture/Facebook post about the ring incident, I'll explain. To start off with, I started this pregnancy at my absolute healthiest. I weighed just under 115 lbs and ran/worked out regularly. As a result, this pregnancy has been my best - which is saying a lot since ALL of my pregnancies have been easy peasy. Outside of my pregnancy with Joel (as an 8 mo pregnant ASU student walking across campus), I have never really had any issues with swelling. My feet, once. Otherwise nothing.
Sunday night, after working on a few [failed] sewing projects, I went to my room to get ready for bed. I washed my face and brushed my teeth. Tried taking off my wedding ring and nope. Stuck. Tried a dab of lotion. Nope. Tried cold water. Nope. Tried lotion AND cold water. Nope. Okay... A little bit panicked, but there were several more tricks to try. Tried icing my finger. Nope. Tried Windex. Nope. Tried elevating my hand. Nope. Tried the dental floss/string trick. Nope. Really panicked. Not only did none of these tricks work, they all succeeded in making my finger swell more and more in a reasonably short period of time. My finger began to turn from red to purple and I could no longer bend it. The pain was building, even when I was not touching the ring or my finger. I had the mr. hop online and Google "when to go to the hospital if a ring is stuck". We had reached that point. So away we went (after calling my angel of a mom at 3am to stay with the sleeping kids). I was admitted right away - perk of going in at 3am. The PA came into the room, took one look at my finger, and said there would have been NO WAY that ring was coming off outside of being cut off. It had become a tourniquet. Best part? Not one of my other fingers were swollen. He grabbed a ring-cutting saw and shield and went to work. My finger was so swollen that the shield did not extend past my ring as far as it should have, so the PA only had 1/4" of clearance for his saw. Every time he pushed the saw down into my ring, the ring pushed the shield into the top of my palm. Excruciating. I was hopeful for relief once the ring had been cut. Nothing. The PA tried prying it open with a screw driver, but it was not enough. Instead, he tried using hemostats to expand the gap. Once he had pulled the opening wide by a full inch, I was able force my finger out of the ring. Barely. And little relief. The whole thing just... well... sucked. I LOVE my ring. And now it is sitting broken in my jewelry box. The plus side? I still have my finger. Which is good, you know.Within about 6 hours, the swelling had mostly gone down. My finger still hurts a tiny bit, but no big deal.
So yeah. That's my story. We got to pay $200 to have a $3000 ring cut off. And it will be another $100 (at least) to have it repaired. Sigh. My flesh is priceless, my flesh is priceless, my flesh is priceless...

BELATED BIRTHDAY

Yesterday was my birthday. It was mostly a terrible day. The mr. DID come home early from work with roses and klondike bars. So a little bit of a victory. And my doc DID inform me that at 36 wks, my unborn is measuring 7+ lbs. So a little bit of a triumph. Otherwise, meh.
In anticipation, I pulled up my 30 before Thirty. Checked to see what I have accomplished in the last year. And grew increasingly grumpy. Four things done. Two more close to completion. Twenty four items that are not even close. Dang pregnancy making several of my goals difficult. Sigh. Looks like I have my work cut out for me for the next 2 years...

HEAVY HEART

My heart is heavy right now. You see, there is a woman that I know who is truly one of the most magnificent women that I have ever met. I've admired her for over a decade. She goes above and beyond in all that she does. She is the mother of three wonderful friends of mine, whom I hold close to my heart. Words cannot describe the amount of respect that I have for her. She truly is one in a million.
Today, this amazing woman passed away. It was not unexpected, yet it was still sudden. She fought hard in her short battle with cancer, but today she was called home. My heart aches for her sweet daughters and the rest of her family. I know how much they treasured their beautiful mother. I am forever grateful for the blessing that I had of knowing her; she was such a remarkable person. You will be dearly missed, Marilyn.

I love you Jessica, Amy, & Jen.