I Can't Tell Who's More Upset

Me or the dogs. I went back to work on Tuesday. Robin, the burn center outpatient coordinator nurse decided that I could go back to work as long as I promised to work inside only and not sweat. This was of course REALLY BAD NEWS for the dogs. They had been enjoying staying out of their kennels all day for the previous two weeks, and all of a sudden they were caged again. I think they've handled it ok, and if not, well I'm not here to be bothered by it. I go to the doctor again tomorrow for another check up. I'm not expecting a full release back to work yet because the skin on my back is very thin and can easily be broken if I sweat and start itching and scratch. Work has been good, I got pretty tired the first few days. Sitting around at the office is hard work compared to sitting around at home. We are starting to catch up on house work even. This past weekend Kasey and Hal made it down to go see a concert, and us. We hung out a lot and didn't do much else. This is a pretty boring post so I'll quit for now. We are extremely blessed for me to have been able to be healing as fast as I am, and I hope it continues to go well.
Grace and Peace

Brain Free...I Mean...Biobrane Free!

No more bandages for Warner! Yippee!!!! And the punk is reporting back to work tomorrow for light duty / indoor work for however many hours a day he can stand. 

OH MAN! You Can Play Frisbee With That Thing!

Warner is healing up fast - he only has the biobrane on the lower left side of his back now which is a whole lot more comfortable for him. He's also stopped draining entirely which means we don't have to put any more of the outer bandages on anymore! He's still very very red - Razorback red in fact (it gets in your blood, what can I say?) He has a doctors appointment tomorrow so we will find out about getting released to go back to work soon, even if it is only for a few hours a day - because you know what? Worker's comp stinks! 

I on the other hand, have taken advantage of this opportunity of Warner being better, and have decided it is the perfect time to get what the doctors said is acute bronchitis - except I don't have a fever. I'm on a steroid and Mucinex for that and I'm on an antibiotic in hopes to keep it from turning in to anything worse since I guess I'm high risk or whatever. And seriously, my antibiotics are HUGE! Like a half an inch huge or maybe bigger. Bigger than vitamins, huge. Bigger than mucinex huge! I made the comment to Warner when we pulled them out of the bag that you could play frisbee with them because they're that big! So, hopefully this will solve my problems for now. I have a muscle relaxer for my stiff neck, but it doesn't help that much and I only take it at night. I'm considering opening up a backdoor pharmacy in the near future, so let me know if there's any type of illness you want me to get, because right now, I'm pretty loaded. Okay, maybe not because that's pretty illegal. 

Maybe since I'm back on the meds you'll get some humorous posts out of me in the next 10 days...but don't hold your breath. 

Just Another Day

I think the past year has finally caught up with me because you know what? I'm TIRED! (maybe it's just the heater that is on in my office) And you know what else. I have a very stiff / tight neck on the right side that is keeping me from sleeping through the night right now. And you know what else? My nurse at the doctors office never called me back yesterday about my neck. Okay, I'm done.

Warner is getting better every day (duh!) which means he is bored out of his mind sitting at home all day. He even mentioned that the xbox is getting boring. *GASP* Mr. Xbox is tired of his xbox? Say it isn't so! His back is drying out and the outside edges are starting to burn (along with his entire stomach) but he still has one area on his lower back that is still draining. Hopefully soon that will stop and he will be able to wear less bandages on his torso. He's still got a long way to go with the healing process but he's getting there. We are going to get out of the house this evening to see how Warner does in the car and then we'll decide if we can make the drive to Arkansas this weekend - but we aren't holding our breath about it. Warner has been taking fewer pain meds which means he's not quite as funny anymore - sad day for me!!! But he has been getting up and doing more around the house, which has been super helpful! Apparently the boys are super pathetic with him home and spend most of the morning curled up next to him - they're going to go through some withdrawals once Warner goes back to work! Okay, well that's all the news I've got for today!

Oh Wow...It Has Freckles!

Warner has started itching like CRAZY which is a good thing, but it's also a pain for him because it means he's peeling...like CRAZY! And it's a pain for me because it means I'm transitioning from doing 5 loads of laundry a day of towels (from the draining) to following him around with the vacuum cleaner as he makes our house look like a winter wonderland. So. Today as we were coming home from his doctor's appointment, he was peeling a piece of skin off his arm (because he has significantly less bandages on there now that it is slightly dried up) when he pulled off a rather large piece and exclaimed, " Oh wow! It has freckles!" Umm...gross!

The boys from the office came by this evening to hang out - which meant tons of video game playing and boy talk and now it's pretty much bed time! So goodnight!

Germies and Burnies

Here's the conversation Warner and I had earlier this week:

W: I can't get germies on my burnies

S: What? Why can't you get germies on your burnies?

W: Because they don't ROTATE! I can't get germies on my burnies because the germies don't rotate

S: Ohhh, okay. Do you know what you are saying?

W: Yes, but I don't know what I mean.

And that my friends is the kind of effect that Lortab can have on the toughest of guys! 

In other news, Warner's parents and sister were here for a quick visit this weekend. It was fun, and Warner's mom embarrassed the heck out of us at dinner last night (but it was definitely a fun dinner). The boys have been moping around because they miss having tons of people to play with and they love the marathon walks that they get to go on when Mrs. Susan is in town! 

In Sickness And In Health

I think I'm ready to try out the "In Health" part. 

Yes, I Think Another T-Shirt is in Order

As you can imagine things have been rough around here again the past few days. I'm doing well physically, the doctors think I will heal very well and will not suffer too much. Hopefully on Tuesday when we go back the bandages will be completely stuck to my burns and I can shower again. I think the official number is around 28% of my body was burned with 1st and 2nd degree burns. Thankfully there were no 3rd degree burns which would have required surgery. The other guy who was also burned, but more severely, was released from the hospital today. I will be continuing care at the Baton Rouge General Burn Unit until I'm healed completely, as will he. I would appreciate your continued prayers for the family of Armando Garza, who did not make it through the explosion.
As Stephanie mentioned we are not allowed to talk about what happened except to the investigators, and honestly no one really knows what happened at this point. The news reports are mostly speculation, and I can't comment as to whether or not I think their speculation is correct.
Again please continue to pray for Armando's family
Grace and Peace to You
Warner

Boys Have It So Much Easier!

I took a lesson from Vicki and decided to have fun with the haircut. Warner decided he liked the S so much that he's going to keep it for a while.

Yep, his face is stuck like this permanently. I warned him that it would happen!

Doctor's appointment went well today. Everything is looking good and we'll know more at the appointment on Tuesday because more healing should have taken place by then. So for now we are just hanging out!

Just Another Day In The Bradley Household

His chest and back are all bandaged up as well

His singed hair.

Yes, he's rolling his eyes.

He's Cramping My Style

I wish I could write more details on here, but basically I can't talk about everything that happened (other than what you hear on the news), but I CAN update you on Warner. Warner was in an explosion at his worksite yesterday, March 10th, and sustained 1st and 2nd degree burns on his entire back and his arms (mostly the left). He has 1st degree burns on his stomach and his hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes were singed. His goatee is still in tact though! He was up and about today and has played xbox a good bit as well. He's hopped up on pain pills but he's doing much better today. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning and we will know some more then. 

There were two other guys that were injured in the explosion. One guy was admitted for observation for his burns and the other guy had minor injuries and was released. There was also a fatality, so please say a prayer for his family. I can't even imagine what they are going through. 

So there is your update for today. We are doing well, and my little Spotlight Stealer is one tough cookie! 

Here is a link to an article in case you are interested. And just a disclaimer, we have read through a few articles and none of them have actually gotten all the information 100% correct but this one seems alright.

St. James Explosion

Hello God

It's me again. I'm not sure it's really my place to ask, but seriously...what are You doing? Can you maybe fill me in a little, please? Because I'm not sure I really understand where you're headed with this.

Seems To Be A Trend Around Here

We took my car in on Saturday to the shop to have it looked at because it has been chugging and starting really hard pretty much every time I drove it. The engine was just taking forever to turn over and it wasn't running very smooth. So, I sacrificed a morning of dress shopping and brought it in (the dress shopping is a whole different can of worms, let's just say it has been pretty much impossible for me to find anything). The guys had my car for about 3-4 hours and could find nothing wrong with it. Absolutely nothing. And guess what?!!? It hasn't had any problems since we got it home. It will probably start acting up tomorrow though. That would be just my luck.

Keeping with the same trend, I got my blood work test results back on Wednesday and guess what??? I'm normal. Relatively speaking, I guess. So we are back to square one on why I am losing weight. All my counts came back normal, CBC and all the calcium and other mineral tests they ran (like 50 boxes were checked on the order) and I don't have any infections. My thyroid is dying a slow and painful death, well, it's really not a painful death at all, but it is a slow one. Apparently it's not even to the point that we need to worry about - I mean, I'm still losing weight and all. Seeing as I didn't even know what the thyroid really did before all this, I think I'm going to miss it when it's gone. And I think Dr. High Heels is going to let me live with a non-working thyroid for a while so I can gain some weight - she would totally do that to me. Okay, maybe not, but I'll bet you she's thought about it! 

I realized today that I never posted any pictures from Mardi Gras, so I'll have to get on that tomorrow.

OOOH...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the most amazing husband EVER! For real.

Shout Out

I entered for a blog make-over giveaway from Jen Gets Fancy over at  

http://jengetsfancy.blogspot.com/

She has some pretty cute stuff and if you couldn't tell my blog needs some serious love! 

Anyway, I'll be back later to post more news. 

Just Dress Him In Coveralls And Give Him An Oil Pan

Unfortunately he didn't fix the problem with my car and it's in the shop today! 

Yesterday Warner was looking at my engine to see if he could figure out what is wrong with my car when Edgar decided he was going to help by getting right in the middle of all the action. As some of you may know, Edgar is deathly paranoid about being left behind so he took advantage of the opportunity to make sure he was in the car and ready to go before we had a chance to make him get in his kennel. We coaxed him out of the engine after a few seconds and then he jumped right back in. If you click on the picture, you can see that he is soo excited because his tail was wagging when I took the picture! No extra damage was done to my car, and Edgar was fine - in fact, I think he enjoyed sitting on the hot engine. 

*Disclaimer* Just so everyone knows the last post was a complete joke. Yes, I did say I wanted new in-laws, but it became a running joke over the weekend. Don't worry, I'm not going to trade in my in-laws....Yet.  

I'm Taking Out A Full Page Ad In The Classifieds

Two weeks ago, when my wonderful mother-in-law came to visit for the weekend, I so lovingly announced that I was beginning my search for new in-laws. I do not remember what prompted me to make this statement, but I said it nonetheless. Her response to my statement was that I would have to find a new husband as well, but rest assured, I'm keeping him, it's just new in-laws that I'm after. And so that you know my search is justified, let me tell you a little story:

A few years ago (not too many though, because we've only been married a few years and a half, and maybe it was only a year ago) we were in Alabama for some holiday, maybe Easter, but I don't remember exactly. Me, being the wonderful wife that I am, spent the morning slaving over a hot iron, ironing my husbands clothes for church. And as a sidenote - I don't iron creases in the front of pant legs or on shirt arms. Some things are just not worth the effort. So, after everything was ironed to a crisp, I brought it to Warner to put on so we could hurry up and get ready. We were all standing around waiting to go when my mother-in-law looks at my husband in his perfectly ironed outfit and says in that appalled, motherly voice, "Ooooh Warner, would you like me to iron your pants for you." Now, let me remind you that we were ALL standing around in earshot of this - cousins, aunts, uncles, Warner's grandmother, etc. Warner so wonderfully replied, "No, Stephanie has already ironed them for me." And let it be known that I have never ironed another article of clothing in her presence since then. 

So, although I can't remember the exact reason I proclaimed I was searching for new in-laws, I am convinced that it was justified!

(And no, I'm really not looking for new ones - the ones I have are quite entertaining and they definitely make life more interesting!)

Dear "Home" Paula

I used to think that I was above your meager attempts to influence my picture taking skills. I thought I could never be swayed. Not by your "Dear in Headlights" look or by the beautiful  "Veggie Chip Contemplation" (and it's not a veggie chip at all) or your inability to smile on cue. I thought I was destined to live under the influence of "School Paula" who takes the most beautiful pictures ever and has a perfect smile every time with wide open eyes, but not possessed scary. No, I never even imagined that I would have to write about this. And then this happens:

Curse you "Home Paula," you may have won the battle, but the war is far from over!!!! But we can still be best friends, right? Paula??? 

Okay, my bottom lip goes super numb when it is below like 50 outside and apparently it takes away my ability to smile. Enlarge the picture. And don't tell me it's not that bad. Because it is. And I'm okay with that - I've moved on from the denial stage. But it's still bad. Really really bad. So, if you ever want to take pictures of me, make sure it's a warm cloudy day because I'm really a vampire, and I'll die in the sun. But anyway, that's our friends, Mark and Meagan who came to visit this past weekend. We had a really good time hanging out with them. I won't bore you with the details because really, all we did was eat and hang out and watch Mark play rugby. Okay, that is all. Paula, are we still friends? 

Yes, Another Post About The Dogs

Edgar is psycho about tennis balls. I have to hide them from him or else he will keep bringing it to you to throw, over and over and over again. And if you think you can ignore him so that he will eventually give up and go play with Ruekie, think again, this little booger is persistent. He will just keep picking the ball up and dropping it by you, or on your foot, or on the chair next to you, until you give in to the pressure.

Okay, all that was to lead in to telling you about our new game that we started a couple weeks ago and ended today. When I take the boys out to play, sometimes I bring a ball out with us to throw for them,. They don't need it, they entertain each other just fine without it, but I do like to be nice sometimes. I usually hide the ball in my pocket on the way out, or use it as bait to keep Edgar from pulling on the leash. It's funny to watch him walk sideways while staring at the ball because he will end up walking in to everything. No, he does not get that from me. By the time we are headed back inside, the ball is a slimy, slobbery, soaking wet mess and I don't want to touch it (usually about half way through I give up throwing the ball and let them chase each other for it).

So the game we started was that I would let psycho dog (Edgar) carry the ball back to the apartment. If he dropped it, I would tap a couple feet with my foot and tell him to get his ball and he would get it and proudly keep on carrying it. It worked like a charm. He would carry it the entire way back and maybe drop it once or twice and I would have him drop it on the porch outside. Well, now the game has turned into him dropping the ball every two feet while we are walking, or him throwing the ball foward and chasing after it. It would roll under cars and of course he would go nuts because he couldn't get it out. Well, game over! I had to carry that nasty, slobbery, soaking wet, drool fest back to the apartment today because it took us like 5 minutes to walk 5 feet. So what was a really good game in theory has backfired in my face! I guess the little punk is smarter than we give him credit for - he knows exactly what he is doing!

Oh, and Ruekie? Yeah, he's pretty much perfect. Except I caught him up on the bed in the middle of the night last night. The little punk.