My first podcast: Abdominoplasty Procedure

http://www.yousendit.com/download/cmczK0duTWNTSUIzZUE9PQ

This is my first podcast. Since my brother Sam is living with us for awhile, we thought it would be fun to do some podcasts. A podcast is a voice recording. I decided to do one of my surgery. So this is for those of you who are interested in learning about what my surgery was, what to expect and other details. It lasts about 20 minutes or so.

In the future I am going to be doing some of my kids. I thought it would be fun to have them record their voices as well. So hopefully this link will connect you to the site where the podcast is and you just push download and it takes a second to download and then you can tune in! Good luck...

Before and After

Here are the results of my new body. It is still swollen and bruised so it will look better I'm sure in a few months. The wierdest thing is my new belly button. It doesn't really look like a belly button but it may later. They cut around my old one, lifted up my skin, pulled it down and made a new hole for the belly button to come through. And that is just a little part of the reconstruction. I'm sure John would yell at me if I gave you all the gorey details of the whole operation. So if you want to know details just talk to me about it later. I have drains in and have to wear a corset wrap around my waste so it's a little tricky to sleep at night. Plus, I have a lot of bruising as you can see in one of these pictures. My ribs hurt and my whole back feels like it's bruised, but other than that I'm good as long as I keep up on my pain killers. If this wasn't a medical necessity I don't think I would voluntarily go in and get this surgery done. It is quite painful and extensive. I'm just happy to have my abs back together. They are holding in all that was being pushed out before. And by the way, the before pic of me at the top was when I was flexing, haha. It's amazing to me what technology they have these days that can put your body back together. I almost cried when I first saw the results because I was so happy to finally have a core again. Thanks to everyone for coming to visit, help out, and bring us food. You rock!

Pregnant Again?

No I'm not five months pregnant in these pictures. Over the past couple months my stomach is getting bigger... and I'm excercising every day! So I decided to go in for a consultation to see what was going on. I went to three surgeons (one general and two plastic) and come to find out I have something called, "Diastasis Recti" which is a seperation of the ab muscles. This is mainly from having twins. After you have a baby the muscles usually go back together but from having twins and then another baby, my muscles went kapoot! Come to find out, by exercising I was making it worse. When my ab muscles were strengthening, they were going outward instead of together and pushing everything outward. So the saying, "My guts are hanging out!" wasn't an understatement.

John and I went through hours of trying to get our insurance to cover this procedure but it is coded a "diastasis" and our insurance does not cover it. Basically, you have to get your face blown off in order for them to cover anything. But we felt good about going with a certain doctor and paying for the procedure even though it will cost us six grand.

So... after much praying, we decided to go through with the procedure and I had a full abdominoplasty on June 8th. It took the doctor three hours or so and he said it was the biggest diastasis he has ever seen. My abs were seperated seven inches! It was an outpatient procedure so I stayed in his facility for a couple hours and then went home. The first day I felt totally nautious because I had way too many pain meds in me. I also had a pain pump inside that sprayed pain meds to my abs. John took a week off and now my Mom and Sam are here to take care of me. I have had numerous meals brought in from neighbors and John just let me rest all week which was much needed. I have had two c-sections and would say this surgery is probably the same as those if not worse because it is dealing with a lot of muscle. But every day is getting easier and my results are amazing. I am going to post more pictures of my after results within the next couple days so stay posted.

After seeing my end results (even though I am still bruised and swollen) my son Enoch said, "Wow mom! You look like a teenager!" So keep in touch!

Yippee! Sam is here!

I'm so excited to have my brother Sam come back from Dallas. He dropped everything to move out here and be closer to family. Now that is a big leap of faith! I'm so excited to have him around again. We are only eighteen months apart and he has always been such a close friend. He is living at my sister Liz's house but is moving up here shortly. It will be great because he is such a good cleaner, babysitter, etc. (although that's not the only reason I'm excited to have him live with us) He's a great cook too and we always laugh. Who could ask for anything more! These pics were taken when we went hiking when he first came out. We were trying to get one of all three of us jumping at the same time.(Sam, me, and Liz). This is an expression of how happy we are to have Sam here again. Love you Sam!

Hooray! Spring is here!

This past month we went to the Aquarium and the Petting zoo. The kids loved it! The weather is changing... hopefully it won't be too cold anymore. This Spring it has been kind of slow getting here, but I am glad Spring has finally Sprung! We have been very busy lately (that's why I don't blog very much) doing various activities that I hope to blog about in the future. We went to the Aquarium with Ingrid and Martin and their kids. It' s up in Sandy. The kids loved it. There is a pond in the middle where you can pet sting rays and try to touch fish, 'course that never happens. The octopus was my favorite creature and I am happy to say that when the Aquarium was downtown Salt Lake City when Martin worked there, we got a backstage tour and I was able to touch the octupus. It started feeling it's way up my arm and I got a little freaked out but it was awesome! So I'm glad I could see my little friend again. If you have never been, you should go. It's great!

We went to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point with my friends Hannah and Corissa and their kids. It was a very fun day. The kids loved looking at the animals and riding the ponies. Great place for kids!

Jake and Ben getting used to the jail bars.

some of the animals had little babies so it was fun to see them! The goat that Jake is petting was there like 8 years ago, and still has a freaky look on his face!

Happy Easter! I made Rachel a little shawl to go with her Easter dress. She was a good sport to wear it. Oh, I guess she doesn't have a choice. She did spit up on it though so maybe that will tell you how she feels about it! It was a beautiful Spring day and we had a wonderful Sunday.


the cousins (notice most of them are boys!)

We had a great Easter this year! We went over to Mom and Dad Fossum's on Saturday and had a huge Easter egg hunt with all the kids. They loved it of course because it's a sugar holiday! We put a couple dollar bills in some of the eggs and the kids loved finding the magic egg!

Jake and the magic Egg

Fun with Baby Rachie

Rachel is now seven months old! That means I have hardly had ANY time to clean my house let alone post on this blog! So if any of you were wondering when I am going to do another one, come on over here and change some diapers for me! I have been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off ! I've been trying to train for my triathalon and haven't had much time to do anything else but devote my time to this cute baby girl and my four boys. But Spring is here and we are all ready to go outside! In my spare time(?) I snapped these pictures of some of the boys having fun playing with Rachel. She thinks she is so big now because she sits up at the bar with the boys and watches their every move. If you remember another post I did about Bionicle Soup you will see in these pics what bionicles are and just how much my boys love playing with them! Enoch has probably collected around 80 or so of them since he was four or so. He also has a bin full of various lego pieces which the boys love making new bionicles from. And actually one of my pet peeves is lego pieces that are found all over the house. Sometimes I just vacuum them up, shh don't tell! All in all we are having a wonderful time over here in the crazy Fossum house and can't wait to trust the weather enough to go outside!