Welcome to the Parenting Roundabout podcast for the week of May eight, twenty twenty
three. I'm Nicol Artics and I'm here with Terry Morrow, Hello, and
Catherine Heleco. Hello. Every week we chat about what parents are talking,
complaining and obsessing about right now. This week we're complaining about people disliking children
and obsessing about chat GPT even more gasps. We are also taking a couple
of breaks for an entertainment discussion and a recommendation roundup. And today we are
going to catch you up on all that's gone on in our lives the last
few weeks, so much in case you're interested. Yeah, so we're a
little rusty here because we took we took a week off last week. Were
so much going on in all our lives we had to just we had to
just shut up. So do you want to talk about your Yeah, well,
I was nominally the reason we took last week off, because you all
thought that I should take some time off after surgery. I was working the
next night. But yeah, I had a parathyroid ectomy, which sounds dramatic,
and it is a surgery to remove one or more parathyroid glands. Now,
I was not aware that I had a problem with my parathyroid glands.
I was not I had osteoporosis, but I'm a short old lady, you
know, not uncommon. But they found a high level of calcium in my
blood and that got everybody going, oh my gosh, Oh my gosh.
And I went to an endochronologist and she tested and found that my pyrothyroid hormone
was very high. And then she says, here, go take all these
scans and see what's going on there. So I did an ultrasound, which
found nothing. I did something where they injected radiation into my veins and then
put a big flat item extremely close to my nose while I was laying down.
Breaked me out a little bit. That found nothing. Did another test
that kind of found something. So she sent me to a surgeon and he
did another test, and that ultrasound guy was really sure he had found it.
And then my daughter surgeon looked at the stuff and went, ah,
we'll open you up and look around. So so I was scheduled for this
surgery, and I'm pretty sure that he scheduled. Scheduler told me that it
was a same day surgery in a hospital. I could stay. I would
only stay there twenty three hours. I had to be out before twenty four
hours because then they would charge my insurance for a day and we wanted to
avoid them. So I was figuring, Okay, I'm gonna have this surgery
and then I'm gonna be in the hospital for hours and hours and hours.
I'm probably gonna stay overnight, because you know, if it's twenty three hours,
it's probably gonna of an overnight and I'm gonna have people taking care of
me. I'm not gonna like that. I've never been in a hospital before,
I've never had surgery before. I had all this anxiety about it.
Anesthesia, I was gonna have a breathing tube. It seemed like a big
deal. You know, you look on it online and everything about it says
that's nothing. But you know, anesthesia, breathing tube, twenty three hours,
it's a it's a hospital thing. So I got a call from the
hospital the friday before and they said that the surgery was going to be eight
thirty and that I should come in at five thirty am, and so my
husband and I did and we registered and they told us to go to this
area, which is where you would wait for the impatient surgery. And we
went up to that desk and I said, my surgery was at eight thirty.
And the guy, this very officious guy who was like a character from
the sitcom, you know, he says, well, that's not what I
see here, but maybe they moved you up. So we waited and we
looked at this thing on the board and it looked like that my doctor had
surgery at seven thirty and a surgery at eleven, which was me my patient
number, and nobody at a thirty. So it's like, well, number
one, why am I not that person at eight thirty? And if I'm
not, why was I here at five thirty am. Yeah, so we're
doing a lot of sitting around, we're doing a lot of waiting. It's
you know, okay, whatever, I guess. But all of a sudden
they brought me back. They started giving me instructions, I have to clean
my body off with these pads special I don't know. I just I guess
I looked Germany and you know, and all of a sudden, there they're
starting to put ivs in me. And then a guy comes in to inject
some radioactive dye in me, and he's all upset because the ivs not in
yet, and the nurses like they just set her in here. So apparently
I had been suddenly moved up. Somebody was saying like, oh, somebody
didn't show up for their surgery, so they're moving you up. But that
was my time in the first place anyway, So scrambling, much activity,
everybody getting me ready, getting me ready. My husband had to finally go
to the bathroom, and of course that's when they swooped me out of the
room I was in, down to the surgery room, put me on a
surgery table. Five thousand people are doing things to me all at the same
time. I don't know if you guys have had a surgery experience, but
it was like, all of a sudden, I was in an episode of
Er. But you know, they're putting things on my feet, they're putting
things in my arms, they're putting things in my head. They gave me
this thing breathe this it's oxygen, but I don't think it was oxygen,
because pretty soon I was not aware of what was going on. I was
just starting to think, you know, I'm going to get a little cost
to phobia from all these people doing stuff all over me. I think I'm
in a panic. I think I should panic? Should I panic? And
then and then they like I felt something go into my body and it made
me cough, and then I was out. So they must have just said
just injecture with something, right, So and then I woke up and it
was over, and they gave me some ice chips and they I was able
to talk. I've been worried I wouldn't be able to talk, and they
just sort of looked me over my search and poked his head in and said,
oh, it was good. They took out a gland and you know,
it looked to be the thing that was causing the problems, and my
blood level of the tormo went down, and you know, you can go
home. I'm like, quite a minute, I've been twenty three hours.
Oh no, we never keep people for twenty three hours, so I don't
know what I find misunderstood. If it would be, it won't be more
than twenty three hours. But it was home by one o'clock. So it
was very weird. You know. They sent my husband out to get the
car and then they looked for somebody to take me down to the front door
in a wheelchair and dragoon to somebody whose job it was nods. But she
kindly pushed me to the door. It's like, did I it was something
I said that you want to get rid of me? Do you need the
beds? Did my insurance call and say get her out about it? Just
seems so abrupt. I used the germ removable pands. I pro whoa.
So it was just an odd I had been prepared for this long, you
know, not days, but hours of hospital idle time, and instead I
was just booted out at the earliest possible, Like when when I took my
son for his wisdom teeth and I prepared to be sitting in the waiting room
for a couple of hours minimum. You know, I brought my laptop.
I was like, I'm going to get this and this and this and this
done. No, No, it was over in like forty five minutes.
I'm I'm just getting warmed up. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of
amazing that they can do these things and ship you out immediately after and everything's
fine. I mean, I've been fine. There was no repercussions of me
leaving early. This is this is why when my daughter got her Appendix out
and I you know, it was the somewhat of an emergency, right,
so we didn't have a lot of previous discussion of what was going to happen.
But at like basically when she was going in, I asked the doctor
how long we would be in the hospital and she's like, oh, you
know, five to six days. And I was like, what, well,
I mean like you had a surgery and you were out of there.
Yeah, you know, people have like open heart surgery and send them home
and yeah, and yet for an appendix she was going to be in there
for five days. And she was like, what I mean when my son
had his had a ruptured ulcer and had emergency surgery for it, he was
in about five or six days too, right, And maybe it's just the
emergency partner. It's the emergency partner. Maybe it's if there's stuff I don't
know for appendix burst, or it was just it did it? Did it
did? Yeah? That maybe that's it. Maybe if there's just them stuff
in the abdominal cavity they need to watch for a while. But it was
I mean, I'd rather I'd rather recuperate at home, That's fine, But
I thought I was going to get a little extra medical care. Right.
So anyway, it went very well. Apparently they did. The surgeon did
what he came for. And I have this incision in my neck that has
something called I can think a stary strip over it, which should fall off
depending on which website you look at anywhere between you know, five and fifteen
days. So there's some that say, if it's not often a week,
you better take it off, or some bad things are going to happen.
And then there's others that said, eh, you know, eventually it'll come
off. Don't worry about it, which is what my surgeon's nurse said the
third or fourth time. I was asking our questions right before she said,
you have an appointment, please shut up until then. But you said it
in a nice way anyway. Um, So I still have that stick into
it, and but I can get it wet, and I just kind of
am going about my business, you know. I had I was supposed to
be a lector at church the Saturday after the surgery, and I thought,
oh, I'm not gonna you know, I might not even have a voice.
I'm you know, they say sometimes the breathing two messes up your voice,
or the surgery, does I, And so I agreed to swap with
somebody, and then that person forgot and she did it the day I was
had swapped her for So I said, well, maybe this is just God's
way of telling them my voice is gonna be okay, and it was.
I went up so, like, you know, five days after surgery,
I'm up reading the Bible in church. So medical miracles, you know,
they just just cut you open, cut out pieces of your body, sew
you back up, and send you on your way. I goes on,
And how did it go with your family dealing with Well, I think it
was kind of anti climactic because we've been figuring and came Mom's going to be
overnight in the hospital, or you know, was my husband going to stay
with me? And then we're the kid's gonna have to make their own dinner.
And then when I came home, it was gonna be this big deal
and all this stuff, and it's instead I was like, home, I
lunch done. So it's like, oh, okay, you seem fine.
Life goes on as it was. I guess everybody's you know, once I
was home and U still myself, m I think everybody was over it so
there are no flowers adorning the room and welcome home. Oho. There was
no time. Wow. Yeah, it was very unticlimactic. So I probably
could have recorded a podcast. But anyway, for real, I am very
grateful that it went well and it went easily, and that there is nothing
really to complain about. I have to make things up, but I'm very
grateful to all the to my surgeon, doctor Bryant Lee, who I've mentioned
before in Livingston, New Jersey, and the hospital that I went to,
the Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, and they took very
good care of me. Everybody I had there was super pleasant and professional.
Even the kind of officious guy. He was nice, and um, you
know, they did their jobs and when their job was done, they said
so long and turned you out onto the street. They weren't milk and me
for bed rent. So um, you know, which I guess is good.
I guess it's the way it should be. I would hope that if
there was something really wrong, they would not have carried me out to me.
Yes, let's go to the ear near, are you honey? It's
fine? So well, I was well, I was distracted by all of
that medical nonsense. What was going on with you guys? Nicole had a
big day. Yes she did, Yes, so did. I became an
American citizen. So she's one of us. I start being rude and out
spoken, that Canadian niceness is going to be. Well, that's so funny.
That's what I said to my husband. I said, now I get
to be rude, like a fight on social media. Nicole, I know,
I know. I can say all those things that I wanted to say
the past few years, and social media no stop saying sorry. We Americans
don't say sorry. Yeah, so that was that was a big event.
It was. It was quite a mile and signing welcome, thank you,
thank you. That. So are you a dual citizen or did you uh
oh yeah yeah yeah no ties to oh heck no. Well um, according
to well, America doesn't recognize any other citizenship. So according to America,
I'm only an American, but a Canada does recognize other citizenships. So in
Canada i'm a two time. In America, it was one I'm hearing.
Yeah pretty much America. It's America's it's made a commitment and you're just still
seeing someone else, all right, just in case exactly, I gotta have
plan b um. Right. Yeah, it was quite It was quite a
momentous occasion because this whole immigration process took fifteen years so from start to finish,
and it h and was the test hard. The test I had studied,
so it was not hard, but had I not studied, I would
have failed miserably. But I had to. I had to study a hundred
questions they asked me ten wow, um okay, and I had to do
all kinds of raising my hand and swearing to tell the truth, and um,
I had to give them you know all I mean, it's just I
mean, this is all stuff that's happened along the way anyway. So but
it was quite a quite an occasion. And then um uh they sent me
down to the Oath taking ceremony room. So that was kind of a big
deal because we were you know, there was myself and probably about forty other
people and um, we took the Oath of Allegiance and then I got a
little flag and that was it. So yeah, it was I had envisioned
something completely different, but and it didn't really. Yeah, that was kind
of like, oh, okay, this is it much like you Terry,
this is it. Yeah, the theme of this episode is like a big
thing that that wasn't exactly but know it was definitely. Um, it was
definitely a big event and something that I'm glad that I did so and I'm
grateful that America has accepted me exactly. So yeah, now I can So
three of us are done. We're just going to We're waiting for my husband
to get his and then aha, we will be fully fully transformed as a
family. Yeah, but it is thank you. Is his in process?
It is, yes, m that's what it tells us on the website.
Actually, mine we applied the exact same like minute and mine online said it
would take sixteen months to complete. It took five, which is almost unheard
of. And my husband's said it would take twelve months. And he's still
waiting for word on his. But he has a much more complicated file i
do because he's traveled. So basically what we're learning is all estimates of timing
are just don't even pay attentionally. Maybe yeah, don't pay attention to them.
So yeah, but it's it's definitely not for the faint of heart.
If you're thinking of immigrating to another country, and especially in America, a
lot of time, a lot of patients, lots of hurdles. But yeah,
I'm glad that I'm finally done with that. Yay, congratulations. Yeah
so that picture with your certificate, which my kids have ones that look just
like that, Yeah, tiny kitty photos. They fortunately did not have to
take a test. Had I been imagine for little babies, I don't think
they could pay. You know, had I been two years older, I
wouldn't have had to take the test either. I guess they figure once your
past fifty five, you don't you're not a test taker. I don't know,
too old. That would be bad alone, would be reason to wait,
right right. But no, it's a very, very complicated and emotionally
draining process. So I was happy to get it out of the way.
That's my story, my immigration story. Yeah, okay, cool, So
what turns out it's not such a big deal kind of story do you have
to tell? Catherine? Well, I thought I still aren't paying for my
kids college, But in fact, I mean I thought it would be hard
dealing with the college application process, and it was so. But it did
finally come to an end, and my song was admitted to a school that
he wants to go to and we paid them some money. So that's happening.
Wait is this the one? The one near you? Is that the
it is in a town about a little over a two hour drive from here,
right, so it's close but not too close. Yeah, which is
nice. And yeah, he's he's looking forward to it. He's you know,
asking for T shirts and that kind of thing. He's starting the collection
of merch and he's working, you know, he's joined the Facebook group for
incoming students, which they use to look for a roommates, and he's in
the process of doing that. In fact, going to meet a prospective roommate
in a few days. So's it seems to be plugging along it. And
since I have talked, complained, and obsessed about this over the past many
months, I've figured, you know, the listeners might need an update on
at all. Oh my god, is Graduate High School? That's right?
Piece of cake? Right, no problem? So yeah, well so there
you have it. Lots of fighting news from everyone, Yes, and we
should wrap this up for like, they cut your neck open to bleed the
money out, it's not really what happened, that's right. And there was
some studying involved but not so. But anyway, that's the news, and
that's it for today's Round one. Tune in tomorrow for our entertainment, them
to Round two and later in the week to find out what we're complaining about,
obsessing about, and recommending right now. We're always interested in what you
have to say, so drop us a comment on our website, our Facebook
page, or Twitter, where you'll find us at round about the Chat