TEDS

Well, those of you who have been hospitalized for any length of time are certainly familiar with what TEDS are. They are these knee high white stockings that patients have to wear to help with circulation - as I read the writing on my Ted, it actually says anti-embolism stocking. Needless to say, these things are VERY tight, bright white and are probably mostly made of polyester so they don't breathe AT ALL! Not to mention that they are so ugly, it's embarrassing. My vanity has gone straight out the window for now.

On my shower days, I usually leave my beloved Teds off for the afternoon but a nurse always catches me and makes me put them back on before I go to sleep at night. Well, the other night, my nurse told me I needed to put them back on; obviously this is not something I can do myself at this point - I cannot bend over at all anymore so putting these on myself is utterly impossible. She then told me that she could not do it because she has arthritis so bad in her hands; she looked over at the couch and said "Dad, we need your help over here". As C. looked up, he looked like a deer in the headlights. Some of you may know about C.'s extreme dislike (I don't really think there is a man out there that likes the image of his wife in knee highs) for knee high stockings; well, it doesn't get much worse than these Teds. They are bright white so they don't even blend with your skin like the "nudes" we like so much. Since we've been married, I've been banned from even owning a pair of knee highs - must have something to do with his childhood memories or something. Of all things for me to have to wear here, he's mortified when he sees them.

Anyway, C. was such a trooper - he actually got up and helped put them on me. I wish we had a camera for this event; although I'm sure that is a vision ingrained in his brain forever and photos are unnecessary; along with all of the other images of me over the last few weeks that I'm certain he would rather forget forever. I wish there was some sort of amnesia drug that I could give him to make him forget all of these "less than sexy" images that he must have of me. The only place he sees me is in bed or on the bedside commode. Nice.

Anyway, I think I'll have to keep a pair of these Teds once we leave here, just for posterity. If nothing else, I'll be able to bribe C. with them if I need him to do something and he refuses - the simple threat of putting my Teds back on would probably scare him into doing anything I needed!

As an aside, the boys looked good this morning. They are reducing my dosage of Indicin (the labor helper drug) so hopefully I'll be able to hold through that and not start contracting. Should see the perinatologist again this afternoon so if there is anything worthy to report, I'll post again later. In the meantime, TGIF. Weekend is almost here!

One more thing; a big congratulations to my fellow triplet Mom Jen who delivered her babies last night at 33 weeks! She was flown out via helicopter to Johns Hopkins since the NICU here is full ~ I got word this morning that her babies were born last night and everyone is doing well. She had two boys and a little girl - one baby at 4lb, 11 oz. and the other two at 4lb, 8oz. That is 13.5 lbs of baby she was carrying around, at just 33 weeks! Wishing their family the best - a short say in NICU and a speedy recovery for Mom!