We're on!!

Surgery....next Monday morning....Unity Hospital! Good ol' Dr. Johnson's gonna do it. I adore him, he's like a kindly old Mr. Rogers sort of man, just very nice and kind. Turns out my appointment was with him and not another doctor in the practice. Yay.

I should only be there a few hours and then home. But, that means another week off work. It's a pretty easy surgery I guess. Good thing I have some sick time still built up.

Had a re-check on my veins today too (I have seen SO many doctors this week...I feel like I must be getting old!). Everything looks good there, still need to finish but that'll be a while yet, maybe over Spring break. We'll see.

I'm just happy to have a date scheduled for surgery, and that it's so fast!

The Scoopadoopdoop

Ok, here's the scoop...

Yesterday I went to go see the surgeon who the hospital gave me the name of.

I didn't like him. I didn't like his receptionist. I didn't like his tech nurse. I didn't like his other nurse. Wow.

I am being very judgmental here, but seriously, I did not get a good vibe from ANYONE in his office, from the receptionist to the surgeon himself, nor both his nurses. They all had something about them that just bugged me! I was not impressed with anyone there.

He said, and I agree with this, that he wouldn't do surgery for about a month anyway, because I need to finish my antibiotics and the gallbladder needs to settle down and heal a little before they take it out. Ok, I can understand that. But I don't like you. And I don't think I want you digging around in my guts.

I decided to follow my instincts.

So later in the day we were up at the mall, and I was sitting on a bench waiting for Doug to finish looking at stuff (we were in Scheels so he was looking at guns), and decided to call my gastric doctor's office and see if he did gallbladder surgery, cause I liked him! Why yes, yes he does! Yay. So I have an appointment to see him on Thursday afternoon for a consultation. Actually it's with another doctor in his practice, but that's ok, they're all good guys.

Now that's good news!

The other good news is that I'm actually feeling pretty good now. There's hardly any pain left, as long as I stay away from fatty foods and eat the borrrrring no-fat diet (sigh). I do ok I guess, we went to Red Lobster yesterday and I had baked, seafood-stuffed flounder, a salad with blue cheese (FAT!) dressing (but very little of it), and the skin of their wonderful baked potatoes (which is drenched in butter and salt but tastes soooooo good). And a cheddar biscuit. So actually I did eat some fat, but it must not be enough to make things go haywire.

I know....always pushing the limits. : )

Oh joy...

Looks like I've got another surgery coming up, probably soon too.

I ate a couple tortilla rollups (you know...the little cut rolled up pieces with cream cheese, etc. in them) on Christmas Eve around 4pm. Wasn't long after that when I started feeling bad....really bad. I figured, ok...something in there didn't agree with me. As seems to be my pattern with holiday get-togethers lately, I retreated to the bedroom...for the whole evening! I came out every once in a while when I thought I was feeling better, only to return a short while later, missing all the fun. Although, it is kind of interesting just listening to ALL the conversations going on while you can't see anyone.

I did get to see some adorable things on a couple of my times among the crowd - the little kids had a blast playing with clothespins! They were sticking them on all over themselves, becoming porcupines, it was hilarious. Tammy's kids and Heather's step-daughter are SO adorable.

Meanwhile I'd start feeling bad (extreme stomach pain) and retreat to the bedroom/bathroom and try to throw up. Not much came out (aren't you happy to be reading this??). I began to think it was the flu, because usually when something just doesn't agree with me it only takes about an hour and I'm feeling fine again. This wasn't happening.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd say my stomach pain, and back pain by now, was about an 8 or 9. After everyone left and Doug came to bed he asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. Naw...I can ride this out, but hey, while you're up would you bring me my laptop?? : )

I sat in bed and looked up "human anatomy organs" in Google images. As soon as I saw where the gallbladder is located, I knew that was it. I read a little online, and yep, everything fit. After about another hour I decided it was time to go to the emergency room, despite our huge snowstorm and horrible roads. Hospital is about 15 miles away. Real fun drive.

They hooked me up to an IV (oh yippee, hate them) and gave me some fluids, pain meds, and anti-nausea meds. Took some blood to check labs on things, everything came back normal (there isn't a test for gall bladder, but they checked other things). So we left there with some more pain meds, anti-nausea meds and an appointment for Tuesday morning for an ultrasound of my gallbladder. Another fun drive home, crawled into bed around 3am Christmas morning.

So it's a lazy, lazy Christmas, still in my pjs and most likely will be all day, which is fine with me. I guess some people live with gallbladder attacks for years, but not me, they can take this sucker out as soon as possible. That was NO fun. I am not a wimp, so for me to even admit that I needed to go to the emergency room is big.

There's a family history of gall bladder problems (a sister and brother have had theirs out) and it's a very common problem after gastric bypass too, so this is no surprise I guess, except it IS a surprise, cause I don't really have health problems. Oh joy!

Doug says I must be getting old(er). Duh. : )

Funny!

I just ran across a quote that said "If swimming is good for your figure...then how do you explain whales??"

Don't know why, but it struck me as funnnnnn knee!

Ok, so here it is December 13...the holiday season. What does our house look like?? Um....an ordinary day of the year. Pick a day, any day. Not a speck of holiday cheer in our house, cause I'm too busy/lazy to do it and no one else around here cares or has any ambition to do it either. I thought about digging out some decorations, but I'd really have to do some digging to get to them. Maybe later this week. Maybe.

I DID do some "holiday baking" today though! I made pretzels dipped in almond bark. : ) Hey, it counts...I put sprinkles on 'em too!

If I bake stuff, I eat stuff, and it'll make me sick, so there's my excuse not to do it. No one else around here "needs" sweets and crap laying around either, so in reality I'm helping my family, right?? Heck, I ate enough of the stupid pretzels already.

So here's to holiday laziness. I don't have a thing bought either as far as presents. Oh, wait. I do. I have one gift bought for Wes, and got that about a month ago. No one even knows what they want, so what the heck am I supposed to do, just go out and buy "stuff" so they get something. I think NOT! They'll get a bonus on their cash gift this year, and that'll be enough.

I did think of something yesterday that the kids could get for ME! I was walking out of Walmart, past the portrait spot, and thought "hey, that's what they could do...get me a portrait of the three kids together!" They wouldn't have to go to Walmart and pose together, just go outside and have a boyfriend take a few pics and get one blown up for me. But that probably won't happen either.

So bah humbug. Fleas Navidad and whatever. : )

Map 'O the World

I look at my legs, and see....what looks like a colorful map of the world! All the "pretty" blues, yellows, reds and greens in random, splotchy patterns makes me think of a map.

Agree?? Or just grossed out?! : )

That's part where the steri-strips have come off now and you can see the little punctures. Here's a "big picture" of my left leg (right one looks very similar!).

Ah...but the good news is that today, I get to NOT wear the compression stockings!! Yay. Feels a little weird, but man those things sucked (literally!)

Dang it!

Dang, dang, dang...I'm doin' the Dang Dance right now. There are TWO major veins they didn't get to (got to the daily limit of lidocane and had to quit). Ugh. I AM gonna go have them finish, but it probably won't be until spring break or maybe even this summer. At least they got the majority done and my legs look so much better, but still, I'm disappointed.

Oh yay, something else to look forward to. : (

Well now....

Is it over...or is it not?

Day two, they finished the right leg and did most of the left. I was not very happy to hear they ran to the end of the daily limit of lidocane so there are a few bulgy veins they didn't take out. Dang it, and of course one of them is one that bugs me the most! Ugh. They said that they closed the "feeder vein" to this one so it should shrink on it's own, but I wanted it GONE. Forever.

So we'll see when I go back tomorrow and then in a month for my checkup. If it's not gone or shrinking enough, then I'll have them take that one (two actually) out too. Oh yay, something else to look forward to. But at least that would be a fairly easy day. I did look at my "before" pics today. Yuck.

Got my beautiful compression stockings today too, thankfully I'll only have to wear them for a week. Man, they're hard to get on, but they did feel pretty good once I had them on (part way was all we did today).

Came home and slept a few more hours, the pain woke me up. Headed for the vicoden soon and back to bed.

Gotta go back tomorrow for an ultrasound and re-check, then I'm done.

If you're NOT queazy...go to youtube and type in Ambulatory Phlebectomy. : )

Yeowchimomma!

That describes yesterday, day one of the vein removal. Yeowch! It all went well, but I sure wish I had had something more than a bit of valium ("so I don't care so much what's going on" they said). There were a few times when I almost...almost cried. One spot in particular, which I have the same issue on the left leg (to be done today) hurt like a son of a bitch. Yay....I get to look forward to that today. But they said they'd give me a little bit more valium...I say YES!! Bring it on.

They asked me if I was interested in seeing what my veins looked like, so of course I said yes. Looked like a worm that you see on the sidewalk after the rain, about an inch or so long, flat and whitish. Mmmmm. Aren't you glad you're reading this? : ) Not what I thought it would look like.

So in a little bit we leave to go back and they'll finish one spot on the right leg and then do the left leg. I'm glad I took the whole week off, cause my leg is all wrapped tight and I walk like a peg-leg pirate. But my leg looked SO much better already (before they wrapped it I looked at it). They took "before" pics and will take some "after" in about a month for my checkup. I took some "before" too, but I'm not so sure I want anyone to see 'em! We'll see.

Off to see the wizard...I mean doctor. Again.