Monday came around fast – doesn’t it always when someone’s trying to cut you open?

I had a quick shower and went to the hospital, only to discover that contrary to our instructions we did in fact need my driving license. In spite of various floors in the hospital having a copy of it, Col had to go home and get it – cause God forbid we ask someone to come off their lunch to get my file, or worse still, ask someone from the surgery floor to go and look for it. No, Col had to go home and get it, leaving an insanely pissed off and very, very, sore Las (I’d not had painkillers in over 12 hours by this stage, or food now that I mention it!).

They made me change into a gown and dinner-lady-esque cap, put the canula in the back of my hand (after a shot of novocaine and some ‘flicking’ of the back of my hand to get a vein), gave me some hard core drugs, let me kiss Col g’bye (who looked like he was about to cry at the sight of me – I wouldn’t have blamed him, dinner lady caps don’t even look good on dinner ladies!) and wheeled me off into surgery.

Not before, however, my anesthetist informed me that my weight loss drug is highly dangerous and he thinks I should never, ever, take it again – which, having told me in front of my husband, means I’ll never, ever, be taking the drug again! LOL! Although the anesthetist was indeed supported by the opinion of my hilarious surgeon – who informed me that his memory wasn’t so great and, when I enquired as to whether or not he remembered the procedure he replied, ‘don’t worry, there’s a computer in there, I can just google it if I forget a bit!’ – yup, this was the guy who sliced and diced me! He cracked me up!

I remember them putting a mask on my face, the anesthetist saying ‘It’s oxygen, take deep breaths’ and the next thing I remember I’m waking up.

Done deal!

I woke up feeling awful. I seriously just wanted someone to shoot me dead. Put me out of my misery.

I couldn’t swallow, my throat hurt, I felt sick and I was in pain. Lots of pain.

She gave me a shot of anti-nausea drugs for my sick feeling, a shot of morphine (I think) for my pain and a glass of cranberry juice, apparently cause that’s what they give you.

After saying ‘I feel sick’, she gave me the shot, asked if I felt better, I said ‘no, I hurt bad’, she gave me another shot, asked if I felt better, I said ‘no, can I go home?’, she said ‘course you can, you’ve no where else to go’. Man, well thanks for that! LOL!

Col appeared shortly thereafter – having been on the phone to one Mr Paul McKee (thanks for distracting him while I was under the knife Mr McKee!) and I didn’t even need to prove I could pee before they released me into the loving care of my hubby. Who, quickly took me home.

I made my way upstairs and lay on the bed in the spare room – yes, we had the foresight to get the bed ready cause there was no WAY I was going to be height-challenged for a lie-down. I slowly manoeuvered myself onto the bed only to be greeted by serious agony. I remembered Magz telling me before about her op and about how sitting up was much better.

I went downstairs, layered cushions on the sofa (our sofa is very deep and I’d never have made it out of there if I just sat in my normal spot!) and passed out at a 90 degree angle.

The pain was pretty bad for the next few days. I was high a lot, on the vicodin that Col kindly went to get from CVS while I was passed out. He brought a couple of cushions upstairs from the sofa, to the bed so I could sleep sitting up at night time too. He helped me get up, he helped me lie down, he prepared my food, he gave me my medication, he helped me dry myself after a shower – in short, he pretty much did everything for me.

A day or two before my surgery, I’d put out a ‘Call to arms’ among my SSA friends here in Houston. The message went along the lines of, ‘Help, my husband can’t cook, my diet is restricted and I’m not allowed to stand over a stove top!’

Before long, my friends made a ‘schedule’ of who was bringing us food and when! If being sick wasn’t so unbelievable sucky – I’d do it more often cause it was a great week of food!

Tuesday was Artichoke chicken with pilau rice and butternut squash soup from the lovely Janet. We also got Meatballs with spaghetti, fresh chopped pineapple and some homemade cookies for Col from Julie.

Wednesday, Sharon dropped by with a lovely Chicken pot pie, Magz and Sam came by to cook us dinner (I got salmon, Col got steak) and as they were cooking, Luke called over to deliver a lovely Shepherds pie on behalf of him and Emily for Thursday’s dinner.

Crystal called by on Friday, she brought with her some butternut squash and garlic soup, some potato and leek soup, some home made muffins and truffles for Col. Melanie also dropped by on Friday evening, to deliver a berry medley, some chicken and carrot dish with a side of potatoes.

We were very well fed last week! I have such great friends here and they’re all so kind and great cooks!

I have many pics of my war wounds. The incision inside my belly button is at the top of a 6 or 7 inch long, by about 2-3 inch wide bruise – that is uuuugly! The incision in the centre of my abdomen is the cleanest, it also seems to be healing fastest, while the right most incision has a circular bruise around it but no where near as badly as my belly button.

I seem to be getting better very quickly, I was off the vicodin and on Over The Counter pain medication within a few days, the digestion issues seem to be self-righting, the bruise where my canula was is still sore but I think she might have nicked something in there cause when the nurse took the canula out, she held it and applied pressure to stop the bleeding for a while. My muscles seem to be the only remaining pain as well as the common post-op jaw/collar bone/shoulder pain that is driving me daft – and, now that the dressings are off, the cuts seem to be doing very well and the bruising is vanishing quickly. We’ll see at the follow up appointment with the surgeon later this week.

Towards the end of the week, our postbox was full of great treats! We got our Entertainment guide, we got our Christmas postcards and we got my new glasses – from a wonderful website recommended to me by my friend Amber. I ordered them a week or two before, complete with anti-scratch, anti glare, UVF protection, slim lenses and ok, the frames aren’t great or designer but they get the job done and were only $26 (all in) compared to the $300 I spent on one pair in the opticians a few weeks ago – which, I’m STILL waiting for to arrive!

The website is www.zennioptical.com and I can vouch for it – as can Amber, and soon enough, my friend Yvonne will hopefully be able to vouch for it also!

It’s been a long, painful, tough week for both of us. But Col in particular, he’s had to juggle my post-op care as well as his full time job and it wasn’t easy for him.

Saturday, I decided to give him a lie in and went out to Dollar General to do my coupon shop alone. It was my first time out and about on my own since before the op but it was fun, it picked up my dour mood and made me feel a little better about myself.

Ke$ha is a GREAT driving CD, although listening to it does often result in me playing it WAY too loud! LOL! I picked up Col’s Starbucks order on the way home and arrived home to him still out cold!

I’ve missed driving, I love my car – for those of you to ever question how great a Saab is – don’t! It’s a phenomenal car and I love, love, LOVE it!!

Anyways, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone – mainly Col of course – but also my friends, everyone who brought us food for a start, I’d not have made it comfortably through the week if it weren’t for you all, as Tyson frozen chicken, tombstone pizzas and pasta’n’sauce aren’t quite the low fat diet my surgeon had in mind! 😉

Next I’d like to thank my friend Billi, for being my go-to Gallbladder removal expert and letting me torment her with tonnes of questions about the condition, the Op and post op! You’ve been fab!

Courtney, Sarah K and Magz, you’ve all been FABTASTIC, letting me text y’all about 50,000 times a day! lol!

I’ve had flowers from Becky, Matt, Sarah and Kerrie as well as from my landlady Shannon which was very thoughtful indeed, I’ve been on the phone to my caring daddy a lot this week and also had a barrage of well wishes even from an old friend of Col’s who I’ve had my ‘moments’ with. They’re all greatly appreciated and I’m feeling much better!

Apparently, Gallstones are the most painful thing ever – worse than childbirth, but I’ve already informed Col that he can’t say, while I’m in the throngs of childbirth that I’ve already survived Gallstones and should have nothing to complain about! LOL!

Hopefully my diet will return to normal and I’ll be drinking a nice frozen margarita in Chuys in no time…my weight loss efforts will now be kicked back up a notch as I still have a lot to shift and want to shift it soon. I also need to shop for trousers since I don’t have any that fit me – but that’s another story entirely!

Just an FYI, the 4 main factors of gallstones are

Female (it’s more common in women)

Fertile (it’s more common in those who have just given birth)

Forty (it’s more common in those over 40)

Fat (it’s more common in those who have lost a large amount of weight in a short space of time.)

Two out of four for me – however, although my weight loss hasn’t been rapid or in anyway unhealthy (ironically enough I took it slow to avoid issues such as these and am almost regretting not doing it faster!) it’s still where the surgeon is placing the blame for my condition.

Sunday, we tidied – which indicates I’m definitely on the mend! The house has been like a bomb has hit it since mid-October when people started to arrive. Even the front room which is normally empty was like a tornado had passed through it. Col cleaned the kitchen to within an inch of it’s life, I did the dining room and the front room and Col swept the floors.

He cleaned our bedroom ceiling fan (man, I always forget about how dirty those suckers get, cause it’s only turned off after the awful summer and they are GROSS!!), we put my favourite Christmas scent in the wall plugin and changed our ‘Fall’ hand washes in the kitchen and bathrooms for the same scent as a wall plugin. I put away some of my laundry but our bedroom was abandoned in aid of a delicious chinese dinner and sheer exhaustion on my part! Little by little! lol!

I needed to chill out a little so we sat watching TV when our Landlady dropped by with flowers for me, she also brought us a big ole box containing a few tins of biscuits and cookies for us for Christmas – again, 2nd year running for her to give them to us, just like our Thanksgiving turkey – we have a great landlady!

I’m pleased with our progress, I can’t stand a messy, untidy house – I need some kind of order and this house has had anything but order for the last month or two, especially given how our landlady dropped in! She’d have had a heart attack if she’d seen her house before we’d cleaned! LOL!!

Anyways, we spent the weekend and the first few days of this week watching NCIS – season 1, which we’ve started a few times now and never gotten through. Our DVR drive is empty so we’ve finally got some time to get into the boxsets we have sitting still shrink wrapped and ready to watch!

I love weekends like these! The day before my surgery we bought me 3 new pairs of ‘lounge pants’ – aka pj bottoms, bottoms which everyone we’ve ever bought them for, have absolutely loved them! I got some Mountain Dew ones, Coca Cola ones and Pac Man ones and I’ve lived in them for a week now! They rock!

Ok, I think I’ve run out of things to babble about, it’s time to get back to NCIS and my cuppa that Col’s just made for me…