THAT WET COAST FEELING...

I feel like I am back in Vancouver. I lived out that way for 3 1/2 years a while back and moved back to the Prairies because I was bloody sick and tired of freezing my patootie off! The damp chill there just drove me batty. Didn't get that SAD from the grey gloomy skies (that would be Seasonal Affective Disorder or major depression from decreased serotonin production due to chronic and extended lack of sunlight) but was just absolutely chilled to the bone cold all the time. Well, except in August when there would be three weeks of heat, which is what they call summer out there.

For several days now we here in what is soon to become Winterpeg have been subjected to West Coast weather. It is rainy, wet, chilly (it is all of 5C right now and the high for the day is a stifling 7C!). The leaves are plastered all over everything except the trees, in yellows and browns and the occasional red or orange.

There are worms all over the sidewalks and roads. It smells like mashed worms out there. I don't know how they can even move, it is so cold out there! But they are struggling valiantly to get to somewhere.... and getting stepped on or run over in their efforts. One saving grace is we don't get those huge banana slugs that look like moving dog turds.

Even though it is only Thanksgiving, I will take snow over this rainy crap any day. I feel like my universe has shifted and somehow deposited me back on the Wet Coast.

GET IT OUT ..... Update

Well, I am now four days post-op and eating fairly normally. Have had no problems with food shooting straight through - thanks the gods that be! The last thing I need is the runs. Took a few days for the old bowels to get moving again (not bad considering I had nothing to eat for over 36 hours), but all is back to normal now.

I am itchy from the tape I have to put on my belly. Have to keep the sutures covered or my clothes catch on them - that hurts! Plus I don't want any infections, so I am putting antibiotic ointment on the incisions and covering them with gauze and tape. I am allergic to just about all tapes known to man but have found one that only makes me a little red and itchy - some make me blister and peel off my skin. No sense adding insult to injury!



Lots of swelling around my poor bellybutton. Makes me look about 6 months' prego.... yuck. And it is quite colourful, what with the incision (red), the bruising (yellow and a few purple spots) and the sutures (bright blue). This is where the largest trochar gets inserted and wiggled about. And it is also where they extract the offending organ. Will have to remember to ask the surgeon just how big my gall bladder was when he yanked the damn thing out.



But it is all getting better, slowly, day by day. Walking the dog is short and turtle slow (at least in Zoe's mind... good thing I taught her 'easy' a long time ago so she knows to slow down to an amble when I say that). We only go about one block total so far but today was a teensy bit faster than it has been. She's itching for a good hard run, I can tell, but she's sticking to me like glue so is tolerating the minimal exercise quite well. Maybe tomorrow we will go to the dog park and I will meander a short distance while she races about. She's such a good dog.... doesn't let me out of her sight. The cats, on the other hand, could care less....

The biggest thing about all this is how sore my back (on my ribs) is on the left side. When they do this surgery, they manoeuver the OR table, which is multi-jointed, so that you are tilted with your right side up (cuz that is where your liver and gall bladder reside) and kinda curved to the left. So the brunt of my weight was on this one area of my ribs towards the back about mid upper arm level. For close to two hours. It aches and is sore to the touch. I have to take pain meds more for that than for the abdominal discomfort, which is really limited to my poor protruding and bruised up umbilicus.

So I am lounging about, taking it easy for the most part. Trying to get all healed up in a hurry so I can get on with my life. Good thing there are lots of blogs to visit, cuz I get bored easily with TV and reading.

JUST GET IT OUT!

For the past several years, I have been dealing with bouts of abdominal pain that last for hours and are very uncomfortable, resulting in lots of bloating and referred back pain as well. Seems that I was defying medical diagnosis for quite some time until I was referred to a GI specialist.

Over the course of the past three years, I have had numerous blood tests taken both during these attacks and not. My pancreatic enzymes were up for discussion, looking for pancreatitis. Negative.

I have had two gastroscopies - where the doc sprays local anaesthetic in your throat and gets you to swallow a honking big hose that contains a camera, for a good look around your stomach to make sure there aren't any ulcers or tumours. Has a little nipper thing he can slide down there too if he needs to take a tissue sample for biopsy. Negative on that front also.



I have had to drink liquid barium, an xray contrast medium that is like drinking liquid chalk. Least they could do is flavour the stuff, but noooo... just chug the whole glass then lay down on the table so they can watch what it does in your stomach. Then every 30 minutes you get to go back and get zapped by radiation again and again while they follow the barium all the way through to your bowel. That took four hours... four very long hours. Because I have had previous abdominal surgery, they were looking for strictures of scar tissue that might possibly be wrapped around my bowel causing the pain. Negatory.

Then on to the Ultrasound. Twice. A year apart. Absolutely nothing abnormal showed up on either of those. The attacks continued, not really influenced by what I ate (ie: high fat foods) and usually occurring in the late afternoon or evening. Go figure.

So then I got referred to the GI guy. Finally.... Really nice doc. I had done my research and determined that I had biliary colic and the GI guy agreed with me, after reviewing my file. So he sent me for an MRI to get a better look at what was going on in my belly and it showed I have sludge in my gall bladder. Not stones, but sludge.

So apparently, the sludge would slide around in my gall bladder and cause it to spasm. Which could be pretty intense and not always relieved with things like Tylenol #3's and Gravol. But never so severe that I was willing to sit in the Emergency Room for hours on end to get a shot of Demerol or Morphine, because by the time I would get in, the pain would be gone. So I would take what I had at home and stick it out. Sometimes, that would be up to 6 hours.... talk about a major belly ache!

The GI doc wanted to put me on some medication that might (and I repeat, might) dissolve the sludge. So for six months, I took three pills a day that did absolutely nothing for the attacks. I felt no different. Went back at the end of those 6 months for a repeat MRI and guess what? The sludge was still there!

So the next step was referral to a surgeon to get the offending organ removed. Saw him in August and had the surgery two days ago - laparascopic cholecystectomy.



It all went as expected and no unusual complications but I did puke a fair bit after because of the morphine they gave me. That settled about 4 hours post-op so not too bad. The thick feeling in my ears was from the anaesthetic and that didn't clear until last night some time.

So today, two days post-op and I actually feel pretty good except I have a sore belly. I look like a stabbing victim though! I have four holes in my belly. But I am not nauseated and I have a relatively good appetite, although I am being careful about what I eat. Don't want to load my system with fatty foods and end up in the biffy in an hour with everything exiting in a hurry! I haven't experienced that but do know that some people don't tolerate any fatty foods at all once the gall bladder is gone.



For those of you with an interest, this is a link to a video of an actual lap choley. Not mine though, because the hospital I had it done at doesn't have the capacity to tape the procedures - or at least, that is what they told me. I would have liked to see what I personally look like on the inside, but that is just the nurse in me coming out, I think.

I am keeping my fingers crossed now that this will mean an end to the attacks of abdominal pain. I asked the surgeon to have a good look around at the parts he could see when he was in there to make sure nothing looked amiss. Will get his view of things when I see him in three weeks. Until then, I am just hangin' out, healin' up and takin' it easy.

GOOD HELP IS HARD TO FIND....

Getting these two to do any office work is like pulling hen's teeth....


They tend to lounge around and waste the day away doing stuff like..... sleeping!


"Wha...? You want me to do something? What? Load the printer with more paper... well, okay.... if you insist..."


"Where do we keep the paper again?"


"Is it in here....?"


"Is it up there...?"


"Alright, already... I'll close it when I'm done.... OKAY??!!!??"


"Blah, blahblah blah BLAH!"


"No.... I didn't say anything...."


"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"


"Okay.... I think I found it."


"Noooo... I am NOT dawdling...."


"Gimme a minute, will ya! It's hard to handle this stuff when you don't have fingers! Sheesh."


"I'm on my break. I'll get to it in 15 minutes."


"GAWD! This job is way too physical!!"


"I need to rest...."


"I was NOT sleeping on the job! Really, I wasn't...."


"I'm ready! For what.... I don't know.... but I am ready... honest!"

THANKFULNESS..... AND TURKEY DAY

Canadian Thanksgiving in just over a week away. In my family, it is a time to gather together, enjoying the warmth and love of each other's company, talking, eating and laughing. Sharing the bond that keeps us all close.

At this time of year, I always find myself reminiscing about past gatherings and the wonderful memories I carry with me in my head and in my heart.

It has been 19 years since my father died, five since Mum passed away, and almost three since my oldest sister, Laurel, was killed in a highway accident. Those three all live in my heart, with strong and special memories of each keeping me close to them.

This year, my oldest nephew and his lovely wife have recently relocated to Calgary so will not be with those of us who live in Winnipeg for the turkey fest. They will both be missed but knowing they'll be coming back at Christmas for a visit eases that.

My oldest and dearest best friend, Debbie, is coming up from Texas tomorrow. She'll be here visiting me, her in-laws and her mum and sister. She'll be here for Thanksgiving. She'll actually get two Thanksgivings this year, because she'll be back home in Texas for the American version next month.

I am so excited that she will be here - staying with me and giving us the opportunity to hang out together, which is something we really haven't done in a couple of decades to any great degree. We have been best buds for 36 years... I remember her telling me a few years ago that her oldest daughter (now 21 but then a teen) expressing envy at the length and apparent ease of our friendship. Debbie told her daughter that we both made the effort to keep our friendship alive and well - it didn't just do this on it's own. I don't think her daughter had any idea that you have to work at any relationship - even one with a girlfriend.

One of the poignant thoughts for me this Thanksgiving, although I no longer have my parents or my oldest sister here, is that Debbie doesn't really have hers either. Her dad died ten years ago. Her older sister (she just has the one sibling) is mentally handicapped, has OCD, paranoia and is a huge handful at the best of times.

Her mum, sadly enough, is now confined to a locked dementia unit in a local hospital, awaiting placement in a personal care facility that is equipped for the cognitively challenged. She now requires special care due to the severeity of her dementia and her increasingly aggressive behaviour. She is no longer a person that Debbie recognizes, just as she no longer recognizes her own daughter.

So Debbie doesn't really have any family left. She is like my own sister and I love her absolutely to bits. She will always be a part of my family, and now that hers is shrinking even smaller, I think this will become more important to her.

So my thanks goes to everyone in my family, for being who they are and for loving me for who I am. And also to my siblings for having always taken Debbie in as part of the family, as she's spent tons of time with them all when we were younger. For her loving me, for her supporting me in all the situations I have found myself involved in in my life, be they happy or sad, good or bad. She has always been there for me. I have always been there for her.

If two people could ever be soulmates, she and I are just that. We are connected, we think alike and have ESP when it comes to calling or when things happen to one or the other - we just seem to know.

So on this upcoming Turkey Day, Debbie will be joining me and my family, and she will be loved and welcomed in as one of the clan. I am glad she will be here... and I am glad I can be here for her.