Wednesday, April 26, 2006

late afternoon

I’m Home

Sore, sleepy...and to be honest, a bit uninspired blog-wise.  Go figure. More probably tomorrow.

early morning

No More Sleeps Until Surgery

More like mere hours now.  Which, of course, makes me want to eat (not allowed), drink copious amounts of water (not allowed), go back to bed (I doubt my parents want to come upstairs to wake me up when they get here), go to the movies (haven’t been in like a year, but it sounds like fun, doesn’t it?), and wear tightly constricted clothes to the hospital.  So, I’m all packed (tiny little backpack with cell phone, gum, ID, insurance card, & book) - I just need to put on my comfy sweatpants, some socks and shoes, and I’m totally ready for surgery.  And by totally ready, I mean not.

The excitement waiting for me when I get home - the girlie, the pets, recorded episodes of Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, The Amazing Race, Lost, and some Stanley Cup playoff games.  Oh yeah, and $250 worth of groceries we ordered online.  Mmmmm, Gatorade & Lunchables.  And popsicles.  Oh yeah, and my yummy smoothie.  I can’t wait to come back home.  See ya’ll soon.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

early evening

One More Sleep Until Surgery

Let’s just start with the fact that I’m much calmer about everything today.  I imagine part of it is due to the phone call I got this morning from the surgeon’s assistant, saying, “Your insurance sucks!” My insurance company informed the doctor’s office that unless my surgeon was employed by the hospital (very few are, and I doubt they have outside practices), they wouldn’t pay him if I had outpatient surgery.  They were insisting that I spend the night.  Yes, my insurance company wanted me in the hospital LONGER.  Apparently they wanted to see my bank account drain faster.  Anyway, the P.A. just wanted to keep me informed about the sudden horrible changes.  He said he’d call me later after they talked to a supervisor at the insurance company. 

So, Robert called (we’ll call him Robert, because that’s his name) back and said they worked out everything and I wouldn’t have to stay the night.  I asked Robert when I might be able to go home.  He thought about it for a minute, and then said because my surgery was around 3p, he thought if everything went really well, I could leave by 6p.  6p was the early estimate the other P.A. gave me when I was having surgery two hours earlier.  6p makes me very very very happy.  It isn’t much longer than when I had my injections, and that was no big deal at all.  Time zoomed by, and this time I’ll be completely knocked out, so it’ll go by even faster. 

I’ve had candles lit for me, good wishes from all over North America, and I have a Smoothie King Blueberry Heaven smoothie in the freezer just waiting for me to get home.  I did some vacuuming today (to remember what it was like for a while), a whole bunch of laundry, we’re getting lots of groceries delivered (fortuitously, Von’s sent me a free delivery coupon) , we have plenty of stuff on TiVo, and a couple of new books.  I’m starting to relax.  Sure, I can’t wait for it to be over, but I’m not feeling as anxious as I was yesterday.

See you all tomorrow night!

Monday, April 24, 2006

evening

Idiot of the Day - Stephen Harper

The latest from The Toronto Star, “OTTAWA—The Conservative government is refusing to allow media to cover tonight’s return of four Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, a surprise decision that has critics accusing Prime Minister Stephen Harper of adopting American-style tactics to limit public exposure to Canada’s casualties.”

Why doesn’t Stephen Harper just be done with it and change his name to George W. Bush?  It would be faster and easier than turning into him in increments.  It’s stunning, and kind of nauseating.

evening

One More Good Sleep Until A Scalpel Invades My Back

One more good sleep and one more nervous sleep, where I get up early to get some food into me before 6am on Wednesday, because after that, no food for me.  Anyway, I expected to spend my last few days of generalized pain cleaning & doing laundry.  What have I done?  I’ve watched the NHL playoffs, run some last minute (car required) errands, and yes, NurseAnn, looked up microdiscetomies online to see what other people’s experiences have been.  I haven’t found any great detailed responses regarding what to expect right after surgery - most people just write before they have the surgery, or after if it’s unsuccessful.  Sometimes, there’s someone who will say their surgery was successful, but they won’t give any details.  I want to know exactly how people felt after the surgery, on their way home, when they got home.  I want to know how long it took for them to feel fairly normal.  I want to know what kind of pain they had, what meds worked for it, how long it lasted, etc.  I can’t find any of that.  Sheesh, couldn’t some writer have had surgery for a herniated disc and felt moved to write about it an interesting way?  You know, because I’m going to have to write the story and it’s not going to be nearly as interesting as if a writer wrote it.  See, a real writer would never write, “as if a writer wrote it”, because that’s just tongue twisty and flows very poorly.

You know, I think that other people who have minor surgeries don’t talk so much about it.  I admit it, I’m a big wuss.  But, since this has kept me from having a life (going to my nephews’ baseball & volleyball games, although seriously, $5 a game is awfully expensive for a high school volleyball game that lasts 45 minutes, going to the movies, going out much at all (bladder problems will do that to ya), etc.), it’s kind of important to me.  Heh, I used double parentheses.  Uggg-LY.  Plus, the added weight (I’d say I’ve gained about 30lbs from lack of, well, moving) and having nothing to wear kinda sucks too.  I do have one pair of really comfy fat pants though.  I love Old Navy and their cheap clothes.  I love being in my 40’s and no longer having to care what the other kids are wearing.  If it’s comfortable, reasonably priced, and I like it...I’ll buy it.  I no longer need my Guess? jeans from the 80’s.  Wait, I lied, I like name-brand tennis shoes.  If I had unlimited cash, I’d have hundreds of pairs.  Okay, maybe not hundreds.  Maybe one hundred though.  Have you seen how many different colors there are of Converse high-tops?  Yum!

I should stop babbling and go do laundry.  I’ll probably write one more nervous entry before I go under the knife.  Then, I’ll probably see you sometime on Thursday afternoon.  I may be wasted.  Lucky you.