The first large snowstorm of 2010

The storm started late on the 5th of February. Continued into late on the 6th.

This is our back yard. Zuki is the second car from the right.

Snow up to my "snow" window clings!

What happened when we opened the front door! The stoop is like 6 inches below this.

I just think the solid snow pack looks neat.

There is a subaru car under there!

The view from the garage.

Back of our neighbor's house. You can see the drifting from the wind. Yikes!

Josh being silly.

What a great husband shoveling (even though we PAY someone to do that).

I brought him beer to go with his shovel. It made it more enjoyable for him!

It's like a winter wonderland.

If you have an AWD car it's like MANDATORY to drive in the snow.

Until you get stuck like we did here. It's okay, we are experienced and got it out.

(Although we were passed by two plow trucks and then OMG a police car and I was afraid he would stop and yell at us. Dude didn't even stop to HELP us. Whatever.)

It looks so funny with all the SNOW in our yards.

Thankfully we enjoy driving in the snow and made a trip out on Saturday night and found frozen bread. Although I totally wussed out on trying it - a big thanks to my awesome cooking blog friend Uncanny and her bread making loveliness. I linked her blog in my previous post. I do want to make the bread, but I got scared I would totally screw it up and then have nothing to take to the SUPER BOWL parties we attended. Another thanks to my friend RockThis who gave me the idea for the pizza bites - which I did use.

We did end up at two Super Bowl parties. I had a great time. I tried to have a little alcohol at the first one. It made me sick. One of my friend's sons asked everyone who went to the bathroom if they pooped. It made me laugh until I hurt (which doesn't take tooo much). We also taught him to fist bump. WITH fireworks. SCORE!!

Then we almost got into an accident when Zuki came out of 4 wheel drive. Weeeee... Josh is a good driver though, so almost just means he lost a little traction, but we were fine.

I was really tired at the second one. So we left early. *sigh*

Guess what is happening right now?

MORE SNOW on it's way.

Awesome. I STILL can't sled ride. Boo.

Oh well.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Time for a three week update.

Three weeks already? Who I am kidding? This feels like the LONGEST three weeks EVER.

The difference between last week and this week are crazy though. This time last week I was a blubbering, crying, inconsolable mess. This week. Eh. I would say I am about 70% back to my normal. Give or take a couple percents.

Physically things hurt less. I'm still having some breathing issues, I have a little trouble occasionally when I eat (it seems I can't swallow food, which feels stuck, which makes me feel like my chest is ripping apart, which makes me panic, which makes me feel like I'm dying), and my shoulders and ribcage are still tender.

Mentally I am processing everything better. I am not so forlorn and lost. Things are starting to look up.

Emotionally I have stopped crying every day. I have it down to like once every 2-3 days.

I think that last 30% is going to take a while. I wish it wouldn't, but it's just a feeling I have. Which is not cool because I KNOW that healing is mind over matter and my mind is just not into it.

Grrrr.

Oh, and did you know that we are having SNOW?!?! Yes it is SNOWING. I have to capitalize SNOW because everyone is all worked up about the SNOW. Lololol.

I took this photo at 4:30ish. It had just started.

There is supposedly 22 total inches on the way for here. Maybe? Who knows.

I couldn't get a picture of the snow tonight because it was too dark out. So I took this photo of ME at 9PM.

I love Oscar. And my Halloween skull PJ pants. Oh baby!

And I haven't mentioned the upcoming Super Bowl yet because so much ELSE is going on. So about that Super Bowl. With those teams playing. Who I have NO idea who they are. Yeah...

People wigging out have ruined my Super Bowl food making plans. I wanted to make pizza roll. I need frozen bread. THE GROCERY STORE WAS OUT OF FROZEN BREAD. Seriously?? I HATE being that person at the store, but I was so annoyed. So I might be making pizza bites instead. Or I may use my friend's pizza dough recipe found HERE. She has an awesome cooking blog.

We aren't hosting this year and have two parties to attend. I'm kind of excited as long as snow doesn't freak too many people out.

So that is my three week wrap up.

Maybe I will get out tomorrow and take some SNOW pictures.

I haven't used my camera in almost a MONTH. BOOOOOOO.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

HOW did we get to the short month

already?? What happened to January? Anyone know?

I seriously can not believe it's February already. Where did the time go? The only things I have accomplished are some reading, lots of couch potatoing, some MOUSE potatoing (I'll explain that in a minute) and recovering. Oh, and you know the whole surgery thing.

About that mouse potatoing. I read my Nora Ephron book that Nina and Greg got me.

Apparently it is a term that describes people that instead of wasting their time on the couch watching tv (couch potato) they sit around and waste time on the computer. THIS my friends is a mouse potato. And guess what? I TOTALLY fit that term. *shrugs*

I also managed to read

These two I just purchased and should be here before the weekend.

Apparently Joe Hill is Stephen King's son's pen name. Who knew??

And finally this is my current book.

I'm about 4 pages in. Lol. I couldn't sleep last night and was up until 5AM. I started reading this book today and totally fell asleep. The book was fine, I was just exhausted.

How am I keeping track of all my reading now? I belong to a site called goodreads. It helps me keep track of what I'm reading, what my friends are reading and has been super helpful so I don't forgot what I WANTED to read too!!

And no, I'm not just reading. I've also managed to catch up on The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. I've also started watching Mad Men and 30 Rock.

How have I missed all these amazing shows??

Oh, and I watched two Star Wars movies. *gasp*

Stubborn no more! Or at least on that.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

It should be getting better

but currently it is not. The pain is still there. Still not letting me sleep comfortably all night. Which is making me tired. Which is making me not want to do anything during the day. Which isn't helping me sleep at night. See the pattern?

There is a lot of frustration right now. A lot. I'm also crying. A lot.

And can we discuss how I just got my period which means cramps and bloating on top of the stomach pain, swelling and uncomfortable feelings from surgery.

Can we add my typical period crazy feelings to the frustration too?

Holy whine fest huh?

Yeah, I try not to be this person. SO...

On an better note - I had a great time going out for my friend Kandice's birthday on Tuesday night! We went to Mitsuru and had sushi. I do love sushi!

And last night Josh and I snuggled on the couch for a little while.

Tonight Josh and I will be going on a date to TARGET to pick up more pain meds.

YAY!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

I once had a pretend brain tumor

I wasn't pretending it was a brain tumor. IT was pretending it was a brain tumor.

Way back during my first surgery blogging I mentioned this crazy phenomenon. When I was asked by the nurse if I was allergic to anything I mentioned tetracycline which is a common drug prescribed for acne. You can read the rest of that story if you follow the link (it's blissfully short and is the fourth paragraph under the first photo of me).

Both subsequent times I've had surgery I am also asked about drug allergies and both times I have told them about the tetracycline. Why this popped into my head today to discuss I don't really know. I mean I was looking at possibly side effects of long term Vicodin use (I know I've only been on it for like 4.5 days - I'm paranoid okay?) and then for some reason I threw tetracycline into the search engine.

(click HERE for more information)

Nothing came up. Hmmm. I mean well stuff came up (headache, nausea, vomiting, etc) but nothing about severe debilitating headaches that were associated with tumor like symptoms.

Although, if you type in pseudo tumor cerebri and read anything involving causes, tetracycline is listed. Interesting again. I suppose it is because it causes such a SMALL number of cases they don't want to freak anyone out, but let me tell you who was freaked out when no one knew what was going on - ME!

When I was 14 I had really bad acne. Actually I had it at 12 and 13 too, but 14 was when I made up my mind to DO something about it. After lots of creams, treatments, etc I was put tetracycline to try to dial down the massive large red breakouts all over my face.

Now my EXACT details on this whole escapade are fuzzy. It was almost 14 years ago and I was an overly dramatic, hormonal 14 year old. Suffice to say I started the tetracycline. My acne started clearing up. I also started getting debilitating migraines to the point I was super light sensitive and throwing up. This was attributed to "hormones" and "growing" and "girl problems." Then one day I passed out in gym class while running the track. And I mean face first plant directly into the cinders with no hands out to catch me.

It looked like I had acne all over again! Ha! Ok, I shouldn't joke, but what else is there to say? I looked a mess. Saw my doctor again. More "hormones, growing, stress, etc." and I was sent on my way.

Then that winter I was walking home from school. I lived 1/2 block from the high school, so not far at all. I did however, in that 1/2 block distance, have to cross the one "major" street in my hometown (yes, there was only one, MAYBE two major streets). I was midway across that street when I collapsed. I have no memory of feeling weak. Just walking and then someone carrying me home (a school friend who saw it happen).

The speed limit wasn't high, but had I passed out in front a car, it still could have run me over. Ugh. Bad thoughts.

That was when the neurologist got involved. Several MRI's, tests and scans and low and behold they found my pretend tumor! I had a large increase of fluid that was pushing on my brain just like a tumor would.

I was told to stop all medications I was taking and present a list to my doctors. List was presented, medications were stopped and miraculously the REALLY bad headaches and the passing out stopped (temporarily).

After about 4 months I was called back to the doctor's office to get my official diagnosis. I had an allergic reaction to the tetracycline that cause a pseudo tumor cerebri. It is most common in women of child bearing age and even more common in obese women. Now I fit the first criteria, but at that point in my life, I was still really skinny. This issue causes problems in less than 1% of the population and the fact that stopping the tetracycline cured the swelling in my brain I was officially diagnosed and told to NEVER take it AGAIN.

Apparently the less than 1% diagnosis still prevents LOTS of medical professionals from knowing about it, which makes sense to me. Could you imagine having to know EVERY potential issue with EVERY potential person?? It's why we have the internet people!!

So that is my fun story for today. It only took me almost a year to explain it. Lol.

However it doesn't explain why I wrote that my last post was #150 when really I only have #148 (well this one will make #149) published. I'm sneaking this in HERE way down at the bottom because I feel dumb. I didn't realize I had two unfinished posts lurking around that I gave up on. Oops. My bad. Ignore my mistake. I'll make up for it with MORE POSTS!!

Check back later this week for some Q&A from emails I've gotten (and I will respond to those emails shortly as well - I promise!!), and maybe another discussion on my weirdness including my predisposition to passing out and WHY am I allergic to the alternatives to things?

Always a fun time around here!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Post #150 has graphic photos

Seriously. Graphic. As in they are photos of the inside of my body. I know the inside of my body is pretty gross. I have seen photos before. I got a 4 set during my last surgery. I don't think I posted them. Maybe I did. I don't see them though. Hmmmm... Oh well.

Honestly they look a lot like these photos. Honestly I don't really know what I am looking at. You probably don't either. Unless you are a medical professional and then - why are you reading my blog? I'm really not that interesting!

So there are only 8 photos below. There should be 12, but my every amazing husband apparently scanned the same set twice and missed one set. Oops. Maybe when he goes back in to scan set 3, I'll see if he can scan in the set from last year since they are SO different. Lol.

On to the photos. Now these aren't ultra sound or anything fancy like that. They are literally photos taken with a small camera that was placed inside my abdomen so that the people performing my surgery could see what they were doing without flaying my stomach open.

The photos were scanned in, emailed, and then cropped so the picture quality is probably not great. Sorry.

The only really cool thing I can see is that the two right bottom photos and the one left bottom photo is the AlloMax that was attached to my diaphragm. That is the human tissue that can't be rejected, can't degrade, and has to hold up or we'll be going through surgery again.

Please send your positive thoughts to that gross looking piece of soggy thick paper towel thing.

Josh had scanned these photos yesterday and sent them to me last night. He sent them while watching Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. Now Mike Rowe is an amazing guy who I swoon over every time he comes on TV. Maybe I'll talk about him another time.

The particular Dirty Jobs episode was Season 5, Episode 21. It was titled Fireworks Technician. There was an offshoot segment about a cow that has a hole in it's side that they fish inside of to study cow digestion. I couldn't watch. I felt like that cow. At least my holes got closed up. This cow has people digging in its guts daily. Sorry cow. :-(

And speaking of closing of holes - that will be a nice transition for the final segment of today's blog post.

I had 5 incisions last surgery. I had no stitches to close them up, just some steri strips and about a weeks worth of healing time and they were fine.

Dr. Prats used the same incision sites as last time to do this surgery. This time though he needed stitches for the one incision due to how much stretching was done with the instruments. That incision looks awful. See?

If you click on the photo it will get larger, but I just want to make sure you guys see how really gross it is! So I cropped it closer. See below.

The small white piece at the bottom right of the incision is the internal stitch that has once again made its way to the surface of my stupid body. I learned my lesson LAST time in regards to pulling on things around incisions.

Okay, well if you didn't lose your lunch from the photos in this post KUDOS! I think these are all the gross ones for a while. Unless Josh gets those other ones scanned in and then I'll post those too. Lol.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

First post surgery 3 follow up

I planned ahead for my Thursday morning appointment and had showered the night before. Glad I did. It gave me time to put some makeup on and do my hair. I figured I might as well as least try to look cute while feeling miserable.

Cute see?

Well I thought I looked cute. We also did some pictures of the not so cute parts of me.

and a close up

Okay, I realize nothing looks bad. But people, please realize that all the work was done on the INSIDE. Stitches, cutting out scar tissue, yanking things, moving things, stitching more things, adding human tissue to reinforce things. Ugh. My stomach is also a big bloated, swollen mess of mush.

And you know where my almost biggest pain is from? My shoulders. They pumped so much air into my body so they could work, and it was in there for so long, that it is trapped and causing a lot of pain. Ouch and boo.

When we set off for the doctor's office I was only in a little pain, but the car ride really did me in. I couldn't even stand to check myself in and Josh had to do it for me. Got back to the room and it was the really nice nurse. Dr. Prats came in soon and we started talking. About 3 seconds into our talk I started crying. Oh god. I HATE crying in front of people. And I HATE that it probably made him feel bad.

I was just in SO MUCH PAIN. All that frustration led me to cry more and both the doctor and nurse were super sympathetic. I am very thankful they weren't upset with me. I was prescribed more pain medication - this time vicodin - told to come back in three weeks and to just take my time and heal. No rush, I needed to take my time and it was okay that I wasn't bouncing back immediately. This surgery was very intense with more work than anticipated.

My mom had told me all this the day before, but it made me feel better to hear it from the doctor. I know I know. Sorry mom.

After the appointment, Josh took me home, got me all situated (can I seriously nominate him for husband of the century??) and went back to work. We agreed I'd be okay with the rest of the percoset until he got home from work. I got so bored and frustrated and keyed up yesterday I asked Josh if I could go to Target with him to get my prescription when he got home from work.

This is where my story turns kind of funny and really really gross. It made my mom laugh hysterically, but I am an even better in person story teller than on here. So you're only getting half the funniness.

Seriously, really really gross. Continue reading at your own risk. I've warned you.

Josh told me it would be too much for me to be at Target. I didn't listen.

So we get to Target and Josh goes to make a return while I lean on a cart and make my way back to the pharmacy. Josh beat me there. Even with a return *sigh*.

I sit on the bench while Josh puts in my prescription and they told us 20-25 minutes. We then worked our way back to the men's clothing section so Josh can find a new pair of wind pants. He wanted to try them on so I found a bench in the shoe section and flopped. Now Josh had told me he didn't bring his cell phone so don't go anywhere.

After about two minutes of sitting there I HAVE to go. Like I have to poop. And it has to happen RIGHT NOW. I try as hard as I can not to poop my pants and then Josh shows up. I tell him what is going on and that we have to go RIGHT NOW. The bathroom is at the front of the store. I am at the back. I'm in pain, not as mobile, I have trouble breathing and I have to POOP. That bathroom was MILLIONS OF MILES AWAY.

We start out to the bathroom and Josh is all "are you okay? You are kinda of pale, sweaty and have goosebumps." I was like "it's because I HAVE TO GO."

I think I almost sprinted the last little bit, but I MADE IT!

And how amazing was it that the bathroom was free of all people? I think I heard angels sing. But I'm not sure because of the awful pooping I was doing. I have been taking miraLAX, colace and benefiber to keep things moving so I don't have any issues with all this abdominal work. For some reason Target has this effect that I always feel like I have to poop. Well apparently that combined with the above cocktail - well let's all have a silent moment for that toilet.

I feel as though although it was horrible and disgusting and all of that, that I lucked out because the bathroom had no one else in it. Just as I'm about to clean up, someone comes in. Oh god. Oh no. I am slightly weak from terrible parting of my last few meals and my body. I KNOW it smells. Oh god, I am THAT person that smells up the bathroom. I can't leave. So I figure I'll let unknown person (who I will most likely never see again, so why DO I care, but I do!) pee quick, wash their hands and leave. Nothing worse than facing the person who you almost gassed to death at the sinks.

So I am waiting and then... girlfriend in the stall two down STARTS POOPING. OMG. So then there is the debate: do I wipe my ass, run to the sinks, wash my hands and hope she doesn't meet me out there - do I wait her out and hope her smell isn't worse than mine since I am not allowed to gag or cough - do I wipe my ass, go to the sinks and give her a nod if she meets me there? Do not laugh. If you are not a woman, or not a woman who has ever disgraced the "all ladies smell like roses and don't poop" then you just won't understand this dilemma.

I waited her out. I snuck out as soon as she was gone, washed my hands and departed the bathroom.

Josh asked how it was in there. I told him I just had to sit down.

My prescription was done, we paid and left.

I had to go home and lay down.

That was my most exciting day since surgery. Seriously. Super exciting.

Today I have done nothing. I've walked around the house a few times. I needed to do nothing today.

Tomorrow is a new day. I think I'll have less pain tomorrow. That's my plan.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

What are you allergic to?

Some people are allergic to food. Others to the outdoors. Dust, bugs, cheese, latex, wool, certain drugs, other drugs, etc etc. I have one drug allergy. I also have an allergy to the latex free gloves. The latex ones are fine - go figure. I have a lot of skin irritations too. Thanks for that one mom!! Sensitive skin ROCKS!

Recently I've had an ever growing sensitivity to adhesive. Yes you read that right, adhesive. Like the stuff that helps things stick to you so you can heal. AWESOME.

When I had my arm gouged by the dermatologist I was told to put a band aid on after with Vaseline. After like a day I was itching my band aid like crazy. When i took it off it the area was red, swollen, and there were tiny tears in in skin. THAT hurt more than where the stitches.

So when I had surgery last friday that put on steri strips and then band aids. I HAD to take them off after like a day. Red, irritated and itchy again. I tried putting on other band aids because there was still some bleeding and seeping. No go. One day later I took them off and found this.

Can you see right where the band aid was stuck? Want a close up? It's really nasty gross!!

Do you see those two red areas on the edge of the leftover sticky?

That is where the skin was RIPPED OFF. Seriously.

Yes that hurt a lot. I think this was like time number 83 I'd cried since Friday. At least it felt that way. Blech.

This is the surgery I just can't seem to catch a break with. Recovery is still going rather rough. I'll update tomorrow hopefully all about today. It's a doozy!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Day after surgery #3 post

Because apparently the medicine REALLY went to my brain. I was typing and then kind of just stopped and wrapped up. Even though I hadn't actually wrapped up. I was MID story. WOW.

So where was I? Josh was there, Dr. Prats stopped in...

He gave me the information about the weight loss, the exercise, the coughing etc. Oh right. He then asked if I had my upper GI. I had not. He said he would ask around and see what could be done. About 30 mins later the guy with the wheel chair shows up and IT'S THE SAME WEIRDO FROM LAST YEAR!! Seriously!

He takes me down and the ride was bumpy and I was nauseous. Then I had to wait for them to be ready ready for me. I should have taken my iPhone.

The girl comes and gets me and tells me I have to drink the gastrografin. BUT, this time it was mixed with barium and it wasn't NEARLY as bad. I ended up with the same doctor as last year, but he was MUCH nicer this time. He really felt bad for me when I explained all the stitches, the fact I was there last year and this was a reoccurring issue. That worked out well for me.

The test was much quicker this year, all looked good and I had no leaks.

When I got back to my room I was told it would still be a while until I was released. I was in a ton of pain, so I requested more morphine. My mom decided to run to our house and shower and while she was gone they came back and were like "ok, you are ready to go!" So Josh helped give me a little birdie bath, got me dressed, I signed the paperwork and I was finally out the door.

Getting back to the house is a blur. I know the car ride was painful hitting the bumps. I know mom answered the door to our house. I know I was set up on the couch. I think I slept a lot. I know I cried from the pain. I know I slept more and I know mom and Josh were a little worried about me. I also know Josh had beautiful flowers waiting for me!

Kandice and Jason stopped by with some awesome goodies. I was in no state for company, so I didn't see them. Sorry guys! They brought me some cookies and cream ice cream, fudgepops and juicebars. They also brought FLOWERS!

I took my percocet every 4 hours faithfully, drank juice and slept a lot. Mom stayed an extra night even because I was doing really bad.

We got up on Sunday morning and mom left early. Everything is kind of a blur though. Lots of pain, lots of drugs. Unfortunately the drugs didn't completely eliminate the pain. They take the edge off, but not a lot. They also make it hard to think and focus. Ugh.

Speaking for forgetting things. I ALSO forgot to mention the book my friends Nina and Greg sent me that I got on Thursday night!

I will read it soon!!

More thanks to everyone! I am going to try to get this completely up to date before the end of the week! We will see.

Doctor follow up tomorrow.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

All about surgery day.

But, I like to talk about everything - so we will start with the night before. My mom came down the night before since we weren't exactly sure when surgery was. I found out a little after 3 that surgery wasn't until 12, but mom had already left at 3 so... yeah.

Anyways... we went shopping at Border's first. The lady at the register mentioned this book that was supposed to be so AWESOME and it was right there on the counter. She mentioned it because I had a Stephen King book and a Dean Koontz book. It was called A Reliable Wife. I am not usually gullible, but I was intrigued. Thank goodness Mom was there to pick up the tab.

I didn't read the book, but apparently it isn't ANYTHING like I would like. It's more of a historical romance with a murder twist. Oh UGH. And NOW we are majorly off topic.

So Border's first and then we headed to GinMya in York. While Josh, Mom and I were on our way, Kandice called that she had gotten out of work early, so she met us there.

Sushi is a GREAT meal before surgery. Seriously.

I slept relatively well that night and even got to sleep in the next morning! I had to be at the hospital at 10:30. I was nervous, but mom and I did a little photo shoot.

Me and my mom!

Just me - all ready to go!

When we got to the hospital they didn't even have a bed for me, so we ended up waiting in the SUPER crowded waiting room. It was only like 10-15 minutes but it was enough.

A cool new feature in the waiting room though was patient tracking! There was an LCD mounted to the wall that had the case number that was assigned to each patient and let you know when they were in surgery, in recovery, etc. I didn't get to really enjoy it, but it was nice for mom and Josh.

So I finally got my bed. It was the same as before. Strip naked, put on the gown and socks and wait to answer lots of questions.

Here I am! Waiting somewhat impatiently.

So questions were answered, arm bands were put on. And then it happened. Again. WHY CAN'T THEY EVER FIND A VEIN! The first lady dug, and dug, and dug until I started getting tears and begged her to stop.

Mom and Josh then noticed my savior nurse from last time who was able to stick me last time in the hall. She came in, took about 2 minutes, prepped the area and got it first shot. THANK YOU GOD!

Dr. Prats came in and told us that tactics were being switched around. No more Strattice (pig tissue). Another material came out in between my scheduling appointment and my surgery. It was called AlloMax (not to be confused with the non-working AlloDerm). It was human tissue. He said the rep was there even and had delivered it to be used. If he liked the way it worked that is what would be implanted. If not, he did have the Strattice too that he could fall back on. Okay, game plan was set. Let's get sliced and diced!

It felt like I waited forever, but then I was being wheeled back to the OR. I got back there, I think they talked to me.

Then I was waking up in recovery. I couldn't talk really. And the woman next to me was SCREAMING about something. I just kept smiling at the nurses (which probably looked crazy scary as I am sure it was more like a sneer than a real smile). Unfortunately screaming lady took everyones attention and I was left to attempt to smile my creepy smile in the nurse's direction in between falling asleep. It seemed like I was there for a while. I don't know.

Then I was being wheeled into my room. I saw mom and Josh and they hugged and kissed me. I asked what time it was and it was after 6!! WHAT?? Did it take me that long in recovery? What was going on?

Well apparently the surgery did not go as planned. At all. Here is what went down. Dr. Prats got in there and tried pulling my stomach out of my chest and back into my abdomen. It wouldn't stay down. After cutting away a lot of scar tissue and eventually taking my stomach into my abdominal wall with three stitches it was down. That took two hours. That is not good.

He went on to close up my hernia with 5 stitches (he used one before - 2 is usually the max). Then he broke out the AlloMax, liked it, and went on to place that around the former hernia. That was then all placed and tacked down with more stitches.

So the 2-3 hour surgery was a 6 hour surgery and that was why the recovery room was so much rougher!

Then I ask if someone can please get me some water or ice chips because the tube down my throat had irritated it. Nope. Not until after my upper GI the next morning. SERIOUSLY?? Jerks. I ended up suffering all night with nothing really to quench my thirst. The nurses were MUCH nicer this time and kept bringing my zofran and toradol. I even got a morphine helper when it wasn't time to toradol yet.

The night was uncomfortable and unpleasant, but I made it through. 8AM Josh got there. 9AM Dr. Prats showed up (he had said he would be there at 9AM) and explained the surgery to me. How much rougher it was than he had planned on. That now I had to start walking to get the blood flowing and get things healed up.

I am not allowed to gain any weight. I am not allowed to lift anything over 10 lbs. I am not allowed to cough (yes, seriously). I am not allowed to get into a car accident. I can however eat small portions, take lots of stool softeners and laxatives, and walk as much as I can so that I can get to 0.5 miles before I see him Thursday.

Wish me luck! If I remember anything else (which could happen because these pain meds are messing with my memory) I'll make another post.

*hugs and kisses*

mj