cut of the stone

So here I am, gallbladder-free. They said the surgery went smoothly, with no complications. Thank goodness! My surgeon, Dr. Driesen, was wonderful. I think I was randomly assigned to her & I feel very lucky for it. Everyone at the hospital was incredibly kind and helpful. With one notable exception: the nurse in charge of me in the recovery room was pretty awful, so much that I'm thinking about filing a complaint. (Not right now, as I was instructed not to make any major decisions while I'm still on oxycodone.)

But enough about her. Everyone else was great. The OR team really dug my tattoo. One of them saw it when she put the stethoscope on my back, and then everyone gathered around to look. The lead anesthesiologist was hilarious: she said she had been thinking about starting a business providing anesthesia during tattoos, and wanted to know how much I would pay for that! I told her that for some areas, especially over the spine, I would gladly have paid double.

They really push you out the door as fast as they can! We left the hospital at about 3:30 and I was still so out of it, I was nodding off in the wheelchair while they wheeled me to the car. Pretty much spent last night dozing in and out. I was warned that my shoulders would hurt, because they inflate the belly during the laparoscopy and the gas moves up into the shoulders, but it wasn't that bad.

Today I feel almost fine as long as I'm sitting still, just as if I were having cramps. Standing up or getting in and out of bed is a bit difficult though. The worst part was that the breathing tube gave me a sore throat, but coughing or even clearing my throat is fairly painful. Who knew one uses the stomach muscles so often!

Georg has been totally wonderful, getting things for me, helping me stand up, making me food, even scratching Thirteen's tummy since I can't. This morning he walked me around the garden so I could see everything. This is such an exciting time of year, with new plants sprouting up almost every day. The asparagus we planted last fall is starting to emerge, and we were delighted to see that several of the gerbera daisies survived! I thought all of them had been frozen those two nights it dropped below 15°.

So I'm sitting around, watching TV and knitting, and feeling kind of bored to be honest. I really want to start eating real food again but I feel I should take it slow. Nothing too rich just yet.