Day 4 Update.

Thanks everyone for your emails, calls, posts and good wishes.

The surgery was a bit more extensive than they anticipated. I'm working on a joke that starts "my fibroid was so big it had its own fibroid..." which it actually did. Also had a bunch of other stuff going on that had to be attended to as well. I was able to keep my ovaries and have been in very little pain, oddly enough, until today. The first few days at the hospital I was on narcotic pain killer which made me itch like mad. Since I've been home only Advil- until today when I caved and took a vicodin. I've probably got another 30 minutes before I actually fall asleep from the drugs.

Sister Sharon has been here helping with the babe. No idea what we would have done without her. My mom gave us the great gift of a personal chef who made 6 meals with 4 "portions" each. I asked her to err on the side of larger portions and oh MY did she. Each portion would feed me for a week at least. Tonight Sharon leaves and my mother arrives for 5 days then Jon's brother comes back for a few weeks to do the lifting and cooking and cleaning. They are anticipating 3-4 weeks before I can pick up Julian again or do any housework at all. I have 2 weeks before I go back to work. I am hoping I can make it in for a few hours at a time next week though. We'll see.

No photos as I'm in bed and it seems no one else in the house knows how to use a camera.

I'll post again in a few days with an update.

My gory life.

Things have been a bit busy for me the last few weeks as I have been trying to get things at work in order before I head into the hospital on Friday for a partial hysterectomy. I'll spare my readers the gory details but the short version is that I have a growth called a fibroid that is causing me major problems. Exhausted is a crazy understatement for how I'm feeling, and even as of 3 months ago I could not imagine being this immensely relieved to have an organ removed.

I briefly considered a procedure where an interventional radiologist snakes a wire up your femoral artery to the area where the blood is supplying the uterus and they insert plastic beads to block the blood flow, effectively killing the area that is malfunctioning. It seemed like a good idea until I found out that it is excruciatingly painful, for some people it doesn't work, and here's the kicker... some people deliver their fibroid weeks after the procedure. Excuse me? I'll pass, thanks.

After a few weeks of telling my patients that I was planning a brief medical leave, and seeing the very concerned looks, I decided just to tell them I'm going for a hysterectomy. People had very interesting responses, mostly that they are so very sorry about my loss. Then finally one of my patients responded "oh, I did that, it was the best thing EVER!" Now that is what I needed to hear.

So other than that, the big and much more exciting news is that Julian is starting to use the potty. He'll pee every time we set him down, and he's even managed a #2 a few times for us. I'm under no delusion that he is on the verge of getting out of diapers, but even if his diaper use cuts in half I'll feel better (tree hugger alert) about the landfills. Some day J is going to have my head for posting this but I have to do it.



The weather here is turning, finally, to spring, or last week oddly enough to deep summer, and we are all enjoying being outside more. Our city is full of beautiful flowers blooming everywhere. Stunning.



Mindy, Ann, and the twins came over for brunch on Sunday. I have absolutely no idea how anyone parents more than one child. I am awed. I cooked breakfast for everyone, we hung out for a bit, then as soon as they left I fell asleep for 2 hours.



I probably won't post again until after the surgery, so I'll catch up with y'all next week.

Hold Me.

Last week I was sitting in my office talking to my patient Allison. I suddenly felt a very strong urge to sneeze. Knowing that I only had a few moments before the sneeze would come to fruition I decided to say " Hold on, I have to sneeze, excuse me." However, what actually came out of my mouth was "I have to sneeze, hold me." Then of course the interminable seconds where I realize what I've said but I can't say anything else because the sneeze is building and building, and then it happens. She looks at me and says "ok, but can I wait until you're done sneezing?" Thank god the woman had a sense of humor.

As for the wee one, he's been down with another chest cold and this time, because we caught it early, only a minor flare up of his asthma. Our happy news is that he peed in the potty for the first time today. Woo hoo!

This is a video my brother in law did of all of the siblings birthday wishes from NY, CA, and OR for my mom's big birthday last week. And just think, before we did it I thought it wouldn't be worth the bother!



And of course photos.

Cinco de Mayo downtown "our city."







And how we got Julian to wear his bib at dinner last night.