Raks Meleka – YMCA Bellydance Benefit

Raks Meleka – YMCA Bellydance Benefit

Originally uploaded by WordOfMouth

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Mary and Carmen

Mary and Carmen

Originally uploaded by onion girl

I am happy, healthy and having an absolutely terrific time. I am truly amazed!!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

December 10, 2008 ~ Hannah’s Story

I just recieved a comment from Hannah and checked out her blog: Living with Ulcerative Colitis.  I am incredibly moved by her story. This is a young woman with sass and insight. I love you Hannah!!

Please read her blog and consider a donation. She, like many Americans is uninsured with a pre-existing condition, ulcerative colitis. She is too old to receive coverage from by her mother’s insurance and yet young, still working on her education, and cannot afford individual high priced insurance premiums.

Hannah could use your support and she offers many creative ways in which you can do so.  Even if you don’t want to donate,  her moving story of perserverance, told with effervescent honesty will truly inspire you. 

Hannah is a lovely young woman.

Monday, November 7 ~ Friends took away my pain

The last few days have been bad.  Earth moving spasms, induced sweat, drenched, hot, sharp and stabbing breaths took while sobbing, aches all consuming, nauseating pain.  They rocked my body until  finally exhausted and relieved, surrenders to soothing massage, hot showers, deep full breathing, foggy, drugged sleep and finally, funny You Tube videos of really cute cats.  Mew came to see me and drank wine, while I didn’t.  She made me laugh. Lisa came and brought me “Spa-On-A-Tray” complete with spa-doll, spa-yoga towel, spa-soap, spa-candy.  Crystal brought me flowers. They were lovely. Mad brought me Anne Bancroft in 84 Charing Cross Road. Now I want big round reading glasses like Ms. Bancroft’s.  Grace delivered flowers.  They were beautiful.

The Autumn days pass by. Hopefully, with each one better then the last. 

Saturday, November 8, 2008 ~ Pain management drama

Crystal's Flowers!!

The last few days have been hell.  I’ve had a tough time with pain management.  I have no appetite. The thought of food makes me nauseous.  On Wednesday I called the doc and she encouraged me to take in more fluids and to continue with Alleve and add Tylenol into the regimen.

Yesterday afternoon (Friday) I gave in and went on Hydrocodone/APAP; two pills every four hours. I had wanted to tough it out but the Alleve was doing a real number on my stomach and not managing the pain.  I was miserable.  After taking the Hydrocodone, I spent the afternoon in a dazed state on the sofa.  Finally, about 9:00 pm, to bed and at 10:30 I woke with no pain, took two pills. Twenty minutes later I was overcome with body wracking spasms of pain. T put a call to the emergency doc. I spent ten minutes talking with the doc and we concluded that I didn’t have a blockage.  No sense going to the hospital. 

I think lying down immediately after taking the pills induced the nausea; also, lack of food and adequate hydration. T made me a protein shake and Gatorade with ice.  This morning at 4 am I woke with no pain.  I took two more pills, a long hot shower, ate some marshmallows, read for a bit and returned to bed.  I woke at 8:30 am feeling no pain. I am now enjoying chocolate protein shake and some dry toast.  I am feeling tentative.  My guts have some movement and much gurgling.  The meds create this kind of masked shut off dull feeling. Its as though the pain has been tightly swaddled.  I am thinking more positively now and I am motivated to write.  These are good things.  I must be on the upswing.

 

Sunday, November 2, 2008 ~ 3rd Day Post TakeDown Surgery

“A thought is energy, and as it is transmitted, it is multiplied. Thoughts can either be positive, negative, or neutral, and they may travel all the way around the world as energy, affecting the way other people, and perhaps other beings, think.  If I thought negatively, then I would put out negative energy, but if I thought positively, I would put out positive energy, expanding the possibilities of what could happen.”  Grayson, by Lynne Cox

I stayed home today playing with my new colon.  Takedown surgery is complete and I am home.  The new colon is working quite well.  There is much less maintenance involved then with “Puffer”.   I have passed gas and had about three bowel movements today.  Yesterday, in the hospital, I started with liquid food and all went right through me.  Trust me, it’s a quite remarkable feeling to drink a cup of warm tea and have it immediately come out the other end (still warm).   I resorted to giant diapers and my thoughts on dealing this were quite sobering.  Good thing for me,  an hour after my first loperamide (Imodium A-D) and a few crackers, everything firmed up just fine.   After three hours I shed the damned diaper. Gawd!  However, I have an entire package (size large) sitting on my bathroom floor that T and I have contemplated on what to do with. Mew suggested saving one for Halloween next year and going as a lady astronaut.  Ha! ha!

I am home from the hospital since late afternoon Saturday.  I am so glad to be out of there.  I tell you hospitals are just for those who are sick.  I am not sick!  Far as I am concerned this is just maintenance.  I am moving a bit slower than normal.  Managing pain with naproxen sodium about every 4 hours.  There is a 3 inch incision diagonally across my abdomen, to the right of my belly button, where my stoma, “Puffer” used to be.  Three stitches loosely close up the “wound drain” and its covered with gauze and tape.  I change the gauze tape after showering.  The point is to keep it open and aired out.  My right oblique muscles  and lower ribs are a bit sore.   I wonder if the surgeon was leaning on my ribs or something while operating?  They are sore.   At night I am taking 5 mg zolpidem for sleep.  I think good quality sleep is conducive to healing and the zolpidem helped me last time  for a couple days after surgery. 

I have tolerated food quite well today.  My abdomen is a bit distended and I get a bit gassy while eating, then it subsides.   Had oatmeal and hot tea for breakfast, leftover Chinese and rice for lunch and dinner.  I am too lazy to cook right now.  I can only eat about one third of a serving before I get full.  But no stomach aches and I feel hungry. 

I’ve been up walking around but no sudden moves or heavy lifting.  I spent the day on the sofa reading and napping on and off. I read a really charming book, Grayson by Lynne Cox.  At seventeen she swam the English Channel and set some kind of world records.  This story is about her experience with a baby gray whale and its return to his mother. Cox literally bumps into the baby while swimming off the shores of a beach early one morning on southern coast of California. I so wanted to be there with her swimming with dolphins, sting rays and this beautiful baby gray whale.  It was the perfect book for today.                

 

Saturday, November 1 ~ Second day post takedown

7:00 am: The doc has cleared me to go home at whatever time I am ready today.   Its too early to call anyone.  I order breakfast instead.  They take me off the saline and the IV drug.  I wasn’t pushing the button anyway.  Right now I’m on anti-inflammatory’s and Tylenol.  They are fine for now.  My mom-in-law will be coming to take me home. 

9:05 am: I have had a shower and I am eating some cream of rice cereal with honey and cream.  The food runs right through me. I need a diaper. Ugh!  The doc has said to take Immodium AD.  I am not in pain but I am uncomfortable with the liquidity of my bowel movements. 

Now in room 1073. I moved from 1075-2 to 1075-1 and now I am in room 1073. I had to give up the window seat.