Catching up

3:45 came around very early on Monday morning. We needed to be at the Juravinski hospital in Hamilton at 6 am.

Shark hat out, monkey hat for the ride home.

I promised you a rear view of the Juravinskis

Didn't get too silly with them as the clerk was watching and we were supposed to be heading downstairs.

Drawing blood was not the most successful pre surgery. Nothing quite like being stuck over and over by those thick IV needles. And when there was finally success the nurse was not ready and we had quite a dramatic oil spill event. All over the floor and cabinets and the nurse who was not wearing gloves. And that, of course, is when her supervisor walked in.

They cleaned up "the crime scene" and let Karen join us.

This was the end of the line for pictures for a while. It was cool to be able to walk to the operating room. I thought my anesthesiologist Dr Ritchie looked grumpy and he kind of was but he was a funny grumpy. With everybody I talked to I was cheerful but firm that I wanted to go home that day and I knew he was the person that needed to be convinced. Luckily he was on board with my plan and allowed me to proceed without any sedation. It took a number of tries before the block worked but thank goodness it did. Once the block kicks in you kind of have to hurry to get your legs where you want them because you don't have any control after that.

I thanked Dr. Elit because she didn't have any other surgeries that day, she just came in to do mine. The whole hospital was on slow down because of March break.

The surgery went well with none of the drama of Gray's anatomy and soon I was in recovery. Here again I was championed by a nice nurse who got me shunted back to same-day surgery instead of to a room overnight. Mostly recovery was just really boring because I was wide-awake and didn't feel any pain yet.

I was very excited to get a sandwich after the day of jello!

Dr Ritchie wanted us to wait 6 hours to make sure I didn't get a headache so Karen and I read and did crossword puzzles in a book that ML and I enjoyed last spring too. There was a little more drama with blood that I was afraid would derail my carefully crafted plan to escape an overnight stay but my stitches were fine (a potential problem since the skin is irradiated) and then we were sprung!!!!

And then I was home!

The next day Emily and Karen came over bearing shamrock shakes, the mug I painted at Emily's birthday party and nail art.

Wait, before that my friend Carla brought some flowers that have been tantalizing Harrison ever since.

We were going for an ombré or layered colour effect with the nails.

And some fun stickers as well.

Feathers:

After they left the sun was shining just too brightly for me not to give it a try.

Don't worry I didn't walk far.

Something happened in the firing process with my mug so the rim is chipped a little bit. I still love it though and will use it as a pen holder on my desk.

They gave me a free certificate to make another mug so that's cool!

Today Harry and I both got out for a bit. I can stay out for as long as I can stand or walk. Which isn't that long but it's certainly an improvement laying around all day.

Harry wiped out on some ice but I tried not to laugh at him. He is currently taking up three quarters of the bed as usual.

My friend Bea brought me a yummy lunch today!

And that's me caught up to date. The pain is under control and I'm still not sleeping well but one of these nights I will!

Thanks again for all your prayers and cheering on. Made a difference for sure!

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