I'm Me!

Do you know how good it feels to be me again?

Yesterday I got up, dressed, and put on my makeup for the first time in a l-o-n-g time.

I had an appointment to get the staples removed, and was petrified with the prospect of being in more pain.

It didn't hurt at all, which made me incredibly thankful!

And we ("we" being Jenna & I) stopped and got drinks from Starbucks, which OF COURSE improved my mood!

I'd been conserving all my energy to go to rehearsal last night, so off I went... and made it through just fine.

So, my heart is full of thanks - to the friends who have faithfully prayed, and to the God who has faithfully answered the prayers.

Stapled & Bored

Well, I'm on the upswing... to the tune of not taking the pain meds every six to eight hours - now it's every 10 - 12!

I sit in my living room for awhile, and then think I have energy. So I decide to use the energy. And I get up, and come over to my laptop (which gets better wi-fi coverage in the kitchen) and see if anyone has emailed me or commented on my blog.

That checked, and having used all my accumulated energy, I slink back to the chair in the living room.

It's really hard to sit in the living room and listen to the kids playing outside. I want to be outside playing with them as well! Yesterday Tucker was crying and I didn't care if it popped every staple out of place as I pulled him up on to my lap. (Thankfully, it didn't :)

Lest I think of all the things that I wish I could do, I keep trying to think of thankfuls:

* Four get well cards sitting on my table
* Two bouquets of flowers
* Season One of House on DVD :)
* Emails and phone calls
* Jill popping in during quiet time
* Walking a-l-l the way to the mailbox today!
* Sleeping on my side last night

There are more, but my energy tank just started dinging, saying I needed to get back to the chair.

"Sanka, Ya Dead Mon?"

"Ya, Mon"

Well, here I am... not quite dead, but not the liveliest I've ever been.

Even though the pain was a lot more than I expected, God's fingerprints were all over yesterday' proceedings. And then I saw all the comments of people who had prayed, and it became apparent why things went so well.


(FYI - Mayhaps it would not be wise for queasy peeps to read on)

Sue picked me up at 10:30 and we arrived at the hospital. The nurses took me in to prep, the anesethesiologist came and told me all the bad things that could happen (All the way from loss of voice to death) and the surgeon stopped by. I think the worst part was they took me into the OR before I was asleep. It's so sterile and scary, but then they put a mask on me and said, "OK, Lindsay, start taking some breaths," and then I woke up in recovery.

The nurse who took care of me was a doll, and she gave me lots of drugs and didn't freak out when I thought I was going to throw up. (Thankfully, I didn't! And yes, you're welcome for the details :)

Sue was a trooper and she stayed for the entire time. She was with me in prep and in recovery, and then when I got home (much later than we expected), Drewey was here and waiting to take care of me.

I have four little incisions on my stomach, that I stare at peridiocally - not like I can forget they're there, as they pinch a little...

So, that's all for now, because the drugs are kicking in.

Just some thanks before I go:

*Jill brought flowers last night, as did Drewey, so I have so many beautiful yellow flowers in my house. Jill also was wonderful during this past week, checking in on me, letting me come over and get some socialization, etc.
*Evan brought the TV down to the living room, so that Drewey and I can watch movies without going upstairs. (I did three stairs and that did me in)
*The kids are all loving, and like to look at the bandages, and it kills me to not be able to pick them up!
*Mom and Dad have stayed in constant touch via phone with many verbal hugs, and boatloads of prayers
*Amy's been stopping by in the evenings
*Sue has sent daily emails to take my mind off things, and put an addition on her heavenly mansion by taking me yesterday
*Drewey gave me hourly backrubs last night, and even rigged up her cell phone so that if she didn't hear me when I called, I could call her cell phone... she was on a mattress at the end of my bed :)
*I've gotten so many other voicemail messages, and each one means so much
*And the comments from the various posts this past week have also meant the world

I am rich!

At 12:45 This Friday

My gallbladder and myself will be forever parted.

Any prayers that you want to send my way would be much appreciated!

The end.

Option B Sucks!

So, Option B in the last post is what happened on Friday night... or Saturday morning.

I hadn't been feeling well Thursday or Friday, but just assumed that my back was out. It goes out periodically, and because it's been bad for years, any time my back hurts, I just attribute it to the scoliosis.

On Thursday and Friday, it hurt between my shoulder blades, and started affecting my stomach. This has happened before as well, so I just tried to ice/heat/and ibuprofen my way through it.

Friday night I went to bed wicked early, and woke up at 12:30 in severe pain. I tried to do all the things I could think of to relieve it, and stuck it out until 3:00, when I called Ask-A-Nurse. In describing my symptoms, she suggested I go to the ER, because it sounded like a gallbladder thing. (My words, not hers :)

Evan graciously drove me there at 3:30 Saturday morning, and after blood tests and an ultrasound it was decided that I had gallstones, and should contact a surgeon. That's on my to-do list for tomorrow. (Please pray for wisdom on their part, and my part, and a quick decision to be made)

The meds they gave me have me in a pretty altered state personality-wise, but take care of the pain. I'm also on a strict no fat, no fried food, no coffee (kill me now!), no caffeine diet. Pea pods, applesauce and fat free saltines have been my staple for the past 36 hours. Yum!

As we were leaving the ER, there was a middle aged man sitting in a mini van parked next to us. His window was rolled down and as I got in Evan's van, he said to me, "Morning - it sucks." Made me laugh pretty hard in the midst of all the pain!

Choose Your Own Adventure

Did any of you read those books when you were smaller? They'd start out, and then you got to pick different options for the way the book would end.

Let's do that now for my life...

You've learned in recent blogs that I just started school! (Insert many happy noises here :)

Then, in the most recent post, you learned that I got the part of Yente in "Fiddler on the Roof!" (Thanks to all who left such encouraging comments for me! I'm thrilled at the opportunity!)

Now, I'm leaving it up to you, my dear readers to choose/guess what happened last night.

Here are the options you're presented with:

A) Slept quietly through the night and woke up oh-so-rested this sunny morning

B) Woke up in the middle of the night experiencing extreme pain, and spent the night in the ER

C) Stayed up all night long reading "Crime & Punishment" to cross the silly book off my 30-by-30 list

I'll give the answer in a day or two...

I'm Legally Changing My Name

Consider yourselves informed that I am changing my name.

No, this is not an announcement of that kind. It's my first name that's changing, not my last name.

I'd thank you all if from now until November 12th, you refer to me as Yente!

Yes - this is my way of telling you that after auditioning on Sunday for a role in Fiddler on the Roof at the Majestic Theatre in Manchester, I received word that landed my first choice role as Yente, the matchmaker.

HURRAY!!!!!

Now I need to start working Yente's charms on my own life...

I Wonder if the Pioneers Played "The Camping Game"

On the way to Nova Scotia (having left at 4:06 Friday morning) Evan, Jill & I amused ourselves by playing a rousing rendition of the camping game.

By the end I was laughing so hard it hurt, and I claimed the rights to blog about it. Perhaps it was a "had to be there" moment, but you try saying all of these from memory as fast as you can, with three children hollering at you from the backseat, and see if it doesn't make you laugh!

Without further ado, I offer you our list of what we'd bring if we went camping. Maybe this is why we don't do it very often!

Aborigines arrayed in Abercrombie & Fitch apperal (Way to start us off, Evan!)

Beautiful baboons

Celestial Seasonings tea

Dunkin Donuts

Egg salad sandwiches

Frankfurters

Gnomes

Happy, Healthy horses

Italian Ice

Jellyfish (this was Jed's contribution from the backseat)

Klutzes

Legs (after this Jill burst out laughing at what our RV would look like filled with all of this stuff - and a special seat just for the legs)

Mango smoothies

Nine ninny nincompoops (thank you, Evan!)

Orange ogres (apparently this person has not seen Shrek)

(A) Pleasant Princess

(A) Quintessentially quaint queen

Rapid roadrunners

Slinky

Ten tufted titmouse's in tuxedos

Ucalalies on unicycles (nothing I put in spellcheck will accept that word!)

Vicious velocaraptors (at first I typed velocaraptures, and this conjured up all sorts of heavenly flying dinosaurs, rising from their graves at the end of time!)

Willy Wonka's wacky waffles

Xavier's extra xylophones

Yaks from Yemen

Zany Zebras from Zimbabwe