Just a quick update: I’m home. I’m in a great deal of pain, but I’m home. Yesterday’s surgery was supposed to be at noon but due to unexpectedly long surgeries prior to mine, as well as an emergency that my doctor had to attend to, I didn’t get in the operating room until 2:30. The surgery went well – just 2 laparoscopic (is that a word?) cuts. I was home by 9:00 p.m.

Apparently, gas is pumped into the abdomen during the surgery, so that the doctor can see everything clearly. A nurse told me that some patients complain about pain in their right shoulder afterward. Well, let me tell you, my right shoulder and my side are killing me – the muscle spasms are really painful. If this pain would just go away, I think the abdominal pain would seem like a piece of cake.

Didn’t sleep enough because I couldn’t get comfortable. Don keeps saying, “Just think – your gall bladder’s gone – no more attacks!” I know that fact will hit me later, but right now? I just feel crappy.

Hopefully, you will hear from a less crabby Claudia in a few days.

Well, it’s been a hellish week here at MHC which explains my rather prolonged (for me) absence. Sunday night I had an all night long bout with gastric problems and vomiting. I had had another experience like this when I was in Wisconsin, but this time it was worse. Monday we went to our local Urgent Care and the Physician’s Assistant strongly suspected gall stones (as had I.) But I didn’t get any better. I was very weak, had no appetite and by Wednesday night I was running a fever. Off we went to the ER where an ultra sound revealed that yes, I had gall stones but more problematic, I had a stone blocking my bile duct which was causing acute distress. Oh, and I was jaundiced. That had happened sometime that day. It’s a good thing I had no awareness of it. Don said he noticed it when we got to the hospital and wisely decided not to tell me. I was admitted and on Thursday I had a procedure in which I was knocked out and some wonderful tool was sent down to the bile duct via my throat and the stone was removed. Today, I came home. I am exhausted as I had very little to eat all week and had very little sleep. The doctor insists that my gall bladder will have to be removed but we are going to try some fairly radical diet changes in the meantime. I’d like to avoid surgery if at all possible.

The blockage explains a lot of annoying problems over the last year and the ER doctor said it probably had taken at least that long for it to get to the point it was on Wednesday night. And you know, I just didn’t feel very good most of the time I was in Wisconsin.

I haven’t been a hospital patient since I was 8 and had my tonsils removed.

I’ll probably not blog again until next week. I need to sleep and regain my strength.

Happy 3rd Birthday to Pink Saturday! I haven’t participated in a long while… my work schedule is pretty erratic and I ran out of pink. In fact, the last time I participated was last year on the 2nd Birthday of PS. I was out of town working on that day. Guess what? Same thing this year. However, I wanted to take this opportunity to wish Beverly all the best. She has given a great deal of her time and love to this weekly meme.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite pinks from past posts:

The very pale pink robe I wore as a toddler.

My sweet doll, Tessa. She has (literally) two left feet. And an adorably beautiful face.

And a vintage program from the 1940’s play Claudia, given to me by a friend.

Thank you, Beverly, for all you do to make Pink Saturday such a success! Have to close with another photo of the baby robins right outside my door.