I've been on the mend for the past week. At this point, I have not been out of the apartment since I returned home from surgery.

I have full blown cabin fever. We so have to go out SOMEWHERE today.

I took myself off of the pain med after a few days. It turned out to be the same stuff as Vicodin and I just don't like how I feel when I am on it. After a couple days the bulk of the pain was gone anyway; I no longer felt like I had been punched in the gut.

Now I just have a lot of soreness and tenderness. I can bend over now, but with a little pain. Crawling on the floor under my desk to plug my USB hub back in after my daughter has knocked it out is Not A Good Idea. Damnit, that hurt!

I will be so very happy when I can sleep on my stomach again! I'm sooooo tired of this sleeping on my side and back crap.

I am very surprised that the kitten is patient with Audrey. When I was 4, if I kept picking up a kitten and taking it back to where I wanted it after it left, I would have gotten myself scratched for my trouble. Monkey... Tolerates it. He just hangs there in her arms, and lets her put him back where she wants him. I feel so sorry for him sometimes, that I have to rescue him and hide him somewhere...

Gall bladder came out yesterday. When I saw the surgeon on Monday he said it was "packed full of stones" and that it "must come out".

The outpatient surgical center was really nice. Everyone was so friendly. I was prepped and I had about an hour to sit and read my book. I'm not quite sure what time I went back into surgery, but I had arrived at the center at 9am, and basically went straight back after paperwork.

When they were ready for me, they gave me a drug to help me relax. I'm not quite sure when they gave me the sedative. I remember being moved onto the surgical table and my arms being strapped down away from me while they were putting the monitors on.

After that, the next thing I knew, I was coming to and the clock across on the wall said 12:33. I was in an out for about 2 hours while on a gas mask - they were trying to get me to clear my lungs, but my belly hurt, so it was hard to take a deep breath and expel. I was also apparently on morphine the first two times they gave me pain killers, but I could still feel pain so they switched me to something else. I don't remember what it was called.

About 2:30 they told me that Jerry was on his way and that I could leave soon. Hurray. Not much exciting after that. Sleep, food, pain killer, ice pack, sleep, food, pain killer, WoW, pain killer, sleep....

So I'm 24 hours post-op. I can take my gauze bandages off now, but must leave the steri-strips on until they fall off. The pain bothers me more today than it did last night. I have this ache in my gut like I've been punched. I have to get up and move around periodically to keep the muscles from becoming stiff.

I also tire quickly. Jer and I spent some time doing quests neither of us had done yet on our shamans. After 2 hrs I figured I'd been playing long enough and wanted to "change positions" to watch some TV. Soon after snuggling down on the couch I was so horribly sleepy. So I went to bed after L&O:CI.

Jer and I had some before-sleep entertainment in the form of a kitten who jumped up on the bed and discovered the wonderful world of "feet under a blanket". Heh. He's horribly cute. Although when I look at him a certain way, he reminds me of Wolverine.

Monkey has this ... habit of where he likes to take his nap when I am on my computer.



Sometimes when I move him, he will stay where I put him.



But not always. The desk photos I took while I was supposed to be kiting ghouls in Mount Hyjal. You can see what space he left me. If he gets to be too much of an interference, I just move him. But he's too cute to just move.