What now?!!

We are now coming to end of October and I figure that I should be well on my way to healing! I'm sure it's rather premature, but I 'feel' just fine, unlike my other surgeries.
But where the main entry and gall bladder exit wound is, it's pretty swollen. So i'll give it more time.

I try to rest and on days when I can wear my super woman under-ware (control top) I do. But there is still soreness and a little bulgie thing. UG!

I had difficulty with some adema 2 years ago, and have been taking water pills for it. Things had drained down, but there are some days where I see my ankles puff up. So I figure being in the medical field, I would up my dose. Hey, what do you know? it worked! That became my system.

The last little while, due to stress I was noticing that I was needing to take 2 every day, which meant I ran out of them very quickly. I went to my Dr. got a new prescription, dropped it at the pharmacy and they refused to fill it due to the fact that I should still have some from the last prescription. I explained that I sometimes take 2 on my Dr.'s approval. The pharmasist said I would need a letter from my Dr.s office confirming this.... ok.. a bunch of crazy rigmarole and a VERY INCOMPETENT secretary at my Dr.s office; I got the approval but with my Dr. saying I only needed one.

Now due to running out of the pills, I was already beginning to retain water as my weight started to creep up about 6 pounds! I haven't been eating the best, nor have I been walking etc... i'm a sloth right now... anything I have to do quickly I do it holding the top part of my bulgie tummy.

So I figured FINE. I'll take just one. The next day, I took my one pill, next day one pill... 3rd day saw my weight up another 3 pounds but I took JUST ONE pill. Day after that 8 pounds!!!!!
WTF! I am now 18 pounds heavier.....kept doing the one pill for the last 5 days.... no decrease.... but no increase... but 18 POUNDS..... aaaaaakkkkkk!!!!!
I've gone back to deciding on my on amounts!

Diva M

Now, Where Was I?

I was moving and shaking and making plans before my family was hit by cancer. Then 3 weeks later was my gall bladder surgery. All is seeming quiet right now as healing is taking place.

Now, where was I?

I was making plans to record a new Jazz and Blues CD.
It still is a plan, but it will take a little longer as I can't save any money until we are back on our feet and working. Or unless some -one makes an investment, or I find a sugar-daddy or win a lottery that I don't play. Regardless I will have a CD in the next year or two!
I will be getting back to the plans shortly. I just needed to write something to remind me where I was!

Diva M

Surgery 101

After 13 years, I finally decided to have my gall bladder removed.
The little sucker had bothered me long before that, but with the pregnancy of my 5th child 13 years ago it was in full force and giving me alot of pain, which resulted in plans to take it out. I didn't want to risk the pregnancy. It stayed put.
Through the past 11 years I was fine, not one attack just the odd... 'ahhh, I don't feel so great'
In that time I have had added a few notches of "other" surgeries under my belt
Appendectomy: which was unnecessary I might add.
Not that this was a surgery but from the unnecessary appendectomy I ended up with a pulmonary emboli (blood clot) in my lung afterwards which makes me susceptible to blood clots every surgery I have, which makes susceptible to death.... but we are always susceptible to that. The recovery time from the blood clot was about 4 or so months.
And, a Hysterectomy which resulted in a long 4 month recovery as the incision was not healed and was growing on the outside (proud flesh).
I had had previous surgeries but i'm only counting the ones since my last child was born.

4 years ago I started to have the odd attack which would lead me to the hospital to be injected with some sort of great narcotic to help me pass the time and ease the pain a bit. Again it was time to remove the gall bladder but due to my unusual past recoveries I had decided to just hang on to it and honestly I didn't have the time in my life to take off to have a lengthy recovery or blood clots.

This past year I decided to go for it, but after only after certain singing engagements and festivals, so some time in the fall.
They would be doing a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which is an easier surgery. To remove the gall bladder they would use 4 puncture wounds in the belly as apposed to a 6-8 inch cut on the side.
There was a possibility that they wouldn't be able to use the laparoscope on me due to scarring from my past abdominal surgeries and my body size, but Dr Cunningham would give it a good try! He felt that due to my weight loss and new health routine I was a great candidate for the laparoscope and he also felt my recovery would go along much better than it had done in the past. I was hopeful.

Our family has been in a cancer trauma for the past 4 weeks and I've been the big girl to hold it together. Just before my surgery people would ask me, "are you scared?" "Nope, I'm just fine"
Well Monday morning I woke up in a complete panic! I text a few friends to tell them that I was freaked out and to say a prayer. I shake it off and with my best stoic face I head to the hospital. Once there in my hospital gown and hooked into an I.V. I begin to get weepy. I start to panic and can't decide if I should puke, have diarrhea or just go home as they wheel me into the O.R. holding room. Laying there I heard the nurses talking about an anesthetist who was late, not sure if it was mine as I was in a line up of 5 other patients waiting to be cut open for other reasons.

As I'm being wheeled in she arrives and either she hadn't read the instructions or someone didn't inform her that due to my blood clotting condition I would need a heparin injection before surgery which she was not doing, I'm not paying attention to this either. I'm still in my crazy panic mode (trying to think how to get off the table) and begin to cry. The nurse concerned with my tears asks if this was my first surgery I say no my 5th and explain that I don't want to take 6 weeks plus to recover and I don't want a blood clot. This alerts the anesthetist and she then reads my chart and then runs out to get the medication. She comes back and begins putting in my I.V., and because she's trying to work too quickly the drug is hurting like a hot damn up my entire arm, I'm complaining. She asks is it hurting as she is tapping my hand, (as if that's going to help) while the nurse is putting the mask over my face to knock me out... I'm now angrily saying YES... MAN... GEEEEZZZZE THAT HURTS tap tap tap ALL THE WAY UP MY ARM... GEEEEZZE tap tap AHHHHHH. I'm out.

I wake up with no searing pain across my tummy from a large incision and then what appeared to be the Dr. saying everything went great! I realize it was a great success and that I'm not going to be sick anymore! Every time I open my eyes they end up looking in different directions kinda googly eyes.
The recovery room is rather empty and the recovery nurse and I begin to chat it up. She gets in trouble when it begins to get busy we both roll our eyes as we were having a great conversation. I tell her I wish I could give her a hand! ha! But I'm not quite in the best condtion to help...

An hour later I'm back in day surgery hanging out there and asking for a warm blanket every 15 or so minutes. I wasn't cold but I LOVE those blankets, I am sure I ended with about 5. I knew I should have been sleeping but just couldn't seem to let myself go out. They get me up walk across the room and then they call for my ride.

Once home I rest in-between watching u tube videos with my kids and conversations. My girlfriend arrives in the evening and we chat until about midnight. I wake up at about 3 am and begin talking with her again. I was too excited about the great surgery etc.
The Fella calls out from the other room... "STOP TALKING AND GO TO SLEEP YOU HAD SURGERY TODAY!"

I drifted off for a bit......

Diva M

THANKSgiving!

October is a strange month for me I was married in this month many moons ago and divorced in this month just a few moons ago. Still kinda hanging out with the fella... (but that should be another story)

Thanks giving is about giving thanks for family, friends, God, life, long weekend etc. etc. bla bla bla... but more importantly for this Diva is the TURKEY! I love turkey! Why I don't just buy one of those suckers and cook it up other times through-out the year, I shake my head and have no idea.
This year we went out and got a typical sized one, I REALLY wanted a big one, for.... the left overs! But, 13 pounds or so was all we could get.

We started to make plans of 'when' we would do the deed and Saturday became quite fetching for me! Ahhh yes, cook the turkey on Saturday, Sunday Church and other relaxing events and then Monday TOTAL DAY OF SLACKNESS!

Saturday the stuffing was made mid morning, and due to health changes we are making in the home we decided NO MORE ENAMEL POTS. So off to cost-co to buy a new stainless steel one.... with the most awesomness drip pan EVER!
Bird is stuffed and the house begins to smell divine. We will have a table of 10 and a friend bringing the most amazing cheese sauce to die for! And all I can think of is.... THE LEFT OVERS! I haven't had a turkey sandwich on WHITE BREAD in for... almost never.
We cook, we forge, we clean (well the kids cleaned... which is one of the MAIN reasons for having them) and we are soooo stuffed and satisfied. I look at my meaty left overs and they are sorta scarce, not bad, but not enough for another dinner AND sandwiches.

The next day many of them go to church. I stay home, cause I wanna and can! I get a phone call from daughter #2 who says her boyfriends dinner got canceled and that they might be coming back to our house. WHAT?? I don't 'really' have left overs for a whole 8 person dinner. So I call the fella and mention to him to go and pick up a couple drumsticks or thighs and we'll cook them to add to what we already have. Everything is pretty pricey so we chat a bit and decide what the heck BUY ANOTHER TURKEY!! As he is standing there, turkey in one hand and cell phone in the other a man comes up and says "do you have one of these?, it's a $10 off coupon" woo hoo! we now just got ourselves another turkey for $15.00!

We figure no point in stuffing it as there are leftovers of stuffing and all the other 'stuffs' that go with dinner from the previous night. All I'm thinking of is the leftovers!! Into the oven it goes.
Just before dinner we begin warming up the other parts, and the turkey is out in it's waiting mode.
Suddenly the power goes out!
After a few calls to my cell phone, we find out the power is out in the entire southern Island as well as well as a few neighboring islands ... woooo wee! was it too many people cooking turkey?? :o) (it wasn't by the way.)

So we are now in the dark throwing bowels into the oven to keep warm and I'm outside on the Bar-B-Q making a big-ass pot of gravy and keeping the cheese sauce warm.
Daughter #3 arrives home with 3 friends in tow. "Can they stay for dinner?" I say sure whats 11 people?? (no turkey leftovers is what that is...) but we have a beautiful candle lit dinner around the table with some kids who hadn't had 1 turkey dinner let alone 2 like my family! It was wonderful.

There were a few bits from the first turkey that allowed us to make a sandwich or 2 and a couple of open faced hot sandwiches on WHITE BREAD....on the Monday, but there's always a hankering in me for more leftovers......

Diva M

p.s. I did think about getting another turkey on Monday.... but figured we would wait for the sale on Tuesday.... get me 2 more!

A New Favorite Drink For The Diva!

I have a secret 'day' job where I hang out a few days a week. It should be a boring job, but my personality can make a mundane job quite fun. I'm a Book-keeper for an online software company. I love my job, I work on the computer all day and get paid lots of money.
Yes, I'm Book-Keeper by day and Diva by night!! ooo la la!

So at my day job the employees list keeps increasing and the office is just bursting at the seams, I take my 4 days off and come back and there are new employees added, desks re-arranged chairs stolen! (they all KNOW never to take my chair!!)

Today our Internet was down (not good in our line of work... but then that means you have to find things to occupy your time) they had a big meeting, I figured it would be fun to pretend we had MSN with sticky notes. One co-worker actually drew one of his emoticons, I laughed so hard!

Well with all the new employees my bosses decided to have a welcome party at their home. Well this Diva has been under a lot of stress and was quite in need of a party!!
My bosses are from the UK and started the night by serving everyone a Pimm's! We all asked what it was... here of course is the Wikipedia version....

Pimm's is a brand of alcoholic beverages now owned by Diageo. Its most popular product is Pimm's No. 1 Cup, a gin-based beverage that can be served both on ice or in cocktails. The recipe of Pimm's No. 1 Cup is secret; it has a dark tea colour with a reddish tint, and tastes subtly of spice and citrus fruit.
Pimm's is most common in Britain, particularly Southern England. It is one of the two staple drinks at Wimbledon, the Henley Royal Regatta and the Glyndebourne opera festival, the other being champagne. As a result Pimm's has the reputation of being a drink for the upper class.
Pimm's No. 1 Cup is the essential ingredient in the Pimm's Cup, which mixes one part Pimm's No.1 with three parts lemonade or lemon soda (sometimes ginger ale or Indian tonic water), ice cubes, borage leaves (nowadays a wedge of cucumber is usually substituted for this ingredient - they have a similar taste), mint leaves and slices of lemon, orange and strawberry.

Well this Diva has found a lovely drink which goes down way too easy if you know what I mean! They served it only with the strawberries and oranges. I would probably just drink it straight up as well. I have the same affinity with the liqueur Hypnotic, a person asked what I liked to mix hypnotic with? I said mix? I like it in a tall glass with ice!

The Pimm's was a great success and some had more than others, but the bottle was emptied in short order.
Monday morning I was MSN'd about where was the Pimm's? and with that a few of us decided that we should have FRIDAY'S BUS TO WORK AND DRINK PIMM'S DAY!

In closing.....Buy a bottle with all the fixings, pretend you are getting ready to watch Wimbledon with the upper class but MAKE sure it's a Friday Night!!

Diva M

GREETINGS

When do you make the transition from handshake to hug to kiss on one cheek to kiss on both cheeks?

I realized that I am in the public eye a lot, and have made lots of acquaintances along the way. I start out by a good firm hand shake. A hand shake should always be good. Why do some people give such lousy handshakes, weird, flimsy, creepy, grab the hand wrong, or one that was done to me; didn’t cup the hand just shook a flat hand in mine. WEIRD!

We talk about bad handshakes all the time too, so how come those that give the bad handshake don’t question ‘their’ handshake. “Hummm do I have a bad handshake? Are they talking about me?” YES! WE ARE!… and we would like you to stop doing weird handshakes. And boys, none of this wimpy stuff, get it in gear and show some strength!

From the handshake greeting we move into the hug. Hugs are good and apparently we need many hugs/touches a day. I think after you’ve know a person for awhile it’s good to give a hug in a greeting or a departing. I won’t criticize hugs, because it’s people in your ‘personal space’ so maybe your weird hug is because you don’t want people that close. Go back to the handshake.

I’ve recently moved on to the ‘fake’ kiss on one side. How do you know when to do the fake kiss? How do you know they won’t try to turn in and really kiss you? Or maybe you might WANT the real kiss. But how do we know when the fake kiss comes into play? Do we send out memos?

Dear new Acquaintance; I feel that our relationship has moved beyond the hug level, we are now going to do the fake kiss on one side, please check off whether you are the right side or the left.

And then when do we move to the fake kiss on both cheeks? Again what decides this? It is very perplexing to me and my little world. Or is this all just a European thing?

Maybe I should have gotten some sleep last night.

Diva M

Just When Things Were A Movin' and a Shakin'

Well the road of life is a strange one? Of course we all know that, but sometimes wouldn't you just like to have a boring humdrum life? A life that is typical, predictable, and a sure thing. My answer, YES! give me a season of humdrum boring predictable life cause this ol girl could use a break!
I've only been blogging for a few months and I can see the changes that have happened in my heart and soul in that short time. I feel like I've jumped forward in leaps and bounds and ready to take on the next phase of life only to be gut punched down.

DANG.....

My childrens father came home from working away after 3 months with a 30 pound tumor in his abdomen. Errrrrrrrrrrrrch that was my car coming to a complete halt.
He has been sick for the past year and could never pin point just what it was until now. Thank God he got in when he did, I don't know how much longer he could have carried on as his internal organs were so stressed by the large tumor.

Nothing in life prepares you for this or any other kind of trauma, and so you have no choice but to grab a hold of the crazy ride and hang on. We called upon our friends and churches to pray and send well wishes, which has given us a strength to walk this journey. With all the support of prayers, meals our family does not feel alone, and never before have I understood the concept of "we MUST not go through life alone" and it's even more evident though a trauma.

We are not out of the woods yet, as we are still waiting for the pathology report to tell us what the tumor was, and how they will proceed.

But we are not alone.

Diva M