A little lesson

So my gall stone is coming out along with my gall bladder in a couple of weeks. (Anatomy lesson time) Basically your liver makes bile that is stored in the gall bladder. When you eat fatty food your body tells your gall bladder 'hey send me some bile to break down this food'. The gall bladder releases the bile and sends it into your intestine to help digest the food. When you have a gall stone that is in the way, when the gall bladder releases the bile, the stone causes it to spasm, which makes for all sorts of icky pain and other nasty sensations.

When they do the surgery, they make four little holes to stick instruments and cameras and all sorts of crap to snip off the gall bladder and pull it out. Sometimes (10-15% of the time) they get in there and find that the gall bladder is hiding in a weird position, or can't get a good view of where to snip, or any other reason they can come up with and they change from four little bitty holes, to one big incision. Four little bitty holes means you go home the same day and take about a week to recover. One big incision means 3-5 days in the hospital and 3-5 weeks to recover. Guess which one I am rooting for???

The good news is once you have the surgery, you no longer can have gall bladder attacks (that is just soooo logical). The bad news is that there is no guarantee the pain in my side (that is basically there all the time like a side ache) will go away with the surgery.

Next week I go in for my preop crap. Conveniently it is not on the same day as any other appointments so I get to spend two quality half days at Lahey next week. One for my preop and one for my next liver MRI. I can't wait. The MRI is the pain in the butt test where you have to lie there and inhale and exhale on command - basically holding your breath for seemingly long periods of time. But that is next week. (Currently I only have 9 (count them NINE) appointments scheduled in the month of September. I did have ten but one was a preop consult we did on the phone. I am sure that number will increase after surgery because I will have follow up appointments.)

This week I get to just worry about normal stuff. What to do with the millions of tomatoes I have all of a sudden is a good thing to worry about. I might make sauce. Also, I have a lot of work to do these days. This morning I need to get off my butt and go out for a walk so I can come home and get to work.

A day of car salesmen

We went to three dealerships and made a decision yesterday. Today we get to wrap it up and finalize the deal. (First does anyone want to buy a car? 1996 Altima for sale, $750, needs work and a starter.) The first dealer we went to was a nice guy and let us both test drive the car. We also looked at some other cars in the lot. He was just nice. But we wanted to drive more than one car and his deal we thought wasn't so hot so off we went.

The second dealer was impossible to get into as the driveway was right next to a highway entrance ramp. Then we couldn't find the building. Then we couldn't find the guy. Finally, we find the guy and the car and he sent us off for a test drive without him. Then we came back and had to wait around and wait around for him to reappear. No deal offer at all.

Last, we went to a giant dealer which had a receptionist who didn't speak English, the sales manager we were told to ask for wasn't there so we dealt with another guy who gave us to a sales rep who had no authority and wouldn't give us prices or let us walk around the lot. His first question was what color car do we want? (I hate car dealers who do that.) Every time I asked him for a number, he said he would have to find out. Or its the new 09's and I dont have that memorized yet. Finally, he showed us two cars and tried to get us to make an offer. Their deal was only slightly better than the first dealer. We said we needed to discuss it and would get back to him.

After consulting with our automotive advisor (my brother who is a gear head), we decided to go with the car from the first dealer but will ask him to meet the third dealer's price. Mostly because we liked him best - easiest to deal with and no run around.

Car shopping is a horrible experience. However its much better than in previous years as the customer is now educated and knows what the dealer invoice is. But the invoice price is also just another number that the dealer gets incentives from the manufacturers so it is definitely not carved in stone. What I thought was interesting is that at the last dealer they didn't want to give us prices but every car in the lot has a window sticker on it. Their ploy ws to keep the customers in the building and bring the cars up to the customers - so they can't walk around and see what exactly is available and how much it is. That is why they will not get our business.

More importantly, I was right. Lahey was trying to call me on Friday. The unknown phone calls were from the preadmissions department for my upcoming gall bladder adventure. They work seven days a week and called me yesterday. Now I found out I am ill prepared for this - I dont have a living will or health care proxy (I keep meaning to but forgetting - you would think after this many medical adventures I would) and I am not an organ donor (but I don't think they want mine after chemo, etc anyway). Well, I can work on the living will and health care proxy in the next few weeks.

Today, for a change, I am off for a walk and then work at home. How exciting. Then I am going to the airport to pick up a friend's son who is coming out here for college. I hope to beat the traffic back out of the city but am not sure this will be possible. But I am doing a good thing.

Who is smarter - cats or dogs?

I actually received an email yesterday from PetAge on how to determine who is smarter - cats or dogs. I didn't bother to go through the survey as I do not have a dog to compare to the cat. The cat who thinks he is so smart because he has learned how to sneak out the front door and nap under the bushes in front of the house while waiting for unsuspecting critters to come along that he can munch on - so much for catfood being his main source of food.

Well today's big news is that my husband's car got towed home from work last night. This is the first incident after the last repair which was to be the 'last' repair. Car shopping is on our horizon this weekend as a result. The real question is if we buy a new car - who gets to drive it? I think as the sick person who needs reliable transportation to go to doctors appointments, I should get it. He thinks because he needs to go to work, he should get it. We will have to negotiate.

Actually today we are off for a morning walk (a/k/a death march) and then a little car shopping before a family event this afternoon. Its actually at the local horse track - I haven't been to a horse race since 1981 when I went to the Chili Cook Off and Jalapeno Pepper Eating Contest at the Lexington KY track (and I still have the t-shirt). It should be interesting. Otherwise, my gall bladder doesn't like me. If I sleep on my right side my gall bladder hurts, if I sleep on my left side my bursitis hurts and if I sleep on my stomach the cat sleeps on my head. I hate sleeping on my back. (It might even make me crabby.)

Adventures in dining out

Around here this week, and last week as well, its Boston Restaurant Week (which really lasts two weeks now and some restaurants have the week last a month, but who's counting). Anyhow its a special deal with restaurants offer lower priced, fixed menus in an effort to get people to go out and try different restaurants they couldn't necessarily afford.

Last week we went to a seafood restaurant where the food was pretty good but the service just wasn't there. I mean you aren't supposed to have to wait ten minutes to be greeted after being seated, are you? Or, if you want to sell the specials you should tell the patrons before you say 'are you ready to order?' Or, isn't the wait person supposed to come over and ask how your food is a few minutes after you are served? Needless to say, while the food was good, the service wasn't and the wine was pricey. We probably won't return.

Last night, on the other hand we went to a different restaurant and had very good service and very good food. But I just don't understand how wait staff can take your order and not write it down. I understand the premise - they don't want staff scribbling and if they just walk over to the computer and enter the order, it should be no problem. But what if someone side tracks them before they get over to the computer and they have to try to remember what that table told them as opposed to all the other orders taken that evening.

When I mentioned this to my husband, he pointed out that the wait staff probably didn't have chemo brain or whoopsy brain and should have no problems remembering like most normal people. He also mentioned that he wasn't sure that my brain capacity would have been there for this previously - not that I was ever a space cadet but that perhaps I was at a low orbit. Personally, I am not offended by this. I do now have the perfect excuse for being a space cadet and will milk it for all its worth.

Even though we enjoyed our dinner and like eating out, I have learned that my gall bladder doesn't always like eating out. Its much easier to eat for a happy gall bladder at home when one controls what goes into the food than out at restaurants where too often they are full of oil and fats. Its not that my gall bladder hates me its just that it makes its presence known when I eat things it doesn't like. Well, only four more weeks of dealing with this and no more gall bladder (but who's counting?).

Yesterday, I actually got alot of work done. Today I will have to work hard again - I have a busy schedule. What's with this part time work business, work from home in your pajamas, if you have to work all day? I am supposed to be able to take breaks and do other stuff (including finding the cat after he sneaks out and takes a nap under the bushes in the front yard as he waits for more birds to land in his territory).

More news

Okay, I am in a rut. Here's more news but none of it really surprised me:

- The US women's team won the beach volleyball gold medal and are undefeated in more than 100 matches. I can't remember the exact number. It seems the only thing to derail the pair will be their thoughts on retirement to have children. I heard earlier in the games, they might be considering it. I can understand it. It must be kind of boring to win all the time... Where's the challenge? Raising children? Now that could be a challenge.

- Russian troops don't seem to be leaving Georgia. Does that surprise anyone? Not really. Hmm... They said they would and signed an agreement. Maybe they just forgot to tell the troops to leave.

- China is on top of civil rights again. Two women, 77 and 79, are sentenced to a year of reeducation through labor (that's right, a labor camp) for APPLYING for a permit to protest eviction. Look at their picture - they really look like government security risks to me. Also, more foreign activitists are being held by the Chinese government.

- And illegal factory knockoffs seem to be flourishing in China. Not that this is any kind of surprise. But this is an example of how different news casts tell you different things. On the evening news last night was a big story on how the days of cheap labor in China are over and manufacturing is shifting to Vietnam as costs are going up. Hmmm... Perhaps some proactive anti-counterfeiting legislation and action in Vietnam could prevent the counterfeiting from gaining ground there.

Nothing like watching the news to keep your blood pressure up. Also, I can use it as a cover to hide my boring life. The only exciting thing yesterday, other than the fact that I worked a lot and the cat tried to escape but didn't, was I got my schedule of preoperative appointments yesterday. They are scheduled for Sept 3 and consist of 3 consecutive appointments - preadmission, physicians assistant, and then pre-op center. I will bring a book and a snack as it goes through lunch time and expect to be there for a couple hours. I did call to reschedule as the very next day I get to go back for my MRI which consists of a prep appointment to put in the IV and then the actual MRI so I will spend another couple of hours at the hospital. (Its not hard to schedule the MRI, its hard to schedule the physician's assistant.) Two days in a row. This will fill my social calendar for the week. Can't wait. I tried to reschedule to combine them into the same day but its not possible. Oh well. I can look for OMWAHs and rocket scientists again.

My birthday present

Now I know what I am getting (or doing) for my birthday - gall bladder surgery. I did want to have my surgery the following week but the surgeon only had scheduled surgery dates in September of the 12th and the 19th. All the other days he does trauma surgery instead. I picked the 19th as on the 12th we will be going to Maine for Walter's birthday. Now that I have that date I can schedule the rest of my life and figure out when I can work, etc. Also , it works well as Walter will be home for the weekend while I am recuperating.

One thing I have been perfecting recently is procrastinating. Here it is Saturday and I should have worked more this week. Some of it I can make up this weekend but some of it I can't so I will just be behind again... Grrr. I hate it when that happens.

One of my key stall for work techniques is to surf the internet because you never know what you can find there. Then I get sick of my computer and go out to the garden and admire the flowers, vegetables and weeds. This week I got to combine the two. Someone sent me a link to a YouTube video on gardening.

Today we are off for a walk as it is another tropical Boston day - 60 degrees and foggy. They claim tomorrow will be in the 80's so we are going to the ocean somewhere and Monday will be 90 but I won't believe it until I see it.

Hmmm....

Its a rainy Monday morning. My bursitis is aching. My gall bladder is sore. My butt hurts. Anything else? Yes, I have a headache. Maybe I should go back to bed. But I can't. I have to work today. I have lots of work today. My life is boring.

Yesterday I did find a way to keep the cat inside. He snuck out and it started raining. He instantly wanted to come back in! Now I just have to figure out a way to make it rain when he sneaks out - voila - permanent indoor cat.

Actually, this week I have lots of work to do from home and a doctor appointment, a therapist appointment, and possibly a job interview for more part time work. One of the joys of being self employed is continually looking for more work. Such is life. Well, time to commute in my pjs!