One Year Ago Today

Today has been a little bit on the rough side. I'm sure you are well aware that we are in the midst of one of the worst winter storms in my lifetime. All day yesterday I tuned half an ear to the weather forecast & tuned my full heart & spirit into praying that the meteorologists were all wrong. I left work & headed out to do my normal grocery shopping routine. You would have thought it was the week before Christmas. Everywhere I went it was PACKED. And it's probably a good thing that we needed neither bread nor milk. As I was on my way home (taking one last side trip to pick up some deicer for our cars) it began to rain & freeze. *sigh* I guess the Lord has a reason for letting the meteorologists be right.
Mike & I settled in for a nice evening at home. We tried not to listen to the rain falling & the sleet pinging outside. We decided to stay up a little later than normal to watch the full 11 o'clock news forecast. But then the power went out. I will admit that I panicked just a little bit - no power = no heat = pain & misery!
A few minutes later the power came back on *huge sigh of relief & many 'thank you, God's*. We turned off the tv & were just about to go to bed when the power went off again. This time it stayed off for over an hour. We were trying to figure out what to do because we had no tv, no internet & no battery powered radios. I finally found an old Walkman radio that I've had since about the 9th grade. Believe it or not, it still works. By this time I was way too keyed up to sleep. Then the power came back on. I was relieved but still massively cranked & nervy. Finally, I got to sleep about 2:30. Our alarms went off at 4:30 & we tried to figure out if Mike's work had been called off. We had electricity but no cable or Internet. The only local radio station that was on was not broadcasting locally at that hour of the morning so they weren't listing any closings or cancellations. Mike just decided to call the guard shack at his work & talk to the security guard. The guard didn't know if they were called off or not. So Mike just went ahead & called in. Then I called my boss. No such luck for me. So I sloughed off to work in 1/2" of ice but I made it ok & I'm trying not to think about the trip home or tomorrow when the snow & wind is supposed to hit.
So, as I sit here in my layer upon layer of the warmest clothes I could find in my closet this morning, I have been thinking about anything other than the storm. And it crossed my mind that exactly one year ago today I had a Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy, i.e. I had my gall bladder yanked out.
Can I just say that I am so glad that it is over with?
Before my surgery I was in a vicious cycle of getting hungry, eating something, & then feeling nauseous for about 2 hours. No matter what I ate I felt awful. It was just no fun whatsoever & I won't even mention the one really bad attack I had.
You're welcome. No need to get too graphic here, is there?
Anyway, I was very afraid of having surgery. I knew it was going to hurt. Hurting is no fun & I was afraid the anesthetic would make me sick because I've never had anesthetic before & what if the pain medicine made me sick or made me itch like crazy or what if they get in there & find a tumor or...
Yes, I know. Sometimes I definitely need counseling. And I do remember asking for lots of prayer during the weeks leading up to my surgery.
Anyway, I survived the surgery (obviously); the recovery wasn't a lot of fun but I survived it, too. Pain meds do make me super wacky & itchy. That's why recovery wasn't a whole lot of fun.
These days I can eat & not feel too bad but there are still some things that make me go "hmmm..." Recently I have been feeling a little yucky so I've been trying to figure out what could be causing the problem. The problem would be a super gassy stomach (as in I could burp 481 times a day & still feel like I need to burp). So I totally cut Splenda from my diet. And I haven't had much diet soda or really even any chewing gum. I seem to be feeling much better so I think my system is just not able to handle artificial sweeteners very well. Interesting, huh?

Sorry if that's a little too detailed...but it just kept coming up *burp* & I thought I would share my discovery with you. Just beware: if you have a Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy you might end up burping like a...well, like me :-)