Bearing Gifts We Travel Afar

After a Christmas/Birthday lunch with Tiger's mom, brother, and sister-in-law at a well-loved local place (quite lovely and very Christmas-y), Tiger, Lily and I headed to my old home town despite the terrible weather. It took us five hours to make the 2.25 hour drive(!). It was like we were on Hoth. Seriously, we might have done better on Taun-Tauns. I've heard of "blowing snow" and "whiteout" conditions my whole life, but now I feel that I have personally experienced them.
Everyone is sick except my dad. Tiger and I both ended up going to the local Hospital this morning. Fortunately it's just a little virus; I thought I'd best be careful with my compromised immune system.

I've been off pain-killers for two days now. Yay! I wanted to as soon as possible for Lily's sake. She's still a bit jumpy still when I leave the room, poor kid. My absence seems to have strengthened her relationship to Tiger, which is beautiful to see. Thank you to everyone who telephoned, emailed, or visited while I was out of commission. I felt the love!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night ;-)

Today it happened...

Lilly climbed the 13 stairs from our first floor to our second, unassisted. * snif *

They get so big so durn fast.

Yesterday, Katie taught her both "high five" and the fist pound.

It Was the Gall-darn Gallbladder

Saturday I had what I thought was heartburn-from-hell, but five hours later on in the ER it was revealed to be a gallbladder attack. Apparently passing a gallstone (not to be confused with passing a kidney stone--two very different things) feels similarly to trying to birth a bowling ball from your stomach up into your esophagus. After some fine IV drugs I was doing much better. Sunday I had fun with an MRI--luckily I am not claustrophobic; it is a bit like hanging out in a well-lit coffin. Ah, yes, the rogue gallstones were found and it was decided that my gallbladder must be removed. I guess this is not an uncommon thing for women who have recently had babies to suffer. Is that fair? So on Monday morning I had laproscopic surgery to remove the offending organ (good thing it is expendable, no?). My sister flew in from Mexico for Christmas and, being a dutiful sister as she is, spent the night in the hospital with me, God bless her. It was like a painful pajama party full of vicadan and hospital gowns. Katie is thinking of having her her gallbladder out just so we can have a repeat fete.

I'm fine, but poor Lily had a very hard go at it without me (Tiger was always very appreciative of what I did at home, but now he REALLY admires my work). I've been home for a day and a half, but the poor little thing is still distressed whenever I leave a room. Until this weekend, she and I had never been apart from each other for more than four hours, then suddenly, 48. I would have seen her, but I thought it would be nothing but cruel to have her see me but not be able to nurse due to the drugs they were pumping into me. Tuesday when I came home was one big laugh/cuddle/nurse/nap fest for the two of us. Unfortunately in the absence of the nursing antibodies, she came down with a cold, so we are working on getting her back to her bubbly self.

Many thanks go out to the three Grandmas who did their best (two at a time) to keep Lily distracted from the fact the world she knew and loved was in a complete state of baby-hell (no mom? no milk? no!!). Extra special thanks to my friend Marlene, who even came to nurse and comfort Lily while I was unable to.

In case anyone is interested, here is a link to a YouTube video of my surgery.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ycvwAfx3yF0