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This is Day 3 of my blog not being available. Guess I'll keep posting anyway. I did email the blogger.com support people again, just verifying that they received my 1/1/06 email and I'm in the queue to be helped.

Steve went with me to the surgeon's today for my follow-up appointment. We couldn't remember if I wasn't supposed to drive until I saw him or if it was just a week after the surgery. I wanted to drive last week and felt fine so we're saying it was a week - seems reasonable. The surgeon was very busy and running at least 30 minutes behind - standing room only in the waiting room by the time we left. My time spent with him was about 5 minutes. Removing those staples and that drain was fast and easy! I asked to see the staples - they were tiny! I was envisioning longer staples. Can't tell you how glad I am to have that drain out. I'll be sleeping in my own bed tonight, on my side, spooning with Steve. (And Reggi, no doubt!) I have to see him in a month for follow-up. Seems ridiculous, but whatever.

I asked about when I can eat fattier food just to see what he'd say. So far he's given me 3 different answers: 2 months, 3-6 months and 6-12 months. Pretty big range! I didn't even care about the answer anymore because I realized that I'm the only one will know at what pace I can introduce fattier foods. The consequence is diarrhea which ain't no big deal. If the consequence was that familiar gall bladder pain, I'd be extra cautious, for sure.

He said I really made him work to get my gall bladder out. He said it was really infected and he was this close to giving me the big slice, rather than being able to do it laproscopically. Thank goodness he didn't have to. He said he's surprised I didn't have more symptoms and more pain - the same thing Gretchen's doc said to her. Guess we Stahlmans are stoic.

I'm all set to go to work tomorrow - and very happy about it! That will probably last about 30 minutes, then I'll slap my forehead, "Oh yeah. Work." I have a batch of Chex Mix in the oven that I intended to take in around Christmas time - bought the ingredients before I got sick. I'm going to bring in bagels, donuts and muffins - to thank my group for covering for me while I was out these 3 weeks. (I can eat a bagel without a problem - either plain or with jam, not cream cheese.) I've been staying on top of my work email this whole time so at least I'm somewhat caught up on that. Should be okay - and heck, it's only a 3 day work week for me! It will be nice to see my friends. We've been in touch via email this whole time but in person will be nice.

On the way to the surgeon's this morning I said to Steve, "So what the heck are we going to talk about now that we don't have my gall bladder to talk about?" You know how it is, heck you've been reading this journal - it's been the main focus of my existence for 3 weeks. After we left the surgeon's, I said to Steve, "Well. Now we don't have to speak of this ever again." To which he replied, "Is that really a promise you think you can keep?" "Hell, no!' I said, and continued to talk about - how I can now take a full, deep breath, now that the drain is out. But when he came home after work, I have not mentioned it once to him - wonder if he noticed?

Back to craft talk tomorrow - and fabric talk! I celebrated my last afternoon of freedom by visiting JoAnn Fabrics, after visiting with Mom and Dad for a while.