5 months and a day

Once again time is acting in that peculiar fashion where it moves fast and slow simultaneously. It feels like Jessica's 4 month vaccinations were ages ago whilst I also feel like she was just born. Perhaps it's the gallbladder. When I'm in pain time always seems to act funny.

I had my consultation with the surgeon today. It was a case of being put on a waiting list to wait for a waiting list. I waited over a month for this appointment only to be told it will be roughly 2 more months before anything is done. He didn't really ask me any questions other than:

"Do you want it out?"
I said yes.
"Okay. Government guidelines say we have to promise you a surgery date within 9 weeks of telling you that you'll have surgery. I'm busy this week and on holiday the next, so it will probably be more than 3 but less than 9."
I quickly attempted to count in my head, "middle of September...noooo! just when I was planning on going home to Florida for a bit... argh!"

It's strange how much doctors vary. I've met a few that discount everything I say and often diagnose without listening to me, but then there are those that seem to let me self-diagnose, nod and ask what I would like to do. This one fell into the latter category. I mentioned how my symptoms seemed to suggest a stone getting lodged in the bile duct- so he's arranging an MRI to scan the area and make sure there's nothing there that would need to be removed. Apparently, they are two different procedures entirely. I like that he listened to me, it just comes as kind of a shock after you deal with so many who don't care what you say. At first he mentioned doing the scan after the surgery but when he realized how far off it would be he decided just to order one now. It was done in a very much "What the heck, there's nothing else to do while you're waiting to get cut open." kind of attitude. Slightly odd, but at least it's getting done.

On the lighter side of life: Tonight Jessabear pooped in the bath. Not before the bath, not right after the bath, but IN the bath. It was oddly akin to yellow play-dough coming out of a play-dough press. Mark wasn't impressed, well maybe he was,but in that strange way where you can't believe something is really happening. I've got to give him credit, he did not run screaming from the room. He held it together and we managed to get her from her bath into the proper tub with no further incident.

Letting us know what she thought about the doctor's office.

Exhausted after choosing a new toy at Tesco

Where have I been?

It was brought to my attention this morning that is officially been more than a month since my last post. I keep meaning to write something but I'm sure as all of you with offspring know... things never go according to plan!

The first big blip was my gallbladder. I told you I'd had my first gallstone attack on the 14th but what you don't know is that over the next few weeks I had at least 12 more attacks, saw the out of hours doctor twice, regular doctor once, had three phone appointments and eventually wound up in the ER. I can't take the strong painkillers because I'm still breastfeeding and they think the ones they did give me made me itch all over. (It was either the codine OR the high bilirubin count in my blood making me want to tear my skin off. They can't really tell me which because I stopped taking the painkillers as the bilirubin count went down because there was no longer a stone lodged in my bile duct!)

I can honestly say I'm being conditioned to HATE the month of June. I spent most of June 2009 throwing up, June 2010 I spent throwing up, doubled over in pain and itching. I preferred 2009 because at least I knew it was for my baby... I feel no such love for my gallbladder.

It's been a week since my last attack and I managed to go a whole week pain free before that one as well so it feels like I'm getting my life back. I have a surgical consult Monday afternoon and they'll tell me what the plan for taking my gallbladder out is. I'm of two minds; I can't wait to have it out ant live in fear of another attack, but it's surgery, I'll be in the hospital away from my baby girl for the first time. I won't be able to feed her because of the drugs in my system, I'll have to pump and dump to keep up my supply, Mark will have to convince her that the bottle can be her friend and figure out someway to get her to sleep. I see it being a very stressful few days. The doctor in the ER said they might be able to make some considerations and arrange for a private room so I can have the baby in more often.

Speaking of the precious little one. She's awake. She's decided that instead of an hour she only wanted a 20 minute nap. *laughs* Hence the reason I haven't updated this blog in a month!

I have lots more stories for you, adventures in real diapers, her first 4th of July, attempts to crawl and more. I'm hoping I'll get a chance to write them up soon. For now, enjoy the new pictures on Picasa.