I’m BACK – A Bit Worse for the Wear

Hi Everyone, I will keep this very short and sweet because it is still extremely hard to find a comfortable sitting position in which to type. Hopefully as the days go on, I will be able to write more and more as I have a lot to share.

First off, a HUGE THANK YOU! Words can't express how much your blog posts, emails and phone calls helped me get through the last 10 days. Surgery is often a very solitary experience...you are so single-mindedly focused on the task at hand that the days become a blur ("today I need to walk", "today I need to drink"). It's very easy to feel that you are "alone" in the process. Your words gave me great strength.

Lots to share but in the interest of my comfort, I will quickly answer the trivia questions:

1) What did Jen do today for the first time in 8 days? Eat Solid Food! I went 7 days with nothing more than ice chips. Thanks to everyone for being delicate with the "bathroom talk" but yes, there were a lot of milestones in that category that the doctors celebrated as well.

2. Which 9-time Grammy-award winner did Jen chat with today? Sheryl Crow! That's right...she came to visit the patient lounge and talk to us about her cancer experience. She was very eloquent however, I would have been more inspired if she just played a few tunes! Regardless, she was beyond friendly and supportive and was wearing the most awesome 6" stilletto heels I have ever seen. It will take me months to even get up the nerve to try to wear heels like that!

Extra credit: what happened in Jen's room in the middle of the night last night (hint: apparently Dave has some competition). An old, sweet man named Andre snuck into my room and insisted on being my roommate! Around 8:30 at night, another patient mistook my room for his and was halfway across the room before a nurse convinced him that he was trying to climb into the wrong bed. About 3AM the same thing happened! He was on a "middle of the night stroll" and came into my room and tried to climb into the other bed in my room (luckily, no one was in it). However, Andre couldn't seem to get into the bed so he paged the nurses to help him. They came to get him and explained again that he was in the wrong room. Jury's out on whether he was senile or whether he was a very smart man who was looking to hook up with a woman 50 years his junior :)

And with regards to my wonderful "vanilla" husband, I will plagiarize what my good friend (and NY Times best-selling author), Bruce said, "Vanilla is loyal, steadfast, heart and real, and a necessary foil to chocolate chips. Glitz and glamour are nothing without without bedrock vanilla to make them shine. So here's to a great partnership of vanilla AND chocolate chips! We should all be so lucky." I couldn't have said it better myself!

I promise to write in the next day or so. And please keep the good thoughts coming my way. This surgery is the most invasive of all 5 I have had (details will follow in upcoming entries) and the recovery will be long and hard. As you all know, I hate to be pent up so the recuperation process can be rather depressing. Thanks for continuing to cheer me up!