Day 7

So glad the long weekend is over. Had a surprise visit from Judy, Josh and Terry around 4pm yesterday. They came bearing a starbucks frap for me. It was nice to break the monotony of the day with them.

Right eye still the same--no way that I can read or focus with both eyes. Getting pretty nervous about the dr appt tomorrow. Bill read me a great devotional this morn from Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church (who I greatly love and admire). It was all about worry. Pretty apropos for me today.

This may be too much info but anyone doing this needs to take stool softeners. I did and am glad that I did. The inactivity really messes up your system.

Finished the 3 Cups of Tea yesterday and Greg Mortensen is my new hero. Makes you really think about all the money we have spent trying to combat terror in this world and he just does it one school, one village at a time. Fighting illiteracy sure makes much more sense.

Bill has business appts in L.A. all day but Marcie will be here with me. I will try to get her to take Dakota for a long walk. That dog has been my faithful companion and hardly ever leaves my side.

Cheryl will be here tomorrow, we have not seen each other in 2 months!!!!

Now listening to The Appeal by Grisham. And getting another massage today........

day 6

I thought that yesterday would never end. Why are the weekends so much harder to endure? Marcie came over with an iced coffee and chatted for awhile. Barb showed up at 5pm with our dinner, stuffed chicken breasts, quinoa and green beans and for dessert, raspberry sorbet. Scrumptious!

I am getting a little worried about the vision in right eye. I have not seen an y improvement for past 2 days. Dr indicated that I would be reading in a few days after surgery but no way that I can do that. I am still pretty much only using left eye as I still am blurry in right eye. We have a post op Dr appt n Tues at 2pm and I am getting pretty anxious to find out what is going on. Need to prepare myself emotionally that I may have to continue face down for all of next week. I have been telling myself that I would be out of this by Tues.

The good news from all this is that the cat is finally starting to accept and make some sort of peace with the dog. They both hang out a lot in the bedroom with me. And upstairs in the bedroom we have had the most beautiful breeze from the ocean all week so while the rest of San Diego is sweltering, I am very cool and comfortable.

Bills off to walk Dakota this morn and I will go back to my 3 Cups of Tea. I am on CD 6 out of 11. Remarkable book--I highly recommend it to all.

Back to enjoying my coffee. Hugs to all.

Day 5

Looong night last night. Could not get comfie and I had leg and toe cramps all night. I need to drink more water. Yesterday was a good day and it went fast (except for the night). I listened to my audio book (3 Cups of Tea) in morn. Bruce and Laura came at noon and brought me an iced coffee from Starbucks --so heavenly! Denise came at 1 and gave me a great massage, Barb showed up at 3 and washed my hair. Marcie and Judy came at 5pm with margarita and chips and guac. We all chatted until after 7 so my day was full and fast.

Today is Sat and the weekend looms menacingly--seems like forever until Monday. Vision a little better today but still cannot really read much as I can see that darn gas bubble floating around in right eye.

Dr appt is on Tues at 2pm. I so hope he tells me I am fine and can get on my with my life and back to a normal routine. The ordinary sounds so extraordinary to me now--I cannot wait.

Any and all visitors gratefully received and appreciated this weekend.

More later.....time to wake Bill up for coffee!

Day 4

I am praying that after today, I will be half way thru this torturous recovery process! 3 Audio books arrived yesterday courtesy of my sweet hubby. I started listening to 3 Cups of Tea last night and it is an exceptional book. So, that should occupy a lot of time today. I have abandoned the horseshoe shaped face contraption for sleeping and now just sleep face down in my pillow. I get up many times during the night to stretch out my lower back which gets really sore.

During the day, I do lots of yoga poses ((all face down, of course) and that sure helps. My friend, Barb, is coming over this aft to wash and blow dry my hair. Yeah! And Marcie and Judy are coming tonight with margaritas and chips and salsa. We will have our own little girly happy hour.

Still cannot focus well with right eye open so am continuing to keep it closed. Maybe tomorrow it will be better.

So many nice emails, phone calls and cards etc... I am a blessed woman to have such great friends and the BEST clients in the world. Love and hugs.

Day 3

short post, hard to type with one eye, Surgery went really well according to dr. got home on tues around 1pm wtih raging caffeine withdrawal headache, so coffee was a priority, not much pain, thank goodness. just a constant headache that tylenol helps keep un der control. Marcie and Gary visited tues as well as Megan who brought dinner for us and that was so appreciated. Carter wanted to see the hole in my eye and was terribly disappointed that it was all bandaged up.

had little sleep on tues nite, so hard to find a comfortable position. wed we took the bandage off but the eye is so blurry that i kept it closed all the time. makes me nauseous to look thru it, Judy, terry and josh visited in the afternoon and then Denise brought her massage table and gave me a wonderful massage, barb and Syd came at night with a huge pot of spaghetti sauce. that will be Thurs dinner. Mari Simms had come earlier in the day with homemade veggie soup. I am grateful for all the healthy food being brought over.

Last night I did better sleeping. You just have to constantly try different positions and pillows etc.. to find a short term sleeping arrangement. Sleep is fitful but it does come.

Dakota is my faithful guard dog. She is by my side 34/7 and barks at anyone who comes up the stairs. She and Daisy Mae are finally starting to be friends. It has only been 7 months!

Books on tape coming today so I will have something to help pass the time. Boredom now settling in BIG time. Eyesight a little better today, it should keep improving every day. Bill taking really good care of me except he gives me too much to eat and I am afraid I will gain weight. More later.......Love to all of you and thanks for encouraging and healing prayers.

Teamwork

Thanks to my great team of friends and family who are helping us out. A shout out to Mary Ann who is walking Dakota tomorrow while we are at the hospital and to Megan who will be bringing us a yummy dinner and to Marcie who is picking up the important prescriptions that are needed post op. It does indeed take a village.

We set up the torture equipment tonight so all is ready for tomorrow when we get home. Since we have a footboard on our bed, we had to position the "head holder" (much like a massage table) to be attached to the side of the bed, which means that I will be sleeping across the bed. It also means that there is no room for Bill, who will be taking the guest room for the next couple of weeks. Folks, I gotta tell you that it is not that comfortable! It will be a real challenge sleeping. Good thing I have some ambien left over from our Africa trip in 2008!

We also set up my new notebook computer so that I can blog and tweet and surf the net and check email much easier than my industrial strength laptop. This little notebook is a gem.

Off to bed and the last comfortable night for awhile, altho I suspect not that much sleep. Setting the alarm for 5:15am. More later...............................

Eye Surgery Tomorrow

Just found out that I am in need of rather urgent eye surgery. Apparently, I have an acute macular hole in my right eye. Yikes! How did this happen? We don't know but I sure am glad that the doctors can take care of it before the hole gets bigger.

So, tomorrow morning at 9:30am at Scripps Memorial in La Jolla, I have the surgery and hopefully, will be able to come home in the afternoon. Then the fun begins!

I will need to be face down for 7-14 days to fully recover. I am having panic attacks just thinking about it. My husband has ordered all kinds of fancy equipment to help me be more comfortable during the days ahead. My daughter kindly referred to this stuff as medieval torture chamber equipment! To see the torture equipment, click this link.

I will try to blog as much as possible about the tortuous recovery in the hopes that it may help someone else down the road. Stay with me--this should be interesting.

Any and all prayers gratefully appreciated. No jokes please!