Big Thanks to All...

First I want to thank all of you for all the encouragement you've given me over the past few days and all the prayers and good thoughts you sent my way yesterday.

The surgery went pretty well although there were more stones than they thought. The Dr. said there were quite a bit more than he usually sees.. this coming from a Surgeon who has probably done thousands of these operations. That was concerning to me because I'm otherwise A pretty healthy person.. I will be curious to talk to him about it at my follow up visit. I was also in recovery longer than expected due to waking up in a lot of pain and being nauseated (this I don't remember, the Dr. told Mark. Apparently they just gave me some meds for nausea and let me sleep it off. When I was awake (again) I didn't feel too bad.. just a little nauseous and a little medicine took care of that. My surgery started a little before noon and I was home by 4:00.. Just in time to see the boys riding their bikes home from school. (A sight for sore eyes or sore abdomen as it were) I was pretty sore for a couple of hours and it hurt to sit up but after taking some pain medication I began moving around and actually felt good enough to help Alex with his homework.

I do want to give credit where credit is due:

Thank you to all my family and friends whose kind words and acts of kindness really helped making this ordeal easier. I don't want to mention names here in fear I will leave someone out but you know who you are and I love you all.

Thank you to my friends in the blog world who have never even met me or my family yet shared such kind words and sent prayers.

Thank you to my surgeon Dr. S. who even though he has been practicing a very long while and probably done thousands of these surgeries treated me like I was his first. He is a very soft spoken kind man. He was very kind and patient when explaining the procedure and really interested in answering any questions I had and making me feel more comfortable about it.

Thank you to my recovery nurse who laughed a long with me when I would say something silly or ask the same question more than once. I told her I felt like Dory (from Nemo) with my short term memory. I would say "I already asked you that didn't I?" She would just smile and say "that's ok" and answer again. She said that most of her patients won't remember talking to her. She had one recently that asked her to come visit her in her hospital room a few hours later so being the kind nurse she is she went to visit this patient. The patient didn't remember her at all! This didn't really surprise her because of the medications but I can truly say I DO remember your company, kindness and sense of humor Kelly and I Will remember you.

I know there is a lot of speculation right now about our country and people feeling like it is not the great country it once was. I am also guilty of some of these thoughts. I also know there are many issues about health care and I know some people have horror stories about it but I have to say after my experience yesterday, I feel very fortunate to live in a country where we have such great hospitals, and medical practitioners who do there very best to keep us alive and well!

Last but not least, I want to thank my husband and boys. Thank you Mark for being there as you always have been without fail for over half of our lives. I know it was boring sitting around in the waiting room, especially when you had so much work to do. Thank you for not leaving even though I told you to go get some work done and come back later. It really was a comfort to know you were only a minute away. Sorry for scaring you out of your wits when the nurse came in before the surgery and said "I should have the results of your pregnancy test in a minute and then we can continue on" It's just a precaution.. but caught Mark a little off guard :0 I think he's still recovering from that one..haha

Thank you Connor for hollering back from clear across the cul de sac, in front of your friends, on your way to school "I love you Mom!" (not an easy thing for an 11yr old) I looked at Mark with big eyes and said did you hear that? He did. It was priceless. Not that he doesn't say he loves me but just not so openly in front of his friends and whoever else might have been listening in the neighborhood. Thank you Alex for being so glad to see me. I could see in your eyes you had probably worried about me during the day between breaks of recess and lunch, oh and maybe music class..haha Your gentle hugs were precious.

Ok I think I'm done. Imagine if I'd had a Serious Surgery, you'd really be tired of hearing about it by now?? I promise I will move along now..