Some new pics.

(1) Move over Federer, here comes Will Curtis...

(2) Princess Grumblebum receives her certificate from Phizz Kids this morning (notice the world's smallest (?) genuine Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirt).

Will and Lehmo (on Sydney's Triple M FM on drive time afternoons) were talking about noisy foods at cinemas. They were asking people for suggestions for quiet food to substitute for all that rustly, crunchy popcorn, chips, etc. I almost wet myself when someone rang up with the suggestion of a glucose drip. It doesn't get quieter than that. I laughed so hard I had the children a little worried. I guess you had to be there.

If I hear that one more tv show has been FAST TRACKED from the US I will have to kill someone... well at least rant and rave like a maniac about how annoying and repetitive this phrase is. You can not turn on the tv without an overly dramatic voice over telling me that this, that and every bloody other show has been fast tracked. I gave that giant piece of SHIT Fringe a go (because a show that's been fucking fast tracked must be fantastic) ... and guess what? It wasn't. It was crappola of the highest order. I have now learnt my lesson. Fast tracked is now my code word for BULLOCKS.

Just quickly. It's been 4 weeks since THE OP. All good here. Feeling great, energy levels back to normal, possibly better than before. Still some numbness, tingly-ness, itchy-ness around the scar and lower tummy area. But for the most part I can't feel anything [bad]. I can even lay down on my tummy fairly comfortably now.

Of course the hot flushes continue. They are starting to bug me, mainly the waking up during the night part. So it's more the disruption to my sleep that's the problem, rather than the hot flushes themselves. Will talk to the doctor about it at my 6 week check up. Not really liking the idea of taking HRT so much but have heard good things about it from friends so starting to lean towards it a little.

Looking forward to starting to exercise a bit more. Hopefully will get the green light from the doc in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday I heard Julia Gillard say [something very close to]: "... under our new employment laws employees will be able to negotiate to have their employers make regular donations to climate advocacy groups...".

The lunatics really have taken over the asylum.

You know my theory that politics should run on a similar system to jury duty, i.e. all adults over 18 get called up to act as a minister for a six month period. So you'd get a letter in the mail stating "Joe Bloggs, you are hereby the Federal Minister for Education from 1 July - 31 December, 2008. Please present at Parliament House Canberra on 30 June."

Sure there is a certain percentage of the population who is illiterate, psycopathic, mentally unstable but surely we can't do any worse.

Just a quick post for myself. A little note for the future. It's now three weeks since THE OP. I'm feeling really good. My energy levels are pretty much back to normal. There is still a little discomfort around the scar area but it's getting better every day. I can now sleep on both my sides and almost lay on my tummy - but it's still not really comfortable to do that so I'm avoiding it for now. The hot flushes are there and mildly annoying. They wake me up throughout the night. But I'm apparently getting used to the reduced sleep and I don't feel tired when I wake up and my energy levels are high(ish) throughout the day.

We had big adventures at our house last night. We even made the papers - look HERE if you don't believe me.

Marianna woke me at about 11:40 am calling for me from her room. I called for her to come but she said she was scared so I went to her room. She was standing in her doorway and I told her to go to my room. I could hear some sort of siren outside so I pulled up her blind and there, before me, was a scene straight out of a disaster movie.

Bennelong Road was filled with fire trucks and there were firemen and residents walking all over the road and the circular driveway at the front of our building. It was like Pitt Street out there. I watched for a moment trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually I thought it must be a gas leak or something like that. I woke up Jay and asked him to go down and see what was happening.

He came back to report that the penthouse in the block next to ours (there are two buildings which make up the Mariners Cove complex) was on fire. We both went out onto the kids' balcony from where we could see the top of the building next door. There was no fire at this stage but it was dark and there was smoke. We could see firemen with torches searching inside.

Sirens kept coming as police and ambulance arrived. It was a fascinating scene. I put on my dressing gown and sat on the balcony for a while watching. It was really quite entertaining (at the time I didn't know that someone had been injured). The smell of smoke made me feel a bit sick after a while and I decided to go to bed around 1:00 am.

This morning it was on the news. Ridiculous what a tiny thrill I get from seeing the building next door to ours on the tv. 15 minutes indeed.

It kills me to saying anything positive about Kid Rock. In fact it kills me to even mention his name. Just the mere thought of him makes me slightly sick in the stomach.

However, I have to note that there is something about his new song. It's not that I like it. I don't. It's just that it throws me into a certain state of nostalgia which I find enjoyable. It sends me back to a summer in the early 80s which I'm sure at the time was horrifically angst ridden but from the safe distance of 25+ years it has softened round the edges . Now I cast my mind back to a golden time, a hot summer filled with girl/woman experiences and thrilling, teen-magnified adventures.

Fuck you Kid Rock.

What the fuck is going on with NSW state politics right now?

It's tough to realise that your underlying fear that politicians are incompetent power seeking bufoons (at best) and downright evil corrupt mafia types (at worst) is the reality. Generally I want to go through life poking fun at the pollies but giving them little thought in my day to day life. I have to say though with what's been happening during the last week or so I am downright afraid of what damage these goons are capable of. It is impossible to believe we have to wait TWO MORE YEARS before the voters of this state can say enough is enough. However it is these same voters who brought back these dickheads at the last election so I am not fully optimistic for the future.

How fucked up will they leave the beautiful state of New South Wales? That is the important question right now.

Well, here I am, just over two weeks since the BIG OP. So far, so good. I am generally pain free but I do have regular moments of discomfort, various aches around my tummy area which change and move day to day. Also in the last few days I'm developing some back ache which I can only attribute to my tremendously slack stomach [non]muscles. I am looking forward to feeling stronger so I can start a regular exercise routine to improve my overall fitness and (hopefully) protect my back.

I drove on Friday which was a big milestone. I was scared shitless that I wouldn't be able to drive for 6 weeks but after getting the go-ahead from my doctor on Tuesday when I had a post-op check up I was hanging out to get behind the wheel. All went well and I'm happy to report I'll be driving myself, and the kidlings, to work (and school) tomorrow.

I have obviously entered menapause as I am experiencing hot flushes in a major way (here's one right now). Mainly they hit at night when I'll wake up feeling very hot and bothered. They are certainly annoying but nothing I can't live with. Summer should be interesting but I guess that's what air conditioning and swimming pools are for. At the moment there are no other symptoms to report.

Apart from the tiredness. It's hard to be specific but I get more tired more quickly than I did before the op. For example, this morning we did the grocery shopping and came home and put everything away. A total of 2 1/2 hours all up. Usually I would then get on with it, doing housework, etc. Today I was stuffed. I really needed to sit down and read the paper and do nothing for a few hours because even the idea of hanging out a load of washing seemed too tough. The tiredness is a well documented symptom of post op recovery and I am hoping it will slowly fade over the next few weeks. It's hard to get through a busy working mum's day when your energy levels are reduced by 75%.

Mum went home on Friday after staying with us since I got out of hospital. While I have been able to do most things myself since coming home mum was really my safety net. I felt comfortable knowing she was here in case something went pear shaped. Having her here was nowhere near as difficult as I feared it would be. I'm not saying we didn't have our moments of pissing each other off, that goes without saying really. But overall we both made an effort to get on and even when sparks flew they were generally extinguished pretty quickly. I am grateful to have my mum still around and healthy enough to be an active part of our lives. Any complaints pale into insignificance next to that important fact.

Has

anyone

seen

my

hormones?

(Thanks, for such an apt and hilarious card, Mel!)

I'm back home gentle reader after having my girlie internal bits removed and so far so good.

To rewind a little. The week leading up to the op (i.e. last week) I got myself into a bit of a flap. I had been cruising along, feeling good, or at least very calm, about the upcoming operation. Then I thought I'd do some online research and googled "hysterectomy blog". Well, didn't that open up a bit of a Pandora's Box. I read some good stuff but also some worrying and downright crazy stuff. My anxiety levels grew and grew until on Tuesday night I was a blubbering mess, wondering if I was doing the right thing and scared shitless about the aftermath. The pain, the recovery period and the big unknown of menapause were weighing very heavily on my mind. Gradually I regained a little bit of mental control and by Friday morning I was back to being cool and calm.

Once I was at the hospital early Friday afternoon the feeling was somewhat like being a ball in a pinball machine. I was admitted and then bounced from one nurse to the next, each asking my name, date of birth and procedure. There wasn't much time to get worried by that point. Before I knew it I was in the theatre and watching the machine which goes "PING". One thing I do love about operations is the way aneasthetic works, like the OFF button. Fantastic! A second later I'm groggily waking up, as always experiencing that tiny bud of awe and happines that I had survived and was alive.

I have to comment on the level of nursing care at the Sans (Seventh Day Advenist Hospital at Wahroonga). It is superb. On Friday night as they settled me into my room the lovely nurses were so gentle and compassionate, making sure I was comfortable. [I could never be a nurse, my gut instinct is to tell sick people to "snap out of it".]

I was attached to a pain relief button which I could press whenever I had pain. I was looking forward to using this little gadget but to be honest I only pressed the button a couple of times late on Friday night, after that I simply didn't need it. Waking up on Saturday morning I realised I wasn't in very much pain at all and by lunchtime Saturday I had been un-attached from the pain button and the drip and the catheter. I was truly amazed at that point at how well I was feeling.

By Sunday the boredom was setting in. I was feeling much better than I had been expecting and there I was, trapped in a hospital room with a tv and a stack of magazines and books. I read two books in two days and went through all my magazines. Monday I realised how dire my situation was... day time tv is really not fit for human consumption. The worst part was I was watching all these cooking shows and then facing hospital food at meal time.

Any old how, it's now Thursday morning and I've been home since yesterday morning. I am feeling quite good. There is certainly a little bit of pain/discomfort around my lower tummy area. When I laugh or caugh there is the strange sensation that all my guts are going to fall out (had the same feeling when I had my appendix out 20 years ago). Overall though I am feeling good. My energy levels are good. I could be sleeping better but that's only because I am a side sleeper and currently that's not a comfortable option. Sleeping on my back, which is the only possibility at the moment, just isn't my preferred position so I wake often during the night. However, since I'm doing so little actual physical activity I am not tired.

I am planning on returning to work a week early, i.e. next week. At least for a few hours a couple of days next week. I'm very happy about that as I have been very worried about slipping far behind on my work load. But I'll still be taking it easy for the next couple of weeks.

At this point I feel that I have paid a relatively low pain price for the benefits I have gained: no more periods EVER - woohoo!!!; no more pap smears and no chance of either ovarian or cervical cancer. No more ovarian cysts and/or fibroids.

Hysterectomies RULE!