Golden Showers.

[izmeina]

 I have just tried out my bright shiny new Grandma shower.

I had to use some strange sparkly Snapish pink potion called Chlorhexidine. Definitely NOT hydroxychloriquine.

Let's hope it's the first of many more..
Because $10,000 is a lot to pay for just one shower.

I could spend longer lurking in there playing with the bright shiny new toy because I don't need to spend time having breakfast.

In 15 minutes time I will slink off to the bus stop and after yesterday's trial run, should have no problem landing at the hospital by 6.30am

It's raining all week so no need to worry about watering the weeds.

I've already added to my Duolingo streak for today. The 2 freeze passes should be sufficient to get me to Friday.

It's a silly thing to worry about but it has nostalgia value. When Petunia was in hospital I often used to do Duolingo lessons while waiting for the bus to and from the hospital.

I've decided to dress up in black for the day so I won't look too fat in my casket.

Forked tongue crossed, I won't be needing it just yet.

I'll post later from the other side. I hope.

Comments

[ozfille]

Good luck my dear. If your skin is delicate and you have to use the Chlorhexidine after the op, it can irritate so be careful if you're prone to skin allergies.

Snaky scales

[izmeina]

Well I survived the op. It went on for 5 hours. I have a giant Blubberberg near my belly button so I got the C section instead of the originally planned keyhole job.

I'm very kindly offering the baby bag to pathology for adoption.

I was very surprised to discover that the push button analgesic of choice is Fentanyl. Apparently it has the best balance between speed & side effects.I only needed to use it when I coughed & they took me off it this morning.
Either I'm very lucky or the staff have well & truly mastered the dark art of pain management because I've never felt any pain at all except when coughing.
I guess the true test is what happens back at the Lair.

Everything runs so smoothly here. I was originally supposed to have my op at the decrepit old King Edward hospital. I was so so happy when I landed with FSH instead.
I think it's less than 10 years old and is definitely the flagship model.

There's 24 beds on my floor. Mainly singles. I'm in a double with the window view. The rooms are huge.

I'm already up & about so my neighbour now has competition for the loo. The bed pans are very heavy biodegradable cardboard. I think they get turned into garden mulch. I also noticed the drinking straws are paper based too.

When I think of the US hospital's that charge $50 per aspirin, I shudder to think of th bills. I do know that anyone treated in a WA hospital without a Medicare card - tourists I suppose, they have to pay $2,000 per night. That was 3 years ago when Petunia was wondering what the actual cost would be. Hospitals eat electricity and water, have giant waste bills, employ lots of highly skilled staff and that's before counting all the high tech equipment. I just can't help thinking like a geekish Goblin.

Re: Snaky scales

[ozfille]

Lucky you to get the nice new hospital. It took 5 hours? I'm no longer surprised that the breast reconstruction from my belly fat took 10 hours. It surprised me when they told me how long I was in surgery.

Yes I was surprised that after the operation to fix the hernia (caused by the throwing up after being given oxycontin after the breast reconstruction) they gave me fentanyl for the first 24 hours. Lovely stuff, no throwing up and you don't feel a thing. It then reverted to panadeine and then panadol over the next few days.

When you get home, is a nurse from the hospital going to be visiting you every day to check on the wound drains and to check that you are all right?

[zimena]

You definitely have the most unique writing style of anyone I've ever known on LJ and/or DW. Even when you're posting about things from your life, your posts are so creative and.... sophisticated? It's so cool.

I need to get back into using Duolingo, too. I've been neglecting it for far too long. I'm doing Czech lessons from Czechclass101 regularly at the moment, but Duolingo would definitely be a good supplement to that.

Good luck with the hospital stuff.

The quirky Serpent

[izmeina]

Thanks for that lovely compliment about my strange serpent squiggles

Things are a lot weirder in Dursleyville now that I'm post op in a huge room with a window view on the 7th floor of the state's flagship hospital


I'm doing Dutch, Russian & Spanish on Duo.

People rave about how good it is for learning languages. Especially creatures like me who are sufficiently old enough to remember the ridiculously expensive Linguaphone which isn't half as good as Duo.


I like how you always get to hear the words so you get to know the right pronunciation from the start instead of unlearning a wrong one.


But the real value of Duo is in gamification & habit formation. It's the slow & steady turtle strategy.

Its bite size lessons are perfect for doing while waiting for the bus.Or in the hospital waiting room
Using Duo tricks of breaking habits into tiny pieces and most importantly doing them regularly - plodding not sprinting.
It's an excellent strategy for any new habit.

Nanowrimo comes to mind

[catness]

Good luck once again, and I hope it's going well! Here's to many more showers, Duolingo points, DW posts and other serpent toys.

Showers of points

[izmeina]

I see you have been busy playing with some new witchy toys.

I notice that the latest version of Duo has really upped the gamification aspect. They offer easy points to get you addicted.

I'm talking about the October challenge. First 3 lessons cost 10 gems to play and I easily got the max 40XP. But then suddenly I could only get 10 when the clock runs out. But of course you can keep going by buying an extra minute for a MERE 450 gems.

No self respecting goblin would be caught dead falling for such a dud deal.

I just keep doing the 10 gem basic model in Spanish because Dutch has too much typing.


I had a lucky escape today. The minions were insisting on sending me home this afternoon because I'm making such good progress. But the doc put a stop to it.
It would be ridiculous to expect me to manage a giant box of meds when on my own at home.


He knows I'm a nerd so he brought some pictures from the op.

There was the giant pot bellied python Blubberberg and a pinkish blob that turns out to be my useless uterus.


The op ended up taking 5 hours because they had to do 'C section' instead of Laparoscopic.


I never did get to post about the fascinating Q & A with him last Friday. Especially the answer to my question
How do you get out such a large organ through tiny keyholes?

After hearing the answer I kept my legs crossed all day!


But he seemed genuinely happy to be asked something different than the usual boring stuff about bikini lines and belly blemishes.


I think the fact I used terms like laparoscopic & hyperplasia was a red flag that he's dealing with a geek freak


So he went into more detail than usual about the various risks of surgery and how to mitigate them.

I must say, hospitals and airports are definitely geek paradise.

Being able to stay in the Green Zone ie curious about everything, made the whole thing more of an adventure than a terrifying ordeal.
It certainly helps that the nurses are managing my pain so well that there's barely any at all except when I cough.


There's the beds designed so that pushing a 120kg blobfish looks like a breeze, the push button patient controlled pain killer dispensers, oxygen masks, the online meal ordering system and a squillion other fascinating things.


I rationed myself to max 2 questions per person ( usually the physio, nurses and orderlies)


I've started reading The Witches by Roald Dahl.

It's perfect for the occasion now that I'm definitely a post Menopausal Old Hag.

Re: Showers of points

[catness]

So glad that everything is going well! Thanks for such a detailed update. LOL, those nerds, making everything an educational opportunity :) (Like my dental surgery when I insisted to talk with the doctor in Spanish ;) Yay for the lack of pain! I hope it lasts...

I hate the Duo timed challenges. Tried them a couple of times, but it's too much stress for a slow typist. Grinding Legendaries during 15 mins of double XP (on completing a level) is good enough for me ;)

I'm curious about your opinion on Quareia, but of course, it will have to wait, until you're in a good shape to lurk around the site. I wonder how it looks without the logistics problems (lack of space, lack of privacy, fear of public spaces etc).

Re: Showers of points

[izmeina]

The Dentist. How could I forget?


Mind you, it must be difficult speaking and being understood in your first language when your gums are numb with pain killers and there's a drill in your mouth.


I've been moved to the short stay departure bay since they are sending me home today. With my case notes file conveniently located in a holder on the wall next to my bed, it was like drooling to get a dozen juicy apples in the Garden of Eden.

I didn't just READ them but took pics.
But what is really sad, I actually understand nearly all the technical terms. I did have to look up cystology.
It's from all that Greek & Latin I picked up inadvertently from years of reading geek stuff.

It's funny to see the medically PC way to refer to the Blubberberg near my belly button which was the reason they had to switch to open cut.


They list the names of anaesthetics along with each procedure as if following a recipe.


I was so intrigued by your review of the Q magic site.

I still think that Andrieh Vitimus has the most logical but open minded attitude to magic that I have ever seen.

There is a lot of psychological symbolism lurking in alchemy and astrology so I wouldn't dismiss them out of hand.
The same way JK Rowling's anti Dementia defences & Patronus charm bear an uncanny resemblance to cognitive behavior therapy & even NLP. (Use of emotional & sensory intensity such as sound & colour to dial a memory up or down)

Numerology on the other hand, is a giant red flag.

A lot of magic seems to be about learning to focus attention & doing things instead of wallowing passively.

So that sword thing sounds to me like she has a Ye Olde Witchy Shoppe online)


What people say about Tarot & herbology is also a good way to detect BS.


It was your gorgeous gift of the Baba Fantastic Menagerie deck that turned me into a tarot junkie.

It's still in my top 5. Along with Dark Grimoire & Touchstone

I gave a speech a few weeks ago using tarot cards as a way of generating random questions.

A lot of Toasties were astonished that a logical rational creature would have anything to do with such hocus pocus.