I've been without my wedding ring for a whole week, so Bruce smuggled contraband jewelry into my ward. He surprised me and proposed! And I said yes. Love you, Puggle![...]

It was only with the imminent threat of an enema that my bowels quit their strike and returned to work this morning. Yahoo! 

Now, back to more important and more civil matters, the world's best husband!  Last night I was crying about having to cancel our spring cycling trip; we planned to ride bikes across the Netherlands during flower bloom season.  Bruce says, no problem!  We'll just bundle you up and put you in the wheelbarrow and I'll pedal.  [...]

My guest blogger is off tonight, so I get to write my own blog entry.  I think I'll use my time to gloat about how great my husband is.  Bruce is the most amazing, compassionate, thoughtful, selfless person I know.  He is my hero!  [...]

Today Bruce took me through the double doors at the end of my ward and I got to see a whole new corridor! With pictures of bluebells and windows looking over a courtyard garden (which is too cold and wet to visit right now). I feel like the Lewis & Clark of the Churchill Hospital.[...]

Last night Michelle got to move to a new room - her old room was too hot and the grumpy roommate insisted on keeping the windows closed. The bonus is that the new room is private! So much quieter. Unfortunately Michelle's bowel pain is so severe she still didn't get much sleep. "I'm just sad to have left Mary behind with the toxic roommate. "[...]

I never knew how much I could love a "cough pillow"  which I am now jokingly calling my "cocaine packet" because it looks just like what you'd see in a drug bust.  [...]

A few days ago I promised you more details on the surgery... Here they are, as I remember what Dr. Tozzi told us on Friday morning. 

Michelle had a full hysterectomy, and had both ovaries removed. The doctors also took out all the cancerous growths they could find (they looked hard, and think they got them all). The main growth was on the right ovary, which is presumed to be the origin. Locations of the other growths included the left ovary, the outer surface of the bowel, the omentum, and the right diaphragm. The growths were in general easy to remove; in particular they didn't have to do any bowel surgery. They did have to excise a bit of the right diaphragm, which they "patched" (not sure what exactly that means).[...]

My blood work came back with NO sign of a lung infection, which can set in after a long surgery.  I have also had two post op x-rays that show improving cloudiness.  So that is good news I am thankful for. I am coughing up some yuckies, a.k.a. phlegm, but it's not getting worse.  Needing to cough or even just breath deeply but being so guarded by the pain is a vicious cycle.  Trying to push myself a little bit. [...]

Well, I'm not thankful for my new ward mate.  And not I'm not thankful for my swollen knees, from my overnight on a oxycodine drip.  Apparently my body doesn't like opiates.  I wasn't sure the epidural was actually doing anything, but now I know they really do work to lessen the pain.  I miss that creepy needle in my spine!  So I guess that makes me thankful for the one window with a pretty view.  It has the only fresh air in the ward.  [...]

This afternoon was busy -- Michelle had her catheter taken out (so now she's peeing on her own), had the epidural turned off (it will be taken out later tonight), and got oxycodone to replace the epidural for pain (it's intravenous, but she controls how often it releases a dose - so far she hasn't suffered the ill effects she had with morphine three weeks ago). Michelle also went for a scheduled chest X-ray, but she's had only a tiny bit of phlegm and Doctor Kate can't hear any fluid in her lungs. All good signs of progress in recovery from her operation![...]