What do these dates have in common???

Tuesday, October 28 at 4 p.m.

Friday, November 7 at 8 a.m.

Friday, November 21 at 8 a.m.

Tuesday, November 25 at 4 p.m.

 

Give up???

 

They are all dates I will be spending 2.5 hours in the dentist's chair.  Gaaaah.

And then, when all that wraps up, December 8th is BELLY BUTTON DAY.

 

They told me I could be in there FOUR NIGHTS.  Not just four days; FOUR BLOODY NIGHTS (oops, I said bloody again).  I hope they're wrong, he said it could possibly be only three.  I hope to heal up as fast as possible, especially because they charge something like $135 a night for the double room.  Plus, being away from the baby... plus, well, I don't want to think about how it's all going to work.  I don't want this to be the end of breastfeeding.  He's not even a year - he won't even be 18 months.  I'm not ready, dammit!!!  >:-o

 

The surgeon was pretty ignorant about the breastfeeding issue, actually.  I asked about possible side-effects of the anaesthesia, and he said, "how long have you been nursing?"  And I said, "well, since birth, really."  He said, "I meant, how old is your baby?"  "Almost a year."  "Well, they only recommend nursing up until a year" - as if it's utterly contraindicated beyond one year.  Who the heck does he think he is.  Luckily for him, he backed off, and kind of implied that it was a personal decision between me and my baby's doctor.  Though I'm sure he would have loved to express tons of opinion on that particular topic... I was relieved he didn't venture too far out of his area of expertise (bellybuttons, of course).

 

The scariest potential side-effect he described is a 1% chance of permanent chronic nerve pain at the incision site.  The question I didn't ask, but wanted to, was - "would most people among the 1% who develop nerve pain consider it less pain or more than the original hernia pain?" 

 

He explained some stuff about their hospital - Shouldice - that I already knew from the book How Doctors Think (which is where I first heard of it).  Many places are doing hernia operations laparoscopically these days, using mesh patches, all kinds of technology - and most are doing it on an outpatient basis - but their failure rates are higher and their recurrence rates are much higher.  Shouldice sews together your own muscle tissue through a regular old incision.  As he described it, it's the same operation they've been doing for fifty years.  And then they keep you in for three days afterwards to force you to get up and moving around.

 

During the three hours I was there this morning, they were constantly ordering patients around via the hospital pager system:  "would all patients who are not having surgery today come to the lunchroom?"  or "report for exercise."  It's like a cross between military school and a country club... and a hospital, of course.

 

Oh - and like I think I said before - he said I have to lose not just eight but fifteen pounds before December 8th, or they won't take me.  I'll think about that tomorrow, because...

 

Supper tonight:

Didn't happen!

Ted made quiches, but then I spent the evening shlepping around buying Ted's gift and ended up feeding the littles on pizza buns, grape juice & fresh air in the children's garden (aka Claire's garden). 

 

No circle time at the garden tonight - claire was too exhausted.

 

And by the time I got home, all I wanted was an Ottawa bagel (only the bagels are under OVH hashgacha - nothing else on the menu!), instant macaroni and iced tea... so that is what I'm having!

 

What a day; what a week.

 

<3 J