Back to the grind...

Well, i've returned to work. This is surprisingly exciting considering the fact that I don't enjoy my job all that much. Its just nice to be back out in the world.

I'm going to stop posting updates on my recovery status now. I'm not back to 100%, but i'm far enough along that you can go ahead and assum i'm alright. In the future, look for only happy updates about mine and bobby's wild adventures and the crazy things british people say/do.

Once again, thanks for all of the love and support!!!

A Big Day for Laura

Yesterday, two big things happened.  First of all, I walked to the grocery store, completed my shopping, and walked home (doing some street-market shopping along the way) and only had to sit down once!  This is huge considering a week ago I couldn't make it to the corner shop without taking about 5 breaks to sit down.  I can't carry the groceries, so bobby still has to accompany me everywhere, but its a start!

More amazingly, however, is the fact that we went to the grocery store to buy items for a ...*dramatic pause*.... SALAD!  This may not seem like a big deal to you, but I have been unable to eat raw vegetables for nearly 3 years, and have missed them horribly.  Technically, i'm still not supposed to be eating raw vegetables, but they don't do me any actual harm and since I now have control over my bodily functions I figure its ok to bend the rules every once in awhile.

Here's a picture for your enjoyment.  I ate about half of that salad and had a nasty stomach ache afterwards (my stomach is used to only protein and carbs), but it was worth it!!!

Laura Update

Many people have been asking for an update on my post-surgery progress, sorry I haven't been blogging more often, but the truth is that there's not much to say.

I actually don't feel like i've made much progress since i've gotten home.  I'm still AMAZINGLY tired all the time.  Its hard for me to stand or walk for longer than about 2 minutes.  I'm making progress on small things: for example, I can now get out of bed and off the couch by myself, even when i'm laying down completely (something I couldn't do when I got home from the hospital), also, I sleep less which I think might be a good sign.  

We actually had a little scare last weekend when my wound decided to spontaneously burst open.  Thankfully, bobby was home, because I just went into a state of complete shock.  I think I said "oopsie" and then just stood there while stuff started flowing out of me.  Bobby called 999 (aka 911) and after a quick trip by ambulance to the ER, I was all bandaged up and back home in about an hour.  It turns out that this actually happens quite often (according to the ER surgeon) and isn't a big deal.  And now, a nurse comes to my house every other day to change the bandages and clean the wound!!  Gotta love that socialized healthcare.  I do have to say however, and bobby agrees, that this was the single scariest experience of my life.   

So, that whole incident set me back a bit (i'm in more pain now than I was before while my wound re-heals) but hopefully this week will bring me more forward progress. 

I know its normal to have good days and bad days, and I know that recovery is a slow process, but I have to say that i'm getting very frustrated.  I'm so ready to just be healthy and "normal" (as normal as I can be now) and get back into the world, and its hard to just sit here all day doing nothing.  Luckily, my body is forcing me to take it slow since it's physically impossible for me to leave the flat!

If you have any good ideas for wasting hours every day, let me know!  DVDs are getting boring, as is reading and i'm avoiding doing the work that my boss sent me!

Pretty New Blog Background

Did you know that you can download cool backgrounds for blogger off of the internet?  You probably did, but I didn't!  I hope you enjoy the very london-y template I just installed (with bobby's help- I got stuck on something called "widget formatting")

I'm home!!

Hi everyone!

It's a few days later than we had hoped, but i'm finally home from the hospital!  I'm feeling amazingly well considering what my body has been through in the last 2 weeks.  

Thanks for all the well wishes, cards, presents, and everyone who participated in the Wellness Brigade!!!!  I can't even begin to describe how much these meant to me.  I'll continue to look at them all over the next few weeks while i'm home finishing my recovery. 

I still have a long road ahead of me, but for the first time in nearly 3 years i'm not in pain or worrying about going to the bathroom- and that is an AMAZING feeling.  

Thanks again for all of your support- and especially to Bobby and my parents, without who's help I never would have been able to get through all of this.  Even at 25, having them sit by my bed while I slept was amazingly comforting.   

Snowday!

Wow... we've just had the biggest snowfall in London in the past 18 years. I woke up this morning, ready to take the tube to the train station, then a train to the client's office... except the entire city was shutdown. The trains that were running were doing so very slowly, and the entire bus network was closed due to the fluffy white stuff all over the roads.

The view outside of the flat.

"Luckily" I was able to work from home today, and managed to trudge through the cold in my wellies to see Laura in the hospital this afternoon.

Also, I watched a group of electricians take a 10 minute snowball fight break while repairing the exterior lights across from the flat. Obviously they didn't get enough snow when they were a kid (and they were all rubbish at making snowballs).

Hopefully it doesn't freeze over tonight, but we've got a stocked fridge and pantry, so I think we'll survive.

(I was up early anyway, so I snapped a few pictures.)

Update - Close to the finish line

Laura has been doing so well the past week. There were some minor issues, but she's taken it all day by day and is ready to get out of hospital and begin her recovery at home.

We're hoping that she'll be coming home on Monday or Tuesday.

I want to give a HUGE thank you to Laura's parents for coming out during the difficult past two weeks. They have been an enormous help, not only being there for Laura, but also helping me not go completely crazy while all of this has been going on.

Hopefully we'll have a final "Laura is out of hospital and watching Futurama episodes on the laptop in her own bed" post coming up in the next day or two.