Life From Within The Coke Bottle

The day started early for me.... I was up before 6 (maybe 5:30? I can't quite remember)... but after taking care of the bio break, I realized what day it was, and I was awake for the duration... "Happy Roxette Day!" said I excitedly to a sleepy Shannon. I'm sure I poked him or bounced on the bed and was all happy and giddy as I could be at just past stoopid o'clock. So, Shannon gets up, and I don my "breakfast pants" and a shirt where we plod down to the restaraunt and have our daily dose of "juuuiiiiiiice" (along with breakfast too.) After breakfast, we went down to the hotel lobby to buy our Stockholm cards which we could use for free transportation on the subway and municipal transit and free admission to museums and attractions. What they didn't tell you was that if you wanted to take the hop on hop off tour bus (which we did) it was not free, but there was a 60kr discount. But anyways, as we were at the desk buying our cards, the featured music of the artist that was playing at Globen that day was to be played... so... I don't remember what Rox song was playing, but I was smiling and humming at the desk, and when the song ended, I was slllooooowwwwly making my way to the door to find out what the next song was before we finally left for the day.
Off to walk to T-Globen and into Stockholm proper. It was a pretty neat subway system. There are bright digital signs on the platform with the times and names of the trains scrolling across. These are easier to read than at the BART, as the print here was a scrolling yellow/orange where as the BART's is red (which I couldn't see, and their voice announcing the trains was very low (on the BART). In the Stockholm subway, the voice is loud and clear being announced to you by a friendly cheerful lady's voice. As long as one looked at the map and counted the stops and minded the colour of the line you were on, it was good and fairly stress free. But talk to me about stress, and I shall share with you the T-centralen. It was their central hub for all of their trains. All the trains from the city and the trains that were going to other cities and towns all across the country met there. It was (for us) a huge and confusing and a tad scary of a place to be. Everyone just tended to flow with where the crowd was going which (hopefully) got you out of the station. After spending a good 15 minutes trying to find a working "hiss" (elevator) to take us "upp" & "ut" (out) our first forrae into downtown Stockholm brought us to a bus stop right across from the Stockholm Tourist Bureau where we were gonna go, but the big blue bus arrived, and we opted to take the city tour instead. In the end, we never did go to the tourist bureau like we had planned. We bought a 3 day pass for the blue bus that would drive us all around the city and bring you to various tour stops where you could get off, explore at your own pace, and get on the next bus that came along. What we did the first day, was to drive the bus along the blue and yellow lines to see where it would take us, and we both decided that we would take the next 2 days to do the hop on, hop off part. Today I had other stuff to do! :)
According to the itinerary we had gotten, we were to meet at Bellingham gate (entrance 7) for 5:30pm as that is where the vip pass holders were to mill around until dinner. So, we get back to the hotel at 4 ish. By this time of the day, it was almost totally dark out, so when we get to our door, it's gone completely dark. So, we get there about 5:10 and wait... and wait. The crowd of vip pass holders gets a little larger. A few fancy schmansy cars drive up, drop off their passengers, limos come and go...all with roxette booming from their stereos. (must've been contest winners maybe). A little teeny part of me was thinking that oooh, maybe P&M would come to this back entrance. But no such luck. Shannon started playing a game while we were waiting. It was the "how many people would go and try the door and pull on it" while they see all of us standing outside. I mean really, come on... do you think we'd be standing out here if the door was open!? Duh! I don't remember the number of people he counted, but it was a cute little time waster while we waited for the door to open.

My first overall impressions of Stockholm thusfar:
The whole country is a huge IKEA showroom! Our hotel is very neat and sparky and shiny... chrome, glass, hardwood and interesting looking furniture. They're really big on the votive candles too they are everywhere at all the cafes and resteraunts...Today will be an interesting day as this is our first real day exploring beyond our hotel and general area.
After shopping in Globen City, (there are quite a few shops there btw!) we had a meal at Globen Star where we discovered chantrells... the most yummy mushrooms made into a soup that I've ever tasted! I'm not sure if they are regional to Sweden but ooh they are good! :) The stores are pretty much what you'd find just about everywhere you go, just keep in mind the language barrier. If you ask a Swede "tallar du engelska?" most will nod yes and then you can go about your exchange. They are very helpful and nice and I will admit that by the end of the trip I was picking up basic phrases and questions without too much problem. The funny thing is that when you greet a Swede, you use the word "Hej" pronounced "Hey" which of course here is a very casual greeting too... so, if they say 'hej' to you, it was very easy to just say 'hej' back and then they start speaking to you in Swedish and well... *grin*.... I learned how to say 'sorry I don't understand Swedish'... and that helped much!
There were only 2 people on the whole trip whom we encountered who didn't speak any English... so all in all good.
On Nov 2, I and Shannon went our seperate ways for the morning. He went in search of a comic shop in Gamlastan (old town) and I went into central Stockholm to meet up with a guy named Johan to discuss this very interesting navagation system they've been working on called e-adept http://www.eadept.se/Templates/Article0.aspx?PageID=618ea136-9f01-4172-b03a-0852776c65c7
i spent the morning with Johan going through the technology and an in house demo. Unfortunately we couldn't go out and test it live as the developers were doing something with the servers and that would have caused an issue trying to receive up to date info from all the appropriate databases. But what I did see was very interesting. It has many different practical applications not just for those who are visually impaired, but for those who have cognative disabilities or those who might have difficulty reading or something. It's a little different than google maps or the maps on your iphone etc... the digitized maps are only available on a nokia phone at the moment, but in time that might change to have the service available to BB, Android and iphone.
Our Globen hotel had as a part of their service, free wi fi and free continental breakfast. Free wi fi was the original game winner and I thought that breakfast would be just an added bonus. Based on my past experiences on what continental breakfast was, I thought oh, a toaster, some bagels, toast and maybe some juice... since we were on the same floor as the restaurant we'd give it a go one morning.... colour me surprised when I found that yes, there was bread, and toast, but also, scrambled eggs, soft boiled eggs, Swedish pancakes, sausages, beans, cheese, coldcuts, fish, vegetables, cereal, yogurt, smoothies, juice, tea, coffee, strudel and cinnamon rolls.... EVERY MORNING!! Both Shannon and I had our favorites... I usually had, buns, 2 soft boiled eggs, some bacon, coffee, juice and strudel.... oh it was so yummy!! The running joke for the day was to wake up to get there for 6:30 to get there for "juuuuiiiiiiice" cuz the exotic juice that tastes just like 5 alive was what we were there for. :) You had to get there early as if you came after 8am, the room was full and there was nowhere to sit.
As far as Nov 2 goes, the only thing I can really remember about what we did that day after our seperate outings, I think we just tootled around Globen city shops looking at the stores. Whilst sitting at a cafe or a resteraunt, it was fun to find out if we had free wifi... We were granted access to the homerun network there to which we had to enter a username/pw everyday as the cards we had only lasted 24 hours. It's a far reaching network for sure. We were in central stockholm accessing the network so it was kinda neat to check in and update my fb status when standing in the middle of Kulturehusset.
There was one afternoon where Shannon was tired and he took an afternoon nap... so, I went out by myself and walked along globen city square to find out what was there. There was one big place there called "Hovet" that we kept passing, which I never did go into... I dunno why, but I always thought of it being a 'hospital' or something. (but now that i've googled it) Hovet is the ice hokey arena. Well no wonder there was a crowd around it! :) So, I walked as far to the end of the square as I could, and just as I get to the end by the 2nd train station, what do I find? A Subway restaraunt! I coulnd't not just pass it by... I had to go and get me a roasted chicken sandwich. So, after asking if the employee spoke english (which she did), I got me a footlong with all my prefered fixings with this oh my god... this.... garlic sauce Vidloksdressing they call it... Oh YUMMY!!! Needless to say, I had to take Shannon back there. So, during the week, I had 3 yawbusses with that marvelous vidloksdressing! :)

The day of binary :) Happy New Year everyone. Hope that your holidays were filled with fun, happiness, and good times with friends and family. Just thought I'd take a second to update my journal since I haven't done so for a few weeks... so I've done just that. I'm gonna go and figure out to see why we can't seem to stream from the imac to the ps3... but from looking at the forums on the subject, seems as though I'm not alone and a lot of people seem to be having the same isssues! So.... that's that for now! Take care and we'll chat soon!!
xoxoxox

Well Geez, I haven't updaed my journal for a long looong time.... What to say... really? I'm a boring person. Just working and living day by day I guess. Work is work, and I hope and pray that Shannon finds something soon. 1 income and Torin's semi reliable rent are not enough to keep things going... and to be honest, It's a tad stressfull... but as it goes... for better, worse, sickness, health, richer, poorer etc etc... I gotta stick by my honey because if I was in the same situation, I know he'd do the same for me....
It's winter time and of course with that, brings snow. And the city plows that plow the snow up to the sidewalk... which makes it incredibly difficult to get into a waiting vehicle. When I phoned to ask the city for help to remove the snow that *they* plowed in front of my sidewalk, they told me that they would not remove the snow as i had access to the street from the alley and that I also didn't have a handicapped sign in front of my house. So, I've since escilated this issue to our Alderman. Dunno what's gonna happen (if anything)... it's kinda frustrating since I feel like a small fish in a big pond. The 311 rep was like, 'Oh I can send another service request to the city, but it's doubtfull that they'll even do anything'.... Well gee thanks a lot dorks! So, again, I don't know what if anything will happen with this whole deal.
I guess I can just wait and see on that one.
What else... Uhm... Christmas will be with Tammy and her CRU. I really didn't wanna spend Christmas just me and Shannon so we are glomming on to her celebrations so that's nice. Mum and Dad were already here for their early Christmas and we spent a surprisingly enjoyable evening together. There was laughing and joking and smiles and well yeah, it was nice. :) I had a weird feeling that I should have taken a picture of the event so, Shannon did the honours.
Found out there is a medical clinic inside Sunridge Mall. It's tucked away so it's a secret little place where not too many people know about. I was in and out of the walk in clinic in less than 20 minutes way cool! The doc though is not taking new patients though. I pulled my achilies heel last week and holy crap that hurt. Took me off my feet for a day but the pain killers are sure nice. I haven't had any body aches for almost a week now... twinges here and there, but no body aches. :)
TV is quiet now over the Christmas break, however I am watching Coronation Street and this past week marked their 50th Anniversary. Something happens to change the street in a big way and people are still buzzing about it. A lot of Canadians I know are torrenting it and are aware of what's going on also.... but still I'm not going to spoil. I just sat there today and was like "Holy shit!" when it happened. I was riveted to the tv and even Shannon who never watches, was watching with me. He says he likes the exciting stuff though. Also watched "Burried" and "The Social Network".... the first one... *yawn*... guess they didn't have to have a big set budget or anything... all the supporting actors and actresses litereally phoned their lines in....All in all, it was some time that I won't get back ;) I was kinda expecting a bit more like the guy finally making out of the box and looking for the fuckers who put him in there! But sadly no.... "The Social Network" was good. I would compare it to this generations "The Pirates of Silicon Valley". You know, one computer guy screwing another guy out of this or that... blah. But now I have the hiccups and I think I am gonna go to bed and sleep for a few hours. Hopefully Suzie will come over with a screw gun so Torin can put together my desk... and then I can start moving stuff into the other room... Yay!! So on that hiccupy note... I'm off... See you later and thanks for reading!!

Have you ever been woken up out of a dead sleep by someone urgently *pounding* on your door? Well that happened to me this morning at 4:58!!! The realization of 'what the fuck?' and all these questions.... did I hear that?? Yeah, but they'll go away... then the doorbell rings and I think, what day is it? Is Access Calgary here? Did I sleep in for my pickup? But no, the pounding gets louder and the doorbell rings again.... Oh crap! Sounds important. Who? What? OMG something's happened to "someone" and "someone" is out there to get my attention. Who in the family could it be? Oh geez, maybe it's Darlene is she ok? oh Crap!.... so I fly outta bed as best as i can fly and realize that I'm naked and have no friggin' clue where my clothes are. Meanwhile pounder is still going at it on the door so I scramble to find a towel big enough to cover my fat ass and go to the door yelling "who is it!?" as I'm not opening the door until I hear a voice I recognize.
"Is that your red car out front?" yells the voice? "No!" say I through the door. "we'll have to get it towed cuz we're moving some buildings down the street!" "Well check with the duplex next door or the house across the street it's not ours!" And off he goes to pound on the neighbour's door. In the space of 15 minutes it was all over as I stood looking out the kitchen window to see these huge trucks slowly inching by and carrying two buildngs. Seen that kinda thing on Monster Machines where they moved this whole house all the way across Washington state, onto a barge to rest on it's final island destination. They did this in the middle of the night and it was quite an ordeal. I know they're on a schedule to get the move done by a certain time when busses and other people are ready to start their respective days.... but HOLY CRAP what a way to disrupt one's morning!! *deep breath*... :P~~~
All those thoughts come zooming through my head the first 30 seconds and of course the adreneline is pumping cuz you don't know what to think. It could be anything... and now I'm having a bitch of a time trying to come down from it. I should try going back to bed. It's been an hour since the trucks have gone by... but here I sit, still wired. It was neat to watch the whole spectacle but fuck now I'm all stoopid in the head and I dunno how long it's gonna take to come down.... ok... deep breath... and some more.... stupid fuckin' dumbass who didn't care to read the "NO PARKING" signs posted all along both sides of the street. The guy's car did not get towed. I was really hoping that the buildings would have been a tight squeeze and the car would have been scratched or something. :P~ serves him right for parking his stupid ass red car there! But it didn't so blah!
Oh well.... now I'm gonna have a tea, and try and come down from the nonsense. None of the boys stirred. Torin was out, Marshall didn't peep, and Shannon merely grunted and barely asked what was going on before rolling over and going back to sleep..... men! You goombas!! So... have a nice day y'all!! I think I am going to stay up now from my 3 hour 'nap' and see if I can't get myself back onto a regular schedule. I am back to work next monday, and my sleeping pattern has been for shit for the past month. So, this might help to get me back on the road to recovery or what might be a 'normal' schedule.
ta ta for now kiddies. Maybe I'll watch some more old cheesey epps of the six million dollar man... hee! Another lj entery all on it's own!!

Went to see Splice with Shannon tonite. It was a literal coin toss between that and The A Team and the only reason we didn't go see Murdock and the boyz is cuz it lost the coin toss... so I'm sure that we'll see that one too at some point.
The movie was pretty good. Brings some many questions to mind though. There was the whole moral issues of the splicers who used the genetic material 'just to see if they could' do whatever it was they were trying to do... and yeah, they did, otherwise there wouldn't have been a move. I wonder if this was based on a book or not... I'd be interested to dwelve (is that the right? word?) into the story a bit more. The whole evolution of 'Dren' quite fascinated me so I wouldn't mind exploring it more. There was one part where the being was able to change sex from male to female and back again I'm thinking in order to prolong the survival of the species etc... like the whole concept of the frog DNA the scientists used to create the dinosaurs for Jurassic Park and that's why they were able to breed. None the less, it was a pretty good flick and there was room for a sequal if it goes well.... so yeah.... I'm not as good as Shannon to describe these things in an elliquant plot synopsis etc... but the bottom line, was I liked it and I'll perhaps go look and see if there was a book this movie was based on.... after I finish my game of Lexiulus with my hunny. So, I'll catch y'all later doods!! :)

Oh My....Lord!! What I wouldn't do to have a normal crap!!! This being constipated is for the birds man!! I'm sure you've all experienced it... you know when you push and push and push and it feels like you're giving birth to a baby hippo and all that comes out is a little kernel! AAACCKK!! I don't need to exercise, I just have to sit in the bathroom and wait for the teeny tinys to come out... Bah! Sorry for the TMI but .... blah!!
I'm complaining about shit... literally! So I must be feeling somewhat better :) So, now that you've had your chuckle, remember to eat your fiber or bran or whatever... having a pain free poop makes you a happy person!! :P~~

When I finally left recovery room it was somewhere around 2 in the afternoon... Dorothy actually beat me there so I was the new room mate for her to start with. This starts the boring part of the hospital stay. My iphone was my sole sense of entertainment unless I had people to come visit. (Thanks Joleen and Shauna!) and of course my hunnybunny. I know that it was harder for TGG to come w/ handi bus and crap... and others who shall remain nameless really should be careful of what you say... don't text me that you're tired and low in energy and then a couple hours later post on facebook that you had lots of fun at Shakers playing games. grrrr. I really shouldn't expect too much from some people... sorry I did. Dunno if I should call them on it. Really, life's too short for stuff like that so.... meh.
This stuff is the more boring part of things. The only points I can recall of note is that on Friday night, I had a bit of a panic attack/pain thingie but a couple perkaset later, and sleep came again... nice happy sleep until the lovely nurses come by to wake you up to take your vitals and temp and bp and pain meds and blablabla...yet they are the ones who tell you that sleep will help you heal.... so, how can I sleep if you wake me up every 2 hours to check my vitals! sheesh! Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the nurses are doing what they are doing.... but way to contradict your first instructions!! :P~~
Dorothy actually left on Friday but I wasn't able to do so until the concerns with my lungs had been fully addressed. The 'sats' for my lungs would have to be consistantly above 90% while on room air and no oxygen assistance before they would even consider letting me go home. I'll tell ya, the wait for the radiology dept. to read the xrays sure seemed like a loooong one to me.
To make a long story not so long, after the chest x-rays and visits from physio, I fought my case to leave and got discharged on Sunday night.... Yay! It was just in time for me to come home to the "lost" series finale, but I was pretty whacked when I got home....
Now nine days post op, I'm still having a bit of a pitty party for myself. I can walk around the house happily enough with some labour. It hurts to laugh, and cough and cry and sneeze. I can't sit in the comfy couch for very long it's still rather uncomfortable as I'm sitting a little low. I have to use an insentive spirometer for my lungs ever hour. I get to puff into a litle thing to keep the ball up in the air to measure my lungs tidal volume. Still is uncomfortable to take a deep breath, but hey, I've come a long way since last week, when I was freaking out about not being able to breathe and that I might stop doing so at night... so that got me into somewhat of a fluster which has passed for the moment.
So, as things go, I guess I'll have to take things one day at a time. Millions of other women have had this done before so I'll handle it. When I saw Dr. Steed that first day, he had said something to the effect of that he had done three different hysterectimy procedures last thursday. Mine was the most 'difficult' case but from the three of the ladies that he operated on, I so far was the one that was recovering the best. So yay for me!
Thanks for taking the time to read along. I think in "Patsy standard time" it's still 5:15 am and my whole pattern and schedule are still wackadoodle. I'll have a few more weeks to recover and then be able to get back onto some sorta schedule.
Take care and love to you all....xoxoxox

So yeah, I think that the whole "i thought that Shannon wasn't coming" thing was where we left off... He did stay for about an hour and a half, cuz then Shelly kicked him out cuz she wanted to give me a bath. That was done and done. I actually did mannage to stand at the side of my bed for five mins with minimal pain. Bedtime that evening again was still in the recovery room. Me and three other patients that night all got to share a room that holds maybe 30 beds. While you're in recovery, they check your vital signs every half hour and administer pain meds every hour or as needed. It was pretty good, cuz all I did there really was lie there and drift in and out of sleep. That night, i had a painful sleep but mister iv with morphine is a very nice friend!... one injection and *poof* off to sleep I was. I remember telling the nite nurse that oh, my neck hurts and my back was a little sore. She rolled me over onto my side, gave me the morphine, and massaged my neck and back. Oh it was sooooo wonderful. Made me feel like I was almost at home with my hunny rubbing my back before bed... and off to dreamy land I drifted. I mannaged to sleep for at least six hours as the next thing I remember was my morning nurse M.T. introducing herself and just reaching over and lifing up my blankets and checking the surgery sites and yes, giving me another needle. She was pretty good about it tho, very direct and to the point (sorry the punn was intended)
After the pleasantries of that were over, she made me get outta bed and stand at the side of my bed whist she checked that all my tubes and wires were still where they needed to be. As I was being the next inductee into the borg collective, a lady came to me smelling of the yummiest coconut something something.... it was Ingrid. She assisted Dr. Steed with the surgery and was comming to see how i was doing... so... up went the gown again to check dressings and tubes and wires and stuff. As she was talking to me and poking, Dr. Wong came hovering by and with a very defensive tone in her voice, says to Ingrid... and you are... who.... a friend? or.... No says she. I'm Dr. Steed's resident blablabla.... it was amusing seeing the two of them all cat fighty over me... hee hee. So after they did their assessments they left and i was now just awaiting my departure from the recovery room to go to unit 42.... the time now was aprox 8am and my first food since wednesday evening was about to be left for me....
The reputation of hospital food really is kinda yucky.... all the diets depending on what you've had done are so very bland and well.... icky! They try, they really do.... but I guess it's just as good as airplane food (unless you're on Oceanic flight 815 from Sydney to LA.....)
On my tray was a bowl of what they called cream of wheat (it actually had an asterix behind it's name on the menu card).... which was well, this white goo....
a cup of tea a yummy strawberry vanila yogurt and a vanilla 'ensure' drink. So by this time I'm done brekkie and i'm allowed out of bed but only to sit in a nice comfy chair with all my tubes and wires. I'd say it was around 9 or 10 am.... and here is where I sat (or alternately lay) until my departure to unit 42.
Now to comment on the staff in the recovery room.... I have NOTHING but total respect and appriciation for what those folks in there do. I heard a lot of people being wheeled in and out of there... some were straightforward cases like someone who had fallen, had their knee broken and replaced. So they were in and out in an hour or so... others like me who had the more complicated things happen were given such professional and swift care for whatever had happened as a result of their operations.
One lady came out of her sleep and tried bolting up straight outta the bed cuz she had forgotten where she was and was very disoriented. They had her in soft restraints and she was screaming and yelling all the while as she couldn't understand why she was where she was.... her husband came in to see her and it was like a light clicked on and "oh yeah i know what's goin' on" kinda thing and she calmed right down.
There was another person who had her shoulder joints put back into place, someone who had a (sounded like a very painful) sinus surgery had packing in his nose. Oddly enough, the lady who was my first room mate on the ward... .i mean unit.... her name is Dorothy, she also had a hysterectimy she was across the room from me in recovery that same morning. Small world. :)
Oh yeah, I digress.... but what I wanted to comment on was the fact that these people in recovery are trained to handle so many different situations and seem to handle them all so well. When next I am able to have a drink I will certainly raise a glass to the fine men and women that were on the recovery room floor. You took such good care of me, and I owe you my life... so... thank you.....

When next we return to the PLC, we will resume with more fun at recovery..... g'nite all for now.... xoxoxo