Wow, it’s been quite a while since I have said anything.  I guess anyone who knows me, knows I had been sick for quite a while, that no one could pinpoint what it was.  I even went to the hospital emergency room several times for help figuring out what was so wrong with me – I kept getting sick and having sharp pains every time I ate and so on.  My mom had reminded me that a few years ago – maybe a good 8 years ago I found out that I had stones in my gall bladder – which I had completely forgotten about.  And they said to wait until I had attacks before doing the surgery much to my former family physican’s disappointment – he wanted me to do surgery right away.  Anyway, I couldn’t really pinpoint what the problem was originally, and then I surprisingly threw up one day out of the blue.  I didn’t feel nauseous, I just went and threw my breakfast up immediately and when my mom reminded me I had gall bladder stones, I looked it up, and it said to go to the ER if I ever threw up.  It could be blockages and so on, and when you throw up go to the ER right away because it usually means I need immediate surgery.  Well, I went in on a holiday to the ER and it was pretty dead, and asked them to check me out.  Unfortunately the ultrasound person wasn’t available then, as it was a holiday, so he had the day off.  I had no idea that people had days off in the ER on holidays so I was like, gee, great. So I had to wait for an appointment, and the appointment was for three months later, in August.  I didn’t think that was right, but I didn’t really have a choice.

I personally hate going to the ER in Brockville – the wait times are always so freakin’ long.  Some times it’s all right, it can be quick, but other times…oh my God!  Steve really, really hates it there, so we try to avoid it if we can.  I do have a doctor but the ER usually finds out stuff fast, so that’s why I went there.  But they were useless.  They did say that if I had another throwing up attack, to come in the ER again, but to try to avoid any red meat and extremely high fat food in the meantime (chips, candy, red meat, etcetera).  Anyway, when I finally went in for my appointment for my ultrasound, three months after the fact.  They said that they saw that the stones were in a bad position (one stone was moving through the tube to the liver) and that I did actually need surgery.  I did see my family doctor and all that but she said the same thing, to go to the ER if I had another attack, but would call to have a gall bladder specialist to contact me, but it usually took months before they would see me.  So gah!  LOL…anyway, I was sent to get prepared for emergency surgery and so I was given a hospital room to rest in, and was given a whole load of painkillers – you know, it’s gall bladder stones, they are painful.  But I have had it for ages, and it usually is fine until I eat. That’s when I hurt.  So I was just high on painkillers for a while.  Exciting times.  Anyway, so because it was emergency surgery, the surgeon had to find empty slots where he could do the surgery and so on.  My mom came down to Brockville from Kingston to help relieve Steve from staying with me all the time – I’m deaf so I usually need someone there to tell me what the doctors and nurses have to say and so on.  I was put in a room by myself, it was normally a room where I would be paired with someone else in it too but I got lucky and was put in by myself at first.  Anyway, the wait time took an extremely long time – I think I was in hospitals for two weeks total before I finally had my surgery.  Yikes!  The nurses did say they recommended I stay, so they will take me in faster, instead of staying at home and waiting for a call for surgery, so they would be more likely to do me quicker and send me home quicker.

Then another complication came up.  The surgeon in Brockville was saying that because I have a pacemaker, and they need to use electronics to cut my gall bladder out (it had to be removed completely), and as a result I needed to have my pacemaker turned off.  There is no pacemaker clinic in Brockville, I usually go to Kingston to go to my appointments for my pacemaker.  They have a hospital and clinic there for people with pacemakers.  So…the surgeon said it was no big deal, all they had to do was put a magnet on top of it and then take it off when the surgery was done.  It shouldn’t be a big deal, so I was like, okay… then the head of the department came to see me and discuss what he thought I should do.  He recommended that I go have the surgery done in Kingston as they would bring pacemaker specialists in the surgery room. They can turn it off, and turn it back on without any issues as they have all the equipment there.  Brockville doesn’t quite have them all, though they do know what to do, but the head of the department gave us the advice to do it in Kingston, even though he knew the surgeon in Brockville wouldn’t be too happy. LOL!  It makes sense – Kingston does have more specialists there than Brockville does so if anything goes wrong, they would be there to fix it immediately, and so on.  So I decided to do the surgery in Kingston – much to my mom’s relief, then she could go home to take a shower and clean up and so on, instead of using the hospital showers. LOL!  Funny.  Steve was all, ugh.  LOL!  Oh well.  So the hospital transported me to Kingston General the day after I spoke to the head of the department.

I was personally glad.  You know I was put in a room by myself in Brockville and a day or two before I was transferred, someone got put in the room I was in.  They woke up my mom at like 3 in the morning when they moved the person in.  And as a result woke me too, there was all those lights, all those people running in and out of the room, and jeez, the smell.  I think the smell woke me before the lights and commotion did.  Oh my God, it was horrible.  The smell… 🙁  It smelled like poo and just, soooo strong that it made me sick. Ugh!  They were running around and all that preparing the lady to rest and find out what was wrong with her.  She did come from the ER.  But the smell… holy god.  She ended up having a catheter stuck in her – she was supposed to have it replaced regularly and it was stuck in her as it was in her for way too long.  But UGH…It was horrible.  It was a horrible night – I and my mom were unable to sleep for a long, long time.

I think they transferred me to a single room soon after that, so that was good.  Then when it was time to transfer to Kingston, an ambulance took me there, and I ended up in a room with another person, so that was okay.  Kingston is usually pretty busy so I’m okay with that.  But at least I got a window this time. 🙂  It took a few days again before I was able to go in for surgery.  It was a lot quicker than in Brockville. I was exhausted by the time we got to Kingston. LOL!  Too much painkillers and bed rest. Ouch… I tried going for walks and stuff but still, ouch… my back. Too much lying around and discomfort, and all the sick people around me. LOL!  At least the room I ended up in in Kingston had roommates who needed surgery like myself so they weren’t too bad.  The lady I ended up with also had gall bladder issues that she needed surgery for.  So it was okay, she was just a heavy smoker and went in and out of the room a lot. What can you do?  Then, finally, I was able to get the surgery done.  It’s funny, because when I was growing up, they were saying that having surgery would be hard on my heart, because of me having to be put under.  It’s too much undue stress on my heart, but I had to.  It was a gall bladder attack!  I also already had surgery earlier in the year for my pacemaker replacement – I think it was around April (around my mom’s birthday) or so that I had it replaced.  They had to call me several times before Steve finally listened to the messages and I missed a bunch of appointments, and my pacemaker battery was literally nearly done.  So when they finally got me in, they checked and said, I needed surgery ASAP, so I did have one.  Exciting times.  It was fast and easy, though the surgery room I ended up in was awkward in the bed. Different type of bed for surgery, and it was awkward.  I had to be put under for that one because I had to have new wires put in my veins, so I was put out of it for the first time in years.  The other replacement surgeries I usually am awake for, as they only need to take out the pacemaker box and put in new ones.  This time I had to have new wires put through my veins so I needed to be put out for that.  I was a bit nervous about that, but it turned out okay.  Then there was the gall bladder attack, and I had to be put under again so it wasn’t so much fun – two surgeries in a year.  Poor Steve!  LOL!  He’s had to come with me to both of them and explain what was going on and so on.

The gall bladder one was pretty simple, though it weirded me out that I had a missing gall bladder afterwards, and it took a while before I was able to eat normally and comfortably.  But as of now, as it’s been nearly two months now since the surgery, I’m finally back to normal, and there’s no more hassle with eating and so on.  It just took so long before I was finally able to. Yikes!  But it was a relief when it was done.  The whole summer I was sick so much that Steve wasn’t able to do a lot around the house, working around it and so on.  I wasn’t able to paint the closet doors and so on, so it could be put up.  After I recovered and healed, I was able to do a bit more.  It was hard, because after the pacemaker surgery I had to rest for 6 weeks.  Then after I had the gall bladder surgery, and after that I also had to rest for 6 weeks again.  It was ridiculous how much time I had to sit back and do nothing for.

I tried doing stuff with Steve, as his favourite season is summer, where he can do more.  Swim, enjoy the heat, and so on.  He’s not a winter fan, but neither am I.  So we tried to do some things, as he loves to hike too.  I have gone hiking over Thanksgiving weekend, so that wasn’t too bad.  It took me a bit of time to get used to hiking and exercising again.

I have two cats, and the youngest was having issues for some reason.  She got sick earlier in the year and I didn’t understand why.  She’s not exactly the most affectionate cat, or the most friendly, but she is Steve’s cat.  I usually watch over her along with the other cat who I found out to be 14 years old.  Wow… that’s an old cat. I can’t believe she’s still going with all the stuff that’s wrong with her, but Violet has not been a problematic cat since I got her.  All she has problems with is her teeth and hairballs (she’s a long haired cat).  But otherwise she’s a pretty good cat, pretty active and a pretty affectionate cat with me.  She’s not a huge fan of males though, never has been. LOL!  Purrsworth is a bit of a moody cat, sometimes she’ll be okay with people, others she’d avoid like the plague.  She’s in love with Steve.  I usually like to pet cats until I’m tired.  Purrsworth doesn’t like being pet more than once, otherwise she’ll attack and growl and hiss at you.  She loves to be played with like a dog, which is a pain (like playing fetch, chasing strings, mice, etc).  Anyway, Purrsworth is around 4 now, and she was suddenly having issues – she was throwing up constantly – I wasn’t sure if it was Violet or Purrsworth as Violet has a tendency to throw up hairballs sometimes.  But I was just surprised at how much throw up there was.  All in the basement or some in the living room.  It was shocking. But I had no idea who it was from, and then one morning I got up and was amazed at a huge puddle of pee in the kitchen. I was like, holy crap!  Did a big animal come in or did Steve pee in the kitchen?  I was like, jeez… then Steve and I noticed that Purrsworth was even more cranky and needy and sounded like she was in pain all the time when she used the litter so we figured it was her.  So we took her to the emergency vet to see what was up with her.  It turned out that she had this mysterious urinary disease that vets are still trying to figure out.  She was given some medicine, and we had to start feeding her urinary wet food and some urinary dry food, and see what she prefers.  Most cats with this disease prefer the wet, so I was like, jeez.  It was an expensive check up with Purrsworth.  They thought she had an infection at first, then noticed that she had more.  So we had to change her diet and gradually she got better, stopped throwing up and peeing everywhere.  What happens with cats with this disease is that their bladder grows cysts along the lining and gets painful and feels like infections, pressure, and pain, so she needed to eat special food so she wouldn’t get her bladder all aggravated.  And I had to start putting litter boxes on every floor of the house, so that whenever she needed to pee there was a litter box available.  I have two cats, so if one was using the litter and she needed to pee and she couldn’t, so her bladder would explode on the floor instead of the litter.  So that’s why I needed to get another set of litter boxes.  It was really adding up on costs, so it was ridiculous. LOL!  But once I added litter boxes, she was better at maintaining her need to pee in the litter box instead of the floors, and there was one near her food, because the wet food she has helps her pee easier so she can use the litter right away when she needed it and go back and forth to her food and the litter.  It’s so weird, but she’s finally doing better.  It’s just odd that she has issues with her digestion, and I did too with my gall bladder, so it was like, what’s going on?  LOL!

It has been a bad year for health for all the living creatures in this house, for sure!  Oh well, hopefully things stay well.  Steve’s birthday in August I ended up doing not much, as I had the surgery a few days before his birthday and finally came home two days after, on a Wednesday.  His birthday was on Saturday so I wasn’t really up to moving around much and doing much for his birthday.  We were supposed to go camping for his birthday but Steve had to cancel it, because of the craziness with the surgery. LOL!  So we just stayed home for his birthday and relaxed.  His birthday present, he said, was to have me home. Funny, funny.  September was pretty quiet – there was the Tall Ships thing, and my friend Christine from Ottawa came down to check out the Tall Ships, and Steve and I were supposed to meet up with Christine and her husband Cris there at Tall Ships, but Steve had a bad migraine from the changing seasons, so they came over to our house afterwards and hung out.  We caught up, and Cris and Steve got to meet for the first time, I think they hadn’t met yet.  Pretty crazy.  They had very similar personalities so that worked out well. 🙂  They were planning on camping out that night, and I offered them the spare bedroom to sleep in before they had to leave in the morning, so they stayed the night and I actually got to catch up with Christine, so that was good.  The next day Steve and I went to Tall Ships Festival and it was pretty good.

Thanksgiving this year was interesting.  My mom usually has Thanksgiving at her place, but she was getting pretty exhausted, as she was working 6 days a week and her doctors told her she needed to lighten up her work load, so she could heal up her hip.  She was getting probably too old to be working that much.  Now that she’s back to working 5 days a week it’s been better for her.  But she decided not to have Thanksgiving, making a huge meal, this year and relax, and recuperate.  So Steve and I stayed home and had Thanksgiving at home, and Ken, Steve’s dad was coming to work on putting up the gutters for the house, so we invited him to have Thanksgiving dinner with us, early, on a Thursday.  Steve had the time off, so I had to do an early Thanksgiving dinner.  All good, the turkey was an already stuffed one, and it turned out pretty good.  Surprisingly enough.  I was pooped too from the crazy year, so I didn’t really want to do a bunch of cooking and stuff like that.  🙂  So an already stuffed turkey, and I just had to make potatoes and veggies which was pretty good.  We had some pumpkin pie, which was of course, always good.

The next weekend was my birthday, this weekend.  My mom and John came to Brockville to take me out for dinner for my birthday.  They asked me to pick the restaurant that I wanted to try.  I wanted to try a new restaurant – Tall Ships Waterfront Grille.  So we all went there for dinner yesterday. I wasn’t sure if it would be any good – the reviews for it were half-half.  Some said good, some said it was horrible. LOL!  My dish was pretty good, and so were the guys’ dishes.  My mom didn’t like hers.  She got fish and chips, and the fish had a very bland taste to it. (It really did!)  My pasta dish, was pretty yummy.  I got ravoli stuffed with crab, scallops and a third seafood though I don’t remember what, covered in tomato cream sauce.  It was quite tasty. 🙂  The guys had steak and they liked theirs, though Steve said that his would have been better at places like Kelsey’s – they are less expensive, and tastes better.  John loved his special steak though. 🙂  It was worth a try, and I might not even go again.  The views from the restaurant was gorgeous though, it overlooked the water, so it was pretty cool.  We went at sunset so it was quite pretty. 🙂  My mom got to look around the house, she only had been over once before while the construction was still going on, and we were just out in town several times.  Fun!  I just feel a bit older now…I’m now 37, so it’s a weird age.  When you turn an age closer to the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, it kind of feels not right. Funny. 🙂

I guess I got all caught up here. 🙂  It’s been quite a while since I have written here – I’ve just been sick most of the year so oops.  Steve was trying to get me to make journal entries here and there, at least once a month, but I kept getting sick so that didn’t happen. LOL!  We’ll see how I feel from now on and how things go from here.