Happy New Year! Yeah, it's been that long since I was last in here.

To catch you up; Christmas was fantastic. We had snow on the ground for DAYS!! Jopie stayed a few nights with us over the holidays and we three made quite merry. As usual, Loubie couldn't wait for xmas morning. Her habit is to ask if we can have 'just one present' on xmas eve. So early on she got her gag gift. A sumo wrestler's costume!!

It comes with a tiny fan to inflate this giant naked man in a diaper costume.. and a goofy hat/hairpiece. She was totally into it, posing in wrestling stances. I almost bought two of the crazy things, thinking if we both had one, that we could wrestle!! But standing at the checkout I saw a warning on the boxes saying NOT FOR WRESTLING. bummer. Will just have to continue to wrestle naked... We played with that for a while, then after midnight, opened all the other gifts. (We always give in to her. She's such a lil kid in this regard and wouldn't be able to sleep waiting for morning)

On the 29th she went in for her hysterectomy. Omg, I was scared. We've been through a few of her ops together and I know I've never before been as worried as I was this time. They made me leave her side early in the morning and she was only just going into surgery by the afternoon's visiting hour. She was in recovery for ages.

But when I saw her that evening, she looked good! No stoma (thank you fabulous doctor) and pain under control. She still wasn't allowed to eat the next day as they worried about her bowel and all the work it had needed but they also left her on morphine for the extra day.

The hospital took great care of her. All the nurses were lovely (ok, except for the anaesthesiologist who gave her the oddest look, which we could only interpret as disbelief that Lou was a woman.. dumb bitch .. as if a man would be in hosp for a hysterectomy? wtf? I mean really?)

But Lou did so well that she was released to come home on New Years' Day! She has a big but very tidy scar, still sleeps a lot and is uncomfortable due to her restricted movement.. but improved daily.

Our only problem now is that since we had to move the kidney donation forward, she will not be recovered enough to come with me when I go to the states for my surgery. Her doc has made her follow up appt for a week after I've gone and he won't move it forward nor will he release her to travel until he's seen her. Truthfully, I understand and don't want her to do anything that might wreck her recovery. She's been poorly and looking for a way to good health since before I met her. But I'm *seriously going to miss her. (*Understatement)

In her place, my son has agreed to come stay with us to look after us in our recovery. My daughter's boyfriend can stay for two weeks and my parents have promised to be around as much as possible (they have a dog who needs looking after at home, 1 1/2 to 2 hrs away). Hopefully Lou will be able to travel out a week or so after our op.

With so many people about, I've rented a vacation home for a month instead of our initial plan of a hotel room. (I owe Lou more than I can say for making this all possible.) We'll have three bedrooms plus room for a deluxe inflatable bed my parents will bring, a fireplace and a kitchen so we don't have the expense of having to eat out, two baths and plenty of room to sleep or escape eachother if necessary. It's got a bqq on the deck for the pleasure of my grillmaster father and a washer & dryer for everyone's convenience. The neighborhood is nice and the views are brilliant, overlooking the river apparently. It looks to be no more than 20 mins from the hospital.

Lou booked my flight yesterday and we discovered I have enough skymiles to upgrade to first class for comfort on the flight home.

There's so much to think about, so much to plan. I woke early today and couldn't get back to sleep.. and still have four weeks before I go.