Good news.....I finally got a date and time for my gall bladder surgery. It will be tomorrow, Wednesday, January 21 at 3:30 PM. I report in at 1:30. If all goes well, I will have a laparoscopy (with 3 new beautiful stitches to add to the 4 I already have!). I should be home that same evening recovering with my baby Abigail at my side (figuratively, at least). If there are issues, they'll need to make an incision and I'll need to stay in the hospital for 4 nights....ugh. So, obviously I am hoping for the quick and easy route! The thought of leaving Abigail for that long is too much for me to bear right now. I can't even deal yet with the idea of leaving her to go back to work!
Matthew decided to make life interesting (well, he claims I am the one doing that) and he has military obligations the whole time I am recovering. Luckily he managed to be off tomorrow in order to take me to the hospital (thank you Colonel!). Liz, my step-mother-in-law, will be coming to stay with us in order to help out. Matthew will work 12 hour days starting Thursday, then do the night shift Saturday through Tuesday. Yuck. Great timing, huh?! My mother-in-law also graciously said she could come stay with us, and both of my parents are practically begging to come, although I am certain that its really just to spend time with their new grandbaby! I also have tons of friends and neighbors willing and ready to help me by taking care of Abbie.
[Side note: yes, I realize that I use "Abigail" and "Abbie" both, but I don't know exactly which to call her yet. Until she starts to show me more of her true nature and personality, I won't know which matches her best.]
The recovery period should be short, so they tell me anyway. My hope is to be able to take care of the baby on my own by Sunday. Friends have laughed at this optimistic prediction, but we'll just have to see how it goes.
Just to make life interesting, as I always do, I am also struggling with mastitis (which is an infection nursing mothers get in their breasts). This is my second time around with this lovely adventure, but this time things got ugly. I had a high temperature for days and felt terrible....chills, aches, etc. Thankfully my wonderful OBGYN saw me this morning and gave me the thumbs up for surgery (more importantly, so did my surgeon). I'm not sure why the recovery process this time is taking forever, but it is. So, this on top of the surgery is making me think I should quit pumping. Hmmm....lots of strong opinions about this from the peanut gallery, almost all in my favor. But Matthew wants me to stick things out and see how it all goes after I recover from the surgery. I can do that. But I imagine another post soon on my big decision....how much breast milk can I pump and is a small amount each day really worth it - does it really make a difference for Abbie? Not sure about the answers.
Wish me luck tomorrow! I'll ask Matthew to post something about how it went.
Stephanie
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