Not Exactly the Spa

Wondering where I've been?

Well, after Thanksgiving, I came down with a stomach bug. At least that's what it looked like at first.

A few days later I was in the emergency room with excruciating pain in my stomach, watching as three nurses and five doctors gathered around me and the monitors conferring, thinking, "This isn't a teaching hospital so why are all these doctors in my room?"

Turns out I had strep in my colon, a rather unusual and unfortunate location, and my body was shutting down due to sepsis. Emergency exploratory surgery followed (as in, "We'll cut you open with a scapel, hope we find the problem, hope it's fixable and hope you make it through the procedure.") and then I was in critical condition for a few days (Marc didn't exhale until the infectious disease specialist said to him, "She's going to be fine.").

All told it was a little over two weeks in the hospital. I've been home for almost three weeks now and am just starting to get some energy flowing again. These days I fantasize about being able to hop in the car, drive the 20 minutes to Costco or Stew Leonard's or Whole Foods, be on my feet shopping, drive home, and unload my purchases. Maybe next month ...

Meanwhile, Cooper was in the hospital for three days with pneumonia -- a hospital about 40 miles from the one I was in, of course.

As a result of these adventures, I have had the pleasure of Cooper's company for the past nine days of his winter break -- thank heavens he acquired some new LEGO toys during that time to keep himself entertained.

A few perks of hospital life:

1. Lots and lots of supplies for wound care (yes, this does matter when one is at home looking at the last two pieces of the special tape used to cover the lovely incision);

2. Someone brought food upon request (albeit at odd times, such as 11:20 a.m. for lunch and 4:45 p.m. for dinner!);

3. Someone else took out the trash;

4. The reclining bed was nifty when I wanted to simultaneously rest and watch TV;

5. Enough cable channels to keep me entertained and get me hooked on HGTV's "House Hunters" and the fabulously ridiculously over-the-top FX show, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." To think I'd been missing that hilarity for the past five years!