And oh-my-gods is it good to be back hone,
I've got a whole two-parter post planned about my hospital stay that will probably take the place of not-next-week, but-the-next-after-that's Narnia and Twilight posts. The practical highlights in advance are:
- My 3-5 day stay turned into a 7 day stay.
- Related to #1, I learned that I have abnormally high tolerances to pain medication. Not to pain, to medication meant to relieve pain. The money quote is that my surgeon stabilized me by "putting [me] on a level of narcotics that would kill most grown men".
- That means that I have a LOT of high impact drugs sloshing around in my system which means I am alternatively painfree-and-exhausted and awake-but-pained.
- Related to #3, I got NOTHING done in the hospital. No blog posting. No reading. No books-on-tape listening. I'd been dreaming about this "vacation" for years (I'd write another book! Read all the Deathlands novels! Follow along the Harry Potter audio books! Finish off all the blog posts for the rest of the year!) and zilch. LOL.
- There is basically nothing I can do for myself at the moment, Sitting up? Call Husband. Laying down? Call Husband. Getting water for pills? Call Husband. (Dad and Mom are going through similar levels of neediness and we're seriously considering whether to combine households for a short time.)
- Related to #6. I hit the mudder-fugging lottery when it comes to husbands. Enough nice things cannot be said about Husband.
I find all this largely amusing, but it does mean that posting isn't going to be as robust around here as I'd dreamed in my lazy happy dreams. We'll pull through regardless.
In the meantime, I want to thank everyone for their behavior while I was away. I woke from the ICU with 170 comments to read and a good half of them were of the "my god, that's brilliant, I should let THEM do all the decons from here on out" variety that I love so. (Exporting Narnian ice to Calormen? And using the proceeds to shore up the herbivore levels of the food chain with British staple diet?. My goodness, it's so bizarre but it actually might just work.) And you were entirely self-moderated while I was gone and that is such a special and rare thing in a community. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Loving you all and hoping you'll enjoy the next rocky weeks ahead blog-wise,
~ Ana
30 comments:
Welcome back! Welcome home!
I think most people imagine they're going to be far more 'productive' on actual vacations than they actually are, so it's not exactly shocking that you would be thoroughly zonked on a pharmceutically-intensive physically-gruelling pseudo-'vacation'. And while I greatly look forward to your own future posts, you can see the evidence that you've created an impressively self-reliant community here, so I hope you won't push yourself overmuch to return to posting-as-usual. "Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic - the Golden Reign of the Pevensies was neither golden nor a reign nor of the Pevensies: discuss."
So glad you're home! I hope the recovery goes swiftly. :)
First of all, welcome back home. I hope your recovery goes fully and speedily.
Related to #1, I learned that I have abnormally high tolerances to pain medication. Not to pain, to medication meant to relieve pain. The money quote is that my surgeon stabilized me by "putting [me] on a level of narcotics that would kill most grown men".
And, congratulations on your official superpower!
Welcome home, Ana! Hugs to you and to your husband! :)
Welcome back! Glad things are better for you. : ) This is definitely one of my favorite blogs, so I'm happy with anything you post. So no worries.
Welcome home! And yowza, you DO have another superpower.
Hurray, you're back!
I have friends with similar pain-medication issues, so you have my distinct sympathy. Fingers crossed for a smooth recovery, and many kudos to your husband.
Welcome home!
I actually got the idea of the Narnian ice trade when I remembered the history of the real thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_trade
I knew just a little about the industry when I wrote the post, I only just now found the Wikipedia article.
I knew ice was stored and shipped from upstate NY to NYC. When I thought of the ice trade only in the scale of upstate NY to NYC, I thought it was theoretically possible, but a stretch, and would be limited to the parts of Calormen closest to the Narnian border.
I never imagined that it was actually a global trade, with ice from New England being shipped as far as India, Australia and China. But since they could ship ice from New England to India in the 1840s, then I think it is reasonable to imagine extensive Narnian exports of ice to Calormen and beyond, with the magically created year-round winter giving Narnia an immense advantage over competitors in the ice trade who could only harvest ice for a few months in the coldest part of winter.
Also, the children's novel Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder has a section where the harvest and storage of ice in winter, and its use in summer, is described.
Welcome back, Ana. Glad that you're stabilized, and many kudos to your husband. Looking forward to the metapost when you tell us how awesome post-surgery life is.
Well, that's a piece of good news to come home to!
(Me, I mean, coming home from work and checking in with the usual blogroll.)
Welcome back, and I hope your recovery is smooth and swift. Don't worry about us in the meantime.
(If we are (usually) cheerful and civil around here, it should be noted that we have an excellent role model in our hostess.)
Welcome back, and I'm impressed you can keep a sense of humor about things like painkillers not working.
Ana's Husband is indeed awesome - yay!
Studies have shown that people with red hair require up to 17 times as much pain relievers as people without red hair. I was a redhaired child, and my gods, that has in fact described my issues with pain relievers that don't work. Also, I'm highly sensitive to pain. So I not only sympathize, I empathize. :-/
Glad you are back, however, and being well taken care of! Don't strain yourself to come back too soon - we'll be here, happy to wait.
I Am Number Four? It's seriously Blessed with Suck. O.o
Ana, I'm so glad you're okay even after all that stuff. The world would be a far dimmer, poorer place if things had gone south in there.
Welcome back! Sorry to hear about the complications, though. At least, if some supervillain tries to drug you to take over your blog, they'll be foiled by your Super Resistance! Joking aside, I hope you didn't have to wait a long time or fight very hard to get the meds adjusted. From second-hand experience I know that can be a real problem sometimes.
Anyway, I hope life gets better soon for all involved! I'm looking forward to your next posts, but I also hope you take whatever time you need before getting to them.
Welcome home, Ana!
Wishing you a swift and comfortable recovery!
I'm glad you made it through, Ana! Through that bit, anyway. And I hope you put your incredible narcotics tolerance to some positive use, possibly by challenging Sicilian master criminals to games of "which cup contains the heroin."
My compliments to Husband.
Welcome back!
Thank you for backing up all of those posts to come out day by day while you were gone - I strive to be a daily blogger but you are dedicated.
Welcome back!
It's funny you should mention this: I have a lot of "red hair indicators" like my hair really soaking up color and now apparently this pain thing, but my hair really isn't naturally red except in full-on "oh-yeah-I-can-kind-of-see-ot-now" sunlight.
Hey, I'm a longtime lurker and I just wanted to say welcome back. I'm glad things went as well as they did for you, even with the complications. And I love reading your blog, though I'd still want you to get well if I didn't.
What color was your hair as a kid? Any red in it?
As some of my hair comes out while showering, I see individual red hairs, but when I see myself in the mirror, my overwhelming impression is of dark brown hair mixed with grey. I stopped coloring my hair red about 6 years ago, and it's only now that I *don't* automatically default to liking people with red hair because "we have that in common". In fact, it's kind of weird to go back to thinking of myself as a *former* redhead, who's now just an ordinary brunette, with a lot of grey.
Because a lot of doctors don't seem to have heard of the studies on redhaired people's issues with pain medication, I tend to just say, "I have a REALLY LOW TOLERANCE FOR PAIN and I'm HIGHLY SENSITIVE", both of which are also true.
I was SUPER blonde, almost white. Then, one day, brown and sort of mousey colored. But when the light hits just so, red. Very strange. I'm probably a Mary Sue in some universe. Lol.
Welcome back, Ana. I hope your recovery goes smoothly and swiftly, and that you can sell all your unused painkillers for a profit.
I'm glad you're home. That's always such a big step.
This is a superb idea, thank you.
I was browsing. Saw this and thought of you: Dora Who. Thought ye'd like it.
TRiG.
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