Grateful

Most of you have already heard via emails or prayer requests or facebook that I had to have my gallbladder removed about two weeks ago. It wasn't necessarily how I wanted to spend a week, but looking back at the whole experience, I am so grateful for so many things. I thought I would share some of them with you . . .

1. The doctors were great and as soon as a real Dr. saw me (it was a teaching hospital so the first Dr. to see me still had braces and looked like she might have been 12), he knew right away what was wrong with me and got me scheduled to have a sonogram to confirm, which did confirm that i had a gallbladder full of infection and stones.
2. I am so thankful for good hospitals where we live. When the first hospital we went to couldn't admit me because it was too full, I was transferred to a hospital that has some kind of relationship with Johns Hopkins in the states and I am telling you this place was NICE! In the bathroom they had big fluffy robes like we were in a nice hotel! And oh, the water pressure! And a view of the sea out my windows.
3. Great nurses. They were mostly male nurses, which could have been weird, but they were very kind, and one even wanted to go on a double date with Matt and I and he and his fiance by the end of the week. He also wanted us to take his picture with his i-phone holding Maya. Any time he walked in the room and Maya wasn't there, he would ask, "Where is your baby?"
4. Speaking of Maya, we were able to have her with us in the hospital almost every afternoon while our dear friends Jason and Kelli kept her at night. This was really good for my mama-heart that was really struggling with not being able to take care of my baby!
5. Maya had formula for the first time and took it without any problems for the whole week, then was able to switch back to breast feeding (after I was all drug free) without anything worse than a little constipation.
6. The surgeon was great and he not only took out my gallbladder, he found and repaired a hernia while he was at it.
7. We have medical insurance and the close to $12,000 in bills will not be coming out of our pocket--praise the LORD!
8. Friends here visited and brought me things to do to try to assuage my boredom during the week that I had to wait for the stone to pass and for my inflammation to go down before they could do surgery.
9. At the beginning they were concerned that the stone I had passed was lodged somewhere, which would have required a second procedure, but the stone ended up moving on it's own, which simplified the whole treatment process to one surgery, "Giddy up, giddy up, get a move on--raw hide!"
10. Matt was wonderful, and unless he was going to get Maya or take her to our friends or run to our house to send and receive email, or doing dishes and picking up our apartment, he was by my side, taking great care of me.
11. My recovery has been SO fast and SO easy (i was only on Tylenol starting the day after surgery) and I've been able to resume just about everything I was doing before, and aside from a few digestive issues, I don't seem to be missing my gallbladder one bit! Who needs it anyway?