Friday, June 27, 2008 -- Summer Weekend!

Hey Bloggy!

Yes, we are about to start the pseudo long weekend. I say "pseudo" because, in fact, it's not actually a long weekend since July 1st (Canada's birthday) falls on Tuesday. But my guess is a lot of people are going to be taking Monday off work and make it a long weekend ;) One of the reasons I think more people will take Monday off than not is because the weather forecast is for sunny, clear and warm!! Temps should hit the 26-27C mark (approx 78-80F) which is the perfect, ideal summer temps!

I'm not sure how much I'll get to update bloggy this weekend since it is going to be one very hectic weekend. I have a kajillion things I'd "like" to get done before I go in for surgery on Monday, but realistically, I know I won't get many of them done ;) What I do want to get done is to finish up the organization of the Opening Night(s) "Guest Invite" lists so that Jill and/or James can get the opening night invitations sent out early next week. I also want to, with the help of our new friend, Jane, finish up the training materials for tomorrow morning's training session of the TUTS Box Office volunteers. Jane and I will be co-conducting the training session where we will be teaching them how to use the Tickets Tonight computer system to sell General Admission and/or Reserved Seating tickets, as well as to print them on ticket stock once the payment has been processed. Since this will be ticket sales at the door, the payment process will be done through handheld Moneris machines and not through the actual Tickets Tonight payment system. So Jane and I have been working on putting together a training package with handouts... a training package that we will be able to use in future years without having to reinvent the wheel every year.

Hahaha... of course, that's all easier said than done... I have not yet put together the Moneris training handouts that I want to go hand in hand with the Tickets Tonight training. But this training session will happen tomorrow (Saturday) morning between 10am - noon.

Today, according to my pre-surgery instructions, is the last day I can take my Ibuprofen for my arthritis. They want the ibuprofen out of my system before the surgery on Monday since ibuprofen is considered a blood thinner.

I will find out on Sunday morning, between 9:30am - noon, what time I actually have to check in to the hospital for the surgery. Steve Oben is actually flying home, as I type this, from a trip to NYC. He will be taking me to the hospital on Monday and acting as my key contact person.

I think I have all other arrangements in place, considering this will be a quick hospital stay. The expectation is that I'm only in the hospital for 2 nights... assuming that the surgery can be done laparascopically. The surgery itself will be about 2 1/2 hours in duration. The adrenal gland sits above the kidney (we have one above each kidney) and is in an awkward place to get at. It is also very close to an "adrenal artery", so one has to hope it has not attached itself to that artery. I also have the potential added problem of scarring tissue or damage caused by the radiation I had last year. So until I'm actually on the operating table and the surgeon has been able to attempt to go in laparascopically, he won't know if he will be able to complete the less invasive surgery or if he will have to end up doing a more traditional larger cut... in which case I would then have to be in the hospital a few days more and the recovery would be that much longer. So let's all just think laparascopic thoughts and get this surgery done with as little fuss and muss as possible.

Hehehe... so, if all goes according to plan, I'll be home on Wednesday, take a couple of days to relax/recover and then be back on my feet in no time.

Meanwhile, Joan will be walking over on Sunday to pick up visit and walk her back home to her condo. Joan only lives about 6 blocks from me, so that's just a hop, skip and jump away. CB (my cockatiel) will be staying here at home and Mimi and Toby will be looking after her. Mimi will be down every morning with her cooked soybeans and cooked pasta, cleaning out her aquarium, etc. Toby, who lives across the hall and has 4 of her own exotic birds, will take CB over to her apartment during the day so that she's not alone 24/7 :)

Once Dad hears how the surgery went, he will be sending my friend, Melinda, an update... so Melinda will come here and update the blog. Hehehe... this is where the internet is just so darn neat! I live in Vancouver, Dad lives in North Delta (about a 40 min drive from my place) and Melinda lives in Australia. We may as well all be in the same city when it comes to email and the internet since it is just as quick to get an email within the same city as it is on the other side of the world. Melinda actually started this blog for me back when I was first in the hospital in December 2006. At that time, we were trying to keep everyone updated by email but there were just too many people to keep track of, so the blog was born... and it worked out much better. So much so, that I've kept it up ever since... and now we will use it again for these two surgeries.

Soooooo... I will try to get back here by Sunday night, even if it's just to write a short little entry... and then it's off to get Surgery #1 under my belt :)

Meanwhile, here are some rather hilarious pictures of the little diva, Bridget, who had a bath this week. I realized that I wouldn't have time to get her into the groomers this week, so Toby (from across the hall) and I told Bridget she was going to have a bath at home...

... praying that it will be over soon :)

Let's get those armpits done! LOL!

I'm not sure I like the taste of all of this... but I have to admit, the shampoo and conditioner sure smell great!

Poor, pathetic, me!! What a girl must go through to look beautiful!! :)

Soooo, there you have it!! I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Cheryl