"Fixing" my scar

I say "fixing" because it's currently dark purple. The laser breaks down the blood vessels, so it's pretty much like a big bruise at the moment, and looks a little scary. I won't post a photo on the blog, I'll spare those who don't want to see this time. Pic is here - http://photos.andrew.net.au/albums/scar/scar_001.sized.jpg

Once the bruising goes away it should look pretty good - fingers crossed!

So we got to Stanford at 6:30am. This time we went to the Stanford Ambulatory Surgery Centre - it's mostly day surgery I believe. It was a really fancy place, nice wood panelling, fancy and comfortable waiting area, and 2 screens which had a heap of numbers that were associated with patients, and colour coding. So it starts with Registration Complete, then went through to Pre-op, then a range of others including surgery, stage 1 recovery, stage 2 recovery, transferred etc. (there was about 12 different codes) so you could keep an eye on where your person is up to.

Anyway, so they do the IV under a super fine needle local anesthetic, which is always my biggest worry, so that makes it nice and easy. I had to wait in the OR for about 15 minutes all ready to go because they were early and the laser wasn't quite warmed up yet, but they started pretty much on time at 8:30am, then before I knew it I was waking up at about 9:15am.

Then it was recovery, and all the check out stuff, and we were home by 11:30am, and I was feeling fine. I slept for an hour, and woke up feeling pretty good, just a bit jelly-legged.

So fingers crossed it will stop getting bigger now!

Scarred for life!

Well, that was kind of expected after getting open heart surgery. Unfortunately I don't heal very well when it comes to scars. My c section scar is still quite thick and raised, whereas my friend Briana, who had a c section a few months before me, has an almost invisible scar.

So my heart surgery scar got worse after I got the staph infection - it separated as fluid built up under it, and then after the incision got opened again to drain the infection, it never quite went back to normal, and has gotten wider, thicker, and more tender over the months. It's still getting worse, so on Monday I'm going back to Stanford to get "plastic surgery". They're going to laser the scar itself to help with the appearance, and do steroid injections which will hopefully shrink some of the excess scar tissue, or at least stop it from getting any bigger, and will hopefully also help with the itchiness and some of the tenderness. It's a general anesthetic, but I'll be surprised if it takes more than half an hour.

This is how it looks now:




You can see the bottom part near my fingers looks great - that's how it should all look! It's gotten lighter over time, but wider.

This is compared to in June:



I'll put up another photo after everything is healed from whatever they do on Monday.

Study study study

Since we got back from the holiday I've just been madly busy with study. I had assignments, online exams, catching up with missed study, and preparing for end of semester exams. I've been doing 3 subjects this semester, which has been quite full on to do externally, and just before we went on holiday I had a couple of weeks where I kept getting "ocular migraines" on an almost daily basis. My vision would go all weird, and I wouldn't be able to see clearly, I got really dizzy, felt nauseous, then the headache would come on. The whole process would last a couple of hours and was very disrupting, so I got behind with my study. I think I was just sitting badly, and muscles got too tight in the wrong spots. It's certainly gotten better since.

The final end of semester exams were over the last week, so I'm really glad to have them out of the way. I'm finished first year now, which is good. I'm doing just one subject over the "summer semester" so that should give me a bit of a break - new semester starts on Monday.

Catching up (yes I'm still alive)

It's been a really busy few months! I'll go back to September.

We went on holiday to the Seychelles and Dubai for 2 weeks in September which was fabulous. My aunt Vicki lives there with her husband Chris and their two boys, Jack and Harry. Chris has a job as part of the United Nations, which is based in the Seychelles and they've been living there about 4 years now.

The Seychelles was fascinating. The economy is completely broken - they have the highest level of debt of any other country, and since we were there the International Monetary Fund has agreed on a $26 million rescue package, and the currency has floated and been devalued. A lot of things were run down, the roads were terrible, there's a big divide between the rich and poor and everything has to be imported, so the black market is rife.

But the beaches were gorgeous, the weather was fabulous, the sky was oh so clear at night, and the stars were stunning. Sitting out on Vicki and Chris' deck every evening watching the night sky was an amazing way to relax. We were a very short walk from the beach, and just enjoyed our 10 days there relaxing.

It was great to spend quality time with Vicki, Chris and the boys. Vicki lived with us for a few years when I was younger, so I've always felt very close to her, and Jack and Harry are such great kids, we had a lot of fun with them.

Here's a few pics from the trip:

The markets



Amazingly clear water



Full moon over the fishing boats that were at port due to the worries over the Somalian pirates



We hiked to a beach called Anse Major, which was quiet, and so pretty



On our way to Anse Major




View from Vicki and Chris' balcony



Everyone. Vicki doesn't usually look so grim, and no, Andrew didn't bother with shaving while away :)



A couple of gorgeous sunrises







After Seychelles we spent a few days in Dubai on the way home since we were flying with Emirates (best airline I've ever flown with by a long shot), and stopping in Dubai anyway.

It was Ramadan, so we couldn't eat or drink in public during daylight hours, and a number of places were either closed for the month, or closed for a few hours in the afternoon, but it wasn't a big deal. We had a really nice hotel which we got a great deal on due it being Ramadan, and therefore the low season, the city in general wasn't too busy, and we just did a double decker open top tour bus tour the 2 days we were there, which supplied us with complimentary cold bottles of water which we guzzled as soon as we got on the bus - so we probably drank more water than we would have otherwise.

It was stinking hot - over 40 c, and about 90% humidity, and the heat was disgustingly oppressive. We had a fabulous time though. It was such an interesting place, and there was so much to see and do. And being so hot, it made us very aware that we were in a desert, and the regular calls to prayer from the temples made the whole experience more authentic. It's a place I would like to go back to some time to further explore - 2 and a bit days definitely wasn't enough!

Some pics:

Down on the water - there were boats coming and going loading up with goods to be transported to other nearby countries, carrying tourists around, and general water taxis for transport.




A small selection of gold in one of the windows at the Gold Souk (market)



A shopping centre called Wafi - it had designer shops, and an upmarket "traditional" souk area - the place was deserted due to Ramadan, and most of the shops weren't opening the entire month.



One of the water taxis



Dubai is a construction zone! There were cranes everywhere you looked. The sky was never clear, it's pretty much one big sand storm. And this highway made American highways look tame!



The new Metro system they are building which will make a huge difference to traffic - you can see Burj Dubai in the background which will be the world's tallest building



In front of Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah - the water there was toasty warm!



And then Ski Dubai... so bizarre!



One of the big mosques



One of the mosques near us. They were having the evening iftar buffet (breaking of the daily fast)



And Andrew on Dubai Creek at sunset



The rest of the photos are here

Dealing with other people's pregnancies

This is something I've been asked about a few times, and something I was just thinking about, so thought I'd share. In the months after Joshua's death, some people were hesitant to tell us they were pregnant in case they upset us, some tell us before anyone else because they want to tell us in person rather than on the grapevine. That really didn't bother me, I'm generally excited to hear about friends pregnancies. Ultrasounds were hard to look at, and baby showers were hard to go to, and still are. Joshua died 2 days after our baby shower, so baby showers just don't have that same level of fun anymore, memories of our loss just come flooding back.

The other thing that's hard to deal with is other people's loss, but for a slightly different reason - my heart just aches for them. A very close friend had an early miscarriage a few months ago, and my heart ached for her. Another good friend who has also had a rough year has just suffered a 2nd trimester loss, and it breaks my heart. I don't want anyone to ever feel the weight of loss like we did. I know a loss earlier in the pregnancy is probably a bit easier to deal with, but it's never easy, and once you start planning names, planning how the room will look, what you'll need, changes you'll need to make, and start thinking about the future they're going to have, it's so hard to have it all ripped away.

It's something that really affects you for a long time, and I think it's important for people to understand that.

Why the US healthcare system is ridiculous

Andrew got bitten by one of the feral kittens a few weeks ago, and the little shit managed to bite through one of Andrew's fingernails (amongst other puncture wounds in his hands).

Cat bites are notoriously dangerous because of the way the tooth is shaped - they are like needles injecting bacteria under the skin, and it heals over fast, which causes an infection, and before you know it you have blood poisoning.

I was worried that we wouldn't be able to clean out the puncture in his fingernail properly, so tried to book into the doctor to get onto a course of antibiotics. They couldn't squeeze us in, so we tried going to "Urgent Care", and they were closing, so told us just to go up to the ER.

If we had have got into the doctor it would have cost $10. We just got the hospital bill, and we are responsible for $415 of the total of $4000 or so. We spent maybe 10 minutes in there, and got a prescription for antibiotics and some antiseptic put on the puncture wounds. How the hell can that cost over $4000????? And how can they charge us $415 just for that??

We paid about $1200 for my open heart surgery - apparently a prescription and antibiotics is worth 1/3 of open heart surgery, ICU and a 5 day hospital stay...

If anyone wants to contribute to the Andrew and Sarah kitten fund - feel free to!

The foster kittens!

First the Google litter:

Sergey, the little guy who loves to cuddle now



Francoise, the shyest of the bunch



Larry, the most sociable of the litter from the beginning - adopted and doing great in his new home



Marissa, the sweetest, also adopted, and has melted the hearts of her new owners, and working on winning over their other cat



And the Gilroy litter:

Boots, who went home with her brother Bond (below) last night - a sweet, playful pair


James Bond, adopted with his sister as above - a VERY affectionate kitty!



Velvet, just a little thing (actually weighed 2 ounces less than Sergey who is 4 weeks younger than her!), but is super active and incredibly athletic



Adonis (now called Freddie), a long lean boy, who is loving being the only cat in his new home and getting all the attention



Blaze - long and lean like his brother, sweet, and a bit of a rascal - loves to chew toes :-)



Daisy - pure love! Loves to cuddle with her siblings, and loves getting attention from her people as well.



That's the mob!