Hats Required

Last weekend Eric and I got to go to our very first bush dance. It was an absolutely awesome event to celebrate the 50th birthday of a dear man of God from our church. Our invitation said "hat required" so we knew it was going to be special. We got Eric a true Aussie hat - an Akubra - as an early Father's Day present. He looks pretty smashing in it to be sure. I got a cheap variety as I'm not one for hats. Armed with our gear (or should I say headed?), we took off for this new adventure.

For appetizers we had barramundi which is a favored fish found here in Australia and crocodile kebabs. We were thinking this was pretty special to us Americans until we found out that many of the Aussies had never had crocodile either. Maybe it isn't often eaten because it doesn't go well with Vegemite?

Cool appetizers aside, the meal was wonderful and we got to sit back and enjoy the presentation of Dave's first 50 years. It was lovely and we appreciated seeing his journey to the present.

Sadly, it was at the end of the presentation that I realized I was completely out of oomph and needed to get to a horizontal surface sooner rather than later. I was terribly bummed because I was dying to do some bush dancing, but knew it would have been something more like "bushed dancing" if I'd pushed myself any farther.

The last few weeks have been an interesting odyssey that, frankly, I really could have done without. In addition to the horrible pain attack, I've been on the wrong side of normal - the way wrong side. I have been to the doctor, had tests done, and enough blood drawn to keep a vampire in fine fettle. It has finally settled into four things. If you don't like listening to people carry on about their medical issues, you won't like reading about them either, so please stop reading now. Otherwise, sorry to bore you, but it is a bit cathartic (for me, not you!).

To my credit, I had realized one thing was not right and had already been to the doctor the week before the attack. While investigating that one, they found a contributing factor that needed to come out so I got to have a day surgery on June 20th. This was the second event where a hat was required. The nurse called it a "party hat", but it sure looked like hospital netting to me. Anyway, the uterine polyp is history - good riddance I say.

While that was all going on, they determined that my thyroid was really on the fritz - no wonder I was so dang tired. That one is a "better living through pharmacology" solution so I now get to start my day with a pill (and no I don't mean Eric!). After a week and a half of the pills I am definitely starting to see the improvement and am realizing this has been going on for some time to a lesser degree.

One of the things they discovered at the emergency room was my liver numbers were quite high. The doctor looked at me with a bit of a smirk and said, "you like your red wine, do you?" and when I said I didn't drink, well, pardon the pun, but that sobered him right up. Armed with that new information he said those numbers are "off the planet for someone who doesn't drink". So, he referred me to an gastroenterologist and I finally got in to see him on Friday.

After a very interesting education on the liver, pancreas, and bile ducts, his conjecture is the pain was probably due to a piece of bile grit that can't get out and in this instance, temporarily blocked the duct exit which really, really got my attention. So, another procedure to verify this and fix if it is the case is coming up in a week and a half.

I'm beginning to think my great visions of touring Australia have somehow been subverted into touring every doggone medical facility they have. All I can say at this point is if that's what gets me well again, then I'll put it on my list of "things to see and do" and count my blessings.

I'm full of blessings - a great husband who has cared for me so diligently (although I'm still wondering what he meant when he implied the sicker me was less feisty!), a wonderful church family here, and a family back home that I will very soon get to see again. We have our tickets for 3 1/2 weeks of glorious family time beginning July 13th with some time in Indiana so we can see everyone. Just got to hold onto my hat for 2 1/2 weeks and we'll see y'all. Yeeha!