Where the hell have I been?

A funny thing happens when you fall off the blog-o-sphere, so I thought I'd give a quick update.

On Tuesday, I had a big time surgery to fix a Giant Paraesophageal Hernia.  Impressed?  Well, you should be.  :-)  A giant paraesophageal hernia is where at least 1/3 of your stomach has herniated up next to your esophagus through the diaphragm and ends up in your lungs.  It looks kinda like this:

It is a pretty abnormal condition.  I've been living with it for several years but just recently was told it was time to get it repaired.  Surgery was apparently a success but I am now trying to mend.  Imagine this:  No lifting anything more than 10 pounds for at least 8 weeks (Oliver weighs about 25 pounds), for the first two weeks, it is a liquid diet, then if x-rays show everything is a-okay I can move on to a "soft foods" diet which consists of soups and pureed foods (if you think this sounds like baby food, you would be right!) for another 6 weeks.  And the pain!  I am trying not to whine too much as that would just make the pain worse.  Here's been my companions the past couple of days:

Did you see Children's Ibuprofen?  Yes, well, they don't make liquid Ibuprofen any other way.

The hardest part has been not being able to snuggle with Oliver but I know that it is temporary.  Today for example, he spent the day at Papa's and Grandma Jana's house and got to play in a little wading pool!  So Oliver is still getting all that attention that he craves.   

Thank you to modern medicine and Dr. Alex Farivar for making me feel better.  Well, in a few weeks.  :-)