Goodbye Gallbladder

Well, right after that last post I was all pumped to blog all the time for the rest of the year to show off all my pictures of my super cute girls.  But.  Life happened.  And so did gallbladder surgery.  Most people know about that by now I think because of Facebook.

Here is a picture of my painful gallbladder.  The gold is all the gallstones I had and the black is from all the 'bodily things' stuck in there because there was a stone blocking the entry to my pancreas.  I have a another picture of that but it may be a little too much for the blog.  There was a stone embedded underneath skin or something and the picture is of them digging it out with a knife.  Ugh.  Sorry.  Probably TMI.  At least my brother Lester can appreciate the disgusting-ness of it all  As a paramedic he loves this stuff.  I'm even bringing the pictures for Christmas for him to see!

i made the picture small so that it wouldn't be too grotesque

Let me just say though that it was one of the best experiences of my LIFE!  It's probably the only trial I can already say that I'm grateful for. I know, I'm strange.  But all the circumstances surrounding the surgery were so unexpectedly perfect and wonderful that it made it worth it.  Don't get me wrong- the pain I was in was the worst pain I've ever felt, right up there with giving birth.  I did not love that part.  But the parts I did love were:

1. My mom coming to town (early, which turned out to be like divinely inspired because I ended up having the surgery 3 days earlier than scheduled because the gallstones had made their way to my pancreas.  If my mom hadn't come when she did I don't know what we would've done), and spending all kinds of time with her talking and watching favorite shows together.
2. My dad cutting his business trip short and surprising me at the hospital (when I was all drugged up and literally thought I was imagining it and that he wasn't really there at all).  I can't express how much that meant to me- drugged or not.
3. Andrew not missing much school because of my parents and Mariah and Ross being here.  That was definitely a big blessing because we are right at the tail end of school for him and it would've been a nightmare if he was set back at all.
4. Audrey and Hannah getting several days of personal uninterrupted time with Grandma and Grandpa Hanaike.  Probably the only time in their life that that will happen because our families are getting bigger every year.  They played with them all day long, brought them to visit me in the hospital, took them to Toddler Time at the library, and did every single little thing for them. 
5. Getting the break every stay-at-home mom wishes she had- days and days of laying in a comfy bed with a TV all to myself, books and a computer, having friends and family come visit and getting personal time in with each of them.  Not to mention feeling PARTICULARLY wonderful on all the drugs they had given me.  I still remember how great it felt to be in this sort of delirious state of happiness.  Not something I'd want all the time of course because I really was not very aware of what was real and what wasn't (apparently I talked a lot in my sleep).  But, seriously I haven't gotten such good sleep in a loooooooong time that's for sure.
6. Spending a lot of time with Mariah who came over and helped me every day after my parents left.  That is like the highlight of Audrey's 2 year old life so far- having Mariah here at our house alllllll day long for days in a row.  She and Ross have definitely been life-savers for our family this entire year.

So when people have been asking me how my surgery went and how I'm feeling and how hard it must've been I think they've been quite surprised by my enthusiastic reply of "It was actually GREAT!"  I wish every one of my trials could be this stress-free and comfortable, but since I know they won't be I can at least bank the fact that I know that Heavenly Father will take complete care of me during them.  That's something this trial has shown me and made me absolutely certain of.

(of course there are like no pictures of my mom!)