I knew he wouldn’t stay in the hospital until Thursday.  He looked
at Dr. Geiger, yes that’s really her name, and said he was going
home.  So they did a final ultrasound Wednesday afternoon, said
everything looked fine and we were home by 5 P.M. it was more than
wonderful.  We both slept like the dead.  Now begins the
lying around in the recliner, watch T.V. and play video games portion
of the get well procedure.  Really the best part of any
illness.  Oh and lets not forget the maid service, that’s always a
treat.

I forgot to tell you this. On Boxing Day he got  roast goose,
broccoli with coriander sauce, pasta, and a cream cake for dessert. I
promise you it was better than anything I ate from Christmas eve
onward, I spent all my time eating bad vending machine food and trying
to avoid germs.  I got a bite of all his Boxing Day food and it
was good enough to be served at a restaurant.   In fact it
was hands down the best hospital food either one of us has ever
tasted.  Hmph, who knew that Christmas was the time to be in the
hospital.

If your clueless as to what I’m talking about read yesterdays
post.   I passed along all the get well wishes and he said to
say HI and thanks!

Christmas 2006 will be one that Bear and I won’t
forget……..ever.  Not because he finally bought me that huge
diamond ring either. (he didn’t)  But because this year when I
wished him Merry Christmas at midnight he asked me for the tums.
 For the next three hours the”indigestion”" only got worse.
Finally at 3 A.M. he vomited and the pain was so bad he was curled up
on the bed moaning.  We knew he wasn’t having a heart attack (similar
symptoms but different enough to be apparent if you know what your
looking for.)  but I also knew this wasn’t ordinary heart burn
either. All the pain seemed to be centered over his gall bladder so I
got online and googled gallstone symptoms….lo
and behold there it was, line for line everything he had been suffering
for the last 3 hours. I told him he had a choice, ambulance or waking
the neighbors.  He didn’t want either but since he was in no
shape to argue I went next door and woke them up and asked if they
could take us to the Mannheim hospital.  I called the emergency
room and  pulled out my trusty  “Sprechen sie English
bitte?” I was connected to a very nice lady who spoke Queens
English as though born in London, she gave me the exact address so we
could input it into our neighbors GPS, with that we drove straight to
the emergency room doors. The same lady was waiting for us at
the emergency room desk and I had barely gotten out, “I
called about my husband” when she was saying “follow me we’re ready for
him”. (we had already gone over his symptoms on the phone but we still
repeated the same info again.) In less than 15 minutes they had
his blood pressure, pulse, temperature, an EKG, and blood drawn to
check for infection,  she told us a doctor would be down to do an
ultrasound to check his Gall Bladder. To say we were impressed is an
understatement. This was fast, efficient Germany at its
best.  After 2 hours and 2 ultrasound we saw the
emergency room doctor and a surgeon to confirm the original diagnosis
of an infected Gall Bladder and by 6 A. M. the blood work was back
and we were told that it needed to come out.

At 12 noon they
wheeled him into surgery and by 4:30 he was back in his
room.  He had what’s called a laparoscopic cholecystectomy,
they had a bit of a complication with some bile leaking into his
abdominal cavity so they are keeping him until Thursday and pumping
antibiotics into him like crazy, but all things considered he feels
great.  We now own 2 tiny gallstones.  The gall bladder
itself was in pretty bad shape and probably should have come out years
ago, but I’m married to a stubborn man who thinks hospitals and doctors
are there for everyone but him.  In fact I fully expect Bear to
tell his doctor today that he’s going home and the funny thing is he
will probably talk them into it too.

As a side note Mike had gone
over to Burgbernheim on Friday after work and we were expecting him
back late Monday afternoon to eat Christmas dinner with
us.   When the surgeon said he would be admitting Bear, I
knew I needed to call Mike pretty quick or I’d never be forgiven, even
though it was 6:30 in the morning.  At first he thought I was
kidding (who wouldn’t?) but it didn’t take him long to know I was dead
serious.  He made it back over here fast considering he had no
warning, since then he’s been ferrying me back and forth from the
hospital, sometimes twice in one day.  He came with Christmas
presents too.  He said he wasn’t feeling very Christmassy this
year and then he realized he needed to do some shopping.( I get that
feeling, sometimes I take a little retail therapy myself)  The
biggest surprise was when he came in with a little tree, complete with
decorations and lights.  He said it was only 3 bucks and I needed
a tree more than anyone he knew.

So there you have it….our Christmas day in a nutshell.  We’re
both very glad its over and we agree that it was perfect timing because
the hospital was practically empty and since it needed to be done might
as well get it over with fast.  I’m so
tired……. I figure I’ll probably sleep tonight out of exhaustion if
nothing else.  I’ll keep ya’ll updated but I’m pretty sure that
all the excitement is over.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

check the links above if you don’t know the symptoms for a heart attack or gall bladder

Not that I’m Scrooge in real life. I mean I don’t go around town saying
“Bah Humbug” to little kids or make them run crying to their mommies.
But damn, I really miss having what I consider a normal Christmas.
This will be our third Christmas that we haven’t had any family or
presents or decorations of any kind including a tree. It makes me
incredibly sad. The logical part of me doesn’t want to buy decorations
only to get attached to them and then have to decide whether to leave
them behind or spend the money and mail them back to the states when we
leave Germany. (We have already accumulated to much.)  The
illogical part says its not just a bunch of decorations, its a state of
mind. And along with missing my family I feel like I’m missing the best
aspect of Christmas too.  The exchange of goodwill as well as well
as gifts bought from the heart, the kind of gift that you didn’t ask
for.  I’m sure that I’m missing all kinds of bad stuff too. Like
the shop ’til you drop mentality that’s becoming so pervasive
everywhere.
Will I someday look back on this time of my life and think it was all
worth it or will I look back and wish we had never come? No one can
answer that and maybe that’s a good thing. After all would we ever risk
anything if we knew the outcome beforehand. There is so much I enjoy
about being here and it really is a wonderful opportunity, but oh the
trade offs!

Did I ever tell you we lived in Spain for 2 1/2 years. We did. In a
small town called Loeches. I will never forget the first time someone
said to me “Speak Spanish, your in Spain.”  Now it’s “Speak
German, your in Germany.”  Did I ever tell you I have never
thought I had a facility for languages? Have I ever mentioned how
isolated I feel, to be trying to make friends and the only thing your
able to do is sit there quietly while they laugh and chatter around
you. It’s not that anyone is trying to be rude. And it isn’t as if we
didn’t ask for this, but at times like Christmas it gets pretty
hard.  Then when I ask for friends to email and they claim to be SO busy I’m torn between understanding and the thought that the truth is they just aren’t making me a priority in their life. Should they? It’s not their fault I’m lonely. 

So here I am. In all my whiny glory. Not Scrooge and not The Grinch.
But definitely some kind of cartoon character. Waiting for Christmas to
end. And the funny thing is, I’m still ready to have Christmas pop out
of the box and smack me in the face with a pie full of good
cheer.  Wish it would hurry up! In the meantime…..
Frohliche Weihnachten in German
or
Merry Christmas
or
if I remember correctly
Feliz Navidad

Hi guys and gals. Look at me…not dead yet! Of course I’m not moved
into the apartment completely and I’m not ready for Christmas either.
So there’s all kinds of nots. There are also all kinds of lovely things
to go along with the nots. Chief among them the new friends I have met
since we moved to this part of the country. Very friendly and welcoming
people, German as well as American. I’m going to take pictures of the
place so that everyone can make fun of me for taking such an unsuitable
apartment. But the lure of having an American couple right next door
swayed me. And as far as friends go “A”, my new neighbor and her
husband “M”  are generous and SO helpful. We hit it off right away
and it is so incredibly wonderful to have a woman friend again. 
As for the  apartment its not really completely unsuitable, just
the incredibly tiny kitchen and bath. But I look at it this way. Now
that its just me and the ol’ Bear I rarely cook a big dinner. We eat
our main meal at lunch, him at work and me here at home. But even then
I don’t cook my lunch, its usually cold. So a tiny kitchen isn’t
impossible. The worst part of it being so tiny is how hard it is wash
dishes It has one sink about the size of a small tub and no counter
space. That and the cabinet space is so limited that half the food is
hidden in the dining room part of the apartment.. Anyway, if I ever get
my stuff unpacked and put away I’ll take pictures of it and then you’ll
understand better. 

Meantime sorry I haven’t been around much this past month or so. I’m
hoping that by the new year I will not only be organized house wise but
my back will be healed up enough that I can sit at the computer for
longer than 1/2 an hour at a time.

I hope everyone is having a happy holiday time. I love the decorations,
Christmas markets and seeing all the happy little kids. Hopefully all
of you are having a good time and aren’t to stressed out with work and
family obligations.  I’m trying to get my Christmas cards
mailed…slowly… hope they get there before the new year.