Lori had an infection (UTI) so the surgery was postponed till tomorrow.

Thanks, It all went well...was out of the hospital the next day. I had the adult version of Hydrocepalous, which is an excess of fluid on the brain...and much less serious than in people under 60. The surgeon placed a shunt in my skull, behind the ear..that pulls the excess cervical fluid into a tube that goes down to the lower torso. I also have a small scar which allowed the surgeon to identify where the tube emptied out into the abdomen. Before the surgery, they shaved the area, so I had my hairstylist give me a layered haircut. No one can see the bump the shunt made, especially after the stitches came out. I have so many people to thank for prayers and best wishes....they did a great job !

A mastectomy is an amazingly "easy on you" surgery. It's the treatment after that takes it out of me. The next day after surgery I was starving and the hospital food was awful......salty, cold food and warm drinks ( that were meant to be cold!)....so my daughter went out and got me a Big Mac and fries and I gobbled it up. Concentrate on proteins for healing.....and anything she likes....pie is good!! Pizza.....chicken and noodles....a burger fries and a shake! I made 2 loaves of bread and cooked dinner for my daughter's family a week after surgery.....admittedly the bread was made in the Cuisinart and I didn't knead it and someone else did the dishes....Went out for lunch after a week ( wearing a bulky sweater with a lot of pattern! to hide the drains) A mastectomy is not much...no muscles, no vital organs....it's the follow up that's the problem!

I've been with the same company since 1989, and so we are very familiar with each other by now, but it was not like that in the beginning. When I first met my boss, I felt an instant rapport with her and felt like we were meant to be together. When I looked at her furniture, I thought to myself, "These are the exact same proportions I would use," and so I knew from the beginning that we had a compatible design style/sense. It took her a little longer than it did me to realize this, but once she did, she trusted me with all new designs. Kevin has some good friends at work, and a couple of the them live not too far from us. One has offered to help cook and help with grocery shopping, if necessary, but I think I am recovered enough by now to handle shopping. I just cannot get anything heavy yet, but that will come in due time. As for the garden, I will hire help probably in October. It would nice to have him sooner, but he is my friend in Sacramento, and I have to work with his schedule. I don't trust the local landscapers here. I could possibly find a good landscape architect here, but that would be expensive and more than we need right now, although I'll keep it in mind for the future. It depends on what we end up doing in Palm Springs. I think Kevin will be much happier when we can buy a second home in the Palm Springs area. We'll probably end up in Cathedral City (Palm Springs adjacent but not walking distance), and hopefully Cathedral Gulch. This won't start happening until next year, but it's something to look forward do that I think might help Kevin feel better. What is odd is that so many people ask us if we are twins, but I am 15 years (+3 weeks) older, and I think this must be very insulting to Kevin. First people ask us if we are brothers. Then they ask if we are twins. Then they ask which one is older, which is the worst question of all. I've afraid that Kevin is going to appear even older after this ordeal, but if he can have a week-end house in PS, then I think he won't mind so much. I don't know yet how I will look after my full recovery, but I am keeping plastic surgery as an option. I've had hospital technicians tell me that if you live in Los Angeles, then it is almost mandatory. When I had a bike accident that cut my forehead, they would not release me from St. Johns until I interviewed with a plastic surgeon. Back then (around 1996) I did not care about having a small scar or two on my forehead, and now it's barely visible anyway. If anything, what I can see of it makes me look more rugged, I think. I wear bike helmets now. Sorry for rambling - I'm having trouble sleeping some nights, and after just having seen Kevin, I am feeling even more anxious. I think I will be able to help him with most of what he needs, but he is very private and introverted and often likes to be by himself. I hope he will spend his alone time in the back yard instead of his bedroom, but for now, I know it is painful for him to sit in a chair, and I expect that to last for a while. I could see the evidence of the surgery that had been done, having to remove part (or all) of his sphincter, which I mentioned before but had not seen evidence of before. He's going to be on disability for about three months, I think, but since he has been paying disability insurance for many years, he will get paid pretty much his normal salary - from the insurance. However, they deduct Californian disability payments, as California is fairly generous with these payments, and so Kevin will have to apply for those as well - since the payments will be deducted whether he receives them or not. He cannot file for California disability until he gets out of the hospital, but I think he knows how to do this.