Where do I begin....

Hey folks,

Long time, no speak. I know. Hence the title of my post. A lot has gone down in the past month....

To start, for those interested in my progress with Nano....well, there was no progress with Nano this year. Total word count = 0. I was all signed up and ready to go, and then I got sick. Again.

See, for the last few months, periodically, I would get violently sick. Nausea, throwing up, pain, the whole works. (If I really had to describe it, it would be like a steamroller, rolling back and forth over my stomach.) The first time it happened, I thought that it was a stomach bug, since the symptoms disappeared the very next day. Only the symptoms came back. Several times. Fast forward to the first week of November and yet another attack, which finally pushes me to go to the doctor.

So the doctor runs an entire battery of tests, and some levels in my bloodwork were elevated, so they decide to do an ultrasound. Seems the levels were indicative of problems with my gall bladder. So they do the ultrasound and when I got those results back, it shows that I have gall stones. Don't know how many. Don't know what size. Just that it means that I have to have my gall bladder removed.  I met with the surgeon the day before Thanksgiving, and he will be doing the procedure within the next few weeks. (Thankfully, they will wait until after my final exams in December.). Good news is that he wants to do it laproscopically, which is the easiest way to do the surgery.  I won't even need to stay in the hospital overnight. On the flip side, there is still the chance of open surgery, which would mean a hospital stay and long recovery time.  Won't know for sure how this will be done until he gets me on the operating table.

So that is why Nano, for me, never got off the ground. Between doctor's visits, and freaking out over my condition, it was hard enough to keep up with school, much less anything else.  I do want to write the story I intended to write, and I will. But I had to figure a way to cope with this first. I know this type of surgery is common, so I shouldn't be worried. But this is the first surgery of any kind that I have had, and the idea of surgery scares me a bit. ("A bit" is an improvement over when I first found out. Initally, I was scared a LOT.). I guess that there is always a fear in the back of my mind of something going wrong. I try to not think about it too much, but every once in a while, the fears keep creeping back.

I made what was probably  a mistake last night and e-mailed the friend I meantioned in my past posts. The last time I mentioned the friend, he had contacted me with a brief e-mail saying that we would talk soon. Well, that talk never took place. I tried to get in touch a few times since that e-mail, but never recieved a reply. Probably screwed things up with my inability to back off.... Anyway, it was suggested to me that, despite the fact that he and I are not currently speaking, that he would still want to know about what is going on with me, medically. So I took a leap and I wrote him an e-mail last night, explaining the situation. I told him that, when he and I do end up speaking again, that I didn't want it to be because he felt he had to say something (because of my medical problems), so I wasn't expecting a reply. Not until he was ready to talk. So I wasn't suprised to not receive any kind of reply today. Although, to be honest, I wish he had replied. I really miss him. More then I think I even realized. I wish I had his support right now.  I think I would feel better if I did.

(If any of you know who "the friend" is, and you are in contact with him. Don't tell him I said this. The last thing I want is to put any kind of pressure on him.)

Ok, so I really need to get some sleep. I'll let you guys know more when I find out...