It's not a laughing matter

Who ever said that laughter is the best medicine had never had their abdomin cut open, filled with CO2 gas so to become a doctor's personal balloon.

I started having those pains again that I was having a month ago, back when I went to the ER the first time. It started Sunday when I was in Vienna- Then Monday I still wasn't feeling well. By Tuesday I told Dorothee I was ready for the ER again. So she dropped me off on the way to work. By 2pm they had determined that there was a fluid in my abdomin that shouldn't be there, and it might be blood, so they needed to operate to find out if I was bleeding internally. Let the fun begin.

By 3pm I was on the OR table and later that evening I woke up with two new holes and a few bright blue stitches. That and a body full of the CO2 gas which had been used to inflate me so they could insert a tool to move my organs around. What fun.... I will spare you the pictures as I'm not a pretty sight right now, but you'll be happy to know I'm not bleeding internally, instead I may have an infection on the inside lining of my abdomin which has been causing all the problems, though we won't know until Monday. Until then, the CO2 is floating around in my body- making me achy and sore. It feels like I have pinched nerves, pulled muscles and my jaw feels like I have been clinching it for hours on end. In short- I hurt. You would think the docs would send me home with pain killers. But noooooo. I want morphine and I'm taking asprin. I asked Dorothee last night if she would kindly take a sledge hammer to my forehead. She said that the authorities may not like her killing the au pair. I guess she's right.

For now, I'm wishing for unconciousness. I hurt when I walk, sit, stand, lie still, sneeze, cough and let's not forget- laugh.

Day of a million errands and First Trip to Stuttgart

Here are some pictures of the girls and me. I like to call the swing we are in in the picture the "Big Bird Swing". I think if fits. How about you?

Today Dorothee and I went and opened a bank account, registered me in the village, went to the post office, and went to the market. Their market is awesome. (Jessica, you will LOVE their cheese selection! I told Dorothee as much.) It was a lot of fun. Sadly, Cheerios do not exist in Germany. I did find another cereal that looks sort of like Cheerios, but I haven't tried them yet. I'll let you know how they go.





FYI- The cool outfit I am wearing in the picture is one I bought today while in the city with two new friends, Lisa and Kyra. Lisa works at Paula's Kindergarten, and Kyra is a friend of Lisa's. It was a lot of fun. We went to Stuttgart where we walked down a road that is lined with fashion stores. Lots of fun. There were three H&M's along the road, and Kyra is obsessed with H&M. After a few minutes I could see why.

After we finished shopping we had to go back to Lisa's parents' house because she was going to babysit her brother's girlfriend's baby. I got to meet some really cool people and hang out. Lisa made me a tradition swabische ravioli like dish. It was really good. :)

And really cool tonight. My dad got his webcam up and running. Woo hoo! That was nice. So I got to have a nice long talk with dad. Here's a picture of him. The real him. (no, he's not playing with the camera, that's his real face ;))

I will be loading videos onto the site tomorrow as well as some pictures of where I'm staying.