I'm baaaack!

Ladies and Gentlemen, your first live post from the Patient Hotel!

The wonderful Kelli has been keeping you all up to date and I cannot thank her enough for being my guest blogger, and for being a fantastic friend during all of this.

I arrived at the hospital Tuesday morning at 9 AM only to be told that they weren't quite ready for me yet, so we sat in the waiting room until about 10:00 AM or so. They then gave me an extremely stylish set of hospital clothes - no open back gowns here! The fabric felt a bit like terry cloth. The top was a button down shirt that fell just below the butt, pretty much like wearing a man's shirt, and the briefs were true granny briefs - they came up way, way too far! The also gave me some socks, the kind lacking any elastic whatsoever, so you put them on and they just immediately fall down. So, I took them back off.

Once properly dressed in Viborg's finest, I had to just lay in the bed and wait. They came and shot me in the gut with a blood thinner, apparently to avoid clotting while I stayed in bed for 24 hours. They also hooked me up to an IV line at this point. Before they wheeled me away, Kelli had arrived so Ole and I got some time to chat with her and that helped pass the time. I had a nurse attending to me, and she had a student nurse following her - the student nurse was a dead ringer for Drew Carey, so that's what I called him! Then Mario Andretti showed up to drive my bed from my room to the surgical area.

In the surgical area, I was forced to put the socks back on, and then I had to confirm which breast they were removing - a good safety check in my opinion. The nurses there then gave me some fancy plastic bootie shoes and a wonderfully fashionable hairnet - woohoo. I got out of bed and walked into the operating room. Now I had a team of nurses frolicking around me attaching things to me, asking questions, etc. At some point during all of this, they all exited and the surgeon came in to draw lines all over me. He left again, the gaggle of nurses returned, and with them, my favorite person in all of this - the doctor who would knock me out. First I was given what they were calling a 'block' - which I later figured out must have been an epidural of some kind. They gave me a shot in the spine and it felt like I imagine a house must feel when you blow insulation into its walls. Kinda cool really. Finally, they had me lay down and that's when the nice knock-out doctor gave me the good stuff - can't really tell you much after that point!

Cut to much later - I remember someone telling me that it was over, but that was all I heard. I recall waking a few times and asking for something to drink, and then immediately falling back to sleep. Eventually, at 7:10 pm, I woke up again and asked someone what time it was and then I asked when I could go back to my room, and they said "right now". And so, I got wheeled back and my 3 danish roommates cheered my arrival. They were so welcoming - apparently I'd been gone quite some time, and they were all happy to see me come back awake and smiling. Ole and Kelli then joined our little room party, Drew Carey brought me some food, and my day's ordeal was over.

The worst part of day one was not for me personally, but for Ole and Kelli. As it turns out, no one was telling them anything about whether or not I was out of surgery and that had them quite worried. Ole kept trying to get information but none was forthcoming and he was understandably frustrated. When I finally returned to the room, he was very relieved!

So that was day one. There is more to tell regarding the rest of the days until this point, but I figured day one was enough information for my first post surgery blog!

I was able to read all of your comments and I want to thank each and every one of you - you have definitely made this easier for me and I appreciate it so, so much!

On the mend....

I had a great visit with Patti today and was AMAZED at how great she looked! You would never know that she had major surgery only 3 days ago if you saw her today! She was happy and positive and in my opinion, back to the Patti we all know!

So I started thinking..... how can she be recovering so fast?! Is she really THAT tough?! And then I looked around at where I was! The Viborg Regional Hospital PATIENT HOTEL! She has her own private room, complete with a tv, private bathroom and internet connection, plus the ability to come & go as she feels up to it! The nurses are on site, ready for whatever the recovery patients need. There is a great little "cafe" set up for the patients, complete with a balcony to enjoy the Danish springtime while you eat, and there is even a MONORAIL to transport you across the street to the hospital should you need it! It looked like something from Disneyworld!

So I got a first hand view of the Danish health care system.... and I must say, I AM IMPRESSED!

And just to show Patti´s mom and her growing fan base that she REALLY IS doing great, we had the woman in the HOTEL reception take our picture this afternoon! See..... I told you...SHE LOOKS GREAT! :o)

Hopefully she will get to go home Monday! And on that note ...a message to all you Jutland-dwelling ex-pats... We are going to organize a MEAL DELIVERY PLAN for Patti and Ole after she goes home, so if you want to participate, email me or contact me on facebook (both contacts are on my blog )

Wednesday´s Update

I was not able to make it to Viborg yesterday, but I did talk to Ole and get an update on Patti.
She was moved to the "Patient hotel" yesterday, and actually, she WALKED across the street to the hotel, on her own, so that tells you a great deal about how she is doing!

She is still very tired from the long surgery and the anesthesia, so she is spending much of her time sleeping and resting. Her body just needs time to heal from Tuesday.

She will be in the Patient Hotel from 3 to 5 days... until she feels ready to go home. They want to keep her there, for sure, until they are able to remove the drain that they had to insert during the surgery.

They also were able to meet with the doctor yesterday to talk with him about how the surgery went. He gave a great report and said that what he expected to do (remove Patti's right breast and 1 lymph node) was exactly what he ended up doing... so that was GREAT NEWS! Everything has been sent to pathology and within the next week or so, they will find out what the results are and what measures need to be taken in the future.

Continue to keep Patti and Ole in your thoughts and prayers... and pray that she does not go stir crazy while she is "stuck" recovering! :-) I think if she could get her laptop and her Bejewled Blitz games up and running, she would be much happier!
Oh and she would be REALLY happy if none of you would beat her high score while she is out of commission!!

More to come!
Kelli

Update on Patti

Sorry to disappoint those of you who are expecting a Half-Danish/Half-English post from Patti´s "guest blogger"....but tonight is all ENGELSK! :o)


I just got home a few minutes ago from Viborg and am happy to report that I left Patti ,AKA PING, smiling and eating a roll with "smør og ost" as ALL bread products in Denmark are served! It was a long day for Patti as Ole and I sent her off with 2 very YOUNG nurses at 12.45 and we did not see her again until 7.15 tonight. Her recovery took a bit longer than the expected 2 hours, but I think it was just Patti´s body way of forcing her to rest after such a huge trauma.

We did not get to talk to the surgeon tonight, but hopefully by the time I go back to Viborg tomorrow, we will have more news that I can share with you from the doctor.

The plan is that sometime tomorrow she will be moved to the "Patienthotellet"... this fancy "Halfway House" (Patti´s term!!) which is where you have your recovery before you go home. She should be there 3 to 5 days. It is a very fancy looking building that is part of the Viborg hospital and I cannot wait to see it in person! (And yes, I warned Patti that I am bringing the camera tomorrow!)

So thank you all for your love and prayers and good wishes all day. I know she felt them and I can tell you all that Ole and I did as well as we waited.

Good night to our blogger friends. It just amazes me that our tiny little blogs have connected us the way that they have..... especially at times like this when we need each other so much.

Hugs from Patti (and the guest blogger too!)

Kelli

Uhh.. I'm a bit hungry over here!

Tomorrow is the day of my surgery.

I have approximately 4 more hours in which I am allowed to eat anything. If you follow this blog, then you know that I don't usually do the cooking around here. There is meat in the refrigerator waiting for the magical moment when Ole will fire up the grill and turn that meat into yummy hamburgers. But that moment has seemingly been temporarily delayed while he sits and stares at some Danish soccer match on TV. Apparently it's very exciting - his team isn't playing but rumor has it that a very high ranked team is getting a pounding from a very low ranked team, and that means there is some random cheering, in Danish, coming from the living room. As long as the food appears before midnight, I'm good!

Tomorrow morning I'm not allowed to eat or drink after 6 am, which basically means that if I want to have anything to drink in the morning, I'll have to get up early, but if I can't have my coffee (with cream) what's the point of that? Sheesh.

I had to call the hospital today to find out what number I've been assigned in the surgical order - and apparently I'm #3, which means that instead of getting there at 7 AM, I don't have to be there until 9 AM. Not so bad, though I think I'd prefer to just get up and go rather than sitting around waiting.

I just want to take a moment, again, to say thank you to all of you who have taken the time to send me nice comments, Emails, phone calls, and cards. I feel pretty lucky to have such wonderful people in my life!

I hope to be back and writing very soon, but in the meantime, I've asked my fellow expat and friend, Kelli, if she would be so kind as to post an update or two for all of you as my guest author. Maybe you'll even get that update in Danish too! (She's all crazy like that posting in Danish and English - a skill I haven't yet managed to acquire!)

See you on the flip side!

Got tea?

I'm baaaack!

Spent last week in Washington State and have made it safely home again to Denmark. Going to the states is generally for 1 of two reasons - for work, or for family. Unfortunately, as the two things are on opposite coasts, the trip never covers both.

Back in December, we traveled for family and spent the holidays seeing mine. As Ole was able to go with me on that trip, we brought extra suitcases for the purpose of hauling back jars of iced tea mix. Unfortunately, winter in the Northeast isn't a great time for iced tea selection and the stores had decided to not carry my particular brand in the winter months. Had we known in advance that they wouldn't have it in the store, we probably could have arranged something, but I had just assumed it would be there, and I was wrong. We did, however, still manage to fill up those 'extra' suitcases with all kinds of other items so all was not lost. But, my lack of tea problem remained. And no, another brand cannot be substituted. I think iced tea mix is one of those things where you find one you like, and nothing else will do. Having me attempt another brand, with a different sweetener, would be like telling a Coca Cola drinker that they'd have to make do with Diet Pepsi.

So this past week I was scheduled to head to the states for work. And this time, I planned ahead. My friend, co-worker and all around life-saver, pre-ordered iced tea mix for me from the local grocery store. She arranged a price per case that beat the shelf price, so I said go ahead and order 10 cases. I knew I wouldn't actually be able to get 10 cases back here in one trip, but the stuff doesn't go bad, and I'd like to avoid a future crisis, so voila, 10 cases were waiting for me in Washington. Happy Day!

I had brought along two very large suitcases and very few clothing items. Knowing the tea was the goal, I also had to limit my normal USA shopping to just a few essentials - namely, zip lock bags.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for - just how much did I manage to haul back?....

 

Yes, there you have it! Nearly 5 full cases. I had the room, but the weight was a bit heavy so 2 of the cases had some jars extracted to get under the 50 lb limit on the big suitcases. Each of the big bags had 2 cases in them, and I had one case in my carry-on. Mind you, that raised some eyebrows at the security checkpoints!! No one said a word at Seatac but upon arrival in Copenhagen, the security folks asked me if I was carrying syltetøj (jelly/jam). I then explained that it was iced tea mix - my guess is that's the first time they have ever encountered 12 jars of iced tea mix in a carry-on! Doesn't everyone come back from the US with iced tea? Apparently not. All in all, 55 jars of tea made it back and each jar makes 35 quarts.. I should be good for awhile!

But wait, there's more!

I arrived home to a very, very nice surprise! On thursday, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law had come over and cleaned my house from one end to the other. The house is amazingly clean - I have no idea what they did differently from what I normally do but I could definitely get used to this! The place is gleaming. Every knick-knack has been spit polished and artfully arranged, my plants look like they're all brand new, the floors are shining - it's unreal. My awesome hubby had arranged all of this while I was away and he also purchased two bouquets of fresh flowers and an orchid. I love my Dane!

Spring in Denmark

Sometime last fall I went around and dug up all the various bulbs I had stuck in the ground the previous year. I decided to revamp one of my flower beds and just fill it up with all kinds of bulbs. The great thing about tulips and daffodils is that they're so reliable - you just stick them in a hole and a few months later, they reward you by growing. The dogs generally don't eat them, (I say generally because.. well.. I have found some on the lawn here and there so a few were 'sniffed' out and dug up) and that's always a plus in this house. At this point, I don't think I can count the number of rose bushes that have been consumed by a certain black dog. She did grow up a little and recover a bit from her rose eating obsession, but then we got a 2nd dog, and this one eats trees, and anything resembling a tree. Doggie #2 has pretty much destroyed a favorite azalea bush though I'm still holding out hope that it will miraculously spring back to life.

Back to the bulbs. Just for extra 'doggie' protection, I dug a few inches down in the entire bed, dropped every bulb I could find into the flower bed, and then took some of that green wire fencing and set that down over all the bulbs prior to shoveling all the dirt back in - puppy proofing. Getting your paws stuck on a fence seems to work to prevent further digging. Genius!

Spring has arrived, the daffodils are in full blooms, and now all my beautiful tulips are arriving one by one (and some hyacinth too!)... yeehaw!