One Week Post-Op

Dr Demers, my neurologist, took pictures of the ct scan of my cervical spine before and after the surgery.  The piece you see dangling near the top and just to the left of center is my broken c1 vertebra.

And here's the surgical result - a giant screw goes up through the fractured c2 into the broken c1, fastening them securely together.  The surgery was done through the roof of my mouth which is on the left, with access through an incision in my throat.  And now that it's healing, it doth itch!

I have to wear the cervical collar for three months and other than this literally being a pain in the neck, I just need to hunker down and wait it out.  I was happy to see just now that my Knit Picks yarn has shipped.  This would not be a good time to run out of knitting.

On the upside, I'm going to be getting a kitten on Saturday.  Somehow that came out of some comments on Facebook.  While we were waiting for my pre-surgical cat scan on Tuesday, I asked Ian if this might be a good time to think about a kitty.  He asked me after surgery if I remembered my question from the day before.  Of course I did!  Annabelle's granddaughter Serenity has been socializing her kittens for adoption.  She picked this one for me because she loves to be held and purrs in appreciation.

Alexia is very excited.  She originally wanted to go with me to pick out a kitten, whenever that ended up happening.  Annabelle and Serenity are driving up from Stagecoach, Nevada to deliver the kitten on Saturday.  Chrissie and Alexia are coming up to be part of the adoption.  Alexia came up with 120 names and typed them up for me, and they're really good names.  I think there are probably a lot of calicoes named Callie, and even though I like it, I'm leaning towards Madeline - Sweet Madeline.

I didn't do much reading last two months because I was so focused on getting ready for craft fairs, and we all know where that got me.

The Magician's Apprentice by Ann Patchet.  This was being informally passed around The Tuesday Book Club - very fun.

Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon And this is what we read for August.  We discovered that this is one of those books that you need to map out of the characters right up front.  He keeps  it to the same group and the initial confusion goes away.  I didn't realize for probably 30 pages that the characters were Black so had to retool my mental images - somehow I thought they were Jewish.  More than half our group are nurses so the topic of midwives drew a lot of interest.  Great book.

Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan I read this on the recommendation of the high school librarian I subbed for last month.  It was totally entertaining and I'm getting ready to read this author again.

Gulp: adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach Sue Flynn recommended this and said she could hardly put it down.  This is my third time for this author and while she was just as engaging as always, I'll never forgot Hirschsprung's Disease and Elvis Presley!

I read a couple of other books but these are the ones that I would recommend, if you're looking for something else to read.