much like the NZ one-day team up the middle of any tournament...

she's still alive, but only by net run rate.


What we thought was the long-awaited day finally arrived, when I got a text at 8:30am - "off to theatre now!". They had decided last week that the stoma wasn't going to cut it, and after the false start that was all of yesterday, it was her turn.

I've clearly not been trained as a Surgeon. First of all, the milk of human kindness has yet to be beaten from my weary soul. Secondly, I tend not to rush to IV Augmentin to treat a bit of a fever. Thirdly, I don't have a clue about the complexity of surgery. I was telling make-do-mum-in-law that this would be a quick sub-one hour nip and sew, that she'd be in recovery for a couple of hours and it'd be kippers and scones for afternoon tea. When I got the thumbs-up call from the surgeon to let me know that he was done, it was close to 12:30, which suggests an op time of 3 hours +. He then went on to tell me how tricky the procedure had been, but that they'd always known that this would be a hard operation. Furthermore, given how much stress the tissue around the stoma had been subjected to, they were worried about infection so they haven't actually sewn her up just yet - they'll leave it open but dressed, and assess in a few days and hopefully finally patch her up then. I'd be perfectly happy to do it myself at home under local anaesthetic - yet another blurring of the boundaries she tells me they used my IV line to induce her anaesthetic).

But despite all of that, at the very least the stoma is gone. I'd lost count of the number of times it had leaked, and even if she knew she'd never tell me. Apparently the skin surrounding it is quite unhappy, and that must be one reason to leave things alone for a bit.

I'm sure her dynamic power zap sports energy drink is simply Raro in a silver package.

Trust the NZ team to take a run-chase that should have lasted 25 overs and turn it into the director's cut of "the Great Escape".

Tonight was much fun. Oldest one chose not to brush her teeth. I "compromised" by making her brush her teeth anyway.

She had her colonoscopy exactly 2 months ago. It was a Tuesday - I'd taken the day off work because she was going to be sedated and therefore more stoned than usual. I'd have preferred to have spent the last two months practicing guitar or teaching the kids how to ride a bike, but there you go.

She sleeps.

#1 Husband