I have a date set for the operation - Monday 15 November. I have to go in the afternoon before for all the pre-operative preparations. They advise that I will be in hospital between 7-10 days. I am planning on getting myself out of there in 7 as I want to spend the least amount of time there and come home and recuperate.
So with the date set - what to do to keep myself positive and stop the slide into the dark side happening again. After a trip to the cinema to see Eat Pray Love with Neil & Rosemary where Julia Roberts spends the Eat part of the movie in Rome chomping her way through pasta pizza and all that lovely well known Italian food sloshed down with a glass of red wine - the temptation was too great. So after discussing the benefits of said trip with Neil and encouraged by Gillian who loves Italy off I went on the 20th Oct for 3 days. The plan was for me to have a day or 2 on my own and then Neil would join me. The joys of having a partner that works for an airline is that you can act on a whim and normally get a seat on the plane without it costing you a small fortune! I had a wonderful time wandering around looking at beautiful buildings, paintings, statues and fountains as well as eating delicious food of course.
 |
| Eat....... |
The sun shone and it was 20C - perfect for sight seeing.
 |
| Two old ruins......... |
St Peter's was beautiful and said a few prayers not only for me but asked for help for other loved ones that are going through a similar experience as myself.
 |
| Pray.... |
I could hardly believe it was late Oct especially when we dined outside on 2 nights - more than we did here in the summer! It got even better when Neil joined me - we chattered our way through Rome and enjoyed ourselves so much we decided to stay an extra night:-).
 |
| Love..... |
I count myself very lucky to have made that trip as not only did I not think about operations, cancer et al but we had a pact not to talk about it. Call this denial I like to call a distraction. The trip has proved to be a turning point in me getting myself back into a positive frame of mind.Of course I am worried about the op - I have never been in hospital before and now I have the prospect of 3 to 5 hours of surgery. But I felt refreshed and strengthened by the experience to go onwards with this journey I find unexpectedly to be on. I feel more positive than I have felt during the rest of Oct and thanks for all your emails and calls - many of which Neil had to answer.
 |
| A view to remember |
Then the following week the long awaited and planned since April trip to Paris happened - more in a separate blog later - but I did not think over the summer that I would be able to make it - and I did!!!
Think I need to explain the unusual pose outside St Peter's, it's a silly tradition to pose like a Japanese tourist in front of as many well known landmarks as I can..hope the real Papa did not think I was being disrespectful :-)
ReplyDelete