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and last updated April 28th., 2002.
WELCOME TO MY DAY..
IT IS NICE TO HAVE YOU SHARE IT WITH ME...
When I was in hospital, I decided I'd face the reality of suddenly acquiring a stoma by keeping a regular online diary..a "Life With a Colostomy" kind of thing....even wrote the first episode during my second week at home. Funny..once I was out and about again, that sharing was the LAST thing I wanted to do. And I'm darned if I could write the second episode..which upset a few of my readers.
Funny though, having this new part of me is rather like being pregnant again.
My surgeon, the reputable Professor W., says there is one chance in five that after he had effected a join (anastomosis), he will not be happy enough with it to let it function as a normal bowel, in which case he will make ANOTHER stoma, and I will live with THAT for another three months while the anastomosis heals.
The two newest grandkids are beginning to look rather alike, too, despite living on opposite sides of the world.
"I am wondering if you survived the experience" , wrote one gentleman, "Since your journal has ceased.."
Well, folks, I am surviving so far, though there are definite ups and downs, good days and bad.... To live with a colostomy is a lot like having a baby in the house; you have to adjust your routine to its needs. And you become very conscious of what is going into the feeding end ...and that is probably all I should say on that point without a stamped addressed envelope and plain paper wrapper.
It is only when a woman is pregnant that her body becomes, for a time, host to a myriad of sensations not under her control...and the stoma brings that state to mind . It has a life of its own, its own likes and dislikes.
It moves and makes sounds quite independent of any will of MINE.
And it keeps me awake at night, and forces me to adjust my sleeping position, my working hours, my social life..and my wardrobe!
And though we have learned to live together, up to a point,as I did with my children, I shall not be at all sorry if I wake up on May 21st WITHOUT it!
Well, those aren't bad odds, really, so I am keeping my fingers crossed-- not looking forward to another bout of major sugery so soon, of course, but at least this time I will be packing my own suitcase. To that end I have already begin making lists of things I'll take, and setting up a lovely lot of leisure-filling activities for the six weeks after I get home. I've been shopping for knitting wool, and sorting patterns and taking orders , and son Chris has brought me a lot of great sci-fi books. And I'm stockpiling articles to scan for my website, and making lots of good resolutions about keeping this diary page up to date!
And I shall work out the optimum time to colour my hair, and when to depilate the bikini line....last time I arrived in the operating theatre unshowered, untinted, and quite embarassingly bushy for abdominal surgery in a teaching hospital !! 
I had ideas of getting my (temporarily) very short hair softly permed just before I go, but my daughter has strictly forbidden that! It seems the rather radical butchering I was forced to perform on my anaesthetic-ravaged hair ( when the ends turned white and frizzed and I couldn't get out to a hairdresser) is popular with almost everyone. Funny, even our male customers like it.
And of course it is sensible to keep it like this for a hospital stay..quick to dry in those awful first few days when a shower is such an effort, no need for conditioner, no back- of- head -against- pillow tangling- just wash and wear!
Trouble is..I HATE it! I have always hated it like this. And the more people tell me they LOVE it like this, the MADDER I get!!
Elder son and daughter in law are amused though..now their little girl, Astra, and her Gran have the same hairdo!!.
And the son in Abu Dhabi did manage to get his boat into the water. And here we were thinking he was living in a desert!
Nice lad- used the internet to send the most incredible "bright arrangement" of sunflowers to the hospital room, and called me there several times from so far away. He plans to visit again soon with his wife and two littlies, so it is a pity he and his parents are bound to disagree on the situation in Israel.
Actually, once I began to recover, and as soon as I demonstrated that I could manage the stoma, I was evicted so swiftly that I took ALL my flowers with me. Not one arrangement had been given time to fully wilt, and husband had quite a job hiking them all to the car. Nor did I ever get to enjoy a proper hospital meal, going home to cook while still officially listed as "light ward diet", which meant sandwiches, and jelly and icecream...and HUNGER!
Anyway, I went home after ten days to the summer that had seemed elusive , and the stoma sister came to visit me there each week, and between times I read a lot and slept a lot and cooked the evening meal most days, and actually went back to work sooner than scheduled--though not fulltime. The stoma makes it difficult for me to work in the mornings, so I have mainly tried to cover the afternoon shifts.
But as it happened new Senior Staffer, Natalie , rose to the occasion nobly in the two weeks I was totally out of action, and continued doing the pays and rosters even after I came home, despite having only taken on the role a few weeks earlier, after our former Senior had left suddenly, without notice.
And though we seemed to be forever answering questions and correcting errors and organizing new red uniform shirts for people and swapping old ones around, everyone was getting on well at last, and I was kind of congratulating myself and thinking everything would be okay since we still had one experienced senior who could help train the new ladies.
But then the Qualified decided she liked England and her English grandchildren so much, last year, that she is going back in June for at least three months..around the same time that one of the trainee technicians is going to be away at the training course. But, our other Qualified, who is IN England now, should be back by then..so maybe.......
But June is also the month that our morning trainee technician is being released to attend the Official Accreditation course, after which she will have to be promoted, which means several others will need to be bumped up a level, too. Which means all new salary rates , tax and superannuation to be worked out.
And I seem to have this terrible urge to get a lot of things done before I go, a bit like the nesting mother's instinct the night before delivery, I suppose, so I am in a frenzy of sorting out and tidying and finishing up, and at work I'm doing as much as I can ahead of time-- seeing reps, and writing advertising in advance, and trying to anticipate likely problems before they occur. In fact, the way things are going, I think I might heave a sigh of relief when I arrive at the hospital, packed and groomed and organized....and ready for a GOOD REST!.....
But I'll keep y'all posted!
Love to everyone ,and everyone on our side!
-from
GREAT BRITAIN
U.S.A.
BUNDALONG, VICTORIA
U.S.A.
ATLANTA, GA.
BILOXI, MS.
HATTIESBURG, MS
U.S.A.
NEW ORLEANS, LA.
OLYMPIC GAMES, SYDNEY 2000
BACK TO THE OPENING PAGE:
Please mail all your questions,answers and comment about this home page to:
robin_knight@bigfoot.com
©Robin Knight, 2002.
Let us hope it can be "Agree to disagree"!
And it has been a bad time to be part-time! As expected, our customer turnover and prescription totals increased dramatically as soon as the new mall was completed. (Ironically, after all the work I had put in during the awful months when we were building and rebuilding, with the mall taking shape around us, I was in hospital for the Grand Opening!
I wuz ROBBED, folks!)
But Natalie would be leaving to work in Japan at the end of June, and I'd soon need more time off, and we were busy, busy, busy.
It was obvious that we needed more staff, especially when Sharmini, another popular senior we had sent to the Agfa Minilab training course, left suddenly, VERY suddenly..after a family dispute. Unfortunately, I had broken the habit of a lifetime and hired two members of the same family! Never again, folks!!
And despite all our efforts, there was a definite ATMOSPHERE at work, the kind of chill in the air people who work with a lot of women would recognize! 
So one of my first jobs once back was to set up advertising and interviewing for staff who would be able to learn the ropes quickly and be ready to take real responsibility in six weeks or less, and who were NOT related to anyone in any of the small towns which feed us.
And I was rather happy with the two seniors we selected...one experienced in pharmacy and a Photolab and wanting to train as a dispensary technician, and one who'd been an Executive Secretary, experienced in taking charge who'd be quick to learn.
Except that SHE left suddenly, too, after fallout from the family matter that had sent Sharmini hotfooting back to Perth, leaving us without a Staff Welfare person, and our roster in tatters!
And about then our prescription total began to treble rather than double, and the husband was stressing out despite having two trainee technicians as well as Yours Truly, who is trained, and a Qualified Pharmacist all day Mondays.
And the new pharmacy salary schedule always comes out in late June, just before I have to balance the Salaries spreadsheet for the Financial Year, and write everyone's Group Certificates.
And I will not yet be back from sickleave in June, even if everything goes well, since I won't be allowed to drive until at least July, so a LOT of this work is going to have to be done at home! .
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