Joepie de Poepie!!!

Sorry for letting you know a little late, but hubs is doing fine *collective sigh of relief*
The operation was yesterday morning. Keyhole surgery was successful and he doesn’t have a stoma. So everything went according to plan A.
And that’s why I’m yelling: JOEPIE DE POEPIE. For the very few Dutch readers perhaps a well-known yell from their childhood, made famous by children’s entertainer Ome Willem (Uncle Willem), and of course Mel knows all about Joepie de Poepie too, eh Mel?
Hans and I would like to thank all of you for thinking of us and praying, sending good vibes, caring, all your nice words. Very much appreciated and it really helps to have such a great bunch of people standing right behind you, wherever they are in the world. You are all very special people and I truly love you all. If only I could hug you for real, but I have to do it virtually ((((((you))))))
Yesterday was a bit of a mad day, hence my late post. Because, as if we didn’t have enough going on yet, we also have the builders in. Yup. A case of planning things before one knows one is ill. They started Wednesday a week ago and if all goes well, plan A again, they will finish the whole thing tomorrow.

This is our kitchen before the builders came (the kitchen isn’t on this crooked angle in real life. It’s just me again, incapable of taking a decent photo):






















Then the builders came:





















































This is the end result. Well, almost. The electrician has yet to install spotlights in the ceiling and above the windows in the coves. The plaster is still drying. The windows are Velux and can be opened, using a remote control, which also can be used to turn on and dim the lights in the window coves (eventually, when the electrician has been here and done his thing). We are amazed by the amount of light these windows have brought into our home. Should have done it years ago.
And the floor covers have yet to be removed. In case you were wondering what the hell these people have on their floor.


But this isn’t all the builders have been (and still are) doing.









This is the dining space before:








Again, Velux windows, but four of them. Unfortunately they weren’t spaced out correctly, so the outside blinds didn’t fit and the bottom two windows had to be lowered. But hey, when did building work ever go according to plan anyway. It has been resolved already. The windows are now in the correct place and today the plasterers are plastering this part, and the opposite part of the ceiling.





And then I can start cleaning. I’ve never looked forward to cleaning the house as much as now. But hopefully, when hubs returns home next week (still plan A), everything will be ready and clean and cosy again.
And now I’m off to muck out the stables, give the plasterers coffee, mow the lawn, visit hubs, ride the horses, send someone else to visit hubs, handle all the telephone calls and everything else that needs to be doing.
Love you all!

In Tandem with Jinksy

 

guerrilla gardeners
came in the night
and transformed the bit of wasteland between our houses
into a colourful delight
of purples, blues and greens
and tufts of white

it brightens up our neighbourhood
even on a darker day
we hear the humming of the bees
and see the children play
now hopefully the council will not regulate
our own Guerrilla Garden of Eden away

The Bloggy Brilliant Jinksy provided us with yet another piece of wonderful artwork for inspiration and this is what I came up with. But please follow the link and visit all the other inspired people who no doubt came up with something much more poetic and wonderful. Be sure to go here for a great story and a good laugh.

Very Interesting

But since I titled the previous post ‘Not Particularly Interesting’ and lots of you thought it was interesting and could relate to it, I can’t guarantee that this post is Very Interesting indeed.

Aaaanyway… hubs had ‘intake’ conversations with his surgeon and the anaesthesiologist (hey, typed that correctly in one go! At least Windows Live Writer doesn’t say that it doesn’t recognize the word, so it must be correct.) and they’ve drawn on a picture of what your inside looks like, what they will be removing from his inside. Man! I was shocked. About a quarter of his colon and lots of stuff around it. I thought they would just cut away the tumour and a little bit around it to make sure all the bad cells were gone, but no! They are going to have a ball with the knife in there.

And they will try to do it through laparoscopic surgery, also known as keyhole surgery. Which I thought was almost unbelievable, especially when you see what they want to remove. But in fact there will be multiple ‘keyholes’. Should however during this surgery become clear that multiple holes won’t be enough,  they will do a – what I call – CSI  on him. So cut him open from top to bottom, almost from the neck to where the male parts are. One big hole.

In fact, we had friends staying over this weekend, and she’s a veterinarian. When hubs told her about the laparoscopic plan, she couldn’t believe it either. “We just cut open the belly, take out the intestines, lay them out on the table and are very careful that the inside of the belly stays clean”, she explained. “But hey, I’m talking about fourleggers of course and I’m sure your surgeons know what they are doing”, she tried to reassure us.

We are hopeful the surgeons know what they are doing. They have mentioned that he could wake up with a stoma, temporarily or not. Small chance, but still something to consider. Oh, and if you are squeamish, look away now; they will remove a large part of his colon and have to make a new connection to his rectum, which they will do by inserting a stapler via – I don’t know another way to explain it – his backside and stapling the colon to the rectum again.
I know!
I will never look at a stapler in the same way again.

I’m not sure if hubs appreciates me telling you all these intimate details, but hey… just look at it as educational information.

Surgery will be next Wednesday.