"It must suck to be you."

Well, I've had an interesting few days. I just spent the night in the hospital in Frechen because I had to have a cyst removed yesterday. I first noticed there was something wrong on Friday, but the skin just felt a little tender and I thought it was a bruise. Then Friday evening I noticed a small lump which, by the end of the day Saturday, was a large and very painful lump. Despite 2 days of hot compresses and baths, it did not go away or improve at all. So yesterday Esther took me to the doctor, who said that the cyst, which was a little over 2 cm in diameter (about an inch), had formed in a gland that somehow got plugged and that, unfortunately, the only way to remove it when this happens is surgically. It hurt like hell, so Esther took me straight to the hospital to get it checked out and hopefully operated on. Luckily I had started fasting on Saturday, so we didn't have to wait a day to make sure that there was no food/water in my stomach (I had water in the morning but by 4 pm it had been long enough to make it ok to operate). So Esther canceled her meetings for the day, brought my pajamas, a toothbrush, a magazine and my lavender-scented teddy bear to the hospital for me, and took care of the kids while I was gone. It was a quick and easy operation, and I was back home in less than 24 hours, but it still sucked to have to go through all that. What a pain in the ass. Now I'm back home, and I just have to kind of take it easy for a few days so that I don't irritate the incision. So Amelie will be having short walks for the rest of the week (unless Olaf takes her while he's home) and I will be doing minimal work (as if I really did that much to begin with!) until I'm fully healed. So, since vacation I've had a horrible cold, pink eye, and an operation. I think it's enough. Time to be healthy again.