Adventures in Health and Safety

[ailbhe]

Health:

I am, apparently, still bitter about the whole postnatal damage thing. Someone asked me today how my surgery had gone, and could I feel a difference, because they didn't know if it was anything I was bothered by, or just something that needed to be fixed sometime.

I said "Yes, I can feel a difference. I'm continent now. I still can't have sex, because [graphic description of a rectocele cut for your viewing pleasure] but I'm very pleased with it."

She didn't seem to mind my vicious reaction. Possibly my Excessively Polite tone is less alarming to Very Polite People than to the rough-and-ready louts I usually hang out with. With whom I usually hang out. I am always rewriting sentences like that in my head, dammit, and that's probably a sign of acute grammaritis.

Safety:

Partially because now that Linnea is walking fairly competently, and partially because on Tuesday I have unknown numbers of NCT girls (yes, girls, not women, I checked with most of them, and it's girls or girlies) thronging in for coffee (except that we all drink tea!) with their souper duper baby transport devices, we need to do something about our stairgate situation.

Currently, we have three downstairs and none upstairs. There is one door in the front room or library, opening onto the hallway. There are two doors in the rear room or dining room, opening onto the hallway and kitchen. All three of these doorways have stairgates. Steeplechase for cats, I quote, but I don't know who...

We want to replace the two in the hallway so that Linnea can go out of the library and into the dining room. This means putting a gate at the bottom of the stairs, and obtaining a Device or Mechanism for fencing off the front door.

The Device or Mechanism on which we have settled is the Kiddyguard, which John Lewis are holding for me until tomorrow morning, whereupon I will buy it and lug it home somehow. It is small enough, when not in use, that buggies can be wheeled past it, and wide enough to go from one side of the hall to the other (the hall is less than 40 inches wide, mind you).

Oh, what a relief! Aren't you glad I didn't resort to ASCII diagrams?

Comments

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I'd been wondering how you were. Mentally, as well as physically.

I don't think I even want to know what a rectocele is (torn rectum, I'm assuming). Do you know yet how long it will take to physically heal as much as is possible? (I hope I phrased that in a non-upsetting way). Are you able to get around without pain and do most of the things you could do before?

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

no! i want ASCII diagrams.

uh, well, not of the rectocele. :)

possibly she realizes that what happened to you was horrible, and did therefore not mind.

Rectocele

[ailbhe]

No, it's not a torn rectum - it's much less scary. It's like a hernia in the vaginal wall sort of. So awkward, but not as debilitating as a torn rectum would be.

We don't know whether I'm going to want surgery to fix it - I suppose we'll find out when we have the energy to try reimpregnating me. And I am now in very little pain generally and can do all the stuff I want to. It's great :)

Also, the baby has only totalled one keyboard and one very old laptop, so far, so that's great too.

ASCII art of my house

[ailbhe]

OK, coming soon, then.

Yes, maybe there was a "Whoa. OK." moment. Or an "I really wish I hadn't asked" moment.

Re: ASCII art of my house

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

*grin*. of course you don't have to. it's just that i like visual aids when trying to imagine what somebody else's place looks like.

Re: ASCII art of my house

[ailbhe]

I almost never do stuff cos I have to. This is not repeat not to scale - for a start, characters are longer than they are wide, which isn't helping. And it's 20 to 1 am.

The rooms, from front to back, are: Library, Dining Room, Kitchen, Rear Hall, and Bathroom. We initially installed gates (dotted lines) A, B and C, then installed gate D, and moved B to the attic and C to gate E. There's a lovely windowseat in the south-facing bay window, where I lie out and read while Linnea stands between my legs and the glass, paws and nose squashed up to see the outside world.

The alcoves in the library are, of course, full of books, and the wall opposite the window is taken up with Rob's Most Enormous TV In The World and the amp, DVD player, VCR, radio tuner (larger than either DVD or VCR), 5-CD swapper inherited from friend moved back to Canada, digital TV receiver box thing, two floor-standing speakers, one central speaker (on top of the TV) and oh yes, another bookcase, some CDs, the "drinks cabinet" (ha ha), an antique ebony walking stick from Africa, board games, record player and records. Someday I will photograph this room and put it somewhere people can go "How can you get so much stuff into such a tiny house?! Augh! Haven't you watched any reality TV this year?"

    ___
+--/   \--+   + Bay window and front door
|         |  /|
++        | / | Chimney breast, 2 alcoves, wall of books
 |        |   |
 |        |...| Gate D
++        .   |
|         .   | Gate C
|         .   |
+---------+   |
|         .   |
|         .   | Gate B
++        .   |
 |        |...| Gate E
 |        |---| Chimney breast
++        |---| Stairs going up
|         |---|
|         |---|
+[ ]+---..+   | Gate A
    |         | Galley kitchen; both doors
    |         | permanently open
    |         |    
    |         |    
    |         |    
    +---   +--+    
     \        | Rear hall, pantry cupboard, door to garden    
      \       |    
    +-   --+--+    
    |   /     |
    |  /      |
    |         |
    |         |
    +--[   ]--+ Much-frosted bathroom window