In February of 2012, when eligible for an upgrade, Mark replaced his android HTC Droid Incredible with an iPhone 4S, staying with Verizon.

A few days ago, Mark reminded me that I was now eligible for an upgrade.  The choices were: upgrade to an iPhone 4S ($99), or to an iPhone 5 ($199), or wait until they release the new version of the 5 and the price for the “old” 5 drops and get an “old” 5.  Or, of course, go with a different kind of phone. Jonathan has a Samsung Galaxy Note II and is beyond thrilled with it – he loves the large screen, the long battery life, and its many features.

Then we started talking, again, about some kind of shared/family plan.  We were paying a total of around $150 every month for the two plans, one with AT&T and one with Verizon.  So, Mark called AT&T and started a google spreadsheet, looking at options.  He was about half way through his contract with Verizon which meant that breaking that contract and joining me with AT&T would incur an early termination fee of $210, a number which would have to be taken into consideration when looking at expenses and potential savings.

Of course, Mark’s phone was a Verizon phone, so in order for us to be on some kind of family plan with AT&T he would need an AT&T iPhone – early upgrade to the iPhone 5 for him.

We had pretty much decided to go with the iPhone 5 (for both of us, one for Mark, one for me), which, at $199 each, was quite pricey.  To which we needed to add the early termination fee for Verizon.  The savings from any kind of family plan would over the next year make up for that.  But it was still a big expense to look at.

A couple trips to BestBuy to look at phones and plans, and to the AT&T store which offered differing details on some of the plans, and then some – no, a lot of – mulling, thinking, revisiting spreadsheet … going online to look at BestBuy’s trade-in value (in the form of gift cards) for used electronics … My 3GS was worth exactly $0.00, but Mark’s 4S could be worth more than $250, and if instead of a gift card they would apply the trade-in value to the transaction it would bring the price of two new phones down quite a bit.

With AT&T, there are two ways to combine plans: one, the family plan, and another, the “Mobile Share Plan“.  For two phones/people, the price for both plans was identical but for our purposes, the mobile share plan was the better option because it gets us a combined 1GB of data, and unlimited calling and texting.  Plus, this plan allows for a free Mobile Hotspot (free tethering) which is very attractive as it’ll allow us to get iPads and laptops online outside of our home or otherwise free Wi-Fi.

The savings (over two separate plans with two different carriers) aren’t that great, definitely not as big as I had hoped and expected, but it will be less than what we have been paying.  Of course there is AT&T’s one-time change-of-plans fee of $36 per phone.

Tuesday, after dinner, we went to BestBuy. The plan was to see if they would use Mark’s phone as a trade-in, applicable right away, not some gift card we’d get in the mail at some later point.  We were prepared to walk out if that was not an option.

Not only was trading in Mark’s phone (for $256) an option and acceptable, the sales representative, when we asked for two iPhone 5′s brought over two boxes and asked whether we would be interested in an “open box” phone  =>  $149 instead of $199 per phone.  We looked the phones over, very carefully, and one of them did indeed have one itty-bitty tiny nick on the side but it didn’t bother me enough. The warranties and guaranties were the same as with a brand-new phone, plus a 14-day return policy (with no restocking fee).  A deal too good to refuse.

I like to add an “Invisible Shield“ to my phone to protect the screen, and, as luck would have it, they even had a soft shell case similar to the one I had had for my 3GS, this one by Rocketfish instead of Belkin.  There was a special “buy two accessories for $45” deal (which our sales representative brought down to $35), so by the time we bought two iPhone 5′s with shield (plus installation fee) and case for one of them, we had spent exactly $115.81.

Without the soft shell case, I still wouldn’t like the feel of the iPhone 5, but between the case, and the improvements over the 3GS – I am thrilled.  It will be a while before I don’t marvel anymore at how crisp the display is, the high quality of the pictures it takes, and how immensely fast this phone is.

Oh, and the sales representative at our local BestBuy was an absolute joy to work with: competent, friendly, unhurried but efficient, efficient but unhurried.  Partly because Mark’s phone had a lot of pictures, it took a long time to transfer them to the new phone, so we spend a good two hours at the store before everything was finished.

Greetings,

2012 has been an eventful year: two surgeries, a trip to New York City, an orchestra audition, rehearsals, and performances, music camps, district and state honor’s auditions, a trip to Germany, gardening, and settling into life at 1009 Laussac Drive.

At the tail end of last year, Sibylle’s persistent nausea resulted in numerous tests and finally gallbladder surgery. After a few days recovery time Sibylle was back on her feet and feeling better. We were warned that it could take up to a year for her system to adapt to not having bile storage in the gallbladder, and true to that warning she suffered from low-grade nausea for several months.  New medication has alleviated the nausea and allowed her to gain back some of the weight she lost a year ago.

After nearly a decade of increasing pain and decreasing flexibility due to arthritis, Mark had surgery on his right big toe at the end of November. The surgery successfully removed the osteophytes that had built up in the joint and he is expecting a full recovery and regained full motion in his toe.

Last March we traveled to New York City for the Music Teachers National Association national convention. Our hotel, also the location of the conference, was just 5 minutes walk south of Central Park. Both of us thoroughly enjoyed a tiny taste of big city life, and both of us are looking forward to a return visit soon.

Over the summer Mark attended two music camps. The first was his teacher’s second annual cello camp, and the second was a music camp aimed at new orchestra members. In April Mark successfully auditioned for a spot in the Gold Orchestra. Starting in August he has had weekly rehearsals, and in October spent an entire weekend with the orchestra at Rock Springs 4H camp for extended rehearsals. The highlight of the weekend retreat was videoing demonstration performance in anticipation of a return to Carnegie Hall in 2014.  In November the orchestra gave two very well received performances.

Twice over the course of the year we were able to attend world class performances at the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City. In February we attended an incredible performance by Yo-Yo Ma, and in June, Jonathan joined us to see Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Sibylle and her youngest son, Chris, traveled to Germany for a week in October. Working long hours they were successful in boxing up and shipping the last of her mother’s belongings to the States. They were fortunate to have wonderfully mild weather and got to do some sightseeing in and around Stuttgart.

Sibylle’s piano studio continues to thrive. This year, three of her students participated in the State Honors Audition in Topeka. One of her students earned a second place – the only student from the district to be awarded this honor. She is also preparing several students for the bi-annual Concerto Competition which will be held in early February 2013. After attending a viola recital and falling in love with the sound of the instrument, Sibylle began playing viola this summer, and has been sitting in with the Bronze Orchestra.

Our home and yard continue to be filled with lots of green growing things. Sibylle has had wonderful luck with roses. And after the first year’s rather dismal lawn, we are both pleased that our grass is green and thick. We feel settled into our home now, and consider ourselves to be very fortunate to have such a nice house located where we can see the far horizon.

We are looking forward to a prosperous and healthy 2013.

Merry Christmas  and  Happy New Year!

It started Sunday when we went to buy a Christmas tree.  We went to all the usual places: Optimist Club, Eastside / Westside Market, Menard’s, Orscheln, Dillons, Walmart, Home Depot, Horticultural Services, checked Ray’s, on Monday went to Blueville Nursery  -  and every single place was out of trees.  Because of Mark still wearing his post-surgery boot (sandal more like = open toe), walking through a tree lot wasn’t an option.  And besides, we were not in a space to want to make nice conversation with the tree-selling people.

We realized to our surprise that we were ok with the possibility of not having a Christmas tree this year.  I am sorry for the very beautiful ornaments we don’t get to put up.  But I was surprised that it didn’t bother me to not have a tree.

Christmas Eve we normally have the traditional German Heiligabend meal: designed to be simple = what they would have had in that manger 2000 years ago:  fish (Cod, white, not oily and rich), potatoes and bread, maybe carrots.  Designed to be as un-fancy as possible.

Driving on Christmas Eve in the Jimmy to the store with Mark, I realized that my stomach was NOT in the mood for fish, I just couldn’t muster any appetite for fish (maybe because I had had salmon for lunch).  We discussed for 3 minutes and realized that the traditional German Heiligabend meal was just not as important this year as it had been the previous years.  In previous years I would have been terribly upset and distraught without the traditional Christmas Eve dinner.  There was coddle left over from the day before, and that’s what we had Christmas Eve, and it was delicious.  We tried to watch Christmas in Connecticut but the VHS tape was weirdly dark, and no subtitles = makes it so hard for me to understand, so we stopped about 20 minutes into the movie and went to do other things: Mark resumed watching the extended special features from Lord of the Rings (Christmas gift from Ted) and I went to work at my new desk.  It felt strangely surprisingly good and right and not-weird to do things so very differently this Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day.  We had pondered what kind of people would go eat out on Christmas Day at our favorite Asian restaurant, Bamboo Buffet (“The Bamboo” we call it), that had put up a sign “Open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!” about a week or two before Christmas.  I suggested that people traveling between home and relatives might stop, on the road, at The Bamboo for lunch.  Mark, with a twinkle in his eye, said, “Well, you know, we could find out for ourselves who exactly is having lunch at The Bamboo on Christmas Day …”  So, we had lunch at The Bamboo.  Nothing Christmas-y about it, except for the Christmas tree by the entrance to the restaurant, and again, it felt surprisingly good and right and not-weird.

Christmas Day dinner was similar to what we had had for Thanksgiving: baked chicken on stuffing, corn and cranberry sauce for Mark, carrots, brussel sprouts, and acorn squash for me.  We had picked up some pecan tarts and pecan/chocolate cookies at Dillons which were perfect for dessert.

Throughout the day, every day since Sunday, we have been checking in with each other, “Are you ok? Are you having a good day?” and the answer has always been a smiling “Yes.”  It is a bit startling to break with tradition, and be ok with it.

We hadn’t set out, intentionally, to not have a Christmas tree this year – it just happened, and it felt surprisingly ok.  We hadn’t set out to not have the traditional Christmas Eve dinner – it just happened, and it felt good and right.

So. That’s what Mark and I did for Christmas this year.

Oh, we also didn’t do presents (for ourselves / each other).  Over the last couple of weeks we had splurged here and there – new desk for the studio, a new vacuum cleaner, books, a laptop stand for Mark to use during his recuperation from toe surgery – all of these have felt like presents so there was nothing on the Christmas present list.  Except for one little thing I am getting Mark.  Should arrive in the mail tomorrow  : )

Mark is 51 years old and works in the Office of Mediated Education at Kansas State University. He is married to Sibylle Kuder, who has a private piano studio. Mark has been playing the cello for 3 years and was honored to play with the Gold Orchestra, his first orchestral playing experience, this year. He enjoys reading, movies, travel, and cooking.

Mark has studied cello for three years, having started at age 48. He is married to Sibylle Kuder who owns a piano studio, and works for Kansas State University. His favorite movie is the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and he just saw part one of The Hobbit and is eagerly awaiting parts two and three. Mark holds a 2nd degree black belt in karate-do, has parachuted, and has been to 49 of the 50 states.

(This is for the cello recital program next week.)

Sibylle and I just had a fantastic weekend in Kansas City. We took in Yo-Yo Ma’s appearance with the Kansas City Symphony Saturday evening, spent the night in a wonderful hotel near Country Club Plaza, treated ourselves to a late night snack at Cheesecake Factory, visited some of our favorite shops in Leawood and Overland Park, and attended a Stanislav Ioudenitch piano master class.

It all started on Tuesday when I discovered that Yo-Yo Ma was going to be performing in the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts with the Kansas City Symphony. We were stunned to discover that there were still tickets left. Exactly two seats for the Saturday evening performance.

Knowing that the drive home is two long hours in the dark we started looking around for a place to stay. We choose the Courtyard by Marriot on J. C. Nichols Parkway and were delighted with our room and the entire experience there. The hotel was originally apartments, and the hotel has preserved much of the 1920s charm in the building. There are still milk closets in the hallways that allowed milk delivery while maintaining peace and privacy in the apartment. Our room, while cozy, was clean and wonderfully inviting.

The concert with Yo-Yo Ma was exquisite. When I was a child, perhaps 10 or 12 years old, my father took me to see him and Emanuel Ax play. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have seen him play live twice. The Dvořák Cello Concerto performance was very good. His encore performance of the Sarabande from the D Major Bach Cello Suite was simply superlative. After the performance we treated ourselves to a late night snack at Cheesecake Factory. We each had an appetizer and a piece of cheesecake. We returned to our room around midnight completely satisfied with our evening.

Sunday we had a long lazy start to the day that included the breakfast buffet in the hotel. Around 11:30 we headed south to Leawood and Overland Park to visit some of our favorite shops. Sibylle found two sweaters and I got a chance to visit the Apple store and drool over the iPhone 4S I’ll be getting in a couple of weeks when I am eligible for an upgrade. We also shopped at Whole Foods, picking up a small lunch there too.

Park University north of Kansas City has an excellent music department including Cliburn Gold Medalist Stanislav Ioudenitch. Sibylle learned that he was giving a piano master class at UMKC on Sunday afternoon, so we timed our shopping to allow us to return to central Kansas City to attend. Even a beginning cello student can learn many things from a well presented master class.

We packed a lot in to two days (especially since Sibylle had her normal Saturday lessons prior to our departure Saturday afternoon) and enjoyed every moment of it. Recently we almost forgot about a cello recital in Manhattan and had to rush to the hall. The spontaneity of that evening managed to make it better. Our trip to Kansas City this weekend had that same air of spontaneity, and it too has been wonderful.

I have fewer and fewer instances / bouts of nausea.  And I have noticed a sudden and dramatic increase in creative energy – like it’s been pent up for several weeks, three months, and now bursting forth.  Teaching is again pure joy.  My students and parents notice a different energy about me.  Being able to eat more, and more different foods is joy.  Living is joy.

Once again, life is good.

Young.  Wow.  I’ll be 50 this September.  Haven’t considered myself “young” in a while.

The “healthy” puzzled me at first:  how can one say that I am healthy when I have been struggling with persistent nausea and malaise for almost three months???  Yet, that wasn’t the health he was talking about.  It took me a moment to realize that he was talking about the blessed absence of any other health problems, the items he rattled off his list: no prior surgeries except for tonsils when I was maybe four and tubes in my ears when I was about 14, no problems with any medications, nothing neurological (Thank God), 140 lbs at 5’8″, no asthma, never had a stroke or heart attack, etc and so on – I guess in that sense I am healthy.   Definitely something to be grateful for.

While the surgery and immediate recovery did go extremely well – Mark took a short video of me walking, unaided, across the living room a mere six or so hours after the start of surgery, and I was almost euphoric the second day -, the days since then have been anything but straight-forward, linear recuperation.  I knew that walking and moving around would help with the healing, so I did that, and I am sure it helped.

What I wasn’t prepared for, though I should have known (because I did know but forgot), was the effect narcotics have on digestion:  serious constipation.  I should have started to take a laxative right with the very first pain pill I took, not wait until I realized two days later that, oh crap, I can’t go, with two days worth of stuff in my intestines.  Would have saved me some major discomfort.

Another lesson I learned, the very painful way the second night I was home, was that just because I’m in no pain doesn’t mean that I’m in no pain.  It means that the pain meds are doing their job.  Meaning:  the first evening, Mark set an alarm for 3:30 a.m. in the middle of the night, for me to take another dose of Norco (left-over prescription from the ER) – worked great.  The second night we didn’t (Mark would have but I thought nah, I’ll wing it).  Big mistake.  It took a miserably longer time for the meds to start taking effect than if I had kept the pain under control.  I wanted to get off the Norco as soon as possible, because I don’t like narcotics, and take Aleve or Tylenol instead.  Experimenting with different dosages kinda worked but I would probably not do it again.  Just take one or two pills every 4 – 6 hours as prescribed.

Walk and move and drink a lot, herbal teas for gas and bloating from the beginning would probably have alleviated at least some of the very uncomfortable gas and bloating.  The pictures Mark took of the incisions on my abdomen make me look like I’m pregnant.

The hardest part since last week though has been the return of the nausea.  Nausea is misery.  Every time I have a migraine (very infrequently), even while I am in pain, I say that I’d rather have ten migraines than one case of nausea or stomach flu.  I have had no reason to change my attitude about this.

Two concerns about the nausea:  first, why?  There must be a reason, and I would very much like to know what it is so we can take care of it.  (The thought was that my gallbladder, while perhaps not at the root of it, was at least contributing to it, so the surgery was a very good first step in the right direction.)  Second, even though I’ve been told many times that Phenergan is safe, and it does alleviate the nausea, I am concerned about covering up a symptom.

My mother’s second hip replacement surgery (surgery of the second hip) was unsuccessful, the replacement part never properly fused (?) with the bone.  Nobody knew, though, for many many months, because she was given very strong pain medication and was told to walk, walk, walk, and exercise, and do PT, which she faithfully did – and in effect damaged the hip even more.  She told me several times that on her own, without doctor’s orders, she would have taken much less pain medication, and therefore been alerted to something being wrong much sooner.  So, to be on the safe side, I called my surgeon’s nurse (one of the nicest people on this planet) who said that having the same symptoms as before the surgery is unfortunately not uncommon.  It may take a couple weeks for the nausea to completely go away.  Small meals, take it easy … And yes, Phenergan is safe to take as I need it.  Sigh.

In two days, I am starting to teach again; I asked several parents to move lessons to spread them out a bit – an hour and a half of highly focused attention at a time is probably all I want to handle for at least the next week or two.  My students have 100% of my attention 100% of the time they are with me; normally this is more invigorating than it is exhausting.  For the next week or two, we’ll do that in smaller steps.

The surgery is scheduled for about 12:30 pm this afternoon, but check in was at 10:30 this morning. She is back in the preparation area now getting an IV setup, the blood pressure cuff and pulse monitors installed and being made ready. I will be allowed to join her once all of that is set, and stay with her until the surgery starts.

We both have good feelings about the GI doctor who scheduled the MRCP and about the surgeon who will perform the procedure today. We are both understandably nervous about today and its outcome. If this addresses the persistent nausea that has plagued her for the past three months it will be well worth  it.

Update

Sibylle’s surgery was started about 15 minutes ago. If all goes well I should see the doctor for his post-operation report in about 90 minutes. Once Sibylle is moved from the recovery area to the preparation room I will be allowed to rejoin her. I spent about an hour and a half with her once she was prepped, until the surgical nurse came to get her. Sibylle had an IV started and had been given some Valium. The sedative effect of the Valium allowed her to doze most of the time we spent waiting. Shortly before she was taken to the operating room her doctor stopped by and explained what was going to happen.

After her surgery is completed she’ll spend some time in a recovery area, and once she is awake they’ll return her to the prep room.

It is very strange to be seated in the waiting area writing this knowing that she is being operated upon just down the hall. Fortunately I have the room to myself and therefore have turned the television off. I was tempted to hide the remote but decided that was passive-aggressive.

Post Surgery Update

I just spoke with the surgeon. The surgery went very well. Start to finish about 50 minutes. He said that he wasn’t able to inject dye into the duct between the gallbladder and the common bile duct as it was too small. So no imaging of bile flow during the surgery. There will be a follow up visit in two weeks with the surgeon to assess how things are going. Hopefully this alleviates her symptoms. He said that sludge or sand in the gall bladder (which she had) often causes more problems than a gall stone. The stone can’t pass the feeder duct into the common bile duct, whereas the sludge/sand can.

Three to five days of immediate recovery and then a week or so to return to full activities.

Whew.

The Morning After

Sibylle was discharged from the hospital at 6:00 pm Thursday evening. Seven and a half hours after we checked her in to out-patient surgery. She spent about an hour in recovery from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm, and then dozed and rested in her room until 6:00. She was able to eat some red jello (the staple of hospital food), drink some water, and much on a few ice chips.

After we were home she took a pain pill prophylactically and slept for an hour or so. The hospital warned us that her right shoulder could be quite sore as a result of the surgery and that walking around and movement would help alleviate that pain. So after her nap we took a meandering walk through the house going from room to room. She had a smoothie for dinner and then spent some time sitting in her desk chair writing and reading email. Around 10:30 pm she had a double dose of pain medication and we went back to sleep. (Added by Sibylle: the Norco is actually left-over from the prescription the ER gave me on November 8.  Since pain had never been much of an issue, I had taken only one pill, once, not even for gallbladder pain but after the pelvic ultrasound to follow up on uterus issues they found while I was in the ER.  The prescription says to take “one to two” pills every 4 – 6 hours.  Last night, right before bed, I did take two pills, so I guess technically it wasn’t even a double dose.)

With two cats in the house, one of which loves to climb on and lay on people, she put a pillow over her stomach. With the blankets on top of the pillow to hold it in place she was nicely padded in case Taz jumped on her unexpectedly. We set an alarm for 3:30 am, which was about an hour prior to the pain med’s 6 hour span, and she took one more pill.

This morning she awoke with no appreciable pain or discomfort. One or two of the four incisions made yesterday is a bit tender to touch, but she is not in any pain. She was able to dress herself and make her morning tea.

By any measure this whole adventure seems to be going wonderfully well. We know that days two and three are often the hardest in terms of discomfort or pain, but so far her experience has been a very good one.

For as long as she can remember, since she was a little child, Sibylle has not been able to eat very much at one time. The medical term for this is “early satiety.” Most meals Sibylle eats a small portion and sets her plate aside for later. In a couple of hours she is able to eat more.

Between the early satiety and a general dislike of junk food, Sibylle has never been able to gain weight. Her weight hovered around 115 pounds regardless of how much she managed to eat. Any time that she eats less she would immediately start to lose weight.

Megace

Working with our primary care physician Sibylle started taking a liquid hormone called Megace. Normally this drug is used to stimulate appetite in cancer patients. In Sibylle’s case it made her voraciously hungry. For the first time in her memory she was able to eat everything on her plate and want more. By August she had increased her average daily weight to 150 pounds. At that point the Megace dosage was reduced to try and maintain her weight.

Germany

In late September this year we took a week long trip to Germany to attend Sibylle’s 30 year high school reunion. On that trip we were both sick. I had diarrhea and Sibylle was severely nauseous. My symptoms ended after a few days but her’s didn’t. She had better days and worse days, but never really felt well after our trip. She was forced almost weekly to cancel or postpone lessons due to not feeling well.

An Attack

Early the morning of November 8th she had a very severe nausea attack. Normally a dose of Pepto Bismol helped but this morning she had three with no relief. About 7 am we took her to the emergency room as she was shaking, sweaty, and generally miserable.

While in the ER two tests were performed. An ultrasound and a CT (cat) scan. Combined these two tests showed the presence os “sludge” in her gallbladder, and that both her common bile duct and pancreatic duct were dilated more than is considered normal for a person of her age. By early afternoon her symptoms had abated enough for us to go home.

Phenergan

One of the prescriptions she was given that day was for an anti-nausea medicine called Phenergan. Between November 8th and December 15th she had daily dosages of Phenergan. She also drastically altered her diet. Eliminating anything rich or complex she has lived on boiled potatoes, steamed carrots, banana smoothies, avocados and lots and lots of Melba Toast crackers. (Added by Sibylle:  and some cod, some salmon, zucchini, once or twice Thai red curry with chicken, pudding and strawberries from the Bamboo Buffet, greek yogurt.  Thanksgiving was delicious, too.)

Around the middle of December she started to feel much better, so much so that she tried a large dish of ice cream one evening with no ill effect. She even had a second helping. Two nights ago, however, a small bite of cheese pizza caused a return of the nausea and a bout of diarrhea.

Doctor, Doctor

In a case of very unfortunate timing our primary care physician moved out of state. Our experience with the substitute physician two days after the ER was not encouraging or good. We asked around and got a recommendation for another physician and switched to her. The new doctor arranged a HIDA scan to measure the effectiveness of Sibylle’s gallbladder.

This scan uses a small amount of radioactive material to trace movement through the liver, gallbladder, the common bile duct, and small intestine. Due to some difficulties with the machine the first 30 minutes of the test were lost. Consequently the liver was not observed. However they were able to see the gallbladder function and measured it at 94%. The common bile duct also appeared to be functioning as material was traced into the small intestine.

Our new doctor also arranged a consultation with a surgeon to discuss gallbladder removal. The surgeon, being conservative, told us flatly that based on her test results he could not guarantee that removing the gall bladder would address her symptoms. He wanted more tests.

Today we met with a gastroenterologist to discuss her case history and see what he would recommend. There are two tests available. An ERCP or an MRCP. The ERCP uses an endoscope to view the junction of the common bile duct with the small intestine, and even the inside of the duct itself. Through the endoscope it is possible to remove small gallstones and widen the opening of the duct into the intestine. However, some percentage of patients develop pancreatitis as a result of this somewhat invasive test. Since Sibylle’s pancreas may already be unhappy, further irritating it doesn’t seem like a good idea.

The MRCP is an MRI focused on the common bile duct. It is entirely non-invasive but it can’t always find small gallstones, nor can it see the condition of the union between the duct and the small intestine. The GI doctor recommend the MRCP and a removal of Sibylle’s gallbladder.

At the time of the gallbladder surgery, the surgeon will inject some dye into the duct near the gallbladder and image its progress to the intestine. If that test indicates some issue with the duct, then post-operatively an ERCP will be performed.

MRCP

Next Tuesday morning Sibylle will have the MRCP performed, and hopefully soon thereafter, will have her gallbladder removed. Our research into this surgery indicates that she should be up and about within a couple of days. While using her Christmas break to accomplish this is less than exciting, we are hopeful that it will mean she’ll be back on her feet in time for the spring semester. And more importantly, that she be free of the persistent nausea that has plagued her for nearly three months now.

Knee, Physical, and Uterus

Just to make things more interesting there are several other medical appointments on the schedule for next week. I am to have my annual well-man physical Wednesday morning, Sibylle has a gynecological exam on Wednesday afternoon, and I am seeing a knee surgeon on Thursday to discuss a possible medial meniscus tear in my right knee.

Watch the feeding frenzy I recorded last month here.