Erin - I may not be on the board tomorrow mid-morning, so I wanted to wish you a good surgery, a very skilled and good looking team of doctors, and a speedy recovery.

And if your asshat boss slips on a banana peel and whacks his ass tomorrow morning at 8 am CMT, then all the better.

I threadsucked all the DEATH DEATH STABBY STABBY posts from a week ago, and am now all incredibly cheerful and vindicated! I'd like to say thanks from the bottom of my black little heart for all the generous offers of mayhem, squelching death and lyrical cursing.

Query to anyone who has had c-section/other near-waist work: Are drawstring PJ botttoms gonna be ok? And possible TMI question I'll probably be having a D&C in addition to the laporotomy. Should I expect vaginal bleeding?

I was more of a nightgown or sleep-in-the-nude type when I had my C-sections, Erin. I find nightgowns are easy to slip over the head, can be incredibly sexy while covering all the important bits and very light in warm weather.

Erin! ::hugs you::

I would stay away from pajama bottoms of any kind, actually. Just wear a big T-shirt.

And I discovered, after a C-section, that the first time I stood up I bled all over the place. No one told me that would happen, so I was sort of appalled. I have no idea if that's strictly a childbirth thing and won't apply to you, but I had kind of assumed with a C that bleeding wouldn't be an issue, so. Don't peek if you're squeamish.

Good luck, sweetie. We'll be thinking about you.

Drawstring PJs should be fine, Erin, as long as the knot isn't right over the incision. (And even then, it's not going to be *painful* just kind of sensitive.) I found yoga pants with a wide waistband to be the most comfortable things to wear - clingy enough to be a little supportive, but not pinchy at all.

I can't answer the second question, unfortunately. (I mean, after giving birth, you pretty much leak constantly for the next 2 weeks, and they send you home from the hospital with "maternity pads" which are the most uncomfortable ginormous maxi pads in the universe. But I'm not sure how analogous the situations really are since the post-birth discharge is 9 months of uterine lining being flushed away.) And boys, I whitefonted that for a REASON. Fair warning.

Erin, in answer to your second question, absolutely.

Erin, in answer to your second question, absolutely.

Seconding.

"Is that's the way this is going to be?"

Argh! Last show I stage-managed for student theatre, there was one scene where we really couldn't block it until we were on the actual stage, which was a few days before opening night. (Brighton Beach Memoirs. One character is talking to the audience, while everyone else is setting the table, getting all the food on the table, sitting down, and starting to eat. Tiny stage, so we had a table with folding leaves, and five chairs had to get from offstage to onstage in this time, and to get onto the stage, people had to walk up a stairway with no railing, in the dark, while carrying a whole bunch of stuff.) The first few times, it was a mess -- stuff didn't get there on time, stuff got dropped, people or things ended up in the wrong places, people crashed into each other, etc. I eventually had to draw a diagram showing exactly where each person, plate, glass, and chair should be at any given moment, and write up instructions for each person, like, "Stan: come down stairs, move chairs 6 and 7 from behind couch to table, take two plates from Blanche and put at far end of table, pull out chair 5 for Laurie, move three sets of knife/fork to far end of table, take one plate from Kate and put at chair 4, sit in chair 3."

Took something like five tries before we figured it out. After every single try, someone would ask, "I don't have a chair/plate/glass. Is this the way this is going to be?"

Also. I was going to bake bread today. Types of flour available at the Watergate Safeway: spelt flour, rice flour, soy flour, bread flour, white flour, unbleached white flour, cornmeal, pastry flour, dark rye flour. Type of flour not available: whole wheat.

Thanks so much for the info, guys. Check, old cotton slipdress for home-from-hospital wear y nighties.

And thanks for the answer to the 2nd q. Not being a pad kinda girl, I'll have to tell my mom to buy me some from the store. Uh. Pads. Insult to (literal) injury.

I think my suitcase (for home) and overnight bag (for le hopital) are 1/2 clothes, 1/2 books.

And mascara, lip glosss and perfume. I may have visitors!