Real World Mom

Happy Valentine’s Day to my better half, and to all of my readers and friends! I     am blessed because everyday is a little like Valentine’s Day for me, but that’s what happens when you find your snuggle mate (I love you!)! Wishing you all a wonderful day (and evening)!

After thinking about it for months, I finally asked Tim to turn my laptop into a super duper, dual-booting machine last week. Under his guidance, we re-partitioned the hard-drive, and then installed Linux Mint 12 onto my computer. It now boots into either Windows Vista or Linux.

My pretty, purple-themed Linux Mint 12 desktop, using MATE.

It was cool. Very cool! Webpages and applications were loading faster then they did in Windows, and I absolutely loved  that I could customize so many things. (See photo above.)

I’ve used a couple of different Linux distributions in the past, but not since getting my new laptop a few years ago. One of the things I missed the most was the ability to personalize so many aspects of the system. You can choose the colors for your windows (see the two shades of purple in the above photo). You can also set as many work spaces as you’d like (I use one for my browser, another for email, and the rest  for miscellaneous applications. I currently have five, not because I need that many, but because I can!). With some desktop managers, you can even set a different wallpaper on each work space–I told you it was cool! I like pretty as much as the next girl, but, for me, function comes first. I have both with Linux!

Tim has been using the KDE Plasma desktop manager for a while, and I have been technologically envious the whole time. When you see this, you may be too! So, again, thanks to Tim (it’s awesome being engaged to my tech support and having a resident Code Wizard!), he helped me to install it and get it set up. I am in love! Here’s why:

My 3-D, pentagon, spinning desktop. Five workspaces, each with different wallpapers and applications on them.

Another view of my awesome desktop!

Another angle.

Here you can see the incredible transparency. See the other desktops behind the one in front?

As you can see, I went with a Valentine’s Day theme for the current look. Told you I like pretty too!

If you have questions about anything you read here, please don’t hesitate to post them. If I don’t know the answer, I know a guy…  (wink)

Toward the end of May last year, I began experiencing “attacks,” and I had no idea why. They seemed to be indigestion-like, then heartburn-like, but the pain was really bad, and I would usually vomit. When I told some folks about it, they said it sounded like my gallbladder.  So, I did some research online, and, sure enough, it seemed like a gallbladder issue.

After seeing my doctor, she agreed it was my gallbladder, sent me for an ultrasound, and said her office would set me up to see a surgeon. Several weeks (and phone calls) later, I still did not have an appointment with a surgeon. On September 13, 2011, my gallbladder decided to rush things along on its own by treating me to a horribly painful gallstone attack, which landed me in the hospital for two days.  To give you an indication of the pain level, two injections of morphine didn’t do a thing. It was Dilaudid that finally gave me relief. Unfortunately, they didn’t send me home with any. Fortunately, I didn’t need it!  For as much torture as I went through while there (the worst being the potassium chloride IV–more painful than labor!), the hospital connected me with a surgeon right away.

Not my best moment. (Obviously, I was heavily medicated to allow Tim to take this!)

The annoying machine for my IV.

I was released from the hospital on Tuesday, and had an appointment with the surgeon on Thursday. I had my gallbladder surgery the following Tuesday. The following is a link to a video on You Tube (it’s not me or my doctor), showing a Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (removal of the gallbladder through several, small incisions). VIEWER DISCRETION is advised (for the record, I did not watch this until after my surgery)!

Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy Video

Post-op, I was pampered and well taken care of (thank you, Tim!).

One of my (four) incisions-six days after surgery.

The resulting bruise from my IV.

Glad I had it done; glad it’s over!