updated pre-trip report

[alicia1506]

so a little update... things have changed around here.

the pain i was in -- got hideously bad. long story short, i ended up in hospital where it was determined that my issue wasn't an ulcer but a problem with my gall bladder. rather than helping my body digest food & performing it's role properly, it is producing sludge. yup, it's a medical term. biliary sludge. basically it's rotting. so... out it has to come. so, i am on a waiting list for major surgery to remove my gall bladder. in the meantime, there is a huge list of foods i cannot consume - meat, and all meat by-products. dairy, and all dairy by-products. spicy food. fatty food. some vegetables.

this has made life a treat .. but i am so grateful to actually have a diagnosis for the issues i was having, and be able to do something to resolve it, the not eating anything other than bread, water and some fruits & veges has made it bearable. and besides... a restricted diet like that has seen me drop the pounds with relative ease as it's a case of if i eat foods my body doesn't like.. it will king-hit me with excruciating pain for hours on end... so... it's easy to obey.

i just have to take mega-doses of pain pills and be very careful with how i treat my body, and not to over-exert myself. other than that... life is good.

so. our plans for our trip have changed. we are now planning this:

nov 23 (friday) - fly bne - lax - mco, check in to MCO hyatt regency hotel. maybe hit up the black friday sales at the florida mall if we feel up to it.

nov 24 (sat) - check in for our 7 night western caribbean cruise on board the fantasy.

nov 25-dec 1 - cruise. we want to include a palo dinner, maybe a palo brunch, and i definitely want some spa time in there. we will be stopping in cozumel and costa maya, and we plan to do some port adventures involving the mayan ruins.

dec 1 (sat) - debarkation day - fly mco - mdw, check in at the kimpton monaco in chicago. spend the rest of the day exploring chicago.

dec 2 (sun)- explore chicago, go to the christkindlmarket & miracle mile. maybe hit up some museums etc in the loop

dec 3 (mon) - explore chicago some more. we want to explore the university of chicago, do a tour of chicago & walk around seeing the art/architecture/museums etc.

dec 4 (tue) - fly mdw - lax - check in at DI&S anaheim and spend the day at disneyland

dec 5-8 - disneyland & california adventure - cars land will be open by now, so we want to check this out, & do the minnie & friends breakfast and just immerse ourselves in christmas time at disneyland

dec 9 (sun) - move from DI&S to Disneyland Hotel - day of luxury and pampering. spa appointment at GCH spa. lazy day to do what we want.

dec 10 (mon) - downtown disney and shopping day

dec 11 (tue) - check out. last day to explore the parks and get any last minute xmas presents. late flight from lax - bne

dec 13 (thurs) - arrive bne. relax & unwind thurs, fri, sat & sun then return to work on monday 17 dec.

so that's our plan. again, we're kinda constrained by time off work (carlo can only take a max of 3 weeks off work) but we want to spend a lot of time in disneyland this time, as we barely scraped the surface last time and didn't do much aside from run from point a to point b.

this will also be a 'just the 2 of us' trip, and we're looking forward to spending some time.. reconnecting, sharing the experience and having a more lazy vacation than our previous trip.

trina wants to do a family vacation in 2013 for the 12 day hawaiian cruise, or else another big cross-america trip with 4 of us... so i might have something planning there soon as well

 

[aussietravellers]

Sorry to hear about your gallbladder issues Until you have it out, it can be controlled really well with diet, actually if you are really good with the diet it will get so good you will wonder if you even need it out any longer Until you slip up and the sludge plays havoc again. Hopefully it will be all sorted out before your trip and it will be new pain free you

I had mine out a few years ago and the surgery isn't too bad at all. It's done keyhole and only an overnight in hospital and not really painful from memory.

Once it's out there may be some foods that might..... um..... upset your stomach.... and you may no longer be able to enjoy as you once did I can no longer eat eggs first thing, without having a bathroom near by about 15 minutes later (TMI ) and greasy foods first thing in the morning (hash browns, sausages etc) same problem as eggs I know others with the same problem since having their GB out.

The new TR sounds good. We may end up being at DL the same time as you (if we go, or now I'm looking at WDW ).

 

[alicia1506]

re the operation, yes it is supposed to be keyhole, but they did say that if there are complications or anything like that, they may have to do it old school (ie large incision & a good few weeks off work)... so hoping that isn't the case for me.

lol. i have heard about some of the ... issues... experienced post-op with certain foods, and the need to be close by to the facilities... my only concern is with the cruise, one of the reasons we wanted to go was to indulge a little... if i can't indulge, i'll be rather upset but to be honest, i'm not really finding it too difficult to avoid the bad foods. the pain i've been in makes the prospect of no pain very worthwhile.

i too keep going back and forth between DLR and WDW -- since we'll be in orlando anyways, maybe we should go to WDW... but then i look at the size, and the sheer planning it involves, and i think... we're comfortable at DLR and we know our way around and we enjoy the slightly smaller & more intimate feel... then i debate whether to do both... but that would mean cutting out chicago, and we really, really want to do it --- decisions, decisions.

my biggest problem at this time is that i love the trip planning stage... and i love the options, the decision making, the deciding where to stay, what to do etc. but for this trip... it's pretty much all worked out and i only have to wait 9 months and it'll be time to go. there's hardly any decision making to do. i'm essentially just going over our trip every day looking for flaws, checking prices, reading TRs and posting on the DIS but ... it's essentially all planned... i'm too organised this time around

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I really hope that everything goes ok. Sounds like there are a few things you need to skip eating but it's wonderful that you have a solution in sight.