Bryan has designated Bailey and I his "Gash Girls." The reasons for me deserving the title should be obvious. Unfortunately, Bailey has a gash of her own.

We discovered it yesterday. We're not sure what happened. Bryan brought her home from dog daycare at 2:30 yesterday and didn't notice anything unusual. When I got home around 6:15, I went to pet her and noticed some dried blood. When we looked closer, we found a gash. Of course, it was after the vet was closed, and since it wasn't actively bleeding, we decided to keep an eye on her and see what things looked like in the morning.

This morning, I called the vet who told me to bring her in, pretty much ASAP, so I left work (Tuesday is my early day; I start at 7 am) to get Bailey and bring her to the vet's office. The vet said it looks like a combination of a puncture wound and a tear. We have no idea what happened - nothing in the yard or house has a chunk of Bailey hanging off of it, and Bryan didn't hear her yelp or anything, so it's a big mystery. She's got two staples, and I stayed home from work to keep any eye on her. She'll have to go back in ten days to get her staples out.

I swear, between the bunny and the dog, we're paying for the vet to buy a condo at the beach (to borrow a phrase from my grandfather). Let's hope all of us can stay healthy from here on out!

So Katherine Harris (former Secretary of State for Florida and the person I blame for Bush being in office) is running for U.S. Senate. She had the following to say:

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris told a religious journal that separation of church and state is "a lie" and God and the nation's founding fathers did not intend the country be "a nation of secular laws."

The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate also said that if Christians are not elected, politicians will "legislate sin," including abortion and gay marriage.

Harris made the comments -- which she clarified Saturday -- in the Florida Baptist Witness, the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist State Convention, which interviewed political candidates and asked them about religion and their positions on issues.

Separation of church and state is "a lie we have been told," Harris said in the interview, published Thursday, saying separating religion and politics is "wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers."

Huh. I always thought the voters were the ones who supposedly chose our rulers. Well, I didn't choose Bush, so maybe it's not so shocking that the person who did had something like that to say.

What is wrong with these people? Frankly, I think just wanting to be a politician should automatically disqualify someone from office. Our congresspeople and senators should be normal people like the rest of us, too busy trying to balance our checkbooks and pick our kids (dogs) up from daycare to accept gimmes from lobbyists. But I guess that all is ultimately up to God, right Katherine?

My PowerBook is one of the ones involved in the battery recall. I just sent my online stuff to Apple, and within four to six weeks, they'll send me a new battery and I'll ship them my potential fire hazard. I guess I shouldn't complain; the Dell swap-out sounds much more complicated, but then again from what I've heard, Dell likes to make things complicated in general.

Bryan and I decided to go out tonight. Being the hip, urban, sophisticated kids we are, we headed out to dinner at Costco and then explored the wonders of Wal-Mart.

I think this officially makes us white trash.

Costco is a great fast, cheap dinner. Where else can you get a hot dog and a soda for $1.50?! So while we don't do it often, we went there for dinner tonight since there's one right by the...Wal-Mart.

I needed Wal-Mart for some Christmas shopping. (I can hear the sane people out there groaning. Yes, I know it's only August, but last year I got stuck power shopping in the approximately two weeks between Thanksgiving and December 10th - I have to ship to relatives on the east coast - and don't want to repeat that experience.) Wal-Mart tends to be an adventure down here, as it attracts the highest quality of illegal immigrants. And white trash.

While we were looking at digital cameras (I've developed camera envy for a new, smaller one than our current Kodak), Bryan managed to set off the anti-theft alarm, triggering a loud siren in the camera area. Mildly mortifying.

As we were leaving, two extremely skanky girls decided to enter through the exit door. Illiterate skanks.

Anyway, it was a very successful shopping trip, and I did get several Christmas gifts squared away. Of course, between October and Christmas, I have my mom's birthday, dad's birthday, Bryan's birthday, my grandfather's birthday, Crystal's birthday and the birthdays of both my aunts. Maybe I should be worrying about those first.

So this past week was my first (half-time) week back at work since my surgery. It all went relatively smoothly. I was a little tired by the end of the day. Truth be told, I probably could have gone back full time, but I'm glad I didn't. I lucked out and had a few no-shows, so that kept the demands down. I took today off, to recoup (and clean and do laundry), but I'll be back to my usual schedule next week.

The vet called with the results of Cocoa's most recent blood tests. They indicate kidney failure, which probably began before his bunny-diaper-rash incident. Unfortunately, because of his temperament, there really isn't any treatment we can do. At this point, he's behaving as if it's business as usual, which the vet says is encouraging. He could have as long as a year, but at some point he'll stop eating and become lethargic, and that'll be the sign that it's time to ...help him on his way to Bunny Heaven.

Bummer.

Bryan's been gone all week, except for a few hours he was home on Wednesday afternoon. I guess the Coast Guard caught some major drug cartel kingpin guy, and there were several units involved in getting him on land in San Diego. You could see Bryan's boat on the news, although the Union Tribune reported that it was his sister ship that actually brought the guy in. One of my patients is a San Diego police officer and she was telling me that she and her dog (she's a K9 officer) were involved in the bomb sweeps being done in preparation for bringing this guy in. I suspect Bryan's boat may have helped with security, but I don't really know for sure, and I don't know what he'll be able to tell me, since a lot of the stuff he does is stuff he can't talk about.

Anyway, he should be home sometime Sunday - just in time for both of us to head back to our regular work schedules on Monday.

My parents, being people who have a great deal of compassion (as well as a better-than-average sense of humor) offered up some possible answers to the "What happened to your neck?" question. Bryan threw in a few ideas, and I've added some of my own.

So, "What happened to your neck?"

1. It's an old football injury.
2. I got it in Viet Nam.
3. I ran into a barbed wire fence while jogging.
4. My necklace was too tight.
5. Box cutter jewelery is definitely out!
6. Damn ninjas!
7. I cut myself shaving.
8. Hockey skate accident. (Or, altercation with Derek Boogaard)
9. The bunny got temperamental on a trip to the vet.

Other suggestions are welcome.

It's the bunny's pathetic little shaved-down tail. He's doing very nicely according to the vet. I'm going to drop him off on saturday so they can draw blood for lab work because he was too cranky at the office visit yesterday - even the vet knows what a temperamental bunny he is.

I've had all the tape and junk off my neck for almost a week now, and I've been out in public. Mostly I've gotten strange looks, but a couple of days ago when we were at the bakery, the girl behind the counter came out and asked "What happened to your neck?"

This is a question I imagine I'm going to have to answer a lot.

Truth be told, it was actually kind of refreshing to have someone come out and ask, rather than looking at my neck, then pointedly NOT looking at my neck and trying to be as normal as possible, while still sneaking looks at my neck.

Steri-strips help cover up my scars, as they're flesh colored and just look like strips of tape. You can't actually see the horror that is beneath. But they irritate my skin (or at least they did during my trial run yesterday), so I'm keeping them off until I go back to work next week.

Therefore, without any further ado, here is the progression of my gash neck:

Two days post-op: (with the fabulous drain)

Five days post-op: (after the stitches and drain came out)

Two weeks post-op: (you can click on this one for a larger version)

So the whole boil-water thing has been a giant pain in the butt. The order has finally been called off, although people (including me) are still a little wary of the tap water.

On Sunday, Bryan and I tried to go see Talladega Nights, but it turned out the movie theater (and all the restaurants) in our area were closed because of the water issue. Now the restaurants I understand, but the movie theater?! Yeah, we could have headed north or south a ways, and found an open theater and another showtime, but that would have required research on movie times and locations.

Instead we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and Bryan bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Vacuuming is his territory, one I avoid whenever possible. He was cackling to himself while assembling it, thrilled with the wild and crazy features.

After Bed Bath and Beyond we stopped at Pizza Hut to enjoy a stuffed crust pizza. Sunday was the first day I went out in public without tape over my neck incision, and I did get some strange looks. Pizza Hut spawned the "Sauce Face" and "Gash Neck" monikers; I'll leave it to you to guess who's who.

The bunny went back to the vet today, and she seems pleased with his progress. Surprisingly, he's excellent about taking his medicine. They put the antibiotic in some sort of sugar syrup, and he loves it. His kidney and liver lab work was off, and she's not sure if he was just dehydrated, or if we have another issue. So he'll go back later this week for more lab work. My $15 rabbit is turning out to be a good bit more expensive.

Bryan has duty tomorrow, and I'm temporarily car-less, as his truck is in the shop for maintenance. We'll pick it up Wednesday, then Thursday my car goes in for a few hours for its 20,000 mile maintenance. Hopefully Friday we'll head up to Disneyland; if I'm feeling up to it, that's the plan, although I won't really be able to go on anything more exciting than "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride."

On the 6:30 news this evening, they announced that we're in a "boil-water" situation in my neighborhood. Apparently a water main broke last Tuesday several miles south, and they've been testing the water. At 5 this afternoon, the latest round of tests came in and indicated that there's e.coli in the water.

Yay.

So we, and everyone else in Rancho Bernardo headed to Vons (Safeway) to pick up some bottled water. I have several gallons in the disaster kit, but figured we might as well grab a couple of gallons if we could. Good thing we didn't wait any longer - the store was nearly cleaned out!

This was just a little additional drama to a day that had plenty. I dropped the bunny off at the vet's this morning because he's been peeing on himself, and his back legs had irritated skin and irritated...private bunny bits. The vet had to anesthetize him, since he really doesn't like being picked up, and shave him to get the hair off. I guess bunnies have very sensitive skin, and if they get damp and their hair gets matted and can't dry properly, they get bunny diaper rash. So we've got him back home, cranky as ever, with antibiotic and pain drugs that the vet thinks we'll be able to stick in his mouth and get him to take.

Clearly she doesn't know my rabbit.

He's been cranky since Day One, back in December 1998. According to the vet, this is actually the norm; she says only about 20 percent of bunnies have the cuddly-bunny personality we all like to think of.

Anyway, my job is to throw a towel over the rabbit, scoop him up, put him on the table, cover his eyes, stick a syringe in the corner of his mouth and squirt antibiotic fluid in twice a day, and pain meds once a day.

I'll let you know how that goes.

The bunny's looking pretty pathetic - his rear is largely shaved, and he has a pathetic little puff of a tail. Bailey on the other hand, had a bath and is quite fluffy and soft.

The bun goes back to the vet for a checkup on Monday. Bailey heads back to dog daycare Monday. I still have another week off. I'll be boiling water.

Yesterday I went in for my post-op appointment to have my dressing and drain removed. I'd been feeling pretty good on Saturday and Sunday, but Monday I felt moderately crappy. So getting the dressing off would be a relief, since it was several inches high and probably an inch thick and was kind of like wearing a small neck brace.

The dressing removal was uneventful, and Dr. Keefe did a beautiful job - no swelling, bruising or bleeding from the incision site. It hurt a little when he took the stitches out, but that was pretty quick.

The part I wasn't prepared for was the drain removal. It was a Jackson-Pratt drain, which had a tube and suction bulb that came out of my neck. Despite being in the medical field, I'm relatively naive when it comes to things like drains, because I don't deal with them in the things I do. I figured that there was an inch or two of tubing under my skin, and that things were held in place with sutures. I'd been a little worried that if I accidentally tugged on the drain, it was likely to come out.

Yeah, not so much.

As it turns out, a Jackson-Pratt drain is about two and a half feet in length - the tube and suction bulb comprises about 22 inches, leaving approximately seven and a half inches of holey tube beneath the skin, in the incision. Dr. Keefe warned me, then started to pull. I felt something near my larynx move, and I saw Bryan's eyes get very wide as Dr. Keefe kept pulling. And kept pulling.

Yeow.

To be fair, that was probably the most pain associated with my surgery, other than my sore throat from the anesthesia. And since it stopped hurting half an hour later, I guess I can't really complain.

Anyway, Dr. Keefe seems quite pleased with the state of things, and informed me that even though I may not feel like it, I look really good for someone who had major neck surgery a few days ago.

Now I can move my neck much more easily. I have tape (it looks like packing tape) over my neck incisions, and I've been assured that it will fall off in a few days. I just need to put saran wrap over it when I take a shower. Washing my hair last night was bliss.

Today I'm tired. Mostly too tired to even read, I've been vegging with TV. Fortunately, while I was in the hospital, Bryan turned in one of our cable boxes for a DVR box, so we can "record" shows and watch them later. So I indulged in my recording of 30 Days, the FX series by Morgan Spurlock, the guy who did Super Size Me. I loved the series last season when it was on. It takes a person and puts them in a situation that they have strong, opposing feelings about and documents how their feelings change as a result of their experience. Last week's episode sent a Minuteman to live with illegal immigrants in East L.A. for 30 days. This week they'll be looking at outsourcing to India. If you haven't checked it out, take the time - it's very interesting. Wednesdays at 10 on Fox's FX channel.

Well, that's the round up from here, and I'm losing energy quick, so I'm going to go back to vegging on the couch. It's really weird - sometimes I have lots of energy, sometimes I'm just dragging. And the anesthesia is still affecting me - I'm having trouble regulating my body temperature. I'm hot, then cold, then hot again. No fever, but I have the AC set to 78 because the normally very pleasant 82 degree outside temperature seems sweltering right now.

It's only been a few days. I'll stop complaining.

But for the record? I never want another one of those Jackson-Pratt drains again!