What gall...
It's been a busy time since I last wrote here. On Christmas day, I flew from Darwin to Los Angeles. I left Darwin at 12:30am and arrived in L.A. at about 7am - 18 hours later. I got to spend Christmas with my Aunt and Uncle there, in Manhattan Beach. Then on to Colorado the next day to spend a week at my Mom's house. Of course, my luggage came a day later. I also still had a fair bit of work to do preparing the talks I needed to give the following week, so I lost a bit of my vacation. The meeting went pretty well, though my talks were pretty late in the meeting, and my luggage arrived in Orlando a day later than I did (do you sense a theme yet?). The last talk was actually about an hour before the end of the meeting, and was plagued by people rushing out to catch shuttles to the airport. At least I made a good showing, and I think left people with a positive impression for any future job searches.
Next, I flew back to San Francisco to visit with another Aunt, and a whole host of cousins. We managed to eat very well - Italian, Mexican, American, Chinese - which will become important in a minute. After a couple of days, I took the train to Reno to stay with my Dad. After eathing well again, I realized that the abdominal pains I was getting might not be gas. Turns out that my gall bladder was acting up. When I went in to get it checked, they diagnosed it as "full of gallstones and associated sludge", and said it needs to come out.
So I've spent the last 4 days pinning down this diagnosis, changing the rest of my travel plans, and phoning the insurance company to make sure they are going to cover the costs of the operation. Looks like they'll cover it. Here's a good lesson for travellers - when your agent offers to sell you traveller's insurance, take it. Definitely the best $200 I've spent in a while.
I'll probably be having the operation this week, and it looks like it will be a same-day, laparascopic surgery, which means smaller holes, and faster recovery time. Unless, of course, they screw up, in which case they'll lay me open and poke around a while and I'll be laid up for a few weeks.
Not sure what the result of all of this will be, but I'll post updates once I'm able again.
Next, I flew back to San Francisco to visit with another Aunt, and a whole host of cousins. We managed to eat very well - Italian, Mexican, American, Chinese - which will become important in a minute. After a couple of days, I took the train to Reno to stay with my Dad. After eathing well again, I realized that the abdominal pains I was getting might not be gas. Turns out that my gall bladder was acting up. When I went in to get it checked, they diagnosed it as "full of gallstones and associated sludge", and said it needs to come out.
So I've spent the last 4 days pinning down this diagnosis, changing the rest of my travel plans, and phoning the insurance company to make sure they are going to cover the costs of the operation. Looks like they'll cover it. Here's a good lesson for travellers - when your agent offers to sell you traveller's insurance, take it. Definitely the best $200 I've spent in a while.
I'll probably be having the operation this week, and it looks like it will be a same-day, laparascopic surgery, which means smaller holes, and faster recovery time. Unless, of course, they screw up, in which case they'll lay me open and poke around a while and I'll be laid up for a few weeks.
Not sure what the result of all of this will be, but I'll post updates once I'm able again.