Cat Attacks, Surgery and Flip Cup...

My belly is sore, it feels full and I look about 2 months pregnant (or so I would guess). I had gall bladder surgery yesterday and had the little green sucker removed (did you know they take it out through your belly button?). It was a tough decision to make, as it was not 'essential' that I have it done, but I feel that based on the past 5 months, it was the smartest thing to do. So, to catch up on the past 1 month of my life since I have been a lazy-holiday-blogger, this is how it goes.

Derick and I flew to Indiana on December 21st, to spend a solid 2 weeks with my family. My parents built an amazing cabin in the woods outside of Bloomington, Indiana and it is the perfect place to kick back and relax for the holidays. Our flight there was quite eventful, as we took our 20# cat, Corgi with us. Who travels with a 20# cat, you ask? Well, seeing that it was cheaper to take him than board him for 2 weeks, we opted to take him with us. He had a full on freak out when going through security in Austin, got extremely spooked and tried to escape Derick's arms (they MAKE you take the cat out of the bag). Derick tried to control (not lose) him, and he was hissing, biting, etc so I jumped in. Derick finally got his bag and we got him inside of it, at which point he hunched into the corner, paralyzed. He got Derick's arms and hands pretty bad, and my right hand and right foot. This was on Monday; I did not 'walk' normally until about Thursday. Lucikly I had taken my bike with us, since I knew I would have surgery post-vacation, so I was able to ride on the trainer for a few days when I could not swim or run (barely walk!). We even went on antibiotics to be safe; I guess that cat bites are not something to be messed with. SO... despite the rough start to the trip, everything else was great. We did some amazing runs in Brown County State Park, I got to visit my incredible 96-year old grandmother in Columbus, Ohio and also caught up with my sisters and of course my parents for a few weeks.

We arrived back to Austin on Monday, January 4th and I went into surgery yesterday, January 6th. Derick, myself and my doctor had come to the conclusion that the 'incident' back in Canada with the stomach pain was likely related to this; as I had similar pain one month later, only to have an ultrasound to show that I had gallstones. I did not want to kick off my 2010 season knowing that there was a chance that this could yet again interfere with racing, or worse, I'd have to get this done mid-season. I hear the recovery is to be taken seriously, so I am here at home relaxing in some good weather to do so (low 30's, wind and expected to be in the 20's the next few days here). We did however get some crazy fun in on New Years Eve, as we (along with some friends) introduced my parents to the game 'flip cup'. Nothing like watching your 60-year old parents battling it out for flip cup!

The next week or so will entail a lot of relaxing, finalizing my season plans for 2010, and trying to crack the books as I registered for an Abnormal Psychology course (correspondence) from Texas State. I am also finalizing sponsors for 2010, thanks to a ton of help from Chris McCrary at Katalyst Multisport, and I look forward to what this year has in store!

Best to you and yours for a wonderful new year. Anything's possible!
Thanks for reading,
Kelly