Riverbanks zoo, Columbia, SC

Getting back to my blog after a break-  It's been a crazy couple of weeks. 

A few days before my surgery our little family plus two borrowed kids went to one of my favorite places to visit; the zoo.  Before we moved to S. Carolina we literally lived within walking distance of the Milwaukee Zoo, so I got a membership for $80 for three years that included unlimited parking and visits, and for the four years we lived there I went weekly for walks and picnics with my oldest daughter (the youngest wasn't around yet).  Those were my most treasured memories.  We would even go in winter because there were several heated indoor buildings.

My little toddler was free to safely roam and play within my gaze and I was able to get out of the house and be amongst the amazing collection of animals.  Going so often we would see animals doing things you might not otherwise get to see, such as when they opened the cat house and  the tiger and lioness saw each other and were roaring and standing up on the glass.  It was incredible!  When we moved that was what I missed the most.

After a few years here, I got comfortable enough with traveling by myself, I got a membership for our family at the Columbia Zoo, and I have to admit that even though I have to drive, I like this zoo even better.  For an upgraded membership you can include unlimited attractions, and they have some incredible interactive things to do.  For example, you can feed the giraffes out of your hands and give lorakeets (little parrots) cups of nectar while they land on your arms.  The bonus is the zoo has an attached botanical garden to visit.  It is an all around wonderful place for families to go!

My surgery went well.  I am now minus a gallbladder and some endometrial tissue that was misbehaving.  The pain is not as bad as I thought it would be, and it is really strange to be on the patient side of the equation in a nurse/patient relationship.  The worst part of the entire experience is what must have been my reaction to the anesthesia.  I felt restless and like I couldn't breath, like a caged wild animal.  I couldn't get out of the hospital fast enough.  I didn't say anything to the nurses because I was still groggy and I wasn't quite sure initially what was going on.  I was afraid they would overreact and not let me go home.  What saved me was an old prescription of prn xanax that I had held onto back at home.  I thankfully had a good night thanks to one of those pills.  Now I'm back to normal but that feeling was bad enough to make me never want to have surgery again.