Odds & ends & links to check out

• Medical update: Since last Friday's blog post, I decided to try sleeping on my left side (as well as my back). I'm staying off my right side for now, as that's where the gallbladder is located, as well as a couple of the incisions. I'm still waking up a few times a night, but getting better about being able to get back to sleep again, and I feel like I'm sleeping more deeply/soundly when I do sleep. Progress!  
• I also removed the steri-strips/tapes over my incisions on Sunday morning (Day #7), as per my discharge instruction sheet. Three of the incisions -- one slightly left of centre, mid-abdomen, and two on my lower right side -- are relatively small (like, about half an inch long) and seem to be healing well (the one in particular looks more like a scratch than an incision!). There's one just above my navel/belly button, also about a half inch long, that's a little deeper/darker red looking, but also appears to be healing well. 
• The largest incision is about 1.5 to 2 inches below the midpoint of my breasts, at the bottom centre of my rib cage -- the exact place where I always felt the most pain/discomfort when my gallstones were bothering me. It's about an inch long, with a lot of bruising around it, and the scab that's forming over it is slightly raised and a bit itchy from time to time. (I'm told that's a sign that it's healing.)  That's the one I'm most concerned/protective about, and I'm sure it will take the longest to heal. 
• Tip from a friend: A friend suggested I should use pantiliners (I still have half a box left!) on the inside waistband of my yoga pants to provide extra cushioning for some of the incisions and absorb any bleeding/leakage. Aside from a few very small red spots right after I removed the gauze pads and showered for the first time (with the steri-strips still in place) -- which I am pretty sure was probably just dried blood coming from the steri-strips after the shower, and not from the incisions themselves -- there's been nothing, which is a relief.  
• On a different/related note: I'm back downtown again later this week to check in with the opthamologist about my right eye (three weeks after my last visit, and 31 days after my eye surgery!).  
• BBC Women's Hour, a UK radio program with a large audience, devoted a segment this week to the growing issue of ageing without children. (I wish this subject was even REMOTELY on the radar of politicians and policymakers here in North America... a girl can dream, I guess...??)  
• World Childless Week is fast approaching (Sept. 12th to 18th -- yes, it's almost September, already!), and the deadline for submissions is less than a week away (midnight, August 28th).  Check out the website for details on this year's topics and submission guidelines. (I'm still waiting for inspiration for a submission;  whether or not I get one done, I will continue to promote WCW here!) 
• The lovely Lucy is looking for CNBC women to take part in a new project she's organizing!  Check out her website/blog and Instagram account to meet "The Twenty Percenters" -- your fellow fellow childless sisters -- and consider submitting your own photo and answers to her questions for future publication (perhaps eventually in a book, as well as online).  How-to-submit guidelines are on the website.
• She is looking for help in getting the word out about this project -- its success will depend on getting people to participate -- so please consider giving it a plug on your own blog and/or social media too. 
• Also check out Lucy at Pretty Much Studio on Instagram and Etsy. Among other things, she designs and sells greeting cards and affirmation cards aimed specifically at the CNBC market!  :)
• I am often shy about this sort of thing, but I am considering my own submission soon. :)   
• I recently attended (via Zoom) a fun "hangout" session organized by Katy of Chasing Creation for members of her Childless Collective and the Lighthouse Women community (formerly the Gateway Women private community).  It was a cooking class with Sher Castellano, a professional chef and food writer and "one of us" (childless not by choice via endometriosis). Sher blogs at With Food & Love and also has an Instagram page, and demonstrated how to make a vegetarian polenta dish. I just watched and took notes, but some people were actually cooking along with her (and eating by the end of the session -- which left me feeling very hungry, lol).  Check her out!