Amazing day....

After finding out in the early hours this morning that our visa petition had finally been approved, I emailed the company that we have employed to handle the whole visa thing for us, and received a call from them mid morning.

Apparently now things could move quite quickly, and the only sticking point will be waiting for the interview day to come around. In the meantime I have a multitude of forms that need to be completed, a police check certificate to apply for, and weirdly sized photo's to get of myself and both the boys. All the forms need to be completed for myself and each of the boys separately and in duplicate, and I also discovered that the boys will have to have a full medical as well as me, even though they are only 12 and 13.

I have had a look at all the forms, thinking that I would get them completed really quickly, and have them ready to post once I get the new visa number posted to me - apparently the forms cannot be accepted by the embassy without this number, and they will not send me a date for interview without having received the forms.

It's still a minefield, but at least now I know that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and we should hopefully be able to fly out just after the beautiful A has her 21st at the end of October.

******

Also to day, I had my hospital appointment for my gastroscopy, because of my never-ending battle with heartburn. I had originally opted to have this done with sedation, because my Dad has had a couple in the past and he said it really was unpleasant without the sedation because it felt almost like you were drowning and couldn't get your breath. Of course having a sedation meant that I would be kept in recovery for a period of time after the procedure, and wouldn't be able to drive or be left alone for 12hrs afterward I was discharged from the ward. Mum and Dad drove over to take me to the appointment, and Mum stayed with me in the waiting room while we waited for me to be called and while I had the procedure.

When I was finally called through by the nurses, they took me into a small room with the gastroscopy equipment and a bed in it. There were 2 nurses and the doctor who would do the procedure. They asked again if I wanted the sedation or just the throat spray to numb the back of my throat. I said sedation and the nurse in charge of the anesthetic asked if I was sure to which I explained what my Dad had said. She laughed and said "well a man would say that, you know what men are like - us women are made of sterner stuff. It's up to you but it will be over much quicker if you go with the throat spray". I changed my mind and opted for the throat spray instead, so I could be out quicker and thought to myself that even if it was really really bad and uncomfortable it would be over in just a few minutes.

The nurse squirted max amount of analgesic throat spray into the back of my mouth and then asked me to swallow. It tasted like bitter bananas, and very quickly I could feel the back of my tongue thickening as it went numb. Then I had to lie on my left side, and they put a small plastic mouth guard in which I had to bite on, this had a hole in the middle which meant that although I was biting down the doctor had open access to my mouth and throat. The camera was about the circumference of my little finger with a really bright light on the end. The doctor put it into my mouth and asked me to take a deep breath in when I felt it hit the back of my throat. That was a little weird, but the camera slipped straight down my throat when I breathed in. I could feel is going down inside me but it didn't feel unpleasant it was just weird. Within seconds he had reached my stomach, and inflated it with air. The nurse told me to relax as much as possible and to just breath as evenly as I could. She also said that I would probably start to burp as the air moved around in my stomach and escaped. She wasn't kidding - it is really weird when you start to really belch hard with a tube stuck down your throat, but again in seconds the doctor said that he was through my stomach and entering the top of my intestines. And then the next thing I knew he was removing the camera and it was all over.

I have to say that not having the sedation was a really good move. I was in and out quite literally in just under 10 minutes, and what made it even better was the fact that the doctor said that he had found no signs of any inflammation, infection or anything else. He said my insides were perfectly healthy and my heartburn was more than likely as a result of reflux. He also paid me a huge compliment and said that I was by far the best and most relaxed patient he had seen all day, which was a bit of a coo.

So all in all today has been a pretty wonderful day. My health is good and it has been confirmed that my wonderful S and I will be reunited again by Thanksgiving....

What more can a girl ask for....