I’m not feeling particularly festive this year. I’m not feeling un-festive, exactly, but I’m just kind of meh about the whole Christmas thing. The combination of all the schoolwork (plenty of which remains to be done), the hectic travel schedule a few weeks ago, and of course, the ear surgery and its ongoing aftermath have pushed aside my holiday cheer. I’ve done a little decorating, but probably only about a quarter of what I usually do, and obviously we’ve bought presents for everyone (dozens of which still await wrapping), but I really haven’t been in the mood at all. Mostly I’m just glad it will be over in a few days.

My recuperation is proceeding apace, but I’m amazed by how wiped out I feel, even ten days post-operation. I guess they weren’t kidding when they said to plan on missing two or three weeks of work. Because he’s a prince among men, Olof has been working from home and has taken on the bulk of what needs to be done around here, but I still haven’t been off the hook entirely. The kids were understanding for the first day or two, but they’ve long since expected me to be back in full-on “mom mode.”

On Thursday, I went to the doctor for my post-surgery check-up, and things look mostly good. The stitches on top of my ear were removed, as was the packing inside my ear canal (ouch!). Apparently I have some significant inflammation in my ear that troubled the doctor, but it’s not at the actually surgery site so she says it’s “probably nothing.” Even so, she prescribed a round of antibiotics and gave me another appointment for a couple of weeks from now. She says I should be good to fly by the time of my next scheduled trip to Uppsala, in mid-January, but I’d be a liar if I said that the mere thought of getting on an airplane wasn’t giving me some anxiety.