Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, on topics including atheism, sexuality and sex-positivity, LGBT issues, politics, culture, and whatever crosses her mind. She is author of
The Way of the Heathen: Practicing Atheism in Everyday Life, of
Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God, of
Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why, of
Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, and of
Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More, and is editor of
Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients. She has been a public speaker for many years, and many of her talks can be seen on YouTube. Her writing has appeared in multiple magazines and newspapers, including Ms., Penthouse, Chicago Sun-Times, On Our Backs, and Skeptical Inquirer, and numerous anthologies, including
Everything You Know About God Is Wrong and three volumes of
Best American Erotica. (Any views she expresses in this blog are solely hers, and do not necessarily represent this organizations.) She lives in San Francisco with her wife, Ingrid. You can email her at gretachristina (at) gmail (dot) com, or follow her on
Facebook.
Our thoughts will be with you, Greta.
Best wishes on your surgery and recuperation. I hope it isn’t too long and annoying for you. It is very good to hear that you will very likely go home soon if not immediately – hospitals get boring as shit even if you bring stuff to keep yourself occupied.
Wishing you an excellent surgeon and a smooth surgery! Love and hugs, Greta!
So much love, support, and easy-recovery-dust from me and my partner.
Hugs for you and Ingrid.
Hi Greta, best wishes for your surgery and recovery.
I’ve had several pelvic/abdominal surgeries and found that some hospitals are better than others at passing this tip on: it is much easier to sit up, stand up or lie down after surgery if you get a small, firm pillow (one orderly folded a bed pad down to 6″ x 9″ and taped it for me) and clutch it firmly to your abdomen as you move.
Good luck, and a speedy recovery!
May they give you one of those heated hospital gowns for surgery prep.
Quercus Rubra’s tip is a good one. They may have a belt of sorts – basically a wide elastic that wraps around your waist and is secured by velcro – that will provide abdominal support while you heal. I used one during recoveries from 2 c-sections and it helped tremendously.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Hugs and love to you and Ingrid and the kittehs.
Another best wishes and good luck.
Seconding the pillow business – I had one after my c-sections, and it was sooo helpful. Having an incision there means that your brain makes it feel like everything’s about to fall out, even though it isn’t, and having a bolster of some type to hold against it is a good thing.
Good luck! Hope to see you in top shape soon! 🙂
Gentle Hugs
I’ll be thinking of you and Ingrid tomorrow.
Best wishes, Greta! Take the time you need to relax and heal.
I hope everything goes well, and that you are home resting very comfortably by this time tomorrow.
beware of steps when you have a abdominal operation. My poor husband had a inguinal hernia and he went home the same day. Those three steps up to our porch were not fun. Pain killers are your friend! Funny movies probably won’t be.
Hope the surgery goes well and the recovery is quick and as easy as possible.
I know it won’t do any good, but I’ll be thinking of you.
Best wishes for a fast and complete recovery!
All the best Greta. Take the recovery nice and easy.
Hope all goes well for you tomorrow. I’m sure all that follow you in the UK will join with me in this salutation.
Get well soon, and may they give you the good drugs.
Also, as a side note, I read the title as Sugary Tomorrow. Dang dyslexia.
I had a total hysterectomy a year and a half ago – best thing I ever did.
You will be sore but it really isn’t all that bad. Hystersisters has forums about the surgery and what to expect. Miralax is a good thing to have on hand. Pain meds cause constipation. 😉
Take care and follow the doctors orders and you’ll be just fine.
Good luck, Greta. I hope everything goes as well as it possibly can.
Here’s wishing you a great surgery team and smooth surgery. I’m assuming it’s laparascopic since you’re going home the same day. If that is the case don’t be surprised if the worst pain the first day or two is in your shoulder. Take it easy once you’re home. Best to both of you.
Best of luck, Greta! Here’s to a good surgery and quick recovery!
I hope you have a fantastic surgeon and a swift recovery.
Wishing you good surgery, good drugs and a good recovery, with feelgood films to watch that don’t make you laugh. May your procedure be the textbook example of the perfect hysterectomy that they hold up as an example to med students saying “now this is exactly how the surgical team and the patient want it to go.” Hugs to you both.
A tough situation, Ms. Christina, and no mistake. It has been hard for you of late, and there is more to come. But you are strong, you will endure. Many people are rooting for you, wishing you good news and a speedy recovery. Myself among them.
If I believed, I would say “God be with you.” But we have no gods, only each other. So we are all with you, in thought if not in body. As Ben Franklin said, “We must all hang together or we will surely hang separately.”
Hang tough, Greta. Hang tough.
Best wishes, Greta. I hope your surgery goes smoothly and your recovery is swift.
Hope all goes well, Greta. Wishing you a quick recovery and good outcomes.
I found out about this after you said not to donate further. Please let us know if you need any further financial or other support.
Best wishes Greta. My selfish personal hope is that things go so exceedingly well that you decide you want to go to Skepticon so that I can finally hear atheism’s most eloquent speaker in person. But no pressure, I’m sure they’ll have someone else there that can do some talking. Good luck.
Greta, I’ll be thinking of you and wishing you well.
Wishing you well… i don’t doubt that you already are aware of this site, but if not – my wife found it useful and reassuring:
HysterSisters
To hell with the blog, come back when it’s comeback time. I wish you a smooth operation and the best possible outcome.
I’m sure they’ll show you this–and your wife is a nurse, so she’ll know–to get up from a supine position you roll on your side first and get up from the side-lying position by pushing off with the arm that’s under you. And use the abdominal support pillow. Best wishes!
I’m totally new and have barely read any of your posts, but I wanted to wish you best of luck in surgery tomorrow. And that your doctor is super talented and skilled. It’s been several years since my own hysterectomy but I remember how scary it all was.
All the best.
I hope all goes well and that you’ll be on the mend soon.
1. Good luck.
2. Take pain meds before it gets bad.
3. Walk a little every day. It will hurt and surprise you that it hurts. Who knew walking involved abdominal muscles.
4. If you lose ovaries too – and I hope you don’t – go with HRT asap. (Assuming not a problem re cancer.) Instant menopause is a whole different syndrome.
5. Listen to Nurse Ingrid and thank your lucky stars you married her.
I post occasionally on FtB, though I don’t recall if I have posted on your blog before. I read Dispatches and Pharyngula daily, and browse the rest of the blogs for articles that sound interesting.
Though I don’t post here, I still wish you well and hope your surgery is successful.
I hope all goes smoothly and I’ll be thinking of you.
Good luck, or if I’m too late hope it went well!
All the best – you’re in my thoughts. Don’t push it post-op. As some others have mentioned, pain meds are your friends.
My thoughts are with you in this difficult time, hope it goes well.
Best of luck and FSM-speed to ya! 😉
Very best wishes to you as you go through this process. I hope the best that science can offer speeds your recovery. I will be thinking of you.
Just got to your announcement, so it’s probably post op by now. We’re all pulling for you and wish you a speedy recovery.
Do take the pain meds. When it gets bad despite the meds, sternly remind your pain that YOU are the inestimable GRETA CHRISTINA. Hopefully it will quail with shame that it bothered you, and go away. 🙂
Bestest wishes for a quick recovery.
Sending POSITIVE ENERGY. Rest & Recover.
Oh wow, I had nearly two weeks of blog reading to catch up with and I just read about this. Greta, I hope you had a perfect surgery with a great medical team, and I wish you a prompt recovery.
Best wishes!