From the title you can tell a lot has happened in the few weeks. First off, I celebrated my second holiday since surgery - that's if you count Halloween...and I certainly do. Any holiday where I passed up a buch of candy is a holiday to count! Thanksgiving was last Thursday and I celebrated with my extended family, the Larsons. They had a big spread and I was very good and stuck right to my plan. I ate a couple of ounces of turkey and I took 1/2 cup of a vegtable that I could eat. I concentrated on my meal and the conversation at the table and not what everybody else was eating. It all went find. I didn't really feel like I was missing out on anything. Well, to be honest, I would have liked to had some dressing and gravy, but I resisted. I had orginally thought that I would stay home and not participated in a meal, but that is not what I need to be doing. I need to be a part of the real world even if I can't eat the way everybody else does. Two holidays down and two to go. I'll make it.
I went back to see my surgeon for my 5 week post surgery visit and all was well. I had some concerns but he settled those for me. I'll tell you what they were only as a learning situation. Normally, I would not discuss my bowel habits, but this is sort of important. They tell you early on that after surgery you will either have diarrhea or be constipated. I won in the constipation arena. No sign of poop unless I take a laxative. The surgeon suggests good old Milk of Magnesia. I have childhood nightmares of MOM (for short). It was my mother's laxative of choice and the cure for most anything was wrong with you. My mother's theory was that if you didn't feel good, it was because you needed a "good cleaning out". After being a nurse for 25 years, I know that you can not feel well for many OTHER reasons.....but a "good cleaning out" never hurt anybody. Anyway, the good doc suggest I take a fiber supplement. He did say that he knew I was eating the right things because a diet high in protein will make you constipated. I guess that was a compliment. I was also concerned because I would get this "stuck feeling" in the middle of my chest, like my food was not going down. I asked him what that feeling meant and he said, "that means your mean is over". I think I had mentioned that you can get an esophageal stricture and need to have your esophagus stretched. According to the doc, that is only when you have that "stuck feeling" all the time. The occasional feeling I feel is probably a sign that I am full. You might think that would be easy to tell, but it isn't. Lastly, in the afternoon I get nauseated and puny feeling. He wasn't completely sure about that one, but thinks it might be that I'm not drinking enough and it could be dehydration. That is a good possibility. So, I'm trying drink more, especially in the afternoon. The good news is that I now have no physical restrictions and don't have to see him again for 5 months. He told me that he probably wouldn't recognize me the next time he sees me. I told him that I was going to be soooo cute and he told me I was already cute. Besides the fact that he is a talented surgeon, this is the real reason I love this guy. Herman, my brother, says that is the only reason I like him so much. This is not completely true. But, granted, I do like being told of my cuteness. He did tell me that I needed to bump up my exercise a notch and get that heartbeat up and sweat a little. I could choose not to like him as much because of that statement, but it's hard to deny that he is right about that. I do walk Phoebe, but even I know that is not enough. So, I'm working on getting in some more exercise.
Even though I am on disability, I have been working a few hours a week to keep my brain from turning to mush. I'm pretty sure I have talked about working with a young woman/girl who has severe cerebral palse. The job is not really a nursing job, although the other ladies and I do nursing care for her. I am the only one of her caretakers who has a nursing degree. The job title is habitational tech which means you don't get paid anywhere near a nurse's salary. Moving on. While I have been out because of surgery, I discovered that another person was hired on making more money than me. This person, who I do not know, unfortunately told someone else her salary. Big mistake. I went to the supervisor and confronted her with this only to get a suprising answer. She said I should have asked for more money. I had been led to believe that there was no money because part of our pay had just been cut. Turns out, I was wrong. Now, I have been working for this agency for a year and this makes me feel that I have been being used. Maybe I was just being stupid, but I honestly thought from what were were being told that there was no money for increases in salary. Then, they go and hire someone else making more than me. That will never do. I have more experience and I've been there longer. It's time to go. I do love this patient. But, to be honest, I have been getting bored and was frequently frustrated with the surroundings of my work there. I've been unhappy there for a while. It's not all about the money or rank. That just gave me a good reason to leave - not that I really needed one. I'm working out a notice and then looking for something else where I can utilize my skills. I know this has nothing to do with my weight loss, but in a way it does. I hope to one day be able to get back into nursing. This may be a step in that direction. Sometimes things have a way of working themselves out.
Lastly, my scale is not broken afterall. I went for 10 days and the scales did not move. That is very frustrating, even though I have lost a lot of weight already. Finally, I got a drop of 4 pounds last week. This makes 44 lbs less of me. My clothes are getting baggy. The nurse at the surgeons office and the surgeon himself told me that this is normal. Sometimes the scale doesn't show a loss, but you are still losing inches. I did not measure before surgery mainly because I didn't want to know those numbers. Other weight loss buds tell me that it helps to measure when the scale is not moving. Oh well.....too late for that. I can tell I'm losing even if those scales don't say it every time I step on them. I'm making progress. Hooray for me.
That is enough for now. I may have rambled on so excuse me. I'll try and blog more often so the entries won't be so long.
Stay tune for more adventures.
Woof, meow x 2 and xoxoxo from Bonnie (the shrinking woman)
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