Post Opp

It has now been 5 days since my operation. I must admit I was rather surprised that I did not feel worse.  I didn't feel nausea's at all and I was up and walking around that evening (albeit slowly).  It felt more like I had coughed constantly for 48 hours.  

The thing I dreaded the most was the shoulder pain that you can get from the anaesthetic.  I have had it before and it can last for days.  I mentioned it this time and I think they injected something to help ease it.  It did better than that as I didn't get it all.

On Sunday I had visits from friends and my mother.  This is the day my surgeon told me to tell people not to come because I would feel rotten.  He got the surprise of his life when he walked in and saw us all laughing.  He asked me how I was doing and I said I felt fine but I'm still fat.  That was when one of my friends said that a little nip and tuck would have helped me on my way. This was in the evening and I was still only on water and considering I was feeling so well he went out and brought me back a Frosty Fruit (icy pole).  It was the best gift I have ever had.

Of course my friends know me well.  I got some lovely flowers and a couple of minions to keep me company.

On Monday I started to get a small burning pain in my lower abdomen but all else was fine.  I went for my CT scan and was given the all clear to have clear fluids.  My first meal was dinner and it was a beef stock that tasted like watered down soy sauce.  Thankfully I had jelly as well. I had about half of each over an hour or so.  It wasn't long after this was delivered that the evacuation alarm went off.  It was a false alarm.  Apparently a fault in the PA system.  My nurse told me that it took a while to get the all clear because everyone was phoning in asking her if they needed to evacuate and the all clear phone call couldn't get through.  Little bit of excitement to add to an otherwise dull day.  

It was nice to go home on Tuesday.  I am now off clear fluids and onto anything I can easily suck up through a straw.  The small burning pain has increased to a band that goes to my side but I can keep it mostly at bay with pain killers.  The worst time for it is first thing in the morning when trying to get out of bed.

The hardest thing right now is trying to keep my fluid intake up.  My stomach has gone from 2L to 300 ml so I get full almost in one mouthful at the moment.  It is also hard to tell when to have something more nourishing because the area of my stomach that made me hungry has been cut out. I am sticking to the traditional meal times for now.

Tis The Night Before

Tomorrow morning it is. Bright and early, 6am admission, first in theatre for the day.  I am not nervous though I have given instructions to friends that if I die they are to turn up at my funeral dressed as the Grim Reaper or Ghosts.  It was suggested that only one person come as the Grim Reaper and stand there pointing at other people but I want everyone to get in the spirit.  My funeral will be a fancy dress event. 

Anyway this is not about death and funerals because I don't intend to die, suffer for a couple of days definitely, maybe wish I was dead for the first day but definitely have faith in my surgeon and anesthetist.  Both were there when I had the stomach band put in and again when it was removed.  If I knew then what I know now, I definitely would have had the stomach sleeve straight away.

Considering I will be staying in hospital for a couple of days (3 at most) I am taking a book to read.  I also seem to always end up on the children's ward, so I am taking colouring pencils and an colouring book.  Don't freak, it is an adult colouring book.  My mother thinks I am nuts for packing these items but I figure if I don't take them then I will want them.  Murphy's Law at its best.

Time to sign off.  I won't be taking my phone or laptop with me so I will be missing from social media for a few days.  Don't forget me.  :)

Drastic Measures

Those of you who know me, know how much I struggle with my weight.  I've tried programs and doing it on my own.  I only get so far and then the weight loss stops.  After a while you just give up and think what the heck!

I have been successful this year in losing close to 10kg with the help of a program that gets you moving again.  The class was once a week but I made sure I was doing lots of walking.  All was going well until things unraveled.  Slim people call them excuses, but I would like to see them carry on in such pain.

First to go was my shoulder.  I have always had issues with my left shoulder from as long as I can remember.  Apparently I have a bursa and it is bad enough to be operated on but for some reason I still have full motion, as long as I am not exercising.

Second to go was my right knee.  Again an old ongoing issue that only comes up when I am exercising.

Third to go were my orthotics.  This is no surprise considering I have had them for 10 years.  For two weeks I was unable to walk long distances until the new ones came in.  This was enough to set me back almost to where I was at the beginning of the year prior to my classes.  The new orthotics then caused blisters under my feet and so on and so forth.  It took a good 2 months to get them sorted.

Final thing to go ... even with the orthotic issue I forced myself to walk even though it was painful.  With all this walking going on my muscles were getting tighter and tighter to the point where my muscles around my hips are so tight I have to go to physio and specialised pilates classes to help me relax them.  Despite my weight I am quite flexible and find it very difficult to stretch my muscles.  These muscles now cause a lot of back, hip and leg ache.  I was told not to walk up hill or up stairs (unavoidable unfortunately).

The weight loss struggle has come full circle again.  I have to exercise to lose weight.  There is no other way around it.  I already don't each much (and no I am not in denial on that).  Therefore with all of the above and a nagging mother (who I love very much but can only handle so much nagging from), I have decided to get a stomach sleeve done.  Do I think I am insane?  Yes.  This is my last change though.  If this doesn't work I will probably say stuff the lot and eat what I want.  At least I will die young and enjoying myself.

My operation is in a weeks time.  I am currently on the pre op diet.  Thankfully it is what I was doing while I was exercising, which is the Optifast Diet (the first one).  Optifast comes in bars, soups, shakes, and desserts.  I get one product for breakfast, one for lunch, one for dinner with some vegetables.  When I did this before I didn't feel so hungry but I do now.  I think it is because I know that it may be a couple of months after the op that I can enjoy solid food again.

This is day 3. Tomorrow the weekend starts so I have two days where I could give in and have a nice cheese toastie, though I probably won't.  We were shouted pizza at lunch by our manager today and despite everyone deciding my desk was the one to sit around, chat and eat pizza, I maintained my willpower and had chicken soup.

Photos are one thing I hate the most about myself but I figured I needed a before shot.  Here is my mug shot.  Please do not copy it and use it in vain.

Mine, mine, mine, mine!

If you have ever watch the movie "Finding Nemo" you will understand the title of this blog post and automatically thing Seagulls.

Yesterday a friend Tammy and I went down to Point Perron to take some photographs of rock pools.  After a lovely day in the sun we stopped in Rockingham for some Fish and Chips and watch the sun set.  It didn't take long before we had an audience of 200 Seagulls calling out "mine, mine, mine, mine!" They came in so close and Tammy even hand fed a couple.

As usual I was sitting on the ground so the birds were on the railing fence next to me and the beach a meter below me.  To keep them from getting too close I started throwing the odd chip out onto the beach.  That gave us a couple of minutes peace.  

My good camera was packed away so these photos were taken on my phone of the birds that kept coming in close.

The photos I took at Point Perron will be a while before I show them.  I did them in RAW and now need to get a program to convert and edit them.  I know what program I am getting, I just need to find the time to get it all sorted.

Powertex Excitement

After my last two classes of Powertex I must admit I have totally fallen in love with the product.  It is so versatile. I signed up for another 1 hour class that was held at a craft fair a couple of weeks ago.  The item we made is quite Steam Punk which I totally love.

This first photo is the full item (phone photo and a bit blurred sorry).  It is about 15x15cm.  I have used string, wood, plaster, paper, and fabric.  I love how it turned out.  The second image is closer up.  The true colour is somewhere between to two images.

There was a prize to be one at the  Powertex Booth of $250 worth of Powertex.  On the bottom of the form it asked what you would be interested in learning.  One of the options was teaching the product.  I tell you, nothing gets past Ashley.  She saw me mark it straight away and ask what I was doing the following weekend as she would be training some trainers.  It was $300 so I had to decline.  Too many bills coming in right now.

The following Tuesday I get a message from Ashely to call me.  I phoned and found out I had won the $250 which is great, and rather funny considering I nearly forgot to enter.  I was able to put the money towards the training class. 

Lets just say that this last weekend was crazy fun and I met some lovely new people.  The first day was just learning about Powertex itself and what it can do.  The class was similar to the Fairy class I did but this time it was with a Masai head.  The name of the head is Nola.  She gave me some grief but we got there and I am very happy with how she has turned out.

On the second day we worked on Stone Art.  Again this is similar to the class I had already done for the Mixed media but I was a lot more confident and got more creative this time.  The theme we were working on was rust.   The first photo is on a bit of an angle.  I really love this piece.

I had such a great time that when I got home I sat down and started doing an armature wire seated figure.  I don't have photos for it but will post them to show how the process is done.  It is a lot more fiddly than the above image and I think I will need a bit of practice before I can teach it as a one day class.