25 September 2006

Post surgery report

It's been a week and 3 days since I had my right wrist surgery to clean up a tear in the cartilage. I've been rather limited in my ability to type since then, so that's the reason for the delay in reporting. I got the soft cast and sutures removed today and have been given a brace and an order for physical therapy. The doctor was pleased with how my wrist looks, not much swelling or bruising. But, unfortunately, I still have some numbness and pain in my ring finger that she can't explain. She advises that it could take up to 2 months for it to fully go away, but she feels it's not nerve damage. Yeah, right. And, now, this damn brace is making it more difficult to do normal things like type, drive, etc., and it's frustrating the hell out of me. But, the strength in my wrist isn't good enough to go without it, so I'm stuck with it. Hopefully, with the PT, it will be strengthened more quickly and I won't have to wear the brace until my next appointment w/ the surgeon, which is a month from now.

On another note, I had the same woman who asked me how I could stand only eating 3 tbsp. of food a day shortly after returning to work post-WLS ask me how much pain I was in after my WLS surgery this morning. I was intrigued by her question, so I answered it honestly. She then got a disappointed look on her face and said, oh. So, I wouldn't be able to do it. This woman is 5'3"ish and at most 145 lbs! So, she sees my success, thinks there was no work involved post-surgery and that it could help her lose the 15-20 lbs she wants to lose. Oh, come on! I politely tried to explain that you have to have a BMI of over 40 to even be considered (after which she says, yeah, mine's 26!) and that it was a lot of work to get to where I am. It wasn't just magic, and then she says, but you're guaranteed of never gaining it back, right?! Arghghghgh!!! Noo, I have to work at it to maintain my weight, and if I'm not careful, I could put a lot back on. Ohhhh, she says. Sheesh!!!

10 September 2006

Still encountering changes

One change that I've recently come to realize is that since losing all this weight I've been able to develop friendships with other women more easily. And, what I don't know is is this change due to my increase in self-confidence or is it one of those things that most women probably wouldn't be willing to admit, now that I've lost the weight and can "fit in" with them and others am I more attractive with respect to being a potential friend? Or, is it a combination of them both? I suspect it's the latter, but who knows?!

Throughout my life, I've had a handful of very close female friends, but it was usually only one at a time. And, in the course of my 8 years of marriage prior to the past 4 months, I really didn't have any female friends, close or not. But, now, I have 3 women with which I do things socially on a semi-regular basis, and I'm loving it! Two of them came over this past Friday night to hang out and watch Sex and the City, and we had an absolutely fabulous time! I ate way too much and had 3, count them!, 3 glasses of wine. Granted, that was over the course of 5 hours, but that's a lot of wine for me! Yes, I'm over-analyzing the situation, as usual, and I'm thrilled to have other women with whom I can hang out, talk fashion with and confide in. So, I'm going to do my best not to screw it up! Wish me luck!

On another matter entirely, I'm scheduled for surgery this Friday. I'm sure you're wondering for what? Is it possibly plastics? Nope, I'm having arthroscopic wrist surgery in an attempt to repair or clean up torn cartilage in my right wrist. I'm not looking forward to the surgery and have considered chickening out, but the reason I'm scheduled for the surgery is that I have pain because of the tear. I've gone through physical therapy and have had a cortisone injection, and neither relieved the pain. So, one of the biggest things I'm worried about is the anesthesia. I have the option of being given the twilight anesthesia or general. I'm leaning toward the twilight, but I had twilight when I had my wisdom teeth out and I remember screaming in pain during the procedure. So, I'm just not confident in choosing the twilight. And, another aspect I'm worried about is post surgery. If she can fix the tear, I'll have a cast from my fingers up past my elbow for 6 - 8 weeks. This is my right wrist, guys, and I'm right handed. So, I'm not going to be able to do things w/ my right hand, things like what I spend an hour each morning doing due to my hirsutism. How in the hell am I going to deal w/ that?! If she can't fix it but can only clean it up I'll only have a soft brace for a couple of weeks. So, this weekend when I helped my husband move our stuff from our 2 storage units into 1 I lifted away despite the pain thinking that maybe I'd tear it even more so that she wouldn't be able to fix it. Crazy, huh?!

06 September 2006

The rest ...

I hope I don't bore you to death with these ...


The Bathroom



Saying hello to you all from the bathroom



The disastrous office



Me explaining the issue with the office



Our bedroom



The guest bedroom


And, unfortunately, I can't show you the living room because the video clip is apparently too large/long. :P I'm sure I've sufficiently bored you to tears w/ what I've got up, though.

05 September 2006

The 1st Video Installment ...

As promised, here's the first installment of video taken of our new apartment. Enjoy!

04 September 2006

Pics of the new apartment

Sheesh, guys, it's been a million years; I know! I do believe I finally have the apartment unpacked ... for the most part. The only thing that's really lacking is the office, but I'll get it done soon. Here are some photos of the apartment for your perusal. The place is small, so it's difficult to get wide, overall shots of all of the rooms. But, I tried! :)

Some of them are certainly obvious, but here's the order of the pics:
The living room, the kitchen (I got those flowers at the farmer's market for ten bucks!!), the view of the lake from our apartment, the bathroom, the bedroom, the guest room, the office. I also have some video I took that I'm going to try to post later this week as well as a post about what's been going on with me. I again apologize for the complete lack of posts lately. I hope there are still some of you out there!