Eye contact

My husband and I went to Barnes & Noble last night. While walking around, I took notice of what I thought was a lot more people looking/noticing/paying attention to me. (No, I did not have a booger hanging out of my nose!) At the time, I decided it was because I'm looking better and feeling better about myself. But, I've since changed my theory and believe it was actually that I was allowing myself to look at others instead of keeping my head down. It's difficult to admit, but I had this self-conscious feeling that if I were to look at someone they might think I was interested in them. And, because of my size, they'd not want to reciprocate the feeling and would in turn do whatever they could to make it obvious they weren't interested. And, quite frankly, I didn't need that kind of rejection (regardless of the fact that I'm not interested in other people; I'm married to a wonderful man whom I'm thoroughly grateful for)! But now because of my 39 pound loss (yes! 39 lbs total!! I've somehow lost 7 lbs over each of the past two weeks!!!), I'm feeling so much better about myself that I'm willing to look others in the eye and not feel like they're going to recoil because I've done so. It's a fantastic feeling!!!!

Back to the salt mines ...

Well, I went back to work yesterday. All of my co-workers seemed genuinely glad I was back, and thankfully, since I work at a university, there's not much going on at this time of year. So, it wasn't at all stressful. No one really noticed my now 24 pound weight loss, but I came to the realization that it's probably not enough of a loss to be significantly noticed unless someone were to have paid attention to how my clothes fit previously.

My infected incision is still refusing to close, and it's been itching. And, the spot on my arm where the 3rd IV that I had while in the hospital is sore, so I don't know what's going on with that. I've got my 1 month, 1 week follow up next Tuesday, but if the soreness worsens, I'll call my Dr before then.

Yeah, 3 lbs

(Please read the above title with facetiousness.) Again, I know I should be thrilled with any kind of loss. But last week was hard for me, and I thought I was doing better with drinking more water and exercising more. So, to only lose 3 lbs is disappointing. My infected incision is doing better, though!

Ewwww ...

One of my incisions is infected. :( It's the bottom-left most incision and it hasn't been doing as well as all the others. Per Dr. O'Malley's NP recommendation, I went to see my local Dr. (so that I wouldn't have to drive the 3 hours to Rochester to see her) today, and she confirmed that it's infected. The area around the incision is very red, and that area keeps getting larger. And, the incision itself hasn't fully closed. So, she gave me a prescription for an antibiotic which I will take twice a day w/ food for the next 10 days. Fun! :P

Time to get my money back?

Only 2lbs lost over the past week. I know I should be thrilled about losing anything, but after the 1st week of losing 14lbs, I'd really hoped to lose around 10lbs this week. I realize things have changed with the new diet, and I think I wasn't drinking enough water during the first part of the week. I also probably didn't walk enough. When I told my husband, he said, "Ask for your money back!" Mind you, I've not paid a cent yet. :)

I know it will get better; well, at least I hope it will. I mean, I'd been able to successfully lose 2lbs a week on my own; although, once I'd reach the 20lbs lost mark, I'd typically hit a long plateau and then fall off the wagon.

Here's to next week!