Isn’t this a pretty sky? Takes a lot to steal the limelight from Mingus Mountain. This was the sky last night. Teased rain, again.
Today though, we had glorious rain for well over an hour. Booming thunder. Big fat drops, loudly bouncing off the windows. Trees swaying wildly. Gutters overflowing. Mingus hidden in a blanket of grey. A most welcome “light” storm”.
I am continuing to prep for the September paint-a-thon. I taped a few sheets, and hope to add some background textures this evening. We already have 32 members. WOW!!! I am so glad the word is spreading. This is going to be fun!
The news is out. Leslie Saeta has officially decided to stop hosting the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. Or perhaps It’s just September that is canceled. Christiane Drieling told me, and I do not want to misquote. Christiane has the awesome idea of hosting an informal challenge on Facebook. Yay!
Are you interested? Do you know artists who have participated before, and might like to again? Please help us spread the word. I will post the link as soon as Christiane creates the page. Ginny Butcher has decided to participate as well. Let’s’ keep the momentum going!
If 30 is too much, how about doing one a week? If you have never participated before, you can click on the link above to see the outline Leslie used. (Maybe I shouldn’t be posting that.) And maybe we will change it up a little. Stay tuned 😉
More good news. I am doing MUCH better! I haven’t had any problems since my last post. Eleven days. Woo-Whoo! Very relieved about that.
I am able to sip slightly larger sips. And take ever so slightly larger bites. Still doing the chew, chew, chew. Making sure my soft foods are completely broken up before I swallow. And it is such a relief to be able to take in more water. I am still not hitting the 64 oz. mark. Inching closer. But I do not feel water-deprived anymore. Ahh.
Not sure I have mentioned it before, but I drink water consistently throughout the day. I have a 32 oz. bottle, and prior to surgery, I think I drank 5 or six of those a day. Now I can barely do one and a half. And my skin is missing it! So dry!
So good news all around! Getting the vitamins down much more easily, water and food. Whew! I think it may have been your encouraging words! Thank you all so much! You had me in tears 🙂
There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate. Linda Grayson
Couldn’t resist. Honestly, though, I am craving salad. Lettuce. A nice crunchy salad. Toast. Mmm, avocado toast with a poached egg. OK. I’m stopping.
Maybe I was hungry when I took the photo below, but I see a fish cloud. I messed up and cut off the tail. All the other photos I took came out blurry. (I was sitting at a red light.)
I will leave you with this little bird. I was standing at the window, checking out Mingus. And he flew up on the ledge and started checking things out too. The berries, and plants of course. I turned slowly and started taking pictures of him. For a long time, he did not notice. But then he saw me. And then he was gone.
Oh, one more thing. I have finally decided what to use for my annual postcard. I will get them ordered, and have them mailed out hopefully by the middle of next month. I have had the stamps since before the surgery! Ha-ha-ha. 🙂
The site switch over is complete! Thank you, Randy, for all your hard work, in spite of a broken wrist! But I can see things are missing here. Hate that. So now I have work to do. As expected. Notice the empty bottom of this post. All the like and share buttons are missing, and the links to similar posts. I know why that happens now. Thanks to a Youtube video. Still, it is aggravating. So off to work I go. And I also hope to prep some pieces before the first. Fingers crossed.
OK. Long overdue this update. I wanted to have a full week of good days behind me. Start off with the good news. But that hasn’t happened yet. On top of that my attention span is all of about five minutes. I jump from task to task.
All is well. I am well. My one month follow up, lifted my spirits big time. I thought I was failing at everything. Not getting my 64 oz. of water daily, having a had time getting the quarter-sized vitamins down. Sometimes losing my meals and having to start all over on clear liquids. Broth and Jello.
But I am right on schedule. It takes time to build up to 64 oz. a day. And now I have the vitamin schedule down. One of them can’t be taken close to meals, because it competes with protein for absorption. I get at least 48 oz. of water and that is great.
I can’t drink right before a meal, or right after. Or with. So hard for me. I am used to drinking water consistently throughout the day. And the feeling that tells me I am full, is the same feeling that I had previously when I needed to wash my food down. Nice. LOL. I usually stop eating before that point. But sometimes the feeling comes later. I have to be very conscious of my drinking habits. I have to sip small sips. Very hard on a hot day. Or a thirsty one.
From A Distance. August 1, 2019. SMD
It was such a relief to know I am doing better than I thought. I was sure I was botching it all up. Worst patient ever. NOT! Whew!
In my online searching, I found a site with great recipes for bariatric patients. The author also posted about what not to say to someone who has had bariatric surgery. This paragraph was a message from above. It found me at exactly the right time.
Imagine you woke up tomorrow with the stomach of a newborn baby, but the mind of your adult self. So you can’t eat much. New foods make you sick. But sometimes they don’t. But sometimes they do. And you don’t know when they will or won’t. And your body needs so many calories to survive but you’re incapable of eating that many calories, so you’re tired. But you also need to exercise to lose weight, even though you are tired. While you’re doing all this, you have to address the emotional attachments you had with food and the toxic relationships you had with people that made you turn to food in the first place. And while you’re doing all that, someone, somewhere is telling you that you took the “easy” way out.
Whew! It is not just me doing it wrong. This is how it is. That is it exactly. Sometimes I can eat cottage cheese. YUM! And the next day, I can’t. One day I had fish, and another day, Oh Lord. Then to have the doctor tell me I am doing great. Look great. Healing fabulously. What a relief!
After my last post. Just out of the hospital. First week, was smooth. Clear liquids. Doing great, even ran some errands. Ha ha ha.
Not so fast Charlie Brown.
Second week. Starting soft foods. Following my rulebook. Had soft scrambled eggs for lunch. Oh, I missed eggs. Before bed, I took my evening meds. Seemed fine. But a tiny, teeny little pill brought me to my knees. Horrendous pain. Everyone had gone to bed. We were still at my brother’s house in Phoenix. The whole house heard me scream out in pain. I was dripping sweat, nauseous, and just mumbling. Telling them to call an ambulance. Call the hotline. Call somebody. LOL.
If any of you have had the pain of a gallstone. This felt the same. Intense. Excruciating.
My brother got a hold of the night nurse. She heard me yelping. Gently told us that it would pass. It would either come up, or go down. She said if I went to the hospital all they could do was hydrate me and give me something for the pain. EXACTLY! Hello.
After he disconnected, as we all debated driving 30 minutes to the hospital. It came out. Thank you Jesus! Instant blessed relief. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Storm Light. August 2019. SMD
I was sore for several days. Back on clear liquids. Afraid of ingesting food at all. Heavy on the prayers. And that is my routine. If I lose a meal. Back to clear. And Pray.
I have been much better since then. But it is up and down. I am much weaker now, after so long on limited intake. I am getting as much as I can. Very sure I get as much protein as possible. Enough vegetables. Some fruit.
Stormy Blue. August 2019. SMD
All I can do is try to laugh sometimes. I asked for this. (shaking head) I gave the surgeon two thumbs up and a huge smile when she asked if I was sure I wanted to do this. I signed the paperwork. HA ha ha.
I am mostly eating soups. Or pureed soups. Mostly chicken, but some turkey (meatballs with BBQ sauce, divine), Some seafood. Fish once. I am in the soft foods phase for one more month.
I am fine with a limited menu. I don’t mind that really. What’s hard is not knowing. I eat less than half a cup. Tiny amount. Three meals. And I often have a couple of bites of protein later in the evening. Cottage cheese, or more soup.
September 11th I have my meeting with the nutritionist to learn about going to the next phase. I am slightly worried about whether or not I will be ready to do so. But there is time. Staying positive, and moving forward. All I can do.
My scars are minimal. Still healing but WOW, they are not a concern at all. I won’t see the lung specialist until the end of October. I had some tests and an office visit a week ago. He was happy with my progress as well. Giving me time to heal, and then we will repeat the pulmonary function tests and see how I do. And then begin to make plans for going forward.
Let’s see, anything else. OH! My cough is very much improved and will continue to improve for about six months. Oh, yes. My site will be up and down for 3 to 4 days. If all goes well. It is being moved to a new server. And my good friend and talented tech Randy, just broke his wrist. That is not going to help. So for those of you that see this post before it goes down.
