December 30, 2011

Hi Folks,

Well, the wheels are in motion for January 24th. I have a pre-surgery appointment with my GP to get medically certified for surgery on January 17th. On January 18th I have to be at the hospital for blood work, my pre-anesthesia appointment, urinalysis, and an EKG(?). I guess they didn't care about my heart when they removed the tumor. I picked up my prescriptions at the drug store, a couple antibiotics and a Movi-prep. For the uninformed, that is the same stuff they gave me to prep for my colonoscopy last year. That thought freaks me out, so I left that bag of stuff from the drug store at work and hid it. That will make it all better. I hope the 24th comes quick. It's weird, looking forward to something that you are dreading. Does that make sense? LOL  I'll be glad when it's over.

I got on the scale this week, feeling brave. My appetite certainly has picked up. And the Christmas cookies brisket and colcanon and potato rolls (that is what I made for Christmas dinner, and damn I'm a good cook!) and peppermint bark and stuff. Lots of peppermint bark. Still down 51 pounds from pre-surgery weight when I met with the anesthesiologist the day before surgery, and down 70 pounds from my all-time high Fat Camp weigh-in. The upcoming surgery is making me nervous and I'm starting to eat  more when I'm not hungry. Grrrrrr. Too bad the surgery couldn't fix my head. I've been doing very well with the walking, doing an hour a day. Certainly not hauling ass, but hauling my own ass is enough right now.

I had to laugh the other day. My desk at work is right in the window, and one of the girls commented that I'd best not pick my nose, because everybody can see me. Now anybody looking up there has a good shot at seeing me groping my colostomy bag or looking down my pants. LOL  All the rules for putting your hands down your pants change when you get a colostomy folks.

My bag is having it's first overnight trip away from home. I'm visiting John tonight. My brother if anybody doesn't know that. He's making me pizza and salad.Yum. He even turned the heat up for me. Up to 63. LOL  It will go down to 57 tonight. Can a woman have a night sweat when the temp around her is 57? I'll let you know!

Happy New Year Folks. Take good care if anybody is partying. I'm still on a movie kick, so I'll probably be watching some Hitchcock when the New Year rolls in. I don't know who I am kidding with that. I can't stay awake past 9:00 lol, I've been exhausted lately.

Tonight it is War of the Worlds and Capricorn One. Good stuff! And yes, I know. There are new movies, like from the 80's and stuff.

Kay :)

Miscellaneous Stuff on Saturday

1. Leave Her to Heaven
2. Signs
3. Independence Day
4. Play Misty for Me
5. Delta Force
6. 2 Atomic Fire Balls
7. 1 Bun Bar

It's not some weird free association exercise!. It's the movies and treats I got at the video store. I love the 5 movies for 5 days for $5 thing. And I've had a hankering to see these movies and they are not on Netflix. I'm not sure what happens when colostomy meets a burger from Portillos and then comes upon an atomic fire ball! Sounds like it could be an exciting sci-fi flick! Coming soon  . . .

Also all this commotion messed up the end of my gardening season. I sort of missed fall. But maybe the gardening for this year isn't over yet . . . behold . . .

It's nearly a foot long! LOL  Kind of fun. And totally organic. Just ask Midge and Finn.

My first full week of work kind of kicked my ass. I'm sore and stiff and out of sorts and tired and sneezing and hence the movie fest. Very recuperative! LOL

I'm going to watch Leave Her to Heaven now. I really want to start with Play  Misty for Me . . . but that will be better in the dark.

Kay :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Surgeon's office called today and my colostomy reversal is scheduled! January 24, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. Woo hoo! I wish it was sooner, but at any rate it is nice to have the date. The doc really wanted me to have 3 months minimum to heal and for things to settle back into place, so I guess it is working out just as it should.

Kay :)

Before and After Pics

LOL Now you weren't expecting pictures of me, were you? LOL

Mar cut out and baked all these cookies for us to decorate! She whipped them out while she was cooking dinner for hundreds of people for a big catering job! She's amazing. And generous. She fed us good eats too! Thanks Mar.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Saw my surgeon today. The doc said everything looks good. He just wants to review the report from the colonoscopy I had about a year ago before we schedule the colostomy reversal (woooo hoooo) for mid-late January (but hopefully sooner –my thought, not the doc lol). Looking back, the problems which made the colonoscopy necessary were probably caused by the tumor, but who knew!? I can’t wait! Except I can’t keep the depressing thoughts of entering the hospital again, and chicken broth and clear liquids and needles and IVs and getting out of bed after surgery and hospital gowns and burning through what had seemed like a ridiculous amount of banked sick days and stuff like that. But the result is what matters! I’m going to focus positive thoughts and energy on that. My stoma has healed up and contracted and retracted and has gotten much smaller (this is totally normal), which, in combination with my own somewhat “wavy” (oh shut up) abdomen, presents a new bagging challenge. Grrr. I will conquer it! Hopefully before the surgery! LOL 

My Dad will be 92 on December 12^th, and since I was going to be in Joliet today I went ahead and picked him up two of his favorite things . . . a French Silk Pie from Baker’s Square (yummers!), and some sliders from White Castle (ewwwww). Only a girl who loves her dad would invite that odor into her car! It certainly does linger. Anyway, when I ordered the pie at Baker’s Square I noticed the one in the display case had the Christmas décor on it, holly and berries, red and green. Cute, festive chocolate! When the clerk set my pie in the counter, just green stuff, no red! It looked weird to me, not very festive.

Kay: “Why no little red balls?”

Clerk: “I don’t know why the French Silk pies are missing those.”

Kay: “Weird, because I see red little red balls over there on the other pies. Oh well.”

He rang me up, I handed him over a $20 bill, and he is handing me my change he says in kind of a low, secretive voice: “I gave you the senior discount.”

Kay: No words, but I think my face had flashed to the look that, when I used to pitch and the umpire pissed me off very badly, caused a few of them to give me a warning. And honestly folks, it is hard to control your facial expression sometimes, especially when an umpire is watching . . . and making bad calls . . . (and, sadly, this is not my first senior discount grrrr, so I can’t blame it on looking haggard from the surgery).

Clerk – quickly after seeing “THE LOOK”: “To make up for no little red balls!”

Ohhhhhh. LOLOL It was pretty funny. And Kay likes discounts. Just NOT senior discounts. At least not yet. lol

My friend Mar is having us over tomorrow night to decorate sugar cookies. We do it every year. And just so we don't OD on sugar, we have lots of snacks while we decorate. I love that! It’s so much fun. It’s really the only time all year I feel artistic. Stop laughing Mar and Donna! And the cookies, frankly, kick ass! Mar wraps mine (ok she double wraps them), with her razzle dazzle overwrap machine to keep them safe from my snitching so my family can enjoy them at Christmas time. They taste even better after they are frozen. Yum. 

That makes me remember my reason for starting this blog, weight loss and Fat Camp! And good health! Hopefully after this next surgery we can get back to that. I haven’t weighed myself for a while either. I have gotten in the walking groove again. I’ve been walking about an hour a day. I can’t let this cold weather stop me either! Or my return to work full-time next week. It was nice easing back in with four hours a day, to be sure, but with another surgery looming, it’s time to stop using sick days for now. And I admit, the looming surgery is good incentive to keep walking while I can. Walk while the walking is good I say!

Take care folks,

Kay:)

December 4, 2011

Hi Folks,

Just when you think you have a handle on the bag thing, and that waiting til mid-late January for your colostomy reversal won't be so bad after all, your stoma has to go and heal up and get smaller and retract and  mess up your system. And you have just had your last visit with your home health care nurse. At least the last one the insurance company will pay 90% of. LOL  It's a work in progress. I'm kind of anxious to see the doctor on Friday and talk about the reversal. And I don't know how I did it, but I got to Wal-mart tonight, and had to take off my glasses to read something (aging is so much fun!), and met with resistance when I went to put them back on.  Somehow I had Stomapaste in my hair behind my ear! Believe me folks, it is not going to do me any good there. Yeah, go ahead, look that up and see what it is.  That gummy brown paste is really hard to get out of your hair! If anybody from work reads this, don't look too closely behind my left ear tomorrow.

Enough whining! Nobody likes a whiner! Well, thank goodness my friends and family do . . .

One more week of working half-time, then back to full time.

I put up what Christmas stuff I'm going to today. Midge and Finn were a big help. I have to watch them so they don't molest my smiley face Santas.

Had a lovely evening last night over at Mar's. She cooked her annual gourmet dinner for the girls who help her with catering. Good food, good company, a very pleasant evening. I ate many things on my "you probably should avoid this list", and I even drank a beer! Yummers.  As you may or may not know, Kay like beer. Beer good. But it is on the list.  The GAS list. The dinner was wonderful, as always . . . visions of banana fritters and rum whipped cream and black raspberry sauce dance in my head! When I went back to work Monday, a thought popped into my head . . . gosh I have to put on a real bra and go to work today! Last night at Mar's I had a similar thought when I realized that 9:00 was by far the latest night in weeks that I had clothes, not PJs on! LOL

I'm still battling my peppermint bark addiction. I have to look on line and see if there is a program I can try.  I was checking out at Wal-mart and I commented to the checker that it was a miracle I made it through the store without putting peppermint bark in my cart. She looked and me and confessed that she had 2 different kinds of peppermint bark in her car. Then she asked me if I knew about the Peppermint Bark Ice Cream! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I've been doing very well walking. I've walked every morning, and then a short walk after dinner. Going a bit further every few days. Feels good.

Take care folks. More after I see doctor on Friday.

Kay