One-month follow-up, etc.

It was scheduled for a week ago, but it was an 11:30 appointment, and that was NOT happening. I got in there today, and I can report that the five pounds of water retention I had at the two-week post is gone...and so is another fifteen pounds. Officially, I'm 294 and change. 

Considering how little I'm eating, I expected a bigger loss, honestly, but I have to remind myself that most people would be thrilled to drop 15 pounds in five weeks. Also, according to the PA, although I can't feel it, I still have swelling/inflammation associated with my new innards. And--this blew me away--it takes about a month for the anesthetic to clear my system. Really? Damn.

I'm noticing small changes, like not having to actually manually pick up my legs to rest them on the ottoman--I can swing them up there, no problem. Same goes for raising my foot from the floor to put on pants. I'm not getting dizzy constantly. I can stand for a few minutes to wash dishes, although my back...I may have fucked it up when I fell, or maybe I simply have no core worth mentioning. Remains to be seen. Meanwhile, I'm completely off meds for my diabetes, and although I haven't had heart-related 'scrips since I got out of the hospital from my accident, when they checked my BP/pulse this afternoon, it was spot-on normal. Small victories.

I've been rummaging through my closet, finding out what fits again. The deeper I go, the more I find that are things *I* picked out, as opposed to GK's picks and hand-me-downs. (Her wardrobe leans heavily to black and white, since her dark hair is mostly silver.) Today I wore a fuchsia A-line skirt that she gave me ages ago, saying she just didn't know what to wear it with. I hadn't worn it because the pockets stuck out at  an unflattering angle--but I tried it on last night, and it no longer has that problem. I paired it with a royal blue cowl-neck sweater and topped it with a sweet vintage swing jacket in rose-pink tweed.  

GK is coming by with my money later today and says she'll drop me off to shop, if I want. Gee, I wish she'd get help for her stress addiction. Seriously, it's like she doesn't want to participate any more, she has to take it over the top. She can't spend a day at a Renaissance festival, no, she has to have a costume booth and stress out about her inventory and a trailer to lug it all and getting help with sales. She can't go to Bubonicon as a guest, she has to run registration (and now that she's won the Costume Contest there three times, she's given up entering that and she's become a judge). Vote? Of course--and now she's a precinct supervisor and has been supervising early voting for the last few weeks. And that doesn't include her 30-hour a week job, her family obligations (driving her kid back and forth to his classes, cooking for Mr. Helpless) or her chronic everyday over-scheduling--I can't begin to count how often she says she'll do something, then shows up 20 minutes to an hour late, and when she gets here, tells me precisely how long she can stay, because she has be somewhere else before such and such time. I've seen her for less than an hour in the last three weeks, may, if I'm lucky, see her for about that long today, and then she'll disappear for another couple of weeks. I don't have to remind myself that I'm not the center of the universe--she makes that pretty darn clear!

Anyway, I can now consume things like lunch- meat and cheese--oh happy day! Because I'm mortally tired of protein shakes, meat in a pouch (tuna, salmon, chicken), sardines and hard-boiled eggs. Ground beef sounds amazing--alas, my remaining teeth aren't up to anything more demanding), or maybe even a rotisserie chicken--which would probably last me all weekend and then some.

I miss bread, but if I can snag some almond flour, there's a keto version I may try.

Thanks for all your encouragement. I love youse guys.

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That went (somewhat) better than I expected

I' wasn't at all surprised that GK showed up an hour-plus after I expected her. I was however, miffed that she side-tripped to Walmart without me. 

I called her on it.

"But deyou said you wanted me to drop you at Smiths!" she protested.

Yes, but Walmart has some things Smiths doesn't, and you had to go right past my house to get there, so WTF? *eyeroll* I know darn well you don't do all your shopping at the same store, what the hell makes you think I do?

Anyway, it being the 1st of the month, I know from past experience that the Smiths closest to me would be a total zoo, so I asked her to run me up to the one that's right there by her house. I knew the Lyft fare would be murder, but I figured it would be worth the smaller crowds, better carts, better selection, etc.

To my amazement, GK offered to drive me home as well, if I could wait until after she dropped her son off for his evening class. So I had a nice, leisurely browse and it didn't cost me a chunk of change to get home. Just as well, because a protein-intensive diet is fucking expensive. (Although a quarter of the total damages was a Barnes and Noble card and a mega-pack of TP that should last me til January at least.) Lots of cheese, lunch meat and salmon...pastrami. I have pastrami.

I've discovered that an egg slicer will also garrote rounds of Babybel cheese into neat little slices. Take a slice of lunch meat of your choice, roll it up around a couple baby slices of soft cheese and yummy! Food that actually tastes like food. I also indulged in some Underwood deviled ham, which was on sale...I'm thinking it'll make a savory stuffing for a wee omelet. 

Indulgent experiment: Buttermint tea by Twinings. apparently it's a vanilla-mint blend--what's not to like? Haven't brewed it up yet, but it sounds deluxe.

Navigating the grocery store is...challenging. Walk resolutely past the baked goods. Nope, no pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, no bagels. No salami or "formed" meats at the deli. Hmm, check the health food section for almond flour...NINE DOLLARS FOR A ONE POUND BAG?! ARE YOU INSANE?! (Next week, Trader Joe's to comparison shop.) Markdown section of the meat case: Enormous slabs of cow, out of my price range. Settle for lean ground beef, which, although not marked down, is at least fresh. Someone explain to me why the hell applesauce is on the aisle with the juices instead of two aisles over with the canned fruit?! Milk...I use a splash of it to cook with, buying a gallon, especially now that I'm not consuming cereal any more is a waste--but I resent the economics that make a whole gallon only cost a dollar more. No, damn it, ignore the Halloween leftovers--your days of blowing $30 on half-price candy are OVER. Check out and and realize you've spent way more than you planned to. Cruise the magazine aisle for twenty minutes. 

I got to address a couple things with GK, such as getting Swamp Thing buttoned up for the winter, Thanksgiving plans (none yet), and the fact that my recovery is proceeding satisfactorily. Picked up a backlog of mail, pail my rent (it's going up $10 a month come January, and AFAIK, no COLA this year to make up for it.

Having gotten to the age where I'm not au courant with the latest slang, I consider the Urban Dictionary app helpful  For instance, I thought the word "thick" was a pejorative term...I'm familiar with it meaning stupid, although from the context, I thought it was a reference to being fat. At it turns out, it's apparently means muscular, as in beefcake. That puts a completely different spin n things. Sebastian Stan is definitely thick!

Love to all.

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