Milestones and Markers

I am nearly two weeks post-surgery.  It's high time I post an update.  I wrote one last week, but we were without Internet for my first week home. (Don't even ask how this extrovert survived having virtually no contact with the outside world!!)

I have some joys to share:

• This morning, the bathroom scale actually registered a weight instead of yelling "Error" because I weighed more than it could weigh!  If it is accurate, I am down almost 20 pounds already from my pre-surgery weight.  (I need to try the Wii-Fit soon.  Last time, my little character just groaned every time I stepped on the pad and it wouldn't let me exercise.  Talk about bad for the morale!!)
• I can reach places I haven't been able to reach for a long time.  I can scratch my back, tie my shoes and complete other actions that I haven't been able to do for about four years.
• My clothes are looser.  Yesterday I wore a pair of capris that I couldn't wear last summer.
• I am able to get out of chairs more quickly- and the recliner at the homestead (which has always been a little tight) fits just fine.
• I am walking entire city blocks without having my back clench up, my knees scream out and for the most part, I am not gasping for breath.
• I have not had ANY sickness or reactions to foods/milk. I seem to be tolerating things, and of course, I am taking the full 30 minutes to eat my 2 ounces of food at each meal!

Challenges I am still facing:

• I need to call the endocrinologist on Monday-- my blood sugars have crept back up into the zone we want to avoid.  This shouldn't surprise me, because diabetes is not JUST about what you eat.  It is just a matter of finding the dose and frequency that is going to work for me.  Still, I would be less than honest if I didn't say that it discourages me to see those numbers when I am eating according to the plan, getting exercise and following "the plan".
• There is some stress in my life that I could do without, but my brother was taken back to ICU and has been sent back to the nursing home that had evaluated him as "ready to go home".  (He was home only 3 days before winding up back in ICU.)  I am his medical poa, and since I cannot travel yet, and am still on occasional painkillers, and get tired pretty easily... I'm feeling a bit helpless here.
• It's overwhelming to try to figure out how to get in all the protein, all the liquids, all the vitamins.  One of my meds has to be taken a hour before meals or two hours after meals, four times a day.  You can't take iron at the same time as calcium.  Pills can be no bigger than an aspirin, and once you have taken one, you have to wait ten minutes before the next.  Some meds cannot be taken within an hour of dairy products.
• While I am seldom "hungry", I do find a little resentment in not being able to eat the meal I am making for others. Today, I am baking a ham for a family dinner tomorrow. We are meeting our daughter's boyfriend, home from the Navy.  I had planned on grinding some of it up for me... But when I took it out of its packaging, I realized that it is pre-glazed, even before the sugary glaze that comes later. I can't risk it. Sugar could make me VERY sick to my stomach.

I am sure the challenges will pass, the schedule will become second-nature and the results of my hard work will be motivation enough to continue doing what I am doing.  I have a pair of jeans in the top drawer-- I can ALMOST button the snaps.  This is a pair of jeans that were given to me by a friend who had the surgery in October.  I've been waiting and waiting to wear them.  SOON!!