It's Always Somethin'!

We made a decision yesterday to put our 12-year-old min-pin down. He was such a sweet boy, but couldn't do much of anything but sleep in days of late. He'd developed several benign tumors all over his body, but the most threatening was the one on his throat and it had gotten so big that it was beginning to effect his breathing. He had chronic lyme disease and chronic ear infections. He couldn't see, couldn't hear, and his legs could hardly hold his weight. It was time and today was the day. Good-bye little buddy. We are really going to miss you.

But... now to change the subject and brighten things up a bit, I'm feeling really good physically! I ate scrambled eggs for lunch today and for the second day in a row, I went to the store where I work to do some bookkeeping for an hour or so. Things are looking up, despite putting Gizzy down.

I've had phone calls from all kinds of people in the medical field. Good grief! A nurse case manager called yesterday to see how I was doing. She was calling on behalf of my PCP. No sooner was I done with her then my PCP called to make an appointment for me to come in. She wants to see for herself how I'm doing. I think I'm her first patient who's ever had bariatric surgery.  She's kind of a new doctor.  :)  So, I shall see her Friday. Today, a case worker from Blue Cross called to see how I was doing and a dietician from North Shore Medical Center's Heart & Wellness team called as well!

I've been getting out every day. Saturday, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we went to Crosby's supermarket. Sunday, we went to Market Basket, a larger supermarket that had deli meat on sale. I put a list together before we left and set out on the shopping adventure. (hey... it's pretty boring sitting around the house -- grocery shopping qualifies as a true adventure at this point.)  ;)  This would take a bit longer, as the store is further away and it is bigger, hence, more walking to get around to all the places I needed to get to. So, I thought I'd better wear this binder thingie they gave me at the hospital. It's about 12" wide and about 50" long. It's made of really thick stretchy material, much like the old girdles used to be like. Its purpose is to hold up the belly, so gravity doesn't pull on the stitches on all of the little incisions. Did I mention I have five small incisions in my belly, in addition to the drain? Well, I do. So, I put this binder on and velcroed it as tightly around my belly as I could. It actually does make things feel a bit better when it's on really tight. I pinned up my lovely little drain as unconspicuously as possible, and off we go.

Things were going really well until I hit about the fifth aisle in the supermarket and realized my binder was slipping down... down... down. Well, I had no choice but to reach in there and yank it back up with both hands... as unconspicuously as possible... and move on. A few steps later and I'm right back to where I was, with the damned binder slipping down toward my knees again! Now it's starting to take my slacks with it! Good grief! With Kerry standing in back of me, and no one in sight in front of me, I reached down my pants and gave the thing a good yank, yanking it back into position... actually a bit higher than it was. And that solved the problem.

Then I headed over to the deli, where there were at least 40 million people waiting for their deli orders. I took a number and continued shopping. When I thought my number was coming up, we headed back. I do believe we got the slowest deli counter person in history. I handed her my list and off she went to get the meats cut and packaged. 20 minutes later, as I'm still standing at the deli counter, I'm starting to feel dizzy. The deli counter girl has not been sighted since she took my list. Until... wait! There she is! She came out from the back room to let me know she had to open a new package of ham. Oh, of course she did. It's taken her 20 minutes to figure that out. I went back to the shopping cart (something I could hold on to) while Kerry waited at the counter. I am not exaggerating when I tell you we were at that counter for 45 minutes, waiting for 6 deli items. And that was my shopping adventure for Sunday.

I think I'm going to try some pureed cottage cheese for dinner.  :)