Don’t Try This at Home

Suture removal day and all went well. I hate going to a doctor’s office. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family doctor but I hate booking an appointment, paying for parking, waiting for him to see me and then having him cut a small stitch in less than 30 seconds. I couldn’t return to the Surgeon’s office since it would have been a 5 hour drive there and another 5 hours back home for a 10 second snip. Plus, Gilly who had her surgery at the same place mentioned that the nurse who took out her suture snipped her skin. No way did I want that.

Warning: Do not try this at home.

So… I took out my own suture from the port site. And no my intestines did not spill out all over the floor. I decided to review suture removal as part of my Self-Assessment and Quality Assurance I have to do every year to maintain my license as a Registered Nurse. I gathered all the stuff I would need, including reading glasses since I can’t see close up anymore (age!), alcohol wipes to clean my utensils and I was good to go. Snip and it was out. Saved the health care system a fortune. The suture is the small stringy thing in the middle of the pic on the right.

Today is a much better day, although we have snow (a couple of inches only). I don’t know what went wrong with this winter but we have only had a little bit of snow—less than a foot. Too funny since I see all the snow in the States. Less shovelling is great and the snow-blower has been idle for most of the winter. Here is a picture of my back yard showing how little snow we have. The hot tub has to be cleaned off, although I can’t go in for another 4 weeks. Not sure why it is ok to swim but not go in a hot tub. Since I haven’t been cooking much, the BBQ has also been dormant for months. Since I took this picture most of the snow has melted off the BBQ.

I visit my local clinic here in Ottawa on Wednesday for diet counselling. My weight will be down as my last visit was a week before surgery. I have been going to this clinic for the last 3 years but never managed to lose more than 20 pounds. The doctor there will also do my fills once I have the surgeon’s office arrange it, probably in two weeks (at week four like others who had surgery at SWLC near Toronto). I also jumped on the treadmill and did 1 km yesterday and also today. Tomorrow I will start doing 1.6 km (1 mile). I am so surprised how little time it takes and I get off my butt and Just do it! but I do wear my Nikes.

I also wanted to mention that I am trying a couple of things to lose some of this excess water and maybe see the scales move. The first is something I learned years ago when I went to Diet Center (now bankrupt-go figure-you could only eat 450 calories/day). Every morning we had to drink a tablespoon of lemon juice which I have done yesterday and today. The scale edged downward a bit. I also tried Gen’s remedy and hope it shows on the scale. I've mixed up my big jug and am sipping it all day. Here are her directions.

Mix some Splenda sweetened (or sugar free) cranberry juice half and half with water. I usually make a total of 3 liters. Just make a big jug full. Then start drinking. Drink as much as you can during the day. It is my best remedy for flushing out the excess fluids, and it almost always works!

I also started on soft foods today and had a soft boiled egg and a bit of “soldiers” toast without the crust. I know a lot of you do not do eggs, but I don’t like cereal much, so this is my fav breakfast. I have this nifty little egg timer (the egg shaped thingy in the pic) that I picked up at the dollar store (you know the stores where all the stuff costs about a dollar). It cooks the egg perfectly. Soft enough to dip my soldiers! I felt like a little kid again.

Although I didn’t feel my band, it has kept me full for almost 4 hours so things are looking up. I also had a mashed banana and some pasta/ground chicken/sauce for lunch. Yum. Never thought I would say this but, Oh how I miss fruit and vegetables and salads. Who would have thunk?

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