Let the Games Begin—I Believe

Now two days since surgery, I ‘m feeling pretty darn good. I spent yesterday just lazing around the house in my flannel PJs reading how everyone is doing through their blogs and posting some comments. I have been so cold for the past few weeks it is insane. I am usually sweltering and rarely turn up the furnace past 65F but I think it must have been 75 degrees in the house yesterday, with me in flannel and fuzzy socks. Guess something happens when you cut sugar out of your system.

The liquid codeine helped for the first 24 hours but I switched to Tylenol by lunch yesterday and I am moving around lots and only have a bit of shoulder and gas pain. This morning for breakfast I was able to drink ¼ of a Optifast shake and I feel full. Hope it lasts. I am looking forward to some soup for lunch to get away from all this sweet stuff. I am so missing savoury. My stomach is still looking quite preggers, which of course could never be but it seems to deflate a bit each hour. I lost a total of 15 pounds pre-op and am that same weight today. My hands are still swollen with fluid and I can’t get my wedding ring off yet, so hope the fluid disappears soon. You’d think by only having clear fluids for two days you would lose some weight—but no, it doesn’t give up without a fight.

Tonight is the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics 2010 in Vancouver, B.C. Because Canada is hosting these games we are being inundated with Olympic news and updates. The slogan for the coverage is “I Believe”. This will be my slogan too for the next while as I learn the ropes of living with the band. I Believe it will work and I will finally lose and keep off the weight that has ruled my life.

All in all my surgery went well. I had a cutie-pie male RPN who got me ready for surgery. The anaesthesiologist was also really nice, even though he was the one who got me worried about my EKG results. As I was going under he told me to dream of a nice warm beach. And of course Dr. Cobourn a real sweetie who seems to genuinely get the fact that we need this little band of help. As most of you saw, I was cleared for surgery on Tuesday afternoon after an echocardiogram. I actually have a heart and except for an area that isn’t quite elastic enough, it is a good heart for years to come. I won't post pics of my swollen punctured stomach with 5 holes because it basically looks like all the other stomachs that have been shown in your blogs, except older. LOL.

For those who think the Canadian health care system isn’t very good, everything went so well, I was stunned. As Dr. C. told me, he had to grease a few wheels to get me in for the echo within 24 hours, something which would have been at least a two week wait. Even though I paid for the lapband surgery myself, all other tests were covered by our provincial health plan including bloodwork, EKG and echocardiogram. I can claim the cost of the surgery on my income tax and will get a few thousand back. My personal extended health plan with my employer covers most of my drug costs and might cover the cost of the actual band but will have to send in the forms to see. I will still be out-of-pocket thousands of dollars, but at this point I see it as an expense I needed to make.

So Let the Games Begin. I hope to win gold with the band—my buddy—but will even settle for a silver or bronze. I was able to convince the doc to give me a four week sick leave so I’ll get to watch a lot of the Olympics. I’m not back to work until March 8th, lucky me. My Olympic favs are downhill skiing, luge and speedskating. Good luck to all the countries around the world but Canada is going to kick butt at these games so watch out!

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