Eating is Over-Rated

Eating is definitely over-rated.

I gotta stop this roller-coaster! After the pre-op appointment yesterday, Gretchen and I stopped at Wegmans so I could buy some more no fat/low fat food. I got home around 3:30, made myself a smoked turkey sandwich, chips and salsa and a small scoop of ice cream. Sounds decadent I know but everything was fat-free or had 1 gram of fat per serving. It was SO delicious! I mushed around every mouthful, so happy to be eating something different.

Note to self: tiny "meals" are much better.

I paid for that one all night, well into this morning. More like bloatedness than severe gall bladder pain. Usually food exits my body pretty quickly (sorry!) but not this meal. It stuck around, torturing me, insistent upon teaching me a lesson.

Okay, thanks, got it.

So now I'm not feeling as perky as I have been the last two days. I've been trying to pace myself, knowing I've got a long week ahead of me. This is the emotional roller coaster I need to get off.

I sorted through a large box of mail and stuff that had accumulated - have it all divided into piles: reading material - and high, medium and low priority computer/Microsoft Money related. I don't feel like doing anything except lying on the couch watching TV. Gretchen said she felt like this too when she was in the week before her gall bladder surgery. I thought by getting on the computer (God bless laptops), maybe I'd feel better. Distracted, anyway.

I certainly didn't help myself by not taking my Effexor yesterday morning. (Obviously, I thought I took it.) No wonder I felt all over the place by evening and had a hell of time getting to sleep. Steve drove Lizz's apartment belongings from Indiana to her new place here all day yesterday, lousy weather adding at least 3 hours to his (normally 8 hour) trip. We talked a bunch during the day, but I know my sleep wasn't helped by being worried about him. He didn't get home until midnight but I had gone to bed long before that. Just couldn't turn my mind off. After he finally came to bed around 2:00, naturally he felt to sleep immediately (bastard!) - and proceeded to snore, poor guy. I moved to the couch. He had been sleeping downstairs the previous few days because I was having such trouble sleeping with constant tossing and turning. We finally thought we had our act together. Not yet, apparently.

I'm not sleeping during the day today so hopefully, with Effexor back in my system, Steve back at home and teeny meals; I'll have a much better night. (Even in my myriad of dreams, I was telling people, "I'm having my gall bladder removed in 6 days, 8 hours." Also dreamed I was one of the Olsen twins. Yeah, it was a hellish night alright.)

The pre-op went well; EKG, two vials of blood, lots of paperwork. My biggest concern was would I be able to take the Effexor the morning of the surgery. Yes. But the nurse practitioner said I should stop the Remifemin now. So I'm going to be one Hot Flashy Mama by the time Friday rolls around. Oh well.

I'm disappointed that I don't check into the hospital until 3:45 on Friday. I'm a morning gal, you know! Someone has to take the later appointments and I'm not in severe agony, so there you go - I'll do my part. They'll call me Thursday if the schedule changes so maybe.....

I'm really going to try not to make this blog into Gall Bladder Watch 2005.

I bought myself a Tivo a few weeks ago, for my studio. I really love it! (We also watched American Beauty recently, so now I finally get it, why Weetabix named her Tivo, Ricky Fitts.) I haven't even cracked open the manual yet, the unit is so user friendly. Since I've been sick, I've been watching the butt-load of VHS tapes I've accumulated over time but I'm almost through them. I've asked Simon to help me hook up the Tivo in the family room for next week so I can lie in my nest on the couch and watch some of that stuff I've recorded there.

I've been working on my Christmas cards as I can this past week and will continue with that. So you may or may not see your card before Christmas. The cool thing - I'm not stressed about this at all. It is what it is.

Think I'll read for a bit. My new Expressions came the other day. (Hi Hilari!)

Thanks for all your kind words, comments and emails - and for all the wonderful Christmas cards I've been receiving! They had really stacked up so it was very fun opening them all today. The wall where I hang them is perfectly aligned with my couch nest so I shall continue to enjoy them.