A Day of Appointments
I had a busy enough day today. First off was to the dentist. I'd thought that one of my recent fillings had come out - but it turns out that I had a chipped tooth. I'm guessing I can blame the anesthesiologist for that, along with the lip that's STILL numb (but becoming less so by the day, thankfully). The dentist didn't charge me for the trip and it was a definite in-and-out. I'd barely got to sit down in the lobby when they called me in. Five minutes later I was done. Unfortunately Henry had dropped me off and had to turn right back around after having just walked in the door! The poor dog was so confused. She nearly went spastic on us when I came home. She's very nervous about me leaving these days. I guess she's worried I might not come back again.
Three o'clock and it was off to the second follow up at the surgeon's office. The assistant removed the remainder of my staples and marveled at the fact I wasn't wincing. Somehow, I'm suddenly not real upset that a nerve got snipped and that there's a six inch or so space between my incision and my navel that I just can't feel. It's like someone's shot me in the stomach with novocaine. I did learn that the weird pains I'm having waaaaaaay over on my right side, which seem completely unrelated to the surgery, are indeed due to the tiny incision where my drain was. Apparently to get the tube in they have to cut through two cross-direction layers of muscle in the obliques, which is why this tiny little cut causes a muscle pain nearly 4 inches away from it when I move wrong. Oh well.
The doctor said to give myself a good four weeks of recovery. No picking up anything even close to 10 pounds (so much for my enameled cast-iron cookware!) and no pushing anything. Oops. I vacuumed the living area yesterday. Suffice to say I learned that I need to hold it and walk forward and back, no pushing and pulling with my arm as that pulls the aforementioned obliques. Still, I got the job done.
I also asked about the "no Italian" food rule. I assumed it was due to the usual greasy meat and heaps of cheese often found in (packaged, at any rate) Italian foods. Wrong. He cited the oregano. Another big oops! I informed him that as soon as I felt safe with solid foods I'd made a pork tenderloin stuffed with fat-free feta cheese and spinach, topped with garlic, dehydrated onion, and oregano. He seemed surprised that it hadn't bothered me, especially as I'd been eating leftovers of said tenderloin for the past few days. My bad! Obviously it hasn't proven to be a "trigger" for me so he just shrugged and cautioned that it could be a trigger at any time. I'll cross oregano off the list for awhile.
My blood sugars have started creeping back upwards. The oral medications I take have both a short-term effect and also build up over time. I guess they're reaching the near full-washout for the long-term effects. A wash-out takes about 3 weeks, so this would be about the right time for it to start showing up in my readings. I'm keeping a close eye on them and will decide if I want/need to add them back. If I do I'm going to do so gradually as they can cause stomach/digestive issues and that's something I'm very wary of. I called the pharmacist and he told me that I could safely cut the pills in half, so if I do start up I will start with 1/2 of one pill, which is a quarter of my normal daily dose and work back up from there. I'm hoping that I can do without them entirely as they make me more sensitive to heat, there is danger of edema, they make you hungry, and I could save a good $45 a month if I don't have to take them. If I have to take a LOT more insulin, though, and severely limit my carbohydrate intake to not have to take them, it just won't be worth it. I really have no choice but to eat more carbohydrates right now as I'm having to eat super-low-fat, and meat is also harder for the body to process, so I'm eating a lot of whole grains.
Henry and I had wanted to go up to Austin for a party at Halloween, but it looks like we won't be going. For one, I doubt I'll physically be up to that in only 11 days. Second, the tickets to the party are $40, plus we'd need to rent a hotel, plus gas. Ugh. Money is super, super tight right now, especially as I got notice from Wells Fargo that they'd be jacking up my credit card by 3% on top of the almost 2% percent hike that it went up when my special discount ended back in July. Grr. So, I'm going from 4.9 to 6.65 up to like 9.65. Could be worse, I know, but the timing SUCKS. I hadn't used that card in forever, and had it down to $3,000 and then Henry's car went to crap and I had to get a new recliner, so now it's up to $5K and I'll be paying nearly $45 a month in interest charges alone.
I can't wait until my car is paid off in 3/2011. Once that's paid off I can put all that money towards the credit card. Another year or so after that and we'll be debt-free, aside of medical bills. We already paid our $250 deductible, and I think our max out-of-pocket for the year is $1500. I don't know if that max includes the deductible or not, so we could be looking at another $1500 in debt. The hospital's just going to have to get paid whatever we can pay them each month and suck it up. Definitely not putting it on the credit card. I don't want to put it on our CareCredit card because you only get 1 year to pay that off, and we've got $330 in dental work on there.
Me? Stress? Noooooo.
Three o'clock and it was off to the second follow up at the surgeon's office. The assistant removed the remainder of my staples and marveled at the fact I wasn't wincing. Somehow, I'm suddenly not real upset that a nerve got snipped and that there's a six inch or so space between my incision and my navel that I just can't feel. It's like someone's shot me in the stomach with novocaine. I did learn that the weird pains I'm having waaaaaaay over on my right side, which seem completely unrelated to the surgery, are indeed due to the tiny incision where my drain was. Apparently to get the tube in they have to cut through two cross-direction layers of muscle in the obliques, which is why this tiny little cut causes a muscle pain nearly 4 inches away from it when I move wrong. Oh well.
The doctor said to give myself a good four weeks of recovery. No picking up anything even close to 10 pounds (so much for my enameled cast-iron cookware!) and no pushing anything. Oops. I vacuumed the living area yesterday. Suffice to say I learned that I need to hold it and walk forward and back, no pushing and pulling with my arm as that pulls the aforementioned obliques. Still, I got the job done.
I also asked about the "no Italian" food rule. I assumed it was due to the usual greasy meat and heaps of cheese often found in (packaged, at any rate) Italian foods. Wrong. He cited the oregano. Another big oops! I informed him that as soon as I felt safe with solid foods I'd made a pork tenderloin stuffed with fat-free feta cheese and spinach, topped with garlic, dehydrated onion, and oregano. He seemed surprised that it hadn't bothered me, especially as I'd been eating leftovers of said tenderloin for the past few days. My bad! Obviously it hasn't proven to be a "trigger" for me so he just shrugged and cautioned that it could be a trigger at any time. I'll cross oregano off the list for awhile.
My blood sugars have started creeping back upwards. The oral medications I take have both a short-term effect and also build up over time. I guess they're reaching the near full-washout for the long-term effects. A wash-out takes about 3 weeks, so this would be about the right time for it to start showing up in my readings. I'm keeping a close eye on them and will decide if I want/need to add them back. If I do I'm going to do so gradually as they can cause stomach/digestive issues and that's something I'm very wary of. I called the pharmacist and he told me that I could safely cut the pills in half, so if I do start up I will start with 1/2 of one pill, which is a quarter of my normal daily dose and work back up from there. I'm hoping that I can do without them entirely as they make me more sensitive to heat, there is danger of edema, they make you hungry, and I could save a good $45 a month if I don't have to take them. If I have to take a LOT more insulin, though, and severely limit my carbohydrate intake to not have to take them, it just won't be worth it. I really have no choice but to eat more carbohydrates right now as I'm having to eat super-low-fat, and meat is also harder for the body to process, so I'm eating a lot of whole grains.
Henry and I had wanted to go up to Austin for a party at Halloween, but it looks like we won't be going. For one, I doubt I'll physically be up to that in only 11 days. Second, the tickets to the party are $40, plus we'd need to rent a hotel, plus gas. Ugh. Money is super, super tight right now, especially as I got notice from Wells Fargo that they'd be jacking up my credit card by 3% on top of the almost 2% percent hike that it went up when my special discount ended back in July. Grr. So, I'm going from 4.9 to 6.65 up to like 9.65. Could be worse, I know, but the timing SUCKS. I hadn't used that card in forever, and had it down to $3,000 and then Henry's car went to crap and I had to get a new recliner, so now it's up to $5K and I'll be paying nearly $45 a month in interest charges alone.
I can't wait until my car is paid off in 3/2011. Once that's paid off I can put all that money towards the credit card. Another year or so after that and we'll be debt-free, aside of medical bills. We already paid our $250 deductible, and I think our max out-of-pocket for the year is $1500. I don't know if that max includes the deductible or not, so we could be looking at another $1500 in debt. The hospital's just going to have to get paid whatever we can pay them each month and suck it up. Definitely not putting it on the credit card. I don't want to put it on our CareCredit card because you only get 1 year to pay that off, and we've got $330 in dental work on there.
Me? Stress? Noooooo.