Well...I've lost 34lbs.

It takes 2 months for the stomach to heal. I go day by day, and hope that it will be worth it. I really wanted to change my health, and felt I needed something drastic to do it...I just wish that thing didn't have to be so drastic.

I can barely eat anything, but actually, eating and drinking are a little better than they were

.

I had been exercising a lot...and now I am managing to get around more. I really believe that pre-surgery exercise has made a great difference. I actually walked the whole fair the other day...and a little more. Today I walked around at Country Junction. I did better, today....much less pain, much less resting needed afterward, much less needing to hold my belly.

I just have a hard time enjoying any food, except this crystal lite fruit punch, that I'm drinking, right now. I'm hoping that will get better. I felt sad today when other people were eating pizza and enjoying things and I wasn't able to enjoy even the smallest amount of chicken....just ate because I need protein, and waited for the discomfort that seems to come so often.

My incisions have been very painful, but the smaller ones are healed for the most part on the outside. The one at the top of my sternum has healed well, but the one that is just to the right of my sternum has not been healing, has been separating, getting red and swelling along the edges, while underneath the scab has been forming this disgusting cheesy gross substance. The surgeon's nurse tells me it's normal and is a serum of protein...which was believable when it was runny and clear, but the last few days it has been cheesy. I went into the tent at the fair and asked for prayer and healing, and now it seems to be healing. Praise God! I was very worried about getting a major infection or some other problem there. I have been keeping a square of bandage on it, secured by one bandaid holding it on at the top....turns out I have redeveloped my sensitivity to tape, so just a little bandaid edging is all I can tolerate. The other edges I leave free so that air can get underneath the bandage. Washing in the shower with the presurgery soap helps as well. Tomorrow I am seeing a doctor and a nutritionist in the nutritionist's office. I plan to show the wound there, after I shower in the morning.

This is the choice I made, and you can't go back...and I'm not sure that I want to go back...because going back means I don't have success over the weight problems. We shall see what a year brings. It will pass before we know it...I am looking forward to what a month from now brings, and seeing how I feel in November, when my stomach should have healed on the inside.