You are invited to join our September 30 day creative event! For those of you who have participated in Leslie Saeta’s 30-day challenges, the description is the same.
No rules. Just make something each day for a month. Paint, draw, sketch, shoot photos. Just do the thing you do, and share it in our Facebook group. This does not mean you have to complete a painting each day. You can share works in progress.
The main thing is to get busy doing, that which you love doing!
I am sending out invitations. Please visit the group to join if you are interested (in case I miss anyone). Share the link with friends and help us spread the word.
I raced to set up the page, so if I have done something wrong, feel free to let me know.
Five more days! I am excited. Thinking I might be nuts because I am still not in full food or energy mode. But I have been thinking of sitting down to paint, for at least a month. And still, have not managed to do it. Here is my kick in the butt.
The news is out. Leslie Saeta has officially decided to stop hosting the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. Or perhaps It’s just September that is canceled. Christiane Drieling told me, and I do not want to misquote. Christiane has the awesome idea of hosting an informal challenge on Facebook. Yay!
Are you interested? Do you know artists who have participated before, and might like to again? Please help us spread the word. I will post the link as soon as Christiane creates the page. Ginny Butcher has decided to participate as well. Let’s’ keep the momentum going!
If 30 is too much, how about doing one a week? If you have never participated before, you can click on the link above to see the outline Leslie used. (Maybe I shouldn’t be posting that.) And maybe we will change it up a little. Stay tuned 😉
More good news. I am doing MUCH better! I haven’t had any problems since my last post. Eleven days. Woo-Whoo! Very relieved about that.
I am able to sip slightly larger sips. And take ever so slightly larger bites. Still doing the chew, chew, chew. Making sure my soft foods are completely broken up before I swallow. And it is such a relief to be able to take in more water. I am still not hitting the 64 oz. mark. Inching closer. But I do not feel water-deprived anymore. Ahh.
Not sure I have mentioned it before, but I drink water consistently throughout the day. I have a 32 oz. bottle, and prior to surgery, I think I drank 5 or six of those a day. Now I can barely do one and a half. And my skin is missing it! So dry!
So good news all around! Getting the vitamins down much more easily, water and food. Whew! I think it may have been your encouraging words! Thank you all so much! You had me in tears 🙂
There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate. Linda Grayson
Couldn’t resist. Honestly, though, I am craving salad. Lettuce. A nice crunchy salad. Toast. Mmm, avocado toast with a poached egg. OK. I’m stopping.
Maybe I was hungry when I took the photo below, but I see a fish cloud. I messed up and cut off the tail. All the other photos I took came out blurry. (I was sitting at a red light.)
I will leave you with this little bird. I was standing at the window, checking out Mingus. And he flew up on the ledge and started checking things out too. The berries, and plants of course. I turned slowly and started taking pictures of him. For a long time, he did not notice. But then he saw me. And then he was gone.
Oh, one more thing. I have finally decided what to use for my annual postcard. I will get them ordered, and have them mailed out hopefully by the middle of next month. I have had the stamps since before the surgery! Ha-ha-ha. 🙂
The site switch over is complete! Thank you, Randy, for all your hard work, in spite of a broken wrist! But I can see things are missing here. Hate that. So now I have work to do. As expected. Notice the empty bottom of this post. All the like and share buttons are missing, and the links to similar posts. I know why that happens now. Thanks to a Youtube video. Still, it is aggravating. So off to work I go. And I also hope to prep some pieces before the first. Fingers crossed.
Three hours. Two and a half days. 5 insertion points & 8 bruises on my stomach, (the size of a quarter). A huge bandage on my neck until tomorrow. And a ghastly bruise on my wrist. More physicians and nurses than I could keep track of. I had my own room, nice. To say that I received excellent treatment is an understatement.
My Mom told me that when the surgeon came out to tell her how it went, she was smiling, and a little teary eyed. Everything went perfect. They considered sending me home the day after surgery, but just to be sure, kept me one more night. I left the hospital at about 11 am on the third day.
I am putting all this in because I have a friend who has two family members who are interested in the details.
I have had almost no pain. Very little. The most painful, was my throat, from having the tube put in. But that was gone by the evening. A little soreness. when I woke up, but nothing that required meds. I was on pain medication, but I did not feel the need for more. Later that afternoon, I just felt yucky in my stomach. Just aware of my stomach. Not what I could really call pain. Sort of like stomach cramps. Just enough to make you aware of that body part.
I don’t have stitches and no bandages. So guessing they glued the incisions. I am eating fine. LOL. Slurping is more like it. I can have non-caffeine tea or coffee. I don’t drink coffee without creme and sugar, so tea for me. Clear broth, and sugar-free Jello. The first day I did not really taste, it was bland to be honest. But the second meal, my taste buds were back, and everything actually tasted very good.
I am not craving anything. I am not feeling hungry or deprived. I thought I was going to be eating thimble-sized portions. But they gave me a good sized bowl of broth, A full mug of tea, and a whole Jello cup. Yum! I love Jello.
I can have as much water as I want. They wanted me to drink four bottles before they would release me. I did that by the first night. I got to 11 bottles by the time I left. I told them, I have a 64 oz. bottle that I drink from at home. And I do four or five of those a day. (14 hours). That was one of their main concerns, dehydration. They want you to drink at least 64 oz. a day.
After the Post-Op class (We had one before surgery as well, 3 hours.) I will go to soft foods. Soft cooked veggies, soft fruits, healthy proteins. That will be for 60 days. There is a specific list. But i can have eggs every day if I want. Yum. Oh and no lifting over ten pounds for 8 weeks. I am continuing the meds I take regularly. But I can not take supplements until they clear it. I am guessing that is because they can not be sure of all the ingredients, and the reactions they may cause.
I had to walk about every two hours. To prevent blood clots. One of the women that was doing the charts couldn’t believe how fast I was doing laps. She told her co-worker, “Either she is really fast, or I am really slow at charting.” How funny. But I could tell I was walking faster. The first time a nurse walked with me, and they had me use a walker. But after that, I was fine on my own, even having to drag an O2 tank behind me. WOW! I did four and then five laps. All without struggling to breathe!! NO coughing!!!
I use a Spirometer about ten times an hour. From WebMD: When you empty out and refill the air in your lungs, you get rid of fluid and germs that can lead to an infection. You also exercise your lungs, so that they’re able to put more oxygen into your body. That helps you to heal and avoid lung infections.
I am not getting the marker to 500 (lowest), but I can already feel like I am breathing deeper. When they wanted to listen to my heart, I was actually able to take five or six deep breaths without coughing each time. WOWzers!
I was so happy to wake up and not find myself in ICU. When I had my gall bladder removed, I had complications, due to the Lupus I am sure. I spent two weeks in the hospital, the first was in ICU. Thank you Lord!
I even felt fine enough to run a couple of errands on the way home. (What? Are you serious!) Mom had to drive. I can drive after five days. Not bad at all.
This short video shows the procedure. It is the first one. Roux-en-Y (roo-en-wy) gastric bypass. I did not have staples, mine were hand tied. She removed the top part of my stomach, as it is not working efficiently. The acid from my stomach will never back up into my esophagus again.
This song came to mind on the way home from the hospital. Still more work to be done. But this is one giant step forward. Huge. HUGE.
Saying thank you seems so little an offering. I am so thankful for your prayers, kind words, and good vibes. It all matters. There is power in all of those things. When I woke up I thanked God for taking such good care of me. And I was in tears. And I thought of you, all of you who were thinking of me. Tearing up now. So very grateful.
“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” – Albert Schweitzer
“Such lovely warmth of thought and delicacy of colour are beyond all praise, and equally beyond all thanks!” – Marie Corelli
