4 weeks since surgery

Wow!  4 weeks have passed since I went into the hospital to have my gastric bypass.  It has both been sooooo slow, and sooooo fast!  Here are a few of my accomplishments so far:

1. Let's just start with the scale:  LOST 25 pounds!  With the 40 I lost before surgery, that puts me down 65.
2. Proved I can give myself a shot.  My doctor required twice-a-day injections of a blood thinner (Lovenox) for 28 days after I left the hospital.  Although I am lucky enough to have a super partner who did most of them for me, I have also done it myself!  It is kind of scary, but I keep telling myself if I didn't get this surgery, I might have been injecting myself with insulin for life.
3. Had to bag up some clothes to donate because they are too big.  I did a big purge of the closet!  (Unfortunately the bags are still here in the house--I couldn't lift them at first per doctor's orders, lol!)
4. Gained an even greater appreciation for the amazing support people in my life.  They did so much for me--I can't even list!--and I was actually able to LET them take care of me. (This is an accomplishment for a caregiver-type like me.)

...and here are a few of the challenges:

1. I had no idea how difficult it would be to manage X amount of water and Y amount of protein and Z amount of vitamins, especially when you can't have X with Y, and you can only have Z with certain other Z, and there are only a certain number of waking hours in a day!
2. Finding okay protein powders.  Enough said about that.
3. I keep wanting to do projects at home that involve lifting, bending, and carrying, but I am still fairly sore on my left side.  Thinking I should try to hold off for a little longer.
4. It takes longer than I'd have thought to get back to my regular stamina level.  I went back to work full-time on Monday and kept going from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm--repeat on Tuesday--then...crashing commenced!  I didn't understand why everyone at work kept stopping by my office to check on me!  I'm glad it's the weekend now. :-)

It's a work in progress...but I know I made the right choice.  What an amazing start to 2013 and to my 50th year on the planet. :-)