Pouches, fluid, football, food, stairs, sick days and a funny :)

I’ve had a busy week!  Thank you to everyone who Emailed me about my appointment on Wednesday and sorry to those who have been waiting for me to update my blog to let you know how I went!

I shall start at Monday.  On Monday, although I was feeling awfully sick, I went to work.  I ended up going home early (2ish) as I kept being sick even though I hadn’t been drinking or eating anything, my saliva wasn’t going down.

I didn’t go in on Tuesday either.  I couldn’t keep anything down and I just kept vomiting.  It was horrible.  I felt awful.

Wednesday came around (this is starting to sound like ‘the very hungry Caterpillar story’!) and I went and saw Dr Winnett.  He had a look at my images from my barium swallow and said that he doesn’t think that I have a small pouch at all.  He did say it could be a bit large but, it’s nothing to worry about.  I told him how I’d been feeling over the past few weeks (terribly stressed and moody) and we spoke about how problems like this can start playing on things like the feeling of depression and major mood swings (especially if you have experienced such things in the past, which I have). 

He said he wanted to take all the fluid out of my band.  It took him a few minutes to find the port!  I’m lucky – I don’t feel the needle at all.  I am not sure if it’s because I am numb due to the fact it’s so close to the incision from surgery but, the most uncomfortable thing about having an adjustment for me is having to lie down on a folded pillow and position myself in a sit up position.  It’s quite a work out!  He finally got access and took the fluid out (forgot to ask how much I had in there).  He has asked that in 6 weeks I go and have another Barium swallow and after I have done that, I go back and see him.  I might end up celebrating my bandversary (on the 17^th of November) with no fluid in it!  He also said that I might end up feeling hungry over the next few days.  That will be a strange sensation if it happens!

I also know that I am going to be able to fit more food in.  And different types of foods that I haven’t had ina while.  This is here willpower is going to come in.  And also what I have learnt over the past 12 or so months about what to eat and what not to eat is going to come into play.  I can do this although it’s going to be a challenge to see how well I do.  Once I am feeling better, I’ll be off to the gym.  I have the upcoming relay for life to train for plus, I’m feeling so frumpy after not doing anything for the past few weeks.

So yesterday, I got up at 5.30 (as I do on a work day), had a shower, got dressed and as I was about to walk out the door, I needed to go the toilet.  And without sharing specifics and too much information, that’s where I stayed for about an hour and that’s where I ended up heading several times during the day.  I went to see the Doctor and he gave me something for it as I had the worst stomach cramps.  It felt like I was having a baby.  It hurt SO much.  I ended up laying in bed for 90% of the day.  I caught up on the last weeks worth of Neighbours and had Charlotte act as my Nurse (she insisted on taking my temperature every few minutes when she got home from baby school).  I got up a few times throughout the night last night but am feeling a lot better today.

Missy Nurse

I am still achy but have managed to do a bit of cleaning and feel as though I have enough energy to prepare a brown and gold feast for my family tonight (brown and gold as Hawthorn are playing Collingwood tonight and I HOPE Hawthorn kick their butts!).  I am going to get my recipe book out after I’ve done some more housework and compile a lovely menu consisting of things such as golden potato wedges with BBQ sauce, mushroom and corn vol au vents, brown and gold cup cakes and bananas with chocolate custard for desert.  I am sure I can come up with some more ideas as the day passes.

So, everything is good at the moment.  Well, other than the fact I can’t seem to feel better.

I was also disappointed to be advised that Today Tonight won’t be airing my stair climb story at this stage :( I have asked if I can have the footage as it was such an achievement and a milestone in my journey but I have had no response to my request.  I am still on my mission to raise the $5,000 for the Cancer Council (we’re up to $3,394 – we’re SO CLOSE!).  My Aunty Linda has donated 2 quilts that she has made that we are going to auction on Ebay (watch this space!).  I also have a few cheques that I need to send to the Cancer Council to be applied to the total.  I was hoping that the Today Tonight story would generate some more interest and therefore some more donations to help us get to the $5,000 so that we could get a research award in my Nanna’s name but, if they’re not going to run the story, I shall have to find other ways of raising the remaining $1,606. 

If you are a new reader and are not aware of what this is about, I set myself a mission to climb the 46 floors of the building I work in (the Melbourne Central Tower).  I achieved it in 47 minutes and was doing it to raise money for the Cancer Council as my Nanna was diagnosed with pancreatic Cancer just over a year ago.  She passed away 2 days before I climbed the stairs.  She was fully aware of what I was doing and I am sure she knew that I would make it as she had such faith in my mission and what I was doing.  Here is the link to donate if you’d like to…

http://vic.cancercouncilfundraising.org.au/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=342014&langPref=en-CA

I’m 165.9kg today.  That’s 77.1kg in 415 days.  Wow.  I’ve nearly lost 80kg.  When I’ve lost 100kg, I might treat myself to a little cocktail party :)

I have to put this up too as I found this rather amusing - feel free to post what you got if you'd like :) there were some funny responses when I put it up on Facebook...

CARN THE MIGHTY HAWKS!