Banana Lovers Day!

Mood:

I love bananas!To have a day devoted to them is great! I usually have a banana with my breakfast. The only downside to them might be that they have a lot of calories.At least more than a lot of fruit out there. They're tasty fried, in a dessert, or by themselves. Pretty versatile, too.

Had surgery yesterday. It was minor, but I had to be put under anesthesia. It was for getting my IUD inserted and a pap. They can't do either unless I'm put to sleep. Way too painful to have them done while awake.It's not just anxiety or something like that. I was willing to get my IUD out, and hoping to have a new one inserted just after at my primary care doc's office a few months ago. Getting it out this way was hell, so I couldn't physically have a new one inserted while I was awake as well.

They had my 'estimated' check-in time as 6:30am. So, we had to leave the house and get up early.(The surgery center was roughly a half hour away.) I was told to not wear my contacts while in the OR. So, I left them at home. Made it a bit difficult to fill out the forms that they gave me.I'm near-sighted, so without my contacts everything has to be really close in order for me to see it. I was apparently scheduled as their first patient for the day. They almost forgot to tell me about the urine sample. I shouldn't have asked about it...(The 'sample' I gave them a couple of days before that apparently was contaminated, but they told me they would have wanted me to do it again anyways.)

The chair in the pre-op area was nice. They gave me some comfy sock slippers that have tread on them, and gave me a really warm blanket on my legs. Since I have a history of pulmonary embolisms, they gave me something that went over my ankles and lower legs. They're supposed to pulsate or something in order to keep the blood flowing/moving. I only felt a slight pressure, nothing else with them. The gown was kind of revealing, so for modesty, they threw a big blanket around my backside. It was another heated one, so I ended up feeling really cozy as I made my way to the OR.Oh, and they said they were surprised at how many visible veins I had. Before I lost a lot of weight, it was difficult. Later, I found out the area around the vein they picked for my IV was badly bruised. And, took a while to stop bleeding...

When I got into the OR, they wanted me to put my butt on a hole in the table, and lie down. Kind of uncomfortable.They had spread my arms out wide, and kept rubbing them. The anesthesiologist was talking about shopping, and put an oxygen mask on me. She assured me that all they were giving me was oxygen. She was incredibly sneaky, because not too long after I blacked out.

At some point, I felt my breathing tube come out of my throat and I was about to open my eyes. But, someone came by, kept my eyes shut, said "oh no, no. Not yet.", and put the oxygen mask back on me.I passed out again quickly after that. 

I actually had a dream this time. It wasn't scary. I think I was a manager or something for a Japanese rock band. I remember clearly that they kept telling me that I had a huge responsibility, and that only I could do a certain thing. (Don't know what that thing was. Not sure if I even knew in the dream...) Kind of made me confused. Also, when I was slightly waking up back when my breathing tube was being taken out, I felt like I was on a jet plane or something.Felt that way when I woke up again.

When I woke up a 2nd time the mask was still on me, and I was looking around aimlessly feeling extremely sleepy still. The nurse assigned to me in recovery came over and told me to go back to sleep. I did, and next thing I knew, that nurse was gently rocking the end of the bed. I think the mask was off of me, finally. The lights were still pretty dim. For a while all I focused on was the conversation the patient next to me was having behind our curtains. He was pretty out of it. 

Later, Dad came by, and the nurse handed her my discharge papers. Then, the nurse gave me something to eat. I was really hungry. They refused to let me feed myself.So, Dad fed me some applesauce, and then some cinnamon graham cracker sticks. They were good. 

The nurse was very nice, although he kept trying to crack some really bad jokes. He didn't want me to dress myself either, even though I kept saying I could. Felt a bit embarrassing. He said either Dad can dress me, or a female nurse could. I felt too embarrassed to have Dad help me with it, so my main nurse asked another nurse to help me.Once I was dressed, they wheeled me in a wheel chair out to the car. 

I was very sleepy for most of the rest of the day. Had a good appetite as well, even though they warned me to go easy/bland. I didn't feel sick from eating my normal stuff, so I guess it didn't affect me that way.I was supposed to do some deep breathing and cough every 2 hours, but I forgot about it.Oddly, I think my throat's better than it was before the breathing tube...(They coughing is supposed to be partially for helping with soothing an irritated throat from the tube.) Apparently, I might be bleeding slightly off and on for a little while. I've been feeling like I'm draining stuff profusely from there. Not necessarily blood, but things.In fact, I complained about it almost as soon as I was aware enough. The bleeding part's already become pretty light. They told me that I couldn't take a bath for about a month. That's ok, I don't take baths all that often. I prefer showers. They told me that I might not have a period at all during the 5 years of wearing this. It could be different than my last one. I'm more than cool with that.Although, I'm ok if it's super light like I had before. 

Last night, it felt like I was under anesthesia again. I was really out for the night. Got up kind of late, but I was refreshed. (They said to rest for the first couple of days anyways.) Been feeling really good, too.It might be relief from not having to think about it so much. I don't know. 

Last Sunday I went to Hurricane Ridge. It was glorious out there.Saw some great views of the mountains, lots of deer, cute little birds that made interesting sounds, and more. There were a lot of does out with their fawns. Not very many bucks out. I think I only saw one, and he was very young. Antlers were still little stubs coming out of his head. He was one of the last deer I saw, and was in the parking lot looking for food. I haven't been to Hurricane Ridge in years.Things have changed a little up there. But, there are still a lot of deer, tourists, and great views. The Visitor Center seems to be just like I remember too. We got ice cream bars there. (Dad was with me.) I had a cookies and cream one. 

Later, we went to Asian Buffet for dinner. The name was actually very fitting, because there was a wide variety of Asian cuisine. Some Japanese, a lot of Chinese, some Korean, some Thai, etc. food. It was one of the best buffets we've been to in a long time.A wide variety of food in general, too. (Remarkably, not many pork dishes...Great for me.) I tried a thing they called a white sticky rice bun. There was a name for it in Chinese, but I can't read it. It was wrapped in, what I thought, were bamboo leaves, but it could have been banana leaves I suppose. It was wrapped up in a neat packet. Surprisingly good, even if it looked a bit odd.I think it was filled with red bean paste. Very interesting place. I tried to get tiny bits of everything that looked/sounded good. Ended up with 4 light plates. They weren't piled on like I might have done in the past. I was still super full. 

The anesthesiologist was surprised by my 'fitness' plan. She thought the way I'm trying to eat is very good and smart.She lost weight with a similar mentality. I'm sticking much closer to it then I did before. I found out roughly how much calories are in the fruits we usually eat. It was fascinating really.I was surprised by stuff like bananas being more calories than I thought, and strawberries were a lot less. Very cool to even just see to get a general idea of it all. So, I'm not going to skimp on my fruit, but I have to put their amount of calories into consideration for other things I might eat with it. I'm looking more seriously at labels and such too.I've noticed that for some meals I'm not eating enough, and for some it might be slightly too much. So, this is all important for me to see. Great for balancing out things more. Since I've gotten more 'into' it, I'm already noticing even more weight loss. The person who did my blood test for surgery a couple of days before it has known me for a while. She took my blood a couple of months before, too. She said I looked like I lost a lot of weight from even the last time she saw me. (It was the first thing she said.) She was impressed too. When they were weighing me during the pre-op stuff, they looked a bit surprised when they compared my previous weight that was recorded towards the beginning of the month. Things are changing for me big time, then.I'm hoping to get back into my walks as soon as I feel up to it. I was doing sit-ups right up until the night before the surgery. I think that's helped too. I'll restart that when I feel up to it, as well. Which feels like that might be soon. Yay!Exercise is still good for me, even if I'm losing weight quickly with my 'meal plan'. It'll keep me in shape, too. 

Oh, and I found out last night that the anime forum I really liked that used to be really active, has come back. Ever since it was hacked into a couple of years ago, it's been kind of stagnant.They took down the index page that welcomed visitors, so they were really lying low. The rest of the site was up, but only members could really see it. I basically gave up on it a little while ago, because nothing was happening with it. Plus, there were less and less members that were active each day. I decided just for the fun of it, to see what's happened to it. Lo and behold, they've breathed life into it.The index page is now up, and I looked around some of the threads and such, all of which seem to suddenly be active again. Read in one of their announcements that they were undergoing changes to bring back the community they lost, which was back in July. So, I think they've come back to life since then. (Pretty recent.) I'm thinking about possibly getting back to it as well. Next time, I'll probably give it more of a look again to see if I want to become active again. 

It was a great place, one of the best forums I've been apart of.Real sense of community. It's not just about anime. They have a place for creative members to share their writings, pics, drawings, etc. There's a cooking section, too. Even some interesting philosophical/religion based threads. There are sections for in-depth debates/discussions. They also have arcade games, albums, groups, and more. They were one of the first group of people to read the beginning of my first novel, Alliance. Also, to see my pics. Got a lot of great advice from them. One of the few forums that I felt like I made some pretty close friends on. (Although, some have dropped it, too. Some haven't pm'd me in a long time. Probably thought I fully gave up on it.) It's based in the UK. If you want to check it out, it's here: Anime Forum.