Post surgery status...
It's been nearly 4 weeks since my tummy tuck and I'm still recuperating. Everyone says it has made a big change and improvement in my appearance. Actually, it will be at least 6 months until all the swelling goes down. I'm not in any pain, but definitely still uncomfortable at times and I'll be glad when I can get out of the house more. I have cabin fever even though I go out to eat occasionally. I under-estimated how serious this surgery would be thinking "only plastic surgery" and not "I'll be cut from side to side". I'm taking much longer to recuperate than I did from the weight loss surgery. I think 2 surgeries in 18 months is pushing it lol! The good part is they removed 11 pounds with the surgery and I have lost 6 more pounds since then. Once I can start health-walking and going back to water aerobics I should be able to lose more. I hope to get some photos up soon that will be before and after. This makes (finally) over 100 pounds I've lost since September 2006, actually 109 pounds. If I can lose at least 20 more pounds I will be happy. Any more pounds and I will be surprised, but ecstatic. I have to be realistic at my age (57) that I just won't look the way I would have looked if I'd done this 25 years ago (not that they did weight-loss surgery then!).
Meanwhile, I'm crocheting like crazy (a little every day anyway) on a baby afghan for my 19 year old niece who is expecting a boy in September. She's about halfway through her pregnancy and I'm halfway through crocheting the afghan, which I made in an oatmeal color since she is doing the nursery all in natural colors like sage, cream and brown.
I had a big yard sale a few days before my surgery and made a lot of bucks; so I plan on having another one in July some time (if I continue to improve post-surgery). Perhaps not as big a one, but if I can clear out my office, spare room and utility room there should be more than enough. My youngest sister and I are planning a huge Christmas yard sale that we will hold in September while it is still warm enough. Probably my other sisters will be selling some items, too. Good thing I made quite a bit of money at the yard sale, since my new leather rocker-recliner on order took exactly that amount. LOL I sure can't wait until it comes.
I'm also working on redecorating and re-arranging my home, including my living and dining room as well as the office and spare room. I never use my formal dining room, so will change that into a living room/media center (in other words that's where we'll watch TV). The existing living room will become a dining room/den with the love seat and chairs grouped around the fireplace as a focal point and using a small drop=leaf table in the corner near the kitchen as a place to seat about 4 people for a meal. I always eat on a tray myself and when I have friends over it is usually not more than 3 or 4. I hope someday to re-do my finished basement and I already have a great big dining table down there for larger gatherings.
The new landscaping that was finished in December has really looked nice this spring although it is now time to take out the pansies and put in some kind of summer annual that can take a southern exposure. My landscaper/lawn maintenance man will be taking care of that but I have to get with him to decide on which annuals to put in place. I have no flowers on the deck so far--just planters filled with soil and a few weeds--but hope that when I get a little better and can pot them it will not be too late to actually find something to go in the planters. Then they'll all have to be temporarily removed in July when I have the deck pressure-washed, bleached and water-proofed (only years overdue!), so I may forget plants this summer, I just don't know yet. There's so much else going on this summer like our 50th anniversary (our company Steele Rubber Products) Open House in July, and my nephew's wedding in August plus a wedding shower for his fiancee and a baby shower for MacKenzie.
