New year, new surgery.

My super sexy belly after cholecystectomy, done 1/18/14.
Jealous, aren't you?

It's been awhile since I've blogged, and quite a bit has changed. I have no idea what date stamp will appear on this post as it's been sitting in the draft area for some time, but since it's April 1st, I figured I'd do some general updating.

Back in late December, I started having some pretty intense abdominal pain. As they say, hindsight is 20/20, and I'd had a few similar episodes that summer but chalked it up to gas. After nearly 3 weeks of constant pain, I sucked it up and made an appointment with my bariatric surgeon. I make it sound easy, but the reality is that I had friends and family alike pushing me into being seen. I'm not one to complain about pain. Honestly, I know my doc is a busy man with a huge patient caseload, so the idea of bothering him for something silly just didn't sit right with me. Mind you, he's never given me anything but quality care, or shown anything but compassion. It's just my own mental difficulties at play here I think.

Traditions for a new era.

Our holiday tree. I let go of my control issues, and let the kids decorate it entirely on their own this year.

Happy holidays!

This time of year, my thoughts seem to naturally turn to both the spiritual and traditional aspects of the holidays we celebrate in my home. For a very long time, I tried hard to be someone I'm not, and although it greatly impacted our daily existence, it took an even larger toll on how we observed nearly every holiday. Part of me regrets those 7 wasted years, yet another part acknowledges that it was time that shaped how I view the world so that's ok. 

"D" Words.

Depression. I don't like that word. Beyond the obvious one of a medical diagnosis, it holds poor emotional connotations for me. Regardless of how I feel about the word, I finally came to a place last month where I had to admit to myself that I'm struggling with depression. Ugh. Even just typing it out leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Life After RNY: The Eleventh Month

I'm hoping this come out well, but it's my first attempt at blogging from my Kindle Fire. Going mobile doesn't always go smoothly. One of these days, I've got to remember to give my laptop over to my brother to fix.

I'm quickly closing in on my first surgiversary. One year since my gastric bypass surgery. One year since my life changed forever. I can't begin to explain all the big and little victories I've had since then. This has been the best gift I have ever given myself.

Life after RNY: the 1st month

Post-op bruising, 4 weeks out.

Just a small warning for my more sensitive readers: this post contains a frank description of the first month of recovery from my laproscopic RNY gastric bypass surgery, as well as photos of an open surgical site infection. This is also a very long post because, well, I'm long winded. Proceed with caution.

It's now been a little more than 2 months since I had weight loss surgery. I'm finally (FINALLY!) feeling back to normal. I can now say that I am so glad I did this. If you'd asked me last month, I would've burst into tears and told you it was my biggest regret to date.

Homeward Bound

Found on Pinterest. This spoke to my heart.

My husband, kids, gerbils, and I live in a small Northeastern state. I am the only one out of our bunch to have lived anywhere else but this place. I was born in Mississippi, and moved here when I was about 7. Although this is now home, it no longer feels quite that way. You see, Mr. P. and I have a dream.