“Just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you have right now, and then got it back again.”

So,

Yesterday I had my second opinion appointment with the surgeon. The surgeon who did my gastric bypass almost three years ago. I continue to trust this guy with my life. After all, I allowed him to operate on me when I weighed 430 lbs!

He (and we - Nancy and I) wish that the circumstances of my bowel obstruction had been different. Not so acute, and not having escalated quite so quickly! If we'd had more time and had our wits about us, we would have called him, in Portland, and been life flighted. Had this happened, the guy who knows all about my altered innards could have taken care of the bowel obstruction laproscopically, instead the old fashioned way. Now I have this painful belly incision that is taking a while to heal. It hurts, I have a big piece of scar tissue that aches deep down inside.

But, hindsight is always 20/20, right?

In the end the guy that did the surgery saved my life and I will be fine. I need to wait a few more weeks for my muscles to heal.

Today, I had an upper and lower barium GI thingy. It was gross, the stuff I had to drink. This was to make sure that everything is running smoothly through my gut.

I feel nauseous and yukky today from the chalk drink. ;-(

I see the gastero intestinal guy next week to get the results of today and if everything is OK there, I'm going to go ahead and get myself back into the knee replacement surgery loop.

*sigh*

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

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Thanks!! Connie

The Choice Is Ours Now

This is quite definitely high up on my "Things that make ya go 'HHmmmmmmmm...' list!"

I'm thinking; she has a point.


This is a message for my brothers and sisters who have fought so long and so hard for gay rights and liberty. We have spent a long time climbing up this mountain, looking at the impossible, changing a thousand year-old paradigm. We have asked for the right to love the human of our choice, and to be protected equally under the laws of this great country. The road at times has been so bloody, and so horrible, and so disheartening. From being blamed for 9/11 and Katrina, to hateful crimes committed against us, we are battle weary. We watched as our nation took a step in the right direction, against all odds and elected Barack Obama as our next leader. Then we were jerked back into the last century as we watched our rights taken away by prop 8 in California. Still sore and angry we felt another slap in the face as the man we helped get elected seemingly invited a gay-hater to address the world at his inauguration.

continued...

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

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Thanks!! Connie

Whats on my work table

I've been feeling a little better each day. I had a bit of an infection in the incision that had to be dealt with, but it's fine now. I'm on antibiotics and still having to take Vicoden for pain. Tomorrow I have all the rest of the staples removed! YAY! (itchy!)

Yesterday I worked at my table for a couple hours. Made a skinner blend mica shift jelly roll. With that I made a 3 bead set and a peek-a-boo pendant on a velum square. They'll be holiday gifts... have some more in the pipeline to work on too!



A business card tin.

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

This bloggy feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this content in a news reader or on a website related to Constance Pelkey Designs, the you are reading it from is in violation of copyright!
Thanks!! Connie

Emergency Surgery, Anyone??

Monday started out like any other day. I went to work until 10AM and then it was time to take Mom to her monthly lunch meeting of blind and low vision folks. We got back home and the rest of the afternoon was normal too.

Mondays are Nancy's long days at work so she wasn't due home until 8PM-ish.

As the evening went on I was feeling more and more terrible. I was having cramping in my belly that started to radiate around into my back. It got worse and worse. Eventually the only place I could find any sort of relief at all was flat out on the floor on my belly. Even that wasn't too comfortable at all.

As soon and Nancy got home she called 911 and I was brought to the ER.

Eventually I was diagnosed with a pretty major blockage in my intestines. Seems that once you have had abdominal surgery a couple times your innards get "tacky" and can slip and twist more easily. In the last 10 years I've had a hysterectomy, gastric bypass and my gallbladder removed. I had a large section of intestine that was just black on the ex ray. So, at midnight on Monday I was headed into the surgical wing.

The surgeon found that about one third of my large intestine was twisted up and inside itself and was getting no blood supply. Once he got things untwisted and organized again they pinked right up and everything was fine. I was brought to my room around 3AM and don't remember a whole lot of what went on until Wednesday. I was so sick and out of it.

I came home yesterday afternoon.

I'm feeling a little better today. I'm very sore and tired. I have about a 9 inch incision running from above my belly button to my pubes with staples holding it closed and I have a belly band with Velcro that I have to wear.

I'm fine and thanks in advance for the well wishes.

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

This bloggy feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this content in a news reader or on a website related to Constance Pelkey Designs, the you are reading it from is in violation of copyright!
Thanks!! Connie

The cost of George Bush's war

Reposted from Judy Dunn's website.

"... I finally made a video I had been planning for about two weeks. As I told everyone at the retreat on Saturday night, I had folded a crane to represent Bobby a few days prior to the retreat. I never knew Bobby personally, but his story played an important role in shifting how I looked at my cranes, and what they could represent. Once again, the production is far from perfect, but I think it conveys his story, and why I feel compelled to take on this major project. I have titled the video Bobby's Crane. I struggled with my video editing software yesterday, so the title is not on the video itself. Things I could do the last time I made a video suddenly seemed impossible! But the message comes through. Hope you like it."

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

This bloggy feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this content in a news reader or on a website related to Constance Pelkey Designs, the you are reading it from is in violation of copyright!
Thanks!! Connie

Back to work - regular hours!

This week I started back to work with my regular hours.

I had Monday off.

Tuesday was my first day doing opening procedures by myself. I did well. I fed, watered and spot check cleaned all the small animals, birds and reptiles. I dealt with the Isolation room and New Arrivals room. I dealt with all the back room fish stuff, switching out filters, medicating and such. I also did the crickets. The only things I didn't get done was pulling "sleeper" fish and feeding the fish.

All in all, a good start for my getting back. Feels good. My shoulder was sore and my arm was tired, but I didn't stress it. It's just going to take a while to toughen it up - SLOWLY! No overdoing it, or Nancy'll have my head!

After work I did very little... gave my shoulder a chance to recover. All I did was some beading and relaxing in the afternoon.

Wednesday after work I went up to Mom's to visit with her... I helped her sort through and throw away some things in preparation for her to move in with us. My shoulder was quite sore from 2 days at work, so I didn't over do it!! The missing part for the headboard came in the mail, so we finished putting it together! YAY!!

This morning I didn't work, but I did have physical therapy. When I got back home I cleaned up and organized the new media room a bit.






Looks much better, huh?

The bureau's will be moved into the dressing room and a table and chairs will come up here also. this room will be painted - last.

This afternoon I plan on starting to sand my textured walls in the bathroom this afternoon. I'll also work a bit in the studio, packing things up and sorting. I'm trying to have a pile ready and waiting at the foot of the stairs each time we go up, so it won't be so overwhelming all at once getting the entire studio moved upstairs.

I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday to finish out the week.

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Copyright © 2008 by Constance Pelkey.

This bloggy feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.If you are not reading this content in a news reader or on a website related to Constance Pelkey Designs, this site is in violation of copyright!

Thanks!! Connie

Motorcycle ride - not for slow dial up connections!

Isn't the price of gas !!!????



Until my shoulder heals up some more I am relegated to the "b*tch seat" on Nancy's bike - Bella, an 1100 Yamaha V-Star.





I am wearing my new Skid-Lid, half helmet with a loverly purple rose on each side! Aren't you jealous!? You should be!! HA!






Here's a couple of little videos I shot while riding along RT. 196 from Topsham to Lisbon Falls. That's our freind "D" riding lead.

Link to first video.

Link to second video.

And a google map -

View Larger Map



Moxie only costs .99 at this little corner store in Lisbon Falls! *G*

We had a WONDERFUL ride!! It was warm, sunny, and there were luscious flower scents all along the way! We a GREAT ride!

Weekend

Yesterday I went to work again. I worked from noon 'til four. It was good. Good to get out of the house other than errand running or going up to Mom's. I was tired out after getting home last night!! I'm vastly overestimating how quickly my shoulder is healing. Don't misunderstand... it's healing wonderfully and my physical therapist, Dana, say that it's leaps and bounds ahead of my right shoulder, which was repaired by the same surgeon last summer. I'm being impatient. Because it's doing so well I want it to be better, completely. NOW! Dammit!! I'm tired of being in a sling, I'm tired of being severely limited as to what I can do. I'm tired of it hurting. I'm just impatient.

I'd put some turkey cutlets in the crock pot yesterday morning along with some crushed Italian tomatoes and paste and some Italian veggies and mushrooms. What makes them Italian veggies as opposed to... say French veggies I'll never understand. *G* It was delicious when I got home and we ate. I LOVE no fuss yummy meals!

While I was gone, Nancy worked some more upstairs... details. DETAILS! The old saying "The devil is in the details" makes perfect sense to me. These rooms are taking much longer than we'd anticipated. She scraped and primed the crown molding in the bedroom and touched up ceiling spots in both rooms.

This morning after leisurely cups of coffee and home made banana walnut muffins on the front porch, we went upstairs and worked a bit more. She painted out the crown molding in the trim color while I finished caulking and trimming out the two windows. She then moved into the dressing room and scraped and taped the crown molding in there. I also vacuumed up all the loose paint chips from the painted floor and we realized that it was chipping. Easily. Ak! So, that will get another coat of paint and then a final coat of satin finish polyurethane. Hopefully that will stop the chipping.

This afternoon we are being deck dogs again. It rained yesterday and today it's a mix of clouds and sun, but nice and warm... so here we sit, me putzing on the laptop and her doing her Sudoko and reading her book. The dogs are lazing in the sun too!

Tomorrow is back to reality. Nancy goes back to work and I have a big day with Mom. It's our monthly go-to-lunch-with-the-the-low-vision-group and then I'll do her groceries.

On Tuesday I'll get back to trimming out the dressing room.

Connie

~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~

New pics - shoulder PT

I have been working on setting and resetting my stores, PayPal, Etsy and eCrater. I made a Flickr badge with the new pics and I'll be adding all the items to my store, eventually.

I have PT on my shoulder today and I'm really pleased at how well it's been feeling! Anxious to get rid of the sling, but that won't happen for another 3 weeks! Ak! *smile*

www.flickr.com

Connie

~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~

Shoulder Surgery

Here's pictures of my surgery for those who like such things.... *G*

And here is a shot of my incisions - had the stitches removed last Friday and the steri strips are to be left alone and will fall off on their own.

It's really feeling so much better these last couple days. I'm very encouraged that it will be OK in a few more weeks. I have to wear the sling and pillow for 6 weeks total and I have my first PT appointment tomorrow. I plan on calling or going in to see my boss later in the week to talk about coming back to work. I won't be able to do my regular job for a while still, but I can go in and cover the sales floor and do customer service, perhaps in the afternoons. Not real sure how I'll bag fish though. We'll see how things go.