November 28, 2011

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana

I ran some errands today, and was feeling pretty good... until I got home and noticed that the drain in my abdomen was clogged, and the stuff that normally would come out through the drain actually came out through the incision for the drain. I had a piece of gauze there for that reason, but it soaked through the gauze and there was a spot on the front of my jeans. Frickin' awesome.

I was able to clear the clog in the tube, so it is working fine again. But I am swollen as fuck right now. I hate this! I think THIS must be the low point that my surgeon was telling me about; that I would feel annoyed and depressed about this.

I think I felt better in this horrid picture than I do right now. Of course, it may have been the Dilaudid.

My lower abdomen is swollen enough that I look pregnant. Not hugely pregnant, but it looks like a baby bump or something. I know that it's normal, and I know that it could take 3-4 months for the swelling to go down, but I want it NOW. I want to look normal NOW.

Insert Jerry saying in a sing-song voice: "Someone call the waaaaaaambulance for poor Katie!"

I know I'm being whiny and pouty. I guess I just expected the swelling to be similar to the swelling from my jaw surgery--it was HORRIBLE the day of surgery, but kept decreasing, and then by two weeks later, the swelling was gone.

The lower body lift was the complete opposite. I saw my tiny little tummy after surgery, and the first week I thought how lucky I was that I didn't swell up. The second week I swelled up huge! Tomorrow I'm going to eat as little sodium as possible and drink tons of water; and I'm going to rest, preferably on my back, all day. Hopefully that will make me feel a little better.


Anyway, time flies like an arrow... Or in this case, a sweet potato.

For the past couple of days, I've noticed some fruit flies in my house. Usually when I notice a fruit fly, I just have to take out the garbage or maybe throw away some too-ripe bananas. But I have no fruit on my counters, the kitchen is (fairly) clean, and the problem wasn't coming from the garbage.

When I went in the pantry, I saw more fruit flies, so I assumed they were there for the empty cans and bottles from Jerry's beer. I made a point to tell Jerry to take the bottles back for the deposit refund.

Then today, I walked in to the pantry and noticed a bad smell. I checked the potatoes that I keep in a brown paper bag, and they were fine. I couldn't think of what it would be inside the pantry, so I started looking around on the shelves. I stopped moving for a couple of minutes to see if I could see where the fruit flies were coming from, and I noticed a white plastic grocery bag on the bottom shelf.

I opened it up and there were fruit flies all over the place. There were three sweet potatoes in the bag--and I cannot tell you the last time I bought sweet potatoes! One of them was completely rotten, and liquified. I was going to rush it outside to the garbage, but of course I had to stop myself and take a picture--because I have no other pictures for the blog today ;)
Yum!
So disgusting. Please tell me I'm not the only one that finds disgusting old food in my house...?  One time I found a stick of margarine in a cupboard--THAT was the most rancid, disgusting smell I've ever come across!!  And I won't even mention all the sippy cups half-full of milk that we found days weeks months after the boys found a good hiding place for them. *Gag*


I bought some more flea stuff for the cats today. After I gave them those pills, the fleas were gone for a few days, but then they were back. I've always had them on Frontline for flea control, but it quit working about 3 months ago--I have no idea why. So today I bought Advantage and more pills. The pills kill adult fleas within an hour. The Advantage is to kill the eggs and larvae and all that. I really hope this works. We still have Paolo, so I had to buy treatment for all four cats.  $$$


22 comments:

  1. Keep your chin up, this too shall pass. You have fought so hard to get to this point and there is NO way that you won't win now! I also wanted to help save your jeans...if it's bloody drainage, which I am assuming it is, you can use hydrogen peroxide to get out the blood. Works like magic :)

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  2. Flea treatments are so expensive! I remember we were taking care of a stray cat and he gave our rabbits fleas. Talk about a MESS! Rabbits don't do to well with that, especially our angora baby. I wish we could find the culprat for our fruit flies! Thankfully they've died down tremendously, but still enough to be noticeable. We ended up clearing out under the sink and it was damp in there. Such is life in a basement I guess. :( Stay strong with your swelling, remember the sparrow...teehee!

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  3. Ok I am going to leave this anonymously because I am appaulled at what I found today. We are in a condo, and there isn't a lot of space. We have a small closet that works as a pantry. Things tend to fall, and it has needed to be cleaned for quite some time. I was cleaning the floor of it today and found that one of the gallons of water I bought for the humidifier broke open and leaked. Evidently at some point some dry noodles fell (must have been before the leaking water). Then on top of the noodles were things like lunch coolers/paper towels in wrappers, etc. So do you see where this is going? I found very furry/fuzzy/moldy noodles. GROSS! I also found a few spiders and one random bug that I have seen a pantry before, but not sure what it is. I killed it. All of a sudden I see my cat trying to climb a wall. I look over to this VERY FAT (I am hoping pregnant) spider who must have escaped my killing spree. So I smooshed it and my cat was very disappointed. Seriously..I am so embarassed by the grossness I found today. Part of me wonders if this would make us sick. Mold can cause illness right? I need to investigate!

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  4. Ah yes, the sippy cups, bleh! So glad my kids are 6 and 8! We would find those things everywhere and my daughter is lactose intolerant, so it was soy milk, ugh, so disgusting. I've also found liquified lettuce in a Wal-Mart bag, in the cupboard that my husband says he thought was peanut butter. Really? A jar of pnb looks like a head of lettuce?!? So, no, you're not the only one!

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  5. Katie, it's okay to acknowledge when things SUCK. (That doesn't sound like whining to me!) You WILL heal, and we are all rooting for you!

    Also, anonymous, you should be fine with small amounts of food mold. Now, don't go licking the mold off, but that stuff isn't going to make you sick :)

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  6. I was in my car and absolutely ravenous after school today. I always keep some kind of energy bar in the little compartment in the front seat and definitely felt the need for it today.

    Upon opening the compartment, I noticed I had a bag of jerky in there as well. I thought it would be a much better snack choice calorie wise (I was only ninety minutes from dinner) so I reached in a grabbed a handful of...

    WHITE FUZZ! Who knew jerky would mold? I thought it would last forever. Nasty, nasty - I ate the Cliff bar instead:) Daria

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  7. If you've ever experienced an onion rolling under a cupboard and rotting, you know what disgusting is. It was a smell that I couldn't identify, so didnt even know where to look. I was sure something died in the wall.

    Keep your chin up Katie. The swelling will disappear - someone else posted that her sister had a few months of swelling, and now has a perfectly flat tummy. A life of flatness is worth a few months of swollen. Maybe its natures way of making sure you dont overdo!
    Pat

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  8. A few weeks ago I went to peel some potatoes to make homemade french fries. I pulled out a potato, mumbled about all of the eyes on it - I had just bought that bag the day before - and went to brush away some of the eyes to see if it was a potato that I could use or not. Then I noticed it. The eyes began to move. I wanted to throw up. They were maggots. gag. My stomach still turns just thinking about it.

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  9. Flea treatments are expensive. When the weather got cold, we had a couple mice come in, which the cat was playing with and she got fleas - and she is an indoor cat! Frontline really does work well once you break the cycle.

    Here is a tip for the fruit flies. Put out a little bowl with some vinegar and a little liquid dish soap. For whatever reason, the fruit flies love this and land in it and die. I cleared out our kitchen of fruit flies this way.

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  10. if you really want to get rid of fleas you need to treat your house also, along the same lines if your children have ever had lice, but not quite as intense. Vacuum everyday for a week or two, and be sure to empty your vacuum every time, they can live in there for quite a while! Vacuum the couch, cat tree, everything you can that they may get on or sleep on! Wash all bedding the cats may have been on in hot soapy water and wash any cat beds..etc. Treating your house will get rid of the little boogers much quicker than just treating your animals. I'm a dog groomer and have had the pleasure of dealing with fleas in my own household, good luck :)

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  11. I agree with Lori above - put a small amount of vinegar in a bowl with a little bit of liquid dish soap. I wrap the bowl with saran wrap and poke a hole in it with a pin. The fruit flies will go in, but they can't find the hole again to get out.

    I hope you get some rest. Feel better!
    Amy

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  12. I'm staying in a hotel attached to a big shopping mall and was trying on jeans tonight. My apron was bulging and ugly, but I thought to myself "I can do it! Look at Katie! That can be me!". And instead of binging on crappy food I had a delicious roasted veggie and salad dinner. Thanks for the motivation...I needed it today cause the mexican food was calling!
    Oh and I sat next to a girl at work her took her car to the dealership to trade in for a new car. She did this in August and the dealership found a pie under the car seat from the previous year's Thanksgiving. All I can say is that had to have been some kick ass tupperware!

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  13. Hang in there girl. It's going to be over soon enough and you'll look SO awesome!

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  14. The swelling is probably from being more active. Give yourself time to rest. The boys let you do that, right? LOL

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  15. Sorry things are feeling crappy right now. I hate that feeling!
    Are you wearing your small garment yet? I wonder if the added pressure from the tighter garment would help with the swelling.
    A few months ago I noticed a couple fruit flies. I had a bunch of bananas just starting to brown and i decided to make banana bread. I picked one off the bunch (I am not kidding when i say it was still mostly yellow and there were maybe 5 flies) and the back side of it was covered in flies and maggots. I havent touched an over ripe banana since!

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  16. I have found sweet potatoes that look the same in my cupboard before!!!!!
    I hope you feel better soon!!!:-)
    ~Laura

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  17. How about fresh fish in the cupboard? Kiddos were helping put away the groceries. GROSSness. The smell lingered for weeks -- ughh!

    Love the new header btw!

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  18. I have found gross stinky stuff rotting in my pantry and fridge more than I care to admit.

    Sorry about the swelling...hope it goes down soon. I'm still dealing with my seroma from hernia surgery in April! It is slowly going down. He did aspirate some fluid when I went in for post-op surgery, but it came back plus some, so now I'm just waiting for my body to absorb that excess fluid. SLOWLY!! The aspiration doesn't hurt at all though, if you do have to have that done at some point, so don't stress over that!

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  19. Um, my daugher is three and a month ago I found a sippy with milk WAYYYY deep under the bed. She hasn't used a sippy in over 8 months. Something smelled a little off but I always blamed my husbands dirty socks in the hamper. Poor guy. Gross.

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  20. You have been patient for a year with losing weight!!! You can do it. You have patience!

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  21. No worries. A few months ago I forgot to take cucumbers out of a grocery bag, and a few days later there were flies everywhere and a disgusting liquified cuke.

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  22. Sippy cups baked in the hot car with milk in them are the worst!

    I have actually thrown away rubbermaid containers because I didn't want to clean out something disgusting that was left in them. :)

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