A little discouraged...

Yesterday was 5 weeks PO and I am getting a little discouraged. Haven't added any new photos as not much has changed. Still in 'swell hell' and aching all over, plus a small spot on my incision (where it forms a T with the scar fro my old BB) is still oozing and icky.

As you can see from my pics of a couple of weeks ago, I have something resembling a waist on my right side, but I'm straight as a log on the left side. Is that swelling? Why on earth would I swell like that on one side only? And why isn't the swelling improving at all over the past 2 weeks? I have this creeping suspicion this is as good as it gets, and I will always have just half a waist. Like a misshapen Sponge Bob Square Pants. Yay.

20 days PO today, and I'm more swollen than ever before... My arms and legs still have their human proportions, but my trunk is a out bursting at the seams. I know that common wisdom says you can expect swelling after being active, but seriously guys - after a mere ten minute walk? And at a snail's pace, too?

For the past three weeks I have had the approximate activity level of a slug on xanax, and I finally decide to get off my lazy behind to take a leisurely stroll, and immediately I balloon to twice my normal size... I can accept a bit of swell hell, but this is ridiculous! Oh, well. Back to my horizontal sloth-like existence it is.

So I finally clicked the 'worth it' button. Which is amazing and maybe a wee bit crazy considering I am still in swell hell, look like a tree trunk (thick all around!), and still sore as hell (good thing I'm not married. I couldn't handle any tree huggers right now).

Life on the flat side for me so far has been a little different from what I imagined. It's flat all right. As in totally horizontal. I spend all of my sleeping and most of my waking hours in bed, and so does everybody else in my household including 2 kids, 2 cats, as well as the occasional visitor and even my PA. I'm 18 days PO and my bed is now doing double duty as rec room, homework assistance office, and as headquarters and home office for my business. Envision a mattress littered with laptops, phones, spreadsheets, and half-eaten bagels; there's a kid perched on one corner doing math, there's a cat sneaking up on the bagels (cream cheese is irresistible, even if low-fat) and a secretary sits on another corner waving a sheaf of papers she wants me to sign. Me, I'm the swollen blob spreading over the pillows, held together by my blessed CG, balancing a cup of coffee on my distended abdomen as I peck away at my keyboard. Welcome to my life on the flat side.

Early in the morning, before the markets open and phones start ringing off the hook, when my tissues are still asleep and haven't yet started bloating for the day, I have started to notice something... I will slip out of bed, careful not to wake cats, kids, laptops, and stare at my Bride-of-Frankenstein bod in the bathroom mirror and I see ... the faintest hint of a figure. With some imagination, perhaps the beginning of a (gasp) waist. It doesn't last long, but it's enough to flip the switch: YES! Its WORTH IT! Or will be. Soon.