Unintended Consequences

Unintended.  Unanticipated.  Unwanted.  They are as immutable as the law of gravity.  Do not get me wrong.  I am extremely happy with my surgery and my progress to date.  But there is always a downside.  Always.  I am not talking about an inability to eat certain foods post-op, or the chances of physical issues with my sleeve.  Those are real, serious, and should be in the anticipated category at least.  This is stuff I never saw coming, and did not discover until after surgery, even with research.

I just came in to take a break from clearing snow.  We don't even have that much.  We got maybe 4", with up to 8" here and there with drifting out here in farmland.  The key phrase is take a break.  I never had to do that before.  I am frozen solid.  I could not even feel my fingers for the last 15 minutes of the 40 minutes I was out there.  Now, the wind is whipping pretty good, and it is barely over 20 degrees, but that never mattered before.  I would spend as long as an hour or even up to three with no adverse effects.  Not anymore.  I am warming up so I can go back out and finish the job.

Another one that came along and whomped me upside my head today was this.  I have a nice snowblower.  It is huge.  I ride on it.  It is a 47" attachment on a 25 HP John Deere tractor, and it does a great job.  We have that much to clear.  I have chains on the back wheels because of hills and such.  So I am riding my machine, feeling superior to the elements, when I realized I was having trouble.  I kept slipping, losing traction.  It was then I realized, I'm down 134 lbs from this time last year!  I don't have the counterweight over the rear wheels I used to have!

In the overall scheme of things, these are minor.  I would not trade all the positive aspects of WLS to gain these two advantages back.  But they sure took me by surprise.  And I am not looking forward to finishing up this mess outside.  

I can so relate to the cold thing.... it's ultimately what made me stop and go in.

But that said I did have space for more layers under my coat so I was somewhat prepared. 

When I came in I hung my pants by the pellet stove to dry - and when I put them back on I swear I saw heaven. 

We have the old timey cast iron radiators to heat our house.  It is wonderful, leaving one's clothes out on the radiator in the bedroom overnight.  They are nice and toasty warm in the morning.  

I can't even imagine...

Since surgery I get so cold at times, that my teeth literally start chattering! My fingers go numb, my feet get painfully cold, and the rest of me just hates it! I have a heated mattress pad, and I go in every night about an hour before bedtime and turn it on High! That's after I crawl out from under my heated throw on the couch I got for Christmas! LOL

I'm ready to see how I react to the REALLLLLLY HOT days now! Come on, bring them on!!!

I hated summer and hot weather before surgery. Now-I can't wait for it. 

Hurrrrrry up July!

It was real bad shortly after surgery.  We even bought one of those little electric space heaters for the bedroom to give it a little extra jolt of heat.  We live in a 200 year old stone farmhouse.  It is drafty.  And stone is not the barrier people think it is.  It does a great job against wind, but not so much against cold.  And the wind benefit is negated by the 200 year old windows that have yet to be replaced.  

I am hoping that I fare better this summer as well.  The heat has always killed me, even when I was skinnier (not skinny - I was only skinny for a couple of years in high school).

I dunno, but both of those sound like NSVs to me!  You have lost basically a couple of permanent winter coats, so now you get cold faster....YAY!  You see that as a consequence now, but think how great you're gonna feel this summer without those winter coats!

You lost an entire person, so less traction on your snow blower...also YAY!  Get someone to ride with you, make it more fun; get some sandbags and sit on them.  Make it all about the positive, YOU'VE LOST A WHOLE PERSON!!  YAY!!!!

I thought about asking Mrs. LittleBillJr to stand on the back, but she would have just laughed at me and told me to suck it up and deal with it.  I guess they are NSVs to some extent, but I can see me going out and looking for some wheel weights this summer.  Either that, or I'll have to build a box that attaches to the trailer hitch.

I freeze all the time anymore. The temp in my office sits at 69 and I stay wrapped in my electric blanket. It helps to a point but my nose and fingers still are icy by the end of the day. My kids keep getting freaked out by how cold my hands always are. 

I've been doing better, especially if I am moving around and working.  Today was rough though.