What's on your mind? 11/12/17

Recovery is hard. I tried to taper my pain killers too soon and I'm paying the price for that. So I'm bumping them back up, which really sucks mentally because it's something I've never had to do after a surgery.

Pooping is hard. Showering is hard. Things are just really hard.

I hope I'm able to graduate to compression gear at my follow up up Tuesday!

I handle them in two ways. The first, and easiest, is honesty. "Oh, I had weight loss surgery and literally can't eat that much." Then change the subject. Have a script in your brain and change the subject every single time in the exact same manner. People will get the hint this isn't a topic up for discussion.

The second option, good for pre-op, is similar. Create a script prior to thanksgiving and practice it with friends! Do not deviate from your script. In the face of repetition, most people will get the hint. "I'm sure it's delicious but I'm working hard to change the way I eat. Can you believe Daenerys and Jon Snow are cousins or whatever?! Do you think GRRM will ever finish the books or just die laughing at us?"

you might feel stupid, but repeat this, verbatim, EVERY SINGLE TIME. People will eventually get a clue that it's not a topic up for discussion. :)

Yes! Have a script in your mind and then stop. No need to explain yourself further.

For Me one was:

How much weight have you lost?

Me: A lot. (and if needed---) I've made a decision not to share my weight loss number. I may at some point but not now.

Even with the shoulder surgery I have had to go back to taking the narcotics a few times... the only way to have total relief, and pressing through pain doesn't help with healing.

I have job frustrations, but for several reasons am putting off a new job search until after Spring. So I'm trying to figure out how to re-invigorate myself for this company and this job.

And I'm in my last semester of grad school and it's become an uphill slog through quicksand. I'm frequently late with postings and I'm behind with the gawd-awful research paper that I have to do for one measly credit hour but it's required for graduation. I'm counting down the weeks until I am done with school FOREVER. Some snarky friends have suggested I go for a PhD and frankly no one in my family would make it out alive. #gradSchoolSucks.

But in better thoughts, my daughter and I got to talking last night ****il past midnight, I'm so wiped out today) and I found out a lot of things that went on with Ex#1 (her dad****il he passed last year. She's old enough now to find out some (but not all) of the things that went on prior to my divorcing him, and my perspective on some of the nonsense that went on with her and him after the divorce when she got a little older. So it was a REALLY good talk, AND I am even more grateful for my awesome hubby #3 who would never even think to behave in some of the ways both of my Ex's did.

The shorter version is that some things in life will always suck, we just have to get through them. And some things in life are usually awesome (or should be).

I watched an interesting TED talk this weekend about the Dunning-Kruger effect. Apparently most people who aren't good at things don't know enough about the things they're not good at to know that they're not good. If you're constantly worried about and criticizing your performance, then you're probably actually pretty good at it, you just don't think you are. So the fact that you're worried about it and fear the failure probably means that you're better off at your job than you think. Don't know if the thought helps you or not, but it made me rethink a lot of things about my career. :)

Family is hard. I'm so sorry that you're having to clean up like that and take legal action when you were just trying to do the right thing. I've had similar situations with friends, never with family (thank goodness) and it's rough. I hope things smooth out in your home once you get it cleaned back up.

What will your degree be in?

Master's in Healthcare Informatics. It's basically about making all of the IT stuff in healthcare work better to get out of the way of the clinicians and improve outcomes for patients. Nice way to blend my 20+ years in IT with my RN experience. :)