Oh hey

Mar 08, 2022

I GUESS IT'S BEEN A LITTLE WHILE SINCE I UPDATED THIS BLOG. ANYTHING HAPPEN IN THE WORLD BETWEEN AUGUST OF 2018 AND NOW? ANYTHING? 

Ah well, I'm sure if something noteworthy happened, especially over the last two years in particular, someone somewhere would have mentioned it. 

Me? All things considered, I'm doing well. I was thinking about OH because (A) a beloved friend semi-recently had a similar procedure, though not for weight loss purposes—M had a really serious cancerous situation and the treatment ended up being "basically a vertical sleeve gastrectomy," (B) a church friend is going to have a VSG soon, I think, and has talked to me about it a couple times and (C) February 27th was the ninth anniversary of my surgery, what the entire hell, and (D) I just found out a blogger and artist (and brilliant fat activist) I've been a fan of for a long time had bariatric surgery about a year ago, and has lots of complicated feelings about her decision and, uh, it's making me super emotional to scroll back through her bariatric Twitter to catch up on her experiences so far. (I'm so out of the loop!) So yeah, lots of bariatric Thoughts. And Feelings. You know how it is.

I have no idea what I weigh right now, on March 8th, 2022, and that's fine. Honestly, two years of pandemic stress have put a lot of things in perspective and I'm just not especially concerned about my weight one way or another. (That's a lie. I get angry when my clothes are too tight, which they are a little at the moment.) However, there have been some other notable Health Things:

• Alcohol was becoming a bit too much of a pandemic hobby, with a handful of genuinely concerning incidents over 2020 and 2021. New Year's Eve 2021 was my last drink, at least for a good long while. Honestly, from where I am right now I don't see how I can ever in good conscience drink again. I'm grumpy about it, but I console myself with vast quantities of near beer and alcohol-free wine and Olipop. Should I have ever started drinking alcohol again after giving it up to have my VSG? Of course not! Should I be drinking fake/fake-ish alcoholic beverages now? Probably not! They're carbonated, which is also forbidden, but...I dunno, man, life is short and Lagunitas IPNA is delicious. 
• I also gave up pot, probably also for good or at least a good long time. It just wasn't fun anymore, and my last few experiences were notably the opposite of fun, plus...I got a new job and, heh, they drug test. So I was glad to be "clean" for that, oof. 
• My husband and I have sort of started exercising in a more serious way than either of us have since my post-op honeymoon period eight to nine years ago. This particular week has been a bit of a shitshow on that front, unfortunately, due to job-change stress, but overall we've actually been very good about walking and doing real home workouts. Started in January and actually seem to have stuck with it (except for, like I said, this garbage week.) Feeling good about being more active. It's overdue. Pandemic bullshit really kept me fairly inert with constant low-level panic, and I think the exercise helps with that. 
• Thennn there's the real bummer, my hair. :( I never was blessed with thick hair, but the last three or so years saw it start to thin alarmingly. What could it be? Pick one or two or all of the following: weird malabsorbtion issues from my VSG? Wellbutrin, which apparently can cause hair loss? Shitty genetics? Stress from living in a late-stage capitalst hellscape while a pandemic raged and the climate actively collapsed? The birth control I'd been on for several years? Pot? A wizard's curse? WHO KNOWS! I got off Wellbutrin and birth control, got serious about keeping up with my supplements, and spent a shocking amount of money on some hair supplements and ridiculous custom shampoo etc from one of those companies that aggressively promotes their shit on Instagram, and...I like the stuff, I guess? My hair loss seems like maybe it's at least slowed down. 

The hair thing in particular brings me full circle: I probably need to make an appointment with the C4WLS to get all my Very Serious Bariatric Bloodwork (and other tests!) done since I haven't since...I can't imagine I went again after 2018, so it's probably legitimately been four years or so. Argh. I'll probably give the new job a chance to...be less new...and then see about getting an appointment over the summer, maybe. Perhaps by then things will be even less covidy and terrifying.

Anyway, yeah, life is pretty good!  

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