First Stock Up Shop; this is what I got for $400

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$405.85, to be exact.

I didn’t get a picture of the cart this time, though. My daughters both came along and had their own shopping, and everything was in one cart.

It was just a trip to the nearest Walmart, not the big city trip where we would go to multiple stores

I also don’t know when we’ll be able to do the Costco shopping. It might be a couple more weeks. So this is a larger shop at the Walmart than we usually do on stock up day.

With both girls along for the ride, they secured my walker in the box of the truck, since there was no room for it in the cab.

We did get gas long the way, and we took the route through multiple towns along the lake, as our usual route is still construction hell. In town, two gas stations were at $1.829, but the Shell station was $1.799, where I get my 3¢ off/L with my CAA card. I didn’t pre-pay, so that came off as a discount, not as more fuel. $50 filled the tank.

Along the way, we saw prices ranging from the $1.829 to $1.719

The shop itself was all right. Physically, I handled it well and needed to sit on my walker only a couple of times. The only problem was other shoppers blocking the aisles, cutting me and my walker, off, etc. The usual. The staff restocking shelves had inventory carts, etc. that partially blocked aisles but they, at least, saw me and made a point of making space for me and our cart to get through.

It occurred to me that, when I say I hate shopping, it’s not really the act of shopping I hate. It’s other shoppers. There’s a reason retail jobs tend to be a revolving door. So many customers are just awful. We encountered some great staff, though.

Anyhow, this is what I got for my $400.

For cat supplies, we got two 9kg bags of kibble and a 32 pack of wet cat food, plus a 100 count case of XXL pee pads.

In other non-food stuff, we got a bottle of CLR, a spray bottle of bathroom cleaner, some personal hygiene product, a bottle of hair conditioner and a total of 9 cans of Monster energy drinks for the three of us.

As my husband’s request, we got him a couple of bags of Doritos and some Ginger Snap cookies as a treat. We also got two bags of frozen chicken wings for myself, and two of chicken strips for my husband, that were almost half off. Not the brand we usually get but, I suspect, I better brand.

I got a package of sliced deli chicken and another of turkey for sandwiches. Those are something that have been very much a “shrinkflation” thing, where there’s barely enough for a couple of sandwiches. These ones had quite a bit of meat in them, and the price was what I remember it being before, so I got them.

In dairy, we got 4 pounds of butter, a 2L of 3% milk, along with a big block of Old Cheddar cheese. I notice Oat Milk is not on the list, so it looks like the girls paid for that, themselves.

There’s a flat of 30 eggs in there, plus 4 loaves of sandwich bread. We picked up a 10 pound bag of russet potatoes; we’re pretty much our of our own, and these were under $5 a bag. There were also double packs of fresh ravioli pasta at under $5 a pack, so we got two. We also got a case of frozen waffles – something we haven’t bought in years, because we didn’t have a toaster. We now have my mother’s toaster, which we keep in the cat free zone. We lost our own toaster when we discovered a cat had peed on it!!!!

There we have it. A total of 41 items that cost $382.22 before taxes.

Not a typical stock up trip but it should be enough to last us until we can do the Costco shop, which might not happen for 2 or 3 weeks, depending on how I feel.

Which is, overall, good. I did feel twinges at incision sites when I started to get tired, but that’s about it. I definitely would not have been up to doing multiple stores, like we usually do on this first trip. I’m glad that we were able to at least do this trip.

Another month or so of taking it easy.

The Re-Farmer

Juggling

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You know, for a day where we did “nothing”, we actually accomplished some important things.

Today was chilly and damp, so only the essentials got done outside.   The girls did the morning cat feeding, as usual, and the Shrine Lady was very loud about her displeasure that warm cat soup comes AFTER the dry kibble.   It always does, and she always complains.   Then they get to pet her while she has her soup.

We should look into getting a heated water bowl, just for cat soup in the winter, so it doesn’t freeze before they all get to eat some. 

It was a sleepy, not even getting dressed, day for me.  I ended up making little crochet projects with my cheap cotton mill end yarn, starting and undoing projects several times before settling on things.

Meanwhile, on top of taking care of all the household stuff, my daughters were able to reschedule their medical appointments to December.  My older daughter could only get a new time on December 30 and already expects it will be canceled due to weather.   Hopefully, we will not get snowed in, this year.  My younger daughter got hers rescheduled for earlier in December.

I got my letter for my follow up appointment today.  It’s in the middle of November, and past my driving restrictions.  It’s not at the cancer clinic, which is not what I was expecting, given what I’ve been told until now.  I’ve been to this other clinic before with my mother.  It’s at the sane hospital, but the clinic is a separate building built in a parking lot next to the hospital.  It’s early enough in the day that I hope we will find a parking spot in what’s left of the lot around it.  I really don’t want to park blocks away and have to walk back, with still under recovery restrictions.

After going over the letter about our doctor leaving the area, my daughter looked up the clinic she is moving to.  It’s in the city.  She had thought our doctor was leaving the province or something.

The letter had numbers and instructions on how to follow her to the new clinic, which my daughter wants to do.  I would rather find a doctor that’s closer, but she is a lot more selective than I am and wants to keep seeing this doctor.   After talking about it, I told her if she’s going to stay with that doctor, then I will, too. It’s more convenient to share a doctor and we can book consecutive appointments to save trips.  She offered to pay for the gas and do the driving.  Cost if gas was another major factor.

So that got taken care of, too, with her making the calls for both of us, then bringing the phone to me only when the receptionist needed to talk to me in person. It’s not officially done, since the doctor isn’t officially there for another week or two.  We will have to pay a fee to have our files transferred, but that can be paid when we come in to sign the appropriate consent forms.  We’ll combine that with making new appointments, again just to save trips.  She didn’t know what the fee was.  Every time we’ve had to transfer files, the fee has been different.

So that is taken care of, too, as far as possible right now.

Tomorrow will be a test for me, as we do our first stock up shop since my surgery.  At the closer Walmart.  My daughter will be doing all the driving and lifting and bagging and unloading.  As good as I’m feeling, we will still bring the walker.  I was needing that for bad arthritis pain days before the surgery, anyhow.  Aside from that, my biggest issue has been my injured left rotator cuff.  I am having difficulties lifting it past a certain point, and the range of motion has become more limited.  Likely because of the temperature fluctuations.   My husband is having similar issues with his back injury being worse lately.   He’s been using his TENS machine a lot more often.  What a great investment that was!

The good thing about heading into winter with all these issues.  We are getting into “hibernation” season, and slowing down in general, anyways.  It will give all of us a forced rest and recovery time.

As long as we don’t end up having to shovel driveways.

The Re-Farmer

140, plus four more

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This afternoon, when temperatures were at least a bit above freezing, I headed out to see my daughters’ hard work.

Wow.

Because these last haskap transplants are so much smaller, with tiny, over crowded root balls in tiny little pots, they are harder to see. So I marked every one of them with a garden stake, then raided our recycling bin for plastic bottles to put on top of them. Aside from improving visibility, they should rattle in the wind and potentially startle away critters.

I ran out of bottles very quickly.

The first image is the main “plot” where my daughter added three more rows of 10 haskaps.

The next two images are different views of the ones she planted around the fruit trees and the two haskaps we’d planted two summers ago.

The last image is the four that were left, because it was too dark to keep going. They will be planted where our original three haskaps are – the ones that have not been doing well at all, because the cross pollinating verities don’t bloom at the same time, and one of them just isn’t growing.

I counted a total of 140 transplanted haskaps, plus there are the four left to do.

There had been 95 already in the ground. My daughters – mostly my younger daughter, as her sister could come out only after she finished working on commissions – planted 45 haskaps last night.

That makes for a total of 144 haskaps that my brother and SIL managed to acquire, plus the 5 we already had previously.

Wow.

If they all survive – which is highly unlikely, given the state some of them were in – that makes for a grand total of 149 haskaps for our food forest.

Wow.

For the four of us, just a couple would be enough for personal use. Maybe 5, if we wanted to do really get into making preserves of some kind with them.

At least it would be, if we had any that produced. Of the original three, only the “Mr. Haskap” has been even remotely healthy, the first to bloom, and finished blooming before the “Mrs. Haskap” I got at the same time even got into full leaf, never mind bloom. The third one, a “Mrs. Haskap” purchased the following summer, remains stunted and exactly the same size as when we planted it, some 3 or 4 years ago.

The two that we got at the homesteaders event, planted in a much better location, had their second summer this year and didn’t seem to get any bigger at all. Much like our highbush cranberry, that have not gotten any bigger since we planted them at the same time as the silver buffalo berry that is doing so well.

If even a quarter of these haskaps survive and produce, we could potentially have enough to sell at markets within a couple of years.

If they survive and produce.

With how root bound they were, they have a rough start already. For now, though, we will focus on watering them often, even though none of them have any leaves left, to give the roots every chance to grow and establish themselves at least a bit, before the ground freezes.

Which, if the long range forecast is to be trusted even slightly, will be at least another 3 weeks, if not until December. As long as we still have daytime temperatures above freezing, the ground should only freeze at the surface overnight, and mostly thaw during the day.

My daughter really busted her butt last night! By the end of it, she was getting chilled and starting to cough, so she slept in today, and has been taking care not to come down with a cold or get sick, as much as she can.

In a couple of days, we will be doing our first stock up shopping trip. I am still banned from driving, and my daughters don’t want me to travel too far. For the things we need, though, we at least need to do a Walmart trip, so we are planning to go to the one in the smaller, closer city. They’ve expanded, but still don’t have the inventory the big city locations do, but we should be able to get what we need. There’s also a Canadian Tire across the street, where we can get our litter pellets.

Normally, on the last business day of the month, we would do our Costco shopping. That one will be postponed, probably by a couple of weeks. Yes, my daughter can do the driving, and we don’t have to worry about weird parking issues or insane city driving conditions, but it’s also about recovery and mobility for me. My 6 week recovery period is over at the end of November, so by December, we should be back to our normal driving and errands.

I am so looking forward to spring, when I can physically do the things I wasn’t able to do all this past summer!

… and to seeing how many haskaps survived the transplanting and winter conditions.

The Re-Farmer

Progress, though not by me 😆

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I mentioned yesterday, how I had felt strangely sleepy all day. 

Typically, when that happens, as soon as I lay diwn to try and sleep, I end up wide awake.

Not this time!

I lay down, planning to just rest a bit.  I woke up some 8 or so hours later, having not moved the entire time. 

It was coming up on 5am, and I figured I would just hit the heads, then lie diwn until my alarm went off for my meds.

The alarm woke me from a dead sleep.  I shut it off, then passed out for another 3 hours.

Thankfully, I’m not on any meds that are strictly timed, anymore.  Including my painkillers, which are back to “take as needed”.

Most of the day, for me, was pretty quiet.  The girls started the laundry, which is one of the things I’m banned from doing.  My younger daughter headed out when it got as warm as it would, in the afternoon, and started planting more haskaps.  Adding more rows to where the previous ones are planted.  By tye time she stopped, it was full dark.  She says there are still some left. !!! 

Meanwhile, the guy that bought a couple of scrap vehicles and dragged them out with his crane truck came back today, with a trailer.  Staying out with him was my only real accomplishment.

He got one loaded and was expecting to cime back for the second one.  When it got quite dark, I figured he would come back another day, but he still made it.  His crane truck has flood lights on the back, it turns out.

We had a lovely full moon, too.

It was about 7:30 and fully dark when my younger daughter came over.  I hadn’t realized until then that they were both out still planting haskaps!!  She stayed with me until the guy left, to help close the gate behind him.

So that is now done, though there are other vehicles he’s interested in.  He’ll be talking to my brother about those, though.  My brother knows more about them than I do.

As for me, I’m working myself up to eat something, before going to bed early again.  I’m hungry, but have no appetite. 😒 

I look forward to taking a walk outside tomorrow, and seeing what my daughters have done!

The Re-Farmer

Wind, wind and more wind – plus doctor issues again

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All day, the winds have been blowing.

Thankfully, it’s just been wind.

When my older daughter headed out to feed the outside cats this morning, she found two legs on the canopy tent had been pulled up and were walking away in it. The ties were bundled up at the corners so, after she set them back, she was able to secure the ties to the isolation shelter nearby. No wind is blowing that thing away!

Tomorrow, we’re going to need to do a walkabout to see if we’ve lost anymore trees and branches.

To the north and west of us, they got snow, and in one area, they are expecting 30-40cm/12-15inches of snow over 24 hours. !!!

My brother had come out to do winterizing around their stuff. Being an absolute sweetheart, he used his zero turn mower to oull his smaller trailer over to where the haskaps were planted. He was able to load all those heavy hoses for the drip irrigation system into it, to store in the barn for the winter. He was also able to grab all the empty pots and trays. I don’t know where he put those, but they are meant for the dump. He even repositioned all the trays with seedlings still in them, clustered together under a big crab apple tree, to protect them from the wind.

We didn’t make it to the dump today.

I don’t know what else he did. I am feeling good today but, strangely, both very sleepy and very hungry, too. I woke during the night and couldn’t get back to sleep because I was so hungry, so I made a sandwich and could finally sleep. A few hours later, I woke to take my morning meds and was feeling so hungry, I was light headed. I accomplished very little today.

I’ve been moving with a bit more care as well. Yesterday, I removed some of the dressings. The 5 little incisions had two dressings only them. A small gauze with medical tape, first, which was covered with larger gauze and a waterproof bandage on top. One of the incisions had bled a lot more and saturated the gauze. It was supposed to be replaced, but the nurses decided to just add more gauze – about an inch thick! – to cover it and taped it in place to secure it. Not with waterproof tape. So much for being able to shower with them!

Sponge baths for the win.

I had been told I could remove the top dressings in about a week, but to leave the dressings underneath to fall off on their own, with instructions on how to wash with them there. What I quickly discovered was that the waterproof tape stuck to the medical tape below and did NOT want to let go.

It didn’t want to let go of my skin, either.

One incision is right above my belly button, and that came off entirely, because a gap had formed under both dressing tapes. On another incision site, both dressings came off before I realized the problem. I managed to keep the smaller tape and gauze on another, but the one that got the extra gauze on it was a problem. It had to come off, because there was a big, black, dry, stiffened layer of blood under the tape. I had to get my daughter to get that one off. There was one last one I ended up leaving, mostly because I simply couldn’t get an edge loose from my skin. I managed to get that done this morning, and not pull off the tape and gauze below. So now I have two incisions that are completely uncovered. They are looking fine, but I’m taking extra care with my movements to avoid stressing or straining anything.

Which meant spending most of my day in the cat free zone, working on some double ended crochet, and not moving much.

Aside from the sleepiness, I’m feeling really good, though my left shoulder has been getting worse. I really need a shoulder brace, but no where we’ve looked so far has them in stock. I don’t want to buy one online.

I did manage to get outside for a bit of a walk, while my older daughter did the outside cat feeding. After looking at what my brother had done, I spotted these.

Almost all the leaves have been blown off the trees, but the apples on this one are hanging on! Even with having several frost nights in the past while, the apples are still in excellent condition, with no cold damage – and they are tasty! I ended up shaking a branch and bringing a bunch inside, using several of them to cook up and with a bit of oatmeal as a sort of desert.

Aside from that, my daughter and I got emails from our doctor today.

We’re losing her.

She’s moving to a clinic in the city. We have to find a new doctor.

A new clinic was being built all summer in town. While chatting with my SIL about it today, she told me it was open – and we know the doctor that built it. He’s the same doctor that had treated my mother during several local hospital trips. So we will see if anyone there is open for new patients. I’d be happy with this doctor, but I think my daughter would prefer a female doctor. Personally, I don’t care.

Hopefully, we will find one before our doctor officially leaves on Dec. 1. We’ve gone without a doctor quite a few times since moving out here. Few doctors are willing to stay in rural communities longer than they have to.

I had a more pleasant surprise than losing our doctor today.

I got a call from my mother.

Yes, I said pleasant!

It was a very short call. She didn’t actually have anything to say. She had managed to go for a “walk” today (sitting on her walker and rolling herself with her legs). She asked a little about how things where. The last time I talked to her, she had suddenly become worried about her citizenship papers (from 70 + years ago!), and I was able to confirm that my brother had them. She then said she didn’t have any news. Neither did I, since I’m mostly house bound.

Then, oddly, she started telling me how good my “English” was. By which, it turns out, she meant she liked how clearly I spoke and enunciated my words. She said she liked to hear my voice.

???

Then she cut the call off short, herself, in a good mood.

It was so strange. I’ll take it, though. Good calls from my mother are rare things!

As I finish this, we’re coming up on 7:30pm, and it’s completely dark outside.

I’m ready to crawl back into bed now, and sleep for a week.

The Re-Farmer

I can help… a bit

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Today was a remarkably warm day for October – we hit 22C/72F this afternoon! We are expecting a thunderstorm this evening, now, while other areas to the West are already getting snow, and north of us is still getting blizzard predictions. Tomorrow is supposed to reach 15C/59F as the high. Things are expected to drop significantly after that, with highs barely above freezing, and lows consistently below freezing.

Which means we are running out of time.

My daughters and I have gone over a list of things that need to be done over the next few days. Most of which, I am banned from doing.

There were a few things, however, that I could help with.

This afternoon, I gathered most of the hoop kit pieces, tomato trellis supports that the muskmelons were trained up, and other things gathered. To make things easier on my body, I set it all into the wagon, then set myself up on a seat near the floating bench I’ve been collecting everything at, until they can go into the old garden shed for the winter.

Then I sat on the rolling garden seat to start sorting and bundling.

The hoop kit on the left is the first one I got. It has the plastic connectors and the rods are slightly shorter and thinner. The plastic connectors bend under stress, so I won’t get that kit again.

The one in the middle has slightly longer, thicker rods and metal connectors. I liked that one so much, I got a second one and plan to eventually get a third. They’re just that handy. With that kit, we still have them supporting the netting at the chain link fence. I was not planning to take those down, yet. Partly, the net needs two people to be removed, folded, rolled up and put away, and I can’t be one of them. The other reason is, those rods and the net are the only thing that has kept the Mammoth sunflowers from being completely blown over by high winds.

So those will wait.

I bundled the rods into 10s, and did the same with the ground staples, with some still loose because there are more to gather and bundle, along with sorting and bundling other supports I took out.

In the garden, there is just some netting left that needs to be taken down, as far as materials go. Once we’ve got all the stuff gathered, sorted, bundled, etc., my daughter plans to re-organize the old garden shed for more efficient storage.

One of the things she was able to do today was clean, then set, the rigid insulation back around the base of the house for the winter, and secure them from being blown away. Now that the insulation is set up under the kitchen window, the cat isolation shelter can be moved onto the patio for the winter. It needs the bottom level to be cleaned up – the litter box under there got tipped over recently – straw added, two fresh litter boxes set up, and the vinyl wrapped about the bottom again, to keep the wind out. Then the heat lamp and the extension cord for the lamp and the heated water bowl will be set up.

At some point, we need to add better wheels to that thing. It is amazingly heavy, and the small wheels – all I could afford at the time – sink right into the soil. It takes two people to move it over the grass. For the summer, I set pieces of floor tile under the wheels, thick enough (hopefully) that it didn’t sink too much. We definitely need to get wider, heavier duty wheels under there. For now, once it’s on the patio blocks, it moves a lot more easily.

At the same time, I’ve contacted the rescue about Shrine Kitten. My daughter thinks she can get her into a carrier, during the morning feeding, but we can’t do anything else. Someone is being contacted to book a spay appointment and, once we have a date to work around, someone is going to come out here to pick her up before the appointment for her fast, and then we expect her to come back for here recovery. As much as I would love for her to be fostered and adopted out, all the rescues are closed for intakes right now. We expect her to come back, and want to have the isolation shelter moved and ready for her 2 weeks of recovery and observation.

It isn’t much, but it did feel good to get some stuff outside done. While I spent most of the time sitting, I did reach my limit for bending and stretching, I think. Or close to it. No pain, though, which is important. Just tired.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

A tiny storm.

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I am having another good recovery day today.  Finished off a crochet bowl, but haven’t started anything else, yet.

It was warmer today, so when I headed outside to walk around, I decided to stay out and give the haskaps a deep watering.

About 5 minutes in, there was a sudden clap of thunder.   No rain.  No lightning.  Just thunder.

As I was working on the very last row, there was more thunder, and it started to rain.

There had been no rain in the forecast for today.

It was just a light right, but I headed inside, anyhow.  Which is when my younger daughter told me her sister had just gone out to look for me.  We used different doors and missed each other. 😆

I went to the door to get her, and it was pouring rain.  My daughter came in, completely soaked!

The rain stopped as abruptly as it started.  Then did it again.

All I can say is, it’s better than snow.  Which might be happening to the north of us, this weekend.  We have rain in the forecast, but the northern communities might be getting a blizzard. !!!

Oh, and we’re also looking at a high of over 20C in a cooler of days.

October is nothing, if not chaotic.

The Re-Farmer

Another good day

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A good day, and a quiet day.

Much of it was spent doing some crochet.  I got a walk in outside, with lovely weather to enjoy, as well.

My daughters got the one garden bed cleaned up and weeded.  As usual, the north end of the bed was filled with elm roots.  They got two rows of garlic planted, and will be adding a third row, tomorrow.   Then it will be mulched and pretty much done for the winter.

When I went over to see them, I got a few comments on the colorfulness of my bruising that they could see. 😆   I got these pictures, yesterday.

The first one is the arterial line site.  It went in and was removed while I was under anesthetic.   Being arterial, it is the “riskiest”, but looking the best.

The second is the IV port location.  The student nurse removing it had trouble with the tape and dig a fair bit of pulling and tugging.

The third one looks the worst, and should have been the mildest.  That’s were the anti- coagulant was injected, in my tricep.  It was also the only one that hurt.

Funny how it all seems backwards in severity.

Meanwhile, I finished off a crochet hanging storage bag I was working on.  Then, I whipped up a little critter, more as a reason to use some safety eyes I got, but never started a project that needed them.  I’ve always used buttons or embroidered eyes on things, previously.   It had to be tiny, because I could find only a little handful of polyfil to stuff it with.  A quick project is always satisfying.

The enforced reduced mobility should be a good time to catch up on various incomplete projects.  Something to make the time feel less wasted!

The Re-Farmer

A quiet day, saving seeds and garden progress

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It’s been another good recovery day, and I’m feeling better than I have in a very long time.

It does mean keeping to restrictions is not easy! Still, I did manage to get a few useful things done. I’ve been able to make my own meals, even if it’s just reheating leftovers or making a sandwich, though I’m not supposed to lift pans or do dishes. Last this afternoon, my daughter got my walker outside for me and walked around the yard with me. We checked on the sunflowers and found the birds have been eating the Black Russian seeds, so she cut what seed heads there were that looked like they had salvageable seeds. The seeds in the Mammoth sunflowers are still blooming and quite white. With the temperatures we’re expected to have for the next while, they might actually have time to mature!

I collected what seeds I could from the Black Russian seed heads, and they are now set aside to cure. My younger daughter, meanwhile, stayed outside to prepare the bed the garlic will be planted in, incorporating the compost my brother brought for us. The garlic bulbs won’t be broken up into cloves until just before planting, and that will be done tomorrow. While walking around, I showed my daughter how to collect the marigold seeds, which are not as obviously visible as one might expect. She’s planning to find places to scatter them, to hopefully germinate in the spring.

Speaking of which…

There are a surprising number of things that we can plant in the fall. We won’t be able to do very much of it this fall, as we probably won’t be able to even finish cleaning up most of the beds before the ground freezes, never mind plant anything besides the garlic.

All in all, it’s been a quiet and calm day. Including for this sweet boy.

I suspect I will not be getting my leaning sheep back. Ever. It’s turned out to be a perfect cat bed. 😄

Meanwhile, I’ve found that I have not needed to take the anti-inflammatories I was prescribed, at all. I’m still taking the T3s at more or less scheduled times, though 3 times a day rather than 4, and am honestly wondering if I need to take them at all. I did start taking them for my osteoarthritis, and even that has been doing better of late.

I’ve tried to get a good look at my abdomen in the mirror. With five gauzed and taped incision sites, I’m not exactly getting a good view. I have always carried my weight front to back, rather than side to side – the sort of shape that has had people mistake me for being pregnant in the past. To do the surgery, they had to inflate my abdomen. Which means my belly is looking very deflated right now! Interestingly, it looks to have a different shape now, and there even seems to be a sort of hollowed out area on my right side. Not at all where I might have expected to see some changes, if any, after a full hysterectomy. Of course, everything is going to keep looking different as things heal up over the next few weeks. For now, though, I’ve got me a very wrinkly, deflated looking, floppy belly, with patches of gauze and medical tape scattered around it.

It’s a good thing I have absolutely 0 sense of vanity when it comes to my body, because it’s looking a hot mess right now. 😄

The Re-Farmer