Well, I finally made it all the way around the 1.4 mile road that circles the park where I live. Did it in under an hour yesterday by walking very slowly and only had to stop twice. Once I was able to get past the point of no return, it was a piece of cake. Yesterday was the day! My endurance is slowly getting back up to where it should be. All that window shopping at the discount stores is paying off. Needless to say, today is a day of rest and groaning leg muscles.
Visiting Ikea sure brought back lots of memories of the trip my family took to Sweden when I was in junior high (1969 I think). Browsing in the food mart part of it had me drooling by the time I got out of there. Cloudberry jam, Swedish meatballs, lots of cheese and cookies. Mmmm, we had some great tasting food on that trip. The Saab dealership where my dad worked had a promotion going on where you got a free trip to Sweden to pick up the new Saab you bought. We bought one of the sports cars, the Saab Sonnet and my mom, brother and I went over to pick it up. We drove all through Sweden in a big caravan of new Saabs with the other folks on the trip. Just a few of the places I remember visiting are the Saab factory, glass blowing factory, Saab factory test drive track where we each got to ride with a crazy test driver who tried to kill us all with his fancy driving just for the entertainment, and lots of museums and government buildings. Once the trip was over, the cars were shipped back to the U.S. We sold ours as soon as we returned. I think there is a picture in my photo gallery of me standing in front of a parliament building in Stockholm.
I got away from Ikea pretty much unscathed. Only bought a jar of cloudberry jam, a garlic press and a seat cushion for my computer chair, all for less than $10. Quite amazing bargains to be had there. Good thing I wasn't able to carry much at the time.
Had my eligibility meeting a few weeks ago and am now officially qualified and approved for county health coverage for one year retroactive to August 1st. They will pay 100% of my hospital bills which total more than $85,000. He said it will take about two months for all the paperwork to go through and payments made. There are three county health clinics I can use during the next year if needed. There might be a dental clinic too, not sure. I'll get more detail about the plan when I get the plan authorization and ID card in a few weeks. I should be "medically indigent" more often. Of course, now there is a class action lawsuit against the hospital for overcharging/inflating fees for the uninsured. If I sign up to participate in it the bill may be reduced by more than 30%. I need to call my case worker and find out what they want me to do since they are paying the bill. Part of me wants to stick it to the hospital for their unfair practices, but another part of me wants to keep it the way it is and let the county pay the full bill so the hospital will be able to afford to continue admitting uninsured patients.
Some of the dissolving stitches that had been poking out of the incision are finally starting to fall off. Guess that means I'm healing up on the inside too. I've gained back about 10 pounds of weight and feel a lot better with the padding between my bones and skin. It isn't painful for me to sit anymore. I still get sore at the end of the day if I've done anything that jiggles the abdomen very much or if I eat anything that gives me a lot of gas. My intestines must have been badly bruised by both the cyst removal and the hernia surgeries.
By the way, here's a link to an article and photos of a woman that had a 66 pound ovarian cyst. I still can't believe that thing was growing inside me. My body sure has changed now that it is getting all the nutrition again. My belly was just as big as the woman in the photos. I have a photo I took of my nekked self the night before I went to the emergency room. But I think it is a little too revealing for me to post on the internet. Just put my face on that woman's body and you'll get an idea. Looks like she had a hernia also. Her navel protrudes just like mine did. I'll warn ya, the one of the cyst is gross. Hers was only 7 pounds bigger than mine.
Read the article and click on their link to view the photos.
NBC11.com - Health - Woman Happy To Be Alive After 66-Pound Tumor Removed There is still something going on with my body though. I haven't figured out exactly what yet. But if I didn't know better I would suspect that my body is trying to find another home to build up another cyst. Either that or I'm experiencing post menopausal acne in many places on my body. Once I get the official medical coverage ID from the county, I have to go back to the doctor and get some chest x-rays and thyroid follow up tests done so I'll have them check out the skin problems too. It's possible that it is also being caused by the new mattress topper I bought for my bed. It's one of those memory foam ones that makes you sweat a lot at night. Between that and the hot flashes from menopause, my body may just still be cleaning itself out from the ovarian cyst. I dunno.... I don't want to give up the mattress topper. I finally started getting some good rest after I put it on the bed. Next time I change the sheets I may try putting some bath towels between the topper and the sheets to see if that helps prevent the sweating.
Speaking of those memory foam mattresses, I kinda worry about the safety of them in a fire. I can't find any mention of fire safety on memory foam websites. I suspect the stuff has a very low melting point and probably expels noxious fumes when smoldering. Anyone have info in that regard?
