The Marvels of Modern Medicine

Well.

After nine months of fretting, worrying, cancelled dates and various pre-operative tests, the Operation has been and gone.

What should have taken two to three hours took more like five and a half. There were various complications; deep layers of internal fat blocking access to the required area and oozing along the stitchlines being the worst of them. He came out of it all with an extra wound on most folk who have the same procedure, six wounds for the op and one drain wound. The extra wound was required to gain access to the aforementioned area. The Prof says it was a very good job he'd followed the liver-shrinking diet to the letter because if that had been enlarged, things would have been very black indeed.

Yet again, that man of mine excelled himself whilst on morphine. He had the medical and nursing staff in fits of giggles. He has a new catchphrase, courtesy of the anaesthetist, Dr Dearden, who talked him through the inserting of various lines and needles pre-op. 'We're just going to go for something a little more saucy now, so I'll give you a local anaesthetic first', has resulted in cries of 'Let's go for something a little more saucy!' from himself whilst indulging in a spot of PS2 gaming.

Much of the last couple of days since his release from hospital (in on Wednesday, op on Thursday, out on Saturday) has been spent playing Champion: Return to Arms, or as we like to call it, Fake Baldur's Gate. It's one of those very rare beasts, a computer game we both like playing that is also two player. Baldur's Gate as a 2-player PS2 game is just stonkingly good. Sadly, the PC version is duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuulllllllllllllllllll.

I want to play Tombraider: Legend quite badly, too.

Right now, I am just enjoying an extended break from work. Most of all, I am enjoying spending it at 'home', with the man and the cat, though I am missing the guys a little. We may drive over for a day visit later in the week, I don't know. Must ring the landlady and check she is okay to keep feeding them - if she isn't, then I will have to return!

We've both had tons of messages from friends online. I sometimes forget that one of the sites I frequent is also frequented by him, and that my friends there know him and tend to repeat stuff to him. Not so good when things get back to him that I'd prefer he not know! So he got quite annoyed with me when a particular friend mentioned the op to him months ago when it was all hush-hush. I think now he realises that I needed to talk about it because I was worrying about it and he is glad that I had some back-up.

Anyway, this has been and will continue to be a life-changing event for him, and in a way for me, too. Food has been a huge part of our relationship from the outset. You could describe us both as large. Certainly each of us has had a 'weight problem' for most of our life. My weight has spiralled mostly upwards over the last twenty years or so, and in the last two or three in particular, as has his. It is never a good idea to attempt to match one's partner in portion size when your partner is very large as opposed to just large. He could out-eat me by a very long way indeed. It was more the weekends that hampered me, as they tended to consist of at least one takeaway, a big Sunday roast and as much in the way of chocolate and crisps as could be consumed. Not forgetting the bacon and egg baguette from the local bakery on Saturday morning. I am hoping that eating more normal-sized portions (both in digs and at home) and not being able to eat junk around him (so not fair on him if I do) together with the increased exercise we will both be getting will lead to a normalising of my weight eventually.

I did do very well at WeightWatchers...I'm not sure I have the discipline to keep at it for months on end. What I am able to do is to eat fairly sensibly and get more exercise, which also works. He was bought a recipe book by someone which is no use to him at all, but I may borrow it and try the eating plans suggested in it.

I just don't want to be the fat bird waddling around after a slim young hunk!