On the mend. Slowly. (Plus bonus video)

It embarrasses me to admit this, but I haven't left the house since I came home from the hospital on Saturday. I've been too weak and in too much pain to do anything outside.

BUT! Friends have been so kind and thoughtful since I've been home, asking what they could do to help. Friends brought dinner for CM and V, they brought flowers to brighten the kitchen, they brought puzzle books and copies of Scientific American and snack packs of sugar-free Jello. (I have had SO. MUCH. JELLO in the past week. If you are what you eat, I am now a quivering blob of red Jello. But when your surgeon has decreed no solid food for four weeks post surgery, you get that sense of "eating" any way you can.) Their kindness kept me going on days when I questioned whether I'd made the right choice. I'm very fortunate to have family and friends who are a solid support group.

Perversely enough, since I've been home the thing I've wanted to do most is cook. I've made dinner for the fam almost every day this week. I've also been going through our overstuffed freezer, unearthing various objects of mystery and defrosting them to determine their identity. So far I've made a big cauldron of turkey broth, a small batch of ham broth (broths are on the list of items I can ingest for the next four weeks, so I'm making the most of it), and a meatball meal from the depths of the freezer. Tonight's mystery freezer package turned out to be halibut. Hope the fam enjoys it!

I've also been using my copious free time to watch first-person accounts of people who had DS surgery on YouTube. And one of the things I've noticed is that my experience was, well, not entirely similar to theirs. So at risk of boring you all to tears, CM and I made a video!

1) Yes, I know I look like very hell. I'm not wearing any makeup, I'm still in a fair amount of pain and I'm recovering from major surgery conducted just over a week ago. Cut me some slack.

2) Since this was recorded completely off the cuff with no notes, I meandered a bit. Next time I'll try to tighten it up.

I hope this will be useful to someone who a) is thinking about having DS surgery, b) just had DS surgery and is not feeling at all chipper about it. Not everyone who has bariatric surgery experiences ideal outcomes, especially in the first week, and I think that's worth knowing -- especially if, like me, you're questioning your decision the first few days after surgery, when you're swollen and bruised and miserable and the only time it doesn't hurt is when you're flat on your back in bed. People need to know that it does get better.