Theresa, NYC, Mama, Epiphany, etc.

[Guest guest]

Hello.

I missed all of youz guys. Wait--I'm back in Virginia, now. I

missed y'all. Just got back into town a while ago--only a six hour

drive and that was with 2 stops!

Theresa, we got your message at the hospital. It was so sweet of you

to call! The other thing that I heard about you was that your puking

has not stopped, and that you're gonna have an endoscopy to stretch

out your esophagus? Did I get that right? I'm really sorry to hear

that you're STILL not feeling well.

Visiting NYC was great, as usual. I barfed in Delaware on the way up

and then again while Mama was in the OR, but I think I know what's

going on now (see Epiphany below). Last night I needed a break from

Mama and the whole hospital scene so I went to Rockefeller Center to

see the tree, and then went to (gasp--the horror!) Macy's Herald

Square. What a freakin' nightmare. I've never seen so many people

in my whole life--not in L.A., not in Disneyland, nowhere! I was

actually a little scared. Took me FOREVER to get a cab back uptown!

In other NYC news, I met , , Terry (sp?), and Rich at the

Sinai meeting. Only talked to Rich for a minute and had to

leave after the four of us goils went to the meeting and visited

Mama, but , Terry, and I went out afterwards. You should see

eat! I'm SOOOOOO jealous! Bread and everything! Terry

helped me quite a bit by reminding me to eat slowly. I loved meeting

and spending time with all of you. Can't wait 'til next time!

Mama's doing well. She seems to be having more nausea and dizziness

issues than I had, but she's toughin' it out. No complications

during surgery, although Gagner did run into a ton of adhesions from

her two, previous abdominal surgeries. Nevertheless, he completed

her fully-lap D/S in a little over three hours! The man is amazing!

While Mama is tough about wiping her own ass, getting out of bed

unassisted, etc., she's NOT so good about drinking the water she

needs and walking enough. Don't worry, though: I'm on the case! In

fact, I had to follow her around the hospital hallways with a

broom/cattle prod to keep her movin'!

Epiphany: Since I started eating more slowly and deliberately,

resting between bites, I've been feeling better than ever. I also

realized that I was simply eating too much. Yeah, I know. Took the

brain child here only a month to figure it out. I tol' you I'm no

good with the body listening thing. Anyway, thought you'd get a kick

out of that. Here I am trying to gulp down too-large amounts of food

and then I'm bitching the next minute about those crampy belly

feelings! Funny, huh?

Love,

P.S. Gagner et al say that those funny belly feelings are from the

contractions of my esophagus. Weird.