Almost 7 weeks post-op!
Hi Everyone,
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I feel like I've been juggling too much stuff lately!
Let's get to the nitty gritty stuff first! I just jumped on the scale and I weigh 178.2 pounds! If I use my weight from 4/1/09 of 219.8 pounds (which I will), I am down 41.6 pounds! WOOO HOOOOOOO! Not to share too much, but it's that time of the month, and I almost didn't weigh myself because I thought I had put on a couple of pounds. Surprise!
This is going to be a short post, but I know that I have been a very bad girl by not posting lately, so I'm going to try to remember what has happened in the last month! LOL
The week I went back to work Shelby was REALLY sick. I allowed her to stay during the day with her dad (see? I'm being nice) and his mom. The next week, I was sick! The doctor put me on antibiotics and I stayed home sick Tuesday & Wednesday and kept my germs from the office and worked from home on Thursday. I was coughing so badly, there was no way I wouldn't have upset people enough to be sent home like before my surgery!
I was doing really well with eating until I started eating un-pureed foods. I have experienced dumping once. It wasn't because I was doing something "fun". I actually got sick after I had taken liquid cold medicine for about 24 hours. Lesson learned. Only diabetic cold medicine going forward! The next lovely experience I have encountered is "frothing". What is that you ask? Well, apparently, my pouch fills with liquid in preparation to break down foods. Unfortunately, when I would eat, I would "froth" or throw up this weird frothy mucousy stuff and of course then my food! Yummy, huh? Well, at my 6 week checkup, it was suggested that I back off the more solid foods and go back to pureed and cream-based soups for now. The awesome nurse, Susie, suggested drinking a cup of caffeine-free herbal tea 1/2 hour before eating. It has been known to help flush out the pouch so that the food can have better luck staying inside & getting digested. Unfortunately it's only helped maybe 1/2 of the time for me. My surgeon, Dr. Heydari, thinks that the connection between my pouch and small intestine may have shrunk more than it should have. He wants me to stay in touch with Susie. He's hoping that the connection will stretch out over the next couple of weeks. If not, then they go in and do an EGD and "dilate" the connection. All I could think was, more time for me to nap!!! LOL! I tried chicken last night & tonight - both times I experience frothing. So, I'm back to cream of potato soup. It's not too bad. I can eat cheese sticks, popcicles, sugar free fudgecicles, pudding, jello, cottage cheese. Kinda boring, but these are the things I know I can eat.
Wow, that's a HUGE frickin' paragraph!
Oh, my water heater broke! It was leaking everywhere and was beyond repair. Thank God I had a little money left from my tax refund. My neighbor John met us at Menards and I picked out a new heater with a 9 year warranty! My hope is that in 9 years we will be far away from this house and in a bigger, more comfortable house. Maybe I'll have met someone special by then. Ahhhhhhh, dreams! So, John installed the water heater yesterday. We had a little glitch because our house is on a well. That means a pump will pump the water into the water heater. Well, I had to turn on the water in the tub & flush the toilet quite a bit to coax the pump to run until the heater was filled (several hours - it was SO fun!)
I also went and bought a new mattress set. I have a reallly nice set. I think I spent over $700 on it almost 10 years ago. However, Shelby's dad decided that he had to cut the box spring into quarters to get it up the stairs to a townhouse I had moved into. The movers couldn't get it up the stairs, so he & one of my neighbors chopped it up! Needless to say, the set sucks and has sucked since then! My new set cost me much less than that & has a five year warranty and I'm fine with that. At least it will be comfortable!
Today, I took the day off because Shelby didn't have school. Originally she was going to go to spend the day with my friend Jessica and her daughters, but Jess got really sick yesterday morning and couldn't. So today was an extra laundry day (since the whole water heater thing slowed me down). I took a bath, it was short since Shelby wanted me to paint her nails. I also braided Shelby's hair. Don't ask me why. It's pretty darned short! But she wanted it, so I did it. I also painted my toe nails AND finger nails. I haven't painted my finger nails in YEARS! I really wonder if I'll be able to keep it up. It looks strange to me. I'll find out what Shelby thinks tomorrow :)
Okay, I'm attaching a picture of myself taken by Shelby. It is crooked and from farther away than I would like, but here it is!!
Yes, that is a soldier (on the wall) made by Shelby about 6-7 years ago. Perhaps I should put it in a safe place instead of the hallway. Yep, it's crowded!
I am currently in a size 16, but am thisclose to a 14! I found all my "skinny clothes" and only have 10s & 12s. I wonder if I gained weight to quickly that I just skipped over size 14! I stopped at the Sparrow's Nest thrift store and bought two pairs of size 14s. I'm hoping I won't need them for long!
Shelby also got a picture of the camera shy Wilbur. He's got funny looking eyes in the picture, but he's SO cute!
Don't you think?
This post is way longer than I planned, but I wanted to give you a thorough update!
Frothiness is also referred to as "Jellyfish" or just "jellies." For me it is a precursor to tossing the cookies but sometimes whatever it is that is blocking the added sphincter gets unplugged and voila everything flows nicely.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the loss so far. It will keep going. Just remember: Drink, drink, drink, and chew, chew, chew!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this. Coca-Cola is referred to Liquid Draino in some parts of the WLS world. It will (in many cases) power through what is plugging you up. Dumping will occur so you need to decide if the drama of dumping out weighs puking.
ReplyDeleteI like Cherry Coke Zero but I understand that you are allergic to most artificial sweeteners.
Fred - unfortunately one of the major "rules" of bariatric surgery (along with no alcohol) is no carbonated beverages. I haven't had a soda since before I had Shelby. I'm not allergice to most artificial sweeteners, I'm just a snob :) I like sweet n low in my iced tea and Truvia in pretty much everything else :)
ReplyDeleteAs for the dumping vs. puking. Nothing is getting down, so it won't go out except through the in door... make sense? I've already called the dr. again to see if he can do something now instead of making me wait another week - because I lost it from some hot tea earlier today! Darned pouch!