Struggling

I’m feeling a little dehydrated again today and it’s my fault. If I drink too quickly, or take sips that are too big, I get gassy. The burping is legendary.

I decided that today’s project is to learn how much is too much and how fast is too fast. The end result is I’m not getting as much fluid intake as I did the last couple of days. Add to that the two hours or so that focused on eating instead of drinking, and you’ve got a less than fully hydrated Robert.

It’s 3:00 now and I’m planning on spending an hour with the Gatorade. Let’s see how that goes.

Puree Fail

I mentioned yesterday that I had my first taste of pureed food, post-surgery. It was a teaspoon of pureed sweet potato. Jen made it, and she made enough for me to have a few “meals” worth of it today. Once I got through my morning routine today I made myself some breakfast. I measured out the same sized spoonful of sweet potato and figured I’d warm it up in the microwave. 30 seconds later I was left with a solid, bone dry, burned mass of something that used to be sweet potato. Oops.

Note to self. Don’t use the nuke on teaspoon sized meals, M’kay?

Once it was done I made myself a protein shake and brought it downstairs to my new basement office so that I could write a post. I had my first sip 15 minutes after my last bite. I was through my second sip when I remembered I’m supposed to be waiting at least 30 minutes between food and drink.

Yousonofabitch.

Do better, asshole.

Here Goes Nothing Recap

I had my teaspoon of puréed sweet potato. I’m still alive. I still feel okay. I took my time. Specifically it took 45-50 minutes to get through that tiny bit of food, but that was by design. I wanted to give my tiny new stomach the simplest experience I could.

There was a little gas. No pain or anything. I finished about 10 minutes ago and we are still feeling good.

No more food until morning. I may have baby food for breakfast. I’m not kidding at all.

Welcome to the stage II diet, folks.

Here Goes Nothing

One teaspoon of puréed sweet potato. My first attempt at actual food.

I’m fucking terrified.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Heat

We are up and about today. Nothing on the agenda other than staying hydrated. I’m struggling a little this morning, but I’m slowly but surely getting on top of it.

Protein shakes followed by chicken broth followed by some sugar free Gatorade. That’s been getting me where I need to be so far. May it continue today.

It’s a bit chilly in the cellar today so…

My mind is a-wanderin’ today, and it’s wanderin’ to guitar things. Someday the band is going to play together again. I’m thinking of a new pedal board setup combined with a Vox AC15 amp. I’m watching the YouTube’s looking for tips for AC15 use.

Someday.

Migration

PatchRabbit has migrated north. Hair loss can be a side effect of gastric bypass. Bunny is just inspecting. Also, how long until the red hair is replaced by the white hair. Hopefully not any time soon.

Everyday

I’m going to track my post-op weight loss via pictures of PatchRabbit on my shoulder.

Spoke a Little Too Soon

Okay, so when I wrote a post about being on the stage II diet, I posted a smidge too soon. Tomorrow. Or Thursday. Tonight we’re still liquid.

My first appointment today was the stage II diet class. I will be able to eat small amounts of food, but only if they are pureed down to the consistency of applesauce. On the one hand, gross. On the other hand, kick ass. It’s a Strange New World.

My second appointment was a post-surgical follow up with the nurse practitioner. There were two main topics of discussion. One was, you’re doing everything right. The other was, let’s try to get rid of all of this light headedness. We’re going to try a combination of keep doing what I’m doing, add an extra protein shake if I can hack it, and stop taking one of the meds. I can do that.

I weighed in today for the first time since before the surgery. I have a spreadsheet keeping track of my weight throughout this whole process, but I just scrapped it. It was a combination of my bathroom scale and the scale at the clinic. I have decided to just go with the clinic scale for now and to keep that as the official count. I can do a separate sheet for the home scale.

I want to share the weight loss numbers with the universe, but I don’t want to share the actual weight. I will try to do that with algebra. Hold on to your butts.

My first visit to the clinic was on January 19, 2022. That visit consisted entirely of checking my vital signs, including my weight. On that day my weight was calculated at x.

I’m sure I stood on the scale a few times in subsequent visits but I didn’t write those official numbers down until the day of the stage I diet class, April 29, 2022. On that day my weight was calculated at y=x-20.6. That was a couple of pounds higher than my pre-surgery goal, but it was good enough to proceed. I weighed in again today at the stage II class and the new number is z=y-22.4=x-43.0. Down a little more than 22 since the Friday before the surgery and down 43 since the first weigh in.

The question then is, which number is the accurate/official one? When I think of how much I’ve lost, should it be since the surgery, which is approximately 22.4 pounds, or should it be from the start of the process, which is 43? I don’t know. I also don’t really care.