Category: weight loss surgery

Week 31 Weigh In

I thought this week’s Wednesday Weigh In would be a quick little blurb about a tiny change, given that I did the monthly weigh in just three days ago. I was wrong. I was probably wrong due to being sick a couple of times, and I think we can guarantee that weight lost this week will likely go back on soon enough, once I stop having these nasty stomach issues. The monthly weigh in on Sunday saw me down three pounds. Today’s weigh in, three days later? I’m down another 2.4 pounds. Do the math and find that I am down 5.4 pounds in the last week. That’s crazy. That’s the kind of results I was seeing back in June when this was all new and psychotic. This far along, I am seriously shocked to see a number that high. Not concerned, just surprised.

My BMI is down to 31. One more tick to go before I graduate/devolve from Obese to Overweight. Oh the celebrations we’ll have when that magical day arrives. My weight lost since the surgery in May is up to 176.8 and no one is more surprised than I am. My weight lost since the first check in appointment is up to 197.4. Two and six tenths pounds away from the mystical, magical, fairy tale land of two hundred pounds. Oh the celebrations we’ll have when that magical day arrives.

No stomach illness issues today, so far. Yesterday was okay. Not 100%. I had some discomfort off and on. I can’t tell if it was related to food or not, but there were a couple of times when the clock said I should be eating or drinking and I just didn’t out of fear of setting things off again. I was a little nervous about waking up sick again today, but I was fine. I did my exercise and then headed out for the long drive in the pouring rain. I made it all the way to Foxborough in one piece, found the desk I reserved for the day (I think), and punched in.

Here’s hoping for a quiet, stress/stomach pain free Wednesday.

Feeling Sick Again

I took the morning off today because we were at one point considering staying over in Burlington last night. We didn’t, but I kept the time off request in place in case something came up. Turns out it did.

I woke up feeling about the same sort of gas pain that I had when I woke up on Thursday. In that instance it got steadily worse as the day went on and I wasn’t able to feel better until I slept it off over night. Today started the same but quickly got much worse. Gas pain like never before coupled with some nausea. It was awful. I haven’t had anything to eat or drink yet today because the pain feels like my stomach telling me in no uncertain terms to not even try. I extended my time off request to the full day so I can just curl up in a ball on the couch and hope it passes.

The questions I have are as follows:

  • Is it the same bug Harry had last weekend and Jen had yesterday?
    • Is it possible for me to have had that bug, then been fine for three days, then have it again?
  • Did I eat something yesterday that set this off? Also, did I eat the same thing on Wednesday night that would have set it off on Thursday?
    • I have a theory. I tried some Atkins brand protein potato chips. They don’t have any sugar in them so they should be okay, but I think I had a small bag on Wednesday and I know I had a couple of small bags at various times yesterday. If it was something I ate, I bet it was those chips. That sucks because they are really, really good.
  • Is it dumping syndrome?
    • I really don’t think so. Dumping is when your stomach gets too much sugar and literally rejects it in both directions (TMI?). I haven’t experienced that specifically, but could this be related somehow?

I haven’t had any liquids since about 10:30 last night when I had a sugar free popsicle. I am feeling crazy dehydration right now. I might have to force myself to drink something soon but I want to give the pain a little time to see if it lessens at all.

This sucks.

Happy Seven Months

Seven months ago today I went under the knife and had my guts rearranged. Boom, babie. What do you say we honor the occasion with a trip to Vermont to see the kids and to hear my ridiculously talented step daughter sing a bit, but also honor the occasion* with a bonus weigh in?

It’s only been four days since the last weigh in but there was that one day when I did not eat even a crumb of food because I was feeling sick, remember? I think we can thank/blame that day for the slightly spectacular results I’m about to share with you, my internety friends.

Four days… three pounds. I lost three pounds. I am down to 257.0. My BMI is now 31.3. As soon as it drops below 30 I can officially stop calling myself obese. That’ll be the day, right? The total loss since the surgery is 174.4 and the total loss since the start of the process is 195. The flight to Disney World is one month from today (I need to figure out how I’m going to cover the eight month weigh in on that particular day) and suddenly that down-200-by-Disney goal is looking pretty good. Pretty doubtful I’ll get the since-surgery total to 200 by then, but we’ll keep on trying.

I have run for 30 minutes already, and I’ve had my morning vitamins and 16 ounces of water. Ever since Thursday’s epic failure I am really self conscious about hitting those goals. I don’t want to miss them again… ever. I’m waiting 15 minutes after the last drink before eating anything, but I am going to go upstairs and make myself some scrambled eggs again. We’re planning to leave for Vermont by about 11:00, which should get us there wicked early, but that’s okay. Better crazy early than a smidge late, right? I just need to decide if I want to bring a digital camera or a film camera or (most likely, because I am out of my skull with crazy) both. Yeah… both.

*I used the word occasion twice in this sentence and spelled it wrong each time. Also, I spelled it differently both times. I guess I just suck at spelling the word occasion, right?

Goals

The internet asks, hey Robert, did you hit your 60 ounce liquid and 80 grams of protein goals for today? Did you also take all of your required vitamins?

Why yes, internet, yes I did hit my goals for today. I’ve had 64 ounces of liquids and 81.01 grams of protein. I have also taken all of my vitamins today. I’m all set for tomorrow’s weigh in, celebrating my seventh surgery monthiversary.

I might celebrate with a sugar free Popsicle, also known as 1.5 ounces of liquid in frozen form.

When I cleaned all of the stuff out of the bathroom so that the contractors could do their thing I accidentally buried the bathroom scale under some stuff. It’s okay though, I dug it out tonight. I’m good to go for tomorrow morning.

Wish me luck.

Feeling Okay

My stomach is okay today. No issues at all. I am almost willing to declare that whatever started going wrong two days ago, and then went really seriously wrong yesterday, has passed. It’s 3:13pm and I’m an hour passed lunch. I have taken in 40 ounces of liquid and 56.86 grams of protein. Everything is on pace for a successful day.

So the question left to me is, did I do something wrong to cause my problems over the last two days, or was it a bug that I possibly caught from Harry as he was sick to his stomach all weekend. I was going to assume it was something I did wrong until Jen told me that she’s feeling sick to her stomach today. I think it might have been a bug after all. That almost makes me feel better about the whole thing, other than the fact Jen is feeling sick today, which sucks completely.

I am feeling well enough tonight to go out and run an errand for Jen, even though it bums me out on an unrelated level. She bought something from her favorite computer/electronics store recently but it needs to be returned. I am going to return it for her. The bummer part is that the store is in Cambridge, right down the street from Harvard Square, and right across the river from Boston’s Back Bay. I have been wanting to take a camera to both of those places for months now but haven’t had a chance. I could do it tonight but it will be dark and I won’t have time to stop and that makes it a two strikes and you’re out situation. Maybe I’ll be able to take some pics from stop lights. I’ll bring my DSLR and put it in auto mode, just in case. I won’t bring film though.

Speaking of pictures, the weather is going to be crappy tomorrow. No sunrise pics this time. It’s not supposed to rain until mid-morning though, so maybe I’ll take the film camera out to a couple of places around town. We’ll see. The DSLR will go to Vermont with me on Sunday but I don’t think the film camera will. We’re not planning on spending much time in Burlington so there won’t be many opportunities for picture taking.

On a final, also unrelated note, our bathroom has a floor again:

93/365

Food

I just finished eating 2.8 ounces of scrambled eggs. I feel okay. My stomach is a little funny, but I think that might be due to hunger more than anything else. I only managed about 11 grams of protein and that’s not enough so I will supplement later. We’ll see how that goes.

In honor of going back to soft food/puree stage, for breakfast at least, I also brought out this old friend.

DSCN2723

Ah, the stopwatch. I remember you, old friend.

Feeling a Little Better

It’s 6:11am, I’ve been up for a little over an hour, no stomach pain or discomfort or anything like that. So far so good. I’ve had eight ounces of water and my morning vitamins. That’s close to equaling my intake from all of yesterday. All I managed over the whole day was eight ounces of protein shake and five ounces of sugar free Gatorade. That’s it. No food at all.

I went to bed at about 7:30 last night. I was exhausted all day, probably from not eating and stressing out over feeling sick. Who knows. I fell asleep on the couch after I punched out of work too, but only for about 30 minutes. Whatever was going wrong in my tiny little rewired, redesigned stomach just wouldn’t go away. I don’t know if it was something I did or if it was the bug Harry had over the weekend, and I don’t care. I just want it to be over. It feels like it might be, but I don’t know.

What I do know is that I have to eat today. I have to hit my goals. 60 ounces of liquid (eight down, 52 to go) and 80 grams of protein (zero down and 80 to go), and I think I want to eat real food, not protein bars… though I will probably need to supplement the actual food because I don’t know how much I’m going to be able to handle and the protein shakes require milk and my half gallon of skim milk expired yesterday and I think this might be the rare case where the expiration date actually matches the day it starts going bad. Just a hunch, ya know? I think I am going to try some scrambled eggs for breakfast. What do you think? Yesterday I reverted back to liquid stage, today I will revert back to soft/puree stage? Sounds like a plan.

I Feel Like Garbage

I don’t feel any better at all. I might actually feel a little worse, but that’s probably just me being overdramatic. I’m leaving work sick in about nine minutes. I’m also exhausted, sort of all of a sudden. I’ve just run out of gas (figuratively) while dealing with gas (literally) pain. What a screwed up day.

I have to join a conference call at 3:30. We’re going to get an update on Dad’s rehab and I need to listen in. I would very much like to take a nap for the 90 minutes between now and then, but our bedroom suite is still under construction. Although having said that, I haven’t heard any noise coming from that part of the house for quite a while. I wonder if they are putting down floor tile… or if they left for the day. I’ll go check when I punch out.

I had eight ounces of protein shake between 9:00 and 9:30. I opened a bottle of sugar free Gatorade at 11:00 and over the course of three hours I’ve probably managed four ounces of it. If that. I am feeling pretty dehydrated, but it’s not bad enough to outdo the stomach ache.

Today blows, though I did see a critical issue come to one of my staff members and I figured it out without even looking at the data. I told him what I thought the problem would be and I was totally right. I feel smaht… even with a stomach ache screwing up my entire brain. Ugh.

Liquid Diet Day?

I’ve been up and about for almost four hours and I haven’t had anything to eat yet. My stomach is still pretty unhappy with me. It might be a little better than it was when I wrote the last post, but it’s still not good. Gas. Pain. Not nauseous at this point but probably not far off.

I haven’t eaten anything yet and I haven’t had my morning vitamins. I did chew up a couple of Gas X pills in the hopes that would help. It hasn’t. Not really at least. The only other time I took Gas X was during the first couple of weeks post-surgery and it eliminated all of my stomach discomfort almost instantly. I was hoping for more of that. Nope.

I am thinking that today is a liquid diet day. Back when we went from the stage one (liquid) diet to the stage two (puree) diet they told us if we have a bad day to just go back to stage one. Well, I am at stage… infinity? Whatever, and I am thinking of reverting back to stage one until my guts stop bitching. I have half a protein shake on a coaster on my desk next to me. I’ve had a few small sips. So far so good.

Wish your humble narrator luck.

DSCN2722

Another Bad Day in the Making?

Last night I managed to hit both of my food goals, despite all of the difficulties I mentioned in the previous post. Unfortunately it required me drinking a 32 ounce bottle of water starting at a little before 10:00pm. It went down without a problem, and I felt really good after it was done, but I did it in about an hour and a half and that is just too fast. 15 minutes later I ate some protein and that topped me over both goals.

It also had the side effect that I expected. I woke up today half an hour ago with a seriously gassy and upset stomach. I’m going to run for a while and re-watch episode three of Yellowjackets (buzz buzz buzz and all that) without having anything to eat or drink first. We’ll see how I feel about an hour from now. Hopefully all the trottin’ and joggin’ in place helps to clear things up rather than make it worse.

Yesterday’s last minute success may lead to today being another rough one, tiny-little-rewired-stomach-wise.

Wish me luck.