Category: weight loss surgery

Back to Work

My month of post-surgery medical leave is officially over. I punched in to work for the first time at a little before 9:00am.

I am so far behind it’s insane, yet at the same time I already feel like I never left. There have been a bunch of staffing changes and some new policies and other fun things. I had 1,683 emails in my inbox when I started the day, and I think there have been 50 or so more come in today already.

I have had meetings all morning and that has made it tough to get my liquids in. I am in the middle of a slightly shortened lunch break right now and I am not sure if I will be able to finish my 2.5 ounce meal before the next meeting starts. In the past I would just eat quickly and then chug some water if I was feeling dehydrated. I can’t do that now though. My stomach won’t let me.

This will calm down over the next day or so, but for today I am stressing mightily. It will be okay though. I am happy to be back. I just want to feel a little less like an alien posing as me, you know what I mean? You probably don’t know what I mean, but that’s sort of how I feel.

Weird, man.

Fish is Good? What?

It’s so weird. My whole life I hated fish. My mother would cook fish for dinner and I’d feel like I was in hell. Gross.

A few years ago Jen wanted to try making fish for dinner and I was terrified. Fortunately my wife is some kind of culinary genius and she made a dish that I liked. I think it was cod… or haddock… or something like that. Something white. It was good enough that we both wanted to try a second time.

Jen’s choice for the second fishdish was salmon. Salmon actually looks good, right? You see some fresh salmon in the market and you’re like, dude that looks good. We both like salmon sashimi, so why not try cooking it? Turns out it didn’t live up to the hype. We both thought it was okay but it wasn’t nearly as good as the cod/haddock/whatever it was.

Now we are in post-gastric bypass land. At one of the diet classes they sang the praises of white fish because it has a ton of protein. Protein is currently my one and only nutritional goal. We had some the other night and it was good, and I’ve been eating tons of canned tuna. My fisherman grandfather would be pleased by the amount of fish I’ve been eating.

But salmon… at the store last night we were looking at the fish counter and we both thought that maybe salmon deserved another try. If it was meh then so be it. We could say we gave it a chance and can then move on with our lives. If it turned out good though… well, that’d be something else entirely.

Jen cooked some salmon in the air fryer tonight. I had 2.5 ounces. Remember up above when I said my wife was some kind of culinary genius? The dinner she made tonight was so good. We both thought so. It was fantastic. It was delightful.

The guy who grew up loathing fish now somehow really likes fish. All different kinds. Holy mackerel!

One Month

Happy One Month Since the Weight Loss Surgery Day!

I said I was going to weigh myself today but as of now I am not going to (I actually did and I was up a fraction of a pound so I have decided that didn’t happen).

I have lost 49 pounds since the Friday before the surgery, and 69.6 since the first weigh in back in January. I put on jeans for the first time the other day and my belt was two notches tighter than it was on surgery day. We bought a few pairs of sweatpants on the surgery day and even when I tie them up tight they are starting to fall off of me. My t-shirts, which were just a bit more than waist length on me before surgery, are starting to feel super long. I expect that I will have to buy some new clothes soon.

More important than the numbers and the clothes, I feel different. I seem to have more energy. Prior to the surgery I was doing my daily walking in place (mark time march, babie) and I could get to around 10 minutes before I had to stop and rest. On really good days I could get to 15 minutes. That was sort of my goal. Now, over the last three days I have made it to 32-33 minutes at a time. I am closing my exercise ring in one session and then adding a couple of minutes on to help burn calories for the move ring goal. It’s already getting to the point where the marching in place thing isn’t enough. I am going to start on the exercise bike this week, and in a couple of weeks I think I am going to start lifting weights a little.

I go back to work on Monday. I am going to try to start helping out with my parents next week too. I won’t be able to handle much to start with, but I’ll pitch in more than I have. Now that Jen and I have decided to start venturing out more, I am going to want to try and get the band together too. If we have a two hour practice like we used to, I will probably have to sit for a lot of it, but it will feel fantastic to play with other people again. I have another appointment at the clinic at the end of June, and at that point we’ll be booking the next round of check ins, including more visits with the dietician.

I am eating solid food now. Not a lot, just a little. I am still eating a lot of the same things I had during the pureed stage, I’m just not sticking it in the blender now. Canned tuna fish, canned chicken salad, scrambled eggs, mashed potato. Those sorts of soft things. I’ve had some real food too. Ground beef, chicken breast, fish. The thing now is that I cannot eat very much of it. I was keeping my meals under two ounces during the pureed stage. Now I am getting closer to four ounces, but I think the smaller the portion the better. I have only legitimately felt full a couple of times, but these small amounts of food take a super long time for me to eat and I am just tired of eating and want to stop. I have never, ever felt that way before. This is a new world for me.

This whole process has been a little frustrating and a lot stressful, but as of the one month mark I would absolutely go through it again. I made the right move here.

Let’s see what month two brings.

Tomorrow

Remember all those times when I said I was only going to weigh myself on Wednesdays? I started today, Friday, by jumping on the scale. I’m guessing I’m going to do it again tomorrow.

Tomorrow is June 4th. It’s the one month surgeryaversary. I should definitely weigh myself on the monthaversary, right? It would be foolish not to.

There’s also the little fact that I am less than half a pound away from 50 and 50 pounds in one month would be pretty seriously epic, right? Right.

Wednesday is Weigh in Day

I am really going to try and stop myself from stepping on the scale more than once a week. The surgery was on a Wednesday so I decided that Wednesday is the day, and today is Wednesday.

The pace of the weight loss is slowing down, which makes sense given that I’m eating actual food now. The number is still really good though. Down another 3.8, which puts me at 46.2 since the Friday before the surgery.

I’m stunned and pleased and overall just happy with the whole thing so far. And I’ve only gotten sick once.

Four weeks down, the rest of my life to go.

Weight Update: Indirectly

I’ve decided that Wednesdays are weigh in days. I’m only going to weigh myself on Wednesdays in the hopes that it will stop me from obsessing over the numbers.

I do have an indirect example of weight loss today. I have something to do today and I have decided to wear real clothes rather than sweatpants. I put on jeans for the first time since the morning of the surgery.

My belt is two notches tighter than it was four weeks ago. Yup, I’ve lost a smidgen of weight.

Sunday Morning

First:

Wordle 344 2/6

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Now that that’s out of the way, there are no lingering effects from last night’s nausea adventure. I had some scrambled eggs for breakfast and apart from feeling a little gun shy there were no issues. I’m about 20 minutes away from being able to have a drink. I’ll probably have a protein shake and get that puppy out of the way.

Music. What’s up with that? I have four songs I’m working on, all for the next round of re-recordings. I’m dumping the record every month song. It is too lame even for me. Two of the four songs are ready for vocals. Am I ready for car vocals? Are my innards ready? Am I going to be able to push enough air to hit the high notes? I don’t know.

What else? This weekend is Memorial Day Weekend. Tomorrow is Memorial Day. It’s also our 13th wedding anniversary. It’s going to be a pretty fantastic day. We are hoping to try a mini cookout for lunch. Jen wants to try turkey burgers. I’ll probably try to have half a patty without bread or condiments or anything, I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to everything,

My goal for today is simple. Take smaller portions when I eat, and take significantly smaller bites as I go. Let’s not have a repeat of the nausea adventure, m’kay?

Happy Sunday.

Well That Was Unpleasant

Jen made an excellent dinner tonight. Cod. It was fantastic. I had about four ounces of fish and a piece of potato and a couple of baby carrots. As instructed by the stage III diet class, I ate the protein source first.

About halfway through I had to stop for a few minutes. Either I was going too fast or taking too much in each bite. Same thing happened to me the other day. I took a little break and felt better and was able to keep going.

Not too long after that it hit me. I was taking smaller bites and being more diligent about waiting in between bites but it didn’t help. It happened really fast. My stomach started feeling off again, then it started creeping up higher until it was in my throat. Nausea babie. Lots of it. Everyone who goes through Gastric Bypass says it happens but in three weeks plus it hadn’t happened to me… but now it has. I basically had to dash to the bathroom.

I did not throw up. I thought I was going to. I was sure I was going to. After a few minutes of gazing longingly into the bowl the feeling started to pass. I stayed there for an extra few minutes before risking standing up straight. Then I stayed in the bathroom for another few minutes, just in case.

I have been keeping a food/drink journal since the first night in the hospital. The sheet has a column for levels of nausea. I’ve had a zero in that column for every entry in the log… until now. I gave it an eight because it was crazy intense but I didn’t actually spew.

I feel a ton better now, but I am totally gun shy. I’m not sure how I will react tomorrow. I’m thinking of significantly smaller bites to start with. I really don’t want to go through that again.

Milestone?

See this t-shirt?

I bought it shortly before the surgery. It didn’t really fit. It almost fit, but it was a smidge too small.

It still doesn’t fit all that well today, but it’s definitely better than it was.

So is that a weight loss milestone? Naw, probably not. Close, but not really.

Next time will be better.