Category: weight loss surgery

Stage III

I am officially on the Stage III Diet. What does that mean?

To start with, things aren’t that much different. Now instead of x ounces of puréed food we can start having x+y ounces of soft foods. Think seriously boiled veggies or meatballs or canned chicken or tuna without the extra step in the blender. The values of x and y are dependent on the patient. For me, x was about two ounces. Y will eventually be about a cup.

For my first meal I stayed purée but I increased the amount. I scrambled two eggs. That came out to about four ounces or half a cup. It was by far the biggest meal I’ve had since two days before the surgery.

Going forward I will have to take very small bites, about the size of a pencil eraser, and chew each bite at least 25 times. I will also need to take short breaks between bites. A one cup sized meal needs to take about 40 minutes. Yikes.

I’m also back to the 60 minutes between eating and having a drink. That is going to suck for me getting my fluids in, but they did up the hourly fluid goal by two ounces. That should help.

Okay, my 60 minute post-scrambled eggs timer just went off. I need to go get myself a protein shake. Talk to you later.

The Next Step

Today marks two weeks on the post-surgery recovery plan’s Stage II diet. (It might be phase II, not stage II, but who cares) Where do we go from here?

In about 5-10 minutes I will be heading out of the house to go to my Stage III class. That is, I believe, when they start letting me eat solid foods. Actual chewing will be involved.

I gotta say, I am a smidgen nervous about this step. I really want to eat food again, but I also really want to keep babying my little baby stomach.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck.

Drive

Jen and I went for a drive today. You wouldn’t think that was a huge deal but there it is. We drove to Danvers and back. In full pandemic mode, we didn’t go anywhere, we just drove there and drove back.

It was magnificent.

It made me a smidge late for my lunch but it was okay. I took a water bottle with me so I could keep sipping. Puréed tuna fish for lunch, puréed meatball for dinner.

It’s been a good day. Tuesday should be the day when I graduate to solid food. I’m good for now, but I’m feeling pretty ready to chew stuff again.

Meatball

Jen made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner for her and Harry, who coincidentally started a new job in a restaurant today, and she purred a meatball for me.

It was my first post-op taste of red meat and it was glorious.

It made me think about eating at restaurants. My go-to is usually a steak, but there is no way I’m going to be able to eat a whole steak in one sitting now. I’m going to have to learn how to be the kind of guy who takes home the leftovers. Maybe I’ll keep a cooler in the trunk of each car, or something like that.

Two Weeks

Two weeks ago at about this time, I think I was being moved from the operating room to the recovery room. I’m trying to find some way to commemorate this historic anniversary and I am coming up with nothing. I’m in the cellar, watching Breaking Bad again and surfing online music stores on my laptop. I don’t want to spend money on gitter stuff but what can you do? Pedal boards and random gear are just fun to daydream about. I have made sure to avoid looking at actual guitars though. Amps too. Just pedals and non-bank breaking stuff.

As for the post-surgical update, I had a weird experience today. I ate my delicious tuna fish puree at lunch time. When I was done I… well… it’s so odd… I felt… hungry. As in, damn I could go for another ounce of that fun stuff. It was just a weird feeling.

I am still not giving any details on the subject, but my mother is still in the hospital. I still can’t do anything about it, and likely won’t be able to for another 2-3 weeks. I feel less than useless. Again, no details are coming but I just needed to state that publicly for my own guilt ridden reasons. That is all.

Happy two-week birthday to my little baby stomach*.

* In his book Ghost Rider, Neil Peart, while dealing with the deaths of his wife and daughter, refers to parts of his recovery as feeding his little baby soul. My soul is okay, but my little baby stomach needs constant attention.

Just Checking In

I haven’t posted anything about weight loss surgery today, what the hell is going on, Robert?

Everything continues to go okay. If I drink too much or eat too fast I get gassy. That’s the only issue I’m having. If I try to be too active I get worn out super fast. I’m often tired, but never really tired enough to want to take a nap.

I told myself I was going to play some guitar today. When the time came I got scared. Just a little. The idea of a nearly 10 pound guitar resting against my belly where the incisions are gave me pause. Let’s wait a couple of days on that one, okay?

I’m reaching the point where I am seriously sick of Gatorade G Free, and I am also pretty sick of protein shakes. I did the laundry over the last two days and I put the last of our bird seed supply into the bird feeders today and I have watched about half of season three of Breaking Bad. I haven’t watched any Star Trek over the last couple of days, and I’ve only watched a couple of episodes of Kids in the Hall and I found out that show From isn’t on Amazon, it’s just the first three episodes as a trial. I don’t want to subscribe to another app. I’ve also missed enough of The Flash that I can’t use the CW app to catch up. They’ve already purged the next episode I need. Oh well. I will finish season three of Breaking Bad before dinner and that leaves me with 29 more episodes to go. Can I blow through them before my leave of absence is through? If so, do I then start with Better Call Saul? Because Bob Odenkirk is probably my favorite part of the show so far.

I don’t know. I don’t feel stir crazy or anything. I just want to keep feeling better. I want things to continue progressing as they are. Then when I am up to speed it’s time to get Lizardfish back up and running. It is going to happen. I have a new pedal board and everything.

Proud of Me

I’m feeling all proud of myself right now. I made scrambled eggs for myself. It’s not the first time I’ve made scrambled eggs (it’s been ages, maybe even decades), but it’s the first time I made them in a purée friendly fashion for post bariatric surgery purposes.

Look at me, all cooking and shit.

Scale

I very much want to avoid stepping on scales. I don’t want the focus of all of this to be a number, I want to focus on how I’m feeling.

Having said that, the number is pretty important. I told myself I would only step on the scale on Tuesdays. I failed. Today is Monday and I stepped on the scale. The progress over the last six days… awesome. I know it’s going to slow down dramatically once I can start eating whole food again, but for now. Just, wow.