Category: weight loss surgery

So Far, So Good

I have made it to lunch time and nothing disastrous has happened yet. My feeling that today is going to be a bad day has not yet come true, but I still have half the work day to go. Fingers crossed that everything stays quiet.

I have been having a couple of issues. My stomach is not having a good day. The frequency of gastric bypass side effects does seem to be getting smaller with time, but today has been noteworthy. I was feeling a little off this morning while drinking water and doing my exercise. By the time I had my protein bar breakfast in the car on the way to work I was okay. Three hours later though I started having that empty-stomach-ache feeling. I had a small snack and felt better, but it only alleviated things for about an hour. Now the stomach ache is back, but I just started eating lunch so hopefully that will put an end to it.

The other issue I am having today is one that I hinted at in a post last night. I am completely exhausted. I got about 6.5 hours of sleep last night, which is a little less than I was hoping for. I still wear my Apple Watch to sleep to keep track of various sleep related data. One data point that seems really important to how rested I feel is called Sleeping Heart Rate Dip. The SleepWatch app says that a dip between 10% and 20% is average. Over 20% is excellent. Under 10% is not good. The last two nights I have been under 10%. I don’t know why. The app recommends exercise as a way to encourage your heart rate to dip more while you sleep, and I have exercised a lot the last couple of days. I’m not sure what to do about this, but I am so tired today that hopefully my body won’t have a choice but to have a good night’s sleep tonight. I guess we’ll see how things look in the morning.

Until then… fingers crossed that my sense of impending doom is not warranted. Here’s hoping!

Personal Time

My company gives us all 16 hours of personal time each year. They also give us weeks upon weeks of vacation time. The difference is that the personal time is meant to be used in small chunks at short notice, while the vacation time, which they don’t actually call vacation time, can only be used in four or eight hour chunks per day and is supposed to be booked in advance. The other difference is that vacation time can be carried over from this year to next year if needed while the personal time disappears on January 1st.

What does all of this mean? I had five hours of personal time left in the bank and I used it all up today. Robbie will not be having any time vanish on January 1st this year. I started my weekend five hours early, babie!

How did I celebrate this happy surprise of a half day? I ate my lunch too fast and made myself gastric bypass sick, that’s how! Yes! Well played, Robert the putz! I had a hamburger again to have another test of the sugar free ketchup. Yes, it does taste like ketchup and no, it is not disgusting! What a treat! It was such a treat that I ate way too much per bite and plowed through it all way too fast and got something stuck in my stomach tract and had a full on case of the foamies.

I am better now that a couple of hours have gone past. I’m okay!

Happy weekend plus five hours of personal time, everyone! WOOHOO!

18 Month Weigh In

Today is the 1.5 year anniversary of my gastric bypass surgery. In celebration I stepped on the scale and I surely wish I had given it a miss this month.

My exercise routine has been greatly reduced over the last couple of months, partly thanks to Covid, partly thanks to travel, and partly thanks to hurting my back. There have been a lot of days where I should have exercised but did not. The result? I went up 10.8 pounds since last month’s weigh in. Yikes! I am at 215.8, which is still miraculous. I am not complaining here, not even a little bit. I just want to get back onto the exercise track and get back down to around 210 or maybe a little less.

Better luck next month, right? See you again on December 4th! I’m going to a hockey game in Vermont on Sunday December 3rd and I took Monday the 4th off of work. I can celebrate my 19th monthiversary with a day off! Sweet!

How’s Your Back Feeling

How’s everyone’s back feeling today? Everyone out there in internets land feeling okay?

I woke up feeling okay today, after two days of feeling significantly less than okay. I’m not 100% by any stretch, but I am okay. I tried doing my morning exercise but it triggered the back pain again so I stopped. I am going to have to get it in a little at a time. Also, my desk chair in my office space was a little painful but I put a pillow between my back and the chair back and I’m fine now.

My stomach issues are much better as well, but still not 100%. I have been a little queasy this morning, but it hasn’t stopped me. I had my usual breakfast and I am half way to my liquids goal for the day. I’ve been taking it easy and going slow and while it hasn’t been back to normal, it’s been doable. I am planning to go to the post office at lunch time to drop off the film that I ordered developing for the other day so that is going to put off my next meal for a bit. I think I will be okay though.

Keeping my fingers crossed for no back or stomach back sliding today. Continue to feel better, Robert. You can do it!

The Struggle Continues

The issues from yesterday are still around today. My back is still in serious pain. Tylenol helps, but I’m seeing evidence that each dose wears off faster than the last. That’s not good.

The stomach is still an issue too, but is it really? I barely ate anything yesterday, and it’s been a smidge over 12 hours since the last time I had even the smallest bite of anything, and that was just a single piece of bread. When I woke up and my stomach was off, was it just because it was as empty as my little rewired, redesigned, butchered stomach can be?

I’ve had a little water this morning along with my morning vitamins and another dose of Tylenol. The 15 minute break between drinking and eating just ended. I am about to try eating a protein bar. Will I feel better afterwards? Will I feel worse? I haven’t a clue, but I’ll let you know when I know. Wish me luck, universe!

The Crappy Day Continues

I had a bowl of soup for lunch. Campbell’s Chicken Noodle. Classic. I thought that was safe, given that my stomach issues were fading at the time.

Nope.

The lunch time soup sat in my stomach like a dead weight for hours. At the same time, the back pain came back to me all fresh and new. I had some Tylenol before lunch and it’s safe to say it worked. I had some more about an hour ago and it’s working again. I haven’t had anything to eat in about 4.5 hours and I have to have something, but what?

I think I am going to just try a piece of bread or two. Maybe bread and butter. Something light and simple that hopefully won’t nuke my digestive system again.

Let’s see how this plays out.

In the meantime… cat picture.

51/365
51/365

Sick Day

Didn’t we just go through a whole sick thing?

I woke up with back pain. That’s new. Yesterday Jen and I did a bunch of moving things around in her office and that involved me lifting heaving things and picking them up off the floor and putting them onto a table and back again, over and over again. I think I strained my back a little. It woke me up a little before 5:00am and then made it really difficult to fall back to sleep.

On top of that I was, gastric bypass recoverally speaking, really fucking stupid and I ate WAY too much last night. I knew I was doing it as I was doing it and for some reason I just kept doing it. Like some kind of moron. I felt okay when I went to bed, so I assumed I would continue to feel okay. I did not. My stomach was a gassy, achey mess this morning and it was all my fault.

Those two things combined made it virtually impossible for me to do anything. I tried to go through my morning routine, but 12 oz of water with my vitamins and a two-protein bar breakfast just made the stomach situation that much worse. Also, the existence of the stomach situation made the back situation that much worse.

Generally speaking the treatment for any gastric bypass stupidity is patience. Eventually it will work itself out. I think I am feeling that now. I feel better. Far from 100%, but better. That’s good. My back is a little better too, but it’s still there. The jerk.

So the moral of this particular story is this:

Don’t be a friggin moron.

QED

Blood Sugar

November 13, 2015 was the worst day. It was the day Harry was diagnosed with type one diabetes. He was so sick that it was terrifying. Fortunately he recovered quickly and we went from being utterly terrified for his life to learning all we could about maintaining his health. That included all sorts of information on the signs of both high and low blood sugar. We learned that high blood sugar had few outward symptoms, but at some point it becomes life threatening. Harry’s initial problems were due to a sky high blood sugar levels.

Low blood sugar has more obvious symptoms. In extremes it is just as life threatening, but there are more signs of issues at much lower levels. They include shakiness and light headedness. Not long after my gastric bypass I started having quick moments of light headedness myself. I never got a specific reason why but among the possibilities were low blood pressure and low blood sugar.

This weekend I had a moment where it was clear that I was having a low blood sugar moment. I felt exactly the way the staff at Boston Medical Center told us low blood sugar would make you feel, and exactly the way Harry described when we asked him how he felt during a low. Light headed and shaky and weak. I had something to eat and felt better after a few minutes. Today, just before lunch, it happened again. It wasn’t as bad this time and again, having a bite to eat improved things quickly.

So my question to the universe is: Is this going to be a thing now? It’s just another reason to not forget to eat. I need to keep what’s left of my rewired, bypassed, tiny little stomach pouch from getting too empty. I can handle that. Bring it on, I guess.

IKEA Explosion

I had one job today. Put together the day bed we got from IKEA.

It came to us in four boxes. None of them seemed terribly large but once I had all of the boxes open and the pieces separated it sure felt like a lot. The instruction book was only 2436612457 pages long. I think I am a little more than half way through it all but I am toast and will finish it after I sleep a lot and recover.

My stomach has been okay today outside of another one of those 3+ hour stomach aches. I finished lunch at 2:30 and at about 5:30 my stomach was hurting. Jen made a wonderful chicken and quinoa dish for dinner and it solved my problem. I have a long way to go to hit my 80 grams of protein goal though so I think I am going to go have a protein bar or something.

The season finale of Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is on tonight. I need to brush up on my French. Wish me luck.

How Are We Doing?

Hey folks. How is it going? Are we all doing all right tonight? It’s Friday the 13th, has the universe thrown you any curve balls?

Today has gone okay for me. I found out my nephew has Covid. Sigh in frustration. I hope he’s okay, and I hope he kicks it way faster than I did. I don’t want him to be sick for three weeks the way I was. I have a whole new perspective on this particular plague and somehow it makes everything worse.

I had another one of those empty stomach things that I wrote about last night. Usually it hits about three hours after eating. Today it hit two hours after I finished lunch. I had a snack and thought I would be okay until dinner, but an hour later it came back. Weird. That’s the first time this issue was not predictable. I didn’t eat dinner until 7:00, which was about an hour after the stomach ache came back. We’re going to have to keep an eye on this tonight. I don’t want any weirdness. Unpredictable weirdness is not as fun as you’d think.

Jen and I just watched this week’s episode of Loki. Season two episode two. At lunch today I was poking around news.google.com and I was almost spoiled about seven times. I am going to have to be more careful on Fridays for the next four weeks.

I just checked the weather for the weekend. It is going to be clear at sunrise tomorrow and clear just after sunrise on Sunday. There must be photos this weekend. It’s a necessity. I have a lot of stuff on my agenda and I’m booked pretty solid. Still, from a mental health standpoint a photowalk somewhere must happen. The mornings are getting cold and there are only so many more opportunities left before the winter ruins everything. I have to take advantage of this. Ocean sunrise and maybe some Merrimack River stuff tomorrow and then either around town on Sunday or maybe finally spend an hour or two walking around the city? Boston at sunrise on a Sunday should be easy to social distance, shouldn’t it?

Like I said, there is a lot on my plate this weekend. I need to make time for some creative stuff. I’m still feeling a little shell shocked from the covid journey so my brain needs to stretch its figurative legs a little.

Here’s hoping we can make something happen this weekend. Assuming Friday the 13th lets us through the day, right?