Category: weight loss surgery

8:31pm on Day 12

I would like to say that my new camera lens and I are going out shooting in the morning, but I have the double whammy of still being positive for Covid-19 and a terrible weather forecast to deal with. Maybe Sunday? If I test negative tomorrow maybe I’ll mask up and chase the sunrise on Sunday. Or maybe I’ll finally spend golden hour in Boston. Who knows. I will say that I ain’t goin’ nowhere without a negative test.

My wife and I ordered take out from the 99 Restaurant tonight. Door Dash. My gastric bypassed little baby stomach pouch and I ordered chicken fingers off the kids meal. That’s a thing I do now. It came with a side of mashed potato. The whole thing was delicious, but the last few bites refused to play nicely and I have spent some time praying to the proverbial porcelain god. It’s not a bad thing. I am fine. It took an hour to clear itself, but this is not me complaining or struggling or anything negative. This is just me being thankful that my stomach did not have any episodes like this while the Covid was at it’s worse. It’s almost like how I drove us home from Florida, 1200 miles over three days, and didn’t have a single Covid symptom until after we got home. It’s almost like my body knows what it’s up against and adjusts itself accordingly. It’s almost like the human brain and the human immune system can do really amazing, fantastic things. Know what I mean?

As far as Covid goes, I feel really well tonight. I’m tired again, and I was really beat after my work day ended. I would be surprised if I tested negative tomorrow. I might not be that surprised if I were to test negative the day after tomorrow though. Damn, that would be awesome.

Here’s hoping.

8:20pm on Day Five

I’m having a bad night and I can’t tell how much is due to stomach mismanagement and how much is due to Covid.

I stopped working at lunch today, as I mentioned before. Jen and I ordered some Five Guys. I ate a small burger and it went well. I had a few french fries and… stuck in the stomach. I think I ate too big of a bite and swallowed it too quickly. It was clearly an issue so as soon as I felt off I stopped eating. Instead, I went to sleep.

I slept straight through until dinner time. Whatever was wrong after lunch had cleared in the few hours I was out of it. That was a good thing. We ordered IHOP for dinner, breakfast for dinner again. I had some bacon and it seemed to go okay. I had some eggs and it was mostly okay but I stopped halfway through. I had two bites of hash browns and again it was okay, but something about the eggs just wasn’t sitting right. I didn’t think it was gastric bypass related, just eggs related.

At this point two things came to light. First, taking the nap after lunch screwed up my eating and drinking schedule. Specifically, I didn’t have anything to drink after lunch when I normally would have either hit my daily water goal (64 ounces) or I would have gotten really close to it. Instead, I am sitting at 40 ounces with 24 to go. The second thing was that despite having a really long nap, I was somehow more tired than I was before I fell asleep. I just sat on the comfy chair in the living room and stared at the wall. That was a combination of Covid and having worked through the morning and just wore my brain out. The stomach weirdness just piled on.

I was clear to start drinking water again at 7:02. I waited until 7:43. I had one sip and learned the hard way that the weirdness I was feeling was not so much eggs related as it was gastric bypass related. One sip and I was in the bathroom praying to the porcelain gods. Pardon the TMI. It was only a brief episode, and I am pretty sure it cleared up whatever was off with me tonight, but it’s been almost half an hour now and I haven’t had a second sip yet.

So it’s 8:18pm now and I still have 24 ounces of water to drink and 16 ounces of protein to eat in order to hit my goals. All while being totally wiped out from the Covid.

Yeah… I’m in for a long night tonight. I’ll hit all the goals though. No problem. I’m a pro at this now and today is my first day ever (as an adult) in onederland so it’s all good. Bring it on, Covid and Bypass. Even together you’re no match for me.

Onederland

Now I am not by any stretch trying to say that there is an upside to having Covid-19. Absolutely not. There is no upside.

However… I stepped on the scale again this morning and I am below 200 pounds.

QUEUE THE MARCHING BAND, BABIE! I HAVE REACHED THE MYTHICAL ONEDERLAND! MY WEIGHT IS BELOW 200 POUNDS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN (I think) MY ADULT LIFE! HOLY CRAP ON A STICK! I WEIGH LESS THAN 200 POUNDS! ONEDERLAND, BABIE! ONEDERLAND!

Now, having said all of that. I do expect that within a few days of beating Covid and having my body chemistry go back to normal, I will top 200 pounds again. I think my body has pretty clearly declared that it wants me somewhere between 205 and 215. I am not going to worry about that today. I am also not going to worry about the possibility of a sub-200 weight actually being too low for me to be healthy. I don’t think that’s the case, but it’s low enough that I should think about it as maybe being a thing.

No. Today we’re just going to let the marching band parade up and down the street in front of my house as a massive celebration of hitting a seemingly unattainable weight loss goal that only required me to gut myself, rewire my innards, and then catch the 21st century’s plague to achieve.

Welcome to Onederland, boys and girls. Enjoy the view!

Sugar Free Halloween!

I’ve been plowing through season nine of the original Doctor Who today. Just… so much Who at one time. I am going to be hearing cheesy synth music in my dreams for years now. I had to take a break.

Given that we are Disney Bound shortly, I checked on our favorite Disney Youtube channel, TheTimTracker to see if there are any videos I have missed during my epic Who View. There is a recent video covering Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. We have tickets for that on our Magic Kingdom day! Cool, I can get the low down.

I knew they had trick or treating at these events but given my gastric bypass’ inability to handle sugar I figured I was going to have to miss out. Then the video showed a guy who had a tree nut allergy and they gave him a different colored trick or treat bag so that the cast members new to only give him specific allergy friendly food.

I wonder…. thought I…

Off to The Google I go. I searched for Disney not so scary sugar free and this was the first hit:

Do they have Sugar Free treats at the MNSSHP? Thank you

Well honk my hooter, boys and girls, it looks like your friend and humble narrator may get to play along after all! Is it possible I am even more excited about our upcoming Disney trip now? Is it possible I am not 52 years old but I am actually still six years old? Is that possible? I think so!

Boycott My Favorite Vegetable

I hate to do it, but I think I have to. Crud.

Jen came up with a recipe for cooking broccoli in the air fryer. It is fantastic. Bordering on magic. We were making it regularly as a side dish along with chicken and potatoes. I had a couple of bad experiences that I chalked up to eating too much too fast, which is always the cause of my stomach problems. Over the last couple of months I have been dishing out a tiny amount of broccoli when we have it but I generally haven’t eaten it. I had been saving it for last and I was always full before I got to it.

Tonight I flipped the script. I have been instructed by the weight loss surgery clinic to always eat sources of protein first, so I eat all of the chicken on my plate first. I did that tonight. Normally I go for the potatoes next because something about having weight loss surgery has trigged my inner Irish stereotype so I always go straight for the potatoes. Tonight I went for the broccoli first and saved the potatoes for last. Now I am dealing with a blocked up stomach and a mild case of the foamies. Crud.

I can’t say for sure but I think this might be three consecutive broccoli meals that ended in foamies. All of which were trigged by the magical, delicious, wonderful broccoli side dish. Crud. I think I have to stop eating it all together. My stomach can handle it without trouble, but I can’t seem to keep the bite sizes small enough, or I can’t seem to chew it into oblivion enough, or I just go too fast. Whatever it is, it is definitely a trend. Crud.

Broccoli has always been my favorite vegetable. Maybe I’ll go back to counting chews and using a stop watch to make myself pause between bites. That used to work when I was much more sensitive than I am now. We’ll see. For now, here’s hoping the foamies pass quickly. Good luck, Robbie.

ADDENDUM: I had my last bite of broccoli at 7:15pm. It’s 9:19pm now and my stomach is still blocked up and I am still spitting up foamie saliva. Grrrrr. Wasn’t it like a week ago when I wrote a post about blocked stomachs generally clearing up in around an hour or so? Didn’t I write about two hours being unusual? Why does my stomach have to be a dick to me tonight? Broccoli is officially on the boycotted food list, right next to cod and anything with more than a couple of grams of sugar. Broccoli is a total jerk face.

Month 16 Weigh In

I can’t believe I did that. Yesterday was September 4th. I am supposed to weigh myself and write about it on the 4th day of each month because my surgery was on May 4th. Somehow though I forgot to step on the scale. That’s the first time in 16 months that I flat out forgot to weigh myself. I am really surprised at this oversight.

I made up for it today. Today is the 16 month and one day weigh in and it’s very uneventful. I did a bonus weigh in for no reason at all on August 20th, about two weeks ago. I am 0.4 pounds up from that date. I more or less maintained at just a smidge above the lowest my weight has ever been as an adult. I will take it, kiddos. I will take it with a gigantic smile on my face.

I was 205.2 on August 20. The lowest my weight has ever been was 204.8. That was on May 4, 2023, my one year surgery anniversary. This morning I was 205.6. 0.8 pounds above that lowest ever mark. My BMI today is 25, exactly on the line between normal and overweight. Technically on the overweight side of that line. My total weight loss since the surgery on May 4, 2022 is 225.8 pounds. My total weight loss since the first weigh in on January 19, 2022 is 246.4 pounds.

I still have this vague idea of dropping below 200 pounds, but it’s not a big deal. It’s more of a pie in the sky sort of thing. I am more than happy to hang out around 205 and just maintain for a while. That makes me happy. That works for me.

So the next weigh in will be on October 4, 2023 and I don’t expect to forget about it when that day arrives, but now that the precedent has been set? Who knows.

Happy (one day late) weigh in day. May your Tuesday after Labor Day weekend be quiet and stress-free. (This is for US folks only, of course. For the rest of you all it’s just a regular Tuesday. I still hope it’s a quiet and stress-free day but it has a different feel if it isn’t the day after a holiday weekend, you know?) Good luck, everyone!

Prep

I mentioned in yesterday’s daily writing prompt post… I think it was yesterday’s at least… that I’ve been writing pointless blog posts for about 17 years. I did something today that I have never, in all that time, done before. It has to do with my dumb haikus for you’s thing.

I have a new note on my iPhone where I have already written tomorrow’s haiku for you.

I did prep work. Really. I feel so gross. Like, this page is supposed to be spontaneous brain droppings, right? Where do I get off doing prep work?

Whatever. Anyway…

I have a couple of tasks for work that I wanted to crank out this weekend. It’s 7:11pm on the final day of this glorious three day weekend and I haven’t even started them yet. What the hell is wrong with me?

I had a bad case of what my mother used to call “the hungry horrors” after lunch today. I feel like I had a full days worth of between meal snacks in the space of about 30 minutes. It turned me into a giant gas bomb that’s ready to burst at any moment. It wasn’t bad enough to ruin dinner (I didn’t eat anything for four hours prior to dinner) but it’s left me uncomfortable and distracted. Blah. I have to push through and get that work done before I go to sleep tonight. Moron.

Okay, time for Robert to buckle down.

Stomach Fail

Why?

I’ve found that if I make a mistake while eating instant mashed potatoes and some of the instant mashed potatoes get stuck outside of my redesigned stomach, after 15-20 minutes those ‘taters will come back up in mildly spectacular fashion. It’s unpleasant and gross, but it’s also my stomach literally fixing the mistake and within minutes I’m back to 100% normal and all is well.

I’ve also found that if I make a similar mistake while eating quinoa it will last for hours, yes hours plural as in multiple hours before it clears up. It isn’t painful, I can just tell that there is something subtly off about my digestive situation. After a couple of hours I’ll convince myself that I’m imagining it and try to eat something small. That will get stuck behind the quinoa that I wasn’t imagining was stuck and that will be painful and cause foamies and nausea. Unlike the potatoes though they never come back up. I just have to continue to wait for it all to pass on its own, even though I’ve already waited multiple hours and no other food ever gets stuck for more than an hour, or an hour and a half tops.

Jen made quinoa tonight and it was magical. It also got a little stuck and two hours later I thought I was okay until I had a bite of a protein snack. Now my stomach hurts and I’m nauseous and spitting up foamy saliva and just waiting for the damn stuff to pass, damnit.

Why is the reaction so different when the diagnosis is exactly the same?

I finished mixing three songs and I’m part way through two more. I paused so I could watch episode three of Ahsoka but I had to pause that while I deal with my stomach issues. I still hope to finish the episode and the two songs (and the protein snack) before I turn in for the night, but it’s already 10:00 so maybe I won’t get to it all.

After typing up all of this on my iPad while leaning over a bucket in the bathroom, some of the protein snack came back up and I feel a lot better. Okay, so the snack and the instant mashed potatoes have something in common, but what’s the deal with the quinoa? Why no improvement after two hours plus? We may never know.

Okay, back to Ahsoka. May episode three be as good as episodes one and two.