Tag: health

More Imaging to Come

The spot in my brain MRI is probably just a cluster of blood cells. It doesn’t look like a cancerous tumor but we will need more imaging to know for sure. I’m going to have an MRI with contrast and a CT scan at some point in the near future. I’m just waiting for my health insurance to approve the orders. I’ll also need to do follow ups in the future to make sure the spot isn’t growing.

The diagnosis also includes that this likely has nothing to do with the migraines. That means I have to meet with the neurologist at some point in the near future too. The whole point of this was figuring out the migraines after all.

So now you all can look forward to more boring, obnoxious posts about my teeny tiny little brain. Fun fun fun, kiddies.

All is Well So Far

It’s 7:43am. My exercise goal has been nearly doubled. My calorie goal is almost reached. My liquid goal is at 50%. My protein goal is at a smidge over 25%. No stomach issues so far. Also, much less importantly, I am up to date on season two of Yellowjackets. As with the previous 13 episodes, I need to ask: WTF???

I have a doctors appointment this morning. I had that MRI on Easter Sunday (I posted about it once or 100 times) and there’s something in the image that requires some investigating. The radiologist and my primary care physician both expect that it’s nuttin, honey, but I’m going to see a neurosurgeon today to get another opinion.

Am I nervous? No. Not at all. I won’t be unless this doc gives me something to be nervous about, but I’m confident that he or she won’t. I’m hoping we might get a hint on how to stop the migraines. That would be nice, right?

Anyway, I gotta go feed the cats and get ready for my appointment. Here’s hoping that all continues to go well today, both in my tiny little brain and in my tiny little redesigned stomach. Wish me luck!

Oh yeah, and even though it’s Friday and not Wednesday I stepped on the scale this morning. I figured it was worth a shot given that I barely ate anything last night. 209.8. Back under 210 Can I stay there for a while? Not likely.

All Better?

I followed my grape juice experiment with a 20 minute break, then followed that with a protein bar.

Protein bar eaten successfully without any issues.

I think whatever messed me up today is officially over. I’m going to miss almost all of my daily goals today. Liquid and protein are both going to miss by a mile. Here’s hoping tomorrow goes better than today.

Fingers crossed, folks. Finger, toes, eyes, if it can be crossed let’s cross ‘em.

Good News

While I was driving home from the hospital I sort of magically started feeling okay. Whatever was screwy in my stomach just sort of went away.

I waited an hour or so, maybe a little more, mostly because I was afraid that my stomach was just faking me out. Then I had a drink. Grape juice. There were 16 ounces in my water bottle. I was nervous taking the first sip. Nothing happened. I had a second sip. 30 minutes later the 16 ounces are in my belly where they belong and I still feel okay.

Sigh of relief, babie. Sigh. Of. Relief.

I might try to have something to eat. Cross your fingers, oh my readers and only friends.

Bad Day

11 months and nine days since gastric bypass surgery and today has been the most difficult day yet.

I’ve had 16 ounces of liquid and maybe five ounces of food. It’s been five hours since I’ve had anything and I’ve been spitting up loads of foam and I’ve puked three times since about 2:00.

How?

WTF, stomach?

Tough Morning

My stomach is being an ass this morning (heh, biology puns… love ’em!). I took my pills and had a few ounces of water and that set off the nausea. It was mostly spitting up foam, but there was a little bit more included in the mess. Gross, with a capital Gross, right?

I waited about half an hour and then had a protein bar. It’s left me with some real gas and a little more foam. Here’s hoping this wraps up soon so that I can have a less annoying day.

Let’s also keep our fingers crossed that we remain migraine free for another day. I may have a little news on that front but there will be a couple more doctors appointments before we know for sure. It is likely nothing but let’s find out so that we can move on, okay?

Hooray for health!

No Weigh In Today

It’s Wednesday. I stepped on the scale this morning and immediately made the command decision that I am not going to log the weight today. I was way up. Something like three pounds. That’s okay, but if I am no longer seeing any real progress, and it’s been over a month since I’ve seen any change in any direction that was consistent, then why bother. I think I will skip this week and try again next week. I mean, it’s been 11 months… let’s take a breather, right? I was never intending to do this forever, after all.

Over the Counter Meds

My father has a cold. There is an over the counter cold medicine that works for him, but getting it to him is an event.

The assisted living place he lives in has an in-house med staff that comes complete with a pharmacy. The pharmacy isn’t in-house, but it’s contracted some how so they always go through the same place. Residents are not allowed to keep non-prescribed medication in their rooms. Prescribed medications are kept in a safe so the nursing staff can distribute it when appropriate.

So for over the counter meds, they can’t keep them in their rooms without a prescription, and you aren’t going to get a prescription for that sort of thing so… what?

The what is simple. We bring it to him. He takes two doses of this specific med each day. Morning and night. So one of us brings him each dose. On Friday my sister in law brought him both doses. Saturday was my sister. Yesterday was me. Today I brought him the morning dose and my sister will bring him the evening dose. He asked if we could leave him his evening dose yesterday while we were over there for Easter lunch, but that would break the rules and we don’t want to break the rules. We’re good citizens. They take care of my dad, I don’t want to thumb my nose at them.

The downside for today was that I overslept a little. I was planning to get up at 5:00am, get my exercise in, have some water, have some breakfast, maybe watch a Star Wars: Rebels episode or two, then go to his place (leaving insanely early because the morning rush hour might make my 20 minute drive more like 60 minutes) with enough time to get there and back by 9:00am so I can punch in to work on time.

Today though, dumb ass over here slept until 6:00am and then took forever to get into gear and just skipped the whole exercise and breakfast and water thing. I had a protein bar in the car on the way over there. That passed for breakfast. I was able to get my exercise in during my lunch break, which was not ideal but got the job done.

Tomorrow I need to get up on time so I don’t throw off my routine. Wednesday is an in the office day so I won’t have time to deliver the meds. My brother in law will handle it on Wednesday. After that, will he still have a cold? I don’t know. We’ll find out. The moral of the story though is don’t over sleep, dumb ass.

Easter Dinner

Jen and I just got home from having Easter Dinner (which was actually at lunch time) with my father. My sister’s family was there too. My brother was with his in-laws today so he couldn’t make it.

Dinner was lovely (choice of lamb or ham, I went with the lamb). I was feeling like I had had enough and thought, I’ll have one more bite… It’s been an hour and a half and the foamies are still raging. Stupid one last bite.

Up next for me is an MRI appointment over at the hospital formerly known as Saints Memorial in Lowell. Having a medical appointment on easter just tickles me. Come, giggle with me.

Jen and I are also looking at maybe making a change to the back yard. While we were out there on a fact finding mission I filled the bird feeders because it’s spring time, babie and that’s what you do!

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Week 48 Weigh In

Yesterday was my weekly weigh in day but I failed to post about it. I am sure you were all waiting breathlessly to hear the results and I failed to come through for you. Sorry folks, I was busy. Also, I did the monthly weigh in on Tuesday and the numbers were silly and I knew that Wednesday would correct and look awful. I was right.

Last Wednesday I was 213.40, which was the lowest weight I’ve seen since I was a teenager, I think. On Tuesday, a day after being sick and barely eating anything, I was 209.60 and I knew I was going to be way up when I weighed in the next day. I was. Yesterday I was 211.80, up 2.2 pounds in one day. Yeah. I lost my sub-210 milestone, my 220 since surgery milestone, and my 25.5 BMI. Happily I got to keep my overall total breaking 240 milestone as I am now at 240.2. That’s cool.

I am not upset about being up 2.2 pounds in one day. Not at all. Why? Because it was obviously going to happen after a really sick day on Monday. More than that though, I was still down 1.6 pounds since last Wednesday and if I hadn’t stepped on the scale on Tuesday, that number would have looked great to me. I would have been very pleased with 1.6. So I am taking that as my win for the week.

Yesterday was a weird one as far as nutritional goals are concerned. I hit my protein goal (my total for the day was 88.88 grams and my daily goal is 80 grams) but I crashed and burned on liquids. My goal is 60 ounces and I only got to 42. That’s a serious fail. I am not sure what the problem was, but all day long I was having trouble with drinking water. I could only handle a really small amount at a time. Then at dinner I caught the foamies and it took hours to clear up. Any time I tried to drink for the rest of the night I could only get a tiny bit in and I’d feel sick to my stomach and I’d have to stop. I still needed to eat to hit the protein goal and I was able to do that, but then I had to wait an hour before I could drink again. I was looking at my next sip being around 11:30pm and I just fell asleep around 11:00. Failure.

It’s already better today. It’s only 9:18am and I am already a little over 25 ounces. I have also had a good breakfast of a heavy on the protein, protein bar and a few links of brown and serve sausages. I am in really good shape already today. I have also already done double my exercise goal (I’m at 61 minutes when my goal is 30 minutes) and I’ve already hit my calorie goal (according to my watch I’ve burned 1017 calories and my goal is 1000) so things are looking good today.

In summary, the Wednesday numbers look bad compared to Tuesday but really good compared to last Wednesday, and two tough days eating and drinking this week have been followed by a really good start today. I’ll take it. Here’s hoping I drop below 210 next week, or the week after. Or someday in the near future. That would be fun. Also, while we’re at it, let’s start hoping for a glorious day of sub-200. That would be amazing.

Until then, sorry for the late post… not that anyone really cares… I’m just trying to be nice… nice to myself, I guess… you know how it is.