Tag: health

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!

DSCN3318

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.

Woz

I saw this while stuck in traffic this morning.

Do you think that’s really Steve Wozniak?

I was listening to a tech podcast yesterday that said Woz likes to play polo on segues. Is that true? Can anyone get in on that or do you have to be an 80’s tech legend?

I kinda wish I still had my old Apple IIe. Not because I would still use it, just because it’s legen-wait for it-dary, legendary.

Side note, the in the office migraine is still a thing, but it’s very much on the mild side, thankfully. There is a headache and some brain fog, but it’s manageable and it isn’t stopping me from working. The vision issues lasted about half an hour, and that was rough, but the pain isn’t debilitating at all. Here’s hoping it clears completely at some point today, or at least doesn’t get any worse.

New Working in the Office Wrinkle

I think I am having a new working-in-the-office experience.

So far any time I’ve had a migraine I’ve either been at home or in a hotel room. I haven’t been out in the wider world when the first symptoms hit for any of them.

Until about half an hour ago.

I’m in the office today. Some one actually asked me how the migraine situation has been going and I said I haven’t had a problem in the last couple of weeks. Two minutes later I was wondering to myself why everything on the right side of my vision was too blurry to see.

Shit.

Migraine in the office… let’s see how this goes.

Unrelated, here is the last thing I saw before I left this house this moring.

217/365

11 Month Weigh In

11 months ago today I went under the knife and had my guts rearranged, gastric bypass style. As with every monthiversary, I used it as an excuse to step on the scale, even though my regular scale stepping is scheduled for tomorrow. Now I am going to share some numbers but you have to take them with a grain of salt. 11 months on, these figures are borderline spectacular. They are also almost surely a lie that will be uncovered when I do my weekly weigh in tomorrow. Okay? Let’s not get too excited.

All of my numbers except BMI hit milestones.

Oh wow, Bradley Whitford is in this episode of The X-Files! Season two episode nine. That would be 1994, maybe? 1995? Sorry… I got distracted by the television. I’ll stay focused from now on.

Where was I? Oh yeah, milestones galor. All lies, but still milestones everywhere you look. Last Wednesday the scale read 213.4. Today? 209.6. I broke 210, babie! Holy Shit Burgers! Under 210! Amazing! Granted, I was sick with stomach pain all day yesterday and barely ate or drank anything all day. I didn’t come remotely close to any of my food goals. Not even a tiny bit close. Assuming I hit all of my goals today, I will be back over 210 tomorrow. Pretty much guaranteed.

Along with flipping the 10’s column from a one to a zero, losing 3.8 pounds over the last six days also flipped the 10’s column on my total since surgery. I am up to 221.8 pounds since May 4, 2022. My grand total since the first appointment is the final milestone of the day as that has a new 10’s column too. That number is up to 242.4 and suddenly the possibility of hitting 250 pounds sounds like a remote possibility rather than a fantasy.

The last number to check in on is the BMI. It’s not a big moment, but it is a big change. Last week I hit 26. Today it’s 25.5. Half way to the magical 25, you-are-not-overweight-anymore moment. Crazy.

Now, what about all of the other crap that went down since yesterday? The stomach pain and the gas pain and the mild nausea never went away yesterday. It ebbed and flowed a bit as the day went on but it was always there to varying degrees. Fortunately it’s gone today. I have a bit of a headache, but that’s down to dehydration, I think. I only had about 20 ounces of water over the whole day. Drinking made my stomach feel worse, while eating made it a little better. I didn’t hit my protein goal either, but I was a little better than halfway there. I have had eight ounces of water already this morning (it is 7:41am) and I am about to have a little breakfast to see how that goes.

I will weigh in again tomorrow and I will be up, probably a lot. That is okay. I will get down below 210 for really reals at some point. When I do I will celebrate properly and it will be glorious. Until then, let’s just enjoy this while it lasts. The next check in is the weekly check in tomorrow. Until then… 209.6, babie! WOOHOOO!