Tag: health

Three Months

Today’s a big day for me. Three months ago today I had my Gastric Bypass surgery. Three months. One quarter of a year. Let’s check in, shall we?

When I left the hospital on May 5th I was given four prescriptions. One was a pain killer and I never even opened the bottle. Another was a pain killer that I took for the first few days but (with the doctor’s approval) I stopped taking because it was making me really light headed. Another was an anti-nausea med and I never opened the bottle. The fourth and final med was an antacid. I took that one. They gave me two refills and I filled them both. This morning, I took the last pill from the last refill. I am officially done with post-surgical medication. From now on I will just be taking vitamins by the fist full. Happy no more prescriptions day!

I weighed myself this morning and I am a little ticked off about it. Wednesday is my “official” weigh in day, but I waited one extra day this week so that I could celebrate the monthiversary. Last week I weighed in a day early, so it has been nine days since I stepped on the scale. I lost 7.4 pounds. That is awesome. Seven and four tenths pounds. Epic. I was actually a little nervous that the number was going to be lower than normal. Since my last nutritionist appointment I have been eating more with each meal, and I have been having occasional snacks. I figured with the intake increasing a little, the weight loss would be down. Nope. This week’s results are really great.

If the numbers looked good, why am I a little ticked off? Well I’ll tell you. My total weight lost since the first check in is up to a gigantic 119.6 pounds. Wow. Just… Wow. My total weight lost since (four days before) the surgery is… ugh… 99 pounds on the nose. Ninety-nine. So close. So very close to 100 pounds. Ugh. You know what this means? It means I am going to have to weigh myself every day until I hit 100. Maybe every other day. I don’t know. I am definitely not going to be able to wait until next Wednesday to weigh in again. I am going to need to have that third digit.

Overall, the update is about the same as last time. I feel great. My back is starting to act up a little. I need to do some back strengthening exercises to combat that. My legs are feeling tired more often these days too. I need to do some more exercise there as well. My arms are looking flabby. It is definitely time to start lifting weights. I have a weight set and a weight bench and all that goes with it, but I haven’t set any of it up yet and I am still not sure what to do with it when it is set up. Google and YouTube will point me toward something, I am sure. I just have to do it.

Here’s hoping that month four feels as good as month three. I am really looking forward to it. Happy days, folks. Happy days.

Bed Time Thoughts

I tried to watch Sunday night’s episode of Westworld before work this morning but HBO Max wouldn’t play the video for some reason. It’s playing now. Once it’s done I’m going to sleep.

My Apple Watch is charging. Once it’s done I’ll go to sleep, assuming the above item is complete. I actually just kicked off an update. Who knows how long that will take.

Speaking of my Apple Watch, the activity app’s calorie goal wasn’t reached until almost 10pm tonight. Not sure why it took so long this time. I’ll keep an eye on it.

I was looking at a Nikon D90 group on Flickr tonight. The newest discussion topic was two years old but I found a thread discussing shutter counts. Now I’m paranoid that my camera has too much mileage to be reliable. That’s bullshit, of course. I’m going to use it until it disintegrates, and probably keep using it after that.

Speaking of cameras, I really want to take another stroll around Boston. There is talk of the Aquarium this weekend. We’ll see.

That cat was laying down on Jen’s pillow a few minutes ago. It’s was as adorable as can be.

Okay, my watch is updated and Westworld is 2/3 finished. I think I’ll post this now. I hope you enjoyed it for it’s random stupidness.

Workout Streak

I think it was June 1st. That was the day I went nuts on my walking in place exercise and did the full 30 minutes in one shot. Every day since then I did the same. On 3-4 days I even pushed it to 45 minutes, but prior to today I was on a streak of 59 days doing a single workout of at least 30 minutes.

Today the streak was in jeopardy. I closed my 30 minute exercise ring without doing any specific workout at all. Most of it came from walking around Boston, but there were a few minutes from walking up and down the cellar stairs and from following my mother around the nursing home while wearing a mask.

The exercise ring was closed. I didn’t need to do any more. I could call it a day and consider it a win, right?

Wrong. Jen fell asleep around 10:00pm tonight. Harry got home from work at about the same time and camped himself in front of the tele to come down after a stressed out shift. I took the opportunity to go down to the cellar, pop on this week’s episode of That Pedal Show, and do my 30 minutes of walking in place.

Sure my 30 minute exercise ring is at 60 minutes. That’s cool and all, but the important thing is that the single 30 minute workout streak continues. 60 days down, effectively infinity to go! WOOHOO!

Rough Visit

My father got to see my mother today for the first time in a long time. Mom recognized him but wasn’t in a good way. I suppose it could have been worse. When I got there she was in a rough place. It’s difficult, but I’d feel worse if I couldn’t get there.

Back at the house, Jen has introduced Harry to Arrested Development. We are burning through it at breakneck pace.

We are also planning to go for a walk in Boston tomorrow. Both film cameras are coming. When the Nikon runs out of film the Pentax will take over.

Until then, we are about 90 minutes away from winning Mega Millions. 1.1 Billion US dollars? I’ll take it.

55 Years

Today is my parents’ 55th wedding anniversary. On this day in the summer of love, 1967, those two crazy kids got hitched. They are not currently living in the same facility. Dad is in an assisted living place in Billerica and Mom is in a nursing facility in Andover. It’s devastating. Any time I visit Mom I try to call Dad so they can connect a little, but my Mother mostly doesn’t get what’s going on and it fails. Dad was insistent that he see her today, rightly so, and my brother is taking him. My brother saw Mom yesterday and it sounds like it was a pretty rough day for her. The fear is that the same thing will happen today and it will some how make things worse for both parents. When I try to pretend I am an optimist, I try to envision something in Mom’s head snapping into focus when she sees Dad. Fingers crossed. Really hoping something like that happens. Seriously.

Anyway, 55 years is a huge number. Do me a favor and take a second to wish my folks a happy anniversary. Maybe some happy vibes from the electronic universe will help them connect today. Wouldn’t that be great?

Nutritionist Day

I have an appointment with the Nutritionist today. Not exactly sure what we’re going to talk about. Can I eat green veggies at will now? Can I eat bread yet? Should I change up my meal planning? Are there any more restrictions to think about? How’s my exercise routine working out? Should I start counting calories? All sorts of things like that.

I am working a half day. If the appointment ends early I might have some time for errands. I need to pick up a small order at the store I call Tall and Fat, I need to drop off a bag full of clothes for donation, I need to stop at the post office, stuff like that.

(Pause while I remove a small spider from the ecosystem)

I still have to put together the weight bench we bought a couple of weeks ago, along with a box of free weights. I’ve never been into lifting weights before so I am not sure what I should do with all of this stuff. Youtube will probably help me out.

Last night we watched the first episode of Stranger Things 4. I got some real Evil Dead 2 vibes and I am all for it. We also saw Thor: Love and Thunder in our first trip to a movie theater since the pandemic started. There were only four or five groups in the theater and we were all spread out. The only health issue we had was with Harry’s insulin pump, but that worked out fine and wasn’t really a problem.

The movie was good. It wasn’t as good as Thor: Ragnarok, but it was good. The laughs were genuine, the action was cool. My only beef was that it moved too fast. They cut it down to two hours, but it felt like another 30-40 minutes would have improved the story.

Okay then. Wish me luck on the Nutritionist appointment. Fingers crossed for low-fat Ritz crackers and quinoa, though not at the same time.

12 Weeks

My Gastric Bypass surgery was 12 weeks ago today. I still feel great. I still weigh a ton, but it’s about half a ton less than it was 12 weeks ago. I will take that.

I am still eating tiny meals. Weirdly, over the last couple of days I have found myself feeling hungry after these tiny meals. That hasn’t really happened before. Is that a part of the recovery process? Is that my brain revolting? I don’t know. I have an appointment with the nutritionist tomorrow. I will likely bring up that topic then.

My clothes are all way to big for me now, even the clothes I’ve bought post-surgery. That’s a new experience for me. I’m still doing at least 30 minutes of exercise each day, and I am still doing a full 30 minutes in one shot. Most days I am doing more like 45-60 minutes of exercise. I do the 30 minute walk in the morning and then ride the bike for 15 minutes at lunch. Not every day, but when I can fit it into the schedule. I’m also trotting up and down the cellar stairs all day long and that adds to the fun. In other words, my energy level is kinda through the roof. I’m pretty curious how that will continue to change if I continue to lose weight at this rate. Will I be training for the marathon 12 weeks from now? Could be.

I still screw up now and then. Not often, but there have been a couple of nausea events. Nothing world rocking, but definitely unpleasant. I am often taking too much food in each bite (including the bite of scrambled eggs that I just shoveled into my maw before typing this sentence). I am still probably going too fast, though I still keep a stop-watch running to force myself to wait 30 seconds between bites. I have drastically cut down on the amount of puree/soft foods I’ve been eating, but there are still some things in the diet (see the scrambled eggs reference above). Mostly I am eating real food now. Still almost all protein, but I’ve snuck some fruits and veggies in here and there. I need to do more of that, but I also need to check in with the nutritionist tomorrow before I go too crazy.

Still no bread/rice/crackers/pasta/quinoa. Jen had some French bread with dinner a couple of nights ago and I was so jealous. Maybe that restraint will be removed tomorrow? Will Wednesdays become Prince Spaghetti day again? Here’s hoping.

Happy 12 weeks, everyone. Here’s to a successful week 13. I’ll let you know.

Belt

For the first time in a few days, I don’t feel like my jeans are about to fall off.

I picked up a new belt at Casual Male XL* today. It’s two sizes smaller than my old belt and the difference is epic. I had the old belt as tight as it would go and it was like I wasn’t wearing it at all. Add that to my jeans being at least one size too big and you have a recipe for an America’s Funniest Home Video winner.

The new belt has some room to grow. At this rate I will probably have to replace it in 3-4 weeks, but I’m okay with that. We knew going into the Gastric Bypass that clothing was going to be a pretty crazy expense after the fact. So far I’ve only bought two pairs of jeans (both of which are already too big), the belt, and some undies (which have not been delivered yet). There was also a few pairs of sweatpants that we got on the day of the surgery. Those are way too big at this point. Otherwise I have been making use of old clothes that were too small for me back in May, but are okay now.

I have already bagged up one pile of clothes (mostly shirts) for donation somewhere. I think I have enough to fill up a second bag. Once I do that, I just have to decide where to donate everything. Goodwill, probably. I’m not a fan of the Salvation Army in general. I’ve heard some nasty shit about Goodwill too, but it’s still the preferable option.

I hope we can last another couple of weeks before I have to go back for more clothes. It’ll be jeans again, and probably some collared shirts for work. Stay tuned, friends and neighbors.

*The name of the store is Casual Male XL, right? I always call it Tall and Fat. Remember Rodney Dangerfield in the movie Back to School? His character was a millionaire who made his fortune owning a chain of stores for oversized men that was called Tall and Fat.

At least I think it was. I haven’t seen that movie in 100 years. It had Robert Downey, Jr in it, didn’t it? He looked about 12 years old, if I remember correctly.