Tag: stomach issues

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.

The Scroll Wheel is Dead, Long Live the Scroll Wheel

I take a mouse with me when I work in the office. It’s not the same mouse I use when I work at home, it’s actually the mouse that came with the last desktop computer I was issued at work back in… 1862? Something like that? 2016 maybe?

I was using the scroll wheel to scroll through an email and it just stopped working. I closed the browser and reopened it, thinking it was a software issue. Nope, it still didn’t work. I rebooted my laptop (issued to me in 2021, I think) because I thought it might be a hardware thing outside of the mouse itself. Nope.

The scroll wheel is dead.

I went to Amazon and ordered a cheap-o wireless mouse to replace it. I found a few of various levels of cheapness, then took one of the cheaper ones so that I could spend a little more for overnight delivery to make sure I had it as soon as possible.

Long live the scroll wheel.

On an unrelated note, there have been no stomach issues today. Kick ass. It’s not even 4:00pm yet and I am already close to hitting my water goal, close to having all of my vitamins in, and sort of close to hitting my protein goal. After yesterday’s dietary B.S., things are looking really good today. Killer.

Okay, less than 1.75 hours left in the work day. I have to somehow get through the rest of the day without having a scroll wheel. How did we do it in the old days? How did we even survive without scroll wheels?

When Your Stomach is a Jerk but You’re a Bigger Jerk

Havin’ one of those days, I guess. One of those gastric bypass surgery recovery kind of days.

I woke up with a stomach ache this morning. It was bad but not too bad. I thought it was a sign that I was going to have a rough day but after a little time in the little boys room (TMI, sorry) I was a lot better. I still waited a while before I had anything to eat. When I did have breakfast it was free of any issues. I guess my problems worked themselves out, right?

Sometimes I have stomach pain when I am hungry. My stomach is empty and it lets me know by hurting a bit. I fix it by having a little something to eat and then the pain goes away. That happened today at around 11:30. That’s when I screwed up my whole day.

I had a snack. Unfortunately it was too big of a snack. It took a little too long to get through it, and it was too much. I have to wait 60 minutes after eating before I can have a drink, and I needed to have a drink to take my lunch time vitamins, and then I have to wait 15 minutes before I can eat again. The snack meant I wasn’t going to be able to have a drink before it was time to make lunch, which meant my lunch time vitamins were going to wait until late afternoon at least. It also meant that I wasn’t quite hungry when lunch time came. I managed to have something but it left me low on my protein count going into dinner.

Then what happened? I had something to drink, but not quite enough to hit my daily goal, and I had my afternoon vitamins, but by the time I punched out of work I had a hungry stomach ache again. Oh good. I had a small protein snack as I was cooking dinner, knowing it was going to mess up my dinner the same way I messed up my lunch. I had a tiny snack this time and my stomach ache was already inching back by the time I sat down to dinner. It still left me feeling super full really fast though and I couldn’t finish dinner.

The cherry on top? I paused dinner while I was feeling full because I really wanted to finish my chicken and mashed potatoes and broccoli but 10 minutes after I paused dinner I had myself a nasty dose of the foamies. I felt nauseous out of the blue but I didn’t throw up. That’s good, right?

So now it’s almost 8:00 and I am still behind on my liquid goal and my protein goal and I still have a dose of vitamins to get through tonight. I am 100% sure I am going to reach all three goals, but I am also really ticked off at myself for screwing up my whole schedule today. All because my stomach was bothering me when I woke up.

Nice work, red head.

Monday is Okay: So Far

After a tough couple of days, it’s almost 10:00am on Monday morning and everything is okay.

Stomach issues are normal for gastric bypass patients. At least that’s what everyone tells me. Every once in a while I am going to zig when I shoulda zagged and my new little redesigned mini stomach is going to let me know about it. That’s all the last couple of days were.

I’m on vacation today and tomorrow so I slept about an hour late (ahhhh). When I went to sleep yesterday is was feeling okay. No pain but maybe a little gassy discomfort. I didn’t hit my water or protein goals until maybe half an hour before I fell asleep. I feel good about that. I thought I was going to fail on both counts. I did miss my exercise goal and I’m upset with myself over that, but given the circumstances it’s okay.

This morning I woke up without any pain or issues. I was a little nervous that something might crop up, but I did my 30 minute fake jogging in the cellar (pronounced “yogging” with a soft “j”) and I ate a normal protein bar breakfast. It’s been a couple of hours and all is still well.

Is that optimism I’m feeling? Maybe. It might just be me wanting a grilled hamburger and fries for lunch. it could be either one

Bad Stomach Evening

Remember that post from earlier where I was talking about bad stomach issues? They cleared up quickly enough back then, but they came roaring back after the little protein bar dinner I had.

It was really bad for a couple of hours but I think it’s clearing up again. My one question to my little re-wired stomach pouch is:

What the fuck, bro?

My evening is a pretty screwed up mess, you know? Here’s hoping it stays away and I can rejoin society. I was planning on sunrise-over-the-ocean photos tomorrow but now I’m afraid to even think about getting off the couch. It’s just me and Doctor Who season five for now.

Good Progress

I feel like I have made good progress on a couple of fronts today. First, my stomach is still okay. I had a protein bar for lunch and I have some french fries in the air fryer right now. Not the Golden Crispers from the comfort food post from earlier this morning, but a different type of Ore-Ida frozen french fries. Not as good, but close. We’ll see how we feel after eating a little bit of actual food.

The second progress front is guitar! The 50/90 Challenge and all that stuff. I put rhythm guitars onto two songs, and lead guitars onto two different songs. I played my Les Paul. If I get a chance later I will do some more and play my SG. Variety is the spice of life, after all. I’m also hoping to mix a tune or two before the day comes to an end. We’ll see about that. For now, season five episode two of the new Doctor Who series. Hey, check it out! Prince Daemon Targaryen from House of the Dragon is The Doctor and Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy is the companion. This might end up being my favorite cast.

Guitar pictures!

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326/365

Bad Stomach Morning

I wrote (twice) about having a tough day on the stomach front yesterday. By the time I got through lunch I was okay and everything seemed back to normal. It hasn’t quite stayed that way though.

Last night the gas started coming back not long before bedtime. I was drinking lemonade at that point, which more or less debunks my it-was-the-grape-juice theory. It felt different at first, but as the night wore on it revealed itself as more of the same. Fortunately it didn’t keep me awake and I was able to sleep.

This morning was when things started going sideways. When I woke up I had stomach pain. Real pain. Maybe a six or a seven on the scale from 1-10. Yesterday it was more like discomfort. Today was actual pain. There was nausea too. I felt pretty bad. I spent some time in the bathroom but that didn’t help. I was afraid to eat or drink anything. I grabbed a pillow and laid down on the couch. There was a part of me that was nervous that this would be my third experience with whatever it was that made me go fetal, groaning in pain, for hours at a time. It wasn’t though. I laid down for about 45 minutes. I think I dosed off.

When I came to the pain was gone. I won’t say I was 100% better. More like 95% better. Almost but not quite right. I had 12 ounces of water and my morning pills and I was still okay. I waited 15 minutes after drinking (doctors orders) and then had a small protein bar. Things were still good so I had one of my usual breakfast protein bars and things are still okay. That was 45 minutes ago and nothing has changed. In 15 minutes my one hour of waiting after eating (doctors orders) will be over and I will try to drink a little zero sugar gatorade.

So that means I had some trouble on Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, and now Sunday morning. Fun fun fun. Here’s hoping I’m through with it. I am probably going to stay with protein bars for lunch rather than make something complicated. Simple is the way to go today, I think. Let’s see if I change my mind over the next few hours.

Weird Stomach Day: Part 2: The Squeakual

Well that sucked out loud.

I had fun outside while grilling up my one hamburger. Then I came inside and started eating. I got maybe a third of the way through it when I started feeling queasy and stopped. A few minutes later that one third of a burger came back for another visit.

Shit. Now what do I do?

I set a 15 minute timer. When that runs out I will reassess. Today might be a tough day. It might be a protein bar only kinda day. It’s been months since I’ve had a day like this. Here’s hoping they continue to get rarer and rarer.

Gastric bypass is most definitely not a short cut around weight loss. Definitely, definitively not a short cut.

Weird Stomach Day

It’s been a long time since I have had a bad stomach day that couldn’t be chalked up to some clear mistake I made while eating. It happened off and on yesterday. Sometimes I get a minor stomach ache that turns out to be caused by my tiny little redesigned stomach just being empty. I eat something and it goes away. That happened once or twice yesterday, but by dinner time it wasn’t empty anymore but it was still aching.

In the end I chalked it up to gas. At bedtime I was worried it would keep me awake, but I was optimistic it would pass by morning. I was wrong on both counts. I slept okay but it’s almost 1:00pm and I am still really gassy. Not debilitatingly gassy, but enough to feel a little uncomfortable.

Have I been doing anything different over the last few days? I changed my go-to drink two days ago. I had been drinking Chrystal Light lemonade, but I switched to the grape flavor stuff (I forget which brand) I had been drinking for years and years. I’ve never had a problem with it before, is that the problem now? I doubt it, but I switched back to the lemonade. We’ll see.

I am hungry though, so I think I am going to try to have that hamburger that I really wanted yesterday but couldn’t have because of the rain. I’m sure I will let you know how it goes.

Screwy Day

Let’s recap all of the things that have been weird today…

  • Crappy night’s sleep (less than six hours total)
  • Difficult exercise routine that legitimately kicked my ass
  • Super thirsty all morning, finished 75% (48 of 64 ounces) of my water goal before I even left for work
  • Migraine while driving. Boy did that ever suck
  • Lingering foggy brain to start the work day. Didn’t cause any issues but was very unpleasant.
  • Upset stomach while driving between office buildings. It had been three hours since I’d eaten anything so I had a snack. I probably had too much of a snack. I brought this up to the doctor yesterday (not being able to tell if I am hungry or sick). Her response was (paraphrasing), it’s been three hours since you ate so it makes sense that you’re just hungry
  • Destroyed my water goal before lunch and nearly hit my protein goal as well but felt uncomfortably full before I could actually finish eating and therefore still slightly under the goal
  • Unhappy stomach after lunch including really bad gas, which is especially rough given that I am in the office surrounded by other people
  • Still super thirsty. Water goal is 64 ounces. I have had 72 and will probably be close to 100 by the time I leave work two hours from now. This happened two days ago after a morning run as well. I mentioned it to my doctor yesterday and her response was (paraphrasing), yeah that makes sense. So not something to worry about, just something new

All in all, none of this is bad. None of it is even all that unusual, it’s just that all of them hitting at about the same time… Yeah, what a day, right? Right.