Tag: the foamies

It is Friday

It is Friday at last. It’s also raining. Son of a…

On May 4th I wrote this big gastric bypass surgery update where I said that I am having far fewer side effects then I did a year ago. The bad experiences are less and less common with each new day.

Then last night I had a piece of toast with my dinner. I took a bite, no problem. I took another bite, no problem. I took another bite… uh oh. I knew instantly that I had taken one bite too many. It took about an hour for all the fun to end. The moral of the story being, don’t be over confident. That thing that passes for your stomach these days can still kick you in the nards, Robert. Figuratively speaking, of course.

Here’s a cat to remind you of your place in the universe.

251/365

Another Weird Morning

I wrote about some stomach weirdness yesterday. I am pretty sure I know what it was, and it was not gastric bypass related. I am not going to say specifically because it goes big time into TMI territory. Suffice to say it happened again today and it has thrown off my whole daily routine.

I got up, felt a little off, but started my day as normal. I was trying to drink a water bottle while doing my daily exercise but after about 10 minutes and 12 ounces of water I was hit with a mild case of The Foamies. Something was trying to get into my stomach but was having trouble along the route and must have gotten stuck. I didn’t feel like anything was stuck, but I got into saliva over-production mode and had to stop exercising and take care of it. It was involved enough that I had to go upstairs and ride it out for a while.

Once I felt better I ate breakfast, which I never do before I finish my exercise for the day. At that point, the whole morning workflow is down the toilet. I still had 35 minutes of exercise left to do so I restarted. I ended up doing the whole daily goal instead of just finishing the first attempt. Due to that I managed to hit all of my Apple Watch activity goals for the day. Well, not the 12 stand-hours goal, but the exercise and move (calorie) goals. That’s nice.

Now that I’m punched into work for the day I think I am back on schedule. I just hate it when the routine goes south like this, even a little bit. I feel pretty normal now. Whatever it was seems to have passed. I felt that way yesterday too and then it came back before lunch. Let’s see how things progress today.

Good luck, Robbie.

1st Intermission

The Oilers have a 1-0 lead over the Panthers after one period. They are dick teasing me. We all know that, right? Ugh.

My stomach played nicely today. Good job, surgically redesigned stomach pouch. Everything was very predictable. My hunger pains hit me right on schedule. Also, I didn’t over eat at the end of the work day and ruin dinner. Good job, Robbie’s little pouch thing.

Want to know what did ruin dinner? Just before 8:00 I had a bite of potato. The roasted potatoes we had tonight tasted AMAZING, but that last bite got stuck. Trigger the foamies. Trigger a little nausea. It’s been an hour and fifteen minutes and it doesn’t seem to have cleared yet. I still feel like that last bite of potato is stuck. I was able to cough some of it up, but clearly not all of it.

Damn it.

Okay. It’s after 9:00. I should be clear to watch the season finale of Doctor Who now. I have a little spit-up cup next to me (TMI), I have a gamecast of the hockey game from NHL.com open, and I need to do something to distract myself from my stomach pouch whatever it is. Doctor Who should do the trick.

Further updates will be provided. Come on, Oilers. Hold that lead, you sick little monkeys.

Friday

It has been a pretty quiet day at work today (JINX!) apart from my brief stomach rebellion. I have 32 minutes to go until I can punch out for the day. I am starting to day dream about the weekend a little.

Music. I recorded a vocal track for one song on Thursday. I have a couple more songs that could do with some car music vocals. I have to practice for Sunday’s band rehearsal as well. I have nine songs to brush up on. I don’t know if we have a working PA system or not, but I did pick up a replacement for my dead Shure SM58 microphone. If our old, dinky little PA still works I’ll take it for a test drive. My Vox AC15 amp is in the rehearsal room along with my great big use-with-the-band pedal board. It’ll be nice to visit with my sweet RYRA The Klone overdrive pedal again.

I suddenly find myself in the middle of a whole bunch of TV shows. The X-Files epic rewatch continues, and we’re in season seven which means the quality is taking a steady nose dive. Uh oh. Only a few episodes to go until we reach the two season mostly-Mulder-free stretch. Yikes. I have a new episode of Star Trek Discovery (Disco) to watch. I have a new episode of Manhunt to watch. I have 6-7 episodes of Fallout left. I’ve watched the first two. I didn’t expect it to be so… goofy. I never played the video game so I really didn’t know what to expect. Silliness was not on my menu though. I like the show so far even though I don’t really know what’s happening yet. I’m caught up on Star Wars The Bad Batch. There are only a few more episodes left and I am thinking about rewatching the whole final season. I don’t know. There’s so much else to watch. I’m in the middle of Ripley on Netflix too. It’s pretty twisted. I never read the book or saw the movie so this one is all new to me too. I am enjoying it in a sick and twisted kinda way.

What else is going on? I am hoping to spend some quality time hanging out with my wife, of course. That’s the best part of the weekend. She mentioned she’s going to have to work a lot, which is a bummer, but we’ll make time. I hope to cook for her now and then. Lunches and maybe dinners? We use one of those dinner delivery service things. You know, where they send you all of the ingredients and a recipe with (somewhat) detailed instructions and you prepare the meal yourself. We are supposed to get a delivery today. I like it best when we cook those together. I find that both less stressful and generally enjoyable. Mostly. Some of them are still stressful even when we gang up on them. Does everyone think they are stressful or is it just us?

I did not promise myself that I would avoid the sugar free bakery in Salem, NH this week… so when I go out to do errands… yeah, I am probably going to buy some cookies there. I can stop any time, really. I promise I can stop any time. Totally.

Okay. 20 minutes until quitting time. I haven’t had anything to eat in two hours and 56 minutes and my stomach is starting to ask me why it’s empty. Three hours is usually how long it takes for my stomach to wake up after a meal. We’re pretty much right on target. Here’s hoping I don’t mess up with my snack on the drive home. A repeat of The Foamies… in the car… yeah, that would be annoying. I keep a spit up cup in the car, though I have never used it. Here’s hoping we keep the streak alive!

TMI?

First Time at Work

Well, gastric bypass surgery fans, I just had my first mildly annoying post-surgical experience while at the office.

I scheduled a snack for three hours after breakfast. It was a protein bar. Not a big one, not a small one, just a Goldilocks style protein bar to tide me over until lunch and to avoid the empty-stomach-stomach-aches I get when I wait too long between eating anything.

I was fine until the last bite, then I felt the upset stomach that is a harbinger of The Foamies. That state I sometimes find myself in where something is hanging out just outside of my redesigned little stomach pouch (pouch is the technical term for it, I swear) and my body starts over producing saliva to help break it down so that it can get into my stomach. I end up spitting up a lot, and I sometimes end up gagging up whatever is stuck enroute.

Yes, it can be gross. Yes it can be uncomfortable. Yes it is annoying. It’s not really a bad thing, it’s just a thing.

The reason it is noteworthy today is because it was the first time it happened in the office. It’s not the first time it happened during work, but the previous weekdays between 9-5:30 instances were all while working from home. I had to excuse myself and go to the men’s room to spit up saliva and wait to see if my last bite or two of protein bar would come back out to say hello. They didn’t. I was all better again after about five minutes. No harm done. No co-workers grossed out.

I am going to keep a spit-up cup at my desk though. Hopefully I will never use it, but hopefully if I need to no one will see.

As usual, I feel I must state in closing that this is sooooo worth it. Yeah, it’s annoying and all but it is absolutely worth it given the weight loss and all of the other benefits to my health and well being. 100%. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Fun Times

I have a quarterly review meeting in 25 minutes.

I’m having a low blood sugar moment and feel kinda loopy. Oh good.

A few minutes ago I gave myself a full dose of The Foamies just by drinking water. That’s a first. I’m just shy of two years since gastric bypass surgery and I’ve never had the foamies triggered by a liquid before. It’s always been solid food. It passed quick, but it was a surprise.

My father is having a bad day, health-wise today.

I just got an invite to a training that I took on Tuesday. It says the training starts in 25 minutes. I am so confused. Maybe it’s just the blood sugar thing. I’ve had a protein bar and I’m feeling better. My father is going to get stitches. He’s going to be miserable. I wish I could do something to help.

Blah, this is an example of a Friday that is not living up to it’s potential. It’s supposed to be “Good Friday” today, isn’t it? So far it’s not very good. Blah.

Co-Worker

I have a co-worker with me at my desk right now.

In other news, my stomach is in revolt at the moment. Fun. It’s a gastric bypass side effect kind of thing and it will pass, but I just gagged up some icky stuff and had a full blown case of “the foamies” (look it up). Having said that, there is no complaint here. I ate my lunch too fast and my new redesigned digestive system slapped me on the wrist for it. Post operation side effects like this are 100% worth it, I promise you. Trust me, it’s not an issue at all.

In other other news, I checked the bookfayce page of the Luthier I brought my guitar to last Saturday and earlier today he posted a bunch of pictures showing the progress he’s made. There are pictures of my beloved Gibson ES-335 Pro without any frets, pictures of it with some new frets, and a picture of the neck with a full boat’s worth of lovely, shiny new frets. It still needs a new nut and a new bridge, and he didn’t mention anything about cleaning out the electronics (which is a major bitch of a job to do on an ES-335 as you have to squeeze everything in and out through the F-hole), but the new frets are in! I don’t know if I will share any of the photos he posted. I think I did when he worked on my Les Paul Custom, but not until a few days had past. We’ll see.

Try to picture this guitar with shiny new frets:

In other other other news, I am listening to Steve Hackett’s new album, which was released today. It is called The Circus and the Nightwhale. I am listening while I work and therefore not able to give it my full attention. My initial gut reaction though is this: Steve Hackett’s guitar playing gets exponentially better with each passing day. His songwriting improves in a similar manner. His singing… yeah, he’s better than he used to be but sometimes I still wish he’d hire a full time singer for his recording line up. I’m enjoying the new album. Check it out.

Okay, that’s it for this post. Lunch break is over. My stomach is settling down. Get back to work, Red Head!

Personal Time

My company gives us all 16 hours of personal time each year. They also give us weeks upon weeks of vacation time. The difference is that the personal time is meant to be used in small chunks at short notice, while the vacation time, which they don’t actually call vacation time, can only be used in four or eight hour chunks per day and is supposed to be booked in advance. The other difference is that vacation time can be carried over from this year to next year if needed while the personal time disappears on January 1st.

What does all of this mean? I had five hours of personal time left in the bank and I used it all up today. Robbie will not be having any time vanish on January 1st this year. I started my weekend five hours early, babie!

How did I celebrate this happy surprise of a half day? I ate my lunch too fast and made myself gastric bypass sick, that’s how! Yes! Well played, Robert the putz! I had a hamburger again to have another test of the sugar free ketchup. Yes, it does taste like ketchup and no, it is not disgusting! What a treat! It was such a treat that I ate way too much per bite and plowed through it all way too fast and got something stuck in my stomach tract and had a full on case of the foamies.

I am better now that a couple of hours have gone past. I’m okay!

Happy weekend plus five hours of personal time, everyone! WOOHOO!

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.

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.