Thursday, April 3, 2014

So, How Am I Doing?

Better. This week was hard. My taste buds returned and some gnarly food cravings hit me. I also gained three pounds--the day after I had my first full protein shake, made with ice. Coincidence?

So I've lost the three pounds and two more, for a total of 21 pounds. My face looks different. Angular. My husband said my butt looks smaller. My yoga pants are loose. Today I wore some pants I haven't worn in years (pull-on stretchy, but I used to wear them to work). They fit ok. Not tight, not loose.

My blood glucose is bouncing around all over from 144 to 244. I've reduced my insulin quite a bit, and if I have low numbers at night, I don't take any insulin because it would be very bad for me to crash out. I wouldn't be able to squeeze in enough juice / milk / food quick enough to prevent fall into a sugar coma, which would be very, very bad. As my doctor said, "High blood glucose is bad over the long term, but low blood sugar can kill you in six minutes."  Scary stuff.

So I'm doing pretty well on the hydration front--getting over 40 usually 60 ounces of liquid in per day. I like Crystal Light, iced tea (home made), water, Vitamin Water, and other no cal flavored waters.  I'm getting the bulk of my protein from actual food. Right now I'm trying to get in 30 by 30 (grams by days). It's hard to do. I cannot drink 30 minutes before or after a meal or during a meal. It's hard to squeeze in the hydration with that rule in place, but I do. I'm more concerned about hydration than protein.

Payday was on Monday so I went to a local store I like and stocked up on meat: Sliced ham, sliced roast beef, sliced pastrami, and sliced sharp cheddar (Yeah, I drove. Like a mile. Sue me.). For dinner one night I had three small slices of roast beef with a slice of cheese. It took me an hour to eat and was about 20g of progtein. Then I had to wait 30 more minutes to drink. I hate that.

So I had some serious, bad food cravings this week.I was very unhappy. I wanted an Italian sub; Mexican food (lots of cheese); pot roast; a quiche; and tacos (street tacos--just the meat, onion, cilantro, and salsa. I can probably have that in a few weeks without the tortillas.). The roast beef and cheese helped a lot.

Wednesday night we had to go out to buy our big monthly bag of cat food--since we feed strays, we get 18 -22 pounds, whichever is on sale--and keep it in a plastic tub with a plastic lid. R was hungry and since I've given up cooking duties until I can stand more than 10 minutes, he's been eating a lot of TV dinners. We decided to go to a healthy chain restaurant called Farmer Brother's, and R had a big BBQ chicken ranch salad. It looked and smelled delicious, so I had him get me a wrap to take home and I would just pick out the chicken.

Well...the chicken was breaded and fried. I know you can get it grilled, I didn't know you have to specify. So I have about five pieces of the chicken--oh, there was also bacon *grin*--. It sat in there ok, but the next day? Diarreah for 90 minutes. Uh yeah. Too soon. Lesson learned. I told R he could have it but he does not eat bacon. What a waste.

So back to just pure protein--lunchmeat, tuna salad, egg salad, cheese, and tonight we went out to Denny's. Buy one / Get one Free coupons came in the mail. They also just came out with a grilled Alaskan salmon served with brown rice and broccoli. I had that. I ate just a bit under half of the piece of salmon, which was very good, a tiny bit of tartar sauce on the side, and one bite of brown rice. Done. Full.


I'm going to finish my iced tea, wait 30 minutes, and then have the rest of the salmon, maybe one bite of rice, no broccoli. It was as good as any non-Denny's restaurant salmon is.

So I've been fairly pissed off this week that any interesting food is off the menu. I supposed this is pretty normal for someone 2-3 weeks post-op, all those hormones being released, insomnia (oy, insomnia), and me not yet figuring out what to do with my spare time, yet. It's hard to read, hard to write, hard to pay attention--I'm watching The Weather Channel, FRIENDS, and Seinfeld.  I'm also getting a free month of Netflix DVDs, two arrived on Wednesday and I haven't watched them.  La la la la la la la...what?

Tonight, for fun and exercise, R and I went to Kohl's to get him some new shoes for work. We got some really nice shoes for a very decent price, and they should last a long time. I can't believe he liked them. This is his first pair of new shoes in three years--he's a guy--and the old ones were hurting his feet so badly he actually threw them away. They were coming apart. So that was fun. By the time we were done, I was exhausted. But we still needed to go to Target to get cat litter, a cheese tray and crackers for a potluck at R's work tomorrow, drinking water, and some Vitamin Water (lemon, citrus, acai-blueberry), some Sobe no cal Fuji apple pear (so good!), and a no cal dragonfruit water (brand??) that just looked good. If I'm going to be sucking down a lot of water, I need to like it.

So that's where I am, hormonal, cranky, nausea--usually at night, and unable to sleep (I'll be reaching for the prescribed to me pain meds again tonight.). I gotta have some sleep.

My belly is still leaking. I hate it. I'm going through two dishtowels a day. Kotex pads are not soaking up the fat and it just gets all over. So gross. So gross. Ewww.

Well, I'm hungry, so I gotta finish off this iced tea and then wait 30 minutes.

Still sleeping in the reclining chair.

2 comments:

  1. Not that it helps, but you're right on track: eating well, actually, and losing well also. Investigate icky Isopure drinks for max hydration and protiein --> consistence of water but major protein (50 grams? Can't exactly remember). I didn't love them, but I lived on them for first 2 mos.

    As soon as I got down to a *stable* blood glucose of 200, MDs told me to discontinue diabetes meds, lest they inhibit weight loss. At 8+ years, I'm now high-normal.

    I was lucky not to have food cravings early out (my taste buds were SO f'd up!), though I certainly have them now. Fat and carbs will give you diarrhea. A certain amount of diarrhea and upchucking is actually my norm -- even at this point. Non-traumatic. But something to be aware of.

    I didn't love the eat v. drink choices, but even as much as you hate it, you seem to be doing well. A 30-minute gap between the two is actually great. I wasn't that far out at your point.

    Nausea is often associated with dehydration, though it sounds as if you're doing well on that front. I tended to upchuck in the morning and needed an Rx for acid for the first 6 weeks.

    Belly leaking: I hated that, too. As I've said, mine lasted for 6 months, probably because I was an out-of-control diabetic at the time of surgery and slow to heal. But, eventually, it does heal and becomes a distant memory (I had an infection, icky 3D tissue, and surgical thread coming out at one point -- BARF!). Is it really supposed to be fat draining? I never knew that.

    And I slept in my recliner for 6 weeks. Too painful to stretch out flat.

    So you're doing great. It's just that this is the No Fun period of the DS.

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  2. Yeah, no fun. Facing your monsters can be startling. I haven't barfed but once, and that was about five days out when I drank too much water, which came right up no problem.

    I've had the hiccups a few times.

    After having the runs on Wed, I haven't had a bowel movement since. One's in there, but it's not ready to come out, yet.

    The belly things is SO disgusting. I had this thing that looked like a tapeworm only pink and about 5 inches long come flying out of the wound during a shower over the weekend. Nasty. I'm guessing it was fat. It went down the drain and was gone. I thought I was in ALIEN for a second. Ewww eww ewww.

    Right now I'd like a big salad with lots of chunks in it--chicken, bleu cheese, bacon, nuts...a Cobb, I suppose. I do miss salad. How much salad do you eat in general now?

    I'm bored. Tired and bored. Bored and tired. Bored.

    I need to find a healthfood store with choices--things like Isopure.

    I checked out bariatriceating.com, but I think it's mostly for RnY or VSG patients, not DS. Also, they don't list nutrition info on their recipes. WTH?

    Trying to decide if I want a shake or real food for "dinner". (I slept late).

    Thanks, man.

    J.

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