a success story at week 3? lol..

[Angry Banana 37]

This seemed like a better place to post than in post surgery questions..

So today is 3 weeks for me. I've got a cruise scheduled for this coming Saturday and pre-surgery was pretty nervous about it.. I'm feeling pretty comfortable with it now and I'll be at day 26 when we leave.. I'm not saying I don't have some nervousness about it but I sit on my ass programming all day long already so not much of a change, just a different locale..

It's going to be challenging walking on the ship and not being drunk though.. I'll have no natural balance. I haven't had any booze for 5 weeks now and not that I'm not interested but my stomach is constantly busy.. Either full of Water or gurgling away at some food. The gurgling is always fun at meetings Plus a little too soon for any booze.

I bought some wine (I hate wine), to try out at home, just a little bit, but lost the urge and decided that I just won't have any yummy rum punch on the beach, no welcome aboard pina colada with a dark rum floater, no bucket of caribe with dirty ice on the pool deck, no miller lite before dinner, no after dinner desert drink with souvenir cup, no late night cucumber martini's, no drink of the day, in souvenir cup of course and no morning bloody mary's .. just saying that I won't have any of those, not that I've been thinking about them at all.

We've had this cruise scheduled from Jan of 2015 and although it was close to surgery day, I've hoped for the best and had this dream of hitting the beach without a bra or at least 20 lbs down, never expecting to be 36 lbs down.. Everything I have is falling off and looks stupid but it's so comfortable to not have the waist band flip over on a pair of jeans or shorts, or not having them riding into my ass crack.. My kids are bummed because my bathing suit doesn't stick into my ass crack anymore after walking..

I didn't think about it much, but I was hairy and fat, now just hairy, fat, pale and have a half shaved torso.. They shaved my stomach at the hospital for surgery and while I was hoping it'd grow back in time for shirtless time, it hasn't and now the dilemma, to make the rest match or not care.. Old, grey and hairy on top with a pale pinkish white looking bottom half.

Anyway, down a total of 36 lbs since pre-op diet and at first, I didn't considered pre-op diet as part of the journey, but it definitely was.

I stayed on Protein shakes and Water for pretty much 2 weeks pre op and then first week post-op. Cheated once or twice post op with yogurt, cottage cheese type stuff but not until about day 4 or 5.. It was the '7 days and I want food thread' that kicked off my cheating ..

When I saw the doc on week 1 follow up, he said it was okay to ease into pureed foods, which was great but there's only so much appeal to pureed swedish meatballs, eventually, other than a different shade of tan, everything looks the same when it comes out of the blender.. and for the most part, tastes the same.. I find now, I stay with soft stuff still but maybe leave a little texture in it when pureeing and chew as much as possible until the habit of my tongue shoveling it back can't be overcome anymore...

I still love Protein Shakes though even though I didn't have one today yet.. I've venture into soft foods a bit and some chewing recently though as I need to learn how to eat that stuff for the cruise and won't be able to bring my bass-o-matic with me.. Got the go ahead from doc for softies..

I think I've learned my lesson last week when I thought I had soft foods down, was late for a meeting and had some leftover fish from the night before that was microwaved and a bit chewy.. Figure I'd chew chew chew and yikes, I had the worst pie hole blockage ever.. The pain was amazing and unrelenting.. Thought I would hurl but couldn't.. I never realized that when you have a blob of food stuck in your throat that the body makes mucous and saliva to help it go down but with nowhere for that stuff to go, it all piles up on top of the bad choices and makes it worse.. foamies?

I had to walk for about 40 minutes, in pain and mouth watering non stop.. Went to the meeting and thankfully the watering mouth stopped but it took a while for that one to go away and I did it to myself a couple more times by not paying attention and drinking before or after and things like that.. Just stupid mistakes by being distracted.. I will have to say though that my actual stomach has never had any pain, just the long journey down the pie hole pipe has.. Live and learn I guess.. I think I'm at the point where I almost realize my limits and what and when I should eat or stop eating something.. It was a tough 4 or 5 days on week two though and had to try new things and adjust old habits.. Like instead of taking pills first thing in the morning, wait until after you've topped off the tank.

Couple of other things that I've learned.. Constipation is a real pain in the ass.. lol. Nothing seems to help yet so I'm going with the flow and trying to get more Fiber in. Probiotics seemed like a good idea so took one and it got stuck right in the pie hole again and killed.. I figured I'd see if one dissolved in my water and would be of any value but it stuck to the side of the bottle and didn't dissolve or budge for hours.. Not taking those for a while.

I'm out of excitement, full of **** and have bored you long enough.. So.. See ya and best wishes to y'all..

M

Edited December 15, 2015 by Angry Banana

[Sophie74656 1,572]

congrats on the loss

you could still probably have those drinks but without the alcohol, they will still taste good

[newmebithebypass 713]

Btw they make Probiotics that comes in powder form that you desolve in liquid you can get it on Amazon