Two weeks down

Mar 13, 2013

Things are going fairly well. I’d give myself a B- as a patient. Tomorrow is my two-week follow-up with either my surgeon or his nurse practitioner, so I guess I’ll get a fuller idea of my progress then.

First, stuff I’ve been not-so-great about:

1.       Water: this has gotten better, but for a few days I was barely getting fifty or sixty ounces. Not good! I’m still not where I want/need to be, but getting better every day. Sixty-four ounces is happening pretty easily now.  Onward.

2.       Protein: doing okay, I guess. Three servings, 30 grams apiece, every day. My plan calls for using four ounces of liquid (instead of the eight ounces recommended on the package.) When I use my About Time peanut butter, I use four ounces of plain unsweetened almond milk. But when I use the Unjury “chicken soup” I use eight ounces of water because it is SO SALTY as it is I can’t imagine trying to prepare it with half the water.
Just realized last night while reviewing my plan that I shouldn’t be using almond milk yet; they want us using only water until the third or fourth week. I tried making my About Time with plain water and it was completely unpalatable. So I guess I’m “cheating” on that count, and for using too much water with my “chicken soup.” Finding it impossible to get too upset with myself for these two transgressions, even though my goal was to be Perfectly Compliant All The Time.

3.       Vitamins: missed a few earlier this week due to some nausea, but I’m doing way better. Got them all nicely organized in my fancy pill box. Have timers set on my phone to make sure I take things when I’m supposed to. One thing that sucked: the multivitamin I was taking REALLY turned foul on me. Just too sweet, absolutely cloying and inedible. I read the label and the first ingredient is fructose. Son of a…anyway, I’m switching to a different one, one I can just swallow. Yuck.

4.       Walking: I’ve done all right. Although I think my treadmill is breaking down, maybe? That would suck. I’d have to walk outdoors, like a peasant. I feel like I’ve been really sedentary today. I walked for fifty minutes in one stretch, but the rest of the day seemed to involve way too much sitting. (Got sucked into a new-Pope news wormhole, as one does.)

Overall: definitely not perfect, but making strides. Looking forward to my appointment tomorrow, and to getting through the next two weeks so I can finally start purees. I’ll be honest: food is on my mind. I think I’m feeling actual hunger. Or at least a strong approximation. And I’m so so so sick of protein shakes. Maybe I need a third flavor. Food. I want food. Daydreaming of refried beans and cheese. And I think I’m starting to freak out my husband by not-at-all-surreptitiously sniffing his food. (Charming!)

I’ve also started being a little more open about my surgery. Well, in the most cowardly way possible: as a postscript to a LiveJournal entry. (No one reads LiveJournal.) I’m really very happy to talk about it to anyone who’s interested, but I’m happy to ignore it, too. Just don’t want to make a Thing about it on Facebook or whatever. We’ll see how it goes. I wonder if anyone will even notice the weight loss. I think I give off a pretty serious “do not talk at me about weight, weight loss, or any of that bullshit” vibe, so even if folks are noticing they probably assume it’s better not to say anything. That’s fine too.

What else? My incisions are still a little sore but not too bad. In the interest of full (and unspeakably vile) disclosure, I should mention that pooping has become a terrifying, Lovecraftian ordeal. It’s the iron supplements, I suspect, but I’ll bring it up tomorrow and we shall see. Since I’ve been fatigued and even a little light-headed the last two or three days, I of course assume I’m slowly dying of internal bleeding. (See this thread for terrifying poop-related details.)

I’ll update tomorrow about my follow-up appointment.  Probably.

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