Thursday, April 26, 2007 – 283lbs.

Good afternoon, pals.  I’m having a simply lovely day.  I feel particularly alert and sharp, with a bonus spring in my step that exists for no particular reason and to fill no particular need.  Things are just good today.  

I think it might have something to do with viewing “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle” last night.  I really enjoyed that film despite my contrary expectations.  The stranger at the bush has had me giggling all day, today.  Of course, I got to watch the movie in my spiffy (yet still trashy) home theater on the BIG SCREEN with the whole THX sound thing going on.  Now, granted, a talky comedy isn’t the best movie to see in such a setting, but it’s still pretty cool way to spend an evening at home.

I bought new $9 pants from Stupid Prices.  How cool is that?!  I’d gotten used to the premium that I’ve had to pay for the privilege of finding clothes that fit me, but I’m into a “standard” pant-size now, 42x32, so I can wear the cheap stuff.  This is good.  In years past, I had a tendency to “cling” to the items of clothing that actually fit me comfortably (hey, that statement’s sorta funny, actually), which meant that I only regularly wore the same two pairs of pants and the same three shirts over and over again.  Laundry duty sucked, if nothing else.  I keep meaning to get back to the store to pick up a few more of the cheap pants, but I haven’t yet fully acquired the whole clothes-shopping habit.  It’ll come, though, and when it does I’m buying pointy shoes, because that’s what Esquire says I should wear. 

I think I’m finally off of my Tim’s Cascade Chips habit.  Six more big bags of Oberto Teriyaki Turkey Jerky were consumed, however.  I’ve also finished my Big Mac fixation.  I’m facing a bit of a challenge when trying to choose an on-the-road lunch, now, though.  Not much really sounds good ever.  This, too, shall pass.

I had my second bout of WLS-related vomiting last week.  Doesn’t everyone want to hear about that?  Of course they do.  I ate some teriyaki chicken (I make an awesome Teriyaki/Tempura dinner, btw) and then I ate some more.  Within thirty minutes, I felt over-full and an unpleasant pressure/irritation at what I think is the base of my esophagus—not too dissimilar from the feeling I get when I know I’ve got a burp ready to be born, except the burp doesn’t come.  So, of course, I tried to coax the burp upward, by swallowing air, laying on my stomach, etc., but to no avail.  

Eventually, I threw up a mucous-y, amorphous blob of stuff, but this was, clearly, not the redux of my wonderful dinner, as there was—how should I say it—nothing substantial amid the goo.  Another 30 minutes of discomfort followed and another round of unsuccessful attempts to expel a simple belch.  But, then, EUREKA !  I had a good old-fashioned, full-on vomit which seemed almost explosive, the way dinner suddenly came up all at once.

My theory, of course, is that the little, well-chewed bites of Japanese chicken that I ate turned into a big semi-solid ball of chicken on the OTHER SIDE of the silastic ring that Dr. Heap installed.  Attempts to regurgitate the chicken were foiled by the relative narrow passage through the ring until, finally, the chicken ball squeezed through the ring and made its way to the toilet a second later.  

Relief was immediate.  I was a little distressed by the subsequent trickle of blood coming from my nose.  But my wife assured me that vomiting can sometimes cause one to rupture blood-vessels, creating a bloody nose.  I’ll take her explanation for the time being.

As I wrote a few paragraphs earlier, this has happened before, a couple of months ago.  On that night, I’d had my first red-meat steak since the surgery and the chronology described above happened in almost the exact same way.  I’m discovering, I think, that I have to be more sensitive to the amount of dense protein I eat at any given time.  I’ve not had a problem tolerating meat, at all, but I suspect that if I overdo the quantity I might experience this again.  Anyway, it’s all just semi-educated guessing at this point.

On this day, however, all is rosy and thoughts of barf-y evenings are not going to occupy me in the slightest once I finish today’s entry here.  Thanks to those of you who’ve offered support.  And thanks, also, to those who’ve given me support without even knowing it.  

Be sorta good.  J