6 days out

Dec 27, 2011

So how am I doing? Not so bad. Not so great. I'll give you the run down.

The pain is no longer PAIN! It's now more more along the lines of discomfort unless I am up and moving around for too long. I wiped down the kitchen table today and got a little ouchie when scrubbing the film of gunk that built up on the toddlers area. The husband is notorious for missing this stuff and it's been driving me crazy from my post at the couch. Yesterday we went to Whole Foods in search of interesting water mixers and broths.

I found some starter pho(awesomely flavorful well seasons vietnamese beef noodle soup) broth and thought it would be the perfect thing. I couldn't find any mixers for water but found some vitamin water zero that seemed to fit the bill and it made the days liquid requirement finally get where it needed to be, well 2 oz's short of the 64. pretty impressive compared to the previous days 30. The day before that I made it to 50 but I fell back in a few ways on day 4 due to stress related to my mother providing child care and the threat of her leaving early due to her crazy husband.

Anyhow, at the store I also picked up some beautifully ripe avocado in the hopes that I get advanced to mushies soon and a bunch of food to feed the baby and the hubby. Mom helped but by the time we got to the checkout I was not feeling well. So I sat in the eating area and waited. The bouncy ride home was no better so I was pretty well tired for a while. After nursing the vitamin water for a while I got the craving for something warm and tried the pho broth. It was pretty terrible on it's own. So I used it as the base and chopped up some onions while sitting at the table and got them to carmelizing, chopped up some ginger and threw that into some cheesecloth with star anise and cinnamon and threw it and the broth in with the onions got it to simmering and threw in the other necessaries for pho - fish sauce, a tsp of sugar, a little salt and pepper. With all that I decided to just make the damn soup for everyone else and dine on the broth. So I shaved up some beef and threw in some rice noodles (there was no way I was making them separate with the limited energy I had) and viola.  A steaming pot of pho! I showed my mom and step dad how to eat it and was pleasantly surprised that they liked it. They are meat and potatoes good german stock from wisconsin. I strained out my broth, put in a tiny bit of hoisin and siracacha and omg. I must have gotten down 6 oz the first time and 8 a few hours later. It really got things working downstairs but it was totally worth it, besides things have been pretty crazy down there just a little bit less often than after broth spiced it up.

I think this broth may have been a little close to not clear liquid with all the seasonings but I strained it through cheesecloth and I finally got in my daily limit.  Also I didn't put in the fresh herbs which was sad, but I was too afraid I'd get something a little too solid in my pouch. 

So feeling rejuvenated from something that resembled a meal I may have eaten pre-op I was feeling good enough to go for the ride to the drugstore across town to get the medication that the drugstore I normally use was out of.

Side Rant: Even though they had a week and a half to order the damn stuff. Seriously. I drop off a presciption for pick up the next day, come back and they say they are out but can order it. 7 days later I come home from surgery and try to pick it up and they still don't have it! Then once I finally got it my insurance wouldn't approve it because it wasn't a preferred drug. Though none of the preferred drugs were sublingual or liquid and since it was Christmas the surgeons office wasn't open to prove its necessity so I still didn't get it until Tuesday.

Anyhow I came home and decided to finally make the homemade stock that I've been meaning to make the last few months and pulled out the frozen chicken carcasses and all my frozen veggie cast offs that i've been saving and the leftover dried up herbs from thanksgiving and threw it in the crockpot with water. I let it run all night long and it's just now about dark enough for me to strain up. So I'm feeling pretty accomplished even though I'm still spending the vast majority of my time sitting on the couch.

I was feeling so good I decided to do my measurements and weight. Disappointed that I haven't made it under 300 yet - been hovering at 306 since the day before surgery but I it's ridiculously early to worry about it. Then doing the measurements was a little disheartening when the measurement tape I got in the hospital from the bariatric team ran out of inches on my bust and hips. So those are somewhere over 60 inches yikes.

Anyhow - thats basically whats up. I'm already dealing with head hunger, though trying to fill up my pouch with protein and vitamins makes me feel uncomfortably full enough that I know I'm being absolutely ridiculous. I sure would like a mushy pile of avocado or cottage cheese, or egg instead of broth though. Realizing how when dealing with pain or family stress something sweet or savory just really helped take the edge off. I KNEW I had food problems but not being able to indulge a tiny bit is making it all the more clear. Till next time. I'm sure it'll be no time at all till I have a few more ridiculous rants about the food I'm making for the family that I can't eat and the 'food' i'm making for myself that i can.

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