Gastric Bypass Part 2 Week 3

I'm only going to do GB posts by the week now, because things don't really change that much!
Still really, really tired of protein drink mixes and find that they don't sit well on my stomach -- especially the vanilla one. The plain Unjury is still well-tolerated, but running out of it and trying to hoard it until my delivery from Unjury on Monday and my MD appt. on Weds next week when I can pick up whatever flavors from the sample pack delivered on Monday that I like, in addition to the plain.
I'll be making a road trip tomorrow to go to Caid and visit with Miriam for 3 days. I emailed her a list of my food choices, and I'm hoping for a miracle of creativity from her.
My thumbs really hurt, especially the left one. My right hip hurts, and causes me to walk funny. These problems are probably because I'm no longer taking my arthritis med, nor my glucosamine/chondroitin.
My b/p is staying in the 130s/70's range with half my usual dose of b/p med, though.
Bowels continue to be a problem, but I don't think there's much more I can do about it. I'm drinking as much liquid as I can get in, what with the need to drink protein as well. I'm not taking narcotics.
After trying a couple times to drink my kombucha, I've had to face facts: it does not sit well on my tummy.
In case you're wondering:
"does not sit well" = makes me feel queasy, but not really nauseated.
"sick"= makes me feel full-blown nausea, and or causes gagging/retching.
Coffee makes me sick. Kombucha doesn't sit well.
As far as appetite goes, I'm finding certain commercials about Friday's Jack Daniels burgers and appetizers very appealing, as well as friend's reports on Facebook on chicken pot pies, bacon, and other savory type foods. Sweets and desserts are not at all appealing.
As far as hunger goes, I don't have it, and I've begun to differentiate between "appetite" and "hunger". I really suspect that even if I could tolerate a Jack Daniels burger, or a pot pie, that I would not be able to eat more than two or three bites, even though my desire for them might still be present. I actually was unable to finish two little meals during the past week, because I was full. I'm sitting here right now, full from my protein drink that it's taken me 2 hours to finish. I'm supposed to eat lunch, but nothing really sounds good to me, because I'm full. The day begins to creep up on me, even when I start at 8am. It's difficult to get everything that's supposed to be going into my mouth in there within any given 24 hour period.
Physically, I'm feeling good. I get an occasional twinge on my right side, that I obsess about due to the fatty liver diagnosis post surgery. If I lay on my back without elevating my head a bit, my tummy feels stretched. And sometimes if I use my stomach muscles to sit up, I get a mildly tweaky sensation. However, all my little puncture wounds have healed, except for the uppermost one. That one has an internal suture that is poking out just a millimeter, but enough to keep it a little irritated. I no longer feel like I NEED a nap every few hours, and I can do the animal husbandry detail without any problems -- other than, I don't like going into the pasture because I'm afraid Oreo the Goat will butt me. He probably weighs 200 lbs, so that's not a trivial fear.
My skin feels dry all the time, which may have a lot to do with the weather but I suspect it also has to do with me just not being able to keep as hydrated as I have in the past. My feet and hands especially. I'm using a lot of shea butter on them.
My clothes have gotten much looser, and from my weekly weigh-in, I'm guessing I've lost about 20 pounds. I'm beginning to worry a little over when I might have to buy jeans and work slacks, but my tops should be OK for quite some time. And my casual wear/T-shirts will work for even longer. I'll need to figure out what to buy for the wedding trip next month; I'm thinking flowing pants and tunic top in dressier fabric, and some kind of cape-thing in case it gets cooler than I can tolerate, and flats.
Still haven't gotten EDD check, but it could be sitting down at the mailbox island right now for all I know.
And will get final word on jury duty this evening and keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be released to enjoy my last week of recuperation before returning to work next week.

Gastric Bypass Part 2 Day 12

I'm feeling kind of humbled. Here I thought that I was recovering really well, due to my genius in following advice and finding tolerable protein drink mix.
And now, I really can't stand the protein drink mix. It leaves a horrible aftertaste, and it takes me an hour or more to drink it. I've been trying everything: using the plain Unjury mixed in flavored water (meh), in soy milk (meh, and makes me feel sick). The flavored whey mix from Costco is just so tiresome, and the vanilla makes me sick.
For the first time today, I couldn't finish my breakfast mini meal.
And I feel like I'm constipated, and don't know what I can do about it.
Plus, the instructions for jury duty aren't at all clear. It doesn't confirm that my group must serve; it talks about groups 18 through 22, and I'm group 6. Those groups are supposed to show up at 1:30pm. Doesn't say whether the rest of us report or not. I don't really want to drive to Placerville and try to figure out what's going on, but it looks like I'll have to. Not a happy camper.

Gastric Bypass Part 2 Day 10

Danni and I met Brit, her boyfriend Ethan, and her friend Rachel, at this place called Quickly in midtown Sac. It's what they call a Boba Shop. Boba is evidently marble-sized tapioca, which they place into tea and flavor the tea with one of a bajillion flavors, add milk, etc. It is really more milkshake, or slushie, than tea. 

I had plain green Jasmine tea, hot. 

But this counts as "eating out" event #3! And I for sure got my liquids in today. I decided to skip my breakfast mini-meal, because my tummy felt touchy. But I got the protein drink in. And I took my lunch min-meal with me, met Danni at the place she's staying and ate my mini-lunch, and then by the time we arrived at Quickly, the 30 minutes post meal period was up and I had 16 oz of hot tea. I then had an additional 16 oz of hot tea back at Danni's place, where we debated current affairs and listened to stories from her kind-of father-in-law, Jack. Jack is politically diametrically opposed to me, but I really like the guy. He's a hoot. 

My post lunch protein shake took me over 2 hours to drink, mostly because I mixed some almond butter into it and I think that just made it too heavy. Once again, trying to mix up the flavors a bit, and not getting good results.

So I have dinner mini-meal and post dinner protein drink to get through still, but I'm confident that I will. 

I really enjoyed my baby-food veggies and canned chicken dinner last night, and I know the doggies will appreciate the rest of the canned chicken, too, so that's probably going to be a repeat tonight. 

Gastric Bypass Part 2, days 8 and 9

So suddenly, my protein drinks have become very tedious. The vanilla just does not taste good, no matter what I do with it. The chocolate is good, but drinking a chocolate drink twice a day forever is boring. 

So I decided yesterday to add some instant coffee to the vanilla. BAD MISTAKE. I ended up in the toilet for about an hour. I didn't think I'd ever get out of there.

But I recovered, and again, got all the protein drinks in for the day and as much fluid as I could sip. I even packed a "dinner" of cottage cheese, salsa and avocado in a little plastic container and slipped it into my purse for the Shire meeting. So, that's twice now that I've eaten out! I bought baby food veggies and fruits, and froze little individual teaspoon size servings of them, since I'm supposed to be having meals that consist of a variety of foods with each meal. This is really hard when your meals are so tiny!

Today has been ho-hum. Mike is going to March Crown in Tres Pinos, and preparing for that took up most of the day. As always, he hit the road about 3 hours behind schedule. I really wish he'd taken our little gypsy van trailer with the built-in bed and sink, but he didn't. So he's going to be setting up a tent and a slat bed when he gets there, which should be around 8 pm. But at least I can relax now. As soon as I feed the animals and put up the chickens, that is! I'm also going to try to keep a fire going in the woodstove. I was told I'd feel cold after the surgery, and man, do I ever. Very odd for me. I love nothing more than climbing into my mattress-pad-heated bed and reading at bedtime, and I've been wrapping up in a blanket in the house during the day. 

Another thing I've noticed is that my sense of smell seems unusually acute. It's not unpleasant. 

Gastric Bypass Part 2 day 7

Kind of a setback today, and I'm not sure how to interpret it. I actually increased my meals to 2 tablespoons yesterday, and had no problems that I noted.
I had my usual protein shake and kombucha tea shot this morning, no problems. Waited 1/2 hour and had my scrambled egg portion, with a bit of grated cheese and salsa. Around 11:30, I had some intestinal cramping, not unusual for me prior to the surgery and the typical BM that I've experienced since the surgery, but the cramping soon turned into nausea and a lot of saliva, which I spit out onto tissue. Another wave of cramping hit about 15 minutes later, and more nausea, this time with retching which produced nothing. It was hard to stop the retching, which seemed entirely pointless, as nothing was coming back up. And true to the description of such things by others who've gone this route before me, it was not nearly as unpleasant as vomiting. Afterwards, I felt very cold and very tired, and a bit hesitant to continue with the fluids. Around 3:30, I convinced myself that I had damn well better start hydrating and I tried a scoop of the Unjury unflavored protein in 10 oz. of Mio-flavored water. It was OK, not tasty, and it took me 3 hours to get it all in, but I did.
Now it's time to think about my dinner meal and evening protein drink, and I'm not thinking highly of them.

I think this is more related to my bowels than my diet. The past two nights I've taken the pain med: yesterday to help me sleep so that I could get up early and deal with the EDD/disability nonsense and drive down to Sacto if needed to resolve it. The day before, it was to help me sleep so I could wake up and go to an early car repair appt. Well, I think I need to stop using the pain med. I think it's making me constipated, or at best making my bowels sluggish and causing undue cramping, which is causing agitation to my system and then nausea.
As it turned out, I had a lovely night last night sleeping to the sound of rain outside, and a mellow day today after I figured out the online registration process and confirmed with my surgeon's office that they could add their part online, as well, and they were aware of the change. Human Resources called me back and told me that they've been putting out a green sheet in their packets of paperwork for weeks, making people aware of the new process. My supervisor wasn't aware of it, though, and that's not surprising as Home Health tends to be the ugly stepchild of the healthcare system and no one ever remembers we exist when it comes to things like this.

Gastric Bypass Part 2 Day 6

So, for the past 2 days I've driven for about 2 hours, sat around for several hours trying to support my daughter in her own medical journey and waiting for my car to be made safe and sound. Today, since I woke up at what seems the ungodly hour (now, after 2 weeks off from work) of 7am, I took an Extreme Nap this afternoon and didn't even pay attention to what time I woke up, but I'd say around 9:30pm or so and now I'm not tired of course.
I had a meal out for the first time! Mike and I both took our cars in, and walked to the little cafe by the repair shop we go to, and Mike had a big breakfast and I nabbed some of his scrambled eggs and had some tea. I forgot that I wasn't supposed to drink with my meal, of course, but what's done is done. I've done better today at getting in the liquids and protein and meals, but I'm still not getting all the liquids I should be and I've discovered that it's REALLY hard to do that if you're out and about. And my normal life, and job, requires me to be out and about. The plan now is to carry a cooler and protein drink, small containers of meal items, and liquids in my car. A SMALL cooler, mind. So the car has to be vacuumed, because I'm crazy that way and it won't seem safe and secure until the inside is clean.
Yesterday, I didn't count on spending as much time as I ended up spending with my daughter. I started the day well, had my breakfast and followed it with the protein drink after 1/2 hour wait. It was too soon for lunch, but a 45 minute drive down to her house and then hours with MD and paperwork filing and picking up  my grandkid at school and presto -- suddenly it's dinner time, and I didn't have lunch OR afternoon protein. I did manage to drink a lot of Crystal Lite Lemonade, though, which isn't bad stuff. So I tried to cram all of lunch, dinner, protein x 2 into about 4 hours and went to bed feeling very full and knowing that this was not an ideal situation and I need to be more aware of these things.
And finally, a major snafu has occurred with my EDD paperwork. This evidently happened because the EDD switched to an electronic reporting system less than a week before my claim was filed, and this made the forms my employer gave me in their disability leave packet obsolete and now I have to file electronically AND hope that my surgeon's office can do their part of the documentation online as well. It seems like a streamlined process, and will probably take a lot of the hassle out of filing these claims, but it's really unfortunate for me in the timing of my surgery and of course there was no way that I or my surgeon could possibly have known about this at the time of scheduling. My employer, who is a major employer in our region, didn't even know. I know that eventually I will get the disability I'm owed, but it's going to make the rest of my leave very tight. I'm thankful that I made the decision to pay bills in advance by using my tax refund, but that's only going to carry me until the first week of April. And April is going to be a high-stress month anyway, due to our flying to Florida for Mike's friend's wedding and my return to work.

So, tomorrow I can't just sit home and enjoy what is likely the last rainy weather of winter. I've got to register my disability claim online (which I can only do between 6 am and 6 pm for some reason) and then call my MD office and see if they need me to bring the returned forms back to them or they can just use my claim number to update my claim online, as per the EDD's instructions (which also require that they register, but I'm assuming they'll have to do this soon if they haven't already, anyway).

Gastric Bypass Part 2 Day 4

This is a random thoughts day, since nothing new is going on with my diet and not having any problems so far.

I have tried several sips of kombucha tea today, and so far, no dumping syndrome. Now, I DID find that it instigated a BM, but no pain or cramping or nausea or shakes or sweating. So, I don't think that was Dumping Syndrome. I think that was what kombucha tea has always done for me since I started drinking it. It does have sugar in it, but I'm thinking that if I let it ferment for 2 weeks vs. 1 week, it won't have nearly as much. So far, that seems to be working. I also had a tiny piece of sauerkraut, just to taste it since I was bottling it and another batch of kimchi. I smashed the heck out of that little piece, and ate it, and so far no problems. This is making me feel cautiously optimistic. I know yogurt is tolerated, and now it appears that kombucha and perhaps sauerkraut are. Ferments are very important to me, so I'm glad my system seems to be honoring this connection.
My energy level is much better. I feel my old self, actually. My arthritis has not been bothering me much at all; a bit in the thumbs, when I'm trying to screw off jar lids and such. Now, my right hip won't let me sleep on my right side, which started about 2 weeks prior to surgery. I used to sleep on my right side almost exclusively. Now, it's either my left side or my back. But it only bothers me when I lay on it. I can walk fine.     Mike went over the figures for the Emeritus Feast with Bonnie the Exchequer yesterday, and it appears that we made nearly $500 on the Feast and an additional $500+ on the auction. That's after they deducted the cost of food purchased. We were basically way under budget on Costco items, and way over budget on Nugget produce items, but it all evened out. We know now that we don't need to have quite as many courses, and we can keep it to two or three meat main courses. People couldn't eat everything. Even so, Mike only came back with a couple of duck legs and wings and about 3 servings of his pea/sausage (Conciela ala Apicius) featured menu dish. He says people ate multiple servings of that one. He brought back about a gallon of squash, which had been baked and then sauteed with spices. I pureed it. It will make a great soup. And he brought back about a half-gallon of grapes, and a couple cups of sauteed cucumbers, and about a quart of couscous with pork and apricots. The chickens ate all that. There were 80 people at the Feast, so he did a great job of planning with the advice of Anastasia and Gwendwyn, who have cooked many a feast.
About 2 weeks ago, I made another batch of kimchi and sauerkraut, since my son's wife evidently likes kimchi and my other son likes sauerkraut. Since the last batch I made of kraut was a bit on the soft side at 3 weeks, but perfect at 2 weeks, I decided to bottle up the kraut and kimchi today. Last time, I left the kimchi at room temp on my counter for a few days, so I'm doing that again. The kraut is in the back of the fridge.
Petra, who is evidently the autocrat for Golden Rivers tourney, has decided to do a German-style sideboard luncheon and she is using sauerkraut as a side dish. From postings about it, it would seem she's using commercial kraut, and then jazzing it up with juniper berries and caraway and perhaps bacon. I offered to make the kraut for this event, haven't had a response as yet. I could easily do 2 gallons, it would seem, since that is what I've done the last 2 times, using 4 to 5 heads of cabbage. I'm hoping she takes me up on the offer, rather than using pasteurized commercial kraut.
Filled out forms and wrote check for Egg Handler's Permit. We already have 8 dozen eggs since last Saturday. We need to start selling them! I'm going to make the market totes out of feed bags, too. And who knows? Maybe sell kraut or bread, too.