Thursday, April 30, 2015

Three-and-a-half Weeks Post-op: This is Hard

Well, I guess it's only hard for some values of the word hard, but still. I forget where I left off. I know that I mentioned I was having trouble getting all my nutrients/supplements in. I didn't lose any weight during the third week, even though I lost about 30 in the first two. In fact, before I went to my two-week post-op visit, I gained back a couple of pounds. WTF. But I think I may be losing a little bit again. This could be related to my basically sleeping all the time lately.


Yeah. For the last few days, all I've wanted to do was sleep. I get up for a few hours, and then back to sleep. And I sleep, and sleep. Not eating much, and not always taking my meds. I've finished the Pepcid/Famotidine (wish they would have told me right off it was Pepcid then I wouldn't have had to remember the generic name). Haven't gotten the ulcer preventative yet. Have to find out where they actually stock it. No car = somebody has to ride the bus to anywhere but CVS or Rite Aid. Annoying. The bus is awful, and exhausts me. It exhausts me walking to the bus stop, really.

Food seems to be more or less tolerable. Over the weekend, L & J made zucchini noodles with the spiralizer L got me for Christmas. We had those with ricotta and spaghetti sauce, made in to a sort of lazy lasagna. Except not all that lazy, since they had to spiralize the "noodles." lol. It tasted good. Last night they made a ricotta and spinach meatloaf topped with red sauce and mozzarella cheese. Also good. Very soft. I can't eat much of it. Neither can L. But J loves it. What would have looked like a tiny piece of meatloaf before surgery is too much to eat now. But that's not a bad thing. I also had J get me some fancy olives. You know, the good olives they sell over by the deli? They are actually pretty soothing on my stomach for some reason. And they make me happy. YMMV. I can only eat a few at a time, but how many olives would one normally eat at a time, anyway?

Not drinking anything with my food is basically miserable. I get so thirsty after eating. Granted, still not getting in all my liquids, so I guess that's not surprising. Yesterday's adventure was that I took all of my pills (not including the vitamin I can't stand to chew). Except I took them before I ate, since I can't drink with my food. Oops. Can't take pills before I eat. Had to go back to bed. Ate much later. Five or six olives. I've been awake for a few hours this morning, and I just ate some of the meatloaf and four olives. Maybe I will try and take my medication once I can drink again. At least then there will still be a bit of food in my digestive tract. Note about supplements: I think I already mentioned these, but oPurity vitamins with iron are chalky and evil. Bariatric Advantage orange soft chews are vile, and all three of us had to spit them out. The caramel soft chew calcium in 250 mg strength are awesome. Love them. But DO NOT get the 500 mg strength! They just took out some of the good tasting stuff and replaced it with more calcium. Which makes them taste like sadness. Like they were left in the store display for too long, and should have been sent to the Island of Misfit Candy. Blech. Once we kill these 500s off, I'm switching back to 250s.

Several of the people in one of my bariatric FB groups suggested that I should get a prescription vitamin from my doctor. So I'm going to try that. L thinks that you have to physically pick up a prescription at Emerson, so I guess I will let me PCP know what I need and ask for vitamins there. Their office will call them in. That should take care of supplements, unless they want me to get a separate OTC iron. But I'm nearing the swallowing whole stage, so YAY!

K is now at about six weeks out, and is allowed to have coffee again. No sugar, obviously, and not in excessive amounts. I may look into that when I'm further along. Maybe it will... regulate me. I've had problems on and off there for years -- ever since I quit smoking. I will have to figure something out, though, b/c I don't really like coffee. I like Dunkaccinos from Dunkin's, but those have sugar. I may have to make fake-accinos. lol. In fact, I think I will go Google recipes. ...  Oh. OK. It looks like you just toss some instant coffee, cocoa powder, creamer, cream/half & half, sugar/Splenda, and a pinch of salt in a mug, and add hot water. Boom. I'm doing that. One person put in hazelnut syrup for some unknown reason, but since it's not in there at Dunkin's, and I'm nut allergic, I'll pass. Also, it doesn't taste all that great, allergy or not, IMO. Now make it caramel, and I might be interested. Yeah, I might be getting syrups. lol. FWIW, most bariatric post-ops I run into online use the Torani sugar-free syrups. You could also use something like Prairie Moon syrups. I bought some of those a few years back before they started making flavored water drops. They come in flavors suitable for waters or coffees. And you add your own sugar or sweetener to them. I don't know how the taste compares with the Torani. The kids didn't drink much of the PM water flavors, though. I made them with the full sugar, and I guess they got bored/tired/whatever of them after not very long. In case you can't tell, not being able to drink diet Pepsi has sucked a lot for me. Everything is too sweet. I will keep searching, though.

Speaking of which, if anybody knows anything good to drink that won't break my too-sweet meter, let me know. I'm on diet raspberry Snapple iced tea right now. Which is good for now. Not a fan of plain water, although I did have to switch to plain spring water for a while since I can no longer stand the taste of our tap water. I'm looking into replacing our whole house water filter (the plumber the insurance sent out removed it after we had the fire), and getting Poland Springs water cooler delivery (not anything like as expensive as it sounds, btw!).

No comments:

Post a Comment