Three Days Post-Op

Thus far, it’s been fairly easy.

Had a bad time yesterday morning about 4:30AM when all the pain meds wore off but morphine is our friend and all was well. 

Codeine is also our friend although it keeps making me take naps.  Although I guess taking naps is really all I’m up to right now.  I’m hoping to be able to live without it by Monday.  Get my head clear and get on with full recovery.

I’ve had an entire protein shake already to day as well as lots of water.  Working on my second shake.  I need three today to meet my protein goal: 60 grams.  I should be able to do it without too much trouble.  I just need to take it slow. One tiny sip at a time. 

I have to crush my regular meds and dissolve them in liquid.  Most of them taste vile so I’m going to have to come up with a better way.  Stronger liquid, prolly. 

Most of the nurses and people in the hospital were great.  Only one guy, Frank, treated me like my questions were just too stupid to answer.  I asked a lot of questions.  I wanted to know exactly what everyone was doing and why.  All meds required a full explanation of what, why and what the side effects were going to be.  Frank thought I should just shut and lie there and let him do whatever he wanted to do.  I was glad when I got to go to my room and leave him behind in recovery. 

Other than that asshole, everyone was quite happy to explain things to me.  They put in lots of effort battling blood clots in the legs.  I was bruising so easily at one point that I turned down any more blood thinners.  They took blood at one point and I bled all over everywhere!  Not big deal but kinda scary to look down and see all the red stuff!!  They wiped me down and bandaged me up and everything was fine.  I also have a fine bruise on my left forearm from something they did in surgery.  No idea what but it left a great, big bruise.  I think I had had enough blood thinners!!

So, I’m napping in my recliner, sipping water and shakes and just generally taking it very easy.  I don’t have anything I need to do so resting will be my activity from now on.  J

The Night Before

Tomorrow morning at 9:30AM I have my surgery.  To say I'm anxious would be a vast understatement.  I'm incredibly anxious.  But, then, I always am before this sort of thing.  I don't expect to sleep tonight.  I'll pack for the hospital, put away my clean laundry (Monday is Laundry Day) and take my shower with anti-bacterial soap per my surgeon's instructions.  That should take a while and then there's always all the TV shows on my DVR. 

My current life ends tomorrow and my next life begins.  I hope I'm a lot healthier in it.  I should be.  The docs tell me that I will go to sleep with Type 2 Diabetes and wake up without it.  I'm looking forward to that: no more painful holes in my fingers to test my blood sugar. 

For my last meal, I had a quite delicious bacon cheese burger and sweet potato fries.  Yummy!  Maybe I'll be able to have something similar, in a much smaller portion, next July when I can eat real food again.  Between now and then, it's protein shakes and baby food.  Yum, yum.  :-) 

Actually, the shakes are quite good.  I've been living on them for the past 2 weeks.  And I've had nothing else today.  Getting my innards emptied and ready.  The rest of the procedures you really don't want to know about!  Let's just say that magnesium citrate tastes nasty!  And is quite effective, too.  :-P

I've been examining my eating habits to try and pinpoint my mistakes so I won't repeat them after surgery.  I have already drastically changed what I eat to conform with my diabetes.  I gave up sweets years ago.  I think my biggest problem is not eating any one food nor any one type of food, I just eat too much of everything.  Portion size has been my biggest enemy.  Having 90% of my stomach removed should fix that problem;  if it eat too much, I will throw it up. 

I've been doing battle with my stomach since I was in my teens.  I seems like I was always hungry.  I could stay on a diet long enough to lose weight but eventually Hunger would win and I would go back to my old habits.  And regain any lost weight.  Again and again.  This time, I win!!  Sanity prevails. 

SNAFU

Yet another SNAFU on my way to surgery: first my endoscopy was rescheduled without my being adequately notified and Tuesday I discovered that my pre-surgery class has been cancelled as well!  I certainly hope my surgeon is more competent than her staff!!  These are the same people who can’t remember to bill my insurance company for office visits.  I suppose the hospital will be better about that, though.  I’ll bet I get billed for the physician’s portion and have to call them, again, and have them bill my insurance for it. 

 

As for adequate notification of a changed medical procedure, leaving a message on someone’s answering machine is not good enough!

 

Years ago, I was the person in charge of empanelling citizens to read grant proposals and give away Arts money.  If I had to reschedule a panel, my job was to TALK to everyone affected by the change.  Not leave messages on machines!!  I couldn’t consider my job done until I had spoken to everyone.  Spoken to them, personally. 

 

In essence medicine is a service industry.  It is extremely poor customer service to leave a patent standing in a medical facility being told their procedure has been canceled without notifying them, personally of the change.  I understand that things happen.   In this case, my surgeon lost her grandmother, for which she has my sympathies.  Her staff not taking the notification of her patients of the cancellations seriously enough to keep trying until they reached every person is inexcusable.  I received 1 phone call, which went to my machine.  My time is just as valuable to me is anybody else’s is!!  Respect for the people you service is the basis of good work in any profession.  It is doubly important in medicine!  Poor customer service could result in serious consequences.  It is life and death. 

 

I realize that I should have checked my machine.  Believe me, I have been ever since this happened but 1 phone call is not adequate notification.  Had she tried even one more time, I would have been home and gotten the news of the cancellation.  "I left a message" is a cop out. 

Diets and Insanity

I’ve been on my pre-op diet for a week now.  I’m not good at diets (no kidding! I got 100 pounds over weight by being such a good dieter!) so I’ve not been perfect but I think I’m doing OK.  At least, I hope so!  Protein shakes get kinda old very quick!

I had my endoscopy on Thursday.  My surgeon likes to take a look at things before she cut them up.  Seems like a good idea to me!  They found a small esophageal erosion but that won’t cause any problems with my surgery.  Lots of Prilosec in my future, I guess.  My biopsies taken during the procedure just to be extra sure all came back clean so more good news!

Actually, I am a pretty good dieter.  I’ve lost over 50 pounds 6 times that I remember.  The problem with dieting and losing large amounts of weight is that it always comes back and brings a few ‘friends’ with it.  The end result over time of dieting is that you get fatter and fatter until you’re hopelessly obese.  Look at the research.  It happens to everyone who tries to lose the weight this way.  It has nothing to do with will power!!!  We are not bad people because we can’t keep the weight off. 

Neither is WLS ‘cheating’!!  Is chemotherapy ‘cheating’ against cancer?  What a ridiculous question and, yet, losing weight and beating obesity with the help of bariatric surgery is called cheating.  “You should have enough strength of will and character to lose the weight with diet and exercise alone!”  This is usually said by people who have never had a serious weight problem in their lives.  They think their experience losing 10 or 20 pounds qualifies them to opine on the severe problems faced by the morbidly obese. 

We fat people need to stop listening to these ridiculous people!  Do what you need to do for yourself!  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  Sure, I could go on another diet.  I did, as a matter of fact.  After I found out I was diabetic in 2009, I lost 40 pounds.  Then, since the first of this year, I’ve lost another 18 pounds.  Without my WLS, I can expect to regain all this weight plus an additional 10 to 20 pounds within the next 2 to 3 years.  I don’t want to weigh over 300 pounds!!!!  

So, I’m not going to be insane about my weight anymore.  I’m making a drastic change to my behavior and am expecting different results. 

One More Week

One more week until my surgery.  One more week of my old life and until my new one starts.  I’m excited.

I keep getting that old ‘Christmas is next week’ feeling that you get right before something good you’re waiting for is about to happen.  I’m really looking forward to losing the weight and losing my co-morbidities, too.  And, maybe, my knees and feet stop hurting me all the time.  I have bins and bins of clothes in the basement that I’m looking forward to going through and wearing some of my favorite too-small clothes once again. 

Women have three wardrobes:  the clothes we can currently wear, the clothes we out-grew but will get back into ‘some day’, and our fat clothes that we un-grew on our latest diet but don’t dare throw away because we know we will need them again. 

My ‘some day’ is going to happen in the next couple of months and I’m giving away my fat clothes and what I’m wearing now as it will all be way too big.  I’m in a size 20/22 now.  My fat clothes are all size 24. My hoped-for new size is a size 10.  The bins contain mostly size 18 and 14 so there will be some shopping in my future!

According to my daughter, a 1970s size 10 (what I hope to get back to) is a size 8 now due to size inflation.  I may still have a couple of size 10 things from back then so we’ll see how it works out. 

I have an entire 1980s size 14 and size 18 wardrobe down in the bins.  What, no size 16?  Nope.  I wore my 14s until they were vastly too tight and then replaced them with 18s.  At least, I don’t think I have any size 16s.  Guess I’ll find out!!

Thrifty Chicken

Well, waddya know?  A food post!!  :-)

Every so often, my local grocery store offers whole roasting chickens Buy One, Get One Free.  I usually take advantage of these sales.  It makes a nice, plump whole chicken cost less than $1.00 a pound.  I cook one fresh and freeze the second one for future dinners.

For Easter this year, I roasted the frozen one.  It was delicious!  We had mashed potatoes, green peas and homemade yeast rolls with it.

The left over half chicken I put in Ziploc bags and refrigerated. 

The second half of the chicken became Chicken Enchiladas. 

 

1 or 2 recipes of Enchilada sauce (below)

1 – 2 cooked chicken breasts

8 corn tortillas

8 ozs. Queso Fresco

Shredded cheddar

Make enchilada sauce.  Allow to cool slightly.

Shred chicken.  Add 1 – 2 ladles sauce to chicken and stir.

Heat tortillas in a damp paper towel in microwave for 30 seconds. 

Using smaller rectangular Pyrex pan, spray liberally with Pam.  Spread bottom of pan with 2 ladles of sauce. 

Per tortilla:  chicken and a strip of cheese.  Roll and place pan.  Make up all 8 tortillas.  Fold a strip of aluminum foil to serve as a separator between the servings, if desired. 

Cover pan with foil and cook at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Uncover and cover with sliced queso fresco and shredded cheddar.  Return to oven and bake until cheese is melty and slightly browned. 

Enchilada Sauce

2 T vegetable oil

2 T AP flour

2 T chili powder

½ tsp ground cumin

1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce

2 C water

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp garlic powder

Heat oil in large 2-quart saucepan; stir in flour and chili powder; cook for 1 minute.

Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Simmer for about 10 minutes. 

 

The remaining meat and bones go into the soup pot. 

            Chicken and Noodles

            Bones, skin and remaining meat from 1 roasted chicken

            1 large onion, cut into pieces

            3 – 4 cloves garlic, crushed

            6 cups water

 

Simmer chicken bones in water with onions and garlic until it falls apart.  Allow to cool.

            Strain out solids, reserving broth. 

Carefully pick through bones and skin for meat and edible goodies.  Throw away skin, bones and gookie parts.  Maybe give some chicken skin, chopped, to the cat?

Cook 6 to 8 ounces of egg noodles in the reserved broth.  Add 1 T sherry, 1 T soy sauce, 1 tsp savory, 1 tsp oregano and 1/8 tsp ground ginger to broth.  Don’t forget the salt and pepper. 

If you made gravy for the roast chicken, reheat it in the microwave for about 1 minute to soften.  When noodles are done, add meat and gravy to pan.  Cook until everything is hot.

Serve with leftover rolls and butter.  A salad would go nice as well.

 

I don’t have pictures of any of this as it didn’t occur to me to blog about this until it was all eaten! 

Utilizing a chicken this way appeals to the frugal housewife in me.  I’ve spent so much of my life never knowing if or when I would have money for food again that I cannot bring myself to waste perfectly good food.  This way, I get three yummy dinners out of 1 chicken! 

You could use baked chicken in either of the above recipes, too.  Or buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.  They’re still only $5.00.  Not too bad a cost for 3 meals for 2 to 3 people!! 

 

 

Hospitals

I found out this week that I’m going to be in the hospital longer than I thought.  I thought my “two days in the hospital” included the day of my surgery.  No.  It means 2 days after surgery.  So, I have my surgery on Tuesday and I go home on Thursday. 

Oh, well.  It’s not like I’m going to have to worry about the food!!  J 

I am concerned about the comfort of the bed, however.  I’m going to take my special pillow so my neck doesn’t hurt me but a bad bed could give me lots of back pain.  Somehow, I don’t think I’m going to need any more pain! 

I’ve also figured out that I’ve been pursuing Weight Loss Surgery (WLS) for over 19 months.  19 months.

I first heard that the only cure for Type 2 Diabetes is WLS in September of 2011.   That’s been my goal all along.  Getting skinny is a special bonus. 

I first tried the Bariatric Unit at St. Vincent Charity Hospital.  They advertise heavily in this market and have free seminars several times a year looking for clients.  What they don’t tell you is that they are the most conservative Unit in the area.  There’s a Unit at the Clinic, at University Hospital and one down in Summit County serving the Akron area.  I'm going to be at UH so, if any friends are reading this, come visit me on Wednesday!

After taking my money for their nutritionist and wasting lots and lots of my time, SVC turned me down due to my heart condition.  I KNOW I’m a high risk patient.  I’ve lived with this risk since 1994.  EVERYTHING is a risk for me: going to the dentist, getting my hernia repaired and dealing with the infection the Clinic gave me, getting my pacemaker implanted, everything!!  Like everyone else, I have to weigh the benefits against the risks.  I believe this is worth the risk.  I (and my cardiologist) am of the opinion that it can only help my heart for there to be 100 pounds less of me.  And getting rid of the sugar problem, which can further damage my heart, is a good thing as well.

And I could die.  It could happen.  I’m going to re-do my will, just in case.  It needs doing anyway and this is the perfect excuse to stop procrastinating about it.