The journey from fat to fit. Road trip, woo hoo!

Well, chicks, I am probably down a pound or two, because I just did a 24-hour stint in the hospital. Again.

DH thought he had food poisoning beginning Sunday. I felt fine. By Tuesday, I was feeling nauseaus and icky, but not violently ill like he had been, but it made me think that we probably both had a stomach bug, no food poisoning involved. Tuesday I chugged a bottle of Pepto and made it thru a short work day. Wednesday I was off of work, ran errands with DD11, and was feeling ick the whole day. Ate a little bit of Thai food for lunch, but nothing really “settled” very well. No throwing up, just that queasy feeling, like being motion sick 24/7.

By about 4 pm Weds I had a headache and diarrhea, which is on my “call the doctor” list. By this time, DH had progressed to diarrhea and a headache as well, so I still feel like we were sharing some kind of bug. But I called the doc and they told me I had to go admit myself into the hospital! As you can imagine, I balked at that, but finally agreed I’d go later and spend the night for observation. They wanted to make sure that the upset tummy was not the result of my surgery and I guess basically any time you have a tube sticking out of your body, they take everything pretty seriously.

Spent Weds night at the hospital, had my liver study done Thurs morning and they removed the tube. All is well with my liver. So yay for that, because I was scheduled to keep it in until March 9. They kept me on IV fluids and gave me meds for the nausea, which was really nice and better than spending the day in bed at home feeling queasy.

Doc wanted blood work to check liver enzymes before I went home. He told me at 1 pm that he would have the lab  draw blood at 3 and then I could leave after they got the results, 30-45 minutes later. I won’t go into the details, but the lab didn’t show up to draw blood until after 5 pm and I didn’t get discharged until 6:30 pm. LONG DAY.

But I am home now, on a low-fat x one week diet and liquid/soft food x two days diet. I’m going to take it easy (still dealing with the bug, as is DH) this weekend and I’ll be back Monday, ready to restart my feeble attempt at food tracking.

xox

No weigh in.

breakfast: three crescent rolls and a banana

lunch/dinner: tba

LUNCH UPDATE: took DD11 for Thai after getting her cast off. Ordered drunken noodles which were delicious and WAY TOO SPICY, so I ate a tiny bit, plus a little bit of her pad thai, and had a cup of egg drop soup. Came home and was starving about an hour later, so I had two left over crescent rolls from this morning. Dug the package out of the garbage to see how much crescent roll damage I was inflicting today and SCORE they were low fat crescent rolls.

weight: 157.4

breakfast: granola bar and tea

lunch: garden salad, small cup of chicken soup and six saltine crackers, iced tea

snack: cranberry coffee cake (from bakery, omg, so effing good)

dinner: tba UPDATE one cup of tomato soup and about 10 saltines. I’ve had an upset stomach and just didn’t feel like much else. Until after dinner OF COURSE. Then i had a fat free chocolate pudding. And then I had FIVE TAGALONG GS cookies. Friggin cookies.

I went into the hospital on 2/6 weighing 162 lb. I came out on 2/7 weighing 157 lb. I’ve gotten on the scale a few times here and there over the last week, mostly when getting in the shower, and have been 157-158 pretty consistently. GOAL: get back down to 150 before spring break.

And she’s back. I go back to work this week (tomorrow) and so I thought this is probably as good a time as any to get myself back on track with food. I’ve done pretty well over the last two weeks as I have been home all the time. I have noticed zero difference in my digestive process. People warned me that too much fatty food would cause problems. I have not had any big fat binges, but I have had normal eating (pasta in a creamy sauce with sausage at a party, for example, which was definitely not low fat) and normal digestion.

Recovery wise, I still have a port into my liver that I will continue to have for at least two more weeks, maybe three. I still need to have a contrast study of my liver, where they will inject dye thru the port, and that has me somewhat freaked out. If the liver is all clear, then the port comes out and I am DONE. If there are any more stones lodged in the liver, then I will be going back into the hospital to have it roto-routered out again. But this time they’ll go thru the port, so I won’t need a full-on surgery. Just a *procedure* which, hello, also has me freaked out.

So here we go… back to reality:

weight: did not weigh

breakfast: granola bar, coffee

UPDATE: snack: fat free pudding cup

lunch: tba UPDATE garden salad, five saltines and another pudding cup

UPDATE: snack: snack size bag of Fritos. 160 cal, 10 g fat, so not worth it. but? yum.

dinner: tba UPDATE: took DD11 to McD’s between dance classes. I ate a grilled chicken sandwich on whole wheat with no mayo. Not bad as far as fat content goes. Of course, then I also ate one of DD’s chicken nuggets and about 1/4 of her medium fries. Followed by a yogurt parfait. And this morning, my stomach is ICK. DH is in Day 3 of a really funky stomach. We thought it was food poisoning, but now that I am feeling ICK I wonder if it’s a bug? Also, I go back to work today, so, seriously, NO TIME FOR ICKY TUMMY.

exercise: huh? what’s that? such a distant memory. right now I’m going to focus on food only and exercise is going to be off the table until the port is removed.

xox Chicks, Happy Monday : )

Hey Chicks,

Thought I’d check in and say HI, I’M NOT DEAD. THANKS!

I had a post op visit yesterday. The doctor removed my surgical drain but I still have a liver drain. I have to go back next week, at which time he MIGHT be able to remove the “bag” (gross gross gross) part, but the tubing and port will remain for up to six weeks. There’s a 50/50 chance I’ll need another “procedure” on my liver, and having this port in place will make that an easier process if it is needed.

I am, frankly, freaked out and skeeved out and grossed out by the whole thing. I am a delicate flower and when ugly things happen I go LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU, which is apparently what I was subconsciously doing in the hospital as things were being explained to me and which is why I apparently didn’t hear things like LIVER REPAIR and PANCREATITIS and YOUR GALLBLADDER WAS A TOTAL FUCKING MESS. Because? LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU.

Nothing hurts other than a dull achey feeling in the abdomen. I’m just in bad mood, tired, zero energy and afraid to eat anything. Recovery is not all it’s cracked up to be.

I haven’t gotten on the scale yet. Going into the downstairs bathroom requires too much energy. And that’s where I keep the scale. Because of my compulsive weighing issues that I’ve had in the past, I keep the scale in the least convenient bathroom, so that I am not weighing myself before and after every time I pee.

When you hear things like that, doesn’t it really make you think, shit, a fucked up gallbladder is the LEAST of this chick’s problems? haha

xox

Friday night I skipped salsa dancing with DH because I had a funky belly ache. By 9 pm, it was really bothering me, so I also skipped DD11’s dance performance and had DH take her. When they got home at 11 pm, I was contemplating going to the ER, but talked myself out of it, thinking I had gas or had eaten something that wasn’t agreeing with me.

By 2 a.m. I was ready to go to the ER, but didn’t want to wake up DD11, so I convinced myself that I could wait until the morning.

At 5 a.m. I had DH drop me off at urgent care and then come back home so DD11 wouldn’t wake up home alone and freaked out.

The urgent clinic sent me to the fully blown hospital. And by 10 a.m. it was decided that I’d be having my gallbladder removed and spending at least one night, if not two, in the hospital.

They took me into surgery Saturday at noon and removed my gallbladder laprascopically (sp) and then did a liver scan. My gallbladder, which I have never had a problem with once in my entire life, was in horrible condition. The liver scan showed gall stones in the duct, so I had to go into recovery, wake up from the anesthesia, and then go to a different type of OR room and go under general anesthesia again. I DO NOT DO WELL WITH ANESTHESIA, just fyi, so this was pretty horrible for me.

Second procedure was done with endoscopy, where they put a camera tool thing down my throat and basically roto-routered the liver duct.

So now I have: zero gallbladder, a ziplock bag filled with about 100 little gallstones (just for kicks) and two DISGUSTING DRAINAGE TUBES coming out of my belly into bags on my right hip. SO GROSS.

I’ve been home for about 20 minutes now. DH has gone to fill my Rx and then he is going to work. A friend will be bringing DD11 home from school. WHAT A FUCKING ORDEAL THIS HAS BEEN.

No work for a week, no heavy lifting for months, no running for at least 6-8 weeks, soft/liquid food for the foreseeable future and a low fat diet forever.

So my weekend of healthy eating didn’t turn out the way I had planned, but if I had the energy to get up and get on the scale, I think I’d be down at least a pound or two, lol. Friday night dinner was half a roast beef sandwich and a handful of doritos. The next thing I had was ice chips Saturday night at 11 pm. I was allowed ice chips and water thru the day Sunday and then had broth Sunday evening. I had a creamy soup and cup of coffee for Sunday supper. Monday breakfast was cream of wheat and a coffee and a yogurt.

It bears repeating; WHAT A FUCKING ORDEAL. Never in a million years when I had a stomach ache Friday night did I think I’d be undergoing surgery twice over the weekend. Total insanity. I am so glad to be home now. But honestly, if I had known that I’d have to be emptying these disgusting drains etc. at home, I might have stayed another day in the hospital. SO GROSS.

I have follow up with the surgeon on Wednesday and one drain will be removed. but the bile duct thing filled with disgusting green bile will be with me for…. get ready for this…. A MONTH TO TWO MONTHS. Seriously. A bag of disgusting bile draining from a tube in my stomach, carried around on my hip for up to two months.

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

weight: 161.8 - I’m calling bullshit on my scale.

breakfast: coffee

lunch/dinner: tba

exercise: tonight is salsa night with DH, so two hour lesson.

FOCUS: DH is going out of town, DD16 has plans, leaving me home alone with just DD11 and an excellent opportunity to have a mini food boot camp with myself. I am even thinking about hitting GNC today for some kind of one-day detox program for Saturday.

It’s 3:30 pm and I have not binged out on chips. Yet. Nor am I going to. And not because they’re already all gone. Oh, no, they’re not. But me? I’m made of eff’ing steel. That’s what I am.

I thought you’d want to know.

xox

weight: did not weigh

breakfast: coffee

lunch: lean cuisine, handful of fritos and a diet coke

dinner: tba but will be chicken sausage, cauliflower and pasta UPDATE: forgot that DD11 had her sewing class tonight so no time to cook the pasta! I had one chicken sausage link sliced and served sandwich style on an Orowheat wheat “thin round” whatever those things are called (love them!), a bowl of steamed cauliflower, beets with feta cheese and a kiwi : )

working from home today, and really really really need to be productive to break my old “bad habits” of procrastinating work and stay on top of things now that I am someone else’s employee. Which means that I actually sat at my desk and WORKED on my work from home day for the last five hours. miraculous!

weather is gray and cold and while I had the brief inclination to go for a run, it came and went quickly

FOCUS: no crap eating today… so far so good

weight: did not weigh

breakfast: mini pancakes and a cup of coffee. Pancakes were 2 cal, 2 grams fat

lunch: teriyaki chicken sandwich from subway. bag of doritos. diet coke

dinner: leftover chicken casserole

exercise: none

UPDATE: spent two hours with DD11 watching TV and eating WAY TOO MANY CHIPS and chocolate. I feel sick. And like an asshole for doing this to myself.

stress level: stress x one billion and then my head exploded. the end.