[invisigoth]

Hi all! Just checking in. I was still having troubles with throwing up. Last week I had another endoscopy scope and they dilated the opening of my pouch again. So far, I've been keeping everything down. However, when I had the endoscopy, my heartrate dropped very low, in fact they said it looked like it stopped at one point. So I had to go immediately to a cardiologist afterwards. He checked me out and I have a stress test scheduled in a couple of weeks. He said that I had a heart murmmer, which I probably had forever and it just was never caught. He didn't really explain very well why my heartrate went so low, of course I was still drugged up, so I don't remember a lot of what he told me. My heartrate has been rather low each time I've had some proceedure since my surgery. Before I went under for this past endoscopy, my heartrate was between 39 to 40 beats. It averages less than 60 now.

I'm feeling a lot better this week. I haven't had any throwing up episodes, and I had a really nice weekend with my family in Santa Cruz. My parents have a house there and my two brothers and my sister and their families all came to get together for the weekend. I have a brother from Texas who comes out every year with his family for a month, and this was the first weekend they were here. We had a lot of fun walking by the ocean, shopping and going to the boardwalk. One of the troubles with my family though is that we are all really big eaters. Those damn chips, which are the bane of my existance, made a reappearance again. I actually gained a couple of pounds this weekend, but I'm not going to change my ticker, because I'm determined to get them off!

We walked a lot, but I ate a lot of empty calories this weekend. I'm really nervous because every year we also spend a week in Tahoe. That is going to be really hard, because I know there will be a lot of crap food over the week, even though my Mom's trying to be really supportive. She made a great BBQ sause and peach cobbler dessert that she found on a baratric recipe site. Got any tips about spending extended time with family? I'm planning to up my exercise as well, although I want to check with the cardiologist first to see if it would be ok to do some hiking in the high elevation. I've been looking forward to this trip for since I had my surgery so I could actually do some hiking which would have been too difficult in the past.

[sportmom]

I would say do your own shopping when you get there and keep a cabinet of your stuff stocked that you can eat. I wouldn't worry about seeming odd or anti-social, your mom is supportive and after all you've been thru, anyone would understand why you have to eat carefully now for sure. I know some of the gals on the LWL (bodybuilding) forum even pack their own food for trips and they've not even had the surgery, but are just that committed to not blowing it on a weekend/or trip. I think you have to just do the same thing or is will start to spiral on you. GOOD LUCK!

[Loodie]

My hubby & I work & live in different states. One weekend he is at my house & the opposite weekend I am at his. I have discovered that if I pre-plan what I am going to eat & take my food for the weekend with me, things go much better & I am less stressed about what to eat & how much. I usually leave 1-2 meals open as alternate plans in case we go out to eat.