My Bariatric Surgery Adventure

It has been a couple of days since I put an entry into this blog.  It’s been a very interesting period of time as I adjust to recovery.

Sunday I had a number of very nice folks come over and visit, all of whom, other than my daughter, had not been to the apartment for many years. I’ve also gotten flowers and balloons and a lot of get well greetings from people who have been nice to me over time, but surgery seems to brought out the best in them.

I took a walk yesterday and had to rest the couple of times, but did about three quarters of a mile.  I took a walk today, a and needed to rest, but did over half a mile.

The strangeness comes from not feeling very injured from my surgery. I still have some pain in my side where they stqpled my stomach and I’m still very tired, but I don’t feel disabled. My initial reaction was to be more involved in things that are going on at work. It is obvious that everyone at work has decided that I should take a break from work, and I think I’m not going to push the issue anymore.

I added low-fat yogurt to my diet today and that was a nice treat, and it seemed to settle well. I need to keep up my fluids, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem as far as getting them down. I think Jody is a little disappointed that I’m not struggling more to take down the protein and the fluids, since this was a large problem for her when she had her bariatric surgery.

Jody is trying to deal with upsets in her family and on the one hand I think she’s grateful that I have not required a level of care which he was prepared to give, but on the other hand, I think she’s disappointed that I’m not more dependent on her. In fact she went back to work today, and I know she wasn’t happy about that.

A neighbor of ours called today to say that she had had the same surgery two weeks ago and that her doctor had actually nicked her spleen and she was in surgery for the four hours. I had to tell her that I had no such complications and that I was already out walking and feeling relatively okay.

I know disappointment sounds very odd in this context, but I think Jody had certain expectations of what I would be like after surgery. She doesn’t think very highly of my ability to deal with pain or any sort of complicated physical issues. I think disappointment is the word that comes to mind because she feels that she has a place as a caregiver tand that my role is the helpless patient. I’m very glad that is not the case, but it is a strainanyway.

Thank goodness I’m finally starting to lose the few pounds that I gained in the hospital from fluids and have even lost little bit more than that.

My fear is that when I get back to work I won’t have any work to do, since everyone will of taken over everything that I was working on. I’m not sure this is a rational fear or just my usual level of paranoia about work.

I also feel bad for this blog in that I don’t have more dramatic scenarios that have resulted so far from eye surgery. I feel pretty good, I am in a little pain and I am also tired, but I am getting my liquids down and I’m looking forward to transitioning from a liquid diet to a soft food diet. In fact most of the foods of that part of the diet are favorite foods including black beans, kidney beans, no fat refried beings, ground meat and round seafood.

Well I will continue to blog.  If you have any questions about the peocess please send your comments.