Week Seventeen

(The Header picture is Los Arcos square on the Camino)

 

Here we are, seventeen weeks in, and three weeks post-operation.  Recovery from the operation, as far as healing and rib pain is concerned, is moving along nicely.  I’m not taking any more pain meds, and while my ribs are still a little sore, it’s not something that keeps me awake or makes me super uncomfortable.

The difficult part of the healing process now is ingesting enough food/calories to keep my weight from getting dangerously low.  I have a j-tube attached to my small intestine, which is there for backup, and we will probably decide with the doctor next week whether I am going to need it or not.

The doctor told me I needed to ingest 1500 – 2000 calories a day, and he wants me to document this for a week to see if I can do it.  If I can’t, we’ll go to the j-tube for additional nourishment.  My weight has already dropped to 128.5 lbs.

The difficulty of taking in this amount of calories is that my stomach is much smaller than it was, and I get full very quickly.  Half the time when I should eat again I feel very nauseous.  The doctor wants me to eat six times a day, and it’s like I’m barely finished with one meal when it’s time for the next one….and I’m still full.

The first three days of my documentation on this exercise showed I only consumed 1,100 calories on day 1, and 700 on each of day 2 and 3.  I talked to a dietician and she gave me some strategies to get to the desired calorie level: eat every two hours, eat only 4 ounces of food, eat foods high in fat/protein/calories, fix smoothies and add flax oil or other oils to the smoothie, and avoid carbohydrates.

That strategy seems to be working, and I got up to 1900 calories on Friday, so we’ll see how it goes for the next few days.

Other aspects of my health….my blood pressure is quite low, and has been that way for a while.  And my heart rate is high…in the high 90’s, but the doc’s don’t seem to be concerned.  My primary care doctor said my heart should be able to take a high rate for a while, thanks to all the swimming I’ve done over the years.  And he said it should drop back to normal as my red blood cell count improves.  I’m breathing into a device to try to keep liquid out of my lower lungs and avoid the possibility of pneumonia.  I am short of breath, and have only been on two or three very short walks in the past two weeks.  I hope to get out on one today.

I’m sleeping well.  Carol has been a fabulous caregiver.  It just seems like it’s going to be a long slog before it’s done.  As a good friend told me, ‘Think ahead to when this will be over, and in the meantime wallow in the love of Carol.’

I take that as excellent advice.

 

Here’s a late add-on…a poem about an old golfing buddy of mine who owns an ice cream shop.

Banana Splits

The ice cream man smiled.

In his seventies

A by-pass survivor

A diabetes-driven dieter

Loser of 100 pounds

He sat with three friends

In his ice cream parlor

A gleam in his eye

As he treated them to

Three behemoth banana splits.

 

Humongous scoops of

Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla ice cream

Smothered in pineapple, strawberry

And chocolate sauces

Topped with whipped cream

Cherries, and nuts,

The bananas hidden from view

Beneath monstrous mounds.

 

He watched us eat

And he was happy.