Vita-Fail

Here I am, loafing in bed again. That was me earlier waiting for the nurse.

She says she’s going to watch Gob closely for a week to give the Medi-gel, C shapes and the Aquacel time to work. She’ll be back on Tuesday and will decide whether to send us back to the surgeon or whether what we are doing is working.

She told me to be sure I’m wearing my ostomy belt, and that we need to get the next size down ASAP, even if we have to pay out of pocket. The hospital gives everyone a large (it’s their stock size) and it’s too big. I wear it on the tightest setting and it’s still a bit loose.

Lastly, she reprimanded me a bit about my eating and told me I need to eat more. >.> I’m still losing weight (down another pound this week, ten pounds total due to the gastroparesis). The fact that I’m in bed most of the time should mean it’s easy to maintain my weight because I burn less calories than I do in a normal day, but I’m still losing.

Gastroparesis makes it hard to eat though so I know I struggle with that. I’ve been drinking one smoothie per day though and leaving little bits of foods out to snack on. Despite having a Vitamix, I am still somewhat limited on fresh veggies. Some are still totally off limits due to the gastroparesis and ostomy. ABSOLUTELY no nuts, seeds or corn EVEN ground up. Though, nut butters or milks are safe (the former in small amounts).

As a side note, as someone who put on weight when they got sick a couple years ago and was stuck in bed so much, I really think it’s odd that so many people (not just this nurse but other docs as well) are concerned with me maintaining my weight when I’m twenty-three pounds overweight. I seriously expected them to be glad my weight was coming down. I’m not thin and I’m not pretending I am, and I know I weigh too much. It’s just bizarre as fuck being overweight and having doctors and nurses trying to get you to eat more. Weird!

I can’t eat more than I am though. I’ve been focused on maintaining rather than losing weight since I was diagnosed because I knew gastroparesis would take pounds off. With my liquid nutrition the weight comes off slower than without (easier to get liquid cals in) but it still comes off. I’m trying though. I take vitamins a lot too.

The nurse said she really hopes that the Medi-gel, C shapes, and Aquacel work because the surgery to repair this is SUPER MAJOR and a lot more intense than the surgery I had two weeks ago. That scared me good for a couple minutes. I still really hope it doesn’t come to that.

OK. Thus concludes the Faete “Health Whinging.” I probably won’t whine anymore unless anything changes before the nurse comes back in a week, but I will definitely update when she comes back. Cross your fingers for me that things start getting a lot better! FAST!

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