Saturday November 15, 2008

So, as everyone can tell, I am not very good at blogging... hehe :-) Oh well. So, here's the latest. Joe has been walking about a mile every day, sometimes more. Wednesday's are going to be his weigh days, which last Wednesday was his first one. Last month when he weighed, he weighed in at a hefty 521, then when he left the hospital Friday, after his surgery, he weighed 512. They had told him he would most likely gain weight in the hospital, but it would only be water weight. Evidently, most people gain a few lbs after surgery from the IV and from the swelling and retaining water in the skin, tissues, and organs. The Dietitian said that they had to warn all of us about it in class because people already were hurting after surgery, initially regretting the decision to have it due to the pain, and then they would weigh and have gained weight and then they were REALLY unhappy. However, joe never gained any, he just kept losing. So, on Wednesday when he weighed, he weighed in at a lighter 479. That meant he actually lost 33 lbs in the course of 5 days, awesome, I know. He is going to weigh again on this Wednesday, which he can hardly wait. He wanted to weigh sooner, but I really think he should keep it to once a week. Also, eventually he WILL hit a plateau for a while, so it's not going to always be these massive numbers. I personally don't want him to get super small anyway. It already is weird for me to hug him cause he feels so small to me, even though I know he is still big, but I can actually get close to him whereas before, I had to lean out because of his belly when I hugged him. So, basically, I never felt that close to him. :-( He is eating pretty good too, not getting all his protein or all of his fluids quite yet, but we are working on it. I gave up pop to support him, and caffeine, so after the thoughts of killing everyone went away, lol, the world was a better place. He needs a hobby desperately. He gets so bored, and when he is bored, that is when he gets head hungry. On a bad, yet funny note, there is this thing called dumping, and NO it's not what you are thinking. It is when your body rejects something you eat, like sugars, or maybe something to heavy or maybe just something your body says no about. The symptoms are sweating, dizzy, nauseous, shakes, abdominal cramping, and eventually vomiting and or diarrhea. Well, Joe had his first dumping episode Friday night. He had been worrying that they had made his ouch too big since he would sometimes get hungry again a couple of hours after a meal, and he kinda figured it was just his luck to have something like that happen. He had had it on his mind for a few nights, and I made Baked chicken breasts. Well, he really wanted to taste it, and I said a super tiny bite chewed up really well shouldn't hurt him. Well, somehow that translated into have two bites, bless his heart, and sure enough 10 min later he said I don't think I should have done that. % min after that.. I really don't think I should have done that. Another 5 min, I think I am going to puke... I told him to go out onto the front porch and get some cool air. AND I told him if he did throw up to do it in the side yard, not right in front of the house, just in case... 2 min later * wretch* yea, he barfed. BUT, he said it made him feel better to know that he could NOT eat anything he wanted and his surgery was done well, so he said it was a very important lesson, and that it basically was a test. Oddly enough, in this instance vomiting isn't failing... go figure. Also, important note, he went to the assembly today, and spent all day there, no napping i the van, no leaving early from feeling too bad, AND most importantly, he walked around all morning and stood with me while I spoke and he spoke to all our friends. Only kinda sad part was his meeting clothes don't fit him, so he wore a pole shirt and a pair of jeans, but he did wear dress shoes, so it was all good. :-) Everyone was just so happy to see him there that no one cared what he was wearing, me included. He didn't feel uncomfortable at all either, not in his clothes, his seat.. nothing. It was awesome!! OK, that's enough blogging for now, I think it makes up for the almost week with no word. I WILL write Wednesday to tell the newest weight, so I guess I will tty then!