4 days post Nissen

Thank you Denise for all your sharing, it certainly is helpful to read and follow along so I know what to look out for. I'm sure you've saved my butt many times already!

Well, today marks the 1 week point since my surgery. I'm doing OK i guess, nothing too much to report since my last update but i'll post some findings since then.

1. I decided to experiment with some soup broths and strained (mostly) a can of French Onion Soup ( I was bad and left some onion bits in there). I got really gassy afterwards and my digestive track was quite noisy (my girlfriend kept telling me to be quiet) I passed Gas and burped (im able to burp a bit) ALLLL NIGHT. My stomach didnt hurt per se, but it certainly wasnt happy. Guess it's not ready for the onions!

2. At day 7 my weight has actually stopped going down. In fact, i've actually gained a pound or 2 over the last couple days. What's up with that!? I started at 200 and went down as far as 185. Today i'm at 188. I've been walking 30-60 minutes for the past 3 days and this has been my diet:

- Morning - 1 Boost Nutritional Drink (240 Cal + 26G Protein)
- Afternoon - Fruit Cocktail (100 Cal Pack) or Yogurt (120 Cals)
- Night - 1C Soup Broth

Throw in 1C of water or apple juice in there and that's what i've had the past 3 days! So how can i possibly be GAINING Weight? What gives? I want to lose more weight and im eating as much as my stomach will allow me too, which as you can see isnt much. My main concern isnt that i'm not losing weight anymore, but that im wondering if this is normal? I was told I would lose 20-25lbs. And i have i to lose...

3. My incisions are healing up nicely although i've been picking at them, much to the dismay of my OR Nurse Girlfriend who yells at me. I'm trying not to now. I press on them and they're just a bit tender. My internals still feel pretty swollen and tender and i can feel it when i turn my torso without moving my feet to stretch or bend over or while walking the dog and having to restrain her slightly. Stuff's still healin, that's fo sho.

4. My swallowing is pretty much at status quo. Not much has changed in the last few days. I still need to chew the @*() out of whatever i'm eating. Oh, actually i had a Small Wendy's Frosty yesterday (ok that adds 330 cals to yesterdays total..woops!) and it took some work to make sure it all melted in my mouth and SLOWLY swallow little bits down..but it was pretty dang good! I find if i eat too fast i actually start getting the hiccups..this hurts!

Still feeling pretty tired. I took on some work today. I'm an IT Consultant so Work means going on-site to talk to customers, troubleshoot issues, etc. We had a proposal for a client that I went and did with my business partner and I did OK. I always looked forward to our lunch meetings but that didnt happen today!

I feel like i'm getting on OK but the jury is most definitely still out for me.

Before i had the surgery i was a constant grazer in the kitchen. I would open the fridge and eat a pickle or a handful of olives and just LOVE IT (I used to do pepperoncinis..but..yeah). So i put an olive in my mouth and chewed the crud out of it and tried to swallow it..now i can feel all the little bits in my throat..time to get some water!

thanks for listenin!