Wheeewwwwww!!

Oh boy! Today I got to feel the dumping syndrome. I did not have a dumping but certainly had the symptoms of such. I either ate my eggs to fast or didn’t chew them well or my pouch decided to reject them today. Maybe they weren’t moist enough. I don’t know, but I ate them and felt a burning/aching at the top of my pouch. I had only taken a few bites. I should have stopped, but the ole’ raising kicked in. You know the rules. The ones that are based on the guilt trip your parents laid on you when you didn’t want to eat something. “Don’t you know there are starving people in...?” “You need to clean your plate.” “No dessert for you until you clean up every last drop of food on that plate.” Well, today we went with the first one. Even though I felt my pouch saying stop I ate all the food anyway. I figured it couldn’t be full because I took my normal portion. I am up to ½ a cup of food 3 times a day. Well, within several minutes of finishing I felt miserable. It felt like a heavy weight lying on my chest. I thought, “Wow maybe I can wash some of this down.” So I drank some water. Maybe I drank too fast or too much or maybe it was just the wrong thing to do all together. Within a minute I knew I had to lie down. I lay on my bed for about 30 seconds and began to get that “slimy” feeling in my mouth that you get when you think you are going to vomit. So I got up, went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet with the trash can as my companion. I thought, “Great! I’m probably going to dump and have diarrhea and throw up (regurgitate).” Well after 5-10 minutes of “sweating” it out and spitting a few times to get rid of the excess salvias, I burped repeatedly and the pressure subsided. I didn’t dump, but I learned a lesson. Do NOT force food down when your pouch is saying to stop. I do not plan to ever do that again! At least it was short lived.

I think I will forego eggs for a spell. I am going to go to Wal-Mart tomorrow and get some cereal. I know I am still on the puree diet, but I think I can soak it well enough in milk and chew it enough to eat it. I have to get ready for the soft food stage anyway. I have been on the puree diet 2 ½ weeks. The workbook says I would be on it 2 weeks, but the instructions the doctor gave me said a month. So I am going to go get some Cheerios or a rice cereal and try it.

I am doing well with my protein and fluid intake. Most days I am close to 60 grams of protein without adding my actual food intake. My fluid intake is well over 64 ozs most days. I have decided to keep a closer track of protein intake with food means I am now eating ½ a cup of food per meal and only 3 meals a day. I started this process by eating 4-6 times a day with 1 Tablespoon of food a meal. Then I advanced to 2 Tablespoons. Finally when I got up to ¼ a cup of food I trimmed back to 4 meals a day. One night at work I ate that 4th meal by the clock means I rarely feel hunger urges. The 4th meal pushed me over the top. I felt far too full. So since then I have stuck with 3 meals a day. I am eating other foods after my protein portion. I always put dry milk in everything to boost the protein content. I put it in my tomatoes and cottage cheese, pudding, applesauce, mashed potatoes with meat mixture, vegetables, etc. It will be interesting to see how much I actually take in. I know it won’t be 100% accurate because I find it hard to measure the total grams with the dry milk. One-third of a cup of dry milk is 8 grams of protein. Well, I don’t use a full 1/3 cup in a day. But at least I can keep tabs on the food itself. I will have to divide the dry milk down to teaspoons and I can probly be very accurate. I would like to get away from the protein drinks. If I could get by with one a day I would be happier. I also am going to buy and try a “protein bullet”. Once I try it I will let you know what it is like. A protein bullet is a liquid mixture of some sort that has a high protein count. My friend Kevin says they are good, so we will see.

I am a little frustrated this week. I did my weekly weigh-in today. I gained 4 pounds. I’m not sure why. I will start using my DVD’s “Walk Away The Pounds” with Leslie Samsung. I really do enjoy them and I think it will give me a little more exercise than I have been getting with my water aerobics. I can’t do my water aerobics this week because the YMCA is closed for their annual deep cleaning. I have 4 DVD’s of Leslie’s. “Walk Away The Pounds” 1 mile, 2 mile and 3 mile. Then I have one that is “Walk Away the Pounds maintaining Diabetes”. So I hope this will jump start me. I’m sure there is nothing to worry about though.

Well, the clock tells me it is time to eat something. I will hope my dumping days are over with and my lesson is learned. Until next time-listen to your body and don’t overeat—It is okay to leave something on your plate! Regardless if you have had surgery or not! It’s in the portion control!

Your only limit is what you put on yourself!