| November journal, cont. |
| November 23, 2001 This is hard for me to share because it is somewhat embarrassing, however I am choosing to share it because I feel I'd be cheating those researching this surgery if I did not share the bad with the good. Today I had a weird episode. I think I may have "dumped" for the first (and LAST!!) time. I'm not sure so I plan on calling my doctor Monday to ask about it. We had to go for a drive to pick up my husband's paycheck (about an hour from home). It was a slow moving morning and I didn't get my walk or protein shake. By the time we left it was nearly lunch time. BAD planning on my part!! Anyway, on our way home we were all hungry so we stopped at Mc Donald's and got food to go. I don't crave fast food like I used to but it was the most convenient thing right then so I went ahead and ordered a cheeseburger and iced tea and nibbled slowly as we drove home. I got through about 1/2 of the cheeseburger and I started feeling crampy in my abdomen (similar to diarrhea cramping). This is normal for me though. Usually my first meal of the day does that to me irregardless of what it is. And I know better than to travel too far from a bathroom. Anyway, I fell asleep in the car and didn't wake up until we were back in town. I felt OK at first then it hit again but much worse. By the time we got home I could barely lift myself from the car. I got to the bathroom, had a seat and nothing happened. The pain got steadily worse and at this point felt more like constipation pain (the severity could've been compared to transitional labor) until I started feeling light-headed and woozy. My color drained, I felt clammy and yucky. I called out to my husband and he came in right away. I told him to be ready to catch me cause I was going out. I was able to get down to the floor with his help; I think that is what kept me from loosing consciousness. As I laid there the pain came in horrible waves making me feel like I'd pass out at any moment. I was really scared. Finally after about 20 minutes had passed I felt a little better, enough to get up and finish what I'd come in for. I spent the rest of the day with a very sore belly. I haven't had much of an appetite since. I really believe this might have been "dumping syndrome". My doc says that when you dump once you will never want to go through it again. Well, I'll tell ya, I don't ever want to experience that again! November 25, 2001 I'm feeling better today. I'm still being cautious about what I eat. I have to remember that even though the pain from surgery is gone, I'm only 3 months out. I forget sometimes that my system still needs TLC. I have felt so good in general and so far I've tollerated a huge variety of foods. I got out a box of keepsake type stuff yesterday. My high school letterman's jacket was in it. I tried it on for fun. It still doesn't fit around, but I was able to put it on which is something I haven't been able to do for a very long time. It felt really good! November 30, 2001 I had the most amazing experience a couple days ago... Mike and I stopped in WalMart and I decided to look for one more pair of pants. I'm wearing an XL in shirts now and have even been able to get into some Larges so I decided to wander through the misses section (as opposed to the women's section). It's been so long since I last shopped in "misses" that I can't even recall the last time. An amazing thought hit me as I walked around, I could pull clothes off the rack in this section and some of them would fit! Suddenly it was like clothes everywhere were jumping off the rack at me, I saw all kinds of clothes that I thought looked cute and I'd like to try. After all these years of basing my clothing purchase decisions entirely on whether or not I could get something on my large body it was strange considering style first. I almost teared up right there. I ended up purchasing a pair of XL denim leggings (my "jeans" of choice for the last decade!) and do you know where I got them from??? Yup...the "misses" section. :) |
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