Question:
Things are going well here. I got one tube taken out last Monday. Theydecided to leave the one going to the old stomach "just in case." Butso far I'm doing well with the food.

I advanced last week from jello and broth to eggs, refried beans, andother soft foods like that. This weekend I advanced to chicken, tuna,and turkey. The nutritionist suggested the canned kind to start so itis moist enough for the new stomach. But I can grill a piece ofchicken if I want. I'm not into cooking, so the canned stuff is finewith me. And I can add in some Miracle Whip Light for extra flavor.

I can also add in string cheese this weekend. Our local dairy ismaking a new skim chocolate milk made with Splenda that I can havetoo. That is good stuff. Oh, and I can have yogurt this week too. So,things are moving along fine. I can still only eat a couple bites at atime and I'm full.

I've lost over 55 pounds since the surgery on May 17th. That makes mytotal weight loss since last July at 175 pounds. I just bagged up abunch more clothing to give to a homeless shelter. Luckily, I savedall my old clothing as I gained the weight. So, I also got to take outabout 20 new/different shirts that have been hanging in the closet forover ten years now. There were even a few pair of pants that fit. So,I have a new old wardrobe now.

I'm still enjoying the water. I found a nutrition store that has it'sown water purifying system. It's a huge thing that takes up half theirstore. I take in my 3 gallon container and get it filled for like 83cents. It tastes better than some bottled water that I've bought inthe stores.

So, everything is going very well as far as recovery. I still wear outtoo easily but I'm only six weeks out from surgery and I'm told thatwhat I'm feeling isn't totally uncommon.

I also need to do better at taking the protein supplement. I don'tlike it so tend to skip it too often. And I was told that lack ofprotein can make a person feel lethargic and tired. So, it may be thattoo. I can't eat enough protein in a day to get the daily requirement,so I'm going to have to break down and eat the powdered stuff everyday. I need to have 50 grams of protein per day.

Answer: That's great! It sounds like things are going well, indeed. Still wearingout easily is not common this soon after any surgery and it's even more comonwhen you've had post-op complications, so you're right not to worry aboutthat too much, frustrating but normal.

Now, start being good and take your protein however you need to get it. Ican tell you for certain that too little can make you lethargic and tiredbecause it happens to me. It's really aggravating as I can't eat milkprotein and somedays I just don't want to cook anything! Ah, well. At leastwe have lots of food available to us so I guess I shouldn't complain!

Out of curiousity... does that store use reverse osmosis to purify theirwater? I ask because my dad made the major break-through in the membraneused for reverse osmosis water purification :) Though he always told usothers were working on it too and someone else would have made thebreak-through in a year or two if he hadn't. But, it's a rare claim to famein my family.

As for me, well, I forgot I was on my last refill of tramadol. Didn't callit in before my doc took off on Friday. So now I'm stretching one day'sworth to cover 2.5 days! And it would be the weekend we're doing the soupkitchen down in Saginaw! It figures that the one time I wait until the lastday to call in my refill, it'd be the last refill and a weekend! LOL That'll teach me.