Some thoughts . . .

In the last 32 days, I have not 

• eaten in my car
• had fast food
• eaten candy
• gone out to lunch at work (it was a 2-3x a week habit there for awhile)
• suffered from reflux
• had any nosebleeds  (my sinuses have freakishly cleared since surgery day!)
• felt exhausted
• had any regrets

Having this surgery is a huge deal.  I know I will not be perfect every day, but I will do a good job every day and try my hardest.

This week has been a huge challenge.  It started out with a surge strip mishap which ended up zapping my work computer's hard drive. Toast. Paperweight.  Then on Tuesday I had to meet with my boss, who was not in a good mood.  I caught a bad case of the crabbies and thought I was just going to have to give up, go home and pull the blankets over my head.

Normally, that would send me to my junk food drawer or across the street to CVS for some kind of fix. I just did a little breathing and had some yogurt.  Then had my calcium pills.  For some reason, I love my calcium lozenges.  They're cinnamon flavored, kinda grainy, but oddly soothing.  I actually look forward to my two calcium breaks per day at work.  

I managed to survive my week (so far) without killing anyone or eating a big bag of M&Ms.  With one day left until the weekend, and stress relieving time hanging out in the yard and garden with the dogs, I think I'll make it.

Today I realized...

there appears to be more in life than food!

Perhaps I overdid it, but I spent most of the day in the yard, working. I ate, but not all that much; my meals and a snack of turkey breast and cheese. I wasn't obsessed with what I was going to eat next.  I was more obsessed with getting the lawn cut and planting my hanging baskets for the front porch.

Yeah, if I end up with a transference addiction, I'm sure I could come up with worse things than gardening.  : )

FINALLY!!

I have the most sensitive skin, and as  you've heard me whine, I had a huge rash after my surgery.  Some kind of allergic reaction to the pre-op scrub/surgical incise drape.  I have issues with bandages too.  They stick like gorilla glue and take at least 3 layers of skin off when I yank 'em.

Today, I FINALLY got the surgical steri-strips off my incisions!

It's only 3 days shy of 3 weeks and those buggers were getting quite grimy.  But I had this irrational fear that if I tried to pull them off, my incisions would open.  Yikes!  Dr. Williams did say let them fall off naturally.  But I don't think he is aware of the issues with my skin and sticky stuff.  

For the past several days I have been slathering them with baby oil in the shower to help loosen the adhesive.  I was able to gently pull them off.  I even took the set of strips off my big incision. Fortunately, my pork did not pop out.  Whew!

Now I just have to deal with the adhesive goo aftermath.  Mary suggested Goo-Gone!  I think that would sting, but at least I'd smell orange-citrus fresh!

You had to know I'd go there eventually (warning: gross post!)

Intestinally, life has been quite different since I started my liquid diet a week prior to surgery.

I suffered from some major carb withdrawal a few days into the diet. After a short break from solid foods, my intestines got to go on vacation. I could imagine them coiled on a chaise on the beach, sunglasses on, fruity drink close at hand.  Sighing happily in the sun about getting some time off.

I have had IBS or some kind of crazy colon for YEARS.  For me, constipation was what other people considered normal, if you get my drift.  And I went with great frequency.  GREAT frequency.  As in a week's worth of output for the average Joe was my morning before I left for work.

Now, things have slowed down considerably and uh, firmed up.  And I'm quite gassy.  That seems to be the norm with any kind of bariatric surgery.  That and from eating healhty food, ha ha.  The gas is beginning to get to me, though. Because the contents of my intestines are now solid, convincing said gas to exit around the masses up in there is challenging.

First off, now my gas is wickedly noisy.  Not just a toot here and there.  It's like trumpets.  I frequently finding myself laughing in the bathroom at work.  5th grade boys would love me! But I also have to strain some to pass gas, which is irritating.  Literally.  As in my ass is getting chapped or something from all the high pressure air flow! OUCH.  Hopefully all the gaseous friction will induce an anal callous or something, so it won't be so irritating once I adjust to my new normal.  Gassy with ass callous, that is.

Plus, between that and going to the bathroom, I'm worried I'm gonna pop a stitch!  If I feel a spoiinnng! while going (sound and sensation of my band popping off!), I will literally freak.  I hope it doesn't come to that though.

Hmm. I need to find my bottle of Benefiber.  NOW.

Super Cool Website

I told my pal Katy about my walks to and from the parking lots and how I estimated it, based on my number of steps and stride length, to be about a mile.  She told me about this fantastic site called Geodistance where you could actually map out routes and their distances.  

Whaaaaa?

Immediately, I went there, and sure enough, the route from my car to my desk is 0.92 miles!  How cool is that?  The nerd in me was quite giddy!  And impressed that my Body Bugg steps were that accurate.  I guessed a mile, and was off by a mere 0.08.  WOW!

I wanted to come up with a short walk I could do during the day.  10 minutes or less. I sit here at the computer for hours on end and it's wreaking havoc on my joints. I need to get up and move periodically. Perhaps more than just my 47 Crystal Light induced potty runs a day.

So I realized I could toggle this Geodistance map to satellite and voila!  I can see all the sidewalks on campus!  SUPER COOL!  So I came up with a route that's right at half a mile and I did it this afternoon in just about 10 minutes.  Perfect! 

As my stamina improves, I can make it longer and throw in a few hills over by the law school.  This is fun stuff for me.  Yeah.  Obviously, it doesn't take much.

So many transitions

I am really pleased with post-op life with my Lap-Band.  Every time I turn around, there's another little victory.  A new accomplishment.

Take for example yesterday:  I put on my Body Bugg, as I love to track numbers.  It keeps track of calorie burn (theoretically), steps taken (quite accurate) and cumulative time spent moving. For some reason it wouldn't activate.  I couldn't figure it out.  What gives?  I just changed the battery and everything!

I figured it out on the drive to work.  I had lost enough weight in my upper arm that the contacts weren't in contact with my skin anymore! I tightened the arm band and it worked.  Last night, in the transition world, I changed the arm band to the NORMAL SIZED ONE!  It was just too tight to use when I first got my bugg last year.  Now I can wear it with room to spare.

Another transition, which I am quite pleased with, is my transition from morbidly obese to obese!  I am no longer morbidly obese!  Take that, fat cells!  Mwaahahahaha!  Technically I am severely obese (BMI 39.6), but when I drop my BMI just a few more points, I'll progress to Just Plain Obese.  Oh yeah, there will be much partying that day!

For reference purposes, here are the classifications of obesity based on BMI:

• Normal:  BMI from 18.5 to 24.9
• Overweight:  BMI from 25 to 29.9
• Obesity, Class I (Just Plain Obese, my technical term):  BMI from 30-34.9
• Obesity, Class II (Severely Obese):  BMI from 35 to 39.9
• Morbidly Obese:  BMI > 40
• Super Morbidly Obese:  BMI > 50

With weight loss this week from starving all day and adding walking to my routine, I have dropped from Morbidly Obese to Severely Obese! (trumpet fanfare interlude)  Obviously, I'm working my way down to normal (BMI less than 25), but that's going to take time.

But to remind myself of how far I have come, my BMI when I started this journey was nearly 47!!!  So I'm down 8 points already.  Off to a very good start.  I just had a bad shudder realizing I was only 3 points away from being super morbidly obese.  Wow.  Can you say, "Reality check?"

Speaking of all these transitions, it seems my stomach muscles have healed well enough for me to relinquish the potty chair.  Sigh.  Back to big girl toilets for me.

A good day

My second day at work was a good one.  My head is still a bit foggy (I blame anesthesia!) and I didn't get a whole lot done, still catching up with everyone.  But I am pleased with how things are going.

I got in my two walks today, skipping the shuttle in the morning and afternoon.  It felt good, actually.  I hate those buses!  And great weather is the perfect incentive to walk.

On the flip side, today I was RAVENOUS!  Twice I was stomach growling hungry.  I drank tons of Crystal Light to offset that, which had me in the bathroom almost once an hour.  Hey, that's a way to get those steps in, right?  Mid-afternoon, I broke down and had a cup of Carb Master yogurt.  I didn't care for the peach flavor, but that didn't stop me from practically licking the cup.

I also popped upstairs to visit the kids in Randy's lab.  That place is a mecca for junk food!  I sat at one lady's desk and she had chocolate dipped coffee beans (OMG!  YUM!).  Someone else said there was carrot cake in the break room.  Then there was a mass exodus of lab members to Ben and Jerry's (just across the street) because it was Free Cone Day. Get me outta there!!!

But I was good and didn't touch a thing.  Ran downstairs to the digestive safety of my office and ate my yogurt.  I resisted temptation and stayed in control of my choices.  And made good choices at that. After the walk to the car, I had only 9700-ish steps on my counter.  So I snuck Missus Tuesday out for a nice walk around the block.  She had a fantastic time, and I exceeded my 10,000 step goal.

I know the exercise is what's pushing me over the top with the Extreme Hunger.  But I'm sure my body will adjust eventually.  Eating a mere 800 calories a day plus 40 minutes of walking makes for some serious confusion for the old bod!  Right now I'm getting by on The Band Rules and pure willpower.  I'm sure I'll adjust but I am kinda looking forward to getting my first fill so I'll have a little help with the hunger pangs.

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle!!!  <-- The old gut says hello!

It's OFFICIAL!

Yes, I am officially less than 50% fat!  I am a mere 49.9%!  

Of course I think I repressed the whole concept that I was over half fat because that's kinda gross.  I just dug through my WLS surgery notebook to see if I could find some of the earlier numbers.  You get a printout every time you are weighed in.  But of course, I cannot find any.  GRRR.  I wanted to see how much higher my fat percentage was when up an additional 40 pounds.  Just for comparison purposes and to further inflate my big, fat ego!

So yesterday I went to the clinic to check in with Jessica.  It was my first foray on the 100 Oaks Shuttle bus and it was pretty good.  Except they put my least favorite shuttle driver ever, Big 'n Greasy, on that route.  After yukking it up with Jessica, I went looking for a ride back to campus.  I saw a bus out there and was like, yippee!  Good timing.  On my way to 100 Oaks, I missed a bus by literally 15 seconds (not running for it--it jiggles my pork), so I was excited I didn't have to wait for the next one.  

The driver was absent, probably taking a leak or something.  I sat there, enjoying the quiet until something caught my eye.  The driver.  Awww, damnit!  Big 'n Greasy.  He annoys me because he 's a chatty Cathy, always babbling on about inane topics.  Dude, shut up and drive.  And of course I was the only person on the bus.  Great.  He prattled on about having a whole hour for lunch while drivers on the campus routes only get 30 minutes.  And how he's working the disaster drill at the airport today.  Blah blah blah.  I just replied with Mmmhmm's and enjoyed being able to look at all the homes and shops on the route back to campus.  

Jessica was pleased with how I am doing and I seem to be "right on track," which is good.  I'm kinda stuck weight loss-wise, but I'm almost due for my next period, which always makes me gain weight beforehand.  So not going up at all is actually good.  I'm also getting used to the work routine again after being spoiled at home for 2 weeks.  I'm sure with the addition of the shuttle-skipping walks, things will start to pick up quite soon.

I am most proud of my blood sugar!  Yesterday my morning sugar was 154, so I had to take 4U of insulin with breakfast.  But, the rest of my readings were well below 150 all day, so I didn't have to take any more.  This morning's was 142, so yeah!  No insulin this morning, either!

I need to fax my week's records to my endocrinologist (a feisty Chinese lady who cracks me up.  When she put me on Byetta a few years back, she said, "If you experience row brood sugar, you can have haf  can sodaaah, 4 ounce joooce, or seeex gummy bear!") and see what she thinks.

Okay, gotta wash dishes, eat breakfast and get ready for work.  I can't wait to see what impact today's walks have on my blood sugar!

40 pounds down!

Yaaaay!  I weighed today and I am down 40.2 pounds since October 3. That was the date of my first consult with Dr. Williams.

Truthfully, I have lost more than that . . . I went up about 5 pounds the week before my liquid diet.  I kinda splurged on my favorite things that week and put on a few.  And then there were the holidays. Yikes.

From the day of my liquid diet (8 days prior to surgery) to today, I am down 15 pounds.  That seems crazy!  But exciting.

Here's my weight loss ticker: (FYI, it will change over time as I update my weight)

Another good day!

Man, I am feeling good.  I mean, I still have some itchiness (enough with the damn rash, already!) and I'm worried about pulling my pork loose from doing too much too fast.  But aside from that, I am quite pleased!

Today I spent more time out in the yard planting veggies and berries in pots. I even hung some bird feeders with fresh seed for the finches and cardinals.  Additionally, I spray painted a boring black plant hook with some cool metallic paint so I can hang another feeder on the front porch.

I also spent the morning revising and updating my food diary.  I saw the The Gastric Band Companion at Lulu.com and was excited!  I had designed my own food journal (using Excel, then Numbers for Mac) and was manually printing the pages onto unlined pages from FranklinCovey.  Thing was I just got tired lugging my planner around all the time.  So it was very easy to not take it, and then eat whatever I wanted because, oops!  Left my journal at home!  I liked Suzette Kroll's book (her website is great too), but there were things I wanted in my own, like tracking blood sugar readings as well.

So I revised my diary and then google-searched my way through uploading my files to Lulu so I could publish my own spiral bound, purse sized (6 x 9") food journal.  LOVE IT!  It is a bit of a pain in the butt to do it with a Mac (note to self:  print, save as postscript, upload the postscript file to Lulu.  Lulu is not compatible with Preview type PDF documents), but I did it.  I made my first one a bit on the short side, just in case I hated it.  I knew how I thought it would look.  But would it actually turn out that way?

My first one turned out perfectly and now I'm down to the last 10 days. I made some minor revisions (typed in the nutritional information in the appendix for some of my favorite, frequently eaten foods, added enough daily pages for 3 months worth of tracking), uploaded it again and ordered a new copy.  By the time I'm finished with my current one, the new one should be here.  YAY!

I'm especially glad I have the diabetes tracking, especially when I get to write down numbers like 116, which was what my blood sugar was before lunch today!  Oh yeah!  And funny-funny:  the color of the cover almost perfectly matches my One Touch Mini meter!!!

My applesauce sandwich

After my lap band surgery last Monday, I had to figure out how to take pills. Fortunately, several of the meds I'm on can be taken in lozenge form and I've gone off of most of my diabetes pills.  But the rest need to be taken and I've had to crush them.  Can you say, "ICK!"?

It took me a few days to come up with a solution to the problem that didn't leave me cringing.  Here's my applesauce sandwich:

• cover the spoon with a thin layer of applesauce
• layer the crushed pills on top of the sauce
• cover the pills with another layer of applesauce, kind of encapsulating it
• add a dash of cinnamon on top

I take the pills like shot of booze:  aim for the back of the throat and let it slide.  If you don't mix it with your tongue, you taste very little. Just the texture of the applesauce and the cinnamon.  The icky tasting meds stay in the middle and away from your tongue.

I'm not sure how long I'll have to keep crushing pills, but at least this has made it so I don't dread it!

9 days out and doing well!

It's now Wednesday, about 9 days out from my lap band surgery and all is well.  My rash has peaked and is still itchy, but starting to abate around the edges.  I'm starving quite a bit (huh?  I thought that was supposed to go away), but fear of adversely affecting my healing stomach and pork (port) is keeping me on track.  

I'm averaging about 800 calories and 70g of protein a day.  My stomach growls often, but it doesn't really bug me.  The rules are meant to be followed and they are more important than stomach growling. I am more pleased with the behavior of my blood sugar.  I've been diabetic for a few years (both parents are too, so it was a matter of when, not if I got it).  Prior to surgery, I was on 2 x 1000 mg metformin, 15 mg glipizide and two 10 ug shots of Byetta a day.  

My endocrinologist took me off everything and switched me to a sliding scale of insulin.  I'm not keen on being on insulin because it can cause you to gain weight.  However, I am glad I don't have to snort those huge metformin pills (okay, crush and take in spoon of applesauce) every day.  But I am on a low dosage:  4u is the most I've had to take yet.

I have to take insulin before meals if my blood sugar is greater than 151.  Great thing is, this is maybe once a day.  Not three times a day!  My blood sugar seems to be coming down.  If I'd get off my butt, it'd probably come down more.  When I walked with Jane on Sunday it was at 139 before dinner.  So even though the weight comes off slower with a band than the traditional RNY gastric bypass, I am pleased to already be seeing some positive changes in my health.  

I can tell a difference every day in how my stomach is healing. It is much easier to get up and down out of furniture, with less pain.  If it weren't for the persistent itching, sitting here right now, I can't even feel any pain.  I have only had one dose of narcotics since last Wednesday.  I'm very pleased.

Today Jane is coming by to help me cut the grass.  I could probably push the mower (though I'll be toast for the night after that!), but I can't yank the starter.  No way!  Don't want to dislocate my pork!  Least it's on a tether, ha ha!

I just had an Atkins Shake (LOVE THEM!) to beef up on protein and quiet my growling stomach.  For lunch I think I'm going to bake a small piece of tilapia and see how that goes. For dinner, I'm having another 1/2 cup of my homemade chili that I blended with an immersion stick blender.  I had that yesterday with 1/4 cup melted sharp cheddar cheese and it was the BEST thing I have had in about 2 weeks!  I'm not keen on the pureed diet, but only have about another week to get through.  Then I can branch out to chewable things.  Yippee!

The weather is cold and gray, but I want to do something outside.  I may run to Home Depot after I take a shower and buy some tomato plants.  I have a big pot I can put it in and won't even have to bend to dig.  Then maybe I'll take Ms. Tuesday for a walk.  She has been on her best behavior while I've been recovering and she deserves it.  The other 3 hooligans have been pretty good too, but Tuesday is my special girl. Plus, if I can get her to jump on the bench out on the porch, I could maybe brush her coat some and give the birds some great nesting materials.  I'll write more about the dogs on my other blog, like how the Dup jumped from the purple chair to the ottoman to the couch.  Yeah.  When I get some of this weight off we are SO heading to obedience then agility classes.  She's quite the leaper.

And then there was the complication

I always get some kind of complication.  And not the kind of complication they discuss with you prior to surgery.  The stupid kind that 0.01% of the population gets.  That's me!

It took me days to find out what it is called, but the surgical saran wrap they cover you within the operating room is called adhesive-backed surgical incise drape.  I don't like it one bit.  Nor does my ridiculously sensitive skin.

I worship the person who came up with that stretchy cling wrap they use at labs when you get a blood draw.  That stuff ROCKS!  Prior to its inception, there was the band aid.  Band aids are worse for me than the actual blood draws.  They peel at least 18 layers of my skin off, even if I wait till they get funky after several showers and fall off.  I hate band aids.

Adhesive-backed surgical incise drape is about 1000X worse than bandaids.  Yeah.  It sucks.  Most people don't even know about it as it's put on the surgical site after you're knocked out.  And most people don't have some kind of wicked crazy reaction to it (or its adhesive).

It started with a little itching on my belly Tuesday and now I have a full blown, raised, red angry rash that runs from side to side, chest to legs. Niiiiiiice.  And it itches like the dickens!  What is it now? Saturday.  Friday I got a note from the nurse to just take some benadryl.  Yeah.  We're past benadryl at this point.  Long past.  It's more like I need a huge dose of steroids.  But that screws up blood sugars and slows wound healing, so it looks like I will just have to suffer in scritchy silence.

And now I smell like Old Lady.  I reek of Gold Bond Powder.

But there is a flip side. The weirdest thing is I can breathe through my nose now!

Since the surgery, I have not had any problems breathing through my nose at all.  Matter of fact, Monday night I woke up in the wee hours of the morning and realized I was breathing through my nose, my mouth was shut and I was not drooling.  DEAR DIARY!  It's been that way since.  Even being home with the 4 dogs and not feeling up to sweeping.  Go figure.

My friend Jes thinks it might be due to a gluten allergy.  And that I haven't had any gluten containing foods since surgery.  It might be, because my mother has celiac disease.  But the Vanderbilt ASAP clinic told me I had no food allergies.  I'll have to double check that. 

However, I'm not going to question it.  If I can breathe, then good for me!  I'm just going to enjoy it and the lack of post nasal drip that comes along with it. Yippeee!!!

Here are two of my incisions and you can see the boxes of no-rash around them.  The rest is my fun, itchy rash!

I actually had lap band surgery!

Boy, that sounds weird!  

It feels weird to read because I feel good, too.  Well, not normal good, but good considering my innards were messed with a few days ago.

All in all, my hospital experience was very good.  After waiting on pins and needles for my parents to show up, we headed to Vandy.  At some point they said they changed my surgery time from 9:30 to 7:30.  But I never got that message.  DOH!  They were able to take me back immediately, though and get things rolling.  

My IV was relatively painless, I enjoyed my fluffy hospital socks and the giant paper gown. They have these new gizmo gowns called Bear Air or something like that.  You can plug a wall mounted hairdryer thingie into it to warm you if you are cold.  I never got to get plugged in.  I bet it's funny looking--you poof up like the Stay Puff't Marshmallow Man.

My nurses were nice, as was the anesthesiologist.  I like my surgeon, he's loosened up a bit after multiple meetings.  By the end of the day he was pretty much ready to shove me out the door.  I tend to be an amusing patient.  Goofy.  Which I would think staff would like much more than the bitchy, complaining ones.  Ya know?

I've only had one surgery before--that was on my sinuses in October of 2007.  They pushed the happy juice into my IV before we headed to the OR, so I never saw the inside.  They didn't give me the knockout meds this time until I was on the OR table, so I got to see inside the room.  Lots of big screen TVs (playing how to videos?  ha ha!) where they displayed information about you, what they're gonna do and so on.   And unlike most TV operating rooms it was . . . how you say . . . well LIT!

I was scootched over to the operating table after a roller coaster ride from my room.  I can tell it was a Vandy design job.  They have really bad architects.  They prefer form over function.  It took a 20 point turn to maneuver my bed out of the preop room.  I give the nurses an A for effort!  Pretty much once I got on the table, I got the mask and the knock out juice and was out of it.

From there, I remember waking up in the recovery room.  There was a chick nurse there who was humming to the piped in radio.  I remember her putting on my elastic binder garment--the distinct sound of velcro.  I think they wheeled me in the bed to a second room where my parents were chilling out.  Remarkably, they weren't arguing!

Once I got in the room, things pretty much went back to normal.  My pain wasn't too bad, but I was pretty thirsty.  I got to suck on some ice chips, sat up and chatted, then in short order got up and walked the halls.  They won't let you leave until you can get up and move around.

Funny thing:  a few weeks ago I was in the hospital tunnels running to my pre-op appointment.  I ran into this gurney guy.  He was pushing a bed through the halls back to the hospital.  He asked me where he knew me from.  I said probably from 18 years of hall wandering.  We chatted for a bit before we took separate halls.  Turns out he was doing his thing in Day Surgery that day and we ended up chatting again.  Ha--I just chatted with you in the tunnel last week!  Small world!

I remember being very chatty and humming a lot.  The doc was cracking up at me and figured I was competent (relative term) enough to go home.  Since it was pushing 3 pm and traffic was about to start getting thick, we made a break for it after picking up some prescriptions at the world's worst pharmacy.

I'm still half contemplating if he did anything aside from cutting me open and sewing me straight shut again!  I can't feel anything lumpy up in there, and I have no nausea or vomiting or problems getting stuff down.  So far, so good.

Liquid Diet--still hanging in there!

I am on day 3-ish of my liquid diet and doing surprisingly well.  I am having no issues at all about being tempted.  Actually yesterday, I didn't even drink all my shakes.  YIKES!

Yesterday was challenging, though.  I have to say my bowels are not used to being empty. Not one bit.  I felt a tad queasy at lunch yesterday but swilled my two shake combo meal and some Crystal Light Peach Tea.  About an hour later, my colon started doing the cha-cha!

One of the things you hear about weight loss surgery:  never trust your farts.  I haven't had the surgery yet, but yesterday was a day not to trust them.  I went to the bathroom twice after lunch (mad dash!) and the second time I was sitting there laughing out loud because the bathroom was full (all 3 stalls occupied) and every time someone else would flush, I'd pass gas. LOUDLY.  It reminded me of the episode of Family Guy where Peter Griffin and Michael Moore have a fart off in the bathroom and end up performing dueling banjos.  Anally.

Except when it's just you in the stall stifling gas and laughter.  I lasted about an hour and then went home.  I was extremely tired, suffering from a headache, nauseated and had questionable bowel activity.  Being able to concentrate on work was not an option.  Nor was having my sanity questioned by fellow bathroom users.  You know they were doing a shoe check--who's the nut in stall 3 who sounds like she's trying to play a didgeridoo???

I went home, put on jammies and went straight to bed-bed.  No purple chair.  Bed.  Toddled back and forth between the bed and toilet for half an hour, then fell asleep.  Miraculously, even the dogs were quiet.  Usually they act like nuts playing or sit by the door and bark for me to come play.  But they were good for a change!

I didn't drink all my quotas for yesterday.  I only had 4 of my 6 shakes and had half a packet of cream of chicken cup of soup instead of my broth.  And I'm down 6 pounds of water weight since Sunday.  Yippeeee!

And it's funny.  Food just doesn't even feel like an option right now.  I was told I can't eat. Eat = no surgery.  No problem. I'm a very good rule follower, especially when they're brief, to the point and have a consequence.  I know people cheat on the liquid diet all the time, but, so far, I haven't felt a need.  I think I'll get through this phase okay.  Nausea sucks, but my headache is nearly gone and my colon is sulking quietly for now.  Whew.