A bump in the road?

Wellll, it's been a weird week.

First of all, I think I may have stumbled onto my first major side effect from gastric bypass surgery. Last Tuesday, I started to eat my dinner (chicken noodle soup and half a grilled cheese sandwich) and got only about half of it down before I knew something was very wrong. At first, it sort of felt like the typical "not going down well" feeling that I've come to recognize quickly and is familiar to most gastric bypass patients. So, I stopped eating right away. Chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese is something I have eaten many times post-op. Actually, I wasn't feeling well to begin with and that's why I chose those particular foods that night. They usually go down without any issues. But tonight was different.

Very soon after I stopped eating, I began having serious pain in my abdomen. It felt like my "pouch", or my stomach, was tensing up. Never having felt anything like that before, I got a little scared but just tried to ride it out. I took some Pepcid and went to lie down. It got much worse immediately and I sat straight back up in bed. Serious pain. At one point I thought "Ok...do I need to call someone or what?"

This went on for a while. As soon as it started to subside a bit, I went right to sleep. Completely worn out! Wow, it was really odd. I still didn't feel well the next morning, so I called in sick. After discussing some other symptoms with my dr., there was some thought that perhaps I had a gallbladder attack. Erich, who has experience with these things, agrees.

Gallbladder issues are common in morbidly obese people and are also a concern after gastric bypass. Before surgery, they tell you they will check out the gallbladder when you're on the operating table and if necessary, they will go ahead and remove it then. Mine was ok so they left it. For six months post-op, patients are put on a daily dose of actigall (called ursodiol in Canada) in order to prevent gallstones that sometimes come with rapid weight loss. At 19 months post-op, I thought I was out of the woods but maybe not. I go to my local family doctor tomorrow to discuss this problem and my ongoing menstrual issues. Yeah, it's fun to be me!

Thursday, the day I missed work, I tried to eat rotisserie chicken and boiled potatoes for lunch. This was before I connected the gallbladder thing; OMG, it started all over again. I stopped eating immediately and this time, the symptoms stopped, too. *whew* Scared the crap outta me. So protein=bad. Ok, body....GOT IT. Since then, I've eaten little except cereal, oatmeal, cheese & crackers, yogurt, etc. Mostly carbs. Sneaked some fish in on Saturday night and scrambled eggs, a veggie burger on Sunday. I plan to have actual ground meat tonight. Yeah, I'm easing into it. That pain was intense and I'm a wuss.

The good news to come out of all this is I've lost 8 pounds in 8 days. LOL! My body is so weird. You change its routine and BAM! the weight falls off. Losing that much weight eating CARBS! Only me.

I do have some further good news. My success story will be published in author Barbara Thompson's newsletter for weight-loss surgery patients. Barbara's book "Weight Loss Surgery: Finding the Thin Person Hiding Inside You" is required reading for all weight-loss surgery patients at Henry Ford Hospital - so I had to read it - and other bariatric centers all over the U.S. She also wrote the book "Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies". Her Weight Loss Surgery Center is a wonderful source of information and inspiration for all of us, pre- and post-op. When I sent her my story and pictures, I heard back from her within minutes.

Cool things are happening in other areas of my life, too. Losing the weight was only a small part of what I want to do and the rest is falling into place slowly. We'll see what happens. I could use some stress relief.