Sunday Morning Weigh-In, The Heat Is On Edition

Sam,
I hope my follow up with the doctor on Wednesday may help me to understand. But, I've had a rougher than usual ride and a couple of pretty strange unexplained occurrences where the docs have just thrown up their hands. Nothing as easy as NSAIDS, but I have had two instances, both unexplained that 'could' be valuable in hindsight. Then again we may never know for certain if they are related.

At one point it was suggested that I might have an intusseption (Google it, but spell it right first!), but after weeks of big money tests and time off work, I was told, well you had it, it's gone now.

The second involved bleeding from within found in a DRE. I ended up in the hospital having 5units of blood. And, no idea where it was coming from.

I've been seeing my PCP and doing full labs ever 5-6 months. Not certain what more I could have done, but damn, I want to point a finger at someone.

I'll try to get you guys any info I can of this might be something to at least be aware of.

Ken

Man, that is scary Ken, so happy to hear you made it through! Hoping it is a smooth sail from here for you. Hang in there buddy!

So here is the full-er story after finally getting a chance to speak with the surgeon. The guy who did the surgery was leaving the next day on vacation (he finished with me at 5am) and I was never able speak with him. I got bits and pieces from the doctors who covered for him, but not great info.

First it was not the pouch that was necrotic, it was a large portion of the bowel. In removing the section of the bowel, the pouch needed to be reformed and the gastric track rerouted in order to make the shorter bowel and new pouch meet properly.

My bowel had wrapped around itself, not once but twice. When it got tight enough, problems started. The surgeon said that it's likely that some other small symptoms in the previous couple of weeks were actually signs of the first 'wrap.' The second apparently triggered the heavy pain.

Recovery will be very much like the original surgery, although I'll need to stay aware of the possibility of future bowel problems due to scar tissue and adhesions. On the positive side, the surgeon said that he adjusted procedure to keep any weight loss in check. I'll likely lose some, but I don't need to worry about excess loss. It's not expected that I will have any additional food intolerances.

In any event, my doctor visit was good. The staples are out and the drain comes out in two weeks. And, maybe more important, I get off the full liquid diet next week.

Ken

Good to know Ken that they got all the kinks worked out!

 

Latest and greatest:

 

 

I am about 9 weeks out now.

Highest Weight: 303

Weight On Surgery Day: 295

Last Week's Weight: 250.4

Today's Weight: 246.6

Total Weight Loss: 48.4

Body Fat: 38.5%

440.0: All time high 5/1/10
386.0: Surgery day 9/21/10
257.0: 1 yr Surgiversary 9/21/11
295.0: 4/1/13
276.0: Last week
271.4: This week

Started implementing my new menu plan from the NuT. also have been ramping up to more vigorous exercise. Best wishes to everyone!

Cheers

@Brian, everything is relative – 90s is hot when you’re used to 70s.

@Don, I agree; the humidity saps me pretty hard too.  So is the rat killing the highlight of the bachelor party?  Congrats to the bride and groom!

@Ken, never heard of this complication before either.  Glad you’re back on the mend.  Keep us posted on your recovery.

@Jim, hopefully your increased water and salt intake will help.  You didn’t mention your exercise activity level which could be a factor as well especially in the dry heat of the southwest.  I agree 110°F is hot no matter what the humidity is.  However, with your low humidity, you can cool 25°F just by evaporating water in your “swamp-coolers”.

@Paul, excellent progress!  Keep it up.

@Chrispy, WTG looks like you’re back on track!

    My stats this week:

           High weight:  392 lbs
Pre-op Weight 4-Aug-09:  377.5 lbs
             Last week:  219.2 lbs / 20.0% body fat / 166.6 lbs muscle mass
             This week:  218.8 lbs / 21.1% body fat / 164.2 lbs muscle mass

My overall weight is again down 0.4 lbs this week with muscle mass down again 2.4 lbs.  Wow, I’ve lost 5 lbs of muscle mass in 2 weeks.  I like the direction the scale is going but I’m a bit concerned about the muscle mass.  Looking at my food logs on MFP, I see that my protein intake has been a little lacking the past couple of weeks based on my activity level.  This next week I’ll redouble my efforts to get the recommended protein and see if that helps reverse my muscle mass decline.

I was off work this past week getting some home projects completed.  I made to the gym on 3 days and “worked out” on 4 days pruning hedges and painting windows.

Be safe & have a great week gentlemen!

-Mike

What bachelor party?  Did not have one on first go round and don't see one on the horizon.

Well, we'll morn the passing of another bachelor from afar... my condolences... er I mean congratulations! 

 

Mike, remember those scales are inaccurate at best!!  I can get on/off mine and get 3 different measurements in 3 minutes!!  The variance is 1-2% usually on my scale and so I look for the "average" over a period of time.  (Think back to statistics class and the shape of a bell curve...)

The Body Pod or "dunk test" are the most reliable measurements of body fat, the xray system is next and third is the impedance method (the scale running electric through you)

My body fat % on my machine goes from 24-27% on any given day.  This weekend at 190.8 x 24% = 46 pounds of fat.  That comes out to a lean weight of 144.8.

That is pretty close to my lean weight as measured at the hospital (142) a month or so ago, but they were just using a more expensive version of impedance.

Don't let the % drive you nuts.... basically if you are eating your 70-80g of protein and exercising consistently, you are maintaining muscle mass.

If your protein numbers are down OR if you are slowing on exercise it is possible you could lose a bit of muscle mass until you get to a new number based on your current amount of exercise/lifestyle.

Vice versa...to GAIN muscle mass you MUST be eating MORE protein (body weight is the number the guys on body building forums suggest) AND lifting HEAVY weights.  Usually LOTS of weight with low reps vs lower weight and lots of reps for toning.

Long story shorter... you are just seeing the inaccuracy inherent in the machine, mine does the same thing.