What's on your Tuesday menu RNYer's?

It would certainly help when we're looking to buy a bigger house next fall!

Crossing fingers and knocking on wood for you!

Good luck on the phone interview!! Persistence pays off sometimes! (And sometimes it's just frustrating, hopefully this will NOT be one of those times!)

Mornin' All!

We got home from Chicago late yesterday afternoon. The surgeon thought everything looked great, and he (surprisingly) pulled my drain out (he only did one - his nurse said he usually just does one or two). From what I could see, it looked pretty good. It's swollen, so it'll probably look better and better over the next few weeks (or months!). I had major swell hell last night, but it's much better this morning. From what I've read, most people swell at the end of the day, so I'll be prepared for that. Still have a lot of pain when I transition, walk, or stand - sitting and lying down are fine - no pain. I'm not sure the pain meds are doing much, but I keep taking them. Even if it's just taking the edge off the pain, it helps.

everything about the experience was great except for one - someone evidently helped themselves to some of my pain pills while I was in the hospital (I got them ahead of time from Walgreens so my insurance would cover them). It was only four pills that disappeared, but still, I am ticked off. I told my doctor friend about it, and she said that's not unusual at medical facilities. She said one of the nursing homes around here had a nursing assistant who once sucked a bunch of fentanyl out of an elderly patients' transdermal fentanyl patch and took it home so she and her boyfriend could shoot it up. How desperate can you be? Sheesh. Anyway, I reported it to the hospital, and they're investigating.

QOTD: I can think of all these wonderful destinations, but realistically, I love living where I am (Madison, Wisconsin). I think I'd also love living in Evanston, Illinois - it's kind of similar to Madison, but you could hop on the L train and be in downtown Chicago in minutes. I'd also love living in Cambridge, Massachusetts for the same reason - wonderful town, and you've got Boston right across the river. Winters in any of those places are awful, though, so I'd have to buy a winter condo in Austin, TX, which I also love (has a similar vibe as the other places I listed - are you picking up a pattern yet??). (speaking of the pattern - I also loved Amiens, France and thought I could live there - same deal. It's a fun university town, just like the others..)

3 years 2 months out:

B: Fage plain Greek yogurt with raspberries

MS: coffee with half & half, Miralax/protein shake

L: maybe cottage cheese. Or homemade pimento cheese on a couple of crackers (or better yet, on celery sticks)

AS: protein shake (need to keep my protein really high for healing)

D: I have to rely on DH to cook for awhile, so that usually means microwaved frozen dinners - so probably one of those.

I'm glad you are doing well! The drug theft amazes me. Do they skulk around looking for people who are out of their rooms or sound asleep??

the nurses had them - the hospital pharmacy said if patients bring in their own meds, they have to hand them over to their nurse to dole them out. The nurses are SUPPOSED to keep them on their person the whole time, and they and one other nurse are supposed to count them and sign off on the count every time they either give one to the patient or there's an RN shift change, but unfortunately, they didn't follow that protocol each time. So the paper trail was a bit thin - so it's not very clear at what point the pills disappeared. One of the nurses could have taken them - or they may have set them down for a few minutes to go do something else - who knows - but at any rate, I came in with 42 tablets, I was given two of them, and they handed the bottle back to me when I was discharged. Before they handed them back to me, two nurses counted them whlle in front of me and signed off on the count. There were only 36 pills there. They triple counted them. 36. So somehow, four pills walked off. At minimum, someone is going to get in trouble for not following protocol - but hopefully, they can figure out who took them.

I can't imagine someone being gutsy enough to steal medication in the hospital, glad you reported it. How awesome that you already got your drain out.

Glad you got to go home and hoping recovery continues to go well!

Glad you are home. Don't overdo moving around especially with no drains. This is time to rest. No step counting and protein protein protein! Just eat when you can eat. Don't worry about it fitting into meals, as like early RNY post op you probably won't be able to eat a lot at once.

You're right - I didn't realize my appetite would (mostly) disappear. This is great!! It's tempting to use it to my advantage and lose more weight, but I'm aiming for around 1000 calories and 100+ grams of protein every day just because I think my body is going to need it for healing. Plus even this calorie level is quite a drop from my norm - my maintenance range is 1500-1700 - so I may end up losing some weight regardless. Or certainly not gaining, anyway...