Che ricordi quando riuscivo a digerire i peperoni, il pomodoro, l'aglio, la cipolla e qualsiasi cibo fritto.
Mi mancano quei giorni 💐

#alimentazione #stomachissues #after30years

To recap my health:
After arriving home from Indianapolis on Wednesday, I started experiencing stomach issues.

Slept pretty much all day Thursday, hardly eating.
Been experiencing lots of bathroom issues - nuff said there!
Constant fatigue and napping.
No high temperature.
Able to walk from room to room, but not stand for more than a few seconds.

This afternoon I had a video call with a LiveHealth Online Doctor via my Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance.
(Loved how the cost to me was $0)
The excellent Doctor and I discussed all my symptoms. She told me I was doing all the right things, including fluid intake especially electrolytes, and plenty of rest.

Therefore I drink and nap on.
Still glad I had the check-up call, which is now in my records.

#StomachIssues #LiveHealth #Anthem #BlueCross #BlueShield #Electrolytes

Stressed Out

Yesterday I was a bundle of stressed out, frayed nerves because the morning commute was such a disaster it spoiled my brain for the whole day. Today I am a bundle of stressed out, frayed nerves because of all the meetings I have to go to today. I am flat out all day long. I’m kinda scared for my stomach. It took me a full week to recover from our trip to Florida* and further along than that, yesterday was the first day since that I almost went the whole day without any problems (almost) and now today I am in meetings all day and may not be able to stop for lunch. I am at risk of a bad stomach day.**

*Florida will henceforth be known as MoonPieTown due to this post.

**I am referring to post-gastric bypass side effects and various related issues. Food/diet/digestion-wise I need to be a creature of habit and routine to succeed without weird problems and I am going to get bounced out of my routine today. I’m not happy about it, but what can you do?

#Busy #busySchedule #habit #meetings #routine #schedule #stomachIssues #Stress #traffic #weightLossSurgery #work

Is This a Thing Now?

I wonder… did I learn something new about me and my post-gastric bypass digestive system? I went on vacation for a week and my daily routine and diet both went straight down the crapper. I turned everything upside down for seven days. Then I came home and turned it all upside down again in an attempt to get back to normal.

The result? Cramping, discomfort, being unable to eat much, being unable to… ya know… do that thing that normal humans do after they eat… wink wink nudge nudge, you know what I mean? More than that, when my stomach is empty it hurts. Not eating as much as I usually do (what little I can usually eat thanks to my rewired innards) means my stomach is empty sooner and more often and I can’t tell if the pain I am feeling is because there is something wrong or I am just hungry again. I seriously can’t tell.

I think I went through something similar the last time we went away for a full week’s vacation, and I think it’s happened once since then when I was for some reason living off protein supplements instead of actual meals for a few days (why was that? I don’t remember). So I ask myself, is this a thing now? Am I learning something new about my newly rewired body? Maybe. If so I will just need to be ready for it when it happens. Consistency is kind of the key to my mental health these days and if I see this coming when I mess up my diet for an extended period then I will be better able to deal with it. Knowledge is power and stuff.

Today has been tough. It’s about 3:30pm right now and my guts have been quietly pissed off at me all day. They are rebelling, but only a little and pretty subtly. Mild pain, more like discomfort. Stuff like that. I am going to hit my daily protein goal (80 grams) with ease (I’m at 69 right now, wink wink nudge nudge say no more!). My water goal is probably also going to be hit easily (64 ounces per day) though I am way behind my usual pace at the moment. I’m at 40 right now while usually by this time of day I am somewhere in the mid-50’s. I’ll catch up. I’ve also had some persistent back pain the last few days. I suspect it is a kidney stone in the making, thought it might just be the result of the massive amount of exercise I got in Florida followed immediately by a couple of rounds of shoveling once we got home. Who knows. I have been taking Tylenol for it, which helps, but I wonder if that is affecting my stomach as well? Again, who knows.

I had 50 something years to figure out how my body worked and then three years ago I went under the knife and nuked the entire thing. Now I just have to relearn everything. I figured I would be a pro at this new life by now, but every so often post-surgical reality throws me a curve ball. It can be a pain in the ass, but I also have to admit that it’s all still a little exciting. I think I might just be a serious weirdo. Who knows.

PS: In case anyone thinks that this is me complaining about my new reality, it is not. It’s just me talking to the void and writing it down so that some hypothetical future me might accidently stumble across it someday in some hypothetical future and say, “oh yeah, I remember feeling like that.” I would go through the Gastric Bypass Surgery again in a heartbeat with absolutely zero hesitation. It was totally worth it. Totally.

#constipation #diet #food #gastricBypass #gastricBypassIssues #gastricBypassRecovery #gastricBypassSideEffects #gastricBypassSurgery #health #stomachIssues #stomachPain #weightLoss #weightLossSurgery

I know things aren’t going well when my watch thinks I’m working out while I’m in the bathroom 😳
#StomachIssues

As someone who is lactose intolerant and had a lot of cheese for dinner last night... Objectively observing the bubbling in my stomach during meditation this morning almost ended in disaster.

#meditation #humor #lactoseintolerance #stomachissues #bettermentjourney #funny #joke #morningmeditation #oops #cheese #sendhelp #MentalHealth #mensmentalhealth

Does anyone else have a big list of restaurant food that they know causes stomach issues posted in their kitchen?

Anyone else occasionally ignore the list and then curse themselves out the next day?

Knowing the cause is just the first part. Putting in the effort required to plan ahead and avoid the triggers is the tougher next step.

#StomachIssues #MentalHealth

It’s a lucky Friday… sort of. Not really. I am being a little sarcastic.

Last Friday I was super sick with a stomach issue. Today we get hit with a big scary issue at work that has lots of people in a near panicked state.

When I say I am lucky what I mean is I am lucky it happened today and not last Friday when I was a mess all day.

Whew, right??

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/10/04/friday-luck/

#escalatedIssues #friday #health #scaryWorkIssues #Sick #stomachIssues #work #workIssues

Well, looks like Friday is going to be one seriously shitty day for ol’ Robbie and his rebuilt guts.

I had more sleep last night than any day for about a week. I should have awoken feeling right and spiffy and good. Nope. I woke up with stomach pain. Lots of it. I never wake up with the hunger pains I get when I haven’t eaten for a few hours. I don’t know why that is, but this morning that was exactly what I thought happened. I got up, went down cellar to do my exercise for the day and have a bottle of water. I thought that would alleviate things, at least for a little while. After the exercise was done I could have breakfast and I fully expected that would be the end of that.

Nope. Exercise made it worse and I only got a few ounces of water down before I decided to stop and have breakfast. Unfortunately, eating didn’t help at all. Nope, this is not hunger pain. This is something else. Shit.

I sat there, staring at the walls for a while and then tried to power through these aches and pains. I played some guitar and did some laundry and then went upstairs. In the past, when these out-of-the-blue stomach pain issues hit me (I think there have been five since having the gastric bypass surgery on May 4, 2022… maybe six. I’m losing count) the only thing that gives me any relief is laying down on the floor on my side, curled up in a ball. Yeah, I don’t get it either. Today has not been nearly as bad as the really bad times, but I tried it anyway. I went fetal on the floor in front of my desk and just stayed like that for about an hour. It helped and by 9:00 I was able to get up and punch into work.

That was an hour ago. I’m starting to feel worse again, but is that because I have been up for four hours and have only had four ounces of water? Is it because it’s been almost three hours since I had anything to eat? My water bottle is staring at me. I think I am going to try to have a drink and see how it affects things. Wish me luck, oh my readers and only friends.

I was able to take some pictures in an effort to crank out the photo a day thing. Here’s one that I did not add to the photo a day photo album on Flickr…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54024995026/in/datetaken/

Here’s another that I did not add to the photo album. The record is The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, side one, by Genesis…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54025172586/in/datetaken/

Here’s the one I added to the Flickr album. This is the winner. Robin, of course. Photo a day 27/365.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54024273752/in/datetaken/

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/09/27/so-far-so-awful/

#365 #365Challenge #365Project #Cat #gastricBypass #gastricBypassSideEffects #Guitar #health #iphoneography #Kitty #Nikon #nikonZ5 #photoADay #photoADayChallenge #photoADayProject #photography #robin #stomachIssues #stomachPain #weightLossSurgery #z5

Me and my stomach have been doing that gastric bypass patient dance all day today. We’re having trouble getting along. We need to work together but today we’re causing problems for each other.

I have eaten three meals. Each meal came with a stomach problem of varying degrees.

I had a protein bar for breakfast. I went a little too fast and felt that blocked/stuck feeling. It wasn’t bad enough to become nausea or to produce large amounts of extra saliva that I have to spit out. I tried gagging it up but nothing came. I had to pause eating for about half an hour before the blockage was gone and then I was able to finish.

I had a burger (cooked on the grill) and some french fries for lunch. The burger went down without any issues. The fries though. I only had about four of them and I should have stopped at three. I felt a little blocked again. I think I was going too fast this time as well. It was never bad enough to require any spitting up. I don’t know how long it took to pass, but it wasn’t long. As soon as I declared myself done with lunch I was off to my father’s so it was probably a couple of hours before I even thought about eating or drinking anything else.

I had a big piece of chicken and a little bit of white rice for dinner. Well, it was big for me. about three ounces. The chicken went down fine. The rice felt a little off. I only had two small fork fulls. I was okay afterward though. I stopped in time to avoid any problems. When I finished dinner I was a smidge below my daily protein goal. I waited about 20 minutes and then had a little tiny protein bar snack. It went bad. I think this time I took too big a bite and it got stuck for real. I gagged up a tiny bit of it and have been spitting out saliva for about half an hour now.

So there we have it. All summed up. Three meals, three stomach issues. Yippee. My doctor told me that in almost every case when there is a stomach problem after eating it’s really the patient’s fault. In all three cases this was my fault. It actually makes me feel better knowing that. If it’s something I did rather than something going on with my new stomach, then it’s something I can control.

220 pounds lost since the surgery. Yeah, these sort of things are 100% worth it. Absolutely.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/08/11/stomach-dance/

#bariatricSurgery #diet #foamies #food #gastricBypass #health #nausea #nutrition #stomachIssues #stomachProblems #weightLossSurgery #wellness

The countdown to the end of the work day and the start of my long weekend continues. I was pulled into a meeting for the stretch of time that I was planning to have lunch so I had to delay my break for an hour. It’s 3:00pm now and I am just wrapping up my lunch. My stomach has been okay for most of the day, though I’ve twice been hit with empty stomach hunger pains. The second time was at 11:00am while I was in a (different) meeting and it was pretty uncomfortable. A protein bar and some sugar free chocolate at 11:30 put me right. I’m optimistic that I had enough lunch to hold off any further issues until I get home. Cross those fingers, kids.

For the third day in a row I am trying to get through the day while dealing with feelings of exhaustion. Why? I got a decent night’s sleep last night. I should feel better today than I did yesterday or the day before, right? Nope. I am super tired once again. Last night at about 9:00pm I could barely keep my eyes open. Then, magically, by 10:00 I was wide awake. I was able to get to sleep by 11:00 though so I thought it would be okay. Today I’ve just been wiped out all day. If this comes up again tomorrow I might actually take a nap. Wouldn’t that be fun? I mean, I am old so of course it would be fun. The older you get the more that a good solid nap is a thrill ride. Bring it on, people!

Okay. Back to work. I have a meeting in 18 minutes, and a long weekend two hours after that. Power through, Robert!

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/07/10/2-5-hours-to-go-2/

#diet #exhausted #food #health #hunger #LongWeekend #lunch #personalTimeOff #pto #schedule #Sleep #sleepy #stomachIssues #tired #vacationTime #work

I wrote about some stomach weirdness yesterday. I am pretty sure I know what it was, and it was not gastric bypass related. I am not going to say specifically because it goes big time into TMI territory. Suffice to say it happened again today and it has thrown off my whole daily routine.

I got up, felt a little off, but started my day as normal. I was trying to drink a water bottle while doing my daily exercise but after about 10 minutes and 12 ounces of water I was hit with a mild case of The Foamies. Something was trying to get into my stomach but was having trouble along the route and must have gotten stuck. I didn’t feel like anything was stuck, but I got into saliva over-production mode and had to stop exercising and take care of it. It was involved enough that I had to go upstairs and ride it out for a while.

Once I felt better I ate breakfast, which I never do before I finish my exercise for the day. At that point, the whole morning workflow is down the toilet. I still had 35 minutes of exercise left to do so I restarted. I ended up doing the whole daily goal instead of just finishing the first attempt. Due to that I managed to hit all of my Apple Watch activity goals for the day. Well, not the 12 stand-hours goal, but the exercise and move (calorie) goals. That’s nice.

Now that I’m punched into work for the day I think I am back on schedule. I just hate it when the routine goes south like this, even a little bit. I feel pretty normal now. Whatever it was seems to have passed. I felt that way yesterday too and then it came back before lunch. Let’s see how things progress today.

Good luck, Robbie.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/07/09/another-weird-morning/

#activityApp #AppleWatch #dailyRoutine #exercise #gastricBypass #gastricBypassRecovery #gastricBypassSideEffects #health #routine #stomachDiscomfort #stomachIssues #theFoamies #weightLossSurgery #workflow #workout

I’m having a weird stomach day. Not a bad day, just a weird day. That’s not what this post is about though. This post is about caffeine.

I used to consume caffeine by the truck load. I took it in caramel colored, carbonated form. Soda. Decades of Coca~Cola followed by a few years of Diet Pepsi. I just couldn’t get enough of that sweet, sweet, bubbly caffeine.

Then I signed up for elective weight loss surgery. I met with a dietitian at one of my first consultation appointments and was given a list of things that I had to say goodbye to forever. Both caffeine and carbonated beverages were on the list. I knew it was going to be tough but I also knew I was up for the challenge. I had my last ever soda that day.

Now here we are, about two and a half years later, and I would KILL for some caffeine right now. I have had a moderately decent night’s sleep each of the last three nights. I should be feeling fine in the exhausted department right now but I am not. Quite the opposite. I’m really tired. Back in the days prior to February 2022 I had so much caffeine each day that it barely affected me. Now? After over two years cold turkey? I bet even the tiniest sip of a caffeinated drink would leave me wired for hours on end. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Ah, for the good old days (he said sarcastically because the good old days included weighing over 400 pounds and he never ever wants to go back to that again).

Yeah, as nice as it would be to have a little caffeinated pick me up right now, I wouldn’t. No, I like the way I feel these days and I don’t want to do anything that will make me sick. Nope, while I miss it today I do not miss it enough to start thinking about how things used to be. No nostalgia here, my friends. I’ll trade a sleepy afternoon for being able to walk up a flight of stairs without feeling like I am going to die. That’s a trade that I win easily.

As for my stomach being weird today, I don’t think it’s diet or bypass surgery related though what else could it be? I woke up at 4:00am this morning (bladder: I’m old, it happens) and my stomach was pretty upset. I actually said out loud, “uh oh.” I whispered it. My wife was asleep and I didn’t want to wake her. I went back to bed and fell asleep immediately. When I woke up at 5:15 I felt better. Half an hour later I was doing my morning exercise and drinking some water and I felt off again. I paused on the water for a while and felt better again. I ate breakfast in the car on the way to work and it went fine. A little before lunch I felt a little queasy. I thought I was hungry and I think I was. I had some chicken for lunch and felt a little better at first, but then started feeling off again. I stopped eating for a while and eventually felt a little better. I had a snack and it went fine. That was about 90 minutes ago. Now I am drinking some water. In about five minutes I am going to have my last round of daily vitamins for the day. Here’s hoping things continue to feel okay through that. I expect I am going to have to have something to eat before I leave work today. There will be too long a gap between my after-lunch snack and dinner. My stomach is scheduled to be empty and angry starting around 5:30 tonight. I’ll have something small and then I should be okay for dinner.

Until then… dreams of that sweet, sweet caffeine. Sigh.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/07/08/i-miss-it-so-much/

#caffeine #carbonatedBeverages #diet #dietaryRestrictions #gastricBypass #health #soda #stomachAche #stomachIssues #stomachPain #thingsICannotHave #weightLossSugery #weightLossSurgery

I mentioned a little stomach trouble last night after dinner. I ate too much too fast and it made me nauseous. I was pretty sick for about five minutes and then I was okay. Problem solved.

Or so I thought.

I woke up with a mild stomach ache this morning. That lead me to the usual question, is there something wrong or am I just hungry? I can’t tell the difference. I had a bottle of water while I was jogging (pronounced yogging) in place this morning. I felt a little better for a little while but the mild stomach ache came back. I ate breakfast and felt a little better for a little while but the mild stomach ache came back. I… ummm… spent some quality time in the bathroom (TMI!!) and felt a little better but the mild stomach ache came back.

So I think we’ve answered the question, is there something wrong or am I just hungry. The last time I had a persistent, mild stomach ache in the morning it turned into a super stomach ache and all night nausea shortly after lunch.

Uh oh.

Well, if I am going to have another round of chaos like the last time, it’s better that it happens now than during the drive to Florida over the weekend, or during our week in Disney World, or during our drive home. Still better would be for whatever this is to go away. Yeah, that’s what I am rooting for today. Go away, you stupid stomach ache.

For now though, here’s a picture of the freshly filled bird feeders in the back yard. Miss Robin Sparkles the cat is already sitting on the window sill stalking any birds that come over for a snack.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/05/21/could-be-a-bad-day/

#birdFeeders #dumpingSyndrom #gastricBypass #gastricBypassRecovery #gastricBypassSideEffects #health #iphoneography #photography #portraitMode #stomach #stomachIssues #stomachPain #weightLossSurgery #weightLossSurgeryRecovery

I'm feeling much better since yesterday's lunch debacle. I'm sticking to food I know won't give me stomach troubles to give my stomach a break. I do have chronic stomach issues and they can be kind of random so avoiding trigger foods can be hard. I do have to say my stomach has significantly improved since starting a probiotic. I do still have random issues though.

Tonight is a simple dinner of rotisserie chicken, rice, and applesauce.

#food #stomachissues #dinner #chicken #rice #apples

I woke up at 2:30am with a bad stomach ache. Not one of those killers that leave me in a fetal position on the cellar floor, but a normal you-ate-too-much stomach aches.

It’s 3:10am now and it’s starting to lighten up a little now. Here’s hoping I’ll get another 2+ hours of sleep tonight.

In summary though… ouch.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/11/30/ouch-18/

#health #stomachAche #stomachIssues #stomachPain #weightLossSurgery

Whatever was going on with my stomach as lunch time approached, it was definitely not pain caused by emptiness. I had lunch and the pain never went away. It’s been about four hours and it’s just as bad now as it was at its worst.

I knew something was wrong when I first woke up this morning, but it went really wrong about 12:30pm and it’s just hanging on for dear stomach-achy life. It’s made this afternoon very difficult. I can’t concentrate, I can’t focus. All I can think about is how my stomach hurts. What did I do wrong? Am I going to end up laying on the floor in a fetal position? That’s happened twice over the last 18 months and both times it was the middle of the night. I don’t think this is as bad as those times, but it sucks quite a lot.

As always though… if this is related to the gastric bypass that allowed me to lose over 200 pounds then it is totally and completely worth it. I will take this every once in a while over how I felt before the surgery every single day. I am definitely having a bad go of it right now, but it is still better than how it used to be. Amen and Huzzah and all that.

Now that I have made that clear… my effin’ stomach can go ahead and stop hurting now, thank you. Amen and Huzzah and all that.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/11/22/so-far-so-bad/

#gastricBypass #gastricBypassRecovery #gastricBypassSideEffects #health #stomachIssues #stomachPain #stomachPains #weightLossSurgery #weightLossSurgeryRecovery #weightLossSurgerySideEffects

I have made it to lunch time and nothing disastrous has happened yet. My feeling that today is going to be a bad day has not yet come true, but I still have half the work day to go. Fingers crossed that everything stays quiet.

I have been having a couple of issues. My stomach is not having a good day. The frequency of gastric bypass side effects does seem to be getting smaller with time, but today has been noteworthy. I was feeling a little off this morning while drinking water and doing my exercise. By the time I had my protein bar breakfast in the car on the way to work I was okay. Three hours later though I started having that empty-stomach-ache feeling. I had a small snack and felt better, but it only alleviated things for about an hour. Now the stomach ache is back, but I just started eating lunch so hopefully that will put an end to it.

The other issue I am having today is one that I hinted at in a post last night. I am completely exhausted. I got about 6.5 hours of sleep last night, which is a little less than I was hoping for. I still wear my Apple Watch to sleep to keep track of various sleep related data. One data point that seems really important to how rested I feel is called Sleeping Heart Rate Dip. The SleepWatch app says that a dip between 10% and 20% is average. Over 20% is excellent. Under 10% is not good. The last two nights I have been under 10%. I don’t know why. The app recommends exercise as a way to encourage your heart rate to dip more while you sleep, and I have exercised a lot the last couple of days. I’m not sure what to do about this, but I am so tired today that hopefully my body won’t have a choice but to have a good night’s sleep tonight. I guess we’ll see how things look in the morning.

Until then… fingers crossed that my sense of impending doom is not warranted. Here’s hoping!

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/11/22/so-far-so-good-3/

#food #gastricBypass #health #meals #Sleep #sleepingHeartRateDip #SleepWatch #stomachAche #stomachIssues #stomachPain #weightLossSurgery #weightLossSurgerySideEffects

How’s everyone’s back feeling today? Everyone out there in internets land feeling okay?

I woke up feeling okay today, after two days of feeling significantly less than okay. I’m not 100% by any stretch, but I am okay. I tried doing my morning exercise but it triggered the back pain again so I stopped. I am going to have to get it in a little at a time. Also, my desk chair in my office space was a little painful but I put a pillow between my back and the chair back and I’m fine now.

My stomach issues are much better as well, but still not 100%. I have been a little queasy this morning, but it hasn’t stopped me. I had my usual breakfast and I am half way to my liquids goal for the day. I’ve been taking it easy and going slow and while it hasn’t been back to normal, it’s been doable. I am planning to go to the post office at lunch time to drop off the film that I ordered developing for the other day so that is going to put off my next meal for a bit. I think I will be okay though.

Keeping my fingers crossed for no back or stomach back sliding today. Continue to feel better, Robert. You can do it!

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/10/23/hows-your-back-feeling/

#backIssues #BackPain #gastricBypass #gastricBypassRecovery #gastricBypassSideEffects #health #stomachIssues #stomachPain #weightLossSurgery

The issues from yesterday are still around today. My back is still in serious pain. Tylenol helps, but I’m seeing evidence that each dose wears off faster than the last. That’s not good.

The stomach is still an issue too, but is it really? I barely ate anything yesterday, and it’s been a smidge over 12 hours since the last time I had even the smallest bite of anything, and that was just a single piece of bread. When I woke up and my stomach was off, was it just because it was as empty as my little rewired, redesigned, butchered stomach can be?

I’ve had a little water this morning along with my morning vitamins and another dose of Tylenol. The 15 minute break between drinking and eating just ended. I am about to try eating a protein bar. Will I feel better afterwards? Will I feel worse? I haven’t a clue, but I’ll let you know when I know. Wish me luck, universe!

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/10/22/the-struggle-continues/

#backIssues #BackPain #gastricBypass #gastricBypassRecovery #gastricBypassSideEffects #health #pain #stomachIssues #stomachPain #weightLossSurgery