When Dennis and Cheri came to visit they brought toys, including a chicken that Max HATED. The sound seemed to freak him out and he wouldn't touch it. Then we got the idea to wrap it up in his towel (part of his bedding and sometimes a toy in its own right.) The towel HAD to be rescued from the demon chicken.
For Max's birthday, Dennis and Cheri sent more toys.
Max's new magic trick is thanks to his girlfriend's mom, Brandi.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Whale Watching
Mike's family came out for a visit over the summer. (Yes, I am THAT far behind on blogging) For the most part I chilled at home while they did their thing, but I was not about to miss out on this. So, I relied on my good friend anorexia to keep me continent and joined them for an awesome day on the Salish Sea.
Of course, there are lots of pictures and you can also check out the tour blog.
One of the whales really put on a show for us. I was taking stills, but Cheri got a really great video of it.
Of course, there are lots of pictures and you can also check out the tour blog.
One of the whales really put on a show for us. I was taking stills, but Cheri got a really great video of it.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Pictures!
Several albums have been updated including Maxwell Smart
The following picture is in the Mommy and Max album, but I thought you guys might like to see the subsequent pics.
There is also a new album for our Columbia River Trip. This is from the one overnight trip this year that didn't result in an ER visit!
The following picture is in the Mommy and Max album, but I thought you guys might like to see the subsequent pics.
There is also a new album for our Columbia River Trip. This is from the one overnight trip this year that didn't result in an ER visit!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Gallbladder surgery or Why I don't travel
I know it has been a while since I posted anything so I figured I start with the big "news." (Is it news if it happened 2 months ago?)
I had to have my gallbladder taken out. We tried to take a weekend trip to Wenatchee, WA which is on the other side of the cascades. Trips seem to be a bad thing for me. In the past 7 months, I've taken 3 overnight trips. Two have ended up involving an ER visit. Looked at another way, in the past 7 months I've had 3 ER visits, 2 of which involved an over night trip. I don't really see why sleeping somewhere else should be too much stress for my body to take, but apparently I am just that fragile.
Anyway, gallbladder issues are common with rapid weight loss. I was on some medication to lower my risk, but my risk was probably a bit higher than even the average weight loss surgery patient because of all the food issues I've had. So, while we were in Wenatchee I had a gallbladder attack and we decided to rush back to Seattle (~3 hr drive). We didn't know what was going on but figured it would be best to be seen in the hospital that knew the most about me. Michael dropped me off at the hospital before taking puppy home. I actually lucked out in that the surgeon on call does gastric bypasses so he was very familiar with my situation and now I no longer have a gallbladder. This isn't really a big deal. It means I won't digest fat as well which can lead to diarrhea, but with the issues I have already it is sort of a drop in the ocean.
I did have a few surgery side effects. First of all - apparently they were worried I had hepatitis. I'm not sure who heard what, so I just wanted to go on record as saying that my liver is fine. It was just mad because it got banged around during the surgery. (The gallbladder sits right up against the liver.) There is no damage. The other issue is this weird pain that I had. There was this line going from my belly button (where they pulled the gallbladder out) diagonally down to the front of my left hip. There was this divot in my skin that looked like it had been pulled too tight and along the line the skin was numb. At either end of the line - there was pain. It was actually more painful than any of the incisions. Everyone was confused by this on two counts. (I used to enjoy thinking of myself as unusual and interesting, but it gets old when you are unusual and interesting medically.) First of all - the gallbladder is in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen and the pain was on the exact opposite side of where they were working. Secondly - what I just described (numbness combined with pain and a seizing up a tissue) sounds a lot like nerve issues. But, in that part of your body, nerves don't run diagonally. So, for about a month it hurt to do just about anything including just having something touch my belly there. I went around all the time in sweatpants that were 5 sizes too big. Then all of a sudden - the pain was gone. Not coincidentally (I think) a month out from surgery is about when you would expect the dissoluble sutures to let go. My theory is that something got pulled too tight when they sewed me up. None of the doctors (including Michael) put much stock in this theory, but I like it.
Well, that concludes the story of the ill-fated gallbladder. I have more posts planned and hopefully it won't take another three months for me to get around to them. But, now I'm on my way to meet my GI doc to see what he has to say about my other issues.
I had to have my gallbladder taken out. We tried to take a weekend trip to Wenatchee, WA which is on the other side of the cascades. Trips seem to be a bad thing for me. In the past 7 months, I've taken 3 overnight trips. Two have ended up involving an ER visit. Looked at another way, in the past 7 months I've had 3 ER visits, 2 of which involved an over night trip. I don't really see why sleeping somewhere else should be too much stress for my body to take, but apparently I am just that fragile.
Anyway, gallbladder issues are common with rapid weight loss. I was on some medication to lower my risk, but my risk was probably a bit higher than even the average weight loss surgery patient because of all the food issues I've had. So, while we were in Wenatchee I had a gallbladder attack and we decided to rush back to Seattle (~3 hr drive). We didn't know what was going on but figured it would be best to be seen in the hospital that knew the most about me. Michael dropped me off at the hospital before taking puppy home. I actually lucked out in that the surgeon on call does gastric bypasses so he was very familiar with my situation and now I no longer have a gallbladder. This isn't really a big deal. It means I won't digest fat as well which can lead to diarrhea, but with the issues I have already it is sort of a drop in the ocean.
I did have a few surgery side effects. First of all - apparently they were worried I had hepatitis. I'm not sure who heard what, so I just wanted to go on record as saying that my liver is fine. It was just mad because it got banged around during the surgery. (The gallbladder sits right up against the liver.) There is no damage. The other issue is this weird pain that I had. There was this line going from my belly button (where they pulled the gallbladder out) diagonally down to the front of my left hip. There was this divot in my skin that looked like it had been pulled too tight and along the line the skin was numb. At either end of the line - there was pain. It was actually more painful than any of the incisions. Everyone was confused by this on two counts. (I used to enjoy thinking of myself as unusual and interesting, but it gets old when you are unusual and interesting medically.) First of all - the gallbladder is in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen and the pain was on the exact opposite side of where they were working. Secondly - what I just described (numbness combined with pain and a seizing up a tissue) sounds a lot like nerve issues. But, in that part of your body, nerves don't run diagonally. So, for about a month it hurt to do just about anything including just having something touch my belly there. I went around all the time in sweatpants that were 5 sizes too big. Then all of a sudden - the pain was gone. Not coincidentally (I think) a month out from surgery is about when you would expect the dissoluble sutures to let go. My theory is that something got pulled too tight when they sewed me up. None of the doctors (including Michael) put much stock in this theory, but I like it.
Well, that concludes the story of the ill-fated gallbladder. I have more posts planned and hopefully it won't take another three months for me to get around to them. But, now I'm on my way to meet my GI doc to see what he has to say about my other issues.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Health Update: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Quite a few of you have expressed concern over my current state of health - so I thought an update was in order.
The Good:
As we get farther and farther away from my partial bowel obstruction with no similar problems, it is rather unlikely that I will need a follow up surgery to deal with an obstruction.
I don't have sleep apnea anymore, so that's great.
I had some hormonal issues that put me at risk for diabetes and they are correcting themselves.
My doctors are happy with my muscle tone. Also, b12 and iron levels are fine. (These are the two most common deficiencies with gastric bypass.) So, I can only be but so malnourished.
While I do have issues, they are getting better as well, so on the whole I feel really good about how things are going.
The Bad:
I just had my second ER visit. We are currently in NC visiting my god-parents. We flew into C'ville and were able to catch up with a few people over the weekend, but it would appear that I over did it. It was hot and I wasn't as careful as I should have been. I've been flirting with dehydration for a while (more on that later) and I crossed a line. I got a kidney stone and my potassium levels were really low. I recovered quickly, which is good. I had hoped, however, that my previous ER visit would be my last. And, it was rather disconcerting to strike out for an ER in the middle of the night in a town that isn't your own. Luckily, Michael did a rotation in this area while he was in med school, so he knew where to go. I'm still working on the kidney stone, but hopefully it will work its way out soon.
The Ugly:
This is the TMI section of this post - so if you don't want the gorey details - you may want to stop reading here.
The big problem that I have now is that I get sick whenever I eat. I get cramps, diarrhea and sometimes, I throw up. When this first started, I thought I had a stomach flu but it has been a couple of months now and I'm still dealing with it. I'm tried food experiments (like cutting out dairy) but I can't find particular foods that are and are not problematic. What I eat doesn't seem to mater - just the fact that I have eaten. As not fun as all this is, the real problem is that all the diarrhea is leaving me dehydrated. I'm drinking as much as I'm supposed to, but I can tell from how I feel that it isn't enough. I'm also not eating enough (so I'm losing some muscle mass due to protein deficiency) and I recently tried to add in an extra meal, but the extra diarrhea got me notably dehydrated so I had to drop that idea.
At first, I could eat breakfast and I would be sick all day (without eating anything else) and into the night. Now, I'm down to only a few hours of being sick. This is a very significant improvement. For one, now I eat breakfast and by the time I need to eat lunch - I'm no longer feeling sick. As you can imagine, this makes it much easier to make myself eat. Also, I have this little break between meals where I'm ok and can get things done. For a long time, I'm just been spending all day in the bathroom. Now, I can emerge from the bathroom and I have a little time to do some ironing - or write a blog post - before I eat lunch and make myself sick again. This little break has been a huge sanity boost and I look forward to it getting longer. I also have learned a couple of ways to control it. For one - I can just not eat. Now, obviously, I can't do this much (as tempting as it is) but used judiciously it can enable things like flying back to the east coast. I also respond to Imodium. More than getting rid of the issues, it more slows them down. The diarrhea isn't as crazy, the cramps aren't as bad, but food seems to stay in my stomach longer making it more likely that I'll throw up. And, if I take too much I become very nauseated. I also don't want my body to adjust to a constant presence of Imodium. In general, I use it just once a week - but I can make exceptions for special occasions like my cousin Emily's visit.
Well, that's about it. I hope you all are doing well.
The Good:
As we get farther and farther away from my partial bowel obstruction with no similar problems, it is rather unlikely that I will need a follow up surgery to deal with an obstruction.
I don't have sleep apnea anymore, so that's great.
I had some hormonal issues that put me at risk for diabetes and they are correcting themselves.
My doctors are happy with my muscle tone. Also, b12 and iron levels are fine. (These are the two most common deficiencies with gastric bypass.) So, I can only be but so malnourished.
While I do have issues, they are getting better as well, so on the whole I feel really good about how things are going.
The Bad:
I just had my second ER visit. We are currently in NC visiting my god-parents. We flew into C'ville and were able to catch up with a few people over the weekend, but it would appear that I over did it. It was hot and I wasn't as careful as I should have been. I've been flirting with dehydration for a while (more on that later) and I crossed a line. I got a kidney stone and my potassium levels were really low. I recovered quickly, which is good. I had hoped, however, that my previous ER visit would be my last. And, it was rather disconcerting to strike out for an ER in the middle of the night in a town that isn't your own. Luckily, Michael did a rotation in this area while he was in med school, so he knew where to go. I'm still working on the kidney stone, but hopefully it will work its way out soon.
The Ugly:
This is the TMI section of this post - so if you don't want the gorey details - you may want to stop reading here.
The big problem that I have now is that I get sick whenever I eat. I get cramps, diarrhea and sometimes, I throw up. When this first started, I thought I had a stomach flu but it has been a couple of months now and I'm still dealing with it. I'm tried food experiments (like cutting out dairy) but I can't find particular foods that are and are not problematic. What I eat doesn't seem to mater - just the fact that I have eaten. As not fun as all this is, the real problem is that all the diarrhea is leaving me dehydrated. I'm drinking as much as I'm supposed to, but I can tell from how I feel that it isn't enough. I'm also not eating enough (so I'm losing some muscle mass due to protein deficiency) and I recently tried to add in an extra meal, but the extra diarrhea got me notably dehydrated so I had to drop that idea.
At first, I could eat breakfast and I would be sick all day (without eating anything else) and into the night. Now, I'm down to only a few hours of being sick. This is a very significant improvement. For one, now I eat breakfast and by the time I need to eat lunch - I'm no longer feeling sick. As you can imagine, this makes it much easier to make myself eat. Also, I have this little break between meals where I'm ok and can get things done. For a long time, I'm just been spending all day in the bathroom. Now, I can emerge from the bathroom and I have a little time to do some ironing - or write a blog post - before I eat lunch and make myself sick again. This little break has been a huge sanity boost and I look forward to it getting longer. I also have learned a couple of ways to control it. For one - I can just not eat. Now, obviously, I can't do this much (as tempting as it is) but used judiciously it can enable things like flying back to the east coast. I also respond to Imodium. More than getting rid of the issues, it more slows them down. The diarrhea isn't as crazy, the cramps aren't as bad, but food seems to stay in my stomach longer making it more likely that I'll throw up. And, if I take too much I become very nauseated. I also don't want my body to adjust to a constant presence of Imodium. In general, I use it just once a week - but I can make exceptions for special occasions like my cousin Emily's visit.
Well, that's about it. I hope you all are doing well.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Our Amazing View
It is so hard to not just post pictures of the view from our apartment all the time. I mean, it seems sort of boring and lame. But, it is just so amazing that sometimes I can't help myself.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Odds and Ends
If you have been to Maxwell Smart's photo album, you know that he recently went to a family reunion. I thought you guys might also like to see a video from the day.
I've added a couple of new things to the blog. First of all- I put a link to my friend Sarah's weight loss surgery blog on the links list to the right. I also added a weight loss tracker at the bottom for any who are interested in following that saga. And, I'll go ahead and say that the goal of loosing 150lbs is pretty close to arbitrary. It is a nice round number. The last time I was at a weight that would be "normal" for me now - I was in elementary school. I have no concept of what a good normal weight is for me as an adult.
With my last post, I realize that I may have come off as not wanting to talk about my surgery, which isn't really true. It is just that it feels weird somehow to bring it up randomly. I've never walked into a room and said, "Guess what everybody! I'm on a diet!" It isn't that I wouldn't want anyone to know that I'm on a diet or not want to talk about it. I just wouldn't bring it up. Now, I know that major surgery is something that people tend to make a point of mentioning to their friends - but in my head, I'm thinking of it like a diet.
One last thing: I've set up a new photo album called Mommy and Max that will have regular photos of me and Max. The idea is that over time you will be able to see me get smaller and Max get bigger. At this point, I don't think either effect is noticeable, but at some point I'm sure it will be.
I've added a couple of new things to the blog. First of all- I put a link to my friend Sarah's weight loss surgery blog on the links list to the right. I also added a weight loss tracker at the bottom for any who are interested in following that saga. And, I'll go ahead and say that the goal of loosing 150lbs is pretty close to arbitrary. It is a nice round number. The last time I was at a weight that would be "normal" for me now - I was in elementary school. I have no concept of what a good normal weight is for me as an adult.
With my last post, I realize that I may have come off as not wanting to talk about my surgery, which isn't really true. It is just that it feels weird somehow to bring it up randomly. I've never walked into a room and said, "Guess what everybody! I'm on a diet!" It isn't that I wouldn't want anyone to know that I'm on a diet or not want to talk about it. I just wouldn't bring it up. Now, I know that major surgery is something that people tend to make a point of mentioning to their friends - but in my head, I'm thinking of it like a diet.
One last thing: I've set up a new photo album called Mommy and Max that will have regular photos of me and Max. The idea is that over time you will be able to see me get smaller and Max get bigger. At this point, I don't think either effect is noticeable, but at some point I'm sure it will be.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The Secret
Ok, so it isn't really a secret - I just haven't really made a point of telling people. I think I want to believe that it isn't really a big deal- not worth mentioning. But, I figured it was about time I go ahead and bite the bullet and let the word out.
I had a gastric bypass surgery. For the anatomically curious among you, this is what my insides now look like. There has been a minor complication with a partial bowel obstruction. We are hoping that it is clearing up on its own and in the mean time I'm struggling to find things that I can comfortably eat. I still feel good about my decision. It is important to me to be healthy and I know that these current issues are nothing compared to the long-term health benefits.
So there you have it. Now everybody knows.
I had a gastric bypass surgery. For the anatomically curious among you, this is what my insides now look like. There has been a minor complication with a partial bowel obstruction. We are hoping that it is clearing up on its own and in the mean time I'm struggling to find things that I can comfortably eat. I still feel good about my decision. It is important to me to be healthy and I know that these current issues are nothing compared to the long-term health benefits.
So there you have it. Now everybody knows.
New Years!
Ok, yes I know - it has been a long time since New Years. But I thought you might still like to see the fireworks. We had some people over and watched the show from our apartment.
While I'm playing catch-up - there are updates to a couple of the photo albums.
Around the Sound
Maxwell Smart
While I'm playing catch-up - there are updates to a couple of the photo albums.
Around the Sound
Maxwell Smart
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