Liquid Plumber

I got my drain removed today.

A few questions may be swirling around in your mind, chief of which is "what is a drain and why did you have it?" Another may be less of a question and more of a statement, like: "ewwww!"

Sure, it was cool the first few days, having a surgical tube sticking out of the right side of my belly with a clear bulb connected to the end collecting the fluid that was freeloading in my abdomen after the surgery. As I got more mobile, though, it became painfully obvious this thing was gonna be ... well, a pain! I never had the urge to rip it out, which I've heard many people do, so I had that going in my favor. The real issue was it constantly getting caught on something. The bulb was always just hanging there, safety pinned to the inside of my shirt, and the tube loosely dropped from the bulb up to where it dissapeared into my belly. If it wasn't the bulb getting in the way, it was the tube getting stuck to some errant tape from one of  my bandages.

Honestly, I'm just glad to have the thing out.

It's been 8 days since surgery. I'm past the "clear liquids only" portion of the program and have graduated to "full liquids." This means I can have yogurt, puddings, and cream soups. Surprizingly, the word that best described my feelings the first time I stared down at my 2oz of slightly thinned yogurt is: Apprehension. My fears were not about a specific food or a bad result from eating it; after some consideration I concluded my feelings were driven by the fact I had followed the clear liquid diet so exactingly (some might say, obsessively) over the previous three weeks that I viewed the yogurt as cheating!

I got over it and ate it.  But in case anyone from the Gastric Bypass Diet Compliance Department is reading this for any signs of deviation: Let it be known, I took 40 minutes to eat that 2oz of thinned yogurt.

I have lots to tell, but I don't want to bore anyone to death, so I'll end this entry with this uplifting note:

The surgeons nurse weighed me four days before my surgery. When I went back to the office today to get my drain taken out, they weighed me again.

I am happy to report that I lost 40 lbs in 12 days.

:-)