I woke up at 5am because my stomach itches! Grrrr. Apparently, I am allergic to medical tape. I vaguely remember this fact now from my last surgery. Unfortunately, I remembered this too late. Whenever I have to get bloodwork done, I never leave the tape on long enough to notice anything. Well, at the hospital, the tape from my many needle sticks during the IV fiasco had to remain on for some time because I had been given a blood thinner and I was just too out of it to care. That began the rash in the crook of my arm. Then there were the bandages on each of of small incisions....and the steri strips. The ones that the nurse said had to stay on until they fell off. The doctor took one look at my incisions and said, "Your belly must really itch. Take a shower and get the steri strips off." THANK YOU! My incisions are swollen, red rashes that itch so bad I want to scratch my skin off. I am keeping itch cream on it but it wakes me up at odd hours and I can't scratch too hard because I am still healing.
I forgot to post some info I got the other day from my doctor....I don't have a nutritionist. The day after my surgery, I met the hospital nutritionist and she made a comment along the lines of "Kelli isn't here anymore, so I will be talking to you". Of course, I was on meds and not thinking straight so I put it out of my mind. After I came home, I was struggling with the protein and what to eat and when to eat and had a lot of questions. I figured I had my post-op appointment on Tuesday so I would talk to her at that time. When I mentioned it to my doctor, he said, "Kelli isn't here today." Well, that triggered the memory from the hospital and I asked the receptionist. She told me that Kelli had a taken a job closer to home. Ok, I get that. I understand that need, but how about saying something? I saw her exactly 15 days before my surgery and spoke with her one week prior to the surgery about a pre-op diet issue when my aunt passed away. Not a word. So now, at a time when I need a nutritionist the most, I do not have one. I have to rely on the forums on Vertical Sleeve Talk to help me out. Her newest patients knew that she was leaving because I ran into one of them and she said Kelli mentioned it, but she never told the people that were heading to surgery and would need her the most. So, yeah, I'm kind of pissed that the ball buster left without a word. Who knows? Maybe she left in a hurry...there is no one there to replace her yet. It is not my business.
On a brighter note, I got all my protein in today and even went over! I finally broke down and decided the only way I was getting in the protein was to drink the shakes. I figured out that one shake with 8 oz of skim milk is 32g of protein. I have to get in at least 60g per day. So if I have 2 shakes a day, there is my entire protein total and I don't have to worry all day. I was having a very tough time because everything that has protein either tastes bad or has so little protein that I have to have a lot of it. And having a large amount of anything just isn't happening. I still have to break up the 8 oz shake to last an hour or more because I cannot consume that much of anything at one time without getting sick. Even a yogurt takes me 2 sittings. (Honestly, I never thought I would see the day where I could only eat 1/2 a light yogurt in one sitting. Wow.) So now, I can have my yogurt, soup, popsicles, sherbert, pudding, or jello whenever I feel like it and not worry about the protein count in it as long as I have 2 shakes per day. Thank goodness. I was stressing over the whole thing because if I do not have the correct amount of protein, I can get protein malnutrition and with that, I can start to lose my hair. I was losing hair by the handfuls 2 years ago when I had my lung surgery and I do not want to go to through that again. There are other things that can happen as well, but that is the one that stands out to me. It is getting late and I'm not thinking straight. So off to bed I go, it is bloodwork in the morning. Good night, my readers of none. (for now, anyway. I am optimistic.)
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