He’s Home!

Today’s food choices:

Today’s food choices, from upper left: scrambled eggs with ham and cheese (I had part for breakfast, and part for my mid-day snack, tossed the rest); multivitamin and calcium supplement x2; beef chili with a bit of American cheese and some vegetarian chili (I ate the navy beans out of it, so about 1/4 cup of that); Isopure Zero Carb; turkey picadillo taco filling with a sprinkle of Monterey Jack cheese on top.

In other news…

My love came home today!

I went to the hospital a bit earlier today to see if I could catch any of the doctors, nurse practitioners…whoever would be visiting J this morning to declare him discharged.  He was sitting up in a recliner–the same one I spent most of my time in the hospital in–and sipping on some water when I arrived.  This was a relief, as yesterday he couldn’t have sipped more than a half a teaspoon at a time without becoming seriously nauseated.

I was so glad to see him sitting up, sipping from the dosing cups that I’d learned to sip from.  I knew once I saw him drinking that he would indeed be coming home today.  We waited for a few hours before J got his marching papers because there were a couple of other folks on the hall who’d had surgery Monday as well who were being discharged today too.  Once his paperwork was gathered up, his nurse pulled his pain catheter and JP drain (which I refused to be in the room for since my experience with the drain had been so horrible), and he insisted on showering before going home.

I noticed that his incisions were similar to mine, except that he didn’t end up with Ugly Belly like I did.  In fact, when I finally saw all the incisions he’d been given, I told him it was unfair that he didn’t have the weird indentation on his belly that I had gotten.  He laughed about that, because he gave me a lot of shit for having the indent–he even called it my “pseudoanus” because it really did look like an anus.

I helped him get showered and cleaned up since immediately post-op, bending over and twisting to clean oneself simply does not happen.  I know that it was a little over 2 weeks before I could reach everything that needed to be cleaned!  I also helped him get dressed since, you know, the whole bending over thing just wasn’t happening, and it’s tough to put on undies and bottoms and shoes when you can’t bend over.  He styled his mustache–he wears a handlebar, and it is bad ass–and declared that he felt human again.  He looked human again.

Because his BP had been consistently high in the hospital, the NP (via our surgeon) prescribed a higher dose of his usual BP meds.  Thankfully this is a temporary change in his medicine and hopefully, his BP will come down.  I made sure all the other meds he’d been prescribed were ready and waiting for him once we got home so that he could start them as soon as it was time for the next dose of each one.

I am so proud of my husband.  He is feeling so much better today, and doing so well especially now that he is at home.  He sat up for a little while while I went and ran errands at the store, and when I came home, he declared that he needed to lay down.  He got into the bed without any help–I needed help every time I got into bed for 2 weeks!  He is slowly getting the hang of sipping tiny sips of fluid, and is doing his walking in the house as it is simply too hot outside to walk (hooray, August in Texas!).  He is getting up and down out of chairs without assistance.  I am hopeful that all of these things mean that the remainder of his recovery will be smooth after the initial rough patches.

I am excited for him, and excited for us.  The next year is going to be full of transformative change for both of us as individuals, but also as a couple.  We’ve already started talking about the things we’ll try to do as our bodies get whittled down to smaller sizes.  It is exciting to think about the possibility and the potential that both lie in front of us as we take this path to health together.  I am glad that the most difficult part of this process (physically) is behind him and that now he can learn his new lifestyle and the behaviors that come with it.  I said to him earlier this evening, “I am so proud of you and you are going to do so well with this.”  He replied, “You are a good role model.”

I’m glad he thinks so.  I hope that I’m a good example for him to follow as he makes his way through his weight loss journey.  I’m just doing what my doctor’s plan has laid out for its patients.  I’m also trying to change my behaviors one thought, one bite, one step, and one sip at a time.

To borrow from Eminem, “Success is my only muthafuckin’ option, failure’s not.”  I will succeed at this, and I will not let the Fat Girl inside deter me from my goal–to be healthy and to live long with my husband.  I am hopeful that both of us will be able to finally achieve what we’ve never previously been able to–smaller, healthier bodies.  The sleeves we both have will allow us to have a shot at a long life together.  And for this opportunity, I will be forever thankful.