Monday, January 30, 2012

A setback, part 1

Last Wednesday in the early morning hours, I awoke in pain. This hasn't been unusual as my CPAP would force some air down into my pouch causing gas pain. The severity of the pain was unusual though. I made a quick and fruitless trip to the bathroom, and decided to try some Gas-X. Immediately after I took that small sip of water with the pills, I knew something was VERY wrong.

I woke Chrissy up and told her to take me to the hospital immediately. I struggled through the pain to even put on sweatpants and a T-shirt and only put on slippers. They skipped the triage room and took me straight to an ER bed.

They gave me a "stomach cocktail" pretty quickly. I begged them for pain relief but they wanted to make sure the stuff they gave me wouldn't work first. After they determined it didn't work, they gave me some strong painkillers and sent me for a CT.

Shortly after getting me back in the ER, they hooked me up to I-V antibiotics and told me I had a perforated ulcer. They started calling my Bariatric surgeon to get me transferred to St Agnes. After a long back and forth, several hours later I was loaded on an ambulance and sent on my way. That ride would be the most painful of my life. Bay bridge, Severn river bridge, 97, 695, Rt 1, and Caton Avenue....why not 95 to Caton?

Anyway, they put me in the ICU and just a bit over an hour later I was being operated on.  After surgery, I was put back in the ICU for Wed night. I had an I-V line in each hand with antacids, antibiotics and fluids being pumped in to me.  I had the nurses giving me painkillers every 4-5 hours. I barely knew what day it was but was able to move better on my own then they expected. I drifted in and out of sleep all night.  And thus, Wed was over.  I will cover Thur-Sat in another blog post later.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Tired of this partisan crap

In the political realm, I fall more to the side of Republican than Democrat, but by stating that, I have already given readers a perception of who I am.  That is the main thing I hate about our two party system. Yes it gives you a way to align with people of similar beliefs, but with only two parties to choose from, that leaves a lot of grey area.  That grey area leads to terms like "extreme (left or right)" and "bleeding heart liberal" which lead to even more division.

I don't want to be thought of in the same way as the anti-gay, bible thumping Republicans, but just from my opening statement some people may have left my blog without reading the whole post with that impression of me.

Why not declare as independent? Then I would have even less say in the government. I wouldn't be able to vote in primaries. At least there is a slimmer of hope that I can vote a moderate Republican in to the main election that would get support from both sides.

So, let same sex marriages occur, leave the Bible out of our laws, and do people really need to be able to buy an assault rifle for "hunting" purposes?  At the same time, cut some social programs, and ditch the healthcare bill as is (and start with tort reform, and protections for consumers not mandates they have it). Of, and get rid of the Social Security tax ceiling.

I have now totally pissed off both parties, my work here is done. /rant

At some point I will write that other blog post I had planned for winter break.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

2011 - A Brief Review

2011 was an interesting year for me. Shortly after ringing in the new year, I started a new job (Feb 13th to be precise). At that point I was also working my way towards Gastric Bypass with a pre-surgery diet and exercise regiment.

As time progressed, so did my proficiency in my new position. I was gradually losing weight and waiting for the pre-approval to come through for the surgery. The date finally came July 5th and life has not been the same since.

In the first 6 months I have lost around 140lbs (more precise number tomorrow morning when I am able to use my scale at home.) I have also had to completely change my eating habits. Breakfast every morning now consists of a protein shake rather than a breakfast sandwich. My food intake so small that people look at me funny. I have also had to go "shopping" in the basement for smaller clothes. What was old is new again to me :-P

Chrissy and I again took our annual anniversary trip, returning to the Northeast. Rather than Niagara falls like last year, we hit every state in New England that we hadn't yet seen: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. We also made our annual Florida trip visit my family that migrated south. I am actually writing this post while Chrissy drives the first leg.

I guess that sums up 2011 pretty well. Now to take a nap till I have to drive.