FOOD!!! :)

YAY!!! I can eat!!! My whole day was full of scrumptious food! I woke up and made myself 1 scrambled egg, and a 1/2 cup of all natural no sugar added apple sauce. I ate the whole egg and a 1/4 of the apple sauce - but then I was too full to eat anymore. 2 hours later I had to eat again (they say eat even if you're not hungry to get yourself on a schedule) and I had a 2 oz light string cheese. Then 2 hours later it was 2 oz of turkey deli meat and 1/2 cup of mashed pears. I couldn't bring myself to eat anything for the afternoon snack - I am stuffed. Dinner was 2 oz of dark meat chicken and 1/2 cup of mashed potato's. I had about 3/4 of my chicken and only 1/2 of the mashed potato's. I still have 4 oz of yogurt to go... uugghh... boy am I stuffed! It's really wild to see how little food is on my plate - but I can barely finish what is there. Full sensations are different now too - it's not a full belly, feeling like before - it's a sharp pain between my shoulder blades or under my chest bone. It takes me over an hour to eat - I have to chew each small bite (no larger than a pencil eraser) until it is paste/liquid in my mouth. I'm learning to savor all the flavors - but it can be tedious and tiring. But it has been WONDERFUL to not have a protein shake today!! :) I need to work on the water intake. In between each meal I am supposed to have 8 oz of clear liquids. This is a challenge however because it takes me about 45-60 minutes to drink 8 oz. I also can not drink 30 minutes before I eat or after I eat - this makes getting my fluids in quite tricky!



On other fronts, my energy is back!! Just ask Paula and Fr. Matt and my kids from LIFT last night!! That's the number one thing people have been commenting on! I do feel 100 times better. I still get tired very easily, and my stomach still hurts if I do too much (like last night - PAINFUL!) But, I have color back and my spunkyness is returning! I have begun to notice little changes in my body... like my face is thinning out, and I am definitely losing some of my boobs - man - always the first to go. My jeans were a little bigger on me last night. But nothing huge yet. I am sure as the weeks pass I will notice more and more. But people tell me I look awesome - so that must be a good thing! I had an event filled weekend and beginning to this week. We had my most adorable nephew all weekend. I spent all day saturday playing with him on the floor and feeding him his meals. Killer not to be able to pick him up - especially when he crawls over to your legs and pulls himself up and bounces and wines telling you he wants to be picked up... that's hard. But I got to sit on the floor and "hold" him in my lap, or sit and feed him his bottle - which was nice. He was very snuggly with me too! Mom and I took him to the Natick Mall to buy his Mommy birthday presents and we had to take a side trip to Toys R Us to get him a fun new toy!! Needless to say - I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the day. Sunday I was useless. Mom brought Cam into my room at 11AM to wake me up!! I sat like a lump on a log all day - soooo lethargic. Whoops!! Monday I did basically nothing all day to rest up for Tuesday, where I went to LIFT! Soooo great to see my kids and Lisa and Jeaninne! I miss everyone terribly. Paula was there too- and it was awesome and fun to hang with her after and catch up and laugh and talk. LIFT does just that to me - it always has a way of Lifting me up! Today was full of resting and eating and then a lovely visit with 2 special people, Natalie and Astrid. It was WONDERFUL! Tomorrow brings my 1st post op appointment with my surgeon and a meeting with Natalie, my dietitian. I am excited to see what the "real" scale reads and to see how I am progressing. I have many Celiac Disease related questions so the timing is perfect! So far no bad side effects or symptoms or reactions to things. I am off to eat my yogurt, take some meds, and watch the new season of Top Chef!! Here is a picture from the weekend of me and the love of my life - Cameron John!