Tag: surgery

Smaller Appetite After Surgery

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, keto, WeightLeave a comment

I have always had a huge appetite since I was at least a teenager. At dinner, my mom would always make enough so everyone could have seconds, and I was typically the only one who would actually take seconds. I was so skinny and my mom never understood where that food went because I never gained any weight no matter how much food I ate. I kind of hate my younger self right now lol. I was also active, and when I say active, I mean like gym class, running from the school to escape bullies, then walking home from school. You know, typical teenage angst lol.

So the time of my life I’m referring to was when I was around 13 years old and I was 150lbs. Fast forward to when I was 26 and I was still 150lbs, then I quit smoking and that all changed. Suddenly I was gaining weight because I was discovering how wonderful food was. Before then I was eating to survive on what we could afford. After, I was eating for pleasure, and I wasn’t holding back. I was getting a lot more food than normal and within 2 months of quitting smoking, I had gained 50lbs. So there I was 200lbs with a fat belly all of a sudden and my appetite was out of control, but I was trying not to go over 200lbs.

Over the years I’ve gained weight because of my enormous appetite until I was at my highest last year at 267lbs. I bought a Fitbit Charge 4 watch and a Fitbit Aria scale and I tried working on my weight. When I got the scale I was 265lbs and by January this year I was 254lbs, then the surgeon told me to lose 15-20lbs for my surgery and then I went down to 230lbs. Now after surgery I have gone down to 225lbs.

And now to the subject of this post. I had my surgery where they reduced the size of my colon, which is a nicer way of saying they removed a section of my colon to remove the possibility of colon cancer. But ever since I had my surgery, I haven’t been very hungry. They fed me 6oz of soup and some other things like pudding or jello and some juices and milk. Well, that tiny amount of food and drinks made me feel so full. When I came home from the hospital I was still getting full from such a tiny amount of food. I left the hospital on Thursday and today is Sunday and I’m still getting full from 6oz of soup. I made myself tomato soup, a 3oz glass of sugar free Jell-O and a chocolate pudding cup and I couldn’t even eat the Jell-O or the pudding. It was literally too much food.

This will be to my advantage to help me reduce the size of my stomach. If I eat and I get full fast, then I won’t have the chance to make my stomach too big again, and that will help me lose weight, especially when I go back to eating my Keto food. This will also prevent me from even wanting to go to a buffet because if I’m not hungry for such a huge amount of food, then I won’t be tempted to go, thus I won’t overeat and gain weight again. So I see this as a huge win for me.

How long do you think it will take me to get down to 200lbs if I am 225lbs now? I pretty much lost 22lbs from mid-January to the end of March. So do you think I will be down to 200lbs by June or July maybe? And if I get down to 200lbs by then, I will just keep going and lose all the weight I can possibly lose. I really would like to get back to 150lbs, but I will be happy if I can get down to 160 or 170. When I finally get down to the weight I want to be, I’m going to continue to maintain my weight by eating Keto foods, and if I still lose weight, well then good for me.

I’m home from the hospital

On By Michel McDonaldIn HealthLeave a comment

Well, I did it and I survived a week in the hospital lol.

On Saturday, March 27 I started a liquid diet to help empty my bowels for surgery. I had to drink broth for 2 days. Monday, March 29 was my surgery. This is a video on YouTube that shows what they did.

I wasn’t given any food after the surgery. The next day I had a liquid diet, and all my meals made me full.

These were pretty much what I was eating. Cream soups that were less creamy and more watery. My meals were a soup, pudding or Jell-O or ice lemon, milk or almond milk, hot tea or hot coffee, and a juice like cranberry or grape. Oh and breakfast was cream of wheat with no butter or sweetener.

I’m not in any pain. I have to walk around to keep my stomach from turning into velcro. The physical therapist used that word to describe what your insides will do that kind of made me laugh and it also made sense.

I had to lose weight for the surgery and the surgeon said that when he asks his patients to lose weight for surgery, they almost always never lose weight. He was so surprised and happy that I actually lost weight. I went from 254 on January 12 when I first saw him, and I was 230 the day of surgery. I lost 5 more pounds after a week of hospital food. Here’s my weight now.

I am really proud of myself for having the will power to meet this goal and continue losing weight, and I will keep losing more weight so I can lose all the stomach fat. Of course I’ll probably need to maintain a small layer of stomach fat for insulation lol, but there is no reason to stay fat and because it was unhealthy for me.

I have a post opp appointment in 11 days and I’m sure he will reveal my stitches. Everything is bandaged. I can’t take a shower until the bandages are gone. I bought some no rise shampoo/body wash from Amazon to keep me clean. It’s a spray which will make it easier to use.

As I keep saying, just to be clear, I do not have colon cancer and after the surgery, the surgeon told me he found no evidence of cancer. He removed the section of my colon because of colon polyps that they couldn’t remove any other way.

I really appreciate all the likes on my posts about my weight loss progress over the last few months. Thank you for reading.

I’ve been approved for surgery

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, ketoLeave a comment

Let me just backtrack just in case someone is reading this post and they haven’t read any of my other posts. I had a colonoscopy in September 2020 and they found and removed several polyps. There were also several that were lying flat that they could not remove, so the only way to remove them is with surgery. They sent me to a surgeon who will do the surgery, but I’m overweight, so he asked me to lose 15 to 20 lbs so things are loose to make the surgery easier on both of us.

I went to my follow up appointment today with the surgeon, and he approved my surgery because I had lost 18lbs. So the surgery will be in 3 weeks and it isn’t exactly what I had expected. I thought he was just going to make me do the colonoscopy prep and then he would go in and basically do another colonoscopy, but with scrapers that could scrape the tissue to remove the polyps. Instead, he has to remove a section of my colon. I will still have to do a colon prep, but it’s a little different. I will have to be on a liquid diet for 2 days and take some medication and I will be in the hospital for 2-3 days after the surgery to make sure I don’t get an infection, which will just make things worse because I could end up with a colostomy. I. Do. Not. Want. That.

Even though I don’t technically have cancer, he is treating the surgery as if I have cancer. The polyps could turn into cancer if they are not removed, and they couldn’t be removed from a colonoscopy, so this is the alternative, and removing this section of my colon will keep me from having cancer. I’m not sure if I want to cry or not. I know it’s not cancer, yet, but, I don’t know. I’m just a little emotional I guess. I just didn’t expect to hear what he has to do to remove these polyps.

My paternal father died from cancer, so it was very important for me to get this screening done as soon as I turned 50. They wouldn’t give me a colonoscopy until I turned 50, so I had to make the appointment as soon as I could after my birthday last year. I’m glad they found it early enough and they will be able to take care of it.

After my surgery is done, I’m going to stay on my Keto diet and it is possible I’ve already decided this is it for myself. No more bad carbs. No more fried foods or fast food or junk food. I have learned while on this Keto diet that I can still eat the food I want to eat, I just have to go about it a little bit differently. I can still eat bread and tortillas, they just have to be carb free or low carb. Aldi has bread that is 0 net carbs and tortillas that actually taste good that are 5 net carbs. I can still eat a burger, I just have to use the Aldi bread, or I can make a chaffle. And speaking of chaffles, I love eating chaffles for breakfast with the sugar free pancake syrup. And I don’t have to worry about candy bars because I have the Fiber One snack bars that are pretty close to a candy bar. Atkin’s sells candy that is like M&M’s, so if I get hungry for that, they sell them at the grocery store near my house. Everything I like is available to me, I just have to find a way to make it healthy. There are also tons of recipes for making things I love, like egg nog.

I made some hamburgers with my mini dash waffle maker and made a big mess, so I bought another Dash, but it’s a griddle that will make pancakes and eggs and it is also for making hamburgers. So I can eat a burger guilt free any time I want.

Yes I’m a little sad at what has to happen, but I’m happy that I’m not going to have cancer and this has helped me work on my weight loss finally. And as always, I will follow up after my surgery.

I did it! I lost 15+lbs for surgery.

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, ketoLeave a comment

With all the struggling that I did during the last couple of months trying to lose 15 lb, I never thought that the weight would actually come off. I’m so happy that I finally lost 15 pounds and now I can get my surgery.

I still have four more days until I see the doctor to check my weight. He said 15 to 20 lb, so who knows how much more weight I might lose until then.

My appetite is under control and I am only eating breakfast, lunch, a 3:00 p.m. snack which is a 70 calorie Fiber One snack, and dinner at 6:00 p.m. I’m drinking coffee from when I wake up until a little after noon and then water for the rest of the day.

Like I’ve said before, I’m going to continue losing weight after my surgery until I get down below 200 lb. I would like to get down to 160 or 170, but I guess I’ll see what happens when it happens. Got to just keep going.

My weight loss update

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, ketoLeave a comment

I started my Atkins Keto diet on January 12, 2021 at 253lbs per my surgeons request. On February 17, 2021 I had lost 11.6lbs, but then the weight stopped dropping and I had gained a few pounds and I got extremely frustrated.

I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong. I was always hungry, so I figured I needed a supplement, so I went on YouTube to find out what works, and someone said Apple Cider Vinegar, so I went on Amazon and found something in pill form called Apple Cider Vinegar+KETO in a bottle with 120 capsules. Instructions were to take 2 pills in the morning with food. I did that and the first couple of days it helped me to suppress my appetite, but then it stopped suppressing my appetite and I was always hungry again. So then I bought a bottle of Metamucil with Psyllium Husk Powder and the instructions were to take 2 rounded teaspoons with 8oz glass of water before every meal, and that actually helped to suppress my appetite. I took it for 3 days in a row and started feeling horrible stomach cramps, but I took it for a 4th day and I regretted taking it. I looked on Google for how long you should take Metamucil and it said maximum of 7 days. Well, 4 days was too many for me. Perhaps 7 days if you only take 1 rounded teaspoon before meals.

Yesterday and today I didn’t take anything. No apple cider vinegar, no metamucil and I seem to be doing fine with my appetite. My stomach is still cramping up a lot, but that’s going away. I don’t feel hungry between meals and that’s pretty much the whole point of me doing that, to help shrink my stomach and to help shrink my appetite. I weighed myself this morning and I was 239.4lbs.

My goal is to lose 15-20lbs for surgery, and my appointment with the surgeon is on March 11, 2021 to check my weight to see if I have lost anything to be eligible for surgery, which is in exactly 1 week from today. I am hoping to get down to 233 by then, but I will be happy if I’ve only lost 15lbs. Then of course there will be from the day of my appointment next week until the day of the surgery, and I may possibly have gone down to 233 or lower.

I have to lose weight for surgery, but I want to lose weight for my health sake. I have sleep apnea and I have bad knees, and I’m guessing is due to the fact that I am, or was 100lbs overweight. I’m still at least 90lbs overweight. I was 150 before I quit smoking and gained all this weight, and I don’t expect to go back down to 150lbs, but I’d at least like to get down to 170 again. I know I can do it if I try hard enough, but that all depends on my appetite. I’ve always had a huge appetite since I was a kid when I was skinny and couldn’t gain any weight even if I tried because I was very active.

Of course I will keep this blog updated when I go to the appointment next week and when I have the surgery, and when I lose more weight beyond the surgery.

Oh and just to make it clear, the surgery isn’t for weight loss as someone thought on Facebook. The surgery is to remove some colon polyps that they couldn’t remove during my colonoscopy in September of 2020. I need these extra polyps removed before they turn to cancer. Even if it was for weight loss, I’m sure I do not qualify for weight loss surgery because I am not an extreme case like you see on tv.

I finally found my groove

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, ketoLeave a comment

Ok. I’ve been on this Keto diet to lose weight for surgery for 7 weeks and I’ve had a lot of trouble losing weight. The first 2 weeks I was on this diet I lost 8lbs. I think because I was eating less, and I had almost completely cut out carbs. I mean, you can’t cut out ALL carbs. There are foods that are low carb, but they do have carbs. Then a few days after I had lost 8lbs on the scale, it dropped another few pounds for a total of 11lbs. But then I think I got cocky because the weight stopped coming off and I couldn’t lose any more weight to save my life.

I’m back on track now. I noticed I wasn’t going to the bathroom, like at all. I finally bought some Metamucil with Psyllium fiber. That helps me go to the bathroom and it also helps to control my appetite after my meals. I’m not eating as much food as I was and I’m losing weight again. I’m finally back down to that 11lb weight loss. I have 9 more days until my appointment with the surgeon to check on my weight loss, then he will schedule my surgery. And then of course I will have to stay on my diet until the surgery date, so I will hopefully lose more weight before then. I will also continue this diet until I’ve gone down to at least 200lbs. I’d like to keep going and lose all my weight, but I also don’t want to put any pressure on myself to lose weight.

My daily routine so far. I will drink the metamucil and then make my breakfast which is usually always chaffles. 2 eggs with some shredded cheddar cheese in the mini Dash waffle maker. For lunch more metamucil, then I will make a turkey sandwich with Foster Farms turkey that we buy from Aldi, L’Oven Fresh Zero Net Carbs Multiseed Keto bread also from Aldi with a little bit of mayo. Then at 3pm I’ll eat a Fiber One 70 calorie 5g net carbs brownie. For dinner more metamucil, then I make a chicken and cheese wrap thing. It looks more like a taco though, but I bake it like a quesadilla lol. The tortilla I’m using is called Fit & Active low carb tortillas that are 4g net carbs also from Aldi, and of course more shredded cheddar cheese, 28 grams to be precise and 3oz of chicken. That’s pretty much my whole day. Sometimes I will eat chicken and broccoli instead of making a wrap.

I’m sure someone’s going to say I’m doing everything wrong, but I am losing weight again, so I’m just going to do what works for me. But I don’t mind suggestions if anyone has any.

Edit: I Googled how many days you can take Metamucil, and it said do not take for more than 7 days. I’ve only taken it for 4 days, and my stomach is cramping hard today. I think I will stop taking it after today and then start up again in about a week I think. I didn’t know it was going to do this. I also didn’t know it was a laxative lol.

Why I stopped going to the gym

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, gym, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I stopped going to the Planet Fitness gym more than 2 years ago for various reasons. And… I’ve been paying for it all this time.

One reason is I have an overactive bladder. I would go to the bathroom before I even started exercising just so I wouldn’t have to run to the bathroom. I would get on a machine and in 5 minutes the overwhelming feeling to urinate would hit and I would have to literally run to the bathroom because I had to pee NOW. I’d go back and in 5 minutes it would come again. I would get on the treadmill and literally walking for 5 minutes and I had the urgent feeling to urinate again. It was too much.

I spoke with my doctor and she said it’s probably a urinary tract infection and to drink cranberry juice, which I absolutely hate, but I did it anyway and it didn’t do me any good.

At home I have to go to the bathroom at least 20 times in a day. That’s been going on for more than 2 years and nothing I have done has helped. Until now.

I started drinking water and the feeling to urinate has dramatically gone down. I’ve been drinking Crystal Light for many years instead of drinking soda to help with the weight loss, and I’m not positive it has helped, but I’m almost certain it has contributed to my overactive bladder and I say that because when I stopped drinking it, the problem went away.

Now that I don’t have to constantly urinate, I’m going to try going back to the gym to help me lose the weight I’m supposed to lose to get my surgery.

Zero net carb bread!

On By Michel McDonaldIn DietLeave a comment

We went to Aldi yesterday for some low to no carb groceries to help me lose weight for my surgery, and also just in general to help me lose weight.

I found a website that has 81 of the BEST Keto Finds at ALDI and I know they are less expensive than the other grocery stores in our area, so I figured I would find some of these things, and just hope they tasted good.

Some of the items we bought were actually my lunch today.

The carbs from this lunch was from the Foster Farms oven roasted turkey breast. This turkey was $4 for 1.75lbs which would have cost probably around $11 or more at the Albertsons deli at around $6 per pound. We buy it from Albertsons all the time, and it never lasts more than a few days. Now that I’m watching what I eat, this will last longer than a few days because I will only eat 2 slices, which is the serving size, with my sandwich, or if I decide to make a salad and chop this up into pieces.

I was so worried about eating sandwiches because I was afraid I would have to buy a waffle maker, and I almost bought one on Amazon for $40. They have those small Dash waffle makers, and I almost bought those, but I really just wanted to find a zero carb bread. I also don’t like the thought of spending a ton of money on ingredients, like almond flour and baking powder and Swerve sweetener and many more things. When you are on a limited budget due to the fact that you are disabled, it’s better to buy inexpensive foods rather than spending $30-$40 on ingredients just to make 2 slices of bread at a time.

And being on this limited income is the reason why I gained so much weight in the first place. Back when hamburger meat was cheaper, I was making Hamburger Helper all the time, especially when they were on sale for $1 a box. Everything I was buying for our meals were inexpensive, and I can’t help that I have to buy cheap food.

I will be eating zero to low carb foods until all this weight comes off. I bought a NUTRI FIT rechargeable food scale to help me weight all the ingredients that goes into my meals so I know I’m not eating too much. I was just eating a whole bunch of broccoli and cauliflower and chicken for dinner and logging it all as the wrong amounts because I was guessing. Last night I discovered I was eating too much chicken. I was eating an entire chicken breast and logging it as 6oz. Then I discovered I’m only supposed to be eating 3.5oz of chicken. The broccoli and cauliflower I was eating I was weighing and it showed it was less than 8oz, which is a cup, right? Well, actually, I discovered 1 cup is supposed to be 91 grams, which is a lot less than what I’ve been eating. I wondered why I wasn’t losing any weight.

Anyway, knowledge is power, and hopefully I will be back on track. I have 1 more month until my next appointment with the surgeon who wants me to lose 15-20lbs. I had lost 9lbs, then plateaued, and now hopefully I will start losing again. I’m back to that weight that I was the last time when I plateaued. I also plan on going to the gym again. More on why I stopped going in my next post.

I am having surgery (update)

On By Michel McDonaldIn Health1 Comment

So something has happened to me and I thought I would talk about it.

A few weeks ago I noticed a little marble sized hard growth on my back. At first I thought it might be an ingrown hair on my back, but I wasn’t sure if it was anything I needed to worry about. I didn’t go to the doctor because the clinic we go to was having issues finding a doctor that would stay long enough to allow me to check in with them.

I was going to call them, but they called us asking if we would come see their new doctor because they wanted to introduce her to some of the less neurotic clients lol. I’m occasionally on the neurotic side. but I’m usually very calm, so I was a safe bet.

So we went and she looked at it and said it was probably an ingrown hair, which hello, I nailed. She gave me a antibiotic and said when you are finished in 7 days, we will refer you to someone to have it lanced and drained. Well, 7 days pass and I call them to let them know it’s time. By the way, it grew from that little marble and now it’s twice as long as it was.

I went to this general surgeon and was expecting him to lance it and drain it in that visit, but he told me that it looks like I have Kaposi Sarcoma. I didn’t know what that meant at the time, but it sounded bad and I went from excited to have this thing gone to feeling sudden dread. He couldn’t lance it or drain it, instead he told me they would need to do surgery to remove it, which will be this week on Thursday.

The next day the new doctor at the clinic called and wanted to know what he told me and I told her he said it was Kaposi Sarcoma. She told me that he didn’t write anything in his report about that, just that it needed surgery to remove.

Kaposi Sarcoma causes purple blotches on your skin and is a very rare cancer usually only seen in AIDS patients. Well, I do have the AIDS virus. I was diagnosed with  HIV in 1991, and then 2 years later I was diagnosed with Pneumocystis pneumonia, which the doctors said was a symptom of AIDS. Gradually over the years from 1993 to 2000 my t-cells had dropped to 50 and I was essentially dying slowly. When we moved to Bakersfield, the HIV/AIDS specialist doctor at the clinic I currently still go to changed my medicine. I was still taking AZT in 2001 believe it or not. Anyway, they changed my medicine and my t-cells gradually raised and I’m still alive and today my t-cells are in the 900 range and my viral load has been undetectable for years.

I told you that because the new doctor at the clinic told me that a patient who has a viral load and t-cells in the 50 range would be more likely to get Kaposi Sarcoma than me, so it’s unlikely that I have this rare type of cancer. Plus my back doesn’t have any strange colors. There is bruising on the skin over the lump, but that’s to be expected considering my skin has stretched a tiny amount and that this lump has caused a bit of trauma to the cell structure of the skin where the hair is grown. That spot has a open cell where the hair grows. I know this because I tried squeezing what I thought was pus out, and some did come out, but it was too hard and it hurt too much to come out.

So there are still a few more days until surgery and I will update this post if it’s a small enough update, but if it’s a lot to talk about then I will start a new blog post. Otherwise, I will keep you posted on the progress when it’s all over.

Update: Today is Thursday 8/31/2017 and I had my surgery. The doctor looked at the area that needed to be removed and noticed that the bruising was gone, and told me that he thought it was kaposi sarcoma due to the fact that he saw the purple color of the skin, and he realizes now that it was a bruise from the growth which was injuring my skin and causing it to bruise. So now he knows it is not kaposi sarcoma. So that’s awesome that he doesn’t think I have cancer.

He did the surgery and I am in a lot of pain, as I should be considering I had surgery lol. He said he will send it to a lab and find out what it was and he will let me know next time I see him. In the meantime, I’m not allowed to lift any weight or exercise for 2 weeks and I can’t shower for 2 days, which will be extremely difficult for me since it’s so hot and when it’s this hot, I usually take up to 3 showers a day. I absolutely cannot stand being sticky, sweaty and stinky. Luckily the right guard lasts a long time. We have some surgery wipes that I can use to at least clean my body.

So when I find out what the issue is, I will edit this post again with another update.

Update: Wednesday 9/6/2017

My follow up appointment with the doctor revealed that it wasn’t an ingrown hair, it wasn’t Kaposi sarcoma, it was an infected sweat gland. Who knew? So that’s a relief that it’s not cancer.

2 Months

On By Michel McDonaldIn Doctor, Health, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Leg scar
leg scar

It has been 2 months since I broke my leg and had surgery. The picture on the left was taken last month  on 1/20/2016 and the one on the right was just taken on 2/18/2016. I wanted to show how it’s healing.

My leg still hurts from time to time if I twist my leg at the knee, but that’s about it. My partner was giving them to me every 4 hours like clockwork for the first month because he didn’t want me to be in any pain, which I appreciate. After so much time had passed, I guess he just forgot to give me the pills unless I asked for one. But that’s a good thing because I should only be taking them when I actually need them. They are so expensive that I’d rather only take them when I actually need them.

I go to Physical Therapy 3 days a week and that has helped a lot. I went to Physical Therapy at a place only a block away on the same street a couple of years ago for my back when I found out that I had scoliosis, and I didn’t like going there. I’m HIV+ and they didn’t want me to be in the open room with the rest of their clients, so they put me in a room by myself, which was very awkward because I had to ring a bell when I was done with my exercises and wait for the guy to come give me the tool for the next exercise. I didn’t tell this place that I am HIV+ because it’s not relevant. I’m not going to bleed or ejaculate on anything, so there’s no reason for them to fear me. That other place told me that they want to put me in a room by myself because they don’t want me to catch a cold from one of the other clients, but I’ve been going to PT at this new place for at least a month and I haven’t gotten since yet, and yes, there have been clients who were sick and I never caught their cold.

My doctor told me that I can put pressure on it in between the middle of March until the beginning of April. I wonder if I will replace the crutches with a cane by then. I sure do hope so. I am so sick of crutches. I will blog about that when that time comes.