Lucky Number 7?

This won’t be a long post, but today marks seven months since I had the surgery to remove my stomach and guess what? I am headed back down to Mayo again. 

Today’s appointments “should be” pretty easy. Another round of X-Rays, then a meeting with the surgical team to review the films and the results from my recent blood work. There will be some initial talk about what to do about the tumor that was found during the stent procedure, but no plans will be put in place until the stent comes out.

Once completed I should be on my way home.

This will be the first time that Edie will not be accompanying me on the journey to Mayo. It only seems fair that she get to skip a few of these, especially if they are going to be happening weekly until the stent is removed.

When I started this little journey my weight fluctuated between 248 and 252 pounds. I was overweight. My doctors wanted me to lose about 20 pounds. Today I am struggling to get back to 180 ponds and have been as low as 176. Today I was at 178 and am now classified as underweight and the same doctors want me to add pounds back on. There is just no pleasing them .

I didn't do a food tour before I had my stomach removed, so maybe there should be a “fattening up Roger food tour”? What do you think? If you want to meet somewhere and try to help me pack some weight back on once the stent is gone I am game.  

The rules will be simple.

Remember I am really no fun at a buffet.

You are going to need to eat with me.
And it has to be a place where no one will be offended when we talk loud and laugh hard.

I want to thank you for all the support I received over this past week or so.  I could tell you that this period in time sucked, but if you already know that. To top it off, Wednesday was my son’s 22^nd birthday and I wanted to take him out for a beer to celebrate. So I did. I ordered a pint of my favorite beer and couldn’t come close to finishing it.

You try to be strong, you try to stay positive but the hits just keep coming. You just shake your head and wonder what now. I want to feel “normal” again. To have a day without pain. A day without having to mix medications together just to function. 

Enough, I have to spin myself out of this funk, I know it could be a lot worse. Besides, I was never quite “normal” to being with so it was a little bit of a stretch to think that this little adventure would be anything other than abnormal. 

The same old tingle that I feel inside

And then that elevator starts its ride

And down and down I go, round and round I go

Like a leaf that's caught in the tide

(That Old Black Magic  Frank Sinatra)