I mentioned in my last post that I had recently gone fishing in Canada. One night while there we went to a small restaurant for dinner. Now it has been 10 months since I had my stomach removed and you would think that I would have this whole eating thing under control, but you would be wrong.
The restaurant we stopped at was a small family diner attached to a motel. We were the only ones in the dining room and we had a very attentive waitress. I ordered what I thought was a safe meal, chicken tenders. The meal was six fairly large chicken portions. They were cooked a little on the over done side, but with enough BBQ sauce I figured I would be just fine. Well on the second or third bite a piece got stuck. So much for "safe".
Food getting stuck happens every so often and I have learned how to deal with the situation. Most of the time these events are self inflicted. In this case I was chatting with my friends, not paying attention to how well I was chewing my food, and a big chunk got stuck. My fault all the way around. Once food gets stuck, it has to get unstuck. It is that simple. Nothing else can go down until whatever is stuck moves. Once you dislodge the food you are are kind of sore and on this particular evening I was pretty much done eating.
Well, about that time the waitress came back asking us how our meals were. She saw my plate of food and said to me "Well, your's must not have been all that good". I assured her that it was fine and I was just full. You could tell from the look on her face that she didn't believe me but she didn't say anything.
Later she returned and asked me if I needed a to go box which I politely declined. Wrong decision on my part. She immediately took that comment as if I had just lied to her about the quality of the food. She needed to know why I didn't like my meal and was not taking no or "it was fine" for an answer.
I have mentioned before that without a stomach I need to eat 5-6 times a day. Before the surgery I could eat maybe once or twice a day and that was all I needed. So this is a big change for me. Before I would wait to eat until I got hungry and then go scrounge something to eat. Once I was full I could continue on with my normal life. Now I don't get hungry. There is nothing to tell me to eat.
Our youngest daughter graduates from high school tomorrow. With the ceremony and then a full schedule of graduation parties to attend, I have this funny feeling that there will be more days upcoming where my eating mirrors that of my life before the surgery.
My plan is to keep reminding myself to eat but that is easier said than done. For instance, last Sunday I was staining our deck in preparation for our daughters graduation party. I worked on the deck the entire day and it wasn't until after 6 pm that I came to the realization that I had only had a half of bagel to eat all day.
You don't get hungry, you don't feel full. You feel "normal". Then your body, or in this case, someone else reminds you that you are far from normal.
Back in Canada I proceeded to explain to the waitress what had happened and that I had recently had my stomach removed. Due to this I couldn't eat much and that there was nothing wrong with her food. Also, since we were from the states we had no way to keep the leftovers safe for later. All was fine. I just wasn't going to eat anymore.
Her answer to the entire ordeal was "you come in again for your next meal and I will let you order off the kiddie menu..."
Really?
Though the dawn may be coming soon
There still may be some time
Fly me away to the bright side of the moon
And meet me on the other side
(Dream Weaver Gary Wright)
