January 8th: Leanna is released by her doctor and my surgery is confirmed for 28 Jan. Leanna still needs physical therapy to build strength but is well enough recovered to take care of me during the surgery.

January 10th: Final meeting with surgeon who remarks that I am more positive and excited to proceed than most patients.

January 14th: I start the final two week diet, two meals a day and one protein shake per day.

January 21st: I start the final week, one meal a day and two protein shakes.

January 22nd: Pre-surgery tests at the hospital. I met Nurse Virginia C who saved my life in Nov 2017. The staff commented that I was the most positive of all bariatric surgery patients. My surgery is moved up from noon to 10am and my report time the 28th from 9 am to 8am. I eat half of one of my favorite lunches that I will never have again (roast beef, potatoes, salad, corn, cobbler).

January 23rd: I eat the other half of the lunch. Leanna makes me shakes for the other meals.

January 24th: I eat half of a hoagie sandwich (just the meat, bread, and cheese; the veggies are poison to me) and save the other half for Saturday. Leanna teaches me to make my own protein shakes.

January 25th: my last fresh-cooked meal for a few weeks, a chicken salad sandwich, chips, a fruit plate, and a glass of lemonade.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, January 26, 2019 - 06:16 pm: Edit

January 26th: I had my last solid food for two weeks, a leftover sandwich that frankly wasn't that good. I drank a shake for breakfast and left one chilling in the fridge for supper. Tomorrow all I get are three protein shakes and all of the decaf tea and Crystal Light I want.

Jean remarked that today I seemed not just at peace with the surgery but more like myself than I had been in years. I spoke at some length about getting Fed Admiral, Merchants of the Federation, the Gorn MSSB, and ACTASF-2 done as quickly as I can recover, perhaps even while working on CL53.

I have a good idea for three more stories and told Mike Bennett (who wrote "Practice to Deceive" for CL53) to do two of them and leave the third one ("Assault on Adanerg") to me.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 28, 2019 - 08:04 am: Edit

January 27, quiet day. Leanna and I got all of the post surgery medication sorted out. Went to the office to get final things done.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 28, 2019 - 08:06 am: Edit

January 28, THE DAY is here. Not much sleep, very groggy. Final steps before leaving for hospital, final pre surgery medications. No hesitation, no fear.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - 01:29 pm: Edit

January 28th got to hospital thirty minutes early but did not get called into surgery for another hour, then waited 90 minutes before we got THE CALL and things got moving. After surgery the pain was stupendous for several hours. The nurses watching over me enjoyed the chocolate a lot. They wanted me to get up and walk. First ten feet. Then 50 feet, then sixty. The fourth time my legs collapsed but I was able to slide down a corner. They had to get a crane to get me back in bed and said no more walking until the day shift came on duty.

January 29th woke up and they said no walking until Leanna brought me a walker. She did and I was able to get around. The doctor said I had to stay a second night. By 9 pm I had walked the required distance to go home.

January 30th. Got released At 0830 but not out the door until 1100. Currently at home, resting, sore but not really in pain.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 12:26 am: Edit

January 30th, I have spent most of the day asleep. Hospital stays are notoriously difficult places to sleep, what with nurses coming in every hour on the hour for any number of insane reasons (blood tests, vital signs, shots, alarms going off because the saline bag ran empty, etc).

I am supposed to walk five minutes every hour but when I tried it the sore abdomen turned into the screaming painful abdomen. Third time I tried it wasn't as much pain as before.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 01:03 am: Edit

Eating has become an adventure. Every hospital meal was the same: jello, fruit juice, decaf tea, and chicken or beef broth. No bread or salad in sight. At home, the three meals are six ounce protein shakes, plus eight glasses, each eight ounces, of liquid (juice, decaf tea, beef broth, crystal light in various flavors). It takes me about thirty minutes to get any one of that down. If i drink one sip too much I get a strange and uncomfortable feeling across my chest.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 01:36 am: Edit

12:30 am morning of 31 January, made my first trip to the far end of the house. Pain is low, effort is high, but I feel like during daylight Thursday I can at least walk a couple of minutes per hour and work my way up.

Nobody told me there was going to be so much pain. I might have thought twice about it.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 06:55 am: Edit

5:52am Thursday

Woke up from a decent sleep, plan to go back to sleep soon.

One thing I noticed since I got home is difficulty with hand-eye coordination. I hit the wrong key on my iPad a lot and spend more time fixing typos than writing the original message.

I feel tired and sore but the minute or two of walking I just finished produced no pain.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 09:00 am: Edit

7:55am, just had a good experience. I heard Leanna coughing and wished I could jump up and get her a glass of Mountain Dew to clear her throat. Alas, impossible as I could not figure out how to carry an open glass on a walker. Then I remembered there were little 16 ounce bottles of MD in the fridge. So I walkered over, got one, put it in the pocket of my sweatpants and hobbled the fifty feet to her. I felt great, knowing for all I hurt I could still manage to do something nice for the woman I love.

Right now the best guess is that I will get to the office Monday.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 11:01 am: Edit

9:58 just got my first post-surgery Fitbit dot!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 11:58 am: Edit

Leanna's dirty trick.

She called me and said that she had left her curling iron plugged in, and I must go unplug it or die in a house fire. I got back there as fast as I could walker and found it cold because the safety system had cut off the power. Oh well, I got a second dot.

I might mention that all of my fingertips are sore as heck from constant blood sugar tests while in the hospital.

Home Health came by but decided I wasn't sick enough to qualify for their service.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 04:29 pm: Edit

31 January 3:30 pm. I have five dots, 2160 steps, and a couple of naps. I drank a shake at 1pm and am working on the second bottle of crystal lite.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 07:14 pm: Edit

6pm, eight dots, 3000 steps, sore but not really pain. All of that 150 pounds of blubber is held in a big bag of skin, and right where the skin hooks to the bottom rib, there is a row of incisions that seem to act like "tear on dotted line". Sore!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, February 01, 2019 - 01:04 pm: Edit

Friday Feb 1 noon, feel tired because I just walked the steps for my fourth dot. 1332 steps.

Doctor has signed me up for physical therapy to match the same classes as Leanna is taking.

Weight is 340.

Outlook is positive. Leanna is going to bring me jello and grits which are allowed for this phase of recovery.

I have a doctor appointment Monday and will slip in two hours at the office if I can.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, February 01, 2019 - 02:10 pm: Edit

1:10, six dots, 1909 steps, exhausted from doing a double dot. Drinking a protein shake, no pain.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 02, 2019 - 12:22 am: Edit

I was fine until 4pm then something went downhill. Serious chill and weakness, unable to walk my steps. Had grits for supper at six, then took my meds and got very sick until about 11. Seem okay now.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 02, 2019 - 10:27 am: Edit

Saturday morning, better. Problem last night seems to have been taking pills on empty stomach. This morning I took the eight pills during breakfast not an hour after. That seems to have worked.

Yesterday I did get nine dots and 3000 steps.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 02, 2019 - 01:19 pm: Edit

Slept all morning, had shake for lunch.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 02, 2019 - 02:52 pm: Edit

Got my first dot, and a Walk,

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 02, 2019 - 10:08 pm: Edit

Had a nasty blood sugar crash this afternoon. Dropped to 47. Leanna got me orange juice and it all worked out.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, February 04, 2019 - 03:24 pm: Edit

Well, I am at my desk for the first time in a week. Not sure I'll get a lot done today but it's good to be back.

Saturday I had two blood surgar crashes and Sunday and Monday my revised body didn't react well to my blood pressure medication.

Today I visited my primary physician who said my blood sugar was fine (after we self-adjusted the medication) but my blood pressure was very low (95/50) and she changed my blood pressure medication. Over time, that mediction will entirely disappear from my life; this is the first step.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, February 14, 2019 - 08:51 am: Edit

An update. Things have been busy, and making reports has not happened. Sorry about that.

I have spent an average of two hours a day working (with hour naps between), eleven hours a day sleeping.

I started getting "soft protein" since Sunday. Chicken cut into tiny bits, Vienna sausage, roast beef spread, deviled eggs, scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, sugar free fudge sickles, things like that.

I have to take a blood test every morning and adjust my medication.
I have to take my blood pressure three times a day and adjust my medication.

On the good side, I have dropped 19 pounds in 17 days.

I feel exhausted all the time as I slowly build strength since the two weeks of liquid diet 600 calories per day. Now I am getting a thousand calories a day. No carbs, no veggies, no fruit, no bread, no potatoes. Basically all protein ... milk, protein powder, soft meat, brown beans, eggs.

I am taking physical therapy to build strength.

Better every day, stronger every day.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 16, 2019 - 06:58 pm: Edit

Thursday 14th was a good day, 3 hours at my desk without breaks, got done art for GURPS 4A and ship approvals.

Friday 15th was ok, two hours of work, then an hour nap, then 90 minutes of work. Did more for GURPS 4A, Shapeways, and all of the Gorn BDD art for GMSSB.

Saturday 16th is something of a mystery. After lunch I took a nap and woke up five hours later and went home.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, February 25, 2019 - 07:43 pm: Edit

Monday 25th, had a blood pressure crash twice.
8am 143
9am 145 took coreg
10am crashed to 100/50
11am felt better, 125/90
12n crash again, 100/55
Mostly napped until 2pm
3pm kidney doctor said pressure 100/52, cut medication
7pm 140/89