Still Compliant, Still Gaining Weight

As quite a few of you on Twitter and Facebook are aware, I had another intestinal scare on Thursday. You see, Beautiful wrote about enzymes on Wednesday and every time she or I write about anything to do with blockages, something happens. Without fail. It’s really quite creepy and must stop this time. I’ll get to my lungs and weight soon, but first, it’s story time.

Thursday morning

I woke up feeling out of sorts and shrugged her off and indicated that I wasn’t feeling well when she came to wake me up on Thursday. I got up around 8:30 and started my treatments, but was feeling sore and crampy, only it wasn’t in the usual blockage area indicated from my long history of blockages. Like a seasoned veteran, I weighed the pros and cons of having an omelet for breakfast and just went for it with plenty of enzymes.

I got upstairs to start work around 10:00 and was more or less completely unable to concentrate. The cramps were coming in waves and in harder and harder force, but I can tell the difference between a resistance cramp and an uncomfortable cramp. These were the latter, no nasty, tight ball of crap anywhere to be found by exploratory pushing of my squishies. Sore, yes, but I didn’t have the tell-tale knot of disaster. Beautiful went back downstairs seeing my clear distress and got me a 20oz Gatorade and an extra Dulcolax to hydrate and flush anything that was in there.

Thursday afternoon

I was feeling better by dinnertime and insisted on eating despite Beautiful’s firm reminder that I “felt fine” before our Outback dinner for my birthday 2 years ago. Yes, I  remembered how I felt, but no, I wasn’t as well as I was playing it. That was a stupid move and I should have just delayed the pleasure of the evening’s meal rather than filling myself with 3.5 pounds of food on top of a cork in my jejunum.

What did I have… oh yes, we had lemon-marinade pork chops, so I got some protein in me and followed it up with a Boost and yogurt after dinner while we watched TV.

Friday morning

I woke up down to 116 from 118.5 on Tuesday night. Not a happy camper! When that happens, I feel like we flat out flushed money down the drain in the most tangible sense I can imagine, since food costs money and is supposed to make me gain weight. I had a lunch scheduled with a friend at an Italian restaurant nearby, so I was gauging whether or not I should keep the appointment, and decided to go with it anyway. I ordered the house salad w/ extra feta cheese and the very creamy house dressing followed by a solid 2lbs of spaghetti w/ meat sauce and mushrooms, chased down all the while with 2 full 20oz glasses of root beer. I finished all but some of the noodles that were totally sauce-less. Nothing to be embarrassed about at all for my size and age.

Friday afternoon

The first thing I did when I got home was go to the scale, followed by the Wii Fit Plus based on what the scale said. I had topped 120lbs for the first time in months! Wii Fit showed me as a smidgen under 120, a gain of 1.5lbs from the last weigh-in on Wednesday, and a BMI of 20.47.

I lost some of that overnight because, well, it would appear that what was causing me issues on Thursday weighed a couple of pounds. Sorry… but it’s true. Now that it’s Saturday evening at 8pm, the bathroom scale just told me 120.0, but there is still more eating and drinking to go tonight. It looks like 120 is the new 113, eh? So, for tracking purposes, I was 114 8 days ago on the 13th and am probably going to weigh in at 121 tonight on the Wii Fit, so I’m more or less maintaining a pound per day for just over a week now.

I don’t feel bloated or like it’s water weight, but I am feeling significantly full most of the time and much more solid around the midsection than I have in months. I’m doing a good job with my enzymes as far as the bloating goes and I’m looking forward to working out with my bro-in-law at the hotels while we’re on vacation so I can get some of this converted into muscle mass. He’s also on a weight-gain journey, except he’s got 100% of his intestines. 😉 I’ll still beat him.

According to my calculations, I should hit 145lbs on June 14th, but I’m sure I’ll have a few skip days in there somewhere, so let’s say June 21st to be more realistic. Then I’ll get off the Megase and concentrate on maintaining my weight with “normal” eating and Boost supplements. Shoot, I’ll be delighted if I hit 130 by the time we’re back from California, putting me about where I was a year ago when we all went to Tennessee for a week. One thing we do well on vacation: eat. It’s almost gross, but it sure makes me feel more like the family! My in-laws have been more than understanding and accepting of my nutritional needs on trips and make adjustments whenever needed. There’s a funny story about one of our first trips to Disneyworld with them for another day, but definitely worth telling for anyone in a similar situation with a large group who doesn’t need to eat all of the time.

Compliance and lung function

I’m all over the place with my function, despite being compliant. I have two ideas for why:

• I’m really shaking things up and it is making me feel more gunky
• I’m getting worse because I have an infection that’s grabbed hold since my last clinic

I’m more doubtful of the latter because I don’t have any fevers, but I am exhausted – though that could be blamed on that crazy excursion to see the shuttle launch. That’s probably enough to mess up a normal person for a few days. It’s just that each evening, I am super-wheezy to the point where I don’t lay down to watch TV – I sit and let Beautiful put her pillow on my lap to lay with me. I’ve also had 2 evenings where my Vest feels like it’s digging a shiv under my bottom right diaphragm for the majority of the half hour run. Agonizing!

I’d say I’m coughing less than I was before clinic when they busted me for not doing my stuff, but I’m just not feeling over the moon. It gives me cause to pause and wonder how much room for improvement I have, but I try to not dwell on it because that’s against my personality, you know.

How’s your weight goals coming? I can’t express how much it means to me to have people join me on their weight journey going the other way rather than telling me how they wish they could eat as much as I do. Really! We all have struggles, I just happen to be headed in the opposite direction from most with mine. It’s not fun for anyone to have to change.