Mushy Food.....27

Finally after 7 days of post-op liquids I went to the doctor yesterday and they cleared me for mushy food. Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!! I'm so excited.  What this means is that I'm now able to eat oatmeal, grits, chilli, tuna fish...OMG it feels so good to actually eat real food.  I still can only eat 4 table spoons per meal but still it's great news.  I also can't eat any breads, rice, or pasta and that won't change for a while but I can at least eat real food. I'm also not allowed to have any raw fruit or veggies because they will be too hard on my stomach. And of course I gotta stay away from greasy and fried foods. And I still gotta try to get the 64 ounces of water, the 50g of protein, and all the vitamins in each day but even with all that-I GET TO EAT FOOD. Can  you tell I'm excited? just a little bit?

The doctor cleared me yesterday and last night I had my first meal-CHILLI! And it banged! I'm learning that since I can only eat 4 Tablespoons I'm gonna have a lot of leftovers.  I've never really been a leftover person but I will now-okay, k, k??? lol

So this mushy diet will last for 6 weeks. On Feb 1st I'll go visit my nutritionist for a follow up and as long as everything is looking good I'll be on to eating even more normal foods. In the meantime I have another follow up with the doc on Jan 17th to make sure I'm looking good. I'm pretty much out of the clear for their being any leakages as far as a complication are concerned but I still have to follow up to make sure I'm not developing an ulcer or anything. The poor doctor was overwhelmed yesterday by me and all my questions. I wasn't playing. I came to the visit with a page full of questions for the doc and for the nutritionist. 

Guess what else happened at the follow up??? I weighed in-I'm down to 357-that's 27 lbs lost since my last pre-op visit. I'm well on my way. I'm not sure how much weight loss can be expected and at which rate but I'm hoping to be below 300 by March 1st.  I'll keep you guys posted as I weigh in each week. During one of this week's outings I ventured off to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and bought a scale so I can keep track from home too.

So that's all my good news for now.  I have 3 more days left of the Lovenex shots and that will be over with so now I'm looking forward to a great 2011!

As always,

**Thanks for taking this journey with me!**