Almost 26 Days

  Well I am back in Richmond, VA and going to  spending a few more days here, then off to Oklahoma City for a quickie job and then down to Brazil in South America for a month of work. It was a interesting day yesterday. I had done really well the last 4 weeks of avoiding the dreaded "dumping syndrome" they kept warning us about and ended up having it twice yesterday. Once because of my own stupidity and once because of unknown reasons on a product I had not tried since my surgery. I stopped on my way back from Delaware, where I worked over the weekend, to have a small bite of breakfast at a Waffle House. I thought that I could easily eat one soft scrambled egg and a small amount of grits. Well, having several things on my mind and a knee that was just killing me, I popped a couple of acetaminophen and swallowed them with a small sip of decaf coffee and a few minutes later began to eat my breakfast. Within just a couple of bites I was nauseous and cramping as I realized to my horror the mistake I had made of taking both of those large caplets at once. They hung up and now the food was hung up and I thought for a few minutes I was going to die. I had taken pills before that, but only one at a time and had waited several minutes before taking the second one. At first, I thought it was the grits that were causing the symptoms as I had not eaten any of them since my surgery. I went in to the bathroom thinking I would have to get them and the food back up, but as soon as I felt the strongest urge to do that, the plug broke loose and everything stayed down. I went back out and tentatively ate a few bites that went down just fine and caused no further problems and the grits were fine also. What a relief. It kind of freaked me out on a large scale.
   The second time it happened was later in the afternoon after eating lunch, I went in and sat down with a cup of sugar free jello. I ate just a couple of bites of this and it hit me like I was being run over. Back to the bathroom again and this time I was sure it was coming back up, but after several minutes of feeling like I was going to explode, I felt better and then it was gone. The only thing I think of about the Jello is that it was the type of sugar free Jello that you don't have to refrigerate. It must of had a different sweetener or carbs in it that my system did not like at all. I had eaten the regular kind on several occasions and never had a problem. I might try it again in the future but I am going to avoid it for now until I figure out what caused the second round of the syndrome. I only ate about 3 or 4 bites of the little tub of Jello but it sure did react in a negative way. So, I had learned two valuable lessons yesterday, first, no pills before a meal and definetly not two at once and second, anything I eat for the first time post op is going to have to be eaten in very small bites and very slowly for the first few bites. I really don't like that experience and would rather avoid it in the future.
   Other than that, I am doing fine. I am getting close to losing my age in weight. I should be around 55lbs lost if not already. Last time I weighed I was at 51 and that was last Saturday. My days have been busy and I noticed it is about time to get headed to work. I do feel great and my blood sugar last night before bed was 109. I have not checked it yet this morning, but I can tell it is still very good. I always know when it gets too high and in the last several weeks it has been great. I hope it stays that way. Talk to you all soon and hope you all have a really great day. George