Today, I said a fond farewell to my feeding tube. According to the doctors, I’d only lost 1 lb since I was last in and that’s been with almost a week off my feeding tube. But the biggest component to the decision was the results of my blood test. My cellular level protein stores (cannot remember the fancy medical word right now) were at a high enough level. Their entire emphasis has been on protein since that’s the main rebuilding block your body uses to heal. Hooray for protein shakes and greek yogurt!
The nutritionist said I’m doing awesome. To get in ~2000 calories a day, it takes a lot of effort. It doesn’t look like much when I read through my food diary though. When every meal feels like you just ate a giant Thanksgiving feast, it feels like so much effort to graze all day long! I mentioned that to the nutritionist and she said that constant fullness will subside gradually over time as your intestine stretches in order to become my new reservoir for food. Other patients further down the road had mentioned around the 1 year mark, a lot of people can get down to 4 meals a day.
I also wanted to post a photo. This one was taken a little after 3 weeks post op of me and my husband at a friend’s wedding. I took a good nap to prepare for it and doing something fun, happy & normal was just what I needed. This was the first & last dress I’ll ever have to buy with the criteria that it needs to hide my feeding tube. lol
very inspiring, thanks Marne!!
Hi, thanks so much for your blog. My husband will have a total gastrectomy and splenectomy on Wednesday due to gastric cancer. He is really scared and worried. He too is a marathon runner and I am going to tell him about your blog and hopefully when you run the half marathon in January it will help him to set a goal as well. Thank you! Sam
I’m so glad this blog is helpful! I’m hoping I can figure out how to increase my calories enough to maintain my weight once I get up to running again. I’m sure it’ll go well, but everything is a new adventure for me to leap into!