Talking about poop is quite embarrassing, but as my post-op nurse said, “Around here, we celebrate poop.” (If you’re a friend or family member, please don’t read forward or just try not to mention this to me. As much as I might love you, a conversation about poop isn’t on my list of appropriate conversation topics.)

After your surgery, you have to poop for the doctors to let you go home.

So, what does poop mean to me 3 months post surgery? Well, think of it as a rough gauge to how well your nutrition is going. I’ve been told to make sure it’s not light colored, is solid and should sink. Basically when I’m not getting enough protein (yes, I’m a carb-a-holic), my poop starts failing the unofficial toilet bowl test. Some potential issues identified by poop are fatty food intolerance and some other nutrient absorption issues. Pretty much, post gastrectomy, your body screams at you for consuming too much unhealthy food.

On a separate note, I went for my first outdoor run this morning at 5AM. It was fabulous to be out there again, but equally sad to hear my runkeeper app remind me of my pace. I saw my fellow running peeps out there and that always makes me happy. I’m trying to figure what works best with food and water for my morning run. This morning, I laced up and headed right out with one of those water bottles that straps to your hand. It worked well to sip water as I went. (It’s 80 degrees with 90+% humidity here, so think dripping sweat.) Since chugging water doesn’t really work, keeping water on-hand during running works perfectly. The good part of an early morning run is that nothing in the day can get in the way; the hard part of an early morning run is the end of day tiredness sinking in. But I am feeling stronger and healthier everyday. My incision didn’t bother me during my run, and I was able to bust out 3 miles this morning. My cardio & leg power certainly isn’t up to snuff, but it’ll just take training to bring it back.

Given the title of this post, I’ll sign off with “Happy Pooping”.