Dave's Progress Thread - Year II

(The amazing autoimmune 🦄) #281

Sorry to hear doggie mom has been sick. I have missed her here on the forum, but I figured with you sick she probably has her hands full. Feel better.

(Jane) #282

You probably have internal swelling contributing to that feeling.

Hope you are both feeling better soon.

#283

Thank you, @Iced. I’m hoping she gets over it soon as well. I told her she probably caught it coming over to the Hospital for the 6 days I was there. (Easiest place to get sick, which makes me feel it’s kind-of my fault. :cry:)

Thanks, Jane. Me too. :slight_smile: … And think you may be correct, that I may still have some swelling. Especially in and around the area where the surgery took place. The surgeon told me she was in there for nearly two hours or so moving stuffs around, so it might take some time to get it worked back out again. (She said she could see that I’d been dealing with these Hernia’s for some time, mentioning how she thought I must have a high threshold for pain, which I indeed have always had.) This, plus the fact I also requested to be taken off the Morphine on the second day, not liking how it was making me feel. She said I would just need to request it as needed, to which I never did. (I don’t like taking medications of any kind, but especially the more potent ones.)

(Running from stupidity) #284

I know you’re busy playing cachups, but isn’t Twelve Meals A Day a lot?

#285

Yep, and it sure feels like I’m eating Twelve a day too! :slight_smile: … See if I can start rectifying this over the weekend.

#286

Well, thought this was funny… The wife happened to hop on my computer and saw a PM that was sent to me by a girl I grew up with. This is all it said…

56%20PM

:flushed: … If you thought I was dead, why wave? :laughing: …Or was she waving goodbye? :crazy_face:

(Running from stupidity) #287

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

#288

Week 34: Well, I don’t have an answer for this weeks number? Except, I’m presently all stuffed up and still sick. The only thing I’ve done different this week is taking Antibiotics and Cough Syrup? But anyway, it shows me being up 6 lbs. for this week. Not sure if this is water weight from the meds, but would be my only guess? :slight_smile:

So I wonder if there’s any information out there on this? Does taking these types of meds make you retain fluids? I wonder if anyone else has experienced this before? May have to do some researching to see.

20%20AM
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#289

My guess would be inflammation and tissue repair. Your body is still healing. I can’t give you all the science but all of that tissue repair requires a lot of input, so your metabolism is actually up, but extra fluid (think about the serum that you see coming from a scrape or cut on your hand) is being produced to both heal and remove wastes. You’ve had major surgery. This healing will go on for quite a while.

Again this is just my guess.

#290

Thanks… And yep, that sounds like a very good possibility. And my thinking was pretty much in that same realm as far as the healing from the surgery goes. … Figured the healing process itself does so much, but also needs so much more too, so it makes sense if that indeed is what caused the additional weight gain.

I just wasn’t sure if Antibiotics themselves or the Cough Syrup I was taking could cause fluid retention as well? I only question this since I really didn’t see any additional gains until after getting home a week later and was the only thing I was taking at the time? More just curious… I actually remember many years ago, before my Mom passed, she found out just how fattening Vitamins could actually be. :smile: After gaining weight for a few months consecutively, she had a chat with her Doctor, who said ‘oh yeah’, Vitamins are actually quite fattening! :smile: My Mom just thought a head’s up would have been nice. :slight_smile:

Thanks again

#291

Are you on a cough syrup that’s not been sweetened? Most of the ones I found last time I had a cough had a crazy amount of carbs (I think from HFCS). Luckily the pharmacist had some without any such madness added.

#292

FWIW my husband put on a couple of KGs when he was on antibiotics & I’ve heard of it happening to others. Hope you get better soon :slightly_smiling_face:

EDIT: He lost it again once he got better :smile:

#293

Dunno really? Never checked the labeling because I didn’t think about it? But it probably does. I will check it when I get back home tonight. Actually back at work today, though I’m sure as hell not feeling it though. :nauseated_face:

Thanks, it just got me to wondering, since nothing else really changed intake wise? … But it is odd how one doesn’t think of these things normally. :slight_smile: But when noting weekly weights down, it will stand out.

(Cindy) #294

Dave, I know from having had multiple surgeries in the past, that it really causes some weight change, but it’s almost all water weight. For example, if you could have weighed yourself in the hospital, you probably would have seen a large spike up. That’s from all the fluids they give you during surgery. Then you drop (pee out) that fluid weight, but your body doesn’t truly react to the trauma of the surgery until days later, when you’ve started moving more. That causes a lot of swelling and fluid retention. Give it a couple of weeks and it’ll be gone.

#295

Thanks, Cindy. What you say does makes sense. - And yep, I do realize just how many fluids they put in ya just while you’re there! I was walking loads around the halls, which should have helped some with that. … But have also heard mention or recall reading somewhere that fluid retention occurs during the healing process, but can’t recall the reasoning? But believe they said this was more predominant in the legs? (If I’m recalling correctly?)

Oh, and they actually did weigh me when I first came in to the Hospital, and that showed to be at 235 lbs. But that was also fully clothed, wearing jeans, 2 shirts, heavy boots, etc. - TBH, I should have been somewhere around 230 lbs. if I had to guess. Since I was at 233 the week before and was also Fasted two days at weigh in. So I would say I was probably around 230, so that would actually be a total gain of about 9 lbs. if so, instead of 6. :slight_smile: Either way, I was thinking if it was fluid retention, the following weeks should show that. :slight_smile:

Thanks again. :slight_smile:

(Jessica) #296

I hate this forum software. I hadn’t seen your thread pop up so I thought you weren’t posting. I remember you mentioning your surgeries in my thread but hadn’t seen anything else. I’m glad you’re on the mend! I have had very few surgeries myself, but my son has spina bifida and has had many. My best advice is to take it easy longer than you think is necessary. I’m betting the weight gain is just healing taking place. It’ll drop back off as quickly as it showed up.

(Cindy) #297

Think about it this way. All around the incision site there was trauma to your muscles and tissues. And when they say they spent 2 hrs “fixing things” in there, that means stuff was getting moved and pulled, stitched, etc. And trust me…when you’re in the OR, they are NOT gentle with you. So everything in that area suffered trauma. And what’s the bodies response to trauma? Swelling. So yes, lots of fluid to make that swelling happen.

#298

Thanks, Jessica. Taking it easy is definitely the plan. :slight_smile: And yeah, I’ve always said you miss so many post/threads on this site due to how fast it moves! … I’m still trying to catch up some, from being off-line for the near week I was in the Hospital! :slight_smile:

#299

Haha… Funny thing is, that actually sounds a lot like what my Surgeon told me too. :smile: Not the part about being not-gentle, but I already knew that as well. I think it’s pretty well known they can be pretty rough once you’re out on the table. … But She did say she was in there pulling, prodding, and doing all sorts of things, and that your insides really don’t like being handled like that, so It can take some time to heal up and get over.

(John) #300

Maybe the antibiotics are doing bad things to your gut flora? Seems that a healthy intestinal biome is important for health and weight management.