Holiday Hours

12.24.2013

I've gotten off-kilter on my scales pictures (today managed to be exactly the same as last Tuesday, but I'm supposed to be doing this on Mondays!) so I'm going to skip this week's "official" weight update and try to get back on track next week.

Maybe I'll have some pics of my holiday vacation project to show off. It involves a tabletop battlefield for Dust, that's all I'm saying. I've got to get back to some hobby crafting with way too much glue now.


rambling

Post Op Week 1

10.07.2013

1 week after surgery I've managed to lose 15 pounds. More importantly, I've not thrown up at all!

I discovered something very important yesterday: I was supposed to start taking my new regimen of vitamins this past Thursday, not next Monday (when I'm allowed solid food). Whoopsie. So on Sunday afternoon I began the nastiness that is chewable vitamins. Due to restrictions on what can be taken with what along with the body being able to absorb only a given amount of some vitamins at a time, it feels like you're chewing vitamins all day.

The key thing they stress at the nutrition class is that you should take in 1500mg of vitamin C per day. The body can only absorb 500mg at a time (the extra is peed out), so you take 3 vitamin C per day.

Since you're not eating as much/real food, a multivitamin is included. Just to be safe, take 2 per day. And space them out, so you don't pee out too much extra needed goodness. Eventually they'll tell me to take an Iron supplement. Most of my hefty Iron came from gobs of red meat I would eat. I'm just going to go ahead and start in on the Iron. They'll also eventually tell me to include some extra B12. I started taking B12 about 6 months ago, so I might as well keep it up. I just stick it under my tongue, so it's not a big deal.

Now I have a vitamin schedule. It starts when I wake up and continues every 2½ hours:

That's 12½ hours between first and last vitamins. Today is the first day of that, so we'll see how well this little plan of mine works out.

I've appreciatively had lots of people check in on me and ask how I'm doing. It feels weird to say "fine" after what sounds like major surgery (I had most of my stomach cut out after all). I've had zero side effects, especially if you consider how I felt before. Nausea, pain, mobility - all good. A week ago my right knee had been hurting for 2 weeks and the chiropractor couldn't really do much to help it. My knee hasn't hurt since last Monday. I've gotten a little light headed a couple of times when I walk, but I chalk that up more to lack of calories than anything else. Plus, me getting light headed while walking isn't that new of an occurrence as it's a big part of what convinced me to start this path of surgery I've taken. I haven't taken any medicine for nausea or pain since Thursday. So yeah, I'm doing fine.

Sunday was the first time I was hungry with a craving. It was all in my head, but knowing that doesn't always help. After a week of drinking everything (Greek yogurt not withstanding), I was missing meat. Red meat. Steak sounded good. I knew even if I had any steak I couldn't eat it, but I was wanting even the smell of a grilled steak. This led me to eat the left over 3oz of Greek yogurt from the afternoon, which tasted nothing like steak. So I went through steak remorse for a couple of hours. Steak and I have been friends for a long time. During the heyday of the Atkins/South Beach Diets of 2006, we were best friends. For the first time in the past week, I was feeling a little down.

While feeling down, I was in my closet (my actual closet for those of you that have been to my house, not some metaphorical closet). The vast majority of clothes I own I haven't been able to comfortably wear in a while. I've been in 1 pair of comfortable jeans for 6 months, pick from 4 polo shirts, 3 baseball-like jerseys, 4 bowling-style shirts, and 5 t-shirts. I'm a clothes horse raised by my mother, so that's been a sore point with me for a while. I've been wearing 5XL shirts, but I still have 4XL hanging up and 3XL tucked away. I was looking at line of Polo button-down shirts that I haven't worn in a year (or maybe 2) because of how tight they were around my gut. I randomly picked one out, saw that it was 4XLT, and tried it on.

Finally, it was not tight around the gut. There was room to breathe. Now I was feeling a little better.

I have to remember that I haven't just lost 15 pounds since surgery, but I also lost 40 pounds from January until surgery. 55 pounds since January. In the Atkins/South Beach Diets heyday of 2006, I lost a total of 56 pounds before I started putting it back on. I've got another 37 pounds to lose to meet that weight (349), but to me it's a given that I'm going to sail right by that number. Probably not in 3 weeks like the rate I've been going, but I'll get there. I'll get there in a nice shirt that I haven't worn in a while. A shirt with no steak juice on it :)


diet gastric sleeve rambling

See Tango Locked Up in Daylight

07.23.2013

It's been a slow new release DVD month. Traditionally this is when I go back and pick up movies I passed on when they first came out, or I find some weird theme of oldies that I used to have on VHS that I realize I suddenly can't live without. Thankfully, Amazon Streaming video and Netflix have taken care of most of that. Still, I do manage to get on my kicks.

The other day I was watching Kurt Russell in Soldier via Amazon (although I've got a DVD not 4 feet from where I was streaming the video). I like Kurt Russell as an action star, especially in Big Trouble in Little China, but that's not relevant. Thanks to my browsing habits, the internet thinks I like Sylvester Stallone. That's ok, I do like him. The internet is always trying to get me to watch Stallone movies. I've been seeing more ads for Expendables 2 since it's now available via streaming. I remembered reading how Kurt Russell was offered a part (in either Expendables 1 or 2) but he turned it down as he "was not looking for ensemble roles". I guess old Kurt doesn't realize his demographic anymore?

The above line of thought took me to Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone in Tango & Cash. I remember the first half of the movie was pretty good, but that's about it. Hmmm, after looking it seems I didn't have that in my DVD collection, and for the price to rent a streaming version I would do just as well to buy the silly thing. So I went ot Amazon and bought it, which gave Amazon the opportunity to suggest other Stallone movies that I may have enjoyed in the past but would currently rather buy than rent. Damn you for knowing me so well, Amazon!

When it was over, I had 4 Stallone DVDs from the late 80's to early 2000's on the way. One of them, Eye See You, I have no idea about. It was one I long ago put on my "skip it now, look at it later" list. 11 years later, I'm finally taking care of that.


movies/tv/dvd rambling random

Busy Week

07.08.2013

This week:

My weeks aren't usually this busy. I'm a little stressed about it. Even though nothing major is happening to cause stress, it's the the sheer, out of the ordinary volume of stuff going on. Next week is more normal - I've only got 2 things written down for next week.

So far, at least.


rambling

2012 Wrap Up Show

12.31.2012

It used to be that the week between Christmas and New Years would be full of retrospectives and countdowns on tv and radio. That doesn't seem to be the case any more, or maybe I don't watch enough tv nor listen to enough radio. While sitting with Jerry last night, I decided to have my own review of 2012, not to rank the happenings but more to get an overall feel for how the year went.

This was the year of surgery. Me with my pilonidal cyst, Jer with his collarbone. Expanding that, Jim had a kidney stone and Dad was in the hospital with some prostate problems.

This was the year of not working a lot. Thanks to my post-op infection, I ended up missing roughly a month of work due to my surgery - a point I was sure to thank Jim about during my annual review at work. Although I had plenty of sick leave and vacation banked, it's nice to be able to use it without any problems from my boss. I may not care much for my day-to-day job, but I wouldn't go anywhere else to work (unless Jim gets rid of me, but we've talked about that scenario so I'm good).

It was the year Gina took care of me. Even after my surgery Gina had a couple of months of looking at my butt twice a day since I couldn't reach the right areas to change out gauze. The hardest thing for me to do is admit when I can't take care of myself, and this was one of those times. A loooong one of those times. I really don't know what I would have done without her - helps me realize how much I love that woman.

It was the year we played games. Even with mine and Jerry's overlapping surgical issues, we still got together with Keith and Joe and played more games that we have in the previous 5 years. I even played with Rynn and Alex a couple of times. I've got to get better, though, I tend to lose the majority of the time. It's still fun to play, regardless of who wins. I like that.

It was the year I started to make a board game. Looking back, I started working on Zombie Mall in July. I didn't think after 6 months I would still be working on it, especially to still be tweaking the game. After 2 play-test and various discussions I think it's almost ready for people to play without me standing there and explaining the rules. People that have seen pics and explanations, especially on Facebook, have asked about the game and if I'm planning on marketing it. Although that's an option, and one I've thought about, more than anything this is just an idea in my head that I have to get out. Plus, so far it's neat to see people play something I've made and both understand it and enjoy it.

That's the crux of my year. Bad things happen (surgery infection, longer recovery time than expected, I had a flat tire), but my day-to-day life is good. I recognize that, and I enjoy recognizing that. I wouldn't mind another year that ended up like 2012.

It would be nice to skip the month convalescing in bed this time around, though.


rambling random

Blog Archive

As always, correct spelling is optional in any blog entry. Keep in mind that any links more than a year old may not be active, especially the ones pointing back to Russellmania (I like to move things around!).

Tags have been added to posts back to 2005. There may be an occasional old blog that gets added to the tag list, but in reality what could be noteworthy from that far back?

Blog Tags

3D Printer (26)
4ground (32)
4ground-mall (40)
action figures/toys (10)
airbrush (7)
Aliens (1)
Amazon (12)
antenocitisworkshop (11)
Atlas O Gauge (2)
Batman Miniature Game (2)
Battletech (1)
belt sander (12)
Blood Bowl (4)
boardgames (77)
books/comics (19)
computers hate me (5)
conveyances (15)
diet (53)
dreams (7)
fallout (1)
Foundry (3)
Gale Force Nine (1)
game dev (22)
gaming miniatures (227)
gaslands (10)
gastric sleeve (34)
Green Stuff World (2)
Hasslefree (9)
Hero Forge (1)
hobbies (101)
Jailbirds Minis (1)
kevin smith (1)
Knight Models (2)
malifaux (2)
Marvel Crisis Protocol (2)
mckays (1)
models (9)
mom (32)
moon light (5)
movies/tv/dvd (60)
ninja division (1)
Pathfinder Deepcuts (1)
pilonidal cyst (5)
plastcraft (2)
programming/interweb (41)
rambling (60)
random (365)
random maintenance (3)
Reaper Bones (3)
reaper chronoscape (32)
renovation/remodelling (24)
road trip (26)
salesforce (1)
sarissa precission (2)
scenery (16)
studio miniatures (3)
ttcombat (12)
video games (51)
walking dead (36)
wargame foundry (3)
work (6)
wrestling (45)
zombicide (1)
Zombicide Invader (19)
zombie mall (23)