Cody Updates by Mom

On Monday, I successfully gave myself my B12 shot.  This is good as the day they taught me in the hospital was the day after surgery and I was on a significant amount of pain killers and was using my happy/no pain button quite often.  This time I was able to do it with Jim’s supervision (of course).  All went well.

On Tuesday, we saw a dietitian and the PA for Dr. Kendrick for my surgery follow up.  They also did a blood test to make sure that things are going well with my nutrition.  Good news!  All of my blood work looked good and the dietitian felt that things were going well with my eating.  She said that I should be able to try a little piece of very tender steak in a few weeks.  I should also be able to have raw vegetables in a few months.  She wants me to try and eat around 1800 calories a day to maintain my weight where it is.  That should be interesting.  She gave me a book to keep track of my calories.  I have never been good at that but will give it a try.  At least I will use it to determine where I am landing most days to see if I need to increase.  She said I am doing well with getting protein in my diet but should work on more cooked vegetables.

We then met with Michelle who is Dr. Kendrick’s PA and handles all of his surgical follow ups.  We talked with her at length about the issue of getting things stuck when I eat.  She feels that I am advancing my diet a little too quickly.  She said that people with similar surgeries are sometimes still struggling with scrambled eggs at this point so I should look at dialing back my choices for a bit longer.  She said that the connection point is definitely still swollen so taking it easy on my diet choices will help it heal and reduce the swelling.  She agreed that the ordeal this last week would have increased the swelling and that is why this week has been a bit more difficult.  She was impressed with my ability to have bread and said that in a few weeks I can start to bring back in food items that I am slowing down on.

Jim asked her how big the opening of the connection was.  She looked through my chart and said that according to how Dr. Kendrick sewed up the connection between the esophagus and intestine it would be 11 millimeters.  Jim measured the biggest part of my pinkie finger and it was at 14 so the opening is quite small.  Smaller than a half an inch.  She said that with the swelling the size will be much smaller than the the 11.  Well, that explains A LOT!!!  She said that there is a very small chance that I could have scarring that causes the opening to close down so even water cannot pass.  She said if that happens they do a scope and open up the connection point.  She said that this is fairly rare but that I should at least know what to look for.  She mentioned that I am not at a point to have the chewing piece be a habit.  If I get distracted while eating that I will fall back into the old habit of only chewing a few times before swallowing.  She said that I want to be the last one eating because I am eating really slow and deliberately.

Michelle said that over time the opening will dilate (or get bigger) so that I will be able to eat more normally.  She said that her mother had the same surgery and two years after she can basically eat as normal.  She said that if people do not know about the surgery that they would never be able to guess because she eats just like everyone else just a bit less.  It was really great talking with her.  She not only knew of what I was going through because of her training but had personal experience with it.  I know that this year will be a lot of learning about eating but I am happy to know things will get back to a version of normal.

As of today, I am down another pound so I am 23 total lost.  Scaling back my eating may cause more weight loss but I am still doing pretty good and not even to the weight that I would pick if I could.  Jim picks on me a lot about my saggy pants but then I remind him that I will need to do some shopping soon.  Glad that for Christmas Santa knew that I was having this surgery and picked up two pair of jeans significantly smaller than my size at the time.  🙂  Santa is a pretty smart cookie.

Michelle also gave me the a-ok to return to work next week.  I have my note to give to work that says that I can go back on the 11th with no restrictions.  The no restrictions is because my job doesn’t really require any lifting.  They still want me to be careful and not really lift anything heavy.  I am still healing and they do not want set backs.  So excited to be around my work peeps again soon.

Today I saw Dr. Mann my plastic surgeon.  He has put in the order for my surgery to replace the temporary implants.  I will be having that surgery Friday, March 20th.  This is outpatient surgery and I will only have to miss Friday from work.  I have my pre-op physical the morning of the 11th so my first day back will be a short day at work.  I will then have my post-op with Dr. Mann on the 31st.  I am so very excited and happy to be finally getting to the end of the breast cancer journey.  I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and I do not think it is a train.  Yay!  Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Caring Bridge Comments

Love and prayers..from mom|Mar 7, 2015 8:29am
You are an amazing young lady. I love you so very much.