In the hospital again

[PhilMays]

Speedo....Middle Of Minnesota in January..."The Annual Speedo Run"... beer... jello shots....Schnapps...snowmobiles pulling couches down main street.... led by firetruck...convertible car parade....no shirt...encouraged by police... no pockets for wallet or smokes....women in bikinis, NHO Central...one was 70 year old grandmother....must...try to....forget...

MAN.. BAD flashback there.... where was I?

OMG!!!! It wasn't a dream!!!!!

[3dzapper]

Glad your getting better Wayne.

Just a thought to cheer you up. When you get home, you'll be able to lounge around in your slippers enjoying your system and nobody will nag you about taking out the trash!-)

Rick

[sputnik]

Wayne,

Looks like it's been a couple of weeks since you last posted. How are you doing?

[dtel]

I was thinking the same thing, hope everything is ok.

[Arky]

me too..good job sputnik

[Me Loves Khorns]

Cal, let us know how you are doing.

How is the Coumadin doing?

Any more problems with clots lately?

Hope you are well, still keeping you in our prayers,

Paul

[Cal Blacksmith]

Thanks everyone, I am sorry for not getting back sooner, I

thought I posted a note that I was out of the hospital, I guess I did not, I am sorry

about that.

Anyway, I was held hostage there for 6 days until the blood

levels for the rat poison came up a bit. I still had to give myself Lovenox

shots for about a week until the levels stabilized. I have been off of the

shots for 2 weeks now.

I am on real food now and it is SOOOOOOOO much better than

the last 6 weeks! In fact, today is the first FULL day of real food and it

seems like all I do is EAT! 2oz of this then wait an hour then 4 oz of that

wait an hour and a half then 2 to 4 oz of the next thing. What a pain in the

back side. It was much easier to just fill the old HUGE tank and eat 3 times a

day but I guess that didnt work out so well in the end huh? Or I wouldnt have

needed the surgery in the first place.

I started back to work today so my visits to the board will

be vastly increased. My internet service at home is not the best. Work will

shut down for Christmas so I might get a chance to pick up some overtime

between now and the New Year. It sure will be good to get some money flowing

into the bank again, it has been 6 weeks since that has happened and the

account is near rock bottom.

I need to be careful about what I eat because things like

scrambled eggs that are too dry will get caught in the pouch and that is not a

good thing. I also need to eat very slowly as there is no longer a valve in the

stomach to regulate the flow of food into the intestine. I now need to do that

function by eating slowly. How slowly you ask? Well it should take about 1 hour

to eat ½ of a sandwich with at least 10 minutes between bites. I need to drink

no faster than 1 oz in 5 minutes, so that means that it will take me an hour to

drink 12 oz of liquid. No more carbonated drinks but that is ok as I can drink

anything NON carbonated and with no caffeine. That means Decaf coffee if I

drink any. No drinking for ½ hour before or after a meal and nothing with the

meal either.

I am feeling great, lots of energy but a little short on

stamina. That will build up again though. I have lost 56# in the last 6 weeks

so things are moving right along.

To answer the question, Yes I am a real blacksmith when I am

not at my day job I have been working metal since I was in Jr. High school in

1969. I am a certified instructor for the CBA (California Blacksmith

Association) and I teach blacksmithing out of my shop.

The icon is a bit distorted, that anvil should be about

twice as long as it is in the pic but such is life when you resize a

rectangular image to fit in a square format and keep the height the same.

[kaiser SET say]

Merry Christmas Cal, sounds like you are on the road to recovery and already a leaner Cal[]

Keep following those instructions and you'll be in fighting form before you know it[]

[darkside]

Glad to hear you're alright Cal... that was definitely a close call and glad you did something about it.

Yeah, but it still doesn't change the fact that this forum is filled with OLD FOLK!!! [] (Doen't hurt me please!!!![:#])

[rplace]

Get well soon. Don't rush things and take care of yourself.

Hoping for a speedy recovery, Rich

[PhilMays]

Wayne,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Glad you doing better, you must be if your going back to work!!!!

I hope you continue to improve!!!! Here's thinking about you on the Left Coast!

Phil

[J.4knee]

Wayne glad to hear you are out of the hospital and back to work! Will you always have to meter you eating pace this way or will you get back some ability regulate your food digestion rates? Anyway glad to hear things are improving and you are well on your way to your target weight. As always we are pulling for you. Keep the spirits up.

R/Jim

[Daddy Dee]

Wayne,

Sorry to hear of this trouble. You are indeed fortunate. Some 30% of folks with a pulmonary embolus do not survive. I am among those thankful folks, too. The rat poison is an acquired taste, but it does make it pretty unlikely to get another blood clot, which can spoil your whole day. Keep hanging in there. We are thinking of you in our prayers.

[dtel's wife]

Wayne we are all glad to see you back with us and feeling better. I am glad things are starting to look up. The weight loss is amazing, congratulations.

[Cal Blacksmith]

Thanks for the prayers and welcome back everyone.

Jim, the vitimins (sp?) and speed regulation will be forever. The part of the stomach that used to control the speed is still with me but it will never do that job again as there is no way for food to reach it. A link to info about my surgery is here

The "pouch" in the picture is cut off from the rest of the stomach where the dashed line is to represent the staple line on the bypassed stomach. The valve that regulates the flow of food is at the bottom of the stomach so you can see, it is of no use anymore. The stomach is left intact so that it can still produce all the digestive juces that are needed for food to be digested.

[customsteve01]

Wayne,

Glad your doing good. Hang in there, I have a friend that had the same surgury done and he lost almost 400 pounds and he looks great and says he feels better than he has all his life.

Steve

[Fish]

Wayne,we're glad you're doing better and hope you a speedy recovery.

I do want to mention that just today I had a friend call and say his wife had died.She had this operation done,then complications in the hospital,a leak,toxic poisoning and death(as I understood it).All her friends and family were against it cause she was only about 70 lbs overweight and otherwise very healthy.She was however 100+ lbs overweight before her most recent diet which looked to have been working.She was 28 and a great kid,and left 2 young daughters and her loving husband.I'll be at the funeral Christmas eve,I'm sure she made this decision on her own,as is best but it really should be used only as a last resort.I do understand most here know all this,I only mention in case one in the future don't.

[Cal Blacksmith]

Fish, I do understand where you are comming from, don't sweat it a bit.

I also agree that this surgery is a last resort type of thing, if you read the info in the link above, you will find that most of the possible side effects are indeed serious. The death rate for this surgery nationwide is about 2 %, this includes any cause of death that occurs within 1 year of the surgery, be it a car accident, drowning in the nearest body of water or from side effects of the surgery. The operation it's self carries no more risk than ANY major surgery to the stomach and bowels such as repairing an ulcer etc. It is sad when someone so young dies, for what in hind site seems to be a non life threatening reason but obesity IS a life threatening condition and you need to weigh the risks with the benifits. I am sure that your friends wife beleaved that she was doing the right thing. I will be praying for the family to help them get through this.