It all came to a head on July 5. We went to the Dunwoody parade in the morning and while sitting on the parade route I drank 32 ounces of water and still felt thirsty. Jen suggested I call my surgeon, which I did. Before my surgery, I had been taking two medications to control my blood pressure. one of them was a diuretic. After my surgery I stayed on those medications and it seems like the diuretic became really effective at getting my body to shed water. My doctor told me to stop taking it and see if that helped things. Not taking that medicine has made a huge difference. I no longer get cramps and am not thirsty all of the time. Also, my blood pressure is still in the normal range 129/73, so I'm already half way towards one of my goals of getting off of all my blood pressure medication.
The only downside to discontinuing the diuretic is that while my body has been replenishing its water resources, I have stopped losing weight. (in fact I gained a couple of pounds). It turns out that the 2 to 3 pounds a day I was losing was a large amount of water. Just over the weekend, I've started losing weight again. The doctor says I should lose about a pound a day for the next few months.
I'm still eating very little food and have very little desire to eat. I'm probably at 500 calories per day and am rarely hungry. Its really weird since I used to be hungry all of the time. I still have to be very careful of what I eat. No rice or pasta (don't need the empty calories), no uncooked vegetables, no fruits with skins, no hard to digest meats - hamburger ok, steak not ok, and everything should be low fat and low sugar. Also, my goal is to drink 64 ounces of water per day.
Last night Jen and I went to Outback Steakhouse with her Dad and Sister (mom is out of town). It was the first time we had been out to eat since my surgery. I had the seared tuna appetizer (it had maybe 2 ounces of tuna) and the seasonal mixed vegetables (I had about a fifth of what they brought me) and was quite full. Its a whole new world of eating.
