The guest room is empty, the phone has stopped ringing, and calm has descended over the house once more.
Guess we'll call this one a successful weight loss surgery, right?
After a week of chaos and worry, hundreds of communications passing back and forth, and more activity than Misdirected has ever seen, Lor is resting comfortably in bed, binge-watching Heartland and managing almost a whole protein shake a day. Her color looks good, her bruises are (mostly) fading, and she is doing laps around the house regularly to get back into fighting trim. We might even try walking up and down the driveway this afternoon, just for giggles and grins.
The post-surgical changes are pretty remarkable already. She has no interest in eating at all - her mother and I have been having to remind her to drink water and protein shakes. She has deemed us "water Nazis", and not looked kindly on our attempts to keep her from being re-hospitalized due to dehydration. Now that her Mom has gone home to catch up on all the sleep she has missed this last week, I am the sole arbiter of hydration and nutritional discipline in the house, a position that has not made me very popular. Lor has vowed revenge when it is my time to go under the knife next month. I tremble in fear.
Her weight is also already dramatically responding - with a total weight loss of 8 pounds in the last 7 days. It is quite humorous to watch her clothes falling off her as she walks back and forth down our main hallway. Next week, when she intends to return to "civilization", I am sure one of our first stops will be at the thrift store to pick up some new clothes. No point in buying brand new, full price stuff just yet, right? This rapid weight loss can last up to a year after the surgery.
Most importantly, her blood sugar levels dropped to normal and have stayed there since the surgery. We continue to hope for a full remission of her Diabetes but won't get official confirmation of that happy state for another couple of months. But so far, so good.
There have been lots of discussions between the two of us about lifestyle changes from here on out. Lor had expected to maybe lose a few pounds, but was mainly concerned about addressing her Diabetes. However, at this point, she is already within shooting distance of her weight back in high school! Similarly, I had hoped to maybe get back down to around 250 pounds when everything was said and done.
Today I am at 267 - and I am still 5 weeks out from surgery.
We are no longer dealing with questions like "Will this work?" We are now moving into "Where will this stop? and "Who the heck will we be when this is all over with?" Neither one of us has any clear idea of what our lives are going to look like 50, or 75, or even 100 pounds from now. It is tremendously exciting and completely terrifying, all at the same time.
One last time - thanks to everyone who stayed plugged in during Lor's surgery. It meant more than you can ever know to have so many people so interested and concerned about her status and well-being. We will keep you all updated with her progress now that her time in the trenches has truly begun.
Able To Breathe Again,
- Hawkwind
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