It is interesting now after my adventure into the hospital more and more people are starting to find out that I had some health related issues. I do not really care if people share what is happening as they are telling former colleagues and people who ask how I am doing. This blog is also in the public domain so if people do a search for my name it will come up. The old Italian couple across the street wished me a quick recovery to Mel and she told Mel that she sends her love. In the winter, Xavier and I will try and help them out when we can with shoveling and there were times where I took out their garbage first thing in the morning since the husband was not feeling well and she asked me for help. I would see him leave to go to the gym first thing in the morning at 5:30 so she knew I was up. That was back in the day when I started work at 6am on a more consistent basis. They are a nice couple and give us all sorts of life advice or general advice. Mel last year spent 30-60 minutes talking gardening with him and he gave her some sort of a plant from his own garden. Mel told me this evening that this was not the year to expand our garden as she listed all of the various plants she had bought for the garden. This is important because it is not me that does the gardening, so she is trying to say that I want to expand her space for gardening, not her. It does not seem to matter if we physically can accommodate this all or not. Besides the regular tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, peas, carrots and herbs, she is adding strawberries and various random flowers to keep critters away. There is more that she has not told me of yet as there are still a bunch of plants still in small containers in the wagon. Instead of expanding the physical ground space of the garden she is using pots and placing them everywhere instead. As long as it sparks joy and she enjoys it I am fine with us no longer having a deck as it is covered in pots.
1.) At work, after a major surgery I apparently need a note saying that I can go back to work. Normally most people take some sort of a leave when they have major surgery and then are off for a couple of weeks before they come back. I contacted my case manager for this journey and had a nice conversation with her. She is a nurse so she is somewhat familiar with how things go. She asked me how the treatment was going so far and whether I currently had nausea, pain or fatigue. These are things that normally keep people out of work for a while. Fortunately for me these are also things that I am very comfortable with and deal with it rather easily. She was surprised that my recovery was going so well. I am not close enough to her to tell her that pain, nausea and fatigue are for suckers. I had pain management with me throughout the process and they really started dialing things down very quickly. Since most people get a doctor’s note to get out of work for a major surgery they then need one to return. Why do things simply when you can make it complex. Since I used vacation instead of sick days I did not get a doctor’s note, but it was a major surgery so I still need to get confirmation on whether I can return or not.
I appreciate that people are looking out for my best interest and the company is making sure that I can work. I also see how this can be a liability and a safety risk, but luckily since it is during Covid-19 I work from home anyway so it does not change much. If this prior to 2020 I think I would be on leave as I could not easily maintain my eating regime from work. It would be tough. The washrooms are so far away from where my desk is. I am sure that I would take time off for it. I appreciate everyone looking out for me when that is not one of my strong suits.
2.) Olivier is quite a challenge with home schooling. He does not care if he is late or misses things and does things as he sees fit. Sometimes he is brilliant and can answer everything, while at times he does not pay attention at all and is completely lost and does not finish any work at all. This is not the issue though. The problem is that he incessantly knocks on the door to bother Melanie since she is on the same floor, or he comes down to my office and will grab paper and then wave it in front of my camera to try and disrupt the video feed. We asked him if he wanted one of the grandparents to help him while doing work. He said no since he would be forced to do work and pay attention the whole time. We told him he has to stop interrupting people while working or that is what will happen. We will see what happens tomorrow on his trial run. Our family will help out and provide unwanted guidance for him if he can not manage on his own. We appreciate their dedication to their grandson.
3.) Eating a liquid diet with soft food has not been that difficult so far. The amount of food that I am suppose to be reduced to is not that large. I eat just small amounts and have the discipline to chew it till mush and take 45 minutes to eat, so far I have eaten a rather normal amount of food much to my surprise. Today at dinner I ate practically the same amount of food as Mel and the boys. Normally I can easily eat twice the amount that they do, but I am perfectly fine with eating their portion sizes. I have yet to feel full after a meal and just stop because I have been told my stomach is small. One thing I do notice is that while I am nearing the end I start to get much more gassy and need to be careful in order to prevent any type of dumping. So far I have prevented that and just slow down my intake a bit when it nears that. In a couple of weeks when I am sure that things are completely healed I may try and push it a bit to see what does full feel like, but I have stopped eating till I was “full” for a long time and just eat now until I am no longer hungry. My weight is currently at 203, which means that I lost approximately 10-12 pounds while in the hospital. This is not too unexpected. My goal is to keep my weight around 200, since it is expected for me to lost between 15% of my body weight due to the loss of my stomach. If I lose 15% then my body weight will drop to 182 and with potential of down to 170. I have been told that is normal. If I can maintain 200 and get my diet under control I will start to try and gain muscle mass and maintain my current condition while reducing my body fat percentage. I am glad that my parents can make me food that I can enjoy and that Mel is creative enough to come with alternate ideas as well.
Quoc Hao