Not feeling so great...is this stuff normal? (TMI warning)

[DianaCox]

Check out whether you can get a medical waiver of the 10% penalty on your retirement $$ if you have any medical bills.

And not to be harsh, but does your daughter REALLY need to be in a sorority when you can't pay your rent?

And I should have added - I'm sorry things are so difficult right now - I'm sure they will get better. Even using my PhD to leverage law school, I didn't pay off my student loans from 4 years of college, 8 years of PhD and 4 years of law school until we sold our house last fall - at age 63.

 

[writegirl]

Yikes. I feel for you and I understand. Overeducated and underemployed is much more common than it should be. My fingers are crossed for you!

Thank you @Munchkin it helps more than you may realize to have this crap moment in my life met with understanding.

 

[writegirl]

Check out whether you can get a medical waiver of the 10% penalty on your retirement $$ if you have any medical bills.

And not to be harsh, but does your daughter REALLY need to be in a sorority when you can't pay your rent?

My daughter actually pays for her own fees out of her own money. She didn't work this summer to take care of me after surgery. Right now, her money that was set aside for her fees is being tied up by a court case that was settled in our favor but the insurance company is playing games with the payment. My attorney is on that. We were in a rear end car accident in 2014 and they just now finally settled back in May. We were supposed to have our settlement checks by now. I called my attorney again this week and he said that he now has to petition the court to force the insurance company to release the checks and settle as they agreed. So, now I am looking at 60 more days before that money comes through.

Normally, paying my rent is not an issue. I teach full time and also work part time at another university. I make nearly $50,000 a year doing that. The problem right now is that I could not work one of my summer jobs because I had surgery--so that was $3400.00 lost. I also did not get paid from one of the summer jobs I taught for before my surgery, so that is $1500.00 I am waiting on. And, to add insult to injury, I paid $4000.00 out of pocket for my DS, plus the hospital fees--another $1200.00.

It's been like a perfect storm of shit hitting me since I wrote that first damn check to get the surgery. Maybe it was a mistake. My life would be more stable right now if I hadn't done this, but I wanted to do it while I still had some insurance just in case I lost it (and now I will) at the end of the summer.

If I can't swing it, her grandparents will front her the money for her dues and possibly her books. Other than that, it's all on me until we get the settlement checks.

I've always got part time teaching that I can do, but as a single parent with no child support, I really need the health insurance. I'll be looking for full time jobs doing anything in the world that has benefits this week and for however long it takes. I'm not even picky. I'll do anything for employment if there are benefits. Barista? I wonder if they get health coverage...

 

[writegirl]

Update: I have a raging case of THRUSH (ewwwe, I know, say it with me: ewwwwweeee!). Anyway, realized this yesterday when I was talking with my dad on the phone. I kept losing my voice inexplicably, still couldn't shake the malaise and that weird hollow nausea feeling in the center of my chest, and my throat and tongue felt dry despite constantly sipping. And just as I was starting to freak out because I couldn't get the pressure of that nauseous feeling to subside and I couldn't eat anything and was feeling HANGRY, it suddenly dawned on me to look in my damn mouth. My tongue had a thing white film and more gunky toward the back of the throat and I was like "Oh shit, I have thrush."

Of course, I find this after my PCP and my surgeon's offices were closed for the weekend. I called Dr. Boyce's service and the NP who called back was awesome and walked me through the symptoms (all consistent with thrush). She called in an antifungal, switched me from prilosec to prescription prevacid while I am on the antifungal and told me to not hesitate to call back if I wasn't feeling better through the weekend.

Have any of y'all been through thrush post op? OMG, it is freaking awful. I wish I would have recognized the symptoms sooner, but I am grateful that Boyce's on call NP didn't try to make me run to emergency or tell me I had to wait till Monday to come in before they would prescribe medicine. I'm feeling way better today, but still quite sick. The NP said I should feel "much" better after 48 hours on the meds. Right now, I am so thankful for "way" better.

 

[k9ophile]

Sorry about the thrush. I had it in June. (Surgery was in 2008 and I was miserable just the same.) I did feel much better after a couple of days on the Nystatin. Much to my surprise, it didn't taste awful.

From what I've heard about Starbucks, they do have health insurance. I don't know if it's still offered or how much it covers, but might be worth checking into.

 

[Healthy Nana]

Hello friends--I've been feeling weirdly "off" the past several days and I'm wondering if there is something wrong or this is normal in the healing phase. Tomorrow (7/19) is my one month surgiversary and I have had literally zero problems or issues until this weekend. I've been following the DS way of eating religiously, I eat very few carbs of any kind and when I do get them, they come from things like beans. I've been hitting 60-90 grams of protein a day, drinking lots of water, making sure I get plenty of fats in my diet, etc.

Last week I started feeling a bit backed up for the first time. I didn't worry about it, I just added more fat to my diet and figured it was my body adjusting. Plus, I did manage to have a BM nearly every day, it just never felt all clear, if you get my drift. Over the weekend I started feeling this weird gurgling feeling at the back of my throat--like deep in there--and these little bubbles kind of gurgle and then dissipate. I also started having this weird pain in my abdomen on the right side--more toward my obliques at a height just above the belly button (but I felt no pain near the belly button). It was sharp but only lasted a second but would recur sporadically, more so after eating or if I bent to lift something.

Monday, my body finally cleaned itself out. Wasn't super loose or anything, but it was just a lot and multiple BMs all day. The weird pain on the side went away. So, I figure that had something to do with the backup. Maybe. However, I started feeling this weird "hollow" nausea feeling in the center of my chest (I've never been sick during the who post op process). I just figured it was related to the weird gastric day I was having. I took a shower and noticed I have an irritated hemorrhoid that now feels quite inflamed and hard or solid, like it's blown up a bit. That said, it is not huge. I've applied suppositories to alleviate.

Today (Tuesday) I woke up and felt that urgent need to evacuate my bowels again almost as soon as I woke. Again, my body cleaned itself out. The gurgling sensation in my throat was immediately present at waking. I tried eating an egg to combat it, but didn't feel like I could finish it. I was just full feeling.

I've been drinking water, eating with no problems today, but I can't shake the gurgling in the back of my throat and the waves of that hollow nausea feeling.

I am on prescription prilosec, thyroid medicine, the urisodiol to protect my gallbladder (Boyce won't remove a healthy one), and I take a twice daily probiotic with 50 billion CPU.

Only thing different this week:
I started taking the crappy Barilife multivitamin powder that I bought pre-op. I don't plan to stay on this crap, I just want to get rid of it and since I am officially unemployed right now, using vitamins I already paid for is attractive.

The powdered stuff is lemonade flavored and disgusting, so I chug it like a shot mixed with some G2 to kill the flavor.

The day I had pain on my side was the only day that I tried taking the Barilife horsepill multivitamins (also bought pre-op for use pre-op, but I do want to use them up since they're costly). I thought maybe the pills would be easier to chug down than the powder, but I started getting that pain so I haven't taken them since.

Should I take Benefiber to keep myself from getting backed up again? Is what I am feeling normal? Will it (especially the hollow nauseous feeling) go away or is this my life now?

I know I need to migrate off the Barilife and I will, but this can't all be from vitamins this soon post op, right? Or can it?

Full disclosure: I have been under enormous stress since Friday when I had a last minute job interview with my department. Yesterday I learned that I did not get the job so I am facing financial ruin right now, losing my health insurance, and I will be losing my daughter's tuition discount at the university. Pretty much, my life is a pile of shit so I am not that surprised if this is reflected in my body also being a pile of shit.

Any advice/suggestions/words of wisdom are appreciated.

You can cut the horse pills in half. Some people even half the halves! Also if you will let them soak a second or two in your mouth with water they go down easier. It coats them or something! I had to half for awhile, now I take them whole. Three in am, two at noon, three at bedtime. Good luck! I shot the powder too, the lemon was gross. I liked the orange but they don't have it anymore. I bought the cherry but have not used it yet. I am like you, I will not waste it! Dr. Boyce was my surgeon.

 

[southernlady]

You can cut the horse pills in half. Some people even half the halves! Also if you will let them soak a second or two in your mouth with water they go down easier. It coats them or something! I had to half for awhile, now I take them whole. Three in am, two at noon, three at bedtime. Good luck! I shot the powder too, the lemon was gross. I liked the orange but they don't have it anymore. I bought the cherry but have not used it yet. I am like you, I will not waste it! Dr. Boyce was my surgeon.

Boyce was my surgeon as well back in 2011. I would rather waste the vitamins than waste time taking the nasty ass stuff he calls vitamins. Not good enough for a DSer.

 

[KathrynK]

It is overwhelming to find yourself unemployed, without ample notice, with so many bills due. You are handling it well, though, I hope you can see it. You already have a long-term plan, in looking for new teaching jobs, and a short-term plan, getting some money from your 401k. Those survival skills will carry you through this. Anyone smart enough to get a PhD has the assets needed to figure this out. Hope you are giving yourself some credit for what you've already done.

 

[k9ophile]

What Kathryn said.

 

[writegirl]

Boyce was my surgeon as well back in 2011. I would rather waste the vitamins than waste time taking the nasty ass stuff he calls vitamins. Not good enough for a DSer.

I tend to be in full agreement about the "nasty" aspect of at least the powdered vitamins. The pill form ones are massive, to be sure, and while I don't think they can be used by a DSer as a stand alone option, I wonder if they would work for the multivitamin portion of our supplements that we have to take even on the vitalady regimen. It's not that they are shitty multivitamin; they're pretty high quality. I just can't wrap my mind around how he and his nutritionists stand there with deadpan straight faces and swear that the Barilife multivitamins are "all you need!" It's such utter bullshit and it is the one thing that irritates me most about the whole "New Life" program. I just don't get why they feel like they have to blow smoke up our asses. He would still sell a metricshitbucket of Barilife vitamins if they changed their tune to "Use this as your multivitamin in your supplement regimen." But, that's not the message. I pressed the NP on this during my 2 week post op appointment--not because I thought she would give me a real answer, but because it's kind of entertaining to corner them a little bit on their assertions that Barilife is "all you need!" She said something like "Patients will do what they will do, but we have research and case studies to demonstrate that Barilife is all you need!" I swear, the "all you need!" line is part of their training. Anyway, it might be worth it to compare the Barilife multivitamins to something like Centrum Complete to see if it could stand in as the multivitamin. I'm not sure that the costs would be that different considering the amounts that DSers take.

 

[writegirl]

It is overwhelming to find yourself unemployed, without ample notice, with so many bills due. You are handling it well, though, I hope you can see it. You already have a long-term plan, in looking for new teaching jobs, and a short-term plan, getting some money from your 401k. Those survival skills will carry you through this. Anyone smart enough to get a PhD has the assets needed to figure this out. Hope you are giving yourself some credit for what you've already done.

Thank you for that. I'm handling it the only way I know how--I'm plowing through it. The thing that sucks is that I am the CEO and co-founder of a company and we're in the final stages of development for a large-scale network that has deep financial backing. We're launching a soft beta in the next few months. Anyway, our projections suggest that I may be in a position to bow out of outside employment within the next year. I just need the year of working with benefits to get from where I am now to where I plan to be 12-18 months from now.

 

[DianaCox]

Sounds like things will be on a knife's edge for a while, but you have backup plans and resources. Keep your eyes on the prize!

And yes, many of us - self included - get thrush (or its vulvar equivalent) after strong ABX. YUCK indeed - but it fortunately gets cleared up quickly by meds.

 

[writegirl]

Sounds like things will be on a knife's edge for a while, but you have backup plans and resources. Keep your eyes on the prize!

And yes, many of us - self included - get thrush (or its vulvar equivalent) after strong ABX. YUCK indeed - but it fortunately gets cleared up quickly by meds.

Thank you! I'll just keep working toward my new life and shed the old one along with these pounds, or some poetic shit like that. Glad to know the thrush is not that uncommon. The worst is I got it down in my esophagus, which explains the weird nausea in the center of my chest. Thank the Gods of medications for strong antifungals!

 

[juliebird4828]

I'm not constipated. I am emptying out--BIGTIME--every single morning. I wake up and after a few minutes of being awake I feel quite sick and have to hurry to the toilet. I am emptying twice per morning. The first three weeks post op I was going every morning, twice a morning, but not the amount that I am now. So, holy CRAP what a way to ring in week four! I do think the stress is a factor. But I again had the weird pain in my right mid abdomen today. I noticed it when I was signing in my car. It is not consistent, but it is a sharp pain that lasts like a second and then dissipates immediately. It just comes on sporadically. It's higher than the height of my navel but several inches lower than my ribs. There is an incision with pointy things sticking out that I think must be stitches since the rest of the durabond came off of all my incisions and they are all smooth. This one has two sharp little knots at either end. So, I dunno, maybe the incision is still healing?

The nausea was present again today, but I was able to eat better. I'm feeling ok right now, but tired as hell. I hope this is not a forever thing. I can't stay like this. My life will fall apart if I keep feeling too sick and/or exhausted to work or even send out applications for a new job. Ugh.

Incisions are definitely still healing and I think the upper most is one of the slowest to heal from the inside, that and the umbilical one.

 

[juliebird4828]

Hello friends--I've been feeling weirdly "off" the past several days and I'm wondering if there is something wrong or this is normal in the healing phase. Tomorrow (7/19) is my one month surgiversary and I have had literally zero problems or issues until this weekend. I've been following the DS way of eating religiously, I eat very few carbs of any kind and when I do get them, they come from things like beans. I've been hitting 60-90 grams of protein a day, drinking lots of water, making sure I get plenty of fats in my diet, etc.

Last week I started feeling a bit backed up for the first time. I didn't worry about it, I just added more fat to my diet and figured it was my body adjusting. Plus, I did manage to have a BM nearly every day, it just never felt all clear, if you get my drift. Over the weekend I started feeling this weird gurgling feeling at the back of my throat--like deep in there--and these little bubbles kind of gurgle and then dissipate. I also started having this weird pain in my abdomen on the right side--more toward my obliques at a height just above the belly button (but I felt no pain near the belly button). It was sharp but only lasted a second but would recur sporadically, more so after eating or if I bent to lift something.

Monday, my body finally cleaned itself out. Wasn't super loose or anything, but it was just a lot and multiple BMs all day. The weird pain on the side went away. So, I figure that had something to do with the backup. Maybe. However, I started feeling this weird "hollow" nausea feeling in the center of my chest (I've never been sick during the who post op process). I just figured it was related to the weird gastric day I was having. I took a shower and noticed I have an irritated hemorrhoid that now feels quite inflamed and hard or solid, like it's blown up a bit. That said, it is not huge. I've applied suppositories to alleviate.

Today (Tuesday) I woke up and felt that urgent need to evacuate my bowels again almost as soon as I woke. Again, my body cleaned itself out. The gurgling sensation in my throat was immediately present at waking. I tried eating an egg to combat it, but didn't feel like I could finish it. I was just full feeling.

I've been drinking water, eating with no problems today, but I can't shake the gurgling in the back of my throat and the waves of that hollow nausea feeling.

I am on prescription prilosec, thyroid medicine, the urisodiol to protect my gallbladder (Boyce won't remove a healthy one), and I take a twice daily probiotic with 50 billion CPU.

Only thing different this week:
I started taking the crappy Barilife multivitamin powder that I bought pre-op. I don't plan to stay on this crap, I just want to get rid of it and since I am officially unemployed right now, using vitamins I already paid for is attractive.

The powdered stuff is lemonade flavored and disgusting, so I chug it like a shot mixed with some G2 to kill the flavor.

The day I had pain on my side was the only day that I tried taking the Barilife horsepill multivitamins (also bought pre-op for use pre-op, but I do want to use them up since they're costly). I thought maybe the pills would be easier to chug down than the powder, but I started getting that pain so I haven't taken them since.

Should I take Benefiber to keep myself from getting backed up again? Is what I am feeling normal? Will it (especially the hollow nauseous feeling) go away or is this my life now?

I know I need to migrate off the Barilife and I will, but this can't all be from vitamins this soon post op, right? Or can it?

Full disclosure: I have been under enormous stress since Friday when I had a last minute job interview with my department. Yesterday I learned that I did not get the job so I am facing financial ruin right now, losing my health insurance, and I will be losing my daughter's tuition discount at the university. Pretty much, my life is a pile of shit so I am not that surprised if this is reflected in my body also being a pile of shit.

Any advice/suggestions/words of wisdom are appreciated.

I have been feeling some of this stuff as well, 4 weeks out. I don't feel the symptoms with the thrush as you did though. I had two or three great "normal" days last week. I introduced some beef that had cooked all day in the crock pot and I have been so gassy and had loose "explosive" like stools. I have had a few days of not feeling like I am "cleaned out" as well. I was also wondering about the fiber aspect of things. I haven't had much luck with beef or chicken at this point. Haddock, shrimp, salmon all go really well. I sure hope this changes some- I could use some variety.

I sure hope you are feeling better after a couple days of meds and continue to heal!