Dear Briannah,

Had my gall bladder removed, too. Was in so much pain, I was glad when I had it removed!

Was 40 years old when I had it removed.

At 19 years old, I had my 4 wisdom teeth removed. Had it done under IV sedation, which I highly recommend. 

Thankfully, I always had excellent doctors and dentists.

Recommend you thoroughly research and vet all your doctors and dentists, as well as hospitals, in advance.

A good website for this is:

https://www.HealthGrades.com

Seems throughout your life, they take some things out and put some things in!

Looked at the DASH diet, but I felt I probably could not adhere to it. Am on a "Greens and Beans" diet, where I eat 25 percent meat and 75 percent vegetables.

Be well, my friend!

Your friend,

Monica

I live in a really tiny town with a crappy insurance, I dont' really have any choices available to vet.  On the other hand, the hospital was fantastic, the surgeon has been lovely, and there was not a long waiting list in the schedule to get it done.   You're right about the pain, it was worse than giving birth to Clover, and I always thought that would the absolute maximum top limit on my pain scale.  Oh, how wrong I was.   The onset was rather sudden and abrupt.  I will save that website though as I'm planning to start looking for work again once I recover and Nikki has been looking to change jobs so we may have more options in the future.  

So they didn't put me on any diet restrictiosn after the surgery other than avoid really spicy and fatty foods for at least four days, so I cautiously added dairy back in to see what would happen and...nothing!  Slowly reverting to my normal eating habits, pleased to report no side effects and I'm digesting.  The only issue I seem to be having is I think my mothers weird medical legacy is striking again, I have developed a red itchy rash everywhere that seems to have started at all the adhesive sites (from the iv and the incision bandages) that might indicate I'm developing her allergy to adhesives.  Yay.  And today I barefuly feel the incisions, and am able to move around mostly normally, just have to watch the big one where they actually pulled it out through, it still doesn't like too much moving or bending.  

I thought Dash would be hard, but for us it's been easy to stick too. The main hurdles we faced at the start was learning what all the herbs and spices did to replace the cheap easy salt flavor, and giving up the convenience of buying foods mostly cooked and ready to go like sauces and frozen things.  Once I got into the rhythm of cooking everything from scratch so I could control the salt content, the combination of newly formed habits and Nikki's overwhelming "I LOVE THIS FOOD" response made it my go to.  I'm an attention whore, and I eat up the reaction from him at mealtime.    I think every diet is both hard and easy, and the trick is just finding that one that works with each of us personally and medically.  I really love not being on the blood pressure medication anymore!

Dear Briannah,

Friend of mine who had been both shot and stabbed told me that was nothing compared to his gall bladder going bad.

My blood pressure is 130/92, and I know I have to do something about it. Also, my blood sugar is on the high end of normal.

Problem is I love to eat!

Your friend,

Monica

I also love to eat, which is why we went Dash.  You can have anything, you just have to make it yourself and use other flavorings than salt and keep a count.  LOL  I like the lack of restriction other than figuring how to cook it at an acceptable sodium level.  My chicken Parmesan has gotten even better! : )  Having to cook it all from scratch has gotten Nikki's labs from formal pre-diabetic back to normal, and we've both been taken off our blood pressure meds, I'm relatively stable around 118/82 and the doctor is happy with that.  I cant' remember nikki's number to save my life.  But I don't dump a mass of sugar or corn fructose in anything so it's naturally reducing our sugar levels.  I've adapted to eating a lot more plants, but still utterly fail at asparagus.  I can't for the life of me understand how anyone finds that flavor appealing.  They look so nifty, but taste so bad.  

So six days out and nothing hurts anymore, and I've regained my mobility, both potential side effects were mild and cared for at home following nurse instruction, and I'm starting to get some energy back.  I still wear out easily, but that is normal for me in healing any injury or illness.   

I think I will take your friends word for it and not test out if those things hurt more persoanaly!  

Have a lovely afternoon Monica!  I'm going to go put some of the luandry Nikki did away now that I'm feeling up to resuming some of my housework role. 

Dear Briannah,

Will look at the DASH diet again!

Thanks!!

Your friend,

Monica

I recommend the Dash for Dummies book.  I love the for Dummies series, they break down all the basics and the book has everthing frmo the medical sceince to shopping strategies as well as starter recipes.  however, if it's not the right one for you, there are a LOT of options out there!    I just picked mine based on ability to actauly stick with Am nearing the 2 year mark, and I get better at it as we go.   But what fits my life may not fit others. 

I treid the impossible whopper today, speaking of trying new things, and while it sorta tasted like a hamburger, I don't see it replacing my m eat cosnumptin, especialy with the salt content.  They put SO much salt in vegetarian and vegan premade foods.  ugh. : (  I was sad, I was hoping it as a fast and easy for days I can't even deal with life premade food option, until I read the nutrition sections.  Meh.

Yah I'm a whole food vegan. Some of the premade vegan foods may actually be worse than eating meat, at least in some regards. Meat substitutes making the top of that list.

I also love to eat! But you wouldn't know it by looking at me. Given what I eat, mostly whole grains, beans and vegetables dressed up in all kinds of delicious ways. I can eat to my hearts content without over eating. At least with respect to calories.

I had the advantage of having a early wake up call regarding my weight. At my heaviest I was 220 at 5' 11". Which is overweight. But I have a younger sister, and cousin who have put on a lot of pounds. Cousin drinks a lot of beer,  both eat a lot of fast food. So those were the first things I cut out. Since then I've progressed from one diet to the next. In many cases because they left me hungry.

I lost 50 lbs across many diets. Along with a lot of cardio exercise. I was happy with my weight but still had high blood pressure. I tried the vegan thing and my blood pressure came down. Along with it I lost the tummy bulge I always struggled with. Now I can eat as much as I like. Yay! So long as I'm eating the right things. And I've lost 15 pounds without any exercise and never feeling hungry. Kinda feels like cheating.

I know vegan isn't everyone's cup of tea. But as I worked my way through many diets I noticed that the better a diet seemed to preform, in regards to both health and weight loss, the less meat and dary people were eating on it. Which has pushed me to the extremes I suppose, but it works for me.

Yeah, I don't mind reducing our meat consumption, which we have, but I really didn't like the menu options for vegan.  But I'm ahppy it worked for you!

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