Sub-Sti-Tute

"My coke for gin"... Thanks Roger.

Being that I've up my sugar/carbohydrate intake, we thought it would be a good idea to mix in some sugar-free items to not overdue it.  I'm not sure if you've ever tried the sugar free alternatives, but they are amazingly good.  As I started with just one cookie, I couldn't stop... And didn't realize until I had consumed more than a few servings.  It was at this point my wife mentioned that having too many could actually cause diarrhea.

Go figure, right there on the back of the package:  "Excess consumption may have a laxative effect."  Uh oh, that's no good.  The "may" part of that sentence was true for about 15 minutes, at which point it quickly turned into "will".  The only upside was that by the time I could finally get to sleep (I wasn't risking sleeping before empty) was that once I laid down, I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night.

The edema is continuing to wear off (last night helped I'm sure) and I've been dropping weight like a sweatsuit.  Since New Year's, I've shed from ~150 to ~137.  If you thought I looked swollen before, I look much better.  If you thought I looked good before, I look much skinnier.  I'm not sure where this freefall is going to stop, but I know I'm less than I was when I went in and is gonna take a few more months to get back to pre-step 2 weight.

I've been experiencing tailbone pain since early in the week, mostly buried in the coccyx.  It feels like getting drop kicked by Paul Bunyan.  A heating pad seems to calm it down, but walking/sitting/lying seem to aggravate it.  We're keeping an eye on it and make sure there is no abscess building up behind it.  Bleeding has been limited to maybe once per day since Monday night, which is good:  Having blood exist outside your body or leaking from any orifice is discomforting and most likely unhealthy.

Love only having the steroid once a day:  Seems I've traded one pain for another!