Necessity is the mother of invention

A nurse in the hospital showed me this one. I have a lot of big elaborate bandages on my abdomen at the moment, and the surgeons want me to keep them on until I see them on the 14th, but also not get them wet when I shower. So, I wrap myself in Glad Press and Seal Wrap--it has to be the Glad, because the generic versions are too tentative to really press and seal--and voila, dry bandages. The abdomen is causing me most of my discomfort. I am even feeling a bit nauseated for the first time tonight; my scopolamine patch lost its mojo. I tried to drink one of those vanilla meal replacement powders with a half-teaspoon of coconut extract and it still tasted yukky. Vanilla just doesn't seem to be agreeing with me--too chalky. I am liking Muscle Milk Light's peanut butter chocolate powder, and the Pure Protein shakes, which come in banana, strawberry and cookies and cream if you look hard enough. I think GNC online and I are going to become very good friends.

GNC

Today I made my first visit to GNC. They have a lot of nutritional supplements that I'm going to need. It was a little weird in there--they have supplements for just about everything--but the salesperson was extremely helpful and quite knowledgeable about bariatric surgery. I needed liquid calcium magnesium citrate, which they had, and bought a bunch of the Isopure drinks and powders to mix the drinks. They had pre-made ones in bottles as well as huge jars of the powder, and in a lot more flavors than I've heard of whey protein isolates coming in. The powder came in chocolate mint, cookies and cream, bananas and cream, peach mango, pineapple something or other, and probably a couple more I'm forgetting. The pre-made also had a grape and a blue raspberry. None of this stuff is cheap, but Mr. Salted, bless him, reminded me that this is really a trip to the grocery store for me. I tried one of the pre-made ones tonight, and it's okay. (I can choke it down easier than yet another infernal blankety-blanking hard-boiled egg.) $4.96 a bottle, but it's also a meal replacement (and if you buy by the case, there's a price break). I forget what the big jars of powder cost; I want to say between $40 and $50 for about three pounds. I became a member and got the little card. I will probably order online if I can to avoid schlepping the stuff through the mall. (I despise the mall on principle, and am paranoid about my ankle giving out as well.) We also found a Magic Bullet knockoff at JCPenney for $20, marked down from $60. Whee!

The Isopure drink I just drank had 0 carbs, 0 sugar, 40g protein, 55g calcium and 45g potassium. Not bad.