Post Op Check In

I had my post op check in with the doctor yesterday.  He said the pain I'm feeling between my incisions is normal and has something to do with scar tissue healing.  He said it'll go away with time.  He also said my incisions healed wonderfully, are all sealed up and I've been cleared to immerse myself in water.  Yay!

Here is where the doc lost me.  He wants me only eating once a day!  Seriously??  I just don't see that happening.  I had eaten 4 times the day before I saw him.  So we ran through what times I ate...

• Brunch at 11 a.m.
• Snack at 2 p.m.
• Dinner at 7 p.m.
• Snack before bed (around 10 p.m.)

I admitted the snack before bed could go because that's all in my head and is usually something kinda sweet.  He told me to get rid of the afternoon snack and aim for dinner at 5 or 6.  I'll aim for twice a day.  WIth the kids and Hubby, our dinner time varies.  Two things I took away from my consultation with him:

1. He never asked me how much I ate.  Wouldn't that directly correlate with how often I eat?  I really can't eat more than a few tablespoons of anything at any given time.  And my evening "snack" was 4 mini marshmallows.  I just thought it was interesting that he never asked the volume, just how often.
2. He initially was adamant about once a day, but as we talked through my lifestyle, we compromised at twice a day.  I liked that he actually listened.  

One thing to know about my doc is that his bedside manner isn't for everybody.  He's from the Ukraine which I think explains a lot of it.  He's just very no nonsense.  At my very first appointment with him, I started crying as I talked about my history with the band, how successful I was and how I was gaining at an exponential rate.  He said, "No crying.  I can't deal with women who cry. I have no idea what to say to that."  He went on to tell me how he was going to fix everything and not to worry and then sent me off for an esophogram because he thought the band may have eroded.  He was dead on in his diagnosis and sure enough, he got me a revision and hopefully we'll be back to losing quickly.  Some people couldn't handle that style but I appreciated his honesty and it's not that he doesn't care, he just doesn't do the sweet and snuggly thing.  

So that was my post op check up.  I go back in 3 months where they'll check all my labs and make sure I'm not deficient in anything.  I hope my vitamins come in soon because I did tell a little fib to him that I was already taking it.  Oh well.  

Weekend plans include organizing my pantry, laundry room and under the kitchen sink!  I'm also celebrating my 12th wedding anniversary with Hubby and do back to school shopping with the girls.  Exciting stuff!  What are your plans?

New Blog Name

There have been some changes around here...

I've been called pessimistic and cynical.  I always considered myself a realist.  But the truth is, all of us here in this weight loss journey are optimists.  It's always THIS diet that's going to work or THIS workout routine that'll stick.  THIS time will be better.  THIS time I'm getting it done.  You can't get more optimistic than having so much faith and excitement for the future every single time you start a diet.

Eternal Optimist.  That's my new thing.  A couple years back I set a New Year's resolution to be "content."  Find things to be happy about in my life and it really worked.  I have TONS to be grateful for and TONS to be happy about in my life.  There's not reason to believe that the future will be anything but good.  Let's count the way to feel optimistic.

Beautiful Kids!

Awesome Family!

My Wonderful Hubby!

Fun Coworkers

Fun Times!

With all these wonderful things, who couldn't have hope for the future???

Tenderness

It's really odd.  I was pretty much pain free unless I twisted or bent over.  Yesterday, I started feeling really tender between my 2 incisions, almost like a bad bruise.  It continues this morning.  I don't feel like I overdid anything as I haven't really been doing much at all since I got home from my trip last week.  The incisions themselves look really good and pretty much healed.  I have my post op appointment with the doc tomorrow morning so I'll bring it up to him and see if he has any concerns.

My eating has been on target so far this week not only with portions but quality of food.  I ordered my vitamins yesterday so they should be here tomorrow (LOVE Amazon Prime!).  I'm hoping that'll help with the energy levels.  I meant to have them ready to go but the surgery was a bit rushed after the insurance approval so this is really the first opportunity I had to order them.  I've always been bad about vitamins.  Prenatals were only remembered sporadically (don't worry - kids are healthy and happy - no harm done), I bought them for the lapband and never used them, and I've had random starts as part of a "healthy diet" to take a daily multi and was just awful about remembering them.  It's amazing I never had this problem with birth control.  This time, I'm making a concerted effort to take them as I know I'm not getting in enough food to get all the nutrients I need.

It occurred to me that I haven't posted pics of my girls or the dogs or summer happenings.  I'll do that later this week to add at least a little color to the blog.  For now, a Hump Day Happy Thought.

Day 19 - Weigh In

PreOp Diet Weigh In: 226
Surgery Day Weigh In: 218.5
Day 19 Weigh In: 211.5

I've lost 7 lbs since surgery.  I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. Hands down I like seeing the scale moving downwards, but for some reason I feel disappointed, like I should have seen more given how few calories I was taking in.  I knew I would see a stall once I shifted to actual food and off liquids and I know 7 lbs in 19 days is nothing to sneeze at.  I don't know.  It's confusing.

I am now on full blown food and I admit I've treated myself a bit while not eating a whole lot of anything.  I did have one evening of particularly bad reflux but the prescription med took care of it pretty quickly.  Otherwise, everything is staying down so I'm really happy about that.

This week is my first week of really planning my meals and my food.  I'm getting back to what I used to do when stuff worked.  I've got chicken and hummus for lunches and lots of greens, berries, and banana protein powder for smoothies.  I'm going to try to stick to just 2 cups of coffee (without sugar) and 2 actual meals a day.  We'll see how that goes.  It's a whole new world as I try to figure out what will work.  I gave up the sugar in the coffee during the preop diet but I still use a little cream and I'm not giving that up.

Recovery-wise, I would rate myself at 90-95%.  I still have pain bending over and twisting but that's about it.  The incisions have healed very nicely.  I have a post op appointment on Thursday so we'll see what doc has to say about my progress.  Once I am pain free, I plan on getting back to the gym.

Blog name ideas are still welcome.  Special thanks for "Unstoppable Me."  I'm thinking about it.  Definitely time to start anew.  Thanks again everyone for the warm comments and thoughts!

1 Week Post Op

So it's actually been about 10 days but what a 10 days it has been so I'll run through surgery day real quick in case anyone is interested in those experiences.

Check in at 9:30 a.m. and I get my fancy grippy socks and gown.  I'm taken back to the OR around 11 and the procedure took a little over an hour.  The doc "reused" one of my incision sites from the lapband and I have one other small incision then several tiny holes that won't scar at all.  One difference between when I got the band and this was coming out of anesthesia.  This time, I was SO tired.  I couldn't quite keep my eyes open and just wanted to snooze.  They take me to my room for my overnight stay which was private so that was nice.  Hubby was already there waiting.  They had me hooked up to a pain pump for comfort and overall it worked fairly well.  Around 3 pm, the nurse came around to get me up and into a recliner.  That hurt quite a bit.  I sat for a couple hours, again snoozing off and on and then back to bed for me.  Around midnight, I went for my first walk.  Of course, there was no ice chips, water or anything until morning.  They took me in for the leak test and I passed with flying colors.  At that pint, I ordered up some broth and jello and had a big ol' party in my bed.  LOL.  I was discharged around 1:30 pm. 

Recovery has been OK.  They gave me liquid Loratab for the pain and that worked OK but I was somewhat surprised that they only gave me enough for 5 days and then I had to settle for Tylenol which seriously doesn't work that well.  They also gave me stuff for nausea and acid reflux but I haven't really had to use either of them.  I am not hungry at all.  Here is where I become a bad patient.  My mom had taken my kids back to AZ for a couple weeks while I had this done and I had to go get them to bring them back.  So I took a flight on day 6 to AZ.  That was probably a bad idea but I figure I have my old bariatric surgeon in AZ and I know he'd help if something came up so the comforted me a bit.  I can tell you that I definitely overdid it on Day 6.  Too much activity and walking around.  By that evening, I was starting to feel nauseous and uncomfortable but by the next morning, I felt a lot better.  I opted for a hotel room instead of staying with my parents and I'm so glad that I did.  I know I'm getting more rest this way and the girls could definitely use a break from Grandma and Grandpa's house.

It is now Day 10 and I feel pretty good. I didn't have to take Tylenol yet today so that's a good thing.  I have stuck to my postop diet even while travelling.  I moved on to full liquids on Day 4 and tomorrow I get to move onto pureed.  I'm looking forward to apple sauce!  Honestly I'm not hungry.  I have to force myself to get half a protein shake down or yogurt.  I'm probably only getting about 400 calories a day but making sure I get all my water, especially in this Arizona heat.  While I am not hungry, I do want to EAT.  I am sick of drinking my food.  I was to actually chew something.  I'm going through a lot of gum to try to get past that. 

I did have a WTF moment as I got ready for my trip. I was so SWOLLEN.  I've been battling the growing sizes in my closet for awhile now so I have a pretty limited wardrobe anyway but I wasn't prepared for this.  Clothes that fit just a day before surgery were just too tight in the belly.  I realized I had nothing to wear! So I head to go out shopping 5 days after surgery and certain fabrics didn't feel good on the incisions and what not.  So I'm basically living in sweats and oversized tshirts.  I feel fat and sloppy.  It's humiliating enough that I've gained all this weight back since all these people last saw me but I can't even show up in clothes make me feel sexy and confident, or at least as sexy and confident as I get these days. 

I haven't weighed myself.  I didn't want to weigh in the first week as I know I was retaining a lot of the water from the all the IV bags I went through.  Doc likes his patients REALLY hydrated.  My parents don't own a scale so there ya go.  I'm hoping for a very pleasant surprise when I get home. I am feeling a little fatigued but I know that's from the low calories and not having my vitamins ready to go. 

Overall though, I'm feeling pretty good...getting my strength back and starting to feel like myself again.  I really hope not to be disappointed when I finally weigh myself.

One last thought.  Now that I am no longer banded, I need a new blog name.  Any suggestions?

Surgery Tomorrow

Approved!

My insurance approved the surgery Monday morning, I had my preadmission testing done today and I check in tomorrow morning at 9:30.  The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity and shopping.  Hubby is taking the rest of the week off to take care of me so if I forgot anything, he'll be able to run out.  After doing the dumb preop diet for the last couple weeks (UGH), I'm down about 4 lbs and was convinced it was all for nought but the awesome nurse at the doc's office had reserved my spot.  I'm excited and nervous!  I've gone through this surgery stuff before with the band and the hysterectomy so it's not surgery so much as the recovery and ultimately, the weight loss.  Part of me still thinks this is all hopeless, but the other part of me is full of hope and that's the part I'm listening to.

See you on the other side, my friends.