Thursday, June 30, 2011

Is that a waist I see??!!

It's been a great week and a half since my last post!  I somehow managed to survive that remaining days on my liquid only diet.  Getting a nasty cold with a terrible sore throat definitely helped keep away any thoughts of actually wanting to eat anything.
 
I had an appointment with with the dietician at the bariatric office this past monday, 6/27/11, and was finally allowed to start eating mushy foods!  It was seriously one of the best days of my entire life!  I found a recipe for a delish sounding shrimp salad so I made that Sunday along with a cucumber (ground up to applesauce consistency).  The salad wound up not being as good as I had hoped so for the rest of this week I have been eating a Buffalo Chicken Salad.  For right now I am still drinking two protein shakes a day as meals and the one mushy meal, which is 3 oz of a protein & 3 oz mushy vegetable.  I go back for my next appointment 7/8 to see the dietician and can move onto eating regular foods!

 This weekend is the 4th of July and Peter's parents are having a big BBQ on Sunday.  My parent's will be coming up for the day and actually our families will be meeting for the first time!! Pretty exciting :-)  I was a little concerned about how I would be at the BBQ with eating but if I made it through almost a whole month of only drinking protein shakes I can get through ANYTHING.  I plan on bringing my shakes & my 3 oz protein & 3 oz veg, maybe have a little fruit as a snack. 

To date I have lost 18 lbs in 23 days post-op and can actually see my waist beginning to show in pic!! when I measured last week I had also lost about 10 inches!! 


Hope everyone has a Happy & Safe 4th of July!!!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Two weeks after surgery

So I've made it this far!! I am now 14 days post-op and finally am feeling pretty much 100%.  I am now able to sleep on my stomach again, thank goodness.  At 14 days post-op I have lost a total of 15.5 lbs !!! I know once I start eating again things will slow down but for now I will love every second that it is coming off quickly :-)



Going into this I knew that there would be 5 days of clear liquids followed by 2 weeks of protein shakes.  I thought it would be no big deal, I was using two shakes a dayas meal replacements prior to surgery anyway.  Let me just say this has got to be the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.  I am not physically hungry but what is called "head hunger" is out of control at times.  I want to eat because that is what I am used to or because that is what everyone else in the room is doing.  Peter brought home a left-over calzone the other night and the next day I told him I needed to get out of the house because I could hear it calling my name from the kitchen!  I've gone so far as going over to the fridge and opening a container of sauce to smell it.  While he was eating that left-over calzone I asked for a spoonful of sauce.  You know its bad when you are willing to resort to drinking sauce just to give in to the head hunger.

Right now I have a wicked sore throat so luckily even the idea of eating something is not appealing or I'm sure this battle with head hunger would continue.  I am looking forward to my appt with the dietician next monday and hoping they allow me to continue on to the mushy foods phase of this diet.  Never have I looked forward to foods like cottage cheese & cannned tuna so much in my life :-)

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog!!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Unexpected issues

When I decided to have Lapband surgery I was really nervous basically just about the surgery itself. I've been fortunate enough to never have anything medically wrong nor ever need any surgery.  I was surprised when everything surgery-wise was not as bad as I expected.  I never thought far enough ahead as to what exactly only drinking clear liquids for 5 days then protein shakes only could actually do to your body. 

Twice since surgery I've had two small episodes of what my Dr's office believes is Hypoglycemia.  During both episodes I got very hot & sweaty following a shower and one time I nearly passed out as well.  The nurse practicioner was not overly concerned since it was not consent but she does want me to follow up tomorrow morning with some bloodwork.  I was not diabetic pre-surgery so its strange if I'm starting to have some issues post-surgery.

Today at work was the strangest problem yet.  I was talking with a patient at my desk and all of a sudden I felt like a camera flash had gone off in my face.  I couldn't see what I was trying to focus on on the computer.  I then tried to finish writing up my results and realized that I could not see the spot on my paper where my pen was.  I could see the paper just not the exact spot I was trying to focus on.  Walked down the hall where I noticed I now had a strange blurry/wiggly line curving through the left side of my visual field.  Luckily I work in a Dr's office.  I was told to sit and drink some diluted apple juice because more then likely this was also due to low blood sugar.  After a while the strange line went away and then I just had blurry edges around my whole visual field.  This whole episode lasted about 40 minutes, pretty scary since I had no idea what was going on!!  I had my sugar tested (after the apple juice) and it was normal. My Dr's office wanted me to get an eye exam so I went downstairs to an eye Dr who squeezed me into the schedule.   Luckily he did not find anything wrong and attributes the symptoms more likely due to an ocular migraine.  I have a long history of migraines but none like this. 

 I go in tomorrow first thing to my Dr's to get bloodwork done to make sure everything is going ok and all my levels are good.  I'm guessing my body is not going to go down with out a fight!!  Hoping to get to the bottom of whatever is going on soon :-)

Monday, June 13, 2011

First post-op visit 6/13/11

I survived my 5 days of drinking only clear liquids!! I have to say the pain from this whole procedure was actually better than I expected.  Sure I was sore in my abdominal area for the first 2-3 days but by Sunday I was able to get up and down from a seated position without much trouble.  Laying down and sleeping is still not comfortable since I am a side/stomach sleeper.  I make it halfway through the night in my bed then have to move to the couch where I am a little more restricted in my movements. 

Had my first post-op visit today with my surgeon Dr. Kwon.  Things seem to be moving along nicely he said.  Since surgery I am down 11.5 lbs and have dropped 3.1 points off my BMI!!! I've also been able to graduate to drinking protein shakes.  I have to basically sip the shake at 1 oz every 5 minutes.  Never in my life has it taken me so long to drink something.  By taking small sips I am not allowing the liquid to build up at my band, which may cause stretching of the esophagus over time.

I can already notice a (slight) difference in my body just from these 11.5 lbs!! I look forward to getting some energy back by drinking these protein shakes :-) Love that I finally made this decision to get on track to a more healthy life :-)

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Pre-op start to finish :-)

I began this journey back in February 2011 by attending a free seminar at the local bariatric physicians office.  They squeezed me in the next day (my birthday) for an appointment to start the whole process.  I figured what better way to spend my birthday then investing in my future birthdays.  My insurance required a 3 month waiting period and the Dr's office required several internal appointments plus some outside appointments.

My final visit was scheduled for 5/20/11 at the bariatrics office.  I made sure prior to this appointment that everything they needed was in so nothing would hold up the decision to be approved for surgery.  I received a call from the office less that 24 hours later stating insurance had approved the surgery and I was all set for June 8, 2011!!

My surgery was yesterday.  Went into the hospital at 7:45 AM, surgery was around 9 AM, out of recovery and in my room by 11 AM, and home by 4:15 PM.  When I woke up from surgery there was a little pain which they gave me something for and when I got up to my room I started feeling very nausea which they gave me something else for that.  Did a lot of napping at the hospital and even more when I got home.  The napping was great and definitely needed until it turned into the middle of the night and I was still wide awake!!

Slept on the couch last night so I could be propped up a little better and was stuck in the position of laying on my back.  I tried laying on my side but it was too uncomfortable and stomach sleeping was out of the question.  Woke up with only slight discomfort in my abdominal area that the liquid Tylenol is taking care of. 

Yesterday afternoon and for the next two days I'm only drinking 1 oz of Crytal Lite flavored water every 20 mins, by Saturday into Monday I can graduate to a 3 oz Dixie cup every 30 mins.  I go back in to see my surgeon on Monday afternoon where he will check my incisions and show me how I now supposed to drink the protein shakes. 

So far the side effects of the surgery are much better than I expected! Very happy with my decision to go for the Lapband to help assist in my weight loss journey.  I plan on keeping you all updated on my progress.

Thank you all for your words of encouragement!!