Day 4 Post Op- Still bloated!

Well my recovery has been going quite well. I haven't experienced the severe gas pain that some others have talked about, I have had zero shoulder gas pain.  I have been walking a lot and taking my Gas-X strips every 4 hours.  It seems to help. I also have been swigging a diet ginger ale here and there to help me burp which seems to relieve most of my gas pain.

I have been able to climb out of my drug induced coma long enough to update everyone and post some pictures as promised in my  last post.  The first day home after surgery I woke up in quite a bit of pain. I was concerned that the pain meds prescribed weren't strong enough.  My nurse practitioner told me to take Advil in between pain meds.  So I began taking them 2 hours after taking pain meds and it made a world of difference.  I tried to tell myself it was time to start getting myself off pain meds last night.  I slept through when my 4 hours would have been to take it, I woke up 2 hours past med time. And needless to say I was in excruciating pain.  So back on the pain meds I went.  I don't know why I have to try to be such a toughy.

Day 2 of Post-Op, I was exhausted and spent most of the time asleep.  I think I walked too much day 1 and didn't sleep enough.  So most of Day 2 and Day 3 were spent asleep or sipping on a shake or broth.  I will say that I had read that most people didn't even want to eat the first couple of days after surgery.  Well that didn't apply to this fat girl, I wasn't ravenous starving, but I wanted to eat.  I have discovered though that I can't eat a whole lot before I feel satisfied.  Like I am talking 1- cup of soup broth or half of a 12 ounce shake.  Its been hard to make sure I get all my water in because I have spent the vast majority of my time asleep.  Its funny, because I will be in the middle of typing a text and then the next thing I know I am waking up and the whole thing is gibberish.  I feel like I have narcolepsy.  I do have to shout out to my family for making some wonderful soup options.  They are giving me lots of variety in the food area so I am not getting bored with broth. 

Anyways, I came home from the hospital on Monday 6 lbs heavier than when I went into surgery.  I know that I have a ton of air inside of me, a lot of fluids floating around, and my organs are extremely bloated.  But it just messes with your mind.  I went to have this surgery to lose weight yet here I gained.  I figured that as time progressed and the air and swelling went down I would lose weight.  And I have, I am now down 4 lbs since when I got home from the hospital.  But as my family has pointed out, I haven't had anything to eat besides protein shakes and soup broth I should be losing weight faster.  Anyways, it's starting to get to me.  So this is why I will not be getting back on the scale until next Tuesday.  At that point I will be weighing only on Tuesdays  Chin up! I have finally had the surgery and am on the road to recovery. 

I know this ramble is more like a rant and I am sure not very well thought out, but these meds kinda inhibit better writing.  In fact it is about time to go crawl back into bed for my mid-morning nap.

Here are the pics:
1- Me right after surgery, extremely drugged up giving the thumbs up sign
2- My incisions the day of surgery, you can see how bloated my stomach is, I look pregnant
3- My liver picture, my surgeon just thought it was hilarious I kept asking for the picture
4- The flowers my wonderful sister in law, Carrie brought me
5- My incisions as of today, you can see the bruise coming in between them, but that my stomach is a lot less bloated.

Anyways, until tomorrow,

Amanda

First day post op

This will be short and sweet since I am really pretty out of it still.  But surgery went well.  I made it out of surgery about 2:30 p.m. woke up in recovery about 3:15, then went and did the swallow test.  I got back to my room about 5:30 and was in the car going home by 7:30.  Yesterday I was sore but nothing bad.  Got home and even had some chicken broth.

No pain, until 0400 this morning.  I had slept for 6 hours since meds and woke up in a considerable amount of pain.  The nurse practitioner told me to take advil in between pain meds.  I started that about 6 this morning.  That combo of meds is working currently.  I feel better, sore but nothing I can't stand right now.  I have had some discomfort with gas, not shoulder pain, but it does make my stomach hurt from sitting up in the same position (such as right now in this chair).  I have been taking my gas-x strips every 3 hours or so and see to be combating that.

Last night I had about 1.5 cups of broth, which was too much, I had some discomfort after.  This morning I made a protein shake to avoid being sick from the pain meds and only got a few ounces of it down.  And a little bit ago I had about 1 cup of broth.  I am glad I am feeling some resistance in what I am consuming.

Anyways, I want to wish a big good luck to all my LBT friends who are having surgery today, good luck!! I am falling asleep in this chair, so I will chat more later and upload some funny pics from yesterday.

Until later,

Amanda

I've made it to OZ...Surgery TOMORROW!

Friday I had one of the most stressful days in a long time and a mini melt down.  I had a lot of loose ends to tie up at work and it just seemed like every time I got one thing handled another thing popped up.  I thought there was no way I was going to be able to take a week off from work without the world ending.  But a good work friend talked me off the ledge and told me it would be fine.  I made a list of things to do and instructions to leave, the last of which I plan on implementing in the morning.  Payroll is due tomorrow I have a lot of it done but I will be going in tomorrow morning to complete the last of it.  I plan on being out of the office no later than 0900. We will see if that happens.

I managed to stick to my diet all weekend to a T! I even had only fish or chicken.  I was in Dallas where Taco Bueno is, my favorite place, I nearly had myself talked into having a bean burrito but I stuck to my guns and had a shake!!  I am officially down 16 lbs for surgery.  And if that isn't enough of the dietician then I don't know what else to tell her.  I can honestly say I have done everything I can possibly do to make sure my liver is tiny for surgery tomorrow.  So if he opens me up and its huge I don't know what else I could have done.  No regrets.  Zero.

So tomorrow is the big day... I don't have a lot to say, because I am really kinda nervous and I am really kinda worried I wont finish everything at work.  And I'll be late and then I will miss surgery.  LOL.  No, can't happen. I will be there on time and have the surgery and wake up with the lap band and start my new journey.  I have followed the yellow brick road, survived the wicked witch and her flying monkey's (taco bueno), and have finally reached OZ. I am ready to see the  man behind the curtain!

Wish me luck,

Until tomorrow,

Amanda

SOOOO Hungry!!

So today I had my pre-op appointment at the hospital.  All and all it went well, had a really nice nurse who I know will take really good care of me after surgery.  Had the usual blood taken and signed paperwork.  Also had to have a chest x-ray done.  Got the low-down from the nurse about where to go, what to expect, and what my well wishers are to do while I am in surgery.  I have to admit I was really pretty nervous sitting in the hospital, I guess just ready for this to happen.

After that I went to the surgeon's office to turn in my food logs and meet with the dietitian (who is very skinny).  I started my pre-op diet per their orders on 8/27, but I didn't get weighed by them until 8/28.  I had already lost 2 lbs by the time I got there on 8/28, but since my "official" weight was at their office I didn't get those 2 lbs credited to me.  Anyways today according to them I was just down 10 lbs (my count is 12 lbs).  The dietitian told me that neither the surgeon or the nurse practitioner would be very happy with only losing 10 lbs.  True results told me that I had to lose at least 10.  Yes I know, I am going to lose a few more before surgery and in the weight loss game, more lost the better, but I just felt defeated.  I felt like if they expected more than they should have told me from the get go.  But then again, I have been doing really pretty well on the diet.  Then she threatened me with my current biggest fear...my liver might not be small enough!! I nearly cried.  I am just about convinced this is a scare tactic, I am just going to have faith that my diligent diet will pay off and my liver will be tinny tiny come surgery. Kinda a non scale victory, normally after a meeting like I had today at the surgeon's office, I would have ran to the nearest McDonalds and although I wanted to really bad, I didn't. Woo hoo!!

I have mentioned these super yummy shakes, Pure Protein with 35g of protein, they taste amazing!! Well I asked her about them, they have milk protein concentrate instead of whey protein. She said that I was to have ZERO dairy until after surgery and that might have been why I saw such a sluggish response this weekend.  But previously I had consulted one of my trainer friends who said that there wasn't much difference with the proteins.  However, I had a feeling on Monday those shakes might have been hurting me, so I had switched back to whey.  I bought their Barriatric Advantage shakes today, which were not cheap, but they have like 27g of protein in them.  I got the banana flavor, (DYING for a banana) and it was really good. 

This morning I did not eat (eat = have shake) as I was in a hurry and didn't want the extra "weight," for the scale.  I didn't have my first shake until I got to work at about 1:30 p.m.  I know, I know, bad for my metabolism.  I never have the 2nd shake, just had grilled chicken and salad for dinner.  Now its all I can think about it wanting to eat anything and everything.  I am currently drinking a big glass of water and chewing gum.  Have to get my mind off of this. 

Anyways, I am extra motivated this week to be extra good on my diet. I will drop those 6 lbs and prove to that dietitian that I can do it and that I have a skinny liver.  Makes me wonder what HER liver looks like. LOL.  Tomorrow I fly to Dallas after work.  I am going to dinner with my BFF, must eat chicken or fish.  Then Sunday I am driving my mom and her 3 dogs down to Houston. They will be staying with me until Thursday.  I can't believe that my surgery is that close, seems like just yesterday I was on my 3rd appointment for my weight loss monitoring. 

I am a work-a-holic and haven't taken a whole week off of work in a long time.  So I must get to bed, because I will be up at work early tomorrow to cram in everything I have to get done before I leave.  I will be in the office Monday until 0900 but that is only to do payroll.  So must cram cram cram!!  I fully plan on finishing the edits on my first novel while I am "laid" up and working on my second and keeping my work phone turned off!!

Anyways, sorry tonight was about 90% rambles.  Just a jittery mess.

Until tomorrow,

Amanda

Pre-Op Appt @ Hospital Tomorrow!! More Liver Rants & 4 Days Left!!

So I have spent most of my day obsessed with my liver...or quite frankly its size.  It is driving me insane that I don't have a clue what size it is or most importantly if it has shrank enough for surgery!  Really, I think our bodies should have a peep hole so during times like these we could see inside.  I've mentioned before I have to shrink my liver for surgery.  My surgeon has said that if he gets in there and its too large he will not do the surgery.  At this point, aside from me dropping dead or aliens abducting me that could be the only thing standing in my way.  I even tried to get my Ob-gyn to ultra sound my liver.  He informed me that I would be fine and that really wasn't his area of expertise.  LOL!  Many people have told me that about half of the doctors out there do not require pre-op diets and some others have told me its just a tool to motivate people to start losing weight.  Either way, still would like to know what size it is!

Tonight I went out to dinner and I managed to look the food monster in the eye and be good. I ate my lean meat and broccoli and it was actually really tasty.  I am getting stronger and stronger in these types of situations which gives me hope that I am really making very good changes that will help me to continue to be successful with my weight loss.  Hooray for a non-scale victory!!

Tomorrow I am to be at the hospital at 0830 for my pre-op appointment, which I am assuming consists of them taking blood out of me and I am sure signing some kind of paperwork. I've never had surgery before so I am not all that clear on what that entails but I will find out.  I am so freaking nervous/excited that I don't know what to think/do.  It will be surreal to be in the hospital where in a few days I'll be in for my life changing surgery.  I just hope I can navigate where to go without getting lost or looking like an idiot.

Following the blood giving event (I DO NOT give blood well), I will drive to the surgeon's office and meet with the dietitian.  I will have to turn in more of my food log (sent some in last Friday) and they will weigh me for the last time before surgery.  Every time I went to True Results for my appointments I wore the same outfit, I am torn between wearing my tried and true good luck outfit or winging it.  I am usually pretty superstitious so we will see what I decide on in the am. I just hope that the scale numbers are on my side tomorrow.  I've lost 11 lbs total so far but I would like to lose another 6 lbs for a total loss of 17 lbs by surgery.  We shall see.

Anyways, I am going to sign off now and hopefully get some sleep.  Although I am sure I will end up staring at the ceiling most of the night.  I also hurt my back today fiddling with the window on my truck.  I hope that goes away soon too.  Sweet dreams y'all.

Until tomorrow,

Amanda

6 days left until S-Day!!

So after not having great success with the numbers on the scale going down all weekend, I woke up this morning to discover I had lost 2 lbs!! Its better than Christmas morning...well almost anyways.  Today I am 6 days out until surgery.  I am getting more and more excited as the days go on.  I go on Thursday for my pre-op appointment at the surgery and to do my final weigh in at the surgeon's office.  So woo hoo.  I will definitely be working out during lunch tomorrow.

I have been craving pizza something terrible lately.  I ate it a good bit before I started my diet but still having a hard time kicking that habit.  Today at work we had a safety meeting during lunch and they ordered pizza.  I have to admit that no one asked me if I wanted any, which they are famous for doing, but while they were eating their pizza and I was drinking my shake I felt left out.  However afterwards when I realized I had kept my mouth to myself I was proud.  I have to really get used to not eating all of the bad things when the whole group is eating bad.  You can ask most people, I am really not a follower, but when it comes to food I am very much a follower, it is usually pretty easy to get me to fall off the good choice bandwagon.  Attached is a picture of the pizza party and my shake there in the middle. Woo hoo me!!

The hardest part right now is controlling my bite sizes.  I am supposed to be taking a bite the size of the first joint on your pinkie finger and chewing excessively.  Also I am not supposed to be drinking liquids while I eat.  This is to keep from washing my food down my stomach quicker so I feel full longer.  Whenever I go out to eat, I've never been the person who gets 100 refills of their drink.  Usually I barely make it through one. But for some reason now that I am trying to monitor this its become extremely hard.  Tomorrow at dinner, I am not even going to sit down with a drink.  Maybe this will take away the temptation to drink.

I've pretty much decided on only making healthy choices and not eating carbs, but its the little things I am worried about perfecting before surgery.  Such as the small bite, excessive chewing, and no drinking while eating.  What if I can't master these things?  I think I mentioned the baby plates and kids silverware that I bought.  I have been eating smaller portions but starting tomorrow I will bust out the plates and silverware.  I have also attached a picture of the broiled tilapia and spinach I had tonight to show my portion sizes.  This is the smallest plate I have besides the baby plates.  This will force me to seriously monitor my portions and the silverware will make me take smaller bites.  I know this is an ongoing process, just have to keep working on it until it becomes second nature,  just like eating terrible food did in my "past" life.  That and I know the first time (or probably second and third time too) that I have issues with how big of bite I took or washing my food down, I will really feel the effects and focus on following the rules. 

So to summarize, do not be a food follower, be a leader and make good food choices, continue working on fine tuning lap band eating habits until they are second nature, and do not give into temptation.  I can do this, tomorrow is only 5 days until surgery!!

Until tomorrow,

Amanda

Battle of the Weekend Party...Party People All Around!!

So I haven't posted in a couple of days.  Here is the summary of my wacky adventures this weekend:

Thursday- went out with a couple of coworkers to steak night.  I managed to get by without completely blowing the diet.

Friday- came down with a sinus/ear infection and went to the clinic in Walgreens to get some antibiotics.  Had to get that cleared up before surgery which at that time was 10 days out (feeling much better now).  Also I was exhausted from the aforementioned steak night and also having to make a middle of the night run to the ship yard for work.  So I was in bed relatively early.  Small victory- I did manage to find these protein shakes that taste yummy called Pure Protein at the Vitamin Shoppe.  I had wanted to try the other flavors before making a financial investment by ordering a case of them.  By the way, the banana and vanilla rocks!!  Oh and stay away from the cookies and cream, it should be called yuck in a can.

Saturday- AKA Day 1 of Hell-  Up until this point I had managed to stick to my diet and was holding steady at 10 lbs lost. The day started out crappy with a wake up call from my boss at 730 a.m. to which resulted in having to call several members of my crew, waking them up and finally another trip to the fleet and then the ship yard.  Luckily I was home by 930 and back in bed for a nap.  My day gets worse.  I saunter across the street to see how all the out of town family guests are doing and what they are doing. Of course, being the good time having people they are, they were all drinking and eating really yummy things!! I was able to stave off temptation for a while.  But eventually gave in and tried a cracker with jalapeno jelly on it which led to a couple of chips with salsa.  At this point, I decided that I was going to go outside and swim 50 laps in the pool so at least if I was going to have a few things I would at least have worked out.  I swam the 50 laps and also treaded water for 5 minutes straight.  This afforded me (in my mind) a spoonful of Spanish rice with dinner.  I stayed away from the alcohol though, the whole not shrinking my liver enough for surgery thing really worries me.  If I make it all the way to the operating table and the surgeon opens me up but doesn't do surgery, I will be intolerable.  Saturday night was our fantasy football draft and I have to say probably the most annoying thing ever.  Everyone was drunk, except of course me and very obnoxious.  I guess when you are on the outside looking in, it is not as fun.  On the upside, my new found hobby of not drinking has revealed another talent, designated driver!

Sunday (today) AKA Day 2 of Hell- I woke up and weighed, and thanks to some miracle I was still at the -10 lbs I had been at all weekend.  Part of me was really excited that I hadn't gained any weight but I was also really sad that the scale hadn't moved down either.  I decided that the little cheats I had given into the day before were really stupid and that I needed to pull it together, turn the cheek to temptation and be motivated to see the numbers on the scale drop.  We all went to Galveston to enjoy the "beach."  I can say that I stuck to my diet very strictly.  No cheats.  I had my shakes and even on the way back from the beach, stopped to pick up my 2nd shake at a gas station, I had to settle for Muscle Milk, which I am not normally a fan of, but it did the trick of tiding me over.  I also swam some in the pool and treaded more water.  At one point I did have a melt down and attacked Nick over sampling some of the cucumber I was very deliciously enjoying while reading a book (book = distraction from copious amounts of drinking).  It just sent me over the edge, that I had my small bowl of cucumber and that he, who could eat anything he wanted was "stealing," my allotment of cucumber.  In my head it was no different than me walking up to his plate and stealing his potatoes.  It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.  I had been surrounded by temptation all weekend and was doing my best to ignore my growling stomach, the fun being had by all, and all of the bad food items around.  It was like an alcoholic working in a bar or a crack head living at a crack house.  I snapped and went off on Nick, telling him to pretty much F-off and go eat his own much more tasty food and to leave the starving girl's cucumbers alone.  This resulted in me having to go home, have a melt down and refocus.  I eventually rejoined the party, apologized to Nick and stuck it out on the diet. 

Tomorrow will put me exactly 7 days out from surgery.  I am really really excited but nervous, the light is getting brighter at the end of the tunnel.  I feel like I am carrying around a very fragile expensive vase that I am trying to transport across country ensuring that it arrives in 1 piece.  I don't want anything crazy to happen before the surgery to make it not happen, I just want to make it across that finish line.  I am resigned to sticking to the diet, working out more this week, being very strict with my portion sizes and hopefully watching the scale move downwards.  My goals is to be a total of 17 lbs down by surgery.  So we shall see if I end up at my goal.  My advice to any of you going through a similar situation, when surrounded by temptation, no matter how bad you want to give in and have something bad just remember, you are doing this for a reason and that reason and it's direct result is greater than a momentary lapse in judgement.  Also the guilt the next morning is not worth it.  Keep your eye on the prize.

Until tomorrow,

Amanda