I've been slacking on blogging. . .

Oct 07, 2012

Okay, so for an update. . . . . .

I was quite surprised at my 4 mth follow up appointment to find out that I have a larger than normal RNY pouch  what?!?!?!  

This came up because I was telling my doc how much my appetite and hunger pangs have increased which has been really worrying me.  He told me that that was normal as I have a bigger than normal RNY pouch due to the extensive scarring and damage to my stomach tissue caused by the LapBand I had for 6 years.  He also remembers having a very hard time visualizing the bottom of my esophagus and seeing that that is full of scar tissue as well from the reflux caused by the LapBand.  

He said that my stomach is significally smaller than my original stomach, but that my pouch is wider and longer than a normal RNY patient because he had to navigate around the scar tissue and had to get to an area that the staple gun would penetrate so that I didnt have any leaks which makes sense, but just was not what I was expecting to hear.  

Unfortunately, the pouch size is not noted on my OR report so I have no idea how big it is and at this point, he can't remember how big he ended up making it.   

I'm still hungry after a "normal" RNY portion, but I don't want to eat too much and run into problems with that.  I also don't want to start "grazing" between meals.  As it is, I'm supposed to be eating 6 small meals a day to keep my blood sugars at a good level.  Protein shakes no longer fill me up, they just go right on through, so does cottage cheese, which was my biggest "go to" food.  Ugghhhhh......not fun!  I guess this is where reality comes crashing in lol.  

For the last few weeks I have been bouncing between 183 - 187 and just can't seem to get below 183.  I KNOW I am not done losing and that some of this "stall" for lack of a better word is MY fault because I have not been exercising and have only been getting in about 50-60 grams of protein a day if I'm lucky. This is because I'm working both jobs every day right now, covering for a lady whose husband is home on Hospice.  So, I am working 12-14 hour days and until she comes back to work, exercise really isn't realistic. I'm dead tired at the end of the day and can barely drag my butt out of bed in the mornings, and my crazy schedule is why I'm not exercising now and not eating the way I should be.  

Oh yeah, I asked him about my ideal weight and he said I could go as low as 131, but he would like to see me at 145-150 lbs.  He said he would be happy with that and he thinks I will be too.  

So, I'm going to up my dense protein, try to up my fluids and I'm supposed to be doing at least 2 protein shakes a day.  I may try and add in a third one to see if I can get my protein intake up to 100 grams.  It will be nice to finally get below 183 lbs!  I'm already lower than I ever got with  the LapBand so I have met another personal goal.

Taking things one day, one meal at a time .

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