amberkokette

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I have been doing really well the last week since I started pureed food. I was doing a lot of the same foods just to not have to think to much about what I could and couldn't eat. I was doing vanilla low fat yogurt with cinnamon and truvia with applesauce for breakfast, cottage cheese with banana pumpkin baby food for lunch and then dinner was pureed turkey sloopy joes and green beans with a little butter and salt otherwise they had no flavor.. It went just fine for me and tomorrow I get to go back to normal food. I have bought some protein bars to have in my purse and at home if I need to be on the run so I am making a good choice. I am just trying a few and if I don't like them I know of some that I do but that I have to order from www.netrition.com. They have tons of bariatric surgery friendly things.. 

I also tried Isopure flavored bottled protein and Alpine punch flavor was the best out of the 3 I tried.. I also tried like a Apple Melon and Grape. The apple melon was tart and the grape was grapy but they all have that "protein" after taste. Taste good at first then has a bit of an aftertaste and leaves some kind of film in your mouth.. weird but ok overall. They are spendy but I would definetly try them before you buy a whole bunch of them.  I also bought the premium ready made protein shakes from costco. You get 18 for like $25 dollars which is really cheap. They don't taste to bad for a protein shake and I would think if it was really cold it would be even better!! 

I am just trying to find everyway that I can to make sure I am getting in all the protein that I need. The goal is 60g of protein for women and 80g of protein for men per day with my surgeon. I see my bariatric nurse Monday and am super excited to find out what she has to say!!

Other news.. I am still tired a lot of the time so my energy is not returned totally, My scabs on my inicision are still not healed all the way. I seem to get fluid underneath the scabs and then it makes me want the scab off to clean it and let a new scab grow. I have started putting water proof bandages on before showers so the scabs don't get moist everyday and that seems to be going well. 3 are almost completly healed, 2 are doing really good and 1 is still big.. that is the one that has hurt the most in this whole process. Protein is key to healing so that is another reason I am doing my best to get my protein.. 

Enough for now!! Talk to you soon. 

So if you want to follow my journey and hear from me you can check me out on you tube now.. my screen name is the same as here amberkokette!!! 

http://youtu.be/QfHynWSLgd8

I finally at 3 weeks out get to start my pureed diet.. I am mostly excited about cottage cheese and yogurt, two things that are staple foods for me. My weigh in this morning was 361.4. Total of 72.1 from my highest. I am so glad my stall is over and I am losing again. I am really tired today but it is raining and super gloomy. I am still waiting on my two larger incisions to heal up so I am babying them at this point. The other 4 are doing pretty well. Even though my surgeon said it was ok to go in the pool its probably not the best as my scabs came off and they looked horrible so I am keeping the two big ones covered with gauze to absorb the liquidy discharge at this point until they scab over good again. Other than that I just am having a little bit of trouble bending over well yet. Again I see the bariatric nurse on July 30th and would like to be at 30 pounds loss since surgery at that point. I feel that is a reachable goal!!! Have a great day everyone. 

Amber 

OK I am super excited.. this was my first little goal.. I started my journey at 433.5 pre-op. I was 383.5 before surgery and this morning I weighed in at 363.2... Yippee.. Now onto the big 100 pound goal.. I am almost 3 weeks post op tomorrow and have lost 20 pounds since surgery.. I am overjoyed and glad the scale started moving again.  

Well I finally started losing weight again after about 10 days with no loss. I was stuck between 17 and 18.. I finally hit 19 today.. I had my period for what seemed like forever.. It was about 12 days after surgery so I am guessing that was stalling my weight loss. I will finally start pureed foods Thursday and I am ready for it. I initially had a really hard time like the first 8-9 days.. after I started taking my lexapro again (my anxiety/depression meds) I started doing a lot better. I felt like I was losing my mind and my surgeon feels it was a lot to do with my stopping those meds because the pharmacist said I should crush them and they tasted horrible so I just didn't take them.. I don't suggest you stop taking them if you are on them before surgery. I think it mentally made my first week 5 times harder than it needed to be. 

I honestly don't get hungry but do want to eat as it is a natural part of life that we have done since we were born you know. I will occasionally suck on some crackers until they are mushy and watery. The chewing is what I miss but I promise it really does get better. Like I said my pureed stage starts in a few days.. I am ready for it but just want to make sure I am watching my initial portions as to not make myself sick by eating to much. I will be careful and measure out my food so I am aware of what I can do. 

I went to play bingo with my girlfriend for my birthday tonight and had a couple of sips of pop.. I didn't even want to drink it because it just was to fizzy. Not my thing. Sometimes I do wish I could drink more water at one time but it has gotten way better. 

I can honeslty say that even without eating on my birthday it was still an awesome day. I am bless to be alive and I won't forget that. Next year I hope to do something more....action filled.. not sure what but something. 

I will say this again and again just so people know whether because I stopped taking my pills or not I don't know but the first 8-10 days really sucked but it does get better. I don't recommend attending parties in the first 8-10 days but I promise it does get better. I didn't know if I would feel that way after how down I was in the beginning. It is hard so make sure you have people around who are going to support you. I have a great mom and two awesome daughters. My mom and my oldest daughter who is 10 helped so much with her 4 year old sister, lifting and helping me do various things. No lifting over 20 pounds for 4-6 weeks and there is good reason for that because it will hurt all those muscles that are trying to heal. 

Also I have pulling in my belly still but nothing that I can't deal with..just guessing that must be normal in the healing process. I know one thing I am so ready for another week to be over so I may be able to start doing my Zumba. I see my bariatric nurse July 30th and will find out at that point if I can start dancing.. 

Thats all I have for now. I did buy a web cam so I will start doing my you tube postings so I can tape my journey for others to experience. It helped me soooo much so I want to do the same for others. 

Take care and talk to ya'll again soon. 
Amber

Things I have learned so far on this journey and about this website...

1st- Just because you make a mistake on this journey doesn't mean you have failed. You get to get back up and keep moving forward. It doesn't mean you have throw everything away that you have worked for.

2nd- There are people on this site who will be very supportive and show you the ways to be successful in the journey and there are people that will pick you apart at the first site of a mistake. I have learned that the people who are going to help me in the journey are the ones that I want to comment and stand up for me. Thanks to those great people and for the others please solve your own personal issues before you try to judge me or others on what they are doing. 

3rd-This journey is not something I was mentally prepared for and head hunger really sucks. It is probably the hardest thing I have ever gone through. Food is something I have had every day of my life to turn to and all of a sudden it is gone and I am supposed to be ok with that.. HELL NO.. Im not and if you say that your journey has gone on without any food hunger than you are an amazing person but I am not. I am struggling. I am not perfect, matter a fact I am far from perfect and I will make mistakes. 

4th- I am happy with who I am but wanna be a healthier me. I don't need to be hurtful and pick people apart. I wanna be here to help people know that we can get through it all when we have great people around us. This is not a journey to take on your own. Its better to do it with people who care and will support you no matter what.  

Well today is 6 days out and thought I should write out how I am feeling so when I am hopefully feeling better in a few days that I can reflect where I have come from. Yesterday (day 5) I was really nausea all day long. I tried all of my meds the dr. gave to me but nothing seemed to help. I am not sure if it was due to the gas still in my belly or what. Anyways I had very little pain but I did drive my kids to daycare and I am thinking it was to early for me to driving because when I woke up this morning my two lower incisions really were sore. My surgeon feels that I have a deep muscle bruise in my lower right side incision and every movement I make it pulls and hurts. It is bearable but irritating. Oh I am so trying to deal with this and know that the future is brighter on the other side and this is going to get better but it really sucks in the present... Today I was a so tired when I got up I decided to just get some more rest. I guess we had a really bad storm last night which on a normal night I would have woke up to, but slept right through it last night. I know my body is healing and all that fun stuff I am just tired. Today I was shaky, a little less nausea and exhausted. Hopefully increasing my protein today will help me start my day off better tomorrow. I just really just wanna eat something. This is really the worst part for me so far because food has always been so comforting to me and now I can't touch it. 

Feel like I am whining but I don't really care today. I am tolerating liquids, I got down my protein shake today which was 34 grams of protein and my nesquick which was another 8 grams with skim milk. So 42 oz so far today. I am not so shaky now but am still exhausted. Here is hoping that this liquid diet goes by quickly and I can eat cottage cheese and yogurt again soon!!!

Post Op appt is on Friday July 6th @ 2:15 so I will let everyone know what the surgeon says at that time and tell you my first official weigh in numbers.. super excited about that. 

Here's to a bertter tomorrow!!

I am so excited that surgery is finally over but I must say.. whoever really believes that this is really the easy way out is really wrong. There is nothing easy about not eating food for 3 week when food is your addiction. It is like stopping a narcotic or street drug cold turkey. This is really hard. When food is something that helped comfort me in my time of need and now I only have my liquid beverages to console.. I am physically doing pretty well.  I have incisions in 6 spots plus one spot where they inserted the CO to blow up my belly. I thought I was going to be in a lot more pain but I wasn't. I did what they wanted me to do at the hospital and followed instructions to the T. If you do what they tell you to do you too should have a successful procedure. Get up and walk, do your heel pumps. move around. Most importantly don't get dehydrated. I am bad with hospitals so I will make sure that I will get all the fluids I need to get in per day in. 

Can't wait to be able to eat cottage cheese because I love it and it has a bit of salt to it and that is what I am craving.. Weird I know. I will keep my blog up to date for the most part and will continue to post my weight loss, what has been easy for me and what has really sucked.. 

Amber

I am so ready for this entire process to be over with. It has been about 9 months of work leading up to this point. It has been so worth it but I am ready for this anxiety to be done. My daughter is scared that I am going to die and was crying and hugging me today. Surgery is only 2 days away so now my preparation is beginning.. Tonight I drink my milk of magnesia to clean out my tummy. Tomorrow I am on clear liquids all day and then nothing to eat or drink after midnight. I know that every surgeon is different and I feel blessed I was able to have my last few weeks of food funerals. I feel more ready now that I have eaten most of the things that I wanted to. I know that I will miss the food but like I have heard from a wise person before.. nothing tastes as good as being thin feels. My challenge now is to keep myself hydrated after surgery and to try and keep the variety there with my fluid intake as to not get bored.. I have the powerade zero which I now love.. the mixed berry is great and you get 32 oz for $1.. two bottles a day and I am good to go for the next 3 weeks.. ha ha.. I will need more variety but I'm just saying.. thats much cheaper than food.. 

Emotions have been crazy the last few weeks but feel like I am more emotionally centered again. I am starting to relax and finding peace in knowing I will be fine and in good hands. Its normal for all of the things that I have gone through in the last few weeks to happen and I just don't think I was ready for it but now that its over I know it really wasn't so bad and I only gained 2 pounds which I will probably lose in the next two days. I am happy with myself and the dedication I have put forth thus far.. but it doesn't stop here.. 

If you have questions about my journey thus far please feel free to shoot me an email. People on this site have helped me so much and I am ready to pay it forward. No question is a stupid question. I PROMISE. 

Amber  

JUNE 28TH, 2012 I WILL FINALLY BE SLEEVED YA'LL