Nancy G.
Two Months Out and Struggling
Feb 22, 2008
I Survived With Flying Colors!!!
Feb 03, 2008
Two days later: Superbowl Sunday-Go Patriots!
No Superbowl party foods for me. I am on mushies today. I was on liquids yesterday, the day after my first fill. Not bad. I felt a little restriction and had trouble finishing a Lean Cuisine. Before the fill, I could eat several Lean Cuisines and still want more. I am glad I opted for the conservative approach. I felt a little stuck in my throat after eating. Nothing I can't tolerate. It went away in about one half hour.
I am still experiencing intense hunger and am wondering if it is related to high blood sugar. I have never felt anything like this, ever. I get so hungry and my stomach gets aggravated.
FIRST POST-OP APPOINTMENT
Jan 03, 2008
I told him I was hungry all the time on the full liquid diet. He suggested doing a fill on January 17th. I had surgery on December 24th, so it will be only three weeks until my first fill. I was surprised that he is going to do a fill so quickly after surgery, but he is the doctor so I am going to go along with it and see how I do. I have lost 13 pounds since I last got weighed pre-op at the doctor's, and a total of 18 since the day of surgery (I gained 5 pounds after my pre-op appointment). It was a nice feeling going to the doctor's office and knowing that my surgery is done and I am doing well. I watched several women in the waiting room filling out the pre-op paperwork and I thought that it was only a few months since I was sitting there doing my paper work! I have come a long way, baby!
I was a little discouraged that after losing 18 pounds my clothes fit me exactly the same way. What was tight is tight and loose is no looser. I thought I would be down one size with an 18 pound loss. Yes, I know I am being impatient, but I have been obese for so long. I can't wait to see results.
So, 2008 is starting out just fine. The Lap Band is in, I have lost some weight, I feel well, and I have nothing but success fo look forward to in the New Year, a New, thinner, year!
Countdown in 2008...18 pounds....
Jan 02, 2008
WELCOME 2008- 3...2...1...LAP BAND!!!!!
New Year's Eve found me looking at the clock and wondering how long, not until midnight, but how long before I could go to sleep. God bless Dick Clark, he counted down, the ball dropped and I headed for bed! No champagne toast, just a yawn and night-night.
It is exactly nine days since my Lap Band surgery. Tomorrow is my first post-op appointment with my surgeon. I want to start doing a little exercise, so I hope he clears me for that. I am not returning to work (teaching) until Monday, Jan. 7th. I took two full weeks to recover and I am glad. Today was my first real outing. I went grocery shopping for my puree stage of my diet. I bought a lot of Lean Cuisine frozen dinners. I plan to cook them and puree when done. They always have a sauce of some kind on the chicken and turkey entrees. I hope that's going to work for me. I mostly hope that I will not be so hungry. I have been on one form or another of a liquid diet since Dec. 10th and I have never gotten over the hunger pains. The liquid seems to go through the little pouch and satisfy nothing. I am hoping the pureed stage will at least fill me up a little.
I am feeling very little pain from the surgery. The gas has subsided a little, but my stomach still grumbles loudly, which should be fun when I go back to teaching. I still wear adult diapers, but the necessity is diminishing I am happy to say! My breathing is normal. I still get very tired. After grocery shopping today, I was totally exhausted. I don't know how people go back to work a week after Lap Band surgery. Two weeks should just about put me in good enough shape to return to work.
I have lost 18 pounds since starting on Optifast on December 10th. It was Optifast for 12 days, then clear liquids pre and post-op for nine days. Now I am on full liquids for a week, before going to pureed foods in four days. I am now more food obsessed than I was before the surgery!
The strange thing about the 18 pound loss is my clothes fit me exactly the same-the buttons are still a little tight and nothing feels loose. I thought an 18 pound weight loss would show a drop in clothes size, but it hasn't.
I will update my blog after seeing the surgeon.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!!! PEACE AND HEALTH IN 2008
MY JOURNEY TO THINNESS
Dec 30, 2007
FROM PRE-OP TO BIKINI?
Friday, December 28, 2007
I CAN SEE "CLEARLY" NOW and for 16 days!!
It's December 28th and five days after Lap Band surgery on December 24th. See my previous blogs for the page-turning pre and post-op details.
I am now on the Stage 1 post surgery Lap Band diet. That consists of "clear" liquids. I have broth, a protein drink, sugar free popsicles, tea, sugar-free Jello. I was on the same diet post-op for two days, also. So, for nine days I will be having nothing but clear liquids. Even with the band, I am hungry. The liquids go right through the band, so there is nothing to give me a full feeling. I am full of gas and (sorry, it is gross) and have diarrhea whenever I pass gas. I have been wearing Depends for the last five days. This will probably continue until I go on the pureed stage of the diet...so it will be 16 days of diapers!!
My breathing is quite a bit better. Still not getting a 100% of air into my lungs, and I do get winded when I walk around. Exercise and my incentive breathing apparatus are going to help this.
I am feeling a little sorry for myself today. I missed Christmas Day (slept through most of it), and am getting a little crazy watching food related things on TV. I never realized how much food is featured on the tube! My husband is making foods that usually don't tempt me, but today the dog food smelled and looked good! I stepped on the scale and lost no weight since before surgery on Monday, December 24th. I am only drinking clear liquids and probably under 500 calories a day. Even though I lost 9 pounds with the pre-op Optifast diet, I feel cheated that I hardly had any calories this week and actually gained two pounds!!! Not a time to get depressed.
Tomorrow, I am going to have my husband take me for a ride somewhere to get my mind off ME!
There is very, very little pain in my abdomen. It is only slightly achy. I still have gas pains in my left shoulder and colon. I am taking Tylenol for pain and only once in awhile. I have no nausea.
My husband has to inject Lovenox into my belly daily for two weeks. It is a blood thinner to prevent blood clots from forming. He gave me my first injection today. It hurt-he is not a doctor, nurse, etc. just a computer geek. I was just waiting for him to say, it's hurting him more than it's hurting me. I would have hit him with my incentive breathing machine!!!
So, that's the up to date information on my Lap Band Journey...tune in again to see what I am doing next!!
Well, I am now banded!! My Lap band was put in on December 24th at around 8:30 A.M. The surgeon said it was about an hour operation. Unfortunately, my liver was enlarged and there was a lot of bleeding from my liver and spleen. I also had a hiatal hernia repair done when the lap band surgery was performed.
Two days prior to having surgery on Christmas Eve, I had a really bad head cold. Almost always, my head colds travel to my lungs after about 5 days. I shared this with the hospital staff prior to surgery, but they did not think it was a cause for concern because it was not in my chest at the time. But I digress...
Because of all the bleeding, I am kept in the recovery room post-op for about four hours. I was given two doses of meds for severe nausea and some meds for pain. Next, I am taken to my hospital room where I am "out of it" ( I have very little recollection of those first few hours) and in some mild pain-mostly an achy feeling. I dozed on and off for most of Christmas Eve day and night. The surgeon came in about 10:30 P.M. and told me I will feel so much better tomorrow (Christmas Day) and will be going home! I was taking 10 mg of Roxicet every 6 hours for pain in the abdomin and left shoulder (from gas pains). I was quite uncomfortable without the meds. I slept well with those pain meds! Christmas morning dawned and I was not feeling "so much better." I was totally wiped out and could hardly keep my eyes open even without the pain meds. I was also suffering from nausea and gas pains. I was supposed to drink my clear liquid diet, but had no interest in drinking and only did so to appease the nurses! I was not made to walk the day of surgery at all, although I did walk from the bed to the bathroom several times. I only used the incentive breathing machine a few times. So, on Christmas Day I was leaving the hospital without having walked or did breathing incentives for my lungs (a must after abdominal surgery I found out later). Just before I left around 2:00 P.M. on Christmas Day, I took my first walk out into the hall with a nurse. I came back to my room and got released from the hospital. All the way home (about a 50 minute ride), I slept on and off. When I got home, I still was not walking around. I sat in a chair and dozed. I drank very little-just a few sips of water. Then, I took a long, long five hour nap. I got up and went to sit down in the living room. By now it is around 11:00 P.M. I suddenly was having difficulty breathing. I panic which makes it even worse, of course. I called the surgeon and he instructed me to come back to the hospital ER. So, my husband drives me back another 50 minutes to the hospital where I had been discharged less than 12 hours before! In the ER (which was packed), I spent the rest of my Christmas Day having an x-ray and CT scan. My oxygen level was low, so I was put on oxygen. The test results showed some "sticking" together of my lungs according to the ER doctor. I was readmitted to the same floor, down the hall, from where I had been only a few short hours before. I was kept on oxygen, because my saturation without it was below 90%. So, the day after Christmas I was walking those hospital halls and blowing into my incentive breathing machine like crazy! I was going to be a star patient that day!!
In the morning of the 26th, I was still short of breath, but it was improving. I did not have the feeling that I could not breathe like I did the night before. That previous night, I could not take anything but shallow breaths. It was as if I could not get in enough air...very, very scary.
By the evening of the 26th, I was breathing quite normally although still on oxygen.
December 27th was a cold gray morning, but it was bright and sunny in my mind! I was breathing well and I was going home!! Around 11:30 A.M. on December 27th, three days after Lap Band surgery, I went home for good. Now, I am drinking all my 40 ounces of clear liquids daily, blowing in my incentive breathing machine and walking around my house. I still don't feel as if my breathing is 100%, but it is so much better. I still have a stuffy nose from my head cold a week ago, also, which does not help the breathing situation.
The surgeon feels I had a condition called atelectasis (lung sticking or collapsing). It is not uncommon in abdominal surgery. Google it if interested, especially if you are considering the Lap Band surgery. Walking as soon as possible after surgery and using an incentive breathing apparatus (none of which I did the first day) help this condition.
So, IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL THE FAT LADY SINGS...well, the lap band surgery is over and a success and I am SINGING even with the complications!!!
Optifast period is Not Going FAST! pre-op
December 15, 2007
Hi Everyone,
This is my first post to my new blog. Last summer (2007), my doctor told me about the Lap Band procedure for weight loss. She felt it might be a good option for me. As usual, I researched it to death by reading everything I could about the Lap Band. The more I read, the more I decided it might be for me. Once I made up my mind, I was like a whirlwind. I called several bariatric centers in my state (Connecticut) and made an appointment with one. I was disappointed because the appointment for an initial consultation was not for six months! My scale screamed, "Too long, too long, I am still rising!" Back to the Internet...I found a seminar that was happening in one week. I reserved a spot (I am so large, I almost reserved two spots!), and went. I dragged my hubby along. I liked the doctor and was impressed by several of his patients who spoke at the seminar. Yep, this was the doc I wanted, and Lap Band was the procedure! The rest is history?? I had an initial meeting, got all my blank paperwork-5 pages to be filled out by me...write down every diet you have been on. Huh? That would take 50 pages, do they want them alphabetical? most effective? tastiest? weirdest? I was on Weight Watchers (20 times) Scarsdale Diet (worked until he got shot, then I lost faith in that diet), Atkins-no one can eat all the bacon she wants I don't care what anyone says, SlimFast, Optifast, hypnosis,
starvation, liquid, high protein, low carb, sugar-free, walking, biking, swimming and variations of the above. Sure, I lost, but soon I gained all back plus those 20 extra pounds each time.
Okay, my weight loss history papers were filled out. Now, I had to see a therapist. My doc (kiddingly) said the therapist wants to make sure you're not crazy. Watch it doc, I am willing to have my stomach squeezed and eat baby food for weeks...maybe I am crazy! The therapist determined I was no crazier than most people she sees, so I got a supportive letter from her. Next visit was the dietician who is about a size zero and wrinkle-free. Here comes the "hard to swallow" (literally) news. I got freaked when I saw how I would be eating (well, hard to call it eating) for the first 8 weeks or so. With the dietcian's advice that anything that doesn't agree with me, I will vomit up, I went on my merry way to the next step...getting all my medical forms together, having blood work and an ultrasound of my belly area done. Once that was done, it went off to my insurance company. I guess they agreed with the therapist that I wasn't too crazy, because they approved the surgery. Okay, now the surgery scheduling. I wanted it in December so I would have my winter vacation to recuperate. Yep, you guessed it, the only surgery date my doctor had was Christmas Eve. Now, Santa has given me some unusual presents throughout my life, but his is the first time I will have something installed internally for Christmas! So here it is Optifast time. I have been on this liquid pre-op diet for 6 days and I have never been so hungry in my life! I drink 5 protein shakes and eat two protein bars daily. The taste in my mouth is, well let's say not pleasant. I am not just head hungry, but belly grumbling hungry. But, I have lost 7 pounds in 6 days, plus I am sure my liver is shrinking nicely (the reason for the high protein diet), even as my belly growls! Maybe it's my liver shrinking that is making all the growling sounds??
So, I am now anxiously awaiting my Lap Band surgery in just NINE days. I am excited, scared, worried, happy and a range of 50 other emotions that change by the minute!
I intend to keep you informed about my journey from swim dress to bikini (I can dream).
I hope we can laugh and enjoy as I shed the pounds. I may not inspire, but hope I make you smile. I will not be the jolly fat lady, but the jolly thin lady in a few months.
I'd love to hear from you, share with you, answer questions, and just have a good time.
The Queen of Thinness
Me at my plumpest
