MichelleRN04

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Well its been quite a long time since I have been on here. I  completely fell off the wagon when it comes to food and exercise. I am now back on track. I went back up to 232 pounds. My surgeon left the local area and a new guy took his place. He is very nice and I will stay with him where it is 5 min from home. I didn't get since July 2011. Last week I ended up getting 1cc in my band making me 7.5 of 10cc. I have started Jazzercise 3 days a week and really do love it. Jazzercise is the first exercise I have ever liked other than playing sports in high school. I have lost 4 pounds in the last 2 weeks so I am down to 228. I know I must get serious this time. I also quit smoking again on Jan. 1st. YAY me. I hope to be on OH more often and using my support system here. I also want to run a 5k someday. So I will be adding a couch to 5k routine to my week. I will let everyone know how that goes. Happy to be back! Love and Light to all!
Michelle

I went to weigh in today and FINALLY the scale has started moving in the right direction again. 2 more pounds gone, that takes away the sting of the lost measurements a bit.  happy dance!
Michelle

Well, I am almost 4 months post-op and I have 5cc in my 10cc band and I have to say, I thought I would be a lot farther along than I am at this point. I go back and forth with feelings of frustration and disappointment and resolve and ambition. I have started using a personal trainer so I feel good about that. However, yesterday I was measured and come to find out they lost my inital measurements. So now I have NO idea how far I have come minus the exception of knowing my pre-surgical waist size was 48, now I am 41 1/4 ok so 6 3/4 inches gone from my waist. #winning! However, still in the same pant size, ugh, how is that possible #notwinning.  I would still like to know about my ass and thighs though as well as my arms and calves. So I am feeling frustrated about that and have let it get to me for the last two days. I have been eating very well the last couple of weeks, scale is NOT moving. More frustration....i know i know I am bulding muscle and muscle weights more than fat and the scale will eventually move, however this is not good timing for it not to move since they LOST MY MEASUREMENTS! By the way did I mention they LOST MY MEASUREMENTS?! Still a sore subject for me. I am a literal person and need concrete evidence of my body changing. So much for that......I'm upset what can I say. I guess some people just don't realize the importance stuff like that. Measurements may not be all that important to others but for me it was very important and I am very disappointed and emotional about those lost measurements. Ok letting it go now.....................................Oh yea and my hair has begun to fall out....yes I upped my protein now....til next time, Have a blessed day and I hope you all are doing great. Hopefully I have better news next blog.

This last month has been a battle. I was down to 211.5 and now I am back up to 217.4. Just hired a perosnal trainer and got 2 more cc in my band for a total of 4cc. This is hard work. Harder mentally more than anything. I have a lot of support and it's still hard. Sometimes I eat too much because I am afraid that I will be hungry later and not be able to eat (because im working, or at the gym, etc.) How crazy is that? I overeat in fear I will get hungry..*smh* I miss food. I feel like someone died and I am grieving for food. This sucks. However, I know its the best thing for me. To work out and eat healthy. Someday I will not care so much about the food and how it makes me feel, but rather that I am putting good things into my body and food =fuel, not food= comfort. Struggling this month. I'll update you all soon.

Holy Moly! It's already been a month since I went under the knife! Things are going well. I got my first fill yesterday of 2cc in the standard size band. I was pretty scared and nervous about it, but it wasn't a big deal at all. I know I am going to need more filling next month already though. I am still getting hungry too soon after a meal.

Sometimes I feel like my stomach is "heavy". I don't know any other way to describe it. I have learned that usually when it feels that way or I have any pain right in the middle it's usually gas. I do my best to burp and then I feel better usually. I am struggling with eating too fast and wanting to snack even though I am not hungry and not eating and drinking before and after and during eating. I get head hungry. I wanted to veg with the hubby and eat a pizza the other day. No, not just a slice, but an entire pizza. I settled for eating the toppings off of it and eating a salad that we got to go with the pizza. Eh, compromise right?

All in all feeling well. I have lost 11.5 pounds since my surgery and I am pretty dang proud of myself.  Gonna take and post 4wk pics tonight some time.

Anyone reading this blog....feel free to message me or comment me thats what we are here for, to help and support each other! Have a great day OH peeps!
♥ Michelle

So here I am @ 2wks 2d post-op and since surgery I am down 4.6 pounds which makes me 23.7 total. Not too shabby, but I have not really noticed a difference in my clothing or my shape so I don't know where I lost it from !  I haven't posted in a while because not much was going on these past two weeks. But in the last couple of days I have started to feel pretty close to normal. Here is whats going on now:

Eating soft foods, but also cheating with regular foods and chewing them up to mush!- no problems with this at all
Still making good choices to eat.
I have finally quit relying on MOM to go the bathroom and that is always a pleasant thing lol
My bowel habits have changed. I used to go several times a day and now it is once every couple of days. Now, I know bowel habits are not something I would normally discuss, but I figure I should include this info for anyone who wants to know everything about my process and compare it to their own, and let's face it folks...everybody poops.

I am still having some discomfort at the port site when I go from sitting to standing but I am now able to partially lay on that side to sleep. Also when pushing on the port site it is still tender, but not real bad.
I have been having some issues with sutures working their way out of my incisions, but this is not unusual for me, happens any time I have an incision requiring sutures under the skin. Don't know why. So I am still healing in some places where those have reopened my wounds. It seems once these sutures find there way out, (about one stitch for every incision) my wound closes and all is well.
I have started exercising again at the gym instead of just walking or yoga at home. Now I am doing both.

I think that is about all the updates I have. I hope everyone has had a good holiday, and I wish everyone a happy healthy new year!
♥ Michelle

Well here I am a week out. 

I went back to work today which, even though I have a desk job right now, really sucked. I didn't realize how exhausted I am or how sitting at my desk for all those hours could make my belly start to hurt. I think the excitement of having the surgery and stuff is wearing off and now I am left feeling the effects of everything without that adrenaline kicking.

The only pain I am having anymore comes from where the port is. And I guess it's not really pain but more of a sore spot. From what I have read, the port area is tender the longest, so this is to be expected. One of my small incisions came open the one that is on the bottom left of my abdomen. The glue they used to close my skin peeled away on that one and so now it is kinda just open. I can make it talk LOL It's kinda gross. There is no drainage and I can see healthy tissue so for now I am just going to keep a band-aid over it so nothing gets in it and it stays clean. My other incisions look nice but they are starting to itch!

Today for lunch I had a yogurt (Kroger brand called Carbmaster). It is really good. I ate just about all of it and I was so full that I closed my office door and unbuttoned my pants! I was stuffed! This is so great, however I can only wonder that if I can only eat this much now, how is it going to be when I get a fill? YIKES! I am going to assume my stomach is still a little swollen and that is contributing to the full feeling I get so quickly.

Today is my first full day back on Full liquids. I had a shake for breakfast, yogurt for lunch and I am eating a Campbells Soup at hand for dinner. I will have a shake for my snack tonight before bed. I have been drinking water inbetween meals. I have had to force myself to drink the water even though I am thristy because I feel full still.

My belly is looking a little distended again today also. I know I have a lot of gas swirling around. I also have not pooped since the day before yesterday. I guess some MOM is in my future tonight.

Well thats day 7 in a nut shell! Sorry so long, I can be quite winded! Take care!

♥ Michelle

Today is the first day that I have not taken any pain medication what-so-ever. I am feeling really good, just tire easily and feel like I need a nap. I am feeling pretty much 99% back to normal. I had my first follow up visit since surgery with Dr. Hendrick this morning and he says that I am doing very well and I am good to go and move on to the next diet phase (Full Liquids). He gave me a week by week guide to progress my diet and I see him again in 3 weeks, which is when I will get my first fill. I told him I was disappointed that after 6 days of clear liquids I only went from 223 to 222.6, so I basically lost nothing. He told me that its not unusal to not lose anything in that week and most people don't lose any if at all because in the hospital they pump you full of fluids and your swollen from surgery, etc. I pretty much knew that, but for some reason I was hoping to be an exception to the rule and lose some good amount of weight LOL. He also told me that I could go back to work if I wanted to. Well I don't want to, but I have to. I started this new program at work and we are trying to get it off the ground and producing some useable data, plus I am not getting paid for my time off, so it's back to work I go tomorrow.

As for being post-op day 6 I am still not hungry, not waking up nauseated anymore, incisions are looking nice a healing up, soreness is all but gone. Feel almost back to pre-surgical baseline.

Take care all!
♥ michelle

So here I am day 5! Today I woke up feeling like a new person. Yesterday was a pretty rotten day as far as being post surgical. Yesterday I was still very distended in my abdomen and still feeling like I was pumped full of gas. I was wishing that I could take a pin and just "pop" myself so I would deflat. I could hear all the gas moving around in my belly but none of it was going anywhere! Also last night I realized that I had not pooped in a few days. I was feeling pretty miserable and decided to take some milk of mag. Firstly, MOM has got to be the nastiest tasting stuff on earth. It tasted like cherry chaulky hose water.  Secondly, it turns out taking the MOM was the best desicion I ever made! About two hours later my belly rumbled and I got excited because I knew I was gonna poop and release all that built up gas! What a relief ! I went to bed after that and slept like a rock. My belly still hurt a bit but I felt so much better. When I woke up this morning, I felt GREAT! My belly has gone down A LOT! I am not as sore today either, I do believe that I am now on the mend and should be feeling pretty close ti normal any day now. I figured I would post this to document all of my experiences, gross and nice, so that anyone reading my blog can know the whole story. not just the good parts.

So in summary, I was basically full of shit (literally) and gas, took some MOM, released the shit and gas, and have now made the turn and am almost back to normal (whatever that is)  I see the surgeon tomorrow and hopefully he will progress my diet and I will see if I lost any additional weight.

Oh yea here are some stats for day 4 & 5 post-op : still on clear liquids, not experiencing hunger pains, feeling full after eating jello or drinking a coffe mug of broth. still waking up a little nauseated but a few sips of diluted apple juice and that takes care of it.

I'll post again tomorrow with updates!
Michelle

Ok so i think the excitement and anticipation has worn off and what I am left with is a really sore achey body and lots of gas.   I am not very hungry still, but I have woken up a little nauseated since having the surgery 3 days ago. I sipp a little diluted apple juice and all is well again in that respect. I went to my son's hockey game today, but then came home and took a nap because that took a lot out of me. As a matter of fact, I am having a hard time keeping my eyes open right now. I am still taking medication for pain and am also taking mylicon drops (gas drops like you give an infant), and they help some with the belly discomfort. I think Tuesday is when I will move on to full liquids~ I will keep everyone updated!

   Michelle