scarletred

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Wow has time flown by!

I'm doing very well! I'll back up a little bit since I haven't posted in a while.

My husband and I went to El Paso for my surgery which took place last Tuesday,10/7/14 and that went well. The day before surgery I weighed in at 274.7 (they rounded up to 275)The day of surgery was pretty uneventful. The surgery went well, the Doc said my organs all looked "beautiful" and he had no issues at all. I woke up with a drain in the side of my abdomen as well as 2 small tubes in the top of my stomach just below my breasts where they were feeding a topical medication of some sort into my stomach. I also had 5 incisions in various places on my abdomen, mostly along the bottom half. Since I was still under anesthesia at this point I wasn't in any pain. Once that wore off they started giving me Tylenol with Codeine through my IV. I slept a lot the first day and evening. As much as is possible in a hospital with people coming in every hour or two wanting to take blood, check vitals, make sure you're comfy, ask if you've peed, etc etc... I was just excited about the leak test they'd be taking me for in the morning so I could drink liquids and go home. I got up and walked around the nurses station a few times an hour because I was determined to recover as fast as possible. There was no way I was going to handle being in bed so much. I may be fat, but I'm an active person and sitting or laying down too much makes me crazy! I slept a lot that night off and on and then woke up in the morning and was whisked away for the leak test. I passed with  flying colors, of course  so an hour or so later they brought me a tray of various liquids and some tiny cups. Hot tea, broth, jello, even a Popsicle!! Naturally I went for the Popsicle first. I didn't want it to melt!  It went down really well. Then I tried sipping some water. That was a little more difficult, but it still went down. Then the broth. VIOLA!!!! The warm broth was the easiest to get down. I figured it might be.  I walked a lot that next day also, and finally got the green light to go home later that afternoon. A 4 hour drive back home...YUCK! It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, I slept a lot of the way. My husband said I was snoring, so I must have slept pretty well!!

Over the next few days I slept a lot, walked a lot, sipped a lot...and repeated the process every day. Friday I went grocery shopping by myself!! I've had a pretty good recovery. A lot better than I expected. Today I'm 7 days post op and my biggest complaint is my itchy stomach. Incisions are healing nicely though and the itchy stomach is proof of that. Today I weigh in at 261. 14lb weight loss in a week. All in all it was a great decision and I'm so glad I did it!!

I forgot to post yesterday evening!!  Probably because it was pretty easy. 

I had my shakes, I had my water, I was a little hungry just before each shake but not too much. The kids had herb roasted chicken, I cheated and licked my fingers after I put some on my daughter's plate. It was sooooo good! I probably shouldn't have done that though because now I'm craving it 

Today is good, no kids home tonight, just me and hubby so he's gonna have a sandwich and I'll have my chocolate shake. We'll cuddle up like old people and watch Criminal Minds :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Today was just fine. All of my shakes have been consumed on schedule, my water has been sipped down and I'm working on more, and I feel great! I did learn something tonight though: If I put my shakes through the Ninja instead of just my rocket blender, they come out much more whipped and light. When I do this, it makes the shake fill me up more. I did this with my dinner time shake and I couldn't finish it as fast as I normally do! I walked away from it holding my tummy, complaining to my husband that I felt "stuffed"!! Well heck, I need to do this more throughout this liquid diet I think! It wouldn't be a very good idea after surgery but for this stage I think it seems like a wonderful idea! 

All in all, still feeling fine, no bad side effects to speak of, and I'm zipping through this liquid diet! 

Today was pretty uneventful. I had my 4 shakes again with 20 oz of water in between without much issue. I was hungry just before each shake but as soon as I drank it, the hunger went away. In fact, yesterday I was downing the shakes pretty fast because I was starving but today, I leisurely sipped at them because it wasn't such a strong hunger. I drank more water today so I probably hit 95 oz as of this posting and I'll probably drink another 8-10 before I go to bed. One issue though: With all of this water, I'm in the bathroom constantly! That's a good thing though from what I understand, to get rid of all of the junk that my body doesn't need. I've had no headache today at all, the nausea tried to creep up slightly while I was making dinner but it went away without notice almost.  I sat down and drank some chicken broth while the kids were eating which is huge because yesterday, even talking about food made me sooo hungry! I even watched my son as he ate to test myself to see if I had the strength to do it and I think because I was sipping my own chicken broth as though it was a meal, it helped! I wasn't considering robbing him of his food this time!! (he's 17 so he probably would have put up a good fight for it anyway lol) I was so proud of myself! Tomorrow is another day. Perhaps it will just keep getting easier, perhaps it will be harder. Who knows. All I know is, I'm doing this for the right reason.

So yesterday started day 1 of my liquid diet. I had decided that daily, since I was allowed 4 shakes, I would have one at 9am, one at 1pm, one at 5pm and the last at 9pm. after each shake I'd drink a 20 oz bottle of water to fulfill the 64+ oz requirement per day.The first shake at 9am was uneventful. I'd started having one every morning a couple of months ago to jump-start my metabolism in the mornings. By the time it was time for my 1pm shake, I was hungry. Not intensely hungry, but I knew it was time for lunch. I had the second one and drank my water slowly over the course of the next hour or so. By 5pm I knew I was hungry. My stomach was screaming at me by this point. Unfortunately I was running out the door to a meeting at 4:30 and forgot to make one to take with me so I had to wait till I got home around 6:30. I started to notice a slight headache, nothing too bad but I worried that it was a hunger headache that would end up getting much worse. At this point my stomach felt like it was eating itself. (We've all had that feeling, right?) So I  made my shake, started dinner for the kids and all was well. Until I sat down while the kids were eating. I couldn't bring myself to sit at the table with them for fear that I'd grab someone's pork chop off their plate and down it all in one bite so I sat down in the living room with my water bottle to watch tv. Don't ask me what I was watching because suddenly this overwhelming nausea swooped over me and I couldn't think of anything else. I kept trying to take sips of water in hopes that it would help the nausea subside. I don't know if it was the smells coming from the kitchen or perhaps the lack of solid food for the very first time in my entire life, but it was bad. I got to the point where I felt like if I sipped any more water it was going to come back up. When the kids were finished eating dinner I talked them into playing a board game with me to get my mind off of food. We played Logo Party...where you guess company brand name logos with a teammate. I don't know if it was in my head, or if some kind of unseen force was screwing with me, but it seemed like every logo involved food!! Pepperidge Farm....Burger King....Oscar Meyer.......It was insane! We all had a good laugh and by the time we finished the game, it seemed like my nausea was much better. I was able to have my last shake around 9:30pm without much issue, had about half of a bottle of water and then went to bed. 

All in all, not as bad as I thought it might be. I've heard that days 2, 3, and 4 are the worst so I'm bracing myself for today. I've had my first shake of the day and I'm feeling good. Let's see what today brings!

Tomorrow, Monday September 22, 2014 I start my pre-op liquid diet. I'm allowed to have 4 protein shakes per day as well as 64 oz of water per day. I've never done something like this and I think the anxiety about it really derailed me this past week. It all started with my Anniversary on 9/17. My husband and I went to a steakhouse where I had a ribeye, a loaded baked potato, Parmesan sprinkled broccoli, some boneless buffalo strips, a Green Melon Texas Tea and chocolate cake for dessert. Naturally I didn't eat all of these things that night, but brought some home for lunch the next day. Well, the next day I convinced myself I needed to not only eat all of my leftovers,  but that I should spend the last few days before my liquid diet eating and drinking things I have been staying away from the last 2 months because "in less than a week I won't be able to eat these things for quite a while, possibly ever". Baaaaad idea. I've gained about 4-5 lbs since about Tuesday evening. LESS THAN A WEEK!!! I feel like such a horrible person! I even ate 2 cookies yesterday and I haven't had cookies in about 9 weeks!!! The best thing is though, I recognize what I did. I know it was wrong, and I know it's going to put me back to where I was 9 months ago...30 lbs heavier....if I continue this. Today is a fresh start and this morning, I had a protein shake and a lowfat greek yogurt for breakfast, a huge spinach salad for lunch and tonight I'm having grilled chicken breast for dinner. Originally I had intended to go out with a BANG!! but I decided against that. Because tomorrow is a new day, a new chance to do the right thing. And if I don't get on track to do the right thing, I won't be able to have my surgery in 2 weeks. And I refuse to jeopardize that. Soooooo.....here goes!

So on Monday September 22, I start my 2 week liquid pre-op diet. I'm nervous about this because I have 2 teenagers (ages 15 and 17) and it's close to impossible to not have someone snacking or making food at almost any moment. I have tried getting them to eat healthier, and my 15 year old is for the most part on board, but she still likes cakes and junk every so often. My son is very resistant to making any kind of change and it's not his fault. I raised them with my bad eating habits and I can't expect that at 17 years old, he's going to want to suddenly change that. I'm just worried that I'll be miserable trying to have only shakes and water for this 2 weeks while watching my kids eat tacos and enchiladas. Yes, I live in New Mexico where Mexican food is our lives! I'm so worried that while frying up some sopapillas I'll become weak and pinch a piece off of one!  I'm going to try my damnedest not to. I've spoken with my husband as well as my kids and practically begged for their support through this time. My husband is awesome about it but he's not here all the time because he works a lot. I have a feeling I'll be on OH quite a bit in the weeks and probably months to come!

I'm ecstatic! I called the surgeon's office yesterday and they gave me my surgery date! October 7, 2014!! Just under 5 weeks away! I'm excited, because I've been wanting this for a long time, and it's finally happening! I'm also terrified because I've been watching too many episodes of Grey's Anatomy and the fear of death during surgery is freaking me out a little bit. I know this is an unrealistic fear, so I'm dealing with that. I'm relieved because I've been waiting for the date for about a month or so now, and it's finally set! Overall, I'm happy because this means that I'll be starting my new self right before my 41st birthday (October 20).

I've been working on preop requirements for a couple of months now. I didn't have a nutritionist requirement, but did need the psychological evaluation, labs, barium swallow, ekg, etc.

I spoke to my surgeons office on Wednesday and they say they've now gotten every piece of paperwork they need in order to submit to insurance. I'm told the doc should be putting me on the schedule sometime late this coming week (August 25th-29th) and that he usually schedules about 3 weeks out, so I'm hoping to get a surgery date for sometime mid to end of September.

Some things I've been doing so far to prepare:

• Usually I don't eat breakfast, so I've been having a Body Fortress Whey Protein shake for breakfast every morning.
• Stopped drinking coffee and soda about 3-4 weeks ago
• Started using Stevia instead of sugar in anything that needs it (but I don't use it that often)
• Began cutting back drastically on carbs...no bread unless it's whole grain, tortillas only ocassionally, etc.
• Found that using Myfitnesspal to track foods and stay accountable is really helping me watch what I eat!
• Started using my Schwinn Exercise bicycle as often as possible as well as fitting walks around the neighborhood as often as I can.
• Trying to get my teenagers and husband on board to eating better and living a healthier lifestyle

These things alone aren't going to do it. I know I need a little extra help with the sleeve. But I really think I'm taking a step in the right direction! I'm so pumped and excited for this!!!!