Back home from Montreal
My mom and I decided to come back a day early as problems with our room and the yearning for our own beds was too much to bare, lol.
As I noted in the thread started by my angel (Sandy), the surgery went extremely well, and being 4 days out the extreme lack of pain astounds me. I was surprised to be up and walking around without any help (as much as the nursing staff wanted too) only a few hours post-op.
My third night was the the worst and I suspect the sugary liquids they provided are to blame. I should have been more conscious about this, but when you are have gone over 30+ hours without anything to drink you sort of put it in the back of your mind.
Right now I'm focusing on trying to up my intake. I know my am somewhat dehydrated due to the diarrhea (particularly night three) and now that I have some proper food and drink items in place I'm constantly sipping away.
I bought some protein isolate whey from SDM (Shopper's Drug Mart), that tastes pretty good. It'll definitely fix my chocolate milk cravings. 30g of portein per scoop and I believe it is 4-5g of sugar (my surgeon noted anything 6g and under). I've opted to use skim milk as opposed to milk.
I've picked up some tuna to use as meals. If for some reason this doesn't seem to sit well with me, then medium boiled eggs will be my next option as I had no problems with the store bought hard boiled eggs I had while in Montreal.
Plain water unfortunately causes me discomfort in the form of acid reflux so Nestea Zero is my beverage of choice right now. Splenda does not seem to cause any problems.
It seems this time around I have some more moral support from my mom and grandfather, and having some more knowledge on my own bad habbits that crept back in due to various cir****tances over the past 18 months (STRESS...boo, hiss!), I'm in a much better mind set.
I've started a spreadsheet where I intend to plan out weekly meals. I'm going this route as I want to both keep track of my nutritional intake, as well as cut down on my food bill. I was still in the habit of buy food in the quanities above what I needed and ended up just wasting stuff. I have a Metro right across the street so I may opt to shop for meals bi-daily going by what's on special each week.
At any rate I'll leave it at that as I don't want this to be any longer than it already is. The main intent was to just say I was back home, happy, on the mend and as healthy was could be expected.
Cheers!
P.S. Wanted to add I have the multi-vitamin and Tums (amongst a couple other things) as instructed by my surgeon until my first labs are done. Forgot to mention this above. Doing everything by the book.
As I noted in the thread started by my angel (Sandy), the surgery went extremely well, and being 4 days out the extreme lack of pain astounds me. I was surprised to be up and walking around without any help (as much as the nursing staff wanted too) only a few hours post-op.
My third night was the the worst and I suspect the sugary liquids they provided are to blame. I should have been more conscious about this, but when you are have gone over 30+ hours without anything to drink you sort of put it in the back of your mind.
Right now I'm focusing on trying to up my intake. I know my am somewhat dehydrated due to the diarrhea (particularly night three) and now that I have some proper food and drink items in place I'm constantly sipping away.
I bought some protein isolate whey from SDM (Shopper's Drug Mart), that tastes pretty good. It'll definitely fix my chocolate milk cravings. 30g of portein per scoop and I believe it is 4-5g of sugar (my surgeon noted anything 6g and under). I've opted to use skim milk as opposed to milk.
I've picked up some tuna to use as meals. If for some reason this doesn't seem to sit well with me, then medium boiled eggs will be my next option as I had no problems with the store bought hard boiled eggs I had while in Montreal.
Plain water unfortunately causes me discomfort in the form of acid reflux so Nestea Zero is my beverage of choice right now. Splenda does not seem to cause any problems.
It seems this time around I have some more moral support from my mom and grandfather, and having some more knowledge on my own bad habbits that crept back in due to various cir****tances over the past 18 months (STRESS...boo, hiss!), I'm in a much better mind set.
I've started a spreadsheet where I intend to plan out weekly meals. I'm going this route as I want to both keep track of my nutritional intake, as well as cut down on my food bill. I was still in the habit of buy food in the quanities above what I needed and ended up just wasting stuff. I have a Metro right across the street so I may opt to shop for meals bi-daily going by what's on special each week.
At any rate I'll leave it at that as I don't want this to be any longer than it already is. The main intent was to just say I was back home, happy, on the mend and as healthy was could be expected.
Cheers!
P.S. Wanted to add I have the multi-vitamin and Tums (amongst a couple other things) as instructed by my surgeon until my first labs are done. Forgot to mention this above. Doing everything by the book.
HW: 750 ConsultW: 735 SW: 701 CW: 395 GW: 235
App: January 2009 re-App: March 2009... OHIP suspends DS, works on proposal with Cleveland Clinic Surgery: October 8th 2009 (8 month process)
Revision to DS on June 5th, 2012.
Congratulations Jeff!!!
Did Dr. Gagner send you home on a PPI? I found I had acid and nausea issues until I upped my dose of Prevacid to twice a day. If you're not on one your family doc can prescribe one, it's important to help prevent ulcers too. Prevacid comes in a fast dissolving fast-tab that is a lot easier than trying to swallow a pill.
The nutritionist at St. Jo's Hamilton, Adam, and I have developed a good routine of supplements for DSers. I'm not sure if you've looked at the Vitalady list online (which is very extensive) but it's a little less than those recommendations. I'm sure you're aware that most surgeons recommend far too few supplements so I'd be happy to send you my supplement list. It's much easier to prevent a deficiency after all than to fix one. How did your pre-op labs look? I started my supplements one at a time over the course of 3-4 weeks and now it's just a habit to get them in 4 times a day, very easy.
If the skim milk bothers your stomach you might try switching to whole milk, it has fewer carbs and less sugar than skim. Regular, full-fat versions of foods will typically have fewer carbs than any 'light' or 'reduced fat' or 'fat-free' foods - I avoid all of these like the plague. The easiest first solid food for me post-op was cheese, especially babybel and mild cheddar or mozzarella.
I also had a hard time with water for a while. Have you tried Mio or Crystal Light? I mostly got fluids from protein shakes, milk and hot and iced tea for the first while.
It sounds like you're doing great Jeff! Congrats again and don't hesitate to be in touch!
Did Dr. Gagner send you home on a PPI? I found I had acid and nausea issues until I upped my dose of Prevacid to twice a day. If you're not on one your family doc can prescribe one, it's important to help prevent ulcers too. Prevacid comes in a fast dissolving fast-tab that is a lot easier than trying to swallow a pill.
The nutritionist at St. Jo's Hamilton, Adam, and I have developed a good routine of supplements for DSers. I'm not sure if you've looked at the Vitalady list online (which is very extensive) but it's a little less than those recommendations. I'm sure you're aware that most surgeons recommend far too few supplements so I'd be happy to send you my supplement list. It's much easier to prevent a deficiency after all than to fix one. How did your pre-op labs look? I started my supplements one at a time over the course of 3-4 weeks and now it's just a habit to get them in 4 times a day, very easy.
If the skim milk bothers your stomach you might try switching to whole milk, it has fewer carbs and less sugar than skim. Regular, full-fat versions of foods will typically have fewer carbs than any 'light' or 'reduced fat' or 'fat-free' foods - I avoid all of these like the plague. The easiest first solid food for me post-op was cheese, especially babybel and mild cheddar or mozzarella.
I also had a hard time with water for a while. Have you tried Mio or Crystal Light? I mostly got fluids from protein shakes, milk and hot and iced tea for the first while.
It sounds like you're doing great Jeff! Congrats again and don't hesitate to be in touch!
I had OHIP approved Duodenal Switch surgery with Dr. Dennis Hong at St. Joseph's Hamilton on March 7th, 2012. Want more information on the DS in Ontario? Send me a private message!
On June 9, 2012 at 6:22 PM Pacific Time, PatXYZ wrote:
Congratulations Jeff!!!Did Dr. Gagner send you home on a PPI? I found I had acid and nausea issues until I upped my dose of Prevacid to twice a day. If you're not on one your family doc can prescribe one, it's important to help prevent ulcers too. Prevacid comes in a fast dissolving fast-tab that is a lot easier than trying to swallow a pill.
The nutritionist at St. Jo's Hamilton, Adam, and I have developed a good routine of supplements for DSers. I'm not sure if you've looked at the Vitalady list online (which is very extensive) but it's a little less than those recommendations. I'm sure you're aware that most surgeons recommend far too few supplements so I'd be happy to send you my supplement list. It's much easier to prevent a deficiency after all than to fix one. How did your pre-op labs look? I started my supplements one at a time over the course of 3-4 weeks and now it's just a habit to get them in 4 times a day, very easy.
If the skim milk bothers your stomach you might try switching to whole milk, it has fewer carbs and less sugar than skim. Regular, full-fat versions of foods will typically have fewer carbs than any 'light' or 'reduced fat' or 'fat-free' foods - I avoid all of these like the plague. The easiest first solid food for me post-op was cheese, especially babybel and mild cheddar or mozzarella.
I also had a hard time with water for a while. Have you tried Mio or Crystal Light? I mostly got fluids from protein shakes, milk and hot and iced tea for the first while.
It sounds like you're doing great Jeff! Congrats again and don't hesitate to be in touch!
He gave me a prescription for Prilosec, but I wasn't able to fill the precriptions in Quebec mainly due to not being sure if any would be covered by the Ontragio Drug Benefit. I know if they were filled in Quebec it would have been out of pocket first.
I do have some rabeprazole laying around though, which is a PPI so I can just use that. I wasn't taking it for a while as I just wasn't able to go see my family doctor for a while. Although that will not be an issue going forward.
My labs done before I was told were fine, but not all the tests they wanted were done. They did some blood working post-operatively a couple times.
Always up for hearing what others are doing supplement wise. Vitalady was where I was going to go as I want to get as many supplements as possible in chewable form. I don't mind pills, but not big honking suckers! And cutting pills doesn't really help as you then end up with jagged edges. Getting a chunk of a calcium pill stuck in my throat a few years back just turned me off of large pills.
I suppose I should have looked at the labels on milk. I just assumed skim was the better option. I now I had no problem with skim (or so I assume), but I'll definitely go whole milk if it is the better option.
Wondering if the source yogurt I got might not be the best option then? Should of gone with Activia as I believe that is what most DSer's are using for the probiotics. There will be a learning curve with all this.
Right now I have tuna, babybel, eggs, yogurt, Nestea Zero and my protein shakes as staples of my diet. Although I'll ask a few more questions privately as they are of the TMI calibre, lol.
HW: 750 ConsultW: 735 SW: 701 CW: 395 GW: 235
App: January 2009 re-App: March 2009... OHIP suspends DS, works on proposal with Cleveland Clinic Surgery: October 8th 2009 (8 month process)
Revision to DS on June 5th, 2012.
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