Chopstick_Chick

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Sorry I haven't updated this sooner, things have been crazy since I got back! Anyway I figured now would be a good time to post my experience in the hospital and everything and just talk about how my life has been these past two weeks.

I had my VSG done in Mexicali Mexico at the Almater hospital by Dr. Aceves on May 29th. For those nervous about going to him DON'T BE. I was so scared, but I did my research and chose the very best surgeon I could find. When I got there everything went smooth as silk. Dr. Aceves and Dr. Campos (who, among other things, is also a bariatric nutritionist who has also gone through VSG surgery himself) took excellent care of us. They do a limited number of surgeries per day and keep everyone together in the hospital where everyone there is having bariatric surgery. You get to know your neighbors as you do laps around the nurses station to get your blood flowing and your trapped gas moving on out. 

Everyone (The surgeons, internal medicine doc, anesthesiologist, most of the nurses and the surgery coordinators Nina and Carla) all speak wonderful English and I had no instance where I felt that I didn't understand something that was going on due to language barriers. They let you ask tons of questions and always explain what they are doing to before they do it and let you ask questions before hand if you have any (I wanted to know if having my drain taken out would hurt and Dr. Campos said no, and it didn't hurt ^_^). Both surgeons were very warm and had great bedside manner. They stopped in multiple times a day to see how I was feeling and were very supportive. Dr. Campos always seemed very warm and sincere and always accompanied his entrance to my room with a kind "How you feeling sweetie?" 

It was a very clean hospital, they are moping and emptying garbage and changing your bed linens all the time! The room was private, and very comfortable with a leather couch and chair, mounted flat screen, wifi and private bathroom. The driver who takes you from San Diego to Mexicali (which is like 5 minutes over the border) Earnesto, is little bit hard to understand, but he is a super nice guy and a very safe driver. He showed us lots of really neat things (like pointing out cool shaped rocks, UFO spotter locations and even pointing out the location of a Nudist colony!) on the drive down and back. 
The resort we stayed at the night before surgery was also amazing. T, way nicer than almost any I've stayed in. It had two pools, some private villas and four restaurants with amazing food. Your "last meal" will definitely be delicious, mine certainly was! 
The worst part of the whole thing was honestly getting my IV put in and taken out. Honestly. I was hardly in any pain at all and they are very liberal with the pain medication there. Also I find having my blood pressure taken to be very painful and they worked with me to calm me down and eventually found a bigger cuff to use that helped ease the pain. Not everyone has this problem, but if you do don't worry they will help you out. 
Two weeks and a day out of surgery and I am feeling no pain, my stitches and drain incision are healed and causing me no pain or itchiness. I'm just sip sip sipping on my protein and watching the pounds melt off. I have lost 22 pounds including what I lost on the Pre-op diet to date and I can already feel a difference in the fit of my clothes. After hearing about the experience a family member had with one of the strip mall clinic surgeons, (I couldn't believe they made her walk up stairs out of the operating room and didn't give her dissolving stitches!!) I am so so glad I decided to spend the extra money and do things right with the best surgery team and hospital around. Would do it again in a second!

I struggled with head hunger coming home to recover at my mom's house because she cooks and stuff and I don't get to eat any of the tasty foods I am smelling, but I think it was good training.  I realized that it was head hunger and have been working to get over that. It hasn't been easy, but I can already feel improvement and that's a huge thing for me since I have always struggled with that. The first meal she made was bad, and the second, meat loaf which is one of my favorite foods, was the worst. I broke down and cried the day before I could get off my liquids and was depressed all night, but after that things have been looking so far up I cannot believe it. Now that I'm able to have more variety of foods in my thick liquids and soups phase (I had a small icecream cone from dairy queen but shhh don't tell) it has gotten much better. I have been chewing up bites of food and spitting them out into the garbage to help quell my mental desire to eat and so far that has been helping. The act of chewing and the taste of food helps get rid of the mental push to eat and I have found that that is necessary less and less as each day passes. I actually went out yesterday to McDonalds and bought a Big Mac meal just to bring home and chew up and spit in the garbage. I knew it was a waste of money, but I needed to do it and actually after the first few tastes of it came in and went out of my mouth I was over my craving and I didn't even finish chewing it up I just threw the whole thing out. I kept the drink though, since I can have iced-tea. More sugar than I should have, but at the rate it will take me to finish a regular drink from McDonalds I'm not worried. I always have two or three drinks on the go for variety anyway. I feel like that break down and waste of money, only to find that I didn't even want to chew it up anymore, was a mental turning point for me. It made me truly realize that it is all in my head. I'm sure I'll have weak days, but I don't think I'll do that again.

One more day! Oh god the excitement might do me in for good :) I have about 30 hours left to pack, get everything ready and wrap up my stuff here before I am gone for 2 weeks. My transformation is beginning so soon I can't even believe it. I know people say that all the time, to the point that it loses meaning, but I honestly cannot even begin to fathom what I will look like or how I will feel once I start losing weight. I have no basis for comparison really. I know in theory that I might look something like my mom did when she lost 70 pounds and was a wee tiny thing since we look so much alike, but I don't know. I have been fat my whole life and this is going to be such a shock to me. Even so, I cannot describe to you how badly I want to take my "After" picture. I'm so done being the "Before" picture that it's not even funny.

My pre-op diet is going very well. I am switching to straight liquids and protein shakes from now until my surgery day to help speed things along. I've lost 6 pounds so far on the low carb diet and I'm very impressed with myself. I guess I should start getting used to feeling proud of myself since I'm certain this is only the beginning.

My Unjury sample kit arrived and I have tried all the flavors except for chicken and vanilla. The strawberry sorbet, chocolate and unflavored are great. I put the strawberry sorbet into water flavored with lemonade Mio water drops and it was amazing. The unflavored is also great in powerade zero and crystal light flavored water. I used the chocolate packet in a coffee (made sure to test the temp first and it was under 140c) and it was fantastic. I ordered three tubs of the unflavored Unjury and one more of the chocolate and am having them mailed to my mom's house, where I will be recovering so they are there waiting for me when I get back. Muscle Milk chocolate is also a powder that I am really enjoying and tonight I tried the Six Star Pro Nutrition Instant Protein Smoothie in mixed berry flavor. I mixed it with milk and it was okay. It was chalky, which I am used to from drinking slim fast way back in the day and I enjoyed the taste surprisingly enough. It was inexpensive at Wal-Mart so I picked it up and though I probably won't buy another bag of it, I don't think I'll have too much trouble finishing off this bag. It's not very big.

All in all my spirits are very high!

So I did it! I'm finally doing this! My surgery is booked for May 29th with Dr. Aceves and I couldn't be more excited, or more scared! My mom and I leave for San Diego on May 27th, spend one night there at the airport hotel and then get picked up and taken to Mexico early on the 28th. I'll have my tests done that day and then spend the night in the hotel room included in our stay. My surgery will happen on the 29th!!! To be honest, I have no regrets about doing this, even this close to the date. I just recently had my 24th birthday and I was so happy to know this year, unlike so many years, that I had actually done what I set out to do the year before; to finally do something about my weight before my next birthday. My surgery hasn't actually happened, but it has been booked since the beginning of the month and knowing that made for the first truly happy birthday I have had since I turned 17. Knowing that for my 25th birthday I will be almost at my one year surgeversary and down, hopefully, into the 100's again for the first time since I was 11 or 12 years old made my day so joyful. Furthermore, I hope to be spending my 25th birthday on vacation in JAPAN!! A place I never thought I would be able to go because of my weight.  I am so excited about traveling there with my brother now, knowing that I will not have to worry about fitting in chairs or train seats in a country developed for a much smaller average weight than North America. I'll still be standing out as a tall, pale, red-haired foreigner, but at least I won't have the embarrassment of being a "typical fat American." I'm Canadian, and plan to have a flag on my backpack proudly displayed, but when Japanese people see white people they instantly think "American" for some reason and they assume that most white people are fat -_-; But anyway I'm rambling.

I start my pre-op diet tomorrow. It will be straight protein, as few carbs as possible and liquids. I was a bit worried that I was not being put on the liquid diet like so many other people have been, but my instructions came straight from my doctor so I will follow them. The point is to shrink the liver with weight loss and as someone who has been on Atkins, I know that a week of no carbs can make you drop weight pretty fast. I think my first successful attempt at Atkins, where I lost 16 pounds total (my most ever lost on any diet I tried) I lost 10 pounds my first week. Even though the doctor said I can eat meat and other proteins that are low carb, I still plan on going totally liquid for the last three days before my surgery to help flush out my system. Not sure if this is a good plan or not, but I think it would help me lose even more weight and make my liver shrink a bit more than eating a solid diet would.

My mom has stocked her house (my "recovery" house,) where I will be spending my time off work with powerade, gatorade, soup broth and a bunch of protein shakes and powders. Also freezies and jello. I hate jello, but Maybe It will seem appetizing after I have been eating nothing but liquid day in and day out. I have also ordered the UNJURY starter kit and picked up a blender ball protein shaker. Multivitamin gummies, chocolate calcium chews and gas-X strips to take with us, and to have at home have also been added to my growing stockpile of supplies. I was wary about getting too much stuff beforehand, in case I come back and don't like some of the stuff I liked before I left. I'll keep posting as things they come up and as the date gets closer :)