Sheri R.

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I saw my surgery team today for my 3month followup and apparently  i am doing great!  I am down 60 pounds, which they said is ahead of the curve.  They want 30% weight loss and I am at 44%.  It has been so up and down I was not sure where I actually stood, so it was very nice to be able to go in and discuss it with my team.  I was not sure if I was going to be able to make this appointment because we lost my husband's insurance and for this month we have NO insurance.  Turns out it was covered under the cost of my operation because it was within the 3-month postop period, which ends TOMORROW.  Eeek!  Nothing like getting in under the wire, lol. 

I bought my first "new" clothes last week, a t-shirt and shorts.  Women's xl (Danskin, even!!!) shirt and a pair of $3.88 men's shorts in size large.  I had some other stuff that I tried on but those clothes were too big!  Apparently I am smaller than I think I am.  :)  I can definitely see the weight loss in my face.  We had dinner with my parents last night and my dad was shocked.  He kept saying "You are getting so small!"  Now THAT'S a major NSV for this girl!!  I am attaching a picture from today to mark my 3 months.  I am actually looking forward to my 6-month followup to see just how much I change in the next 3 months!

Okay picture is not attaching, so I will save it in my album. 

This week is definitely better than the last couple were.  That drreaded stall is finally over and I am again losing.  Woot!  Man I was not prepared to stall so early on, and the incredibly panful results of severe constipation.  Iron is not my friend.  I am going to have to talk to my surgeon at my next visit to find out if injections might be a better option. 

This week, however, the scale is moving again.  I have lost 5 inches off my waistline.  WHAT!!  It is awesome to see the changes in my body.  I actually feel like I am in control of my eating and my success at this point.  I did have a problem yesterday that I was hoping to avoid.  I popped a soft piece of beef into my mouth and apparently didn't chew it well enough and it got stuck.  Very stuck.  I didn't even know it was stuck until about an hour later when I went to eat my yogurt with my meds in it and noticed pain in my stoma.  I was so scared!!  I do NOT want to strecth my pouch or hurt the suture line at my stoma.  I did throw up a few times before it finally resolved.  Lesson learned.  I am going to avoid meat for a couple weeks more.  I had been doing fine with tuna salad and salmon dip, but I am still not comfortable with trying either of those again at this point.  Ugh.  I guess it is all a learning curve but that sure was a hard lesson! 

All in all things are going along well, I think.  38 pounds down from my preop diet until now, so 7 weeks.  Not to shabby! 

The last thing I expected was to plateau the second week after surgery.  Really?  How is that even a little bit fair?  Still, here I was, 29 pounds down from the preop diet for 5 days.  Now, I am used to plateauing at 30 pounds.  Happens on every diet I have ever been on.  I just have never lost so much so fast, apparently!  My body obviously does a reset at 30 pounds.  I knew it was a plateau because on the ridiculously low calories I am taking in there is no other explanation.  I am just glad to see the scale moving again.  :)

It's been two weeks?  Wow.  Times flies when you are learning a new, healthy lifestyle!  I am now down 29 pounds since I started the preop diet 4 weeks ago.  I am still on full liquids but I have added baby food meats to my diet, which helps me deal with the cravings for a nice meat-forward meal.  Too bad I can't barbeque it.  :P  Still, I am doing a good job of keeping up wiith my protein requirements and when I don't, I feel it the next day. 

Two days ago I was noticing extreme fatigue.  Like, get up, get the kid off to school and go back to bed for a 3-hour nap.  I was exhausted by 10 pm even with the ridiculous naps, so I decided to add my sublingual B12 to my morning medication regiment, even though I should have waited until this Friday because I meet with my surgeon that day.  I have had no ill effects from this and I absolutely feel less fatigue.  I was able to stay up all day yesterday and I got a full 8 hours of sleep last night and took the B12 first thing this morning.  It is now 1 pm and I feel great! 

I am so glad I decided to take control of my health again.  I was (still am) a little skeptical that this would be any different from the Lap-Band debaucle but each day I feel better and more hopeful that this is the tool I needed to help me create the body and the life that I want. 

26 pounds down from March 25.  Crazy.  I feel really good but I still get tired easily.  I think I probably push it just a little harder than I should.  I still have a household to run, after all.  :)   Getting that drain out yesterday was life changing.  I just feel so free now that that thing is not tethered to me all the time.

I felt I needed a change tonight for dinner.  While I was at the store I picked up a few baby food items, and tonight I had Turkey and Gravy and also Squash.  I don't think it equaled quite a half cup, but man did it taste good.  I am still on full liquids for another week but I got the super processed foods so they were actually less solid than yogurt.  I think I might make dinner every night something like this.  I still meet my protein goals and it really is satisfying. 

Postop day 4, and I spent the entire day eating 1/2 cup portions over 30 minutes, resting for 15 minutes, drinking 8 ounces of fluid over 60 to 90 minutes, resting for 15 minutes, repeat repeat repeat.  It's a full-time job!!  I got my Sparkpeople page all up to date and added a bunch of recipes (almost all of them for "later") and tracking my goals.  Happy to say I got in 64 gm of protein- woot!- but that was solely due to the shake/pudding thing I had for breakfast, which was too thick at a 1/2 cup and had to be thinned, so tomorrow I don't really expect to hit goal quite so easily.  Hunger is still a thing, unfortunately, and my son's egg rolls he made for dinner almost drove me to gnaw off my right arm (I am left handed, so...) but I had myself a half cup of cream of chicken soup, Campbell's, made with water, and that seems to be holding hunger at bay fairly well right now.  I go to bed in an hour and  half and I plan to make this here 9 oz glass of water last that long.  My urine output is not what I want it to be and tomorrow I plan to up the liquid consumption considerably.  I also want to find out if I can get this JP drain out soon.  It's on my nerves.  :P 

My first day home from the hospital.  I got home late last evening.  The kept me for an extra day and a half because I apparently have severe apnea after surgery and they could not get me to breathe for quite some time.  I look like a human pin cushion, lol.  I guess they were trying to draw blood for blood tests?  Of all the things I could have that are tiny, I get veins?  Not tiny waist or tiny tummy?  Yay me.  :P  

Today is DEFINITELY the best day so far.  I was also super nauseous for all of postop day 1 and also part of yesterday.  I am not a fan of being nauseous.  I hope that doesn't return.  I am also at my exact weight the day of surgery, so once this gas dissipates and some of this fluid retention is gone I hope to also see some actual pounds lost.  Here's to a new, heathlier me!!