Dorine63

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Well, thank goodness my surgeon put me back on my diuretic. I have been extremely happy since I took my pill this morning. While I spent a lot of time running to the bathroom, when I stepped on the scale this evening I had dropped 20 lbs of water just today. Getting that much weight off in just a day has me feeling so much better. By this evening I was feeling so good that I took the dogs for a short walk. We both really enjoyed as the dogs were bouncy and I was cheery. It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. I know I won't be dropping anywhere close to what I did today, but wouldn't be surprised if there is at least a few pounds as I still have some swelling to my lower legs. Was discussing my weight loss with my signif/other. All the sudden he stated, "You lost 43 lbs. in the last month. That is tremendous." He is as happy as I am with my results so far. I was extremely touched the other day when he told me that he was totally supportive of what I am doing to improve myself. He has always been awesome; five years ago he was supportive of my decision to get an education and now I have 2 degrees. Now I am improving my health and he is my biggest cheerleader. Today is an awesome day and I am enjoying it.

It has been an interesting day for my first follow-up. I have been really concerned as I hadn't lost any weight and in fact have been gaining weight since surgery. Needless to say I was ready with some questions. Overall I am healing nicely from the surgery and he explained why they changed my surgery from a BPD/DS to a VSG. It was to protect my liver and he stated that in 6-9 months we can consider doing the duodenal switch as well as long as it won't jeopardize my liver. Was glad to hear that it was an option and that my liver did not have a lot of damage. On the other hand, we then moved on to the fact that I was only down 2 lbs. from my starting weight and had actually gained 20 lbs since the morning of my surgery. He looked at me for a minutes then informed me that I was retaining a lot of "surgery water". Needless to say he told me to restart my diuretic for now. Guess it may be something i will have to continue indefinitely. Hopefully as I lose weight and my circulation improves, I may be able to stop it then. So in the morning I will start taking my diuretic again. Will have to weigh myself tomorrow just to see how much water weight I have been retaining. My clothes have been comfortable instead of fitted which is why I couldn't believe I hadn't lost & had gained. Will be happy if the water weight loss brings me back to my surgery day weight. (As a beginning that is) But my surgeon says I am healing well and he is impressed that I was able to walk about 1/4 mile a couple times a week. Will be interesting to see what distance I am up to in a month. May have to look into marathons around here. Not because it is a dream to be in one, but just to participate in one as I have never thought I would be able to. Sometimes the thought of things I will be able to if I want to seems limitless.

Am having one of those days when I am not hungry at all. Have had to force myself to take anything in. I had nausea until noon so I spent the morning sipping on my ice water. I have drank a couple of cups broth trying to keep my fluids up. About mid afternoon I ate 150 calories from my liquid diet. It is now 8pm and I cannot get motivated to consume anything else. Only a couple of days into a full liquid diet and could not wait to have a bigger selection to drink besides clear liquids last week. Now I seem to be drinking broth and being satisfied. I have been looking at my bariatric cookbooks more for preparing my pantry for when I enter the pureed/soft food diet in a couple weeks. The only problem is that so many of the items I have been looking at seem to be high in carbs. What is a preferable range amount to keep carbs in? Am still trying to learn what are good carbs and which are bad. Am really concerned with sabotaging my diet by not knowing. I think that is part of why I keep going back to the clear liquids that I know are low in everything and use my supplement that is high in protein and low in everything else. Family is starting to ask questions about foods I can/can't have and how to/how not to prepare food when I visit. Am having trouble answering some of their questions as they are ones I haven't been able to find the answer to myself. If someone knows a good resource for getting answers to some of these questions, I would appreciate the help. 

Had my surgery one week ago, so have completed my one week of clear liquid diet. Never thought I would be so happy to have a protein supplement. As a treat for making it to the next level, I added shaved ice to make my supplement like a chocolate shake. It was so filling that it took me over an hour to consume, but I enjoyed every bite. I look back over the last week and realized that I spent a lot of time stressing myself out. I worried about weight loss, protein intake, calorie intake, drinking too little, pushing my exercising to soon. I was a mess with over-analyzing. So have decided to stop worrying and concentrate on letting my body heal and as I feel better, pick up activities gradually. I think that I am so excited about all the new things that will start happening that I need to take the time to enjoy what is currently changing like getting use to the new signals coming from my body and what each one means. Will be glad when my gas decreases. So many time I will take a drink to have it feel like I may vomit until I burp. While I haven't had a problem with things coming back up, I do keep a container by my chair just in case. Well am off to the store to get a few things for my full liquid diet. 

Am having a rough start today and stomach feels like it has been through a boxing match. Last night for my evening snack I had a popsicle out of the package of ones my Mom brought me. I didn't double check to make sure they were sugarfree and they weren't. Needless to say, my stomach has a lot of gas and nausea and feels like it has taken a beating. I will definitely be reading labels in the future or asking questions on anything that is given to me to eat. This is definitely a situation I do not want a repeat of. 

Am trying different things and seeing what my body will tolerate. Try to remember to start small and go slow so as to not injure anything. Today feel I could take a nap and it is only mid morning. Am sure that it is because my stomach feels so bad. Plan on taking my walk soon and maybe that will help me feel better. 

Had my surgery 4 days ago, so am still on my liquid diet. Probably a good thing since I can't lose the feeling of nausea. Am able to keep broth and jello down, but that's about the limit of my diet. On the other hand, when my nausea isn't flaring up, I feel more energetic and use the time walking or doing an activity of some kind. Am still sore and have bruising, but those will go away soon. Sometimes it just makes movement uncomfortable, but try to just plow through. Am looking forward to my follow-up appointment with my surgeon. It will nice to see if I have lost weight, since after surgery since I gained 10 lbs. (I am sure it is from the swelling associated with surgery). It is also when I get the results of my biopsy which will determine whether they can continue with the second part of my surgery. Not looking forward to another surgery and hospital stay, but would like to have to deal with the soreness and special diets all at the same time. Am excited for the appointment and ready to start trying new things/foods. Have a feeling that my new stomach is going to be a lot more picky than my old one. Have found that there are even some liquids that make me feel like throwing up. Am starting to also be able to tell when I am getting close to being full. Have been keeping my food diary, but will have to discuss it with my surgeon. Right now am eating about 50-75 calories a day with 2-3 mg of protein. Will be short-lived as in a few days when I can start full liquids, I can have my supplemental shakes that will cover all my protein needs and will bring my calorie intake to about 600. 

Have a new goal besides those revolving around me and my journey. Now I get to be a mentor and inspiration for my younger step-sister. Like me, she is obese and has been for most of her life. She stated that she is looking at "big sis" as her inspiration and support for doing the program well also. Her seminar is when I am 3 weeks post-op and it will be wonderful guiding her through the requirements. Have already given her the names and contact information of all the doctors/agencies that I used so she doesn't have to search for one that will accept her insurance as it is the same as mine. Able to fore-warn her of things that the insurance will want extra information. She is even using the same primary care physician as me as my physician knows what information and tests are needed for the bariatric clinic. For us it isn't a competition on who can lose the weight fastest, but a partnership that we can do together.

Our only concern is her mother. She is a very competitive and it has always been a big issue for her  that she makes sure she weighs less than us even at the risk of  doing a starvation diet without physician supervision. She exists on popcorn alone and we can tell that she is mal-nutritioned. In fact my sister has told me that she has started going into a binge/fast routine as soon as I had my surgery in an effort to "stay ahead of me in weight loss". Just hoping that we can get through to her that there is no way to compete with WLS in a healthy way and even if she wanted to do a type of extremely low calorie she needs to be under physician care and be sure that she is taking supplements. We try to get her to understand as we don't want her to develop a disease from malnutrition, but have not gotten through to her yet. Guess all we can do is keep trying. 

Was discharged this morning. Was doing ok, but continued to have pain. If asked if I would do it again, my answer would be "absolutely". Started off having the BPD/DS (Biliopancreatic diversion with Duodenal Switch), but ended up only getting the sleeve part of it as there was a problem with my liver. While the were in doing the surgery they were able to get a biopsy. Will get the results of biopsy when I go from my 1 week follow-up, then we will decide whether to progress and do the Duodenal Switch or just stay with the sleeve. It has been a positive experience & I am healing well. I appreciate all the well wishes and thank you for them..  

Had my surgery  today, but was only able to have 1/2 of it done. They were able to do the sleeve portion of my surgery, but when they got in the surgeons realized I had a problem with my liver. So they did the sleeve and at my 1st follow-up I will get the results of my liver biopsy. He said it is a precaution and that the results will determine if I am able to have the switch like I wanted. Am sure I will get it if Doc says it's an option. 

Came through surgery with flying colors. The pain on the first day was rough, but they were able to keep me medicine that I slept most of the time. Now have been up & about. I feel a lot better. Thanks for your support and well wishes. They were totally appreciated. They weighted me and I have put on 10 lbs. of the 22.4 I lost. I was like "What". Then i remembered there you be a lot of trauma which increases water weight. so OK it will come off soon,

What a day! Have vented and am positive and cheerful again. Discussed the cooking thing which had a positive result. I had my healthy pre-op diet for supper and feel good. Just have to get through tomorrow, then Friday morning it is off to surgery. Would not have been surprised it I would be getting a little nervous as it is surgery. However, I don't have jittery nerves, second thoughts, or any of the other symptoms. Am looking forward to it and have started packing my hospital bag. Will finish it tomorrow and sit it by the front door. Have some foods ready for when I come home so that I won't have to go grocery shopping right away. Feel like & hope that I have prepared everything that I will need through the next week. Thank you for all the support everyone has given me. It has made this part of my journey more enjoyable. Now I am getting prepared for the next leg; all the changes that are about to occur & getting to know others better & to offer encouragement & support to others. Am getting sleepy, so will bid all a good night.  

Right now I could surely chew an entire box! Before starting my pre-op diet, I had told my signif/other that I wanted a vegetable dish we like and I need him to give me a ride to the store. Well that never happened and I will now have to wait for several month before my stomach will be able to tolerate it. Today he informed me that he was given a zucchini at work and wanted that dish for supper. I looked up the recipe for him and told him the cookbook was on the counter. His response was, "I'm not cooking!" While I have helped him with some of the cooking of his meals while I have been on my pre-op diet, it has been things that are baked or microwaved not something that I love and have to stand over smelling it while it cooks. Before starting the diet, he was "I'm going out to eat every day while you are on your diet." Now he wants me to be his personal cook all the while telling me, "You can't have it." Have watched shows on bariatric patients and he will comment on how horrible it is for family & friends to sit in front of the person eating some of their favorite foods when they are not to eat them. Right now he is being worse by not only eating it in front of me--But wanting me to COOK it. Am so angry at him I could cry. Guess it is just another hurdle to overcome. There will always be those that are thoughtless even though they "say" they want you to succeed. My choice I guess is to turn irritation and frustration into determination: I will make it through my pre-op diet without cheating and after surgery I am going to follow Doctor's order so I can achieve MY goals.

Thanks to those who have listened to me vent. Sometime I guess everyone need to let off some steam.