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I celebrated the 90-day mark by going to LA Fitness to workout for an hour (20 minutes on the Treadmill and 40 minutes on the recumbent bike). Afterwards I went to Target and bought my first box of protein bars. Not as big a selection of high quality protein bars as I would have liked. I would have went to GNC but it was late and they were already closed. I ended up with a box of Atkins Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars. 19 grams of protein and 240 calories. The price was right... about 5.50 for 5 bars. I probably would have paid twice that at GNC. And they do look delish.

I also found out today that they're building a new Vitamin Shoppe right down the street from my house. Add to that the LA Fitness and GNC store a few blocks away and I'm set for life. Ah, the simple pleasures of living in a first ring 'burb.

As for tonight... New Year's Eve... I have no plans to stay home on the couch. I'm going out to a swanky bar to party with my husband and some friends. But hold your horses (and your lectures) kids, I'll be the designated driver. Pre-op I used to love my martinis. Cosmos specifically. Post-op I don't even miss 'em. I've lost all interest in alcohol. It's strange. Sort of like a switch was flipped in me the day I got my DS. Booze doesn't appeal to me anymore. I guess that's a good thing, esp. for my weight loss.

Don't get me wrong though, I've still gone out for happy hour to hang out with friends/family many times since my surgery. My cocktail of choice is a small OJ with a splash of grenadine. It's kind of like a Tequila Sunrise, without the tequila. I can make one of those last an hour or more, and never have more than one. Watching the calories and sugars, ya know!  But since we'll be celebrating the New Year, maybe I'll even get the bartender to put an umbrella in my orange juice tonight. 

Now I'm off to paw through my closet to find something sexy to wear tonight. At the very least I'll be raiding my daughter's shoe collection and stealing a pair of her heels. I haven't worn heels for a couple of years at least... because I was too fat. Not anymore. I'm down 74 pounds so far. Woo-hoo!

TMI WARNING!

I was outside putting up Xmas lights earlier when I suddenly had "to go"... #2. I barely made it to the house and *almost* shit my pants. Close call. Very close call. LOL!

I've only had diarreha once before since my DS, about 4 weeks post-op. Well, I think I've identified the culprit. Organic Coconut Milk. It's the unsweetened Coconut Milk that's used as a dairy substitute. The first time this happened I used it in a smoothie. Today, I had a small scoop of dairy free ice cream. Coconut Milk was the main ingredient.

I logged in here and did a search and found a post indicating that Coconut Milk is a laxative. Who knew?  Let this serve as a warning to other clueless recent post-ops like me. Beware of coconut milk. Or at least make sure you're not outside in 10 degree weather wearing a jillion layers of clothes if nature calls...

---> Posted the following on the DS Forum a couple days ago. I figured I should add it to my blog too for posterity. :)

Post Date: 12/7/11 6:44 pm

I went out clothes shopping today for the first time since my DS surgery. I couldn't put it off any longer... my belt was at the smallest notch and my jeans were hanging on my ass like the sleeve of a wizard. I almost forgot how fun clothes shopping is.. it's been about 10 years since I really enjoyed it (back when I was 135 lbs due to a starvation diet, too much exercise and not enough sleep. Long story.)

Where to go? I swore to myself that I would never step foot in a Lane Bryant again after my surgery. No more fat stores for me. I decided to try Land's End. They carry some larger stuff along with regular sizes. I expected to just buy a new pair of jeans to get me through the next month or two. I ended up buying half the store, or it least it seemed that way.

I totally freaked out when I tried on a size Large and it fit perfectly. Not LARGE in the PLUS SIZE area... but Large in the REGULAR ladies area. Holy shit! I ended up buying three tops that actually fit me and make me look so much thinner than the crap I've wearing since my surgery. I also got a cute new fleece vest and a new winter Jacket (it's cold up here!). The biggest shocker was the size 16 jeans. My old jeans were 20/22's at least. I think. They had a tag that said Lane Bryant Petite 3. WTH? What's a Petite 3? That must be their code for not letting you know how fat you really are.

Anyway... I had the gal at the checkout cut off the tags so I could run to car and put on some of my fancy new stuff right away. My joy quickly turned to annoyance when I got to my car and found that some dipshit had parked 10 inches from my driver's side door. I figured I was screwed and would have to try crawling through the passenger's side door and over the center console. Well, I squeezed and I fit through my door. Barely. I never would have been able to fit my ass through that small car door opening a few months ago. After that I drove to a remote spot in the parking lot, stripped off my crappy old fat clothes and put on my jiggy new threads.

I am so high on myself right now.  Someone please slap me back to reality.

I was having a terrible time tolerating much more than liquids and broth about 3.5 weeks post-op. Things like dairy, yogurt and cottage cheese are supposedly a staple in the first month or two when you can't eat much else. I was getting the foamies, sliming, barfing, etc. I tried the Ricotta Cheese bake faux lasagne recipe that's been posted on the DS Forum. Barf. Yogurt. Foamies. Cheese. Slime! I was beginning to suspect lactose intolerance.

After a particularly bad episode eating three spoonfuls of cottage cheese I consulted with my surgeon. He suggested completely removing dairy from my diet for a while. It's been 5 weeks since I've attempted having dairy as a meal. I've had a few small pieces of cheese along the way, but that's been it.

I was cleaning out my fridge this morning and throwing out several containers of yummy looking fancy greek yogurt that had expired. Then there it was... one container of strawberry Yoplait. Still good for two more weeks. Oh, what the hell... I decided I'd give it a try. No lactaid first. It took me an hour but I finished the whole thing. No slime. No foam. No barf. Maybe I can tolerate lactose after all.

One of my fav foods is nachos with cheese. For a while there I thought I'd never have it again. Ever. Now I am plotting a way to make some healthy nachos with cheese. Maybe a small handful of Wheat Thins, sprinkled with mexican cheese and red cayenne pepper popped under the broiler for a minute. Yum. I'll let you know how that works out. :)

In case anyone is interested, here are the two blenders I bought after my WLS. I love them both. One is really large, a good all-purpose blender. The other is small and easy to clean for single serving jobs.

Cuisinart Poweredge 700 Blender
(Got mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond using a 20% off coupon that came in the mail)
http://www.cuisinartwebstore.com/detail/CUI+CBT-700

Magic Bullet model 7712
http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Bullet-Express-17-Piece-High-Speed/dp/B000AEZVRS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1322420575&sr=8-2

I didn't have any expectations for Thanksgiving other than to sit at the table and enjoy the company of my family while they had dinner. Luckily I didn't have to do any of the cooking. That's my husband's department. He's a tremendous cook! I sampled his stuffing earlier in the day and it stayed down. Victory! Then he whipped up a very fancy meat and cheese tray as an appetizer while the turkey was roasting. Figures. After some prodding from him "C'mon you gotta eat something..." I chewed up a lactaid tablet and tried a few small pieces of cheese expecting the worst. They stayed down too. Yay! So far, so good.

I was feeling a bit more confident for dinner and tried a couple more tablespoons of stuffing, a few scraps of moist turkey with gravy and a spoonful of corn. The corn must have been just a bit too much for my stomach to deal with. I snuck away from the table towards the end of dinner to go barf up the obligatory mucous/slime in the toliet. The food did stay down though.

We all went for a really long walk after dinner. Even if my food choices for the holiday were suspect, at least adding some exercise was a smart move. I was feeling really good after the walk so I let my daughter talk me into a very thin slice of French Silk Pie for dessert. Stayed away from the crust just ate the soft fluffy stuff. It didn't take much to fill me up. No reaction. No barfing. Nothing. Bizarre. I eat stuff that's healthy and it makes be ill, then I eat stuff that is clearly naughty and I'm fine. Is this some type of cruel joke or what? LOL!  Total calorie intake for Thanksgiving Day was right around 600 calories. That's probably a record high for me.

While enjoying my forbidden pie I perused the Black Friday ads. Macy's was selling a Magic Bullet blender for a screaming good price of 36.99. The only catch is that I had to go out at midnight to get one. Fortunately, it's not like I was competing to score a flat panel TV at Walmart. I couldn't imagine getting in a wrestling match with another shopper over a silly blender so I decided to brave the shopping madness and hit the Mall at midnight. Score! I was in and out of Macy's with my new Bullet in less than 15 minutes.

I had bought myself a fancy, new and much too large Cuisinart blender right when I got home from my surgery. It's an awesome blender but oh so cumbersome to clean when I'm just making a protein shake for one. So many WLS folks swear by the Magic Bullet. I'm looking forward to taking it for spin today.

The day after Thanksgiving my culinary-gifted husband (he rocks!) used the turkey carcass to make turkey soup. Finally something I know won't make me hurl! I had three bowls of that soup yesterday and got in lots of protein.

So, how did I do? On Thanksgiving morning I was down 2 lbs from the previous day. The day after Thanksgiving I had dropped another 1/2 lb and after the three bowls of soup on Friday I was the same weight the next morning. I lost a grand total of 7 pounds during the week of Thanksgiving. No complaints here. :-)

I spent 2 hours out in the yard trimming bushes, climbing ladders and scaling trees putting up Christmas lights this afternoon. I actually "forgot" that I had surgery recently... or I might have thought twice about getting on that ladder. That's how normal I've been feeling physically lately. Yay! I joined LA Fitness a few weeks ago and I'm able to do the bike and treadmill for an hour without stopping. Two weeks before my surgery I couldn't walk a block without feeling like I was going to die. Huge improvement in my cardio-vascular health in the past two months. HUGE!

I've been really good about getting all my vitamins in every day. It's become a routine by now. However I have been slacking on my blood pressure meds. My bad. I bought a new weekly pill organizer box at Walgreen's and by the time I add my Vite's for each day there's no room in each compartment for anything else... hence no Lisinopril. Having said that I took my blood pressure reading a few days ago. 130/82. Amazing. My BP was 195/108 back in Sept (two mos. ago). I'm getting to the point where I probably don't need the BP meds anyway, so I don't feel too guilty about slacking.

I wish my new stomach was adjusting as fast as the rest of me. The slimeing/mucous thing has improved markedly in the past three weeks but it's not totally gone. I'm not consuming much in the way of normal, solid foods yet. I am surviving on Isopure Protein Shakes, Wheat Thin crackers, jello, pudding and Campbell's Soup at Hand cans of soup. Checked with my surgeon and he's not too concerned yet. I've talked to other DS and VSG patients and get mixed suggestions. Some say that I should be on solid food by now and my situation is NOT normal. Others say they had great difficulty in the first few months transitioning to solid foods and everything worked out fine.

I was craving a salad SO bad last night that I broke down and bought one of those Asian salad-in-a-bag things. I poured the bag of lettuce on my cutting board and chopped it up into coleslaw sized pieces. I was THOROUGH! Took me at least 10 minutes of dicing... then I added the dressing. I had 5 or 6 tablespoons of salad (at most). My husband and kids had the rest. It was divine, but of course 15 minutes later my stomach started to hurt and I ended up barfing up mucous and slime (yet the salad stayed down). Chalk that up to another food I guess I can't eat yet.

It''s frustrating. I have no problem with the new smaller portion size I'm relegated to eating. I totally fine with that. I'd just love to have something other than soup without getting sick. Maybe some chili or a few bites of "real" protein like chopped chicken or a scrambled egg. Sigh.

Right now I am averaging about 400 calories a day and logging everything I can (and can't) eat. I'm hoping to get up to 700 calories a day. If I am able to climb trees and workout for an hour at a time on such a low cal existence... just imagine the energy I'd have if I could eat more of a healthy diet with some solid or semi solid foods! I'm not holding out any hope for anything other than some turkey soup for Thanksgiving next week, but maybe, just maybe by Christmas my stomach will settle down enough for a thin slice of ham and a spoonful of veggies. Maybe. :-)

The Good

I drove to Mexico, had a DS performed by two of the best surgeons south of the border and drove back and survived. Not just survived, but thrived and had an amazing time! My profile pic on this page was taken the day I was released from the hospital. We left Mexicali and drove to the Imperial Sand Dunes in Southern California near the Arizona border. Six days post-op and I had enough energy to climb way to the top of a sand dune! I had the Lap DS, so physically my recovery has been remarkably fast. In some ways (at least energy level and blood pressure wise) I felt better six days post-op that I did six days pre-op. My distolic blood pressure had already dropped 10 points by the time I was discharged from the hospital.

The long drive from Mexico back to Minnesota was no problem post-op. It was like a mini-vacation. We did a little sightseeing, stopped whenever I felt like it and did plenty of walking. We even got caught in a surprise early October snowstorm on the way home and had to pull off the Interstate near Cheyenne, Wyoming. We spent an hour playing in the snow and taking pictures near the state capital. My husband got tired and went back to the car before I did! 

My Lap DS recovery has been TEN TIMES easier and quicker than the one unplanned C-Section I ended up getting when my youngest was born 19 years ago. And I was in my mid-20’s at time. Everyone stressed to me that DS is a major, MAJOR surgery, so I was prepared for a lot worse. I must be one of the lucky few that sails right through the physical part of the post-op DS recovery. That’s not to say it’s all been perfect. I have some minor stomach issues (more on that later) but physically I’m doing great.

The best part so far? Survived my first spinning class two days ago! My brother is a competitive bike racer and does spinning in the off-season for conditioning. He’s totally ripped and buff and not fat and out of shape like me. LOL! He took me to his health club as a guest to try the spinning class. We hopped on the bikes and started to warm up. I was horrified when he then told me that the class was an hour long. Noooo!  Then he said “Don’t worry” and explained that he had taken his teenage daughter (my niece) to the class a few weeks earlier. She only lasted 30 minutes in the class before she had to stop.

Relief. I figured I could handle a half hour. 30 minutes passed. Then 45 minutes. My legs felt great! I had lots of energy left! But my ass was killing me! It felt like I had a brick shoved up my rear end. Those bike seats are brutal! At 50 minutes I hopped off the bike to give my butt a break. I stood there for a minute and was bored already, so I jumped back on the bike and finished the class. Yay me! I’m planning to go in and join his club (LA Fitness) tomorrow. However, I will be buying one of those after market gel seat covers for my butt before I jump on the spin bike again. 

The Bad

My Grandmother passed away last week. She had a long, wonderful life and was 83 years old. Since I was giving her eulogy, I made sure I didn’t eat anything that morning – stuck to water. I didn’t want to start slime-ing or foaming at the mouth while I was up at the podium speaking.

Afterwards there was a luncheon at the church. Lovely. A huge buffet and not a thing I could eat. I took a couple pieces of fruit, one spoonful of broccoli salad and a ham sandwich. I put the sandwich on my plate for “looks”. I wasn’t planning to eat it… just didn’t want to stand out as having nothing on my plate. My son grabbed the sandwich off my plate when no one was looking and polished it off. What a good kid!

So anyway, I ate two small bite sized cubed pieces of watermelon, one strawberry and two very small broccoli florettes (all well chewed to mush). That’s it. Ten minutes later I was out behind the church barfing in the grass as my brother was holding the backdoor so I wouldn’t get locked out of the chapel. LOL!  Sounds horrible, but it was actually kind of funny. You should have seen the look of horror on my brother’s face! Priceless!  Fortunately. none of the food was coming up, just slime. Clear mucous. Projectile clear gunk. :-O  That’s been happening with some frequency lately whenever I try to ingest anything that’s not plain broth. Even happens with water sometimes. Hoping it’s just a phase and goes away soon.

The Ugly

I was hoping to keep news of my surgery under wraps until perhaps the holidays… then I was going to let the cat out of the bag. I had been planning this bad boy in secret for years. My husband was aware of my plans about three years ago when I went through whole insurance routine – six month supervised diet, etc. Then I lost my insurance coverage a few weeks before my scheduled surgery due to the sale of the company I worked for.

Earlier this year I decided I was going to do it self pay. In Mexico. I researched and planned for six months. No one had a clue. Not even my husband. If they had, they would have tried to talk me out of it. I mean really…. Mexico?! LOL! Yeah, I waited until the whole thing was scheduled and paid for and then I sprung it on my husband and kids a few weeks before the actual surgery date. I went to visit my father two days before I left town to go to Mexico and told him. He freaked out, of course. He told me that I was going to get kidnapped, car jacked, sold into white-slavery and/or come back on a slab. Ha! He cracks me up! Then he calmed down and listened to what I had to say and understood my reasons. He wanted me to call him every day while I was gone.  

I didn’t tell my mother until after the surgery. She thought I was down in Mexico getting some dental work done, which I was. I got a bunch of much needed work done in Los Algodones, BC, Mexico a few days before my surgery. My smile looks gorgeous BTW! Since the deed was already done, Mom couldn't waste my time trying to talk me out of the surgery. She was very happy and supportive about the whole thing once I told her, especially since I sounded so well on the phone after having had my guts rearranged. I swore her to secrecy. Or so I thought....

Fast forward to Grandma’s funeral two days ago. Everyone there told me how great I was looking and wanted to know if I was feeling well. WHAT?!? I don’t think there was a single relative, friend or acquaintance there who HADN’T heard about my weight loss surgery. SERIOUSLY?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! My husband and kids wouldn’t have dared uttered a peep. Who ratted me out? Apparently, BOTH my parents (who are divorced and don’t even communicate with each other) were blabbing about it to everyone! They were so excited and happy that I was losing weight and getting healthy (esp. since my stage 2 hypertension was a big reason I did this).

I'm not even mad. Just terribly amused.