Post-Surgery... 10 Days.

I don't even know where to begin. This has been the craziest and longest 10 days of my life.

Surgery day:

All was good. Weighed myself the morning of surgery: 331 pounds. Not proud of it but it was reality. 3 pounds less than the week before.
Surgery went great... recovery was painful. I kept wailing for my mom and they drugged me pretty good on Dilaudid. I love me some Dilaudid. I don't remember anything Thursday after surgery. I had really great nurses that night who kept up on my pain medicine. Tip #1: NO MATTER IF YOU FEEL GOOD OR NOT KEEP UP ON YOUR PAIN MEDICINE!!!!! One of my biggest mistakes. I would feel good and not get it and a hour later I was in miserable pain.

Tip #2: Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk! I was up and walking as soon as I got to my room Thursday after surgery (or so they tell me). I wasn't running marathons but it really help with all the gas pains I was feeling.

Friday is almost as blurry as Thursday except I remember some visitors I had and I remember I got my drain out. That felt so good to be out of my body. I also got apple juice. Oh, the small things in life! They did switch me from Dilaudid to liquid Loratab. Not happy. The Loratab wasn't responding to my pain as much as the Dilaudid did. However the doctor told me straight forward that they wouldn't let me go home with the Dilaudid (I guess it's just not something they do) so I sucked it up and got use to the Loratab.

Saturday I was nauseous taking the multivitamins. They wanted to keep me another night but I was determined to get home as soon as I could.


The next days were painful. Painful... sucky... depressing... I hated what I had done to myself. I wanted everything I couldn't have to eat. I had not had a BM so I couldn't start protein and I was in pain. I hated my husband and step-daughter for eating foods I couldn't. I cried. Life sucked.

My husband took me back to the ER Tuesday after more pain which Loratab wasn't touching and the lack of the BM. Tip #3: Don't worry if you haven't gone #2 until you are about a week out. In that department I was fine... the pain department they gave me some more medication and I felt much better. I had lots of fluid draining in my lower abdomen which the doctor said will go away with time.

It wasn't until Thursday after talking to one of my dear WLS buddies when things turned around. My advice was "You had the surgery. There is nothing you can do about it now. It won't be reversed. You need to suck it up and make life great now because you won't remember this pain when you are putting on your skinny pants and they are too big."

And she was right. I needed to snap out of this. I needed to start making myself do things around the house, taking normal times to rest and heal, and moving on with my  new life. Do I miss food? Yes. I'm on liquids for a month... who wouldn't? Do I sometimes still hate my husband for what he eats? Yes, but I also know he has to eat, is as skinny as a rail, and healthy.

So I've showered, walked more, gotten out of the house, done more housework, and today? I'm tackling the grocery store to make my family some homemade spaghetti and meatballs. And that is okay. The food head hunger is slowly decreasing and my energy is up. I've found a way to drink my nasty protein (more in a later post) and I am sticking to my guidelines perfectly.

And on the scale today? I've lost 17 pounds in 10 days. I am a little scared that I am loosing too fast... but I have heard that it will slow down and stall out here in a bit.

So, there's the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly... Hopefully my days upcoming are much more good than ugly :)

Twas the Night Before Surgery...

and all through this house is hunger. I am so hungry right now. I've been on only clear liquids for a day... liquids for 2 days... and I am starving. I could kill someone for food right now. But I found some really yummy sugar free Popsicles that have pacified my homicidal ideations right now.

So here is how the befores and updates will go:

Every month I will take pictures wearing a black shirt and jeans to update my progress. I thought it would be an easy outfit to continue having the same of during my weight loss and would be easy for comparisons. So, without further ado:

There's really not much more to say other than I'm glad this is the old me. The me I won't return to. The me I'm saying goodbye to tomorrow at 1:00pm!! Happy St. Patricks Day!!

Getting things together...

A quick update to share some things I've bought to begin my post-op journey... which starts in 5 days!!

1) A weight loss cookbook:

I know I won't be needing this for a couple weeks post-op but it's fun looking through it and getting ideas of what I can make and eat soon. I thought that maybe since my taste buds change so much after surgery that I could try and do a "Julie and Julia" thing and work through the whole book. That seems really ambitious so we will see...

2) Daily Vitamins:

I decided to go with the Calcium Crystals so I can avoid taking any pills or eating really expensive calcium bites 6-7 times a day. I think I have to have 3 scoops of the crystals (which can mix with my protien) a day and they say to break it up throughout the day. Then after some advice on a WLS forum I switched from my nutritionist-wrongly-recommended Flintstone Vitamins and went with a chewable Centrum Silver. I still won't have to take extra iron, unless my labs come back low, and it is way better for me. Thanks for all the advice my fellow OH'ers!

3) PROTEIN!!!!!!:

I definitely need to stock up some more on this... All I've bought are the little samples you see. The big Whey Protein in the back is so old from when my husband decided he was going to "buff up"... It's a vanilla flavor so I think it would be good with some smoothies. However, the nectar brand only has 26ish grams of protein per package... doesn't seem like a great of a deal but I will try it out anyways. I think I'm also going to invest in ISOPURE unflavored protein... it's 50 grams for 2 scoops and I could put it in about everything.

4) A New Scale:

No picture... still in the box... but I will be breaking it out soon- Stay tuned for another blog post on this!

Even though I feel like I'm ready for surgery there is still a lot of things I want to get before Thursday morning:

• More protein
• A food journal
• A shaker to mix my drinks in
• A reusable water bottle
• A new Pure water filter 
• Different 0 calorie, 0 sugar drinks to try after surgery

And there is so much more to do blog-wise before hand! Take measurements, show my before weight (SO not looking forward to that), take before pictures, etc. All of which I will share with you, fellow bloggers! Until next time...

Pre-Op Requirements? Complete!

It's been a very busy week for my pre-op requirements and I am proud to say that they are all over!! We are now smooth sailing until March 17th. I have never looked forward to St. Patrick's day as much as I have this year :)

On Thursday, I went to my nutrition class and pre-op class. It went by so fast for being an all day class. I learned a ton and feel much better about what is headed my way post-op. Everything from diet, to exercise, to mental breakdowns, to time in surgery was covered. I think my husband (my support) was even impressed with everything he learned. I also got to go "shopping" for my post-op supplies (more on this in another post).

On Friday, or as I called it "The Day of Pain", I completed all of my pre-op testing. It took them 4 times before finding a vein for my bloodwork... ouch! I'm now the owner of 4 beautiful bruises covering my arms. Then it was urine test, a test to see about ulcers, a chest x-ray, a abdominal ultra sound, a lung capacity test, an EKG, and the upper GI with Barium. I've still trying to recuperate from the Barium. Then I headed to my OBGYN, 1 1/2 hours away, to get my girl parts checked. I still have no idea why that test was needed but it's completed.

Now the waiting arrives. Waiting for surgery and waiting to make sure all the above mentioned tests are okay. I have I mentioned that I hate waiting?