kalhoun

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I know I haven't blogged in quite awhile and it feels good to get back to the routine for sure. I think I will break down the last week or so by day so I remember all the details.

March 15th - Day before surgery
Arrived in Medicine Hat at 7:00 pm and got settled into our hotel and went out for dinner. I was very nervous so supper didn't sit well and I was up all night feeling both excitement and worry.

March 16th - Surgery Day
Arrived at the hospital at 6:00 am and surgery was scheduled for 7:45 am. Got weighed, poked, vitals, gowned and banned and was wheeled into surgery about 7:45. Feeling excited and not at all scared, very relaxed really. The staff couldn't find a vein so they found one in my wrist while I was on the operating table. Went to sleep fast and woke up in my hospital room with my husband Frank at my side. I think the time was around noon. My surgeon called my husband to say everything went well with no complications. Don't really remember feeling much pain, but then I don't remember much of that first day. 

March 17th - Day 1 Recovery
Feeling tired and didn't sleep well, hospital was noisy. Had some discomfort but the morfine worked its magic. Also get shots of heprin ( blood thinner) and have my legs in these cool socks that blow up and down to prevent blood clots. I have a drain on my left side which has to be emptied once a day or so. Had clear liquids today, its good to just to drink water for now as I feel very dry. IV is pumping some kind of liquid into me and I think a antibiotic. Got up today and showered and took a walk around the unit. It felt good to get up but I didn't like the drain that much and I was very light headed. 

March 18th - Day 2
Tired still, still no sleep due to noise in the unit. Got up twice today and made 2 laps around the unit and had a shower. Starting to feel some discomfort but don't want to take morifine as it puts me to sleep so they gave me tynolnol 3s which made me very naesous and fuzzy so I didn't take those again.  Received lovely flowers from my  family today and started to take in some broth and juice which tasted really good. I was given my vitamins  along with the tynanol 3s but I could barley get them down and I don't think the staff really understood what I went through as they keep telling me to swallow big gulps of water to get the big pills down but on the other hand I was still on clear liquids and boy did those pills hurt going down.

March 19th - Day 3
So tired, slept a bit better but still noisy in the unit. I'm up a lot now, graduated to full liquids and the cream soups are yummy and so is the pudding. Not taking anything for pain other than tynol extra strenghth. By the end of this day I was quite sore and asked for the morfine at night so I could rest. 

March 20th - Day 4
Get to leave the hospital today. Yahoo!!! And feeling pretty good. Dietician was in and gave me my menu plan for the next 3 weeks and the surgeon was in to sign me out and check me over and all looks good. Left at 12:00 noon and went to the hotel room for awhile but wanted to go for a drive to the store with hubby. To much, to soon I think. I was quite sore and tired so I had a nap and some soup and felt better. 

March 21 - Day 5 
Going Home today! Had a bad night, couldn't sleep laying down and my husband was snoring up a storm. He got up early and let me sleep for a few hours and we slowly got going around 12:00 noon. Got my pillow and blanket for the ride home along with my water and settled in for the drive. We thought we would only go about 3 hours but I felt so goog that we kept going. We stopped at 2 resturants on the way and I just had a 1/2 cup of soup but felt really awake for the first time since surgery. We stopped often to walk around but still made it home by 9:00 pm. It was great to get home for sure, but I was tired but not feeling any pain. 

March 22 to present - Recovery period at home
Sleeping better each night, I can now sleep flat for most of the night but still tossing a little. Eating better, trying to get the 70 grams of protien and 64 oz of liquids all in but can't seem to hit more than 60 on average. Protein shake is my main protien at this point. I have oatmeal with skim milk in the mornings, then a soup of some kind for lunch and then my protein shake in the afternoon and for supper I've tried beef stew and a weight watcher meal bleended which was great but made the mistake of trying hamberger last night, not so good, went right through me and felt yucky for the rest of the night. I'm trying to do some thing every day so I've gotten my hair done, walked the dog, cleaned house, did laundry and went to my doctors for a check and all is going really well. She ( my doc) is sending me for blood tests as she feels I'm to pale and wants to make sure I'm getting enough in.  My incisions and bruising are starting to heal nicely and I'm not so tender. I still feel kind of like I'm in a fog and I'm kind of tired. I hope to go back to work on Monday but my doc thinks I should only go 1/2 days for a while but I'm just going see how it goes for now.

Well, thats my update. Kind of tired now and going for a nap.
 

Well its now 17 days before my surgery and I'm so excited and frankly I'm starting to freak out. I know these feelings are normal and I shouldn't be concerned but I keep thinking about what I won't be able to eat for the rest of my life and its scary to me.

For the first 40 years of my life I put anything and everything in my mouth and often twice as much as I should have. I ate fast food for all 3 meals in the day and finished off with a junk food binge that was truly disgusting now that I think about it. And exercise, forget about it, its work for eight hours and then flop on the couch for the next eight. Now, there were times during the last 40 years that I tried to lose weight, tried exercising, tried changing my habits and yo-yoed so often I think I got whiplash but I have never been successful. And what do I have to show for it.....120 extra pounds of weight, sore joints, low energy levels, short life span expetiency and facing future heath concerns such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes.

Now, for the last 40 years of my life I going to have a different internal digestive track that won't let me eat the way I was. I going to have to watch what I eat with the diligence of a surgeon. I'm going to have to get moving on a regular bases. I'm going to have to take a vitamin supplement everyday. Now, I'm going to be successful in the battle of the bulge, Now I'm not going to yo-yo diet! And what will I have to show for it....120 extra lbs gone ( God willing), energy of a 20 year old, no more sore joints and a healthier heart, lungs and a longer life expetiency. And a real plus...I'm going to look and feel fantastic! 

OK, now I don't feel so bad, I typed out my feelings on this blog and I just have to re-read this every day for the next 2 weeks as a reminder to myself why I'm doing this. I know I will miss the fast food and the diet cokes but I will let myself grieve like I lost a close friend. I will go through the stages of grief ; denial, anger and sadness but I will survive! 

Oh, and on the weight loss front ....I stayed the same...so still 17 1/2 lbs down. I have also heard from the hospital and have my blood work scheduled for this Saturday. So I feel much better knowing they know who I am. I had this worry that I was going to arrive at the hospital and they wouldn't know why I was there. Crazy I know, but what can I say....I'm a worry wart! 

That's it for this weeks blog.
Ciao

This week has been very challenging on the weight loss front. I gained 3 lbs from last week. Now, I could make excuses like I wasn't feeling well, had a party to go to, busy...and on and on and on, but the reallity is I just didn't watch what I was eating and I just couldn't seem to satisfy the hunger inside. I know part of the problem is I was not eating enough the first 3 weeks and I think my body just didn't get enough and it rebelled. It's for this reason I am so looking forward to WLS and at the same time a little worried about it. I'm hoping that with my pouch that I will be full sooner and the hunger will not run my life on the other hand my "head" hunger needs to be dealt with too.

On the postive side, I did have some sucess! I cut out diet coke significanly out of my daily routine. I used to have diet coke at all most every meal and always started in the morning with one ( like having a cup of coffee). This past week I only had 2 diet cokes! Thats it ..just two! Yahoo.
I know I have to cut it out all together before surgery as pop is not allowed after surgery. I'm suffering a little, lots of head aches for sure but I know they will go away eventually.

Well, thats it for this week. I'm now 4 weeks away from surgery and I'm going to continue with trying to lose another 10 lbs, no diet coke and start adding excersize and protien shakes into my daily routine.

Chao