Mona S.

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My little girl was born on June 20th, 2009.  I can't believe she is seven months old already!

Here are the stats:

Starting Weight:  264 lbs.
Starting Weight BEFORE Pregnancy: 164 lbs
Todays Weight: 150 lbs.

My weight is very stable.  It fluctuates between 148 and 151 lbs, but I am guilty and I do not exercise.

Skin:  The summer I hated my body.  I refused to were sleeveless tops because my arms drooped too much.  My boobs deflated when I stopped breast feeding and my stomach hung.  Don't get me started on my butt.

Today:  Time is magic.  I am satisfied with by breasts.  They look normal and have shape again.  My arms and thighs even look normal.  My stomach no longer hangs and my waist is better defined.  My stomach is still sqeeshy but it does not hand which is very important to me.  My butt is a lost cause I'm afraid.  I am determined to start exercising to gain some muscle to hopefully firm up the backside.

Also, I like what I see a lot, and want to see more.  So am setting myself a new weight goal of 135lbs. 

I am now 20 weeks pregnant and we are having a little girl.  I've been having lots of fun buying girls clothes!  I weigh 163lbs today.  Still have not gained with this pregnancy, I'm just holding steady.  Per my surgeon, I'm eating every 1 to 2 hrs to make sure I get enough nutrition in.  My blood test results on Friday showed I am low on protein and Vitamin D.  Morning sickness made it very hard to get my protein shakes and vitamins down.  I am back on my full post surgery regime!  I will do another blood test in three weeks.   I ordered new high potency Vit. D's so hopefully my levels will go back up.  Other than that, everything is going really well.

Our NT Ultrasound went great today!  The little Baby Bean was bouncing and kicking around like crazy.

Our 5yr old son did not know I was pregnant, so we took him to the appt to surprise him.  It took him a few minutes to understand the pictures of the baby on the screen were coming from mommy's tummy.  He was very excited.  He has been BEGGING for a little brother/sister for two years now.  He was happy with his surprise.

Surprise I am pregnant!  I am due June 16th, 2009.  Yes, this pregnancy is very much a surprise and unexpected. Best things in life are surprises.  My husband and I were both surprise babies!    

My surgeon is not happy, obviously, and warned me than I have an extremely high chance of miscarriage since I am not far out from surgery.  To keep my pouch/sleeve small he wants me to eat tiny meals every HOUR!  He sent me for more blood work on Friday and I will see him again in Jan where more than likely I will be checked again.

My OB is not familiar with WLS and is leaving my nutrition up to my surgeon!

I am struggling with eating enough right now.  I eat every one to two hours and have reintroduced carbs and fruits.  My weight was stalled for a long time, but now I have lost 3 lbs in 4 days.  I plan on adding meal replacement protein shakes that have about 350 cals per 8 oz.

We have an NT Ultrasound on Dec 3rd, where hopefully everything will look good.

As of this morning I have lost 99lbs!  I now weigh 165lbs. 

Last week I went to my 2 month post op appt and I got scolded for not losing enough weight!    I told him I went on a 3 week stall when I switched from liquids to food.  I explained how I was having a hard time getting my 60 to 90 grams of proteins.  I said, " I feel like I would be sipping on a protein shake all day in order to get that much protein in."  (I can only drink 2-3oz of a shake or eat 3 bites of food per meal.  Very small tummy!)

Then guess what he tells me?  "Well you don't really need to be eating any way.  Eat when you have the desire to chew! Until you are at goal you need to focus on protein shakes, vitamins, and water.  Those are the three most important things."

So I asked does protein from food like meat and cheese count towards my protein level?  NO!!!  Only protein shakes count and not just any protein. I have a strict guidelines to ensure the protein shakes have the complete branch of amino acids.  So... no bullets, no slim fasts, etc.

I had my morning shake and here I sit 3hrs later still too full to make another one!  How am I ever going to get to 60grams of protein?

On a side note, I asked him about minimum and maximum number of calories and he said you should be very low.  Prefferably less than 600 until you reach goal.  I asked if there is such a thing as a minimum level to keep losing.  He told me well 60grams of protein equals 234 calories, so 234 calories would be your daily minimum.  I asked him, "So going too low won't slow my matobolism?".  He said, "No, it's a pure numbers game and at those low of levels your body won't hold on to weight.".

So he told me to come back in August and I have to lose a minimum of 20lbs.  Reaching goal can't come fast enoough!  

Today is my 8wk post op.  I had a 3 wk stall this month and it was very painful.  I hated hated hated not seeing the lbs drop.  Luckily I knew from reading so many profiles that a stall around 4-6wks was pretty normal.  I posted comparison pics and I guess I do see some difference.  I mostly notice it in my face.

This last month has been a lot of learning and experimenting.  What can my new tummy tolerate and what is my limit.  Well, I must be pretty stubborn because I have had severe foamies 3 times where I threw up foamy slimy crap, and one WWWAAYYY to many bites throw up.  No matter how much I LOVE what I am eating, I can't push it like I used to.  Very glad to know there is no chance I will out eat the sleeve anytime soon.  I can eat scrambled eggs and all meats with no issues.   I admit I tried birthday cake and ice cream, and it tasted very yucky.   Too sweet of stuff makes me very ill.  I swear I had dumping syndrom after trying ice cream.  Oh it was bad!  I can eat cheeses with no issues, but cottage cheese and yogurt do not sit well.  Bizarre!  My taste buds have definitely changed.  My brain was craving chocolate so I took a nibble of my husband's Hershey Kiss, and it tasted bad!   I used to be a sweet-a-holic and now the thought of something sweet turns my stomach.  Oh, I tried a bite of a corn dog and the grease just about made me up chuck right then and there!  Note to self, stay away from fried foods.  YUCK.

I have been experimenting with my cooking.  If I can only eat 3-4 bites per meal then they had better be pretty damn good bites! I'm all about savory spices and flavors.  Not just any old crap to eat.  I think my new addiction is going to Baja Fresh and getting a Bare Burrito in a bowl (no tortilla).  I have it for a few days and then I toss it.  But the Chicken, fresh salsa, and gaucomole...  yummy.

I weighed 220.5lbs today.  I have lost a total of 43.5lbs.    My husband has nicknamed me "shrinky dink". 

My tummy is very very small.  I started mushies this week and I can only get in 1-2oz of food at a time.  I started the Bariatric Advantage Vitamins this week and I feel so much better.  I have to say the chewable iron is quite tasty.  Now that I'm getting "food" in and my vitamins, I feel a million times better! 

I'm a few days late with my post.  At two weeks out I'm doing ok.  I still struggle with getting in enough fluids.  I am REALLY struggling with my protein intake.  I cannot stomach a protein shake anymore.  The shakes I enjoyed before surgery now make me gag.  I ordered the Protein Bullets and will be very happy when they arrive.   I am craving food.  I just want to chew and TASTE something that is good.  I'm very tired of this SF Clear liquids Diet.  My caloric intake is extremely low so I'm very tired.  I will be very happy when I get to start mushies and set in a few more calories.  I have my next appt on May16th.  Hopefully I will be cleared for mushies!

My total weight loss is 34.5lbs this week.  I'm thrilled with the weight loss. All of my steri strips are off of my incisions.  They look good.  I can tell some of them are barely closed though.  That makes me a little nervous.  I have big red rashes from the adhesives and they itch like crazy.

Here I am, one week after surgery.  I'm doing really good and feel great!  I do not have normal hunger.  I have to remind myself to drink my liquids.  I start getting light headed when I have not gotten enough liquids in.  That's my new signal to tell me to eat (drink).  I find Diet V8 Splash to help with my light headedness the best.  It has vitamins A and C in it.

I had nausea on day 4 but I increased my liquid intake and it went away by day 5.  I think  it wad body telling me I was getting dehydrated.  I have terrible dry skin right now.  Dry skin is my only negative.     I don't have my 1 week follow up until Friday, so I am still on liquids until my Dr. says  can move to full liquids.

The only insition that bothers me is the one were the stomach came through.  That insition is about 1in long.  At this stage, I am able to roll over comfortably in bed, but I still cannot bend over.  Putting socks on is still a challenge! 

Pre-op I had lost 16lbs.  As of today I have lost a total of 28lbs!  Yep, that's right I lost 12 lbs in one week.  How crazy is that?

I am home from my surgery!  It has been two days from surgery and this evening I am doing much better.  Here is my experience of my surgery.

My surgery was Tuesday April 15th 2008 in the early evening.  I left the pre-op area at 1:30pm and walked to the surgery staging area. There was not a clock in the operation staging area, so I do not know when I went into surgery.  I do know when I tried to open my eyes during recovery I saw it was about 6:30pm.  I am guessing my surgery was about 2hrs long.  After recovery, I was moved to the same area I was in during pre-op.  Pre-op and the short stay area are the same.  I was pretty out of it for awhile.  I was on a Morphine pump for the pain.  But almost immediately I was up and walking.  It was pretty painful trying to get out of bed the first few times.  Anesthesia and painkillers make me very nauseous, so I was dry heaving all night long.  By 2:00am, I was exhausted.  I had someone in my room every 30-40mins.  They were trying to get me to sip water, then I'ld have to go to the bathroom.  I had someone come in to take my vitals several times, someone else came in and took my blood, and then my nurse would come in and give me a heparin shot in my leg (I had four total).  Oh yes, my vein for my IV blew, so I had to get a new IV.  I needed to stop dry heaving and to try and get some rest.  I stopped taking my Morphine pump at 2am.  They had me maxed out on three different anti-nausea medications and it was not helping.  As soon as the Morphine worn off, I finally stopped getting sick.  By then the pain was tolerable.  They tried to get me to drink some liquid pain medicine at about 3:30am, even though I did not want it.  I told them I was just going to throw it up.  The nurse came in every 15mins trying to get me to drink the liquid.  I figured the only way I would get some sleep was to please her and try the liquid pain medicine.  I immediately threw it back up.  After that, she left me alone.  I was having a very difficult time getting my little 1oz shot glasses of liquid in.  It would take me 45minss to 1hr to drink 1oz.  My tummy was very swollen.  Thank God for shift change.  I was finally left alone for 2-3hrs, so I could finally sleep.  Normally you have to drink 50oz of liquid before you're allowed to go home, but since I had severe nausea all night Dr. Oh gave me a little leeway and let me only have to drink 30oz before I got to go home.  Before I left, they gave some kind of medicine in my IV that was to help with the swelling.
Dr. Oh said my surgery went very well with no issues.  He said my liver looked good and he was very pleased with my pre-op 16lb weight loss.  He called me a model patient.  He used a 34 bougie on me.  I have seven little holes from surgery.  The one they took the stomach out of is quite sore.  Dr. Oh said I have deep stitches on that hole.  I kept ice on it the first night after surgery.  I have no drain tubes.

Here I am 48hrs later, I am finally able to get liquids down.  My stomach and back muscles are very sore.  My heating pad is helping a lot.  I am taking my prescription pain medicine so I can sleep on my side.  My prescription is liquid acetemetiphine based so it does not make me nauseas.  It tastes no worse than cough medicine, but you only take 1-2 tbls.  I am slowly healing.