2 Week Video Update

Password: healthupdate

2 Weeks Post Op from Christie Stearns on Vimeo.

My Little Grey Dress

I purchased this dress because the smallest size I've ever been is a 14 (even then that wasn't dress size, just tops, was still a 20 on the bottom)... so a 12 will be totally new territory for me. This dress is from Maurice's, and when I saw it I just had to have it. It's cute, not too trendy, and I feel like it's totally ME! I wanted to have photos of it hanging on me now, as a wonderful comparison later on when it actually fits me.

Even though I can't wear it, just putting it on me like this made me feel cute! I think I chose well. It really does feel like "me" and it's almost as if I can envision my future self! Size 12 here I come.

My Friend, My Inspiration

Sarah went home on Saturday and I'm already going through withdrawls! She's been my friend for 15 years and been with me through thick and thin (and now.. FROM thick to thin LOL!) It was so fantastic having her here for the whole first week after surgery. She kept my spirits up, kept me entertained... made it so much easier to get out and walking every day... she even cooked delicious meals almost every night for herself and my husband to eat. I only got to smell them lol.

Sarah's cooking inspired me. She diced and chopped her little heart out, putting what is to me an incredible amount of effort into each meal. She threw things together without a recipe and they looked and smelled great - and according to them, tasted great too :) I am not a cook, I am intimidated by cooking, and I also think it is so much WORK. But that's something I really want to change. I want to put the effort, and I want to enjoy it. My mantra when I get back on solid food is going to be "Sarah would do this, so I can too." :)

Sarah has also been working out a lot and when I felt her muscles I couldn't believe it! Yet more inspiration!

Thank you Sarah for being here with me!

Oh Wait... I Had Surgery!

Wow, I think it just hit me that I actually HAD weight loss surgery. I was browsing amazon for books of interest to a post-WLS patient... some are cookbooks, some are dealing with the changes I'll go through, things like that. This strange feeling came over me... now I'm not looking at these things like "oh this will be helpful later on after surgery"... I HAVE had surgery!! I've spent so long (between my first research 7 years ago, and now) researching as a potential weight loss surgery candidate, I don't think it truly hit me until now even though I've been through the pain, I have incisions all over my tummy, etc. I guess it's all flown by so fast that it just hadn't really sunk in.

Part of the problem for me right now is that I am still experiencing quite a bit of hunger. It's a manageable type of hunger, but I'm sad because so many people who have had the VSG say they woke up from surgery not being hungry and never felt hunger until several months out from surgery. I had EXTREME hunger the first several days after surgery... it has calmed down now, but I still feel hungry all day. Maybe my body can take more than the 1 oz of food every 2 hours, I don't know... but I am trying to hang in there because it is at least manageable, and I am hoping when I get to the next phase of eating at 3 weeks, it will get better.

Anyway, so here I am realizing that I AM one of these people who HAD weight loss surgery! This is my life now. It's done. I really couldn't be happier that I've actually gone through with it. I just know this is going to help me change my life forever. I have always been a planner, a researcher... I like to have lots of "stuff" to support whatever I'm doing (like all the small dishes and things I bought)... now I'm moving onto books :)

The other day Sarah and I went to B&N and I looked at lots of cookbooks. I settled on two diabetic cookbooks because they fit the requirements - high protein, low carb, contains all the nutrition info for each recipe. I looked at many and chose the two with the most recipes that appealed to me (the picky eater who hates mushrooms and tomatoes, which people seem to want to put in everything.) I also looked at the various "Biggest Loser" cookbooks and I liked the Family one (if it's kid-friendly, it's me-friendly LOL).

Even though I can't eat solid food for more than another month (boo) I am really excited about these :)

Also, I didn't think I would need the toddler spoons, but a regular spoon just does not fit into a 1oz shot glass (which I'm eating out of right now), so I went back and got the toddler spoons and now life is much easier!!!

In my research on Amazon now, I'm finding there are cookbooks specifically for bariatric patients (didn't see any at B&N)... so I'll have to read all the reviews and try to choose some. It's so hard for me to choose a cookbook from the internet because I like to look through it and see if the recipes appeal to me. But, when I get it all figured out, I'll be sure to post about what books I ended up with and what I'm happy with... I'm also looking at books about dealing with all the physical and emotional changes after surgery. Because hey - I had surgery! And this stuff could really help me! Wow. :)

Today, at 10 days post-op, I am already noticing some changes:
- Going up the stairs is easier than it used to be
- My wedding rings are so loose I can't safely wear them (they might fall right off)
- I'm not getting headaches (used to have them almost daily, have not had one since surgery)
- Smelling food can be almost as good as eating it if you have the right mindset :)
- Eating for hunger and not for taste cravings is a whole new thing, but I like it
- It is possible to have a life that does not revolve around food.

1 Week Post Op & Weigh-In

Yesterday I has my 1 week post op appointment and my nutrition class for the next phase of eating. Unfortunately, they mixed up my times and told me to come to my appointment at 1:00 and nutrition at 2:00, but it was supposed to be the other way around. Thus, my appointment was VERY short (just pulling out the drain) because she said we needed to hurry over to the nutrition class. Then as we were leaving, a woman said to us "if you wait right here I'll be walking everyone over to the nutrition class." 15 mins later we figure out that's for the other group... and by the time we got there we missed the whole class and the poor girl had to say it all over again just for us lol. Oh well, I take comfort in the fact it wasn't my fault. :)

So - as far as my appointment goes, it was basically just my weigh in and getting my drain pulled. I never even saw my Dr. Is this weird?? I was expecting to see him. I hope I see him at the 3 week appointment.
By the way - getting the drain pulled out - NOT FUN! Yikes. It hurt but mostly felt SO freaking weird. The tube is so long inside and it came from all the way up by my heart. I do feel so much better now that it's out though. My pain decreased a lot more so I guess it was causing me more discomfort than I realized. I was even able to finally sleep on my side last night!!!!! :)

Now for the amazing part. My weigh-in blew me away. Remember, I started at 310. At my 1 week appt I weighed in at...

292! That's 18 pounds lost in 8 days. I know I lost 6 in just one day (the day before surgery when I was on liquids), because I weighed 304 the morning of surgery. So I also lost 12 more in the past week. Wow! That was definitely more than I was expecting. It didn't phase me too much though because for once I can honestly say that the number on the scale, the speed of the loss, etc... really is not the most important thing to me anymore. As long as I'm doing the right things, feeling good, making progress, I am happy. I'm of course very HAPPY to see the numbers go down on the scale don't get me wrong... but it was funny how when I saw them I just went "huh, wow, more than I thought, cool" not like WHOO HOO YIPPEEE OMG OMG OMG. Some people might think that means I'm not allowing myself to be happy enough about it but trust me it is such a relief that it is not affecting my emotions so much. I love it :) I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what it will be at my 3 week appointment.. but I'm sooo not stressed about it, which is awesome.

The nutrition class wasn't too incredibly important... I already knew the foods I can start having.. refried beans, cottage cheese, egg beaters, light yogurt, sf pudding. 1 ounce every 2 hours. But one new piece of info was that I should only try one new food each day until I've had all of them... I guess to see what I can tolerate and everything. So yesterday I had refried beans, and today I'm adding in cottage cheese. All is going well so far! I'm a little bit concerned because I still feel hungry and it doesn't feel like the 1 ounce is filling me up. But it's not really bad or anything, I can handle it just fine. So I'm hoping when I get to the next eating phase at week 3, it will be a little easier :)

Days 2 - 5 Post Op

All of my days post-op have been very progressional. What I mean is every day is definitely better than the day before. The first 3 days post-op, the only stuff I was drinking was water, isopure clear protein, and diluted apple juice (1 part juice to 3 parts water.) I was supposed to drink 1oz of fluid every 15 minutes and keep track, like I had been doing in the hospital. I would take usually 2 1-oz cups to the couch with me so that I would be getting back up to walk around every 30 mins (walking around frequently is really important in the healing process.)

Here's the stuff I pretty much had in front of me all day long.



At first I was pretty convinced the pain meds were not really helping... but at the last hour of every 4 hour cycle my pain would get worse so I realized they *were* helping :)

Days 2 & 3 were the weekend, so I had both my husband and my friend to keep me company. We watched a lot of tv all day long but honestly I was so occupied with getting in my fluids that I barely remember! Sarah enjoyed her relaxation time... and our 3 cats enjoyed Sarah:



By Day 4, which was Monday, I was feeling a bit better and getting my liquids in much easier. The hunger pains were lessening, so was the gurgling in my tummy. I decided to go off clear protein and start on protein shakes. I mix up 8oz of water with two scoops of protein powder into my max muscle shaker cup... shake it up well and keep it in the fridge.



With the protein shakes, at first they say only 1oz per hour, so on day 4 that's what I did. I still continued water and diluted juice every 15 minutes for the other 3/4 hour.

On Day 4 I was also able to go for a real walk. They want me to be getting 30 min walks even this early on. I was shocked that I managed to do the whole walk at once!

On Day 5 (yesterday) I woke up and noticed a major difference in the pain, I felt a lot better. I would call it more "discomfort" now than actual pain. I was able to go for another 30 min walk on Day 5, except my back hurt REALLY badly this time.. probably because I didn't take my pain meds which masked my back pain the day before. On Day 5 I was also able to take in more fluids so I upped my protein shake to 2 oz per hour. Both days though I noticed that by 5-6pm my tummy just didn't want any more, so in the last few hours of the night I only had 1oz per hour or even every other hour.


Sleeping - I have only been able to sleep on my back so far (way too uncomfortable to sleep on my side) and it hasn't felt good to lay flat. The first several nights it was a BIG ordeal to get into bed. I needed my husbands help to get situated and as comfortable as I could get. I would need his help to sit back up or get out of bed. By day 5 I was able to get in and out of bed on my own. It still hurts some but much much better. I still have a hard time sleeping comfortably, but it's getting better.

Hunger Pains - The first couple of days, EVERY sip I took of anything resulted in major gurgling from my stomach and sharp, severe hunger pangs. This has pretty much gone away by Day 5. I am still having hunger pains but they are less often and less severe, and no longer seem to happen as a result of drinking. The first few days they were seriously nonstop, and these hunger pains were the worst and most painful part of my recovery.

Drinking - The first couple days it was very difficult to get in all of my fluids - partially because of the hunger pains they would induce. Also it's been explained to me that the stomach is so swollen right after surgery that you can barely even fit that 1oz of liquid. I have been doing my best to progress to more and more liquids, but I listen to my body and take breaks when I need to. I get a gurgle/bubble feeling in my esophogus when I need to slow down. It's not painful... but a good reminder.
After the first couple of days I stopped putting water into the 1oz cups - just drank water from my sippy cup instead and would record it when I finished 10 ounces. I drank it in between all the other things I was drinking, and this had worked well. Now I'm able to drink the 10 ounce cup usually in about an hour and a half to two hours.

Walking - The first 2-3 days, it was really a challenge making myself get up every 15 to 30 minutes to walk to the kitchen, rinse out my little cups and get more liquids. Standing up was a struggle (it would strain my sore abdominal muscles) and walking was very stiff for me. I felt like I couldn't stand up completely straight because if I tried to straighten up, things would pull - both internally at the stomach and externally at the incisions. By day 4 I could stand up straight and go for the long walk. I think the more you walk around the faster this healing takes place. Now I am up all the time, not just every 30 minutes. I don't sit down for very long at one time. During this blog post I've gotten up about 3 times and gone to get something from downstairs, and come back up. My mobility is excellent.

Food - The only "food" items I've had are sugar free jello and sugar free popscicles... but I think I've only had one jello and 1 1/2 popscicles. As much as I am craving variety, it has felt good to be on liquids and it was harder for those things to go down. Even last night the popscicle I had made a lot of gurgles... I think it was too big.
An interesting side note - while it has been a little bit hard watching my husband and best friend cook dinners and eat things I wish I could have.... in a weird way I have enjoyed it! While I do wish I could take a bite of what they are eating, I have actually LOVED being able to smell everything. They seriously hand me their food and let me smell it really good. You would think this would make me feel awful but I have liked it. It's the closest thing I have to eating it so I have been enjoying the smells!!
My main problem has been that I am SICK of sweet. The protein drinks, jello, popsicles, etc...
everything is sweet. I have always been more of a savory/salty person. This has been the hardest part for me. SO looking forward to starting on soft foods so I can get some of that variety.


Semi-Soft Food Diet
I'll be able to start my soft food diet today after my appointment. This includes sugar free pudding, yogurt, cottage cheese, egg beaters and refried beans. Still not a ton of variety but certainly better than what I've been having and I can get some salty/seasoned things which will be heaven.
At first I am only supposed to consume 1oz of one of these foods every two hours (wow.) gradually working up to 2 oz every 2 hours. I'll be on this diet for two whole weeks and then at my 3 week appointment I will progress to a full soft food diet which has a lot more variety.

Once I am on this diet, I can start using this nifty product:



This is Any Whey unflavored protein, specially formulated to mix well with liquids and also into any food. I can mix this into my foods to up the protein content, which will be super helpful especially in the beginning when I can't eat hardly anything!



Challenges
The biggest challenges I have faced are:
- intense hunger pains
- painful gas/bloating
- intolerance to vitamins
- unable to sleep comfortably
- dealing with the drain

I've already explained a bit about the hunger pains.... vitamins... yuck. I had chewables at first. The taste is fine but it would take me so long to get it down... I'd have to divide it into 4 pieces and it would take me like an hour to eat it so by then I was HATING the taste. Also have to do this TWICE per day ugh. So I had Ian get me a liquid version:



Again the taste is ok but it's hard for me to get it down. The first couple of days I diluted it with water.... but it didn't really help so yesterday I didn't dilute it so I could get it down faster. It makes me feel SO SICK. I had this problem with multivitamins before surgery too. Taking it with food is the only thing that helped. So for now I am taking a break until I can get to the point where I can take it with some food.

The drain - double yuck. There's a tube coming out of my abdomen, into this see thru rubbery bottle. The bottle is attached to a clip that's on this patch attached to my tummy (so that it doesn't pull at the tube.) Every day I have to empty this bottle twice a day into a cup marked with mL and record on a sheet the date, time, and amount of fluid. I do not like having this thing coming out of me!!! In the past couple days there's been hardly any blood it's mostly a yellowy-clearish fluid. I get to have it removed today!!! Whoo hooo!! I will feel so much more normal after that.

The gas and bloating... ugh! They pump so much air into your abdomen for the surgery (so they have room to work in there) and it it really painful the first few days. They told me taking things for gas wouldn't help because it's in my abdomen, not in my intestines, but everyone in the forums said gas-x strips would help so I took them - and they DID help. A lot.



They also freshen my breath which is nice because the protein stuff leaves an aftertaste in my mouth and a sticky-ness in my teeth. As of today my gas is much much better and I only use like one strip a day (I used 4-5 a day at first.)

So that's pretty much it! Now this part is mostly for others who have had or will be having surgery, it will mean something to them. This is the counts of fluid and protein I have been able to get in each day.

Day 1 was mostly in the hospital and I don't have the sheet I recorded my liquid intake on.

Day 2 - 37 ounces of liquid, 30.3 grams of protein

Day 3 - 62 ounces of liquid, 30 grams of protein

Day 4 - 86 ounces of liquid, 51 grams of protein

Day 5 - 78 ounces of liquid, 56 grams of protein

My Surgery & Hospital Stay

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't updated sooner. The first few days I was just in major self-care mode but now that I am feeling a bit better, I'm ready to jump in and give the play by play of everything that has happened. :)

Day of Surgery

I went back to the presurgical area and got weighed (304 that morning, 6 pounds down from just one day of not eating, wow.) Then I had to get a really painful blood thinner shot in my arm, and of course the IV. The nurse tried for my IV and did nothing but butcher me. It hurt so much :( Then someone else came in to do it and she did such a great job. Thank you Gretchen. :) After that I pretty much just waited and they eventually came to wheel me back to surgery. I remember moving myself from the bed onto the operating table, and I could already feel the drugs kicking in so they must have started them through my IV. Before I knew it I was waking up in the recovery room. It was absolutely amazing how out of it I felt. I kept falling asleep over and over again until they finally took me to my hospital room. I still felt so out of it and dizzy and nauseous and they wanted me to get up right away into a wheelchair to go do the swallow test.

The swallow test is something you have to do to make sure you don't have any leaks through the staples holding your stomach together. They give you a huge cup of this red liquid to drink while they take Xrays. It was hard enough to stand up let alone drink the stuff - I came so close to both passing out and throwing up! But I managed to hold it together. They took xrays from the front, back, and both sides... they said I looked perfect and absolutely no leaks. When they got me back to the room I fell asleep for quite a while, after getting some pain meds.

My pain was pretty bad in the beginning - not so much external pain around the incisions, mostly internal abdominal pain, in the muscles I guess. I had a hard time being comfortable in the hospital bed.

My dad came in shortly after this and then my husband came in a couple hours later when he got off work. I was sooooo happy to see him. Apparently I'd been telling all the nurses I had the best husband in the world, just wait til you meet him. LOL! At least we know how I really feel ;)

My husband stayed until nearly midnight. He still had to work the next day. I was so nervous about him leaving because the "service" (if you call it that) in the hospital was horrible. When I would hit the nurse call button, I would have to wait firstly for someone to respond over an intercom and ask me what I needed. Sometimes even THIS part would take 10 minutes. Then strain my voice to speak over an intercom that's across the room - dumb for people who have just had surgery. Seriously that was so lame. THEN I'd wait another 15-30 minutes for anyone to actually come. Overall I just didn't feel safe or assured that if something was happening to me, someone would actually come right away and make sure I was alright. I slept very unsettled that night and I just couldn't wait til I would get to go home and have people to care for me when I needed something. The funny part is once you get home you really don't need much care LOL. Oh well, that's the way it goes.

Day 1 Post Op

The next day after surgery, I stayed in the hospital until mid afternoon. I went for a few walks down the halls (whenever I could actually get someone to come take me!)... and finally got a cafeteria tray around 11 am. I was supposed to eat blue jello (it's used as another leak test), and there was also apple juice, water, broth and tea. I managed to have a little bit of everything throughout the day but didn't come anywhere NEAR finishing it.

I also had this thing I had to breathe in to exercise my lungs... and a clipboard where I was supposed to track everything I ate.

My dad was GREAT company :)

Finally I got to talk to my surgeon. He said my surgery went beautifully, my leak test had been perfect, and everything was going really well. The highlight of my day in the hospital was getting this awesome bunch of balloons from my sweet friend Lauren. It has a teddy bear with it too.

After what felt like forever, I got to go home. By 8pm I was exhausted and went to bed. My friend Sarah's flight had been delayed, so she and my husband didn't get home until about 12:30am. (My dad stayed in the house with me so that I wasn't alone, and he checked on me often while I was sleeping.) I was awake by the time they got home and I was so happy to see my friend! I stayed up a couple hours with her before going back to bed.

Days 2-5 coming soon!