Difficulty Eating

25 Days Post-Surgery
Mood: Drained
Weight Loss Status: 25 lbs

For the past two days I've had a lot of difficulty eating food. This morning, for instance, I made cream of wheat and could only eat about two spoonfuls. I wasn't feeling nauseated, just overly full. This hasn't happened since week 1 of surgery, so I'm concerned. I've been needing the Phenergan more than last week (once a day or so). I go for my 1 month checkup with the surgeon and dietitian on Wednesday and am hoping for clear some of this up.

Taking the 5 daily doses of vitamins and calcium supplements has been a challenge this week. Getting 8 glasses of water a day has become my main daily focus, similarly to the first few days after surgery. Why am I suddenly going backwards?

Tonight's Menu

20 Days Post-Surgery
Mood: Food Coma
Weight Loss Status: 23.5 lbs

Mmm! I tried out a new recipe tonight for dinner: chicken pot pie with crepes (instead of traditional crust). It was delicious! (Click the image below for the recipe) 150 calories and 13g of protein for some excellent comfort food.

 

How to Survive a Wedding

18 Days Post-Surgery
Mood: Jittery
Weight Loss Status: 18.6 lbs

This weekend I attended the first wedding since my surgery. It was extremely difficult to resist temptations, especially with all of the alcohol and sweets. Here are some pointers I wish I had known before this weekend:

• Stay hydrated. Drinking water will help you to avoid getting an alcoholic beverage or sugary punch. If anyone offers to get you a drink, try "I'm pacing myself," "I'm the designated driver," "My medication doesn't let me drink," etc.
• Avoid the dessert table. If you can't avoid it, find a cookie with dark chocolate chips to nibble on or pudding.
• At the buffet, use the "3 minute rule." When eating something with unknown nutritional information, take a small bite and wait three minutes before proceeding. This will let you know if your stomach will be able to handle a few more bites.
• Have a buffer. Having a buddy who knows about your eating situation can help you out a lot. Use them to get you water refills, scope out the buffet before you visit it, and run interference when guests offer you a drink or food.
• Find a task to do. It's overwhelming to sit down and watch the other guests eat and drink alcoholic beverages all night. I found it incredibly restless. If this happens, find a helpful "task" to do at the reception, like taking pictures.

Nausea Free!

14 Days Post-Surgery
Mood: Relaxed
Weight Loss Status: 15+

Today marks two weeks since my surgery. And for the first time since I went to the hospital, I've gone the whole day without feeling nauseated and haven't had to take my Phenergan. What a HUGE difference in my mood and appetite now that my nausea is subsiding! I've had a few people ask me how eating is going since the surgery, now that I'm moving up to soft and regular textured foods. I'll answer by posting what my menu for today looks like:

Breakfast: Protein pancake with bananas and sugar-free syrup
Lunch: Whole wheat grilled cheese and turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce
Dinner: Crispy chicken tenders with cinnamon apples

Who says people can't eat well after bariatric surgery?

Dehydration

12 Days Post-Surgery
Mood: Nauseated
Weight Loss Status: 15 lbs

Yesterday I was proud of myself for drinking well over 64 ounces of liquid. I found that tea was a lot easier to drink than water, and it helped settle my stomach as well. Resisting temptation to get my usual sweet tea, I dropped by the McDonald's drive-through and ordered an unsweetened iced-tea to sweeten with Splenda. I drank Arizona Diet Iced Tea with Peach and could barely tell it was artificially sweetened. All was good.

This morning, I could barely get out of bed. I felt hung over and nauseated. After forcing down some water, I wondered how I could feel so dehydrated after all the liquids I had taken yesterday. It eventually dawned on me that I had spent most of the day unintentionally drinking CAFFEINATED beverages, which further dehydrated my body. It didn't even occur to me to think about caffeine with tea, since tea is known to be such a healthy beverage.

Needless to say, I'm paying the price. I've been nauseated all day and have been breaking out into cold sweats. I made salmon for dinner and couldn't even stomach two bites of it before I had to stop and switch to a milder food.

I can't help but feel frustrated that my menu of approved foods and beverages has been slashed again, and discouraged by the continuation of nausea.

Eating Discomfort

11 Days Post-Surgery
Mood: Cautious
Weight Loss Status: 15 lbs

During dinner tonight, I swallowed a medium-sized chunk of food and went through an excrutiating 10 minutes of pain as the piece slowly made its way into the pouch. I walked around with my hands over my head, barely able to breathe. Michael asked if he needed to call the doctor, and I might have taken a trip to the E.R. if the pain had continued. It certainly wasn't a large or tough piece of food, but I now realize how fast I've been taking things. Because I've been feeling better and my pain has mostly subsided, I've become too comfortable taking risks and trying to eat at my normal speed.

Since the tube leading to my pouch is so much smaller, and still swollen from the surgery, I need to be way more careful. I never want to feel that pain again.

Chocolate Makes Everything Better

8 Days Post-Surgery
Mood: Chocoholic
Weight Loss Status: 15 lbs

True story. I went to Vanderbilt today for my 1 week post-op appointment, and everything looks good! I'm getting all of my vitamins and protein in, am sufficiently hydrated, and the best news is (drum roll please)...

I've lost 15 pounds in 1 week!

I never thought it would be this much so soon, but I'm certainly happy about the results. 
As I was leaving Vanderbilt, I swung by the pharmacy to check out their vitamin selection (other than online, it's slim pickings in most pharmacies). I found these beauties below:

One of my biggest concerns about life after surgery was the elimination of one of my favorites... chocolate cake. Calcet now makes a Calcium Citrate supplement (which is required three times a day to get my calcium and vitamin d) in the form of chocolate cake bites. Magical. I had one earlier and my mind was blown. Now I have an excuse to eat chocolate or lemon cake three times a day to make my doctor happy.

Life is good.

1 Week Post-Op

7 Days Post-Surgery
Mood: Energetic
Weight Loss Status: 13 lbs

It's been 7 days since my surgery... For the first time since I went to the hospital, I'm feeling optimistic, strong, and positive. I went to the grocery store today and found I had more energy. My incisions are healing nicely, but two are still sore and bruised. Tomorrow I meet with the nurse practitioner and dietitian at Vanderbilt to review how my first week has gone.

My biggest complaint since the surgery has been nausea, which I experienced the last time I had anesthesia. My surgeon told me that this nausea can continue for up to 8 weeks post-surgery. Luckily, I was able to have one of the nurses change my nausea medication yesterday to Phenergan. It's made a huge impact on how I'm feeling, and I've noticed that I can start feeling full when I eat.

Today I start soft foods, so I'm slowly weaning myself off of mush! Today I had what I would consider to be almost a "real" meal... turkey pepperoni and mozzarella cheese melted together. 16g of protein and I felt like I was eating pizza again! Lots of chewing and patience, but it feels good to not be eating pureed soup.

My goal for tomorrow: get all of my questions answered from the nurse and dietitian, and maybe try a low-carb high-protein pancake for breakfast!

A Few Tears...

5 Days Post-Surgery
Mood: Sore
Weight Loss Status: 12 lbs


For the past two days, I've run into crying spells. There have been a few identity crises, and it's unbelievably strange how different I feel post-surgery. Sometimes I don't feel like myself. These moments don't last long, but I look myself in the mirror and don't recognize myself. It's not the weight loss, but more of the life changes. Food is still a huge focus in my life, but I like how I'm the one controlling it, instead of the other way around. Focusing on protein consumption and vitamins instead of calories is something new to me, but I've been good and have recorded all of my meals, glasses of water, and vitamins daily. It's a strange routine to get into, but it helps me to make sure that I'm not killing my body.

I've started collecting recipes online and am planning to create a database of meals that I can eat at restaurants... I'm not going to lie, I can't wait for the first time I can go to a restaurant with Michael and eat "real food." Granted, I won't be having my favorite foods, but it's time to find some new favorites. At this phase, eating pureed goop and liquids is discouraging and frankly uninspiring, so I'm just looking forward to progressing to soft foods next week.
Incisions are sore but are healing nicely. Each has a purple bruise surrounding it, but they will heal in time and the scars will eventually fade.

Tomorrow, my goal is to start back on my "normal" medications (before surgery). They've been pushed to the back burner, but it's it's important to keep my mental health in check.

2 Days Post-Surgery

2 Days Post-Surgery
Mood: Contemplative
Weight Loss Status: 7 lbs

Mom took me home from the hospital yesterday. I got cleared from the surgical unit because I was able to keep down three cups of water.

My six incisions are looking better today, especially now that the iodine has been cleaned off. They're very sore still, and it hurts to change positions, but once I'm sitting I'm pretty comfortable.
I had some nausea last night, but am feeling much better today. The Loritab and anti-nausea medication are helping a lot. Yesterday, I was only able to drink 1/2 of a Slimfast shake and a few teaspoons of sugar-free pudding. Today, I've had protein gelatin and protein chicken soup without trouble. I'm looking forward to moving on to soft foods next week, but I think I can make it through the next few days of pureed foods and full liquids.

I'm trying to stay positive by searching for post-surgery cookbooks... and am pleasantly surprised by how many are out there! Thanks to Amazon, I'll be getting these in the mail in the next few days:

• Recipes For Life After Weight-Loss Surgery
• Weight Loss Surgery Cookbook For Dummies

Exercising still seems out of reach right now, but I've been up and walking around the house. I'm not supposed to do anything too physically exerting for two weeks, so I'm ordering Walk Away the Pounds dvds on Amazon.