Lori D.
Two Months Post-Op
Jan 17, 2007
I am two months post op yesterday! I have been in onederland since 12/28. I started out last January with my first appt. with Dr. Dally at 271, getting down to 240 as I went through the insurance approval process. I was 240 when I started my 4-week pre-op diet, and 222 the mmorning I went into surgery. I am currently 192 - so I have lost 48 lbs in 3 months, 30 post-op. A little slower than many people, but that is OK. I have gone from a size 24 last January to a size 14/16. I have lost 26.75 inches since late June.
As far as eating, everything seems to be going pretty well. Once in a while my pouch reminds me that I am eating too fast, or taking too big of bites, or not chewing well enough, but I am getting better at that, and at recognizing what my pouch is telling me earlier! I am eating lots of meat, low-fat cheese, and eggs for my protein, and drinking milk. I also add unflavored protein to my Malt-O-Meal in the mornings, and I have some protein bars for those days when I am out and about, like at my son's chess tournaments. I have been eating a few vegetables and fruits also. I tried a little cornbread the other day, that went down fine. The garlic bread did not. A few saltines also work fine.
I have an elliptical machine at home that I use for my exercise, although I need to add some strength training, and have not done that yet. I also use the stairs at work rather than the elevator for almost all my trips between floors during the day, and I go down the stairs at night. I have not yet been brave enough to attempt walking up to the 7th floor first thing in the morning, though.
I also have a wonderful supportive husband and son, who continue to encourage me along the way.
As far as eating, everything seems to be going pretty well. Once in a while my pouch reminds me that I am eating too fast, or taking too big of bites, or not chewing well enough, but I am getting better at that, and at recognizing what my pouch is telling me earlier! I am eating lots of meat, low-fat cheese, and eggs for my protein, and drinking milk. I also add unflavored protein to my Malt-O-Meal in the mornings, and I have some protein bars for those days when I am out and about, like at my son's chess tournaments. I have been eating a few vegetables and fruits also. I tried a little cornbread the other day, that went down fine. The garlic bread did not. A few saltines also work fine.
I have an elliptical machine at home that I use for my exercise, although I need to add some strength training, and have not done that yet. I also use the stairs at work rather than the elevator for almost all my trips between floors during the day, and I go down the stairs at night. I have not yet been brave enough to attempt walking up to the 7th floor first thing in the morning, though.
I also have a wonderful supportive husband and son, who continue to encourage me along the way.
Surgery experience
Nov 22, 2006
I had my surgery last Friday. My doctor has us do the skim milk diet for a month before surgery, as he has found that it reduces the time for the surgery by 45 minutes, and reduces the risks of complictions. The skim milk diet is that you have as much skim milk as you want and that you can drink in 5 - 10 minutes 3 times a day, with another glass at bedtime if you need it. They allow us to use one scoop of protein once a day as long as we continue to lose weight. I lost 18 lbs during the skim milk diet, drinking 3 cups of skim milk 3 times a day, with one scoop of protein powder a day. The day before surgery was a clear liquid diet - so I had chicken broth and suger-free raspberry jello.
I had to be to the hospital at 5:30 in the morning - I figured that was a good thing because then I didn't have time to worry about it. The biggest problem I had was that they had a hard time getting my IV in - they tried my left arm, then my right arm, then the anesthesiologist put it in the back of my right hand. Not too bad, only 3 tries to get it - when I had my son, it took them 5 tries :) By 7:45 they were wheeling me in to the operating room, they had me move onto the operating table, put the oxygen mask on, and the next thing I knew I was trying to wake up in recovery.
I ended up with a little more surgery than we bargained for. I still had a laparascopic RNY, but once they got in there, they discovered a hiatal hernia (which they fixed) and lesions(tumors?) on my liver, which they removed and biopsied (benign). Because of that, I was a bit more sore then I would have been otherwise, and I think one or two of my incisions are slightly larger than they would have been otherwise.
I basically slept almost all day Friday, finally getting up to walk at about midnight. I had tried sitting up earlier that evening, but felt nauseous so they had me lay back dow and try later. Friday the pain from the incisions wasn't too bad, but my back was hurting me quite a bit (I have fibromyalgia and with that a fair amount of back pain). Saturday my back was much better. I wasn't feeling bad until after they got me up for my leak test. They took me down to radiology on a stretcher, and there I had to stand up while they took a couple of xrays, then watched while I sipped some of the stuff so that they can watch it go through your system. My doctor always attends the leak test to make sure that the radiologist doesn't try to make you gulp the stuff - they told me medium gulps, he told them no, small sips. I passed the leak test with flying colors, so then I got to start sipping water out of a medicine cup - 1/3 ounce at a time, 1 oz. total over 5 minutes, wait for another hour and do it again. After a few times of that, I went to every half hour. Next step was diluted apple juice. That was all I had before I left the hospital on Sunday.
After the leak test I had more pain in my stomach area and around the incisions - but after a while my nurse informed me that I wasn't using nearly as much of the morphine pump as I could be using - I had been pushing the button about once an hour, I could push it as much as every 10 minutes. I increased it a bit and felt much better. I was up and doing several more laps around the floor several times later that day. By noon on Sunday they discharged me. I was pretty tired on Sunday, better on Monday, pretty tired again Tuesday, and better today.
I have been sipping water all day, having protein drinks or soup in 3 ounce servings over 15 minutes or so up to 6 times a day.
We are hosting Thanksgiving here tomorrow. It will be interesting, but I think I will do OK. Stuffing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner - so I am trying to figure out how to make stuffing soup so that I can eat it :) I figured I would put some homemade turkey stock in the blender, add a dollop of stuffing, maybe a little milk, and make cream of stuffing soup. I am on a full liquid diet for 3 weeks before I move to soft/pureed foods. Hopefully by Christmas I will be able to eat a little more of the normal dinner.
I had to be to the hospital at 5:30 in the morning - I figured that was a good thing because then I didn't have time to worry about it. The biggest problem I had was that they had a hard time getting my IV in - they tried my left arm, then my right arm, then the anesthesiologist put it in the back of my right hand. Not too bad, only 3 tries to get it - when I had my son, it took them 5 tries :) By 7:45 they were wheeling me in to the operating room, they had me move onto the operating table, put the oxygen mask on, and the next thing I knew I was trying to wake up in recovery.
I ended up with a little more surgery than we bargained for. I still had a laparascopic RNY, but once they got in there, they discovered a hiatal hernia (which they fixed) and lesions(tumors?) on my liver, which they removed and biopsied (benign). Because of that, I was a bit more sore then I would have been otherwise, and I think one or two of my incisions are slightly larger than they would have been otherwise.
I basically slept almost all day Friday, finally getting up to walk at about midnight. I had tried sitting up earlier that evening, but felt nauseous so they had me lay back dow and try later. Friday the pain from the incisions wasn't too bad, but my back was hurting me quite a bit (I have fibromyalgia and with that a fair amount of back pain). Saturday my back was much better. I wasn't feeling bad until after they got me up for my leak test. They took me down to radiology on a stretcher, and there I had to stand up while they took a couple of xrays, then watched while I sipped some of the stuff so that they can watch it go through your system. My doctor always attends the leak test to make sure that the radiologist doesn't try to make you gulp the stuff - they told me medium gulps, he told them no, small sips. I passed the leak test with flying colors, so then I got to start sipping water out of a medicine cup - 1/3 ounce at a time, 1 oz. total over 5 minutes, wait for another hour and do it again. After a few times of that, I went to every half hour. Next step was diluted apple juice. That was all I had before I left the hospital on Sunday.
After the leak test I had more pain in my stomach area and around the incisions - but after a while my nurse informed me that I wasn't using nearly as much of the morphine pump as I could be using - I had been pushing the button about once an hour, I could push it as much as every 10 minutes. I increased it a bit and felt much better. I was up and doing several more laps around the floor several times later that day. By noon on Sunday they discharged me. I was pretty tired on Sunday, better on Monday, pretty tired again Tuesday, and better today.
I have been sipping water all day, having protein drinks or soup in 3 ounce servings over 15 minutes or so up to 6 times a day.
We are hosting Thanksgiving here tomorrow. It will be interesting, but I think I will do OK. Stuffing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner - so I am trying to figure out how to make stuffing soup so that I can eat it :) I figured I would put some homemade turkey stock in the blender, add a dollop of stuffing, maybe a little milk, and make cream of stuffing soup. I am on a full liquid diet for 3 weeks before I move to soft/pureed foods. Hopefully by Christmas I will be able to eat a little more of the normal dinner.
