Tracy K.
Im back - 27/10/08
Oct 27, 2008
Im finally back from studying and things are great. Im feeling fantastic and have gone from a size 20/22 to a size 12. Finally I can shop for clothes in NORMAL shops ..... and my ass fits in an aeroplane seat !
My weight and measurement loss to date is:
Weight: just over 30kgs
Chest: 21cm
Hips 24cm
Top leg 16cm
Calf 5cm
Top arm 8cm
Waist 25cm
Life is FANTASTIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Update at last 15-01-08 to 8 April 2008
Oct 27, 2008
I had my surgery on the 13th Feb at Sunninghill hospital in Jhb. I kept a diary while I was there and it pretty much goes like this :
15 January 2007
I arrived at my appointment with the Weight clinic to be told that one person had postponed their surgery date and 11 February was now available - Id have to get myself ready really quick !!
Had my appointment with the psychologist today, just wanted to make sure I have the right reasoning behind wanting this surgery. I also wanted to make sure I have the tools post surgery to make the most of it. Yep, he seems to think my thought processes are correct and now I'm really convinced this is what I want to do.
Next was the dietition, who advised me to cut out bread, sugar, no more that 3g fat etc etc .....
Finally it was back to Prof Tess who confirmed my booking for 11 Febuary and told me I needed to have a gastroscope and bone density test as well as a body composition and an abdominal sonar .... good grief !!!
As soon as I got home I managed to get everything booked for the following week - yee ha !
19 January
I started off this morning with a really bad stomach ache, at first I thought it was heartburn or maybe my IBS playing up again. Well it got worse and worse until, at 3am, my hubby took me to the emergency ward at Unitas hospital ..... after a whole lot of scans, Xrays etc they discovered my appendix had to come out ! So into hospital and out with the appendix.
Luckily I was home the next day and so far its taken about a week to recover, still really awkward .... BUT I had missed all my test appointments for the bariatric surgery which all need to be rescheduled asap as time was running out !
28 January
Had my gastroscope (I think thats what you call it) today and it was really nothing huge - the anesthetic obviously worked well because I dont remember a thing ! When doing this they take a sample piece of the lining of your intestine to test that all is in good shape.
Ive got my appointment with the dietition tomorrow to find out about the diet for the last two weeks pre op ... and then all the other scans on Wednesday, I must admit that I am more than a little tired of hospitals at this stage !
29 January 2007
My hubby came with me today to see the dietition so he can also have more of an understanding of why Im going through this and what foods Im going to be able to eat. He is very concerned about the thought of me going through surgery but Ive explained why I want to do this and how much it means to me, he has agreed to support me 100% even though he does not completely agree with it, he knows Ive done my research and Ive spoken to all the best people in the area of Bariatric surgery.
The dietition was happy with the few kilos I had lost pre op and introduced me to the puree diet – mmmm jelly, purity (only ones without sugar), protein shakes, I could even have chicken and veg if I put it into the liquidiser first ! Oh fun and games !
30 January 2007
Today I was back at Unitas for bone density scan and a body composition test, I was also supposed to have an abdominal sonar but after showing them the CT scan from my appendix they said that was fine. The bone density is quite interesting you just lie there while a huge machine scans you to see how strong your bones are, this is done so they can determine the amount of calcium supplements you may need to take and to see if you are at any danger of osteoperosis. Then came the body composition test came next, they used the same machine to determine how much fat, water, muscle etc your body is made up of. I turned out to have around 46% fat – that is so disgusting ! I went to have a coffee at the Unitas coffee shop while I waited for my results, something to eat would have been nice but I doubt they would have taken lightly to liquidising a muffin !
8 February 2007
Today just as I started to pack and get ready for Monday I got a call from Dr Fetters office to say the surgery had been posponed to Wednesday – good grief !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9 February 2007 Saturday
My hubby took me shopping for a mountain bike to take my mind off things. We went home and went on a long ride. When we got home my legs were like jelly !
12 February 2007 Tuesday
The day before surgery ! 2pm I had to give myself a Clexane injection (its like Heparin) which keeps your blood thin, you need this for abdominal surgery to avoid blood clots. I had dinner at 7pm then stopped eating from 8pm. Ready for tomorrow !
13 February 2007 Wednesday
D Day ! I got to the hospital at 6:30am to check in at Sunninghill Hospital. I was shown through to a ward and to my bed to be told that this is only temporary as I will be getting my own private room, what a nice surprise. Doc came around about 1pm to say hi and to let me know they would be collecting me for surgery at 3pm. The anaethetist popped around and then all there was left to do was wait.
Dressed in my gorgeous theatre panties and an equally gorgeous colour co-ordinated gown, just after 3pm, off I went blind as a bat because they don't let you wear glasses in theatre. The staff all seemed really friendly and a was wheeled into the pre theatre room, within 10 mins I was in theatre with everyone chatting away to me .. from there on it was quick, drip, that fuzzy feeling, oxygen, and then ...............
I woke up in my ward with hubby next to me and the nurses checking pulse, blood pressure etc. Its all a bit of a blur as they were rather generous with the drugs ! The doc told me I had been in for over 2 hours as I have very strong stomach muscles ... which is a good thing he said because I can gave a strong, flat stomach again (I think I remember having that once !) The next sensation I became aware of was a dull but intense pain and discomfort in my stomach, I looked down at my stomach to see 5 small cuts that were covered in plasters. The next thing was this strange sensation of having my legs squeezed, only to discover I had pressure bandages up my entire legs and they were hooked up to a machine that was pumping alternatly – I was told this was to keep the blood flowing and decrease the chance of blood clots. I dozed off and then was woken by the doc and the aneathetist to see how I was doing, I thought is was morning but it was 11pm and they had just finished their last surgery for the day. I didnt sleep that well the first night with these strange things on my legs and by the next morning I was exhausted. Ice chips were on the menu for the day.
The day after your op is also time for your x ray so they can see that everything was stitched properly and nothing can leak through. This sounded simple enough, I even felt strong enough to walk, albeit very slowly, to the X ray dept which was about 200m away. The lady that took me through was really friendly and explained that I would need to lie down on the table and drink a bottle of this black liquorish stuff and then the doc and herself will watch on the xray as it travels inside me. This sounded harmless enough until you realise that the xray table is cold and hard and its not easy to lie on it when your insides feel like scrambled eggs. Next came the “Sambuca cocktail” ya right ! Just thinking of it now I want to vomit. I had to drink the entire bottle which tasted horiffic then lie there for a while .... which I did, then they wanted me to wait 20 mins so they could do another xray and see how far the liquid had gone through my digestive system. Ok, so I waited, took another xray and then was told they needed me to wait again for one more, probably about 45 mins. This is where I began to feel really strange. I was sitting in the waiting room, attached to a drip and I started to feel nauseus, sweaty, dizzy and really uncomfortable all at the same time. The xray lady took me through to one of the empty xray room to lie there for a while. I have never felt so terrible in my life, they EVENTUALLY took the last xray and everything was fine. Only prob was I felt so sick I could hardly stand up and all I wanted to do was get back into bed. Now they could not find a wheel chair to take me back so I thought screw this and started walking back, hanging onto my drip stand. Now that I think of it it must have been quite a funny sight everyone running around looking for a wheelchair with not one in sight. Each person I passed shouted, get this lady a wheelchair and then proceeded to look for one. Me, all I did was watch my feet because with every step I was one step closer to my bed, eventually one of the hospital staff followed me holding my one arm so he could catch me if I fell.
Once I got back to my bed I was in such pain and felt so sick I burst into tears at which nearly every nurse on the ward was there to check on me. They gave me some painkillers and some oxygen and I lay on my bed crying for a while, while the drugs took effect. The nurses in the ward have to be the kindest most concerned people I have EVER come across in a hospital, completely different to my experience at Unitas. One by one they all popped in to tell me how brave I was and to ask if there was anything I needed.
After a much needed nap I felt much better. The nurses next door had told me that the other bariatric patient that was operated on the same day as me was in the room next door. So I braved walking again and went to say hi. This was when I met Michelle, we became immediate friends and I can honestly say I dont know if I would have got through this experience without her support
Later in the afternoon I had a visit from Heather, one of Dr Fetters patient who I had been in contact with before my op. She had had a Gastric Bypass RNY in April last year and is doing really well.
Later in the arvy my stomach started feeling a bit strange again and a ran to the loo just in time as all this black stuff started coming out of me – it was so gross and continued until I got home – it was the fabulous sambuca liquid I had to drink from the xray !
Thursday night was a much better sleep and I was woken at 5am for tea ! I was feeling strong but had a bit of a headache, anyway I went for my morning jog up and down the passages and then to visit Michelle. I was walking as much as possible as every book and piece of info I had read had said that the sooner and more often you walked around the quicker you would recover. By about 10am my headache had turned into a full blown migraine and I thought my head would explode, nothing they gave me helped in the slightest. Doc Fetter came to see me and gave me a pethadine jab which eased the pain and let me doze a while. I kept pestering him that I wanted to go home so he said that if I was feeling better later that day I could go. An hour later I felt a lot better and called hubby to collect me and I was on my way home ....
15 February Friday
It was so good to be home, best decision ever was to get home asap into my own bed. I was feeling a bit delicate but nothing huge.
22 February Friday
Its now a week later and all is well ! There have been some tough lessons this week that in theory sounded easy enough but in practice were difficult as hell ! The first is determining if you need to eat or not, now this may sound easy enough but if you have small stomach that is never really hungry and a mind that is constantly telling you that you are starving I needed to listen really carefully to determine which I was listening to. Once I knew it was definitely my stomach that was hungry or needed to be fed then there is deciding what to eat, at this stage my choices are limited to soup, yoghurt, purity or custard ... mmmm after eating these for a week they are not so appealing anymore. Then comes the quantity, I need to eat really slowly, which is not natural for me, the idea being that if your stomach is the size of a small purity bottle then you need the 20 mins or so for your stomach to register that its had enough, which in turn means you need to eat slow enough to make your meal last 20mins, if you overeat you get the most uncomfortable, aching stomach to deal with until your meal digests.
Another challenge in making sure that your food does not contain more than 3g of fat or too many carbs and sugar ! This eliminates most foods !!! or most foods that Im used to eating and in that is the key, to find different choices and to develop some different tastes. One of the things Ive totally gone off is water, I used to be able to drink litres and now a few sips makes me feel really naaaaar.
The plasters have come off and the wounds are healing nicely. Including the recent appendix scar, my tummy looks like its been to war ! Im really looking forward to my follow up appointment with Prof Tess and the dietition on Tuesday – food changes from liquid to mushy, I cant wait. It will also be interesting to see if Ive lost any weight.
One of the things that concerns me is my use of any medication has to drastically change from now on. Im officially allergic to asprin and anti inflammatories as either one of these could rupture my pouch. Any other medication, such as my migraine tabs are all off the list and need to be replaced with once that my new pouch can tollerate. I'm thinking of finally going to find a homeopath as a GP ?
25 February 2008
Had a good week end, a bit of what felt like heartburn but nothing serious. Went for a nice walk, about 2km with Jeff and was pooped after but felt good to get out and about. I'm really looking forward to my dietition appt tomorrow as I'm so sick of this liquid diet. The only real problem Im having is that I cant drink water like I used to as it makes me feel really ick, so I add about one third fruit juice to it to make it drinkable so at least I'm getting my liquids even if its not all clear water.
28 February 2008
I went to the dietition today and to see Prof Tess for my 2 week follow up – Ive lost 8kgs !!! Yay !
Both of them said they were very happy with my healing and my progress, blood pressure was now normal and so was my heart rate. I can start doing walking every day now but cant do any other type of exercise until 6 weeks post op. Unfortunatley Michelle has been re admitted into hospital with an intestinal blockage – they think something she ate got stuck. Anyone who thinks that this is the easy way out is sorely wrong ! Im allowed to eat mushy food now so I made a cottage pie and stuck the mince and tomatoes in the blender to make it softer – it tasted so good to have “normal” food I cant explain. The only thing is as good as it tasted I could only have about 2 tablespoons before I was full !! Shit, this cottage pie is going to last a LONG time !!
29 February 2008
I'm off to have some post op Body Stress Release today – I cant wait and then I'm going to see Michelle, they think she will be in for at least a couple of days, I really feel for her but she really has to be careful. We just need to be confident and follow exactly what the doctors and dietitions say we are allowed to eat so that we can heal properly without problems. We will, in a month or two, be able to eat almost anything again ! It was scary seeing Mich in hospital, she looked so weak and pale and had pipes in her nose and throat and drips and stuff – I really hope she gets better soon.
I took my measurements again today and they are looking good:
15 January 2008 29 February 2008
Weight 103 Weight 95
Chest 121 Chest 118
Under boobs 106 Under boobs 100
Hips 130 Hips 125
Top leg 78 Top leg 125
Calf 42 Calf 41
Top arms 38 Top arms 35
Waist 105 Waist 100
So all is looking good !
18 March 2008
Whew, haven't written for a while but things are going ok, I'm now 5 weeks post op and feeling good, the weight loss has slowed down but I believe that happens from time to time as your body adjusts to the changes, once it adjusts, you start to loose again. Michelle was out of hospital after a week and is starting on the road to recovery, she is still feeling very weak though.
The last two weeks have been an interesting journey of finding out what foods I can and cannot eat. I cant drink Milo, it makes me so sick, think its the sugar ! The fat free, sugar free sweets give me gas ! Cant chew chewing gum as it gives me a stomach ache. I'm in LOVE with cheese triangles yum yum, tea I can take it or leave it – usually only 2 or 3 cups a week. Coffee is a no no as the caffeine slows down the weight loss and can make you dehydrated, which is a scary thought as everyday is a battle to get my 1.5 to 2 litres of water down – I used to be able to drink litres no problem but now that I can only sip sip it takes forever and water just dosen't taste the same ! Boiled or steamed prawns go down well with some avo but I can only have about 4 small ones as a meal ! Egg is my usual breakfast, lunch is usually some sort of chicken with some veges or leftover from the night before, then I have my cheese triangles as an afternoon snack and dinner is, well, whatever is going, cottage pie, chicken or fish and veg ( I still cant eat salad) and then thats about it, if I get a craving for something sweet there are always diet jellies or Weigh less choc mousse in the fridge – but most times I'm full up until the morning.
I'm battling with constipation at the moment, ever since I started taking the iron supplements, so I must find out if there is any alternative I can try.
I haven't done measurements for a while so lets see:
15 January 2008 18 March 2008 DOWN
Weight 103 Weight 89.8 13.2kgs
Chest 121 Chest 113 8cm
Under boobs 106 Under boobs 94 12cm
Hips 130 Hips 119 11cm
Top leg 78 Top leg 71 7cm
Calf 42 Calf 39 3cm
Top arm 38 Top arm 34 4cm
Waist 105 Waist 92 13cm
8 April 2008
Its almost 2 months post op now and things are going so so, Im really frustrated that the weight loss has slowed down, I seem to stay the same weight for up to a week now but I guess I should just be patient. Ive discovered that I can eat chocolate without any side effects which is a huge problem, the only real side affect is the guilt I feel afterwards which is overwhelming. I ate a rusk on the week end and it made me feel so sick, I guess it just takes time to discover what my system will tolerate. Oh and I can eat salad now, just have to be very careful what is in the dressing.
I went today for my Venofer Iron transfusion, I was really nervous about having a drip but its was very uneventful and I just say quietly for about an hour and a half until it finished – so now I no longer have to take those horrible iron tablets that constipate me so badly and by iron levels will be up for the next 6 months – I can definitely handle doing this twice a year intead of the tabs. Med aid paid for the equipment and I ended up paying the R204 for the medicine which was not too bad.
I havent taken measurements for a while so here goes:
15 January 2008 8 April 2008 DOWN
Weight 103 Weight 86 17kg
Chest 121 Chest 110 11cm
Under boobs 106 Under boobs 97 9cm
Hips 130 Hips 117 13cm
Top leg 78 Top leg 68 10cm
Calf 42 Calf 38.5 3.5cm
Top arm 38 Top arm 32 6cm
Waist 105 Waist 90 15cm
January 2008
Jan 27, 2008
Had my appointment with the surgeon today. He explained the entire Roux en Y procedure and how it works. When we got to the scheduling the first opening they had for surgery was 31 March. Now that presented a bit of a problem as I am leaving mid to end April to study - that didnt leave me much time ! Anyway I put my name on the waiting list ....
15 January
I arrived at my appointment with the Weight clinic to be told that one person had postponed their surgery date and 11 February was now available - Id have to get myself ready really quick !!
Had my appointment with the psychologist today, just wanted to make sure I have the right reasoning behind wanting this surgery. I also wanted to make sure I have the tools post surgery to make the most of it. Yep, he seems to think my thought processes are correct and now Im really convinced this is what I want to do.
Next was the dietition, who advised me to cut out bread, sugar, no more that 3g fat etc etc .....
Finally it was back to Prof Tess who confirmed my booking for 11 Febuary and told me I needed to have a gastroscope and bone density test as well as a body composition and an abdominal sonar .... good grief !!!
As soon as I got home I managed to get everything booked for the following week - yee ha !
19 January
I started off this morning with a really bad stomach ache, at first I thought it was heartburn or maybe my IBS playing up again. Well it got worse and worse until, at 3am, my hubby took me to the emergency ward at Unitas hospital ..... after a whole lot of scans, Xrays etc they discovered my appendix had to come out ! So into hospital and out with the appendix.
Luckily I was home the next day and so far its taken about a week to recover, still really awkward .... BUT I had missed all my test appointments which all need to be rescheduled asap as time was running out !
28 January
Had my gastroscope (I think thats what you call it) today and it was really nothing huge - the anesthetic obviously worked well because I dont remember a thing !
Ive got my appointment with the dietition tomorrow to find out about the diet for the last two weeks pre op ... and then all the other scans on Wednesday, I must admit that I am more than a little tired of hospitals at this stage !
December 2007
Jan 27, 2008
Went to have my blood tests done and booked an appointment with the surgion for January !
October 2007
Jan 27, 2008
July 2007
Jan 27, 2008
When I finally decided to phone to make an appointment, their first time available was 30 October 2007. So the wait started 4 months and counting ...
