Well, I had my first week post op visit, it was pretty uneventful. I had my staples removed, and the PA put on steri-strips. Got a prescription for actigall, which I am supposed to start taking one month post op to protect my gallbladder. Wish he had just pulled the darn thing at the same time 🙂 I only lost 2 lbs according to them, but my my home scale says I lost 6. I think its somewhere inbetween. I was wearing jeans and a sweater because I was cold, and that is a lot more than I’ve had on at past weigh ins. Not exactly the huge amount I would have hoped for for having spent a whole week on clear liquids consuming less than 250 calories a day. Hmm. But I know it will start coming off.
So how am I feeling? Pretty good! I’m off the heavy duty pain meds, as of yesterday. I still have twinges and pulls in my incisions, particularly when getting up, but I am walking about 5k steps a day so that is probably ok. I need to gradually start increasing the walking. I have not experienced any nausea or acid issues or vomiting or any of that stuff <knock wood> I have had some things that kind of didn’t like going down, but the feeling passed quickly. I do have a headache this afternoon, but all in all, not bad. I miss my friend Advil, because that works so much better for me than Tylenol. Boo. My incisions all look good. One was getting irritated, the top middle one, from my bra rubbing against the staples, but its much better now that all the staples are out. The worst one is on the far right side, which is opposite of what most people say. My doc said he does all the hard work through the one on the right because he gets a better angle on the stapler.
I was telling a fellow VSG buddy, FavoredOne, that I have this little stinkin’ thinkin’ thought that I will be the one person for whom sleeve doesn’t work, right? Doesn’t everyone have these thoughts? I have to step back and look at it and try to break it down. I came home from the hospital having lost a bit, so its not that. I spent a week on clear liquids with less than 250 calories a day. I got in all my fluids and protein each day. I did what I was supposed to do. So I just have to wait and see, the weight has to come off sometime, right?
I started full liquids yesterday, and it is a lot better. first day out, I went to P.F. Changs and got my favorite, hot and sour soup, and they blended it for me. 1 7 oz serving has 80 calories, 3 g fat, 9 g carbs and 7 g protein. I love it. I got the large bowl, and just measure myself out a small portion for lunch and dinner. One bowl that cost $5.95 will last me about….6-8 meals? Amazing. It fills me up really quickly.
I will admit to a couple of cheats and really weird behaviors. I let two cella liquid center cherries melt in my mouth slowly on christmas day, and spit out the cherry itself. I also had one tiny piece of potato chip and ground it to bits and let it go down with a drink of water. then the weird(er) stuff. I have chewed up some things that I liked, and spit them back out and rinse my mouth out with water after each bite. I just wanted the taste and the sensation of chewing. I can’t be the only person ever to do that. I know its stupid, but….I figure its better than actually eating it. B
I find it interesting how different the advice on post-op diets are. I am a member of verticalsleevetalk.com, and there is such a continuum. I talk to people who are on clears for 14 days. I talk to people released from the hospital on full liquids, and one who was released from the hospital on soft foods! FOr myself, I have 1 week of clears, 2 weeks of full, 3 weeks of soft and then by week 6 resuming to normal diet.
I read a great memoir last night, called ‘Designated Fat Girl” by Jennifer Joyner (jenniferjoyner.com) and it was really interesting, so many of the ways she described her food addiction, her thinking, her rationalization, her food binge choices mirror me. It was a quick read and made me think. She describes these behaviors as self-destructive. which, ultimately, eating the way I have for all these years, is destructive. I also have at least one other fairly socially accepted addiction that is self destructive, but I don’t make the link between why I have done what I have done/do what I do and wanting subconsciously self-destructive. I just don’t get what my reasons for doing what I do are. I don’t get it. i have spent time in 12 step groups, but havent’ had a great enlightenment. When does that come?
Yes, I have sexual abuse or molestation or whatever you might call what happened to me between ages 4-5, but on the scale of how bad those things can be, mine wasn’t as bad. I have talked about it in therapy, I know its not my fault.
I always FELT fat. When I was a kid, I was a little chubby, but not overweight. teenage years as I shot up and was active in school stuff, I thinned out. When I started college, I had an extremely obese roommate, and I think apart from major personality issues (she thought it was ok to have a 1.x GPA and never go to class, I was a “square” who had a 4.0 GPA that first year) I think I was scared to look at her to know what I could (and have) become, as I already could binge like no one’s business. That year, I didn’t gain the freshman 15, I lost about 10 lbs, because every time I would see her in our room, binging, often on my food, it disgusted me and I would go to the gym to exercise or run out on the trails. I got married after my freshman year weighing 132 lbs and in a size 9, and still imagined that I was a fat girl. What I would give to weigh that now!
My weight started to balloon up after I got married. About a year after I had been married, I went to weight watchers for the first time. I weighed 152 at that point (still, would kill to weigh that) I gradually just gained and gained and gained. A lot of people assume I can blame my weight on all the babies. But nope. I was 250 before I got pregnant with my first, and have been bouncing up and down from that point for 15 years.
So I guess I am supposed to figure out why I do this. I’m not sure, is it necessary to know why? Will that keep me from doing it in the future or at least understanding it more?
Loser Mama 