I am Shrinking!

116/70 - that was my blood pressure going into bypass surgery.  The nurse asked me what was wrong.  There was nothing wrong.  I knew I had made the right decision by having this surgery.  Here's the timeline:

500am - drop kids off
600am - arrive at hospital
615am - begin pre-op work
730 - funny meds pumped and we are off (I felt really good) 
735 - mask placed on my face and I am out.....
Sometime a few hours later........
.........begin to wake up and yell at Brent to leave and let me sleep (Ooops)
100 -  arrive at private suite (this is my spring break after all)
300 - take the first of a few walks equaling 3 miles

Over the next couple of days I spend my time swabbing my mouth with a little foam brush.  There is no drinking or eating until Tuesday evening.  So, every so often I swab my mouth with ice water careful not to swallow.  I must admit though that with the scratchy throat the breathing tube left I may have let a tiny bit of water trickle down.  Just a smidgeon. I received my first meal Tuesday evening: 4 ounces of sugar free vanilla pudding and 4 ounces of crystal light.  It took me about 3 hours to finish this first meal.  The next meal arrives at 10 pm and it is 4 ounces of sugar free vanilla yogurt.  I took two bites and let the rest sit there. There is a pattern forming here as I toss the breakfast too after a few bites.  I am not advocating that people do this -in fact I am breaking the nutrition rules by doing so, but I swore to you all an honest reflection of this process.

Any person who has a gastric bypass is not supposed to leave the hospital without having walked a total of one mile.  I, of course, am insane so I walked three.  On one of my walks I am stopped by another young woman who asks me how in the world I am able to walk.  I told her that the most important thing that I could stress coming out of this surgery was to be positive and stay motivated, so I was walking through the pain.  She shut the door on me when I went on a later walk.  I saw her at our first follow up appointment and she looked like death and smelled of smoke.  I feel for her.

Ok, back to the food...... I said I was not able to eat all of the food and I am still experiencing difficulty.  Contrary to my mother's belief, the point of having a gastric bypass is not to never eat again, but to fix the physiology and aid in maintaining a healthy eating lifestyle.  It is imperative to eat a high protein diet in order to heal appropriately and to retrain the stomach.   The other piece of this is to not eat foods that will bloat the stomach so that the incision areas can heal and not tear.  Tearing would be tragic and gross.  So, everyday I am trying to get all of my food in so that I can continue to heal and improve.  It just sucks, but is a finite amount of time when put into perspective.

The big question is..... "How much weight have you lost?"  Well, I am obsessed with this and have had to stop weighing myself.  I was literally driving myself nuts, so as of the last time I checked I have lost 24 pounds.  I had surgery three weeks ago.  I guess I somehow convinced myself that I would drop boat loads of weight every week, so I have been down on myself a bit.  I know in my head that the current loss is great and that losing too much at once can have tragic consequences.  So, I am okay with the loss that I have had.  Although not always easy, this is what I mean by staying positive and motivated.  Even I sometimes need to be reminded to push through the pain or mental blocks to keep moving.

Please ask me questions about this process.  There is so much I can touch on, but want to make it relevant.  



  



     

Ok, so I LIED!

Bypass Update #2

Ok, so I lied.  People having a gastric bypass can have caffeine.  They can have the equivalent of one small cup of coffee.  How many people do you know can have only one small cup of coffee?  It's like limiting an alcohol dependent person to only one shot at their favorite bar.  My thinking - a small amount of caffeine is NO caffeine.   

The second nutritional appointment has been completed.  The second nutritional appointment was fruitful (I love a good healthy food reference).  I weighed in on the cattle scale and found that I lost 6 pounds (YEAH ME!).  I also learned that I cannot gain these 6 pounds back.  This knowledge will have a major impact on me later.  In fact, it was a catastrophic emotional consequence that I will share later. Kathy, my nutritionist, was very impressed that with my busy schedule I was able to maintain focus and believes that I will not require additional nutritional counseling after my next appointment which is in less than a week (can you see where the emotional consequences might be coming from yet?)  Did I mention that if I lose another 19 pounds I won't qualify for surgery anymore?  First time for everything....

Christmas and New Year's Oh My!  I made a commitment to going sugar free on December 26th and I did. Even with the sabotaging gifts I received for Christmas (thanks mom and Stever's turkey joints).  Confession - I remained sugar free until Lilly's baptism where I shared some cake.  It was so good too.  I am sugar free again - as of this morning..... it had nothing to do with the chocolate chip cookie, but I won't swear to it.

Catastrophic Emotional Breakdown ensues.....In preparing for my next nutritional appointment I stepped on the scale - not the cattle kind, the normal kind I hide under my bed.  I was ecstatic to see I lost another 3 pounds.  What was there not to be happy about?  I lost 3 pounds, I am still in the window, and Kathy is going to recommend me for surgery.  I picked up the kids, had dinner, bathed kids, put kids to bed, watched some Netflix, went to sleep.  Here it comes... wait for it... I wake up, get on the scale and I have gained ten pounds.  Within 24 hours I am having a major melt down of epic proportions. I couldn't wrap my head around it.  I lost it emotionally.  I felt at my lowest.  I feel like I wear my sin on the outside of my body and that sin is my weight.  I have never felt so low in my life.  I failed. A life of humiliation and physical pain flashed in front of my eyes and it is not the life I want and will no longer live.  WHO THE HELL GAINS TEN POUNS OVERNIGHT?  This is what my nightmares are made of. I waited two days, but I called Kathy.  Kathy informed me it was water weight and not actual weight gain.  She is worried as it could signify a larger issues.  Really?  Isn't that what I have been saying all along? Nonetheless I will be meeting with Kathy next week where we will come up with a plan to address the issue.  The water weight? I had sushi for dinner with soy sauce.  I am charging the soy sauce with criminal intent.  One would think I drank the bottle of soy....which I did not.  I am no longer going to eat soy sauce as it is the new enemy.

I want this surgery.  I need this surgery.  I will live because of this surgery.  Any fears (or doubts) I may have had about having this surgery are gone.  I am committed to this life change.

Motion FREEDOM Evolution