It appears that I'm much more successful in my lapband journey than I am at blogging! Can't believe my last post was Feb 5th! Time sure does fly.
Part of the reason I wasn't motivated to post is that the scale just stopped right around the 3 week mark. Up until then the scale had been moving downward at a fairly good pace. I got used to seeing a lower number everytime I jumped on the scale. Then all of a sudden it stopped and one day it actually moved back up 2lbs....WHAT?!?! That wasn't supposed to happen! Naturally, I searched every website/blog I could find to see what I was doing wrong. After that "in depth" research....LOL....it appears that it was fairly common to stall out at the 3 week mark. I was just beginning to introduce "real food" back into my diet. I guess my body needed some time to figure out what was going on. Fortunately, the scale moved this week....significantly!
I've been really surprised how my "thoughts" have been changed by this experience. I'm so much more aware of what I put into my mouth now. During my liquid diet phase, I significantly reduced the number of carbs I was eating. I actually went through carb withdrawals with headaches, etc. I think that was a huge turning point for me because since then I've been running from carbs like they were poision! The more I read about the low carb diets, the more it makes sense to me! It seems to me that low carb and lapband are made to work with each other!
As a part of my journey to a healthier me, I'm researching healthier recipes. If you haven't discovered Eggface, then I recommend you check her out. She has some really AMAZING receipes. She may actually end up inspiring me to learn how to cooking which would shock my family! Thank God for live-in chefs!
Next major milestone is March 15th....1st fill.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
And then it was surgery day...
First let me say, I admire all of you ladies who diligently update your blogs, inspiring those like me! My surgery was Monday (Jan 31st) and I'm JUST NOW getting a chance to sit down and give a status update! Kudos to you all!
And it was surgery day...I was surprisingly calm considering what I was about to endure. I did have a slight meltdown the day before. Being a single mother of two, you can't help but have a fear that something might happen that would take you away from your precious babies! Luckily the meltdown was short lived! As far as the surgery goes, everything went as smooth as I could have hoped for. Going into it, I had hoped to lose 13 lbs on my 2 week liquid diet, but ended up only losing 8 (according to my scales). HOWEVER, there was a 5 lb difference between my scale and the one at the hospital. I was so happy that I think I skipped to the room they were going to prep me in!
All of the staff in CMC-Mercy (Charlotte, NC) was wonderful. It didn't take long for them to get me ready and everyone seemed so supportive of the surgery. I can't remember if I've posted this before, but I had dual surgeries - an ovary removed as well as the lap band. I was a little nervous about doing them together, but I got opinions from anyone and everyone that had MD following their name and they all agreed that it was better to do it together than have back to back surgeries. The procedure to remove the ovary was performed before the lap band.
I remember very little about the operating room. The surgical nurse told me in the prep room that she had some medicine that would relax me and block any memory I had. I have to say it worked! I remember being wheeled in there - still as calm as I could be. I recall moving over to the operating table and putting my arms out to the side. I looked up and thought "what a pretty light that is...." and then there is nothing after that until they woke me up. Recovery was actually harder than the surgical part. It took a LONG time for my bladder to start working. My family kidded me that it took 2 hours to do 2 surgeries, but 4.5 hours for me to pee! They ended up giving me lasix to "help" things along. It didn't take long after that. Problem was...I couldn't make it the 45 minutes home without stopping somewhere to pee. I'm actually sort of glad they gave the lasix because I think it helped me get rid of the excess fluid faster.
I had read on other blogs that I shouldn't check my weight when I came home because I would weigh more with all of the fluids they pumped in, but I just couldn't resist. So I'm here to say...they all were right. I weighed 10 lbs more. Its a little depressing even though I knew it was temporary. So take it from me...just don't even look!
Okay...now on to recovery. I've been a little confused (concerned) that maybe I was misunderstanding my post op diet. The diet I was given is clear liquids on the day of surgery, full liquids day 1 to 3, puree/soft diet for 2 weeks. All of the banded bloggers talk about another 2 weeks of liquid diet. I'm thrilled that I don't have to do that, but it just seems odd that the diet can differ so drastically between doctors. I was nervous eating yesterday, but the egg salad I had went down fine and it tasted soo good!
Pain control....there definitely is pain involved, but its been very tolerable. My stomach feels like I overworked my abs doing sit ups. It hurts to stand up or roll over, but again nothing I couldn't manage. Gas has been an issue, but luckily I was prepared for it. Had I not been, I probably would have called 911 because the pain was in my chest, neck and across my back - just like heart attack symptoms for women, per Dr. Oz! Luckily, I had my gas-ex strips and they really did help. Moving around also helped....A LOT.
What am I eating....well, that's been tough. I'm not the primary cook in my household and I've never been creative when it comes to food. On post op day 2 thru 3, I just stuck to the standard soups. I will admit that I've not done very well getting the protein in, but its improving now that I'm on mushies. The mushy stage has been egg and chicken salad, scrambled eggs, grits and salmon patties. I'm trying my best to make them healthier. I used lite mayo for the salads and used FiberOne cereal instead of crackers to make the salmon patties. Oh...and I took a few potatoes from my potato soup and mixed it with some Greek yogurt. It tasted like a baked potato with sour cream. So far, I haven't had any problems eating. Just keeping my fingers crossed that it continues to be that way. I do hope I can get a little more creative with my food as I move forward.
All in all it has been a great experience. I have a hard time believing its done. Everyone at the hospital kept congratulating me on my "new life". Its really exciting to think about what the future holds. I turn 40 this year so I'm really hoping to make the next 40 better than the first!
Sorry this was so long, but I felt like I needed to talk about all of this in one posting. I'll work on being more timely with my posts.
And it was surgery day...I was surprisingly calm considering what I was about to endure. I did have a slight meltdown the day before. Being a single mother of two, you can't help but have a fear that something might happen that would take you away from your precious babies! Luckily the meltdown was short lived! As far as the surgery goes, everything went as smooth as I could have hoped for. Going into it, I had hoped to lose 13 lbs on my 2 week liquid diet, but ended up only losing 8 (according to my scales). HOWEVER, there was a 5 lb difference between my scale and the one at the hospital. I was so happy that I think I skipped to the room they were going to prep me in!
All of the staff in CMC-Mercy (Charlotte, NC) was wonderful. It didn't take long for them to get me ready and everyone seemed so supportive of the surgery. I can't remember if I've posted this before, but I had dual surgeries - an ovary removed as well as the lap band. I was a little nervous about doing them together, but I got opinions from anyone and everyone that had MD following their name and they all agreed that it was better to do it together than have back to back surgeries. The procedure to remove the ovary was performed before the lap band.
I remember very little about the operating room. The surgical nurse told me in the prep room that she had some medicine that would relax me and block any memory I had. I have to say it worked! I remember being wheeled in there - still as calm as I could be. I recall moving over to the operating table and putting my arms out to the side. I looked up and thought "what a pretty light that is...." and then there is nothing after that until they woke me up. Recovery was actually harder than the surgical part. It took a LONG time for my bladder to start working. My family kidded me that it took 2 hours to do 2 surgeries, but 4.5 hours for me to pee! They ended up giving me lasix to "help" things along. It didn't take long after that. Problem was...I couldn't make it the 45 minutes home without stopping somewhere to pee. I'm actually sort of glad they gave the lasix because I think it helped me get rid of the excess fluid faster.
I had read on other blogs that I shouldn't check my weight when I came home because I would weigh more with all of the fluids they pumped in, but I just couldn't resist. So I'm here to say...they all were right. I weighed 10 lbs more. Its a little depressing even though I knew it was temporary. So take it from me...just don't even look!
Okay...now on to recovery. I've been a little confused (concerned) that maybe I was misunderstanding my post op diet. The diet I was given is clear liquids on the day of surgery, full liquids day 1 to 3, puree/soft diet for 2 weeks. All of the banded bloggers talk about another 2 weeks of liquid diet. I'm thrilled that I don't have to do that, but it just seems odd that the diet can differ so drastically between doctors. I was nervous eating yesterday, but the egg salad I had went down fine and it tasted soo good!
Pain control....there definitely is pain involved, but its been very tolerable. My stomach feels like I overworked my abs doing sit ups. It hurts to stand up or roll over, but again nothing I couldn't manage. Gas has been an issue, but luckily I was prepared for it. Had I not been, I probably would have called 911 because the pain was in my chest, neck and across my back - just like heart attack symptoms for women, per Dr. Oz! Luckily, I had my gas-ex strips and they really did help. Moving around also helped....A LOT.
What am I eating....well, that's been tough. I'm not the primary cook in my household and I've never been creative when it comes to food. On post op day 2 thru 3, I just stuck to the standard soups. I will admit that I've not done very well getting the protein in, but its improving now that I'm on mushies. The mushy stage has been egg and chicken salad, scrambled eggs, grits and salmon patties. I'm trying my best to make them healthier. I used lite mayo for the salads and used FiberOne cereal instead of crackers to make the salmon patties. Oh...and I took a few potatoes from my potato soup and mixed it with some Greek yogurt. It tasted like a baked potato with sour cream. So far, I haven't had any problems eating. Just keeping my fingers crossed that it continues to be that way. I do hope I can get a little more creative with my food as I move forward.
All in all it has been a great experience. I have a hard time believing its done. Everyone at the hospital kept congratulating me on my "new life". Its really exciting to think about what the future holds. I turn 40 this year so I'm really hoping to make the next 40 better than the first!
Sorry this was so long, but I felt like I needed to talk about all of this in one posting. I'll work on being more timely with my posts.
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