2 Months Post Op

Misty October 2013

Life is back to normal. I still have scars from the surgery. Still struggling with getting enough water, but I am doing pretty well drinking my protein shakes. I am loosing about 1 lb per week, which is progress. My goal is to really increase my exercise. It is time to get better toned. I am down 31 lbs. At my last doctor's appointment, I weighed in at 237, which make my BMI 42.0 . I can pretty much eat what I want now, but am supposed to keep my carb consumption low and my protein and vegetable consumption high. It is kind of dangerous though because the holidays are coming up and there is a lot of chocolate and treats staring me in the face on a daily basis. 

1 month Post Op

It has been a month since my surgery and I seem to be doing pretty well. The pain from my shoulder is gone and my stomach seems to be healing pretty well. My biggest struggle is drinking enough water each day, it is really a challenge for me to remember to drink when I am supposed to drink and then turn around and eat "dry meals." There are many days that I don't get enough water and end up with a headache from dehydration.

Friday, August 30th 2013 - 11 days Post-Op

Well, I had my Lap-Band surgery on Monday, August 19th. Heather, my sister, was able to take me to the hospital and Mary Ellen, my mother-in-law, took care of the kids. I was pretty nervous about being under General Anesthesia because I never have before, but it wasn't bad at all. I went back to surgery around 1:00 and was out before they even put me on the surgery table. All of my nurses were male nurses, which was a first for me, but they all were pretty nice. When I woke up from anesthesia, I wasn't aware that I had had surgery and my eyes were closed and I had oxygen on  my face and felt a stabbing pain in my shoulder and abdomen, so in my mind someone was attacking me in my sleep, so I woke up swinging. I tried my hardest to punch all three nurses in the face and they told me to behave. The doctor then came and told me that he found a Haital Hernia in my abdomen that had to be fixed before he could perform the Lap Band Surgery. He speculated that the hernia had been caused by my pregnancy with my twins because of my short torso and lack of space that I had for 2 full-term babies, so my abs split and a hernia (part of my intestine) was pushed up into my diaphragm. As I was coming out of anesthesia, I guess I did some pretty silly things, like calling all of my nurses "Dude", asking Heather what to do with my bra, and telling Heather that her fingers were fat because she didn't practice the piano enough. I also kept trying to leave the hospital because I thought that if I left the pain would go away. I couldn't really feel my surgery in my stomach, although it looked liked I had been kicked in the stomach by a horse, but the pain in my shoulder caused by the C02 that they put in my system to help perform my surgery was INTENSE!!! The pain remained INTENSE, like a 7 or 8 out of 10, for an entire week. Now, 11 days post-op my pain remains around a 3, but if I go too hard it shoots back up to about a 6. The diet really hasn't been hard for me, the hardest thing is trying to get enough water (120 oz) and eat dry meals. Every now and then I have cravings, like when I saw Tacos on the Café Rio commercial or Chicken Pot Pie on the Marie Calendar's commercial, one of these days though, I will get to eat real food. I believe, I am weighing in now at 245 - five pounds down from my surgery day. I think I will start to shed more weight as I increase my activity level and the swelling from my operation goes down.

The Day Before Surgery

Today, I weighed in at 250 lbs., which is 11 lbs. in two weeks, I am just hoping it is enough for the doctor to perform the surgery. If my scale is the same as the doctor's office, I have lost 18 lbs. since May 1st. We shall see! At the beginning of the week I was doing really well on my diet, it didn't seem to bother me to be eating very little fat/sugar/carbs, but towards the end of this week, I was having a lot of cravings. I was craving Pizza, Muffins, Popcorn, Cheese, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Chips. I have figured how to make my protein smoothies pretty tasty. I am trying to drink lots of water, but can't consume anything past midnight tonight. I am a little anxious about the surgery. I just hope everything goes well and that there are no complications. I am going to get a priesthood blessing tonight and hope all goes well. Mary Ellen, my mother in law, will be watching the kids tomorrow and Heather will be taking me to and from the surgery. Heather will be helping me out on Tuesday and Darin will take off Wednesday to help at home.

Craving

Some things  I am craving today:

Ice Cream
Popcorn
Cheddar Cheese

I am trying not to think about it. That is all.

Liver Shrinking Diet Days 3-7

I feel like my body is starting to get used to the low carb-ness of this diet. I still have cravings, but they aren't as strong as the first few days. On Thursday, Abigail and I went to Chilis and they had a light menu, of which I ordered a 6 oz. steak with steamed broccoli and an extra side of steamed broccoli. I ate half of the 6 oz. steak (which is one serving of protein for me) and saved it for my lunch the next day. Friday, I weighed myself and had only lost a pound and got very discouraged because it is the story of my life. I am following all of the rules, I haven't cheated once, and the weight is coming off VERY slowly. I am supposed to loose 12-20 lbs on this liver shrinking diet, which means by day 4, I should have lost at least 3 pounds. I still need to improve on my water drinking and exercise, but this is a lot to think about. On Saturday, I went to the Chubbuck Days Festival, I drank my super healthy protein smoothie before and packed my lunch. It was so HOT, that I didn't want to eat anything though and I just kept guzzling water. By the end of the Festival, I had a terrible heat headache and felt totally sick. I cam home, drank more water, took some excederine, and laid down. After about 30 minutes, I decided that I had to eat something because it was 4:30 and all I had had was water and my protein shake that day, so I forced myself to eat cottage cheese and celery for lunch and called it good. The headache finally went away, and all was well again. I kind of feel bad for my family though, cause I did not cook one single meal for them. I am just not motivated to cook things that I can't eat. Sundays are always busy for me. I had to make sure to get to church on time because I was being released from my calling and getting a new one. My mind was so pre-occupied, that I totally forgot to make my smoothie. When I got home from church, I realized that I hadn't eaten anything, so I ate a cheese stick and 17 grapes, I was full again, so I busied myself with some lesson planning for the upcoming preschool and music lesson season. Maybe my body is getting used to functioning on less food. I made the girls Ramen Noodles for dinner at their request and I had a big salad with canned chicken, taco seasoning, tomatoes, onion, salsa, and FF Italian dressing. It was very yummy. Poor Darin was on his own. I bet he is going to get tired of me not cooking soon. I will try to plan some meals this week that the entire family can participate in. Well, it was crunch time. Time to weigh myself because it has been a week since I have put down a recorded weight.

Today my weight is:
256 lbs (I lost 5 lbs! I am convinced, I sweated it off at the Chubbuck Days Festival)
*I just hope my efforts are enough so that my surgery won't get postponed.
BMI - 45.3

Day 2 & 3 of Liver Shrinking Diet

So, I found something better for my protein shakes. It works for now, but I am not sure I want to drink a protein shake for breakfast EVERYDAY for the rest of my life. That's a long time cause I plan on living for a REALLY LONG TIME. That is why I am doing this, because I want a LONG, HEALTHY LIFE. Anyway for the past couple of mornings I did the following for breakfast:

1 cup. ice
1 cup milk
2 scoops protein supplement
1 fruit serving
*Because my protein supplement is chocolate flavored I have used raspberries and bananas as my fruit and it has been pretty tasty. This makes a HUGE Smoothie, so it usually takes me a couple of hours to finish it.

Day 2 Lunch
3 oz. chicken
2 c. mashed cauliflower

Day 3 Lunch
2 hard boiled eggs
2 cups of Iceberg Lettuce with FF Italian Dressing
*I have been taking my liquid mulit-vitamin and 4 tablets of chewable calcium. I am going to try to find a different multi-vitamin because I literally GAG the stuff down.

Day 2 Dinner
3 /4 cup cottage cheese
2 cups raw mixed veggies: tomatoes, celery, carrots with FF Italian

Day 3 Dinner
3 oz lean taco meat
2 cups of salad with tomatoes, onions, green leaf lettuce
*This was my favorite dinner so far - I will definitely be doing this again.


*I have noticed that my hungriest times are at 4:00 and at 10:00 in the evening. I try to drink to satisfy my hunger, but when I couldn't be satisfied, I just went to bed. I better be loosing weight cause this is not easy. I still am struggling with drinking enough water and I definitely need to start going to the gym.  I have been so busy with preparing for preschool, that I hardly can breath. ONE STEP AT A TIME. I was however very proud of myself on my second day of the liver shrinking diet, I had to stop to get the kids some McDonalds and I was VERY Hungry, the smells of the fast food, were almost more than I could bare, but I drove back home, got my food, and then went on to a cousin's birthday party where I age my veggies and cottage cheese and everyone else ate cupcakes and ice cream. THAT WAS HARD. I have noticed though that eating a lot of RAW VEGGIES kind of upsets my tummy and makes me feel hungry at the same time, so I am going to try to cook a bunch and have them on hand to quickly heat up.