Excitement!

Today was my first visit back to the doctor's office since my surgery. I met with the dietician, Jodi, and met with the PA as well.

Jodi went over with me that I can start solid foods today, which was a surprise as I thought I was going to mushy food. She told me to eat some soft foods for the first couple of days to be safe, but after that, I'm good to go!

Pretty much, I'm restricted to 30g of carbs a day, and I need to get at least 60g of protein in a day. I don't need to count calories or fat or anything like that, which is a relief. I don't like having to count all of that stuff, and I've always felt it was ridiculous in the first place. I think this kind of restriction will be easier as time progresses and I learn how many carbs each of the things I put in my mouth has. It sucks giving up all the bread I love to eat, but it'll be worth it in the end.

So, today we went out to eat, and I had some grilled salmon and steamed carrots. It was delicious! Now, since we were at Cheddar's, the plates were huge. I was only able to finish about a quarter of my salmon, and four or five baby carrots. I'm not sure if this kind of restriction is due to residual swelling, or if the placement of the band is already curbing my appetite.

Honestly, it's a little strange getting used to. In the past, I would've been able to finish most of my plate and dessert. I felt weird when I looked back down at my plate and it barely looked like I touched it. That is going to take some time getting used to. Also, it's going to take some time getting used to not ordering a drink when I go out to eat! I had a unsweet tea that I sweetened with Sweet N Low with my meal, but I barely touched it.

Now that the dreaded liquid phase is over, though, I think things should go fairly smoothly from now on.

Another thing Jodi brought up to me was that she was getting a team together for the Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon here in San Antonio on November 11th. There is a walking, "wogging" (walking/jogging), and running team. She wanted me to join, and said she thinks I should aim for the wogging team. All it took was her encouragement and BAM, I signed up. She e-mailed me a copy of the training schedule (pretty much my new exercise routine for the next couple of months), and next Saturday is our first meeting as a team. I'm really excited for this, because it's something I've never done before!

A friend of mine also brought up another marathon in December. It's an all girls marathon with mud and obstacles and stuff. Sounds interesting to me, and I believe that if I train for both of these marathons, not only will I be helping my weight loss goals, but I'll be having fun with it as well. I'm super excited.

My first fill is scheduled for July 19th, after I come back from San Diego. I wonder how much I'll even need since I'm experiencing so much restriction already. The hardest part is getting my butt up to go exercise, but I think with this whole new determination to meet my goals for the marathon, I'll be successful.

I'm Still Hungry

Yup, still hungry.

I cheated and had some refried beans yesterday. Guess what? It was delicious!

Guess something else?

That was a horrible, horrible thing for me to do. If there is something anyone should know about the post-op diet, it's that you need to follow it to the end. The post-op diet is specifically designed to help your stomach heal in order to prevent band complications in the future. When you eat solid, your stomach moves around while it digests. When you eat liquids, that moving around is severely reduced. So while you're waiting for your stomach to heal from the stitches and the band placement, you want as little movement as possible to make sure the band heals correctly in place. If not, band slippage/erosion could happen in the future.

Yeah, I feel like a total douchebag now for eating those beans. Now I'm back to sad, depressed Ashlee eating her tomato soup. *sigh*

Well, I start work on Wednesday, so at least I'll be distracted.

Frustrated :(

This truly is "Bandster Hell".

Bandster Hell is the period between surgery and your first fill where you're still as hungry as you were before surgery, with no restriction. This is Day 8 of my surgery, and I want to eat everything in sight. There's a couple of reasons for that.

Reason number 1 is because I'm hungry all the damn time. I started on full liquids, which includes some tomato soup, and I get full pretty quick (I think I still have some swelling in my tummy). Then, two hours later, my stomach is growling again because I'm soooo hungry. Seriously, it's like clockwork. Eat soup, two hours, eat some more. Pudding and Jell-O don't really sit tight in my tummy for some weird reason, even though I could eat them fine before surgery. And I'll be damned if I even have to look at another SF popsicle. But being hungry all the time is aggravating to me. Hunger triggers something in my brain that says, "Act like a total and complete bitch until you get some food in you". It's horrible.

Reason number 2 is that I've never been restricted on what I can and cannot eat for so long before. It's aggravating. On top of my stomach raging on all the time, only having the options of some soup or a protein drink is killing me. You can only eat so much tomato soup before you get tired of it (I'm a really picky eater, so I'm not a fan of many cream soups). During the pre-op diet, I had the option of sneaking some chips into my mouth when no one was looking to curb me over, but this time, I don't. If I stray from the diet and try to eat real food too early, I could potentially damage myself and my band, and then all this will be for nothing.

I'm just frustrated.  I can be a pretty envious person, and when I see my boyfriend eating whatever he wants (I can't wait 'til I go back to work so I'm not around anymore when that happens), I get so jealous. These are honestly the longest days of my life.

Sooooo....on a brighter note, I went to Austin today with my boyfriend and we say The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses. Yeah, he's a total game nerd, and I like games too, so we geeked out the whole time. It was pretty cool. I also bought some new Toms wedges today, which I looooove. My blog really isn't much without some pictures. I think I'll post some pictures up later.

Achoo?

So, today is Day 5 post op. Oh man, it's been a ride.

The swelling is starting to go down, and I can kinda feel my port. I still can't sleep in my own bed, though, which is severely aggravating. Sleeping on the couch with some pillows propping me up helps, but I've had a backache for the last couple days from the abnormal sleeping positions I've been trying to take to relieve the pressure. Not to mention my demon cat Vivi pounces on me and demands to play with her toys directly on top of me throughout all hours of the night.

I miss my bed soooo much. :(

I'm still sore, mostly around the port area. I sneezed in class today for the first time after surgery. No bueno. It hurt so much, and then I sneezed again like five minutes later. That left me aching for a few minutes.

My appetite is back, and all I can say is that I miss real food so much. This clear liquid diet is not working for me. I think I'm gonna move up to full liquids and go buy some tomato soup. I actually did a no-no today, and I'm probably gonna pay for it later. I ate some potato soup, trying to convince myself it's a "full liquid" instead of a "mushie". There were some small chunks of potato in it that I mushed into paste before I swallowed it, but I'm pretty sure it was still too heavy for my stomach. All I know is that it tasted amazing, and I hope for the sake of all that is good in this world, I don't puke it up and have a horrible day afterward.

Other than that, I've been here at home, walking and trying to exorcise the demons out of Vivi. It's driving me a little bonkers. I want to go outside and enjoy some sun, but I live in San Antonio. It is scorching outside. I get sweaty from just looking outside my window at the heat.

Well, I'm just counting down the days until I can have real food again. Oh yeah, since I started my pre-op diet at 266 pounds, I'm down to 253. That's pretty cool, right?

Oh Man!

Yesterday sucked.

I woke up feeling horrible yesterday. I was dizzy and had a killer headache. The only thing that would help in making the pain go away would be to sleep. I was probably only awake for a few hours yesterday. It felt like I had a constant migraine! I don't know what was wrong, but I didn't get to drink much water and now I'm super dehydrated.

At least today I feel soooo much better. I don't even need to take my pain meds anymore. I'm still sore, but not enough that I can't handle. My boyfriend is back at work, so now I'm just at home by myself, trying to kill time. I'm still trying to determine if the growling in my tummy is hunger or not. I'll try and eat some chicken broth today. I've tried to eat it the last couple of days, but never had any luck.

My cat, Vivi, is being a jerk, too. She took her collar off and I can't find it. I'm pretty sure it's under my boyfriend's recliner, but I can't lift it up to check, yet. Now I can't tell where she is and she pounces on me at random time. Earlier she pounced right on my stomach!!

Day 2 Post-Op...

Or is this Day 1? Eh, I'll say Day 2.

So, how do I feel? Well, getting out of bed this morning was a huge hassle. I was glad that my little contraption with my couch pillows works to keep me elevated all night, and I didn't turn on to my side. I got about six hours of straight sleep after dozing all day yesterday. Actually sitting up and sliding out of bed was not fun at all, though. There's a lot of soreness on my belly, still around my port area. The gas pain isn't so bad anymore, but the stinging pain around my incision when I bend to sit up/sit down really hurts. I took some pain-meds pronto because I'm a whiny baby and hate pain.

I hope some of this eases off in the next 48 hours, because I have class Monday morning, and I'd like to have as little difficulty as possible. It's a really long walk from the parking lot to my Calculus II class, and it already took its toll on me prior to surgery. Well, I guess I'll see how that goes.

Other than that, I've just been relaxing at home. I'm ashamed to say, but I've been prolonging my shower, lol. I'm scared of the outcome, but I'll get my butt in there here shortly. Then, I go back to walking for 15 mintues every two hours. Also, I'll take my Nexium and gall bladder meds for the first time today. I hope I don't have problems with those.

Yesterday, I had some sips of chicken broth. After that, my tummy felt really full, and made me uncomfortable. Right now, I don't feel hungry, but my stomach grumbles like I do. I wonder if that's just the gas moving?

Oh man, I really did it!

I have officially been Banded! :D

My hospital experience was great. I had my surgery at Foundations Surgical Hospital here in San Antonio, which is a one story building where they do a ton of these surgeries every day. My parents dropped me off, and stayed with me until I was called to the back.

Once I was inside, I was weighed (I officially only lost 6 pounds on the pre-op diet, boo!), peed in a cup, and took my Emend pill for my tummy. I saw my surgeon, Dr. Seger, and he shook my hand and got my last minute questions in. The nurse who helped me with my consent forms and IV was so nice. She helped get rid of some of the nervousness, but believe me, I was freakin quaking in my purple little booties about the surgery, lol.

The anesthesiologist was so nice as well. When everything was set and they were about to wheel me to the OR, the anesthesiologist's assistant gave me that crazy medicine in my IV to relax me. I remember making it to the OR room, somehow getting on the OR table, and then bam, I was out like a light.

Next thing I knew, I was waking up in the Recovery Room. I could barely keep my eyes open. The first I said was, "Did he do the surgery?", lol. Then I woke up enough to feel my incisions hurting really badly. They gave me some pain meds, but it took a while for most of it to die down. I have constantly had pain around my port, where a lot of the gas is built up.

The nurse who helped me from there was soooo nice. My surgery was at 8:30am, and she let me sleep until 12:30. She woke me up, and gave me some pain elixir. I had a SIP of water and then she took me on a walk. This whole time I couldn't see much because my glasses were locked up with my clothes.

When I got back to my room, the bed had been replaced with a chair, and I sat down. The whole getting up and sitting down process was so painful. All the gas around my port was killing me. She let me sleep some more, before asking me if I wanted her to call my boyfriend to pick me up. They had already called my mom to let her know my surgery went through fine, which I thought was super nice .

She brought me my clothes, and while I was changing into them, I got nauseous. I called her and she brought me some medicine for that right away. While I was talking to her, I found out she'd had gastric bypass surgery a few years ago. She looked amazing!

Well, I dozed off again, and then my boyfriend came to pick me up. The ride home was a little uncomfortable, but I didn't get nauseous again. When I for home, I sat down in my boyfriend's recliner, took some hydrocodone, and fell asleep again.

The whole rest of the day has been me dozing in and out, standing up and walking a bit, and sipping water. I haven't really had much water, though, so I'm a bit worried. I still have half of the same bottle of water the nurse gave me from the hospital. I think it's time to switch it out for a cold one.

The gas pain hasn't really subsided. I'm gonna go for a walk around my complex a little later to try and get ride of some of the pain. I haven't had any more nausea, which is awesome. I just want the pain around my port to go away. I still have a ways to go, I suppose.

I think I'm hungry, too. My stomach has been growling every so often, and I don't think it's just gas moving around. I'm gonna try some chicken broth. I wonder if anyone else was hungry so fast?

Ahhhhhh!

I'm so not sleeping tonight.

My surgery is tomorrow!! I've lost eight pounds so far on my pre-op diet, and I've never been so proud. :D

I'm nervous and excited. I've never had surgery before, and I hope everything goes well. I hope I lost enough weight off my liver to make sure I'll have a smooth procedure.

My best wishes go out to anyone else having their surgery tomorrow, or anytime soon. I'll see you on the other side!

Almost There!

So, there's only five more days before surgery. I'm nervous. I've already lost 4 pounds on the pre-op diet, which is pretty freakin' cool, but I hope I can shrink my liver enough to have a smooth surgery.

Thank goodness I discovered this mobile app. Now I can post at work!

Pre-Op

Soooo....I haven't posted in almost two months. That's cool, no one looked at it anyway. :P

Well, I have my surgery date. It's June 15th, and I'm currently on the pre-op diet. Yeah, it's difficult. I already cheated a couple of times by sneaking chips into my mouth when my boyfriend wasn't looking. :\

I'm going be doing my surgery alone, now. My boyfriend decided he's not mentally prepared to have surgery, which I completely agree with him. I think he needs a little growing up to do. It just kinda sucks, because now I'll be going through all these changes in my body alone. I know he'll still be as supportive as possible (which isn't too much...), but I really wish we were still going through it together.

My insurance is covering most of the surgery. I only had to pay about $120. I just need to contact the hospital and see what they want me to do with their bill. I'll be outpatient, so I should be home by 1:00pm.

Oh, and I got a kitty! Her name is Vivi, and she's crazy. She's only 3 months old, so she runs around like a psycho trying to jump on everything. She gave me some nasty scratches today. At least she'll be able to keep me company when I'm home along after my surgery. I'm taking a week and a half off from work. Hopefully that was the right decision.

Oh yeah! Despite my cheating, I managed to drop two pounds since Friday. That's cool. I've never really lost weight before, despite all my previous efforts. I hope I lose some more before the 15th!