3 weeks Post Op

Well I am now coming up on my 3rd week post op.
Things have been going pretty good ok, I have to say this last week has been very hard on me. Harder then I thought it would be... But I have been noticing that my clothes are looser.
I don't go see Dr. Smith until June 8th so I am going to wait to weigh my self until then.

I have been having a hard time with feeling full. the swelling has gone down and I am healing which is a great thing. But I don't have restriction anymore and so my 2 oz meals are not keeping me satisfied and I am having a hard time. I talked to my Dr.'s nurse today and she said I can add snacks in between meals.

It has really been stressful and therefore I have had a flare of Lupus hit me and that has not been fun, my energy is low and since I am not getting as much food it makes it worse.
We will have to see what the 2 snacks do to see if this will help.

Monday May 11th - 1st week after

Well, it has been 5 days since my surgery and things have been going pretty good. I am finally able to add cottage cheese, skim milk and creamy soups to my diet. My first serving of cottage cheese was such a treat..and having soup and string cheese has also been a treat. It is still a HUGE adjustment to eating only 2 oz. of food per meal. I have been reading up on new soup recipes that I can make, and enjoy which has been fun, But also has been frustrating because I have been finding other recipes that I just can't ave yet and they sound SOO good.
(still working on the brain hunger)
I am still really sore on my left side.. I have been trying to sleep on my side but so far my right side is the only one that doesnt hurt when I turn. It still hurts to sit up and sit straight up for long periods of time. Headaches had increased some since surgery, but I have been managing. I went to church yesterday, C.J was giving a talk he was asked to talk on Mothers..For Mother's Day... so how could I miss that.! It was a wonderful talk I am so proud of him.. I felt very loved.

I am dragging a little bit today, think I just did a little to much yesterday with it being Mother's Day and all. But I plan on taking a walk tonight with Steve and the dogs and hope to go to the Aquatic center tomorrow to start doing water aerobics.. I am looking forward to that.


I also weighed my self last night since the surgery and I have lost another 17 pounds so I am at a total loss of 29 pounds. So that is great news. I know that weighing yourself is not a good thing to do all the time so I will only be weighing in once a week and doing measurements once a month, for starters and hope that will keep me motivated to loose. I am looking forward to next sunday and see how things go.

I hope to manage my headaches better this week. Today has been a doosy thanks to the Liquid Lortab.

Happy Monday!
Karianne

Surgery Day - May 6th 2009

Well I know that it is past my surgery day, but I wanted to just jounal how that say went.

We were to be at LDS Hospital by 5:30 am in the morning, That was a shock when the alarm went off at 4:30.. I didnt feel nervous I was really calm. I had received a blessing the night before and I knew it help with my nerves that morning. I got checked in and they took me back to be weighed I had lost 12 pounds during the pre-op diet..Whoo Hoo I was so excited I wasnt sure what I had lost but I knew I felt a little bit of a differance in my clothes.

After that I went to the surgery prep room, where they went over the surgery and medical history..Can I just say I know that it has to be done, but I have never repeated my self more than that day, it was like 20 questions played 3 or 4 times, administered by differant people. Anyway they started my IV and took a bunch of blood and then they gave me a heprin shot. (that hurt so bad, when they tell you it will feel like a little bee sting they are lying) I have a huge bruise from that little bee sting. : 0

I then did the 10 question and answer with the surgucal nurse and anesthesiologist. They were a bit bugged I think since I have med allergies, Even the Doctor came over and teased me, saying "ok if I had known you had all these allergies we would have ordered a new DR" he laughed as I did to and then we were on our way to the operating room. it was about 7:30 am ....

All I remember was moving over to the table and then I was out.

I woke up in the recovery room around 9:30am and was in my Room by 10 am, I felt pretty good they wouldnt let me drink anything yet they said I needed to wait an hour or so. But I had so much IV fluids going through me I had to go to the bathroom really bad, So I got up and went to the bathroom about 45 mins after surgery. When I went to the sink to wash my hands I noticed that I felt a wetness down my legs and I thought I wet on my self....But I looked in the mirror and noticed that there was some blood on the front of my gown so I lifted my gown and I was bleeding out on my large incision. I called for Steve and he helped me to the bed and put pressure on it and then called the nurse in. They were able to get it to stop and also clean it all up but I wasnt able to get up after that for a while. : )

I was doing pretty good, but was having some problems with my oxegyn it would not stay above 90 so they increased my oxegyn and said I had to stay the night instead of going home that day.
I was sipping water pretty good, and for dinner I had a tsp of Jello and 1blsp of beef broth.
I had a reastless night and was awaiting the release to get home and be able to sleep in my bed and be with my kids.

The Morning came and I was excited to go home. I got home around 11:30 am and was able to rest for the rest of the day. I was still doing pretty good on sipping water, eating slowly my Sugar free jello and chicken broth that Steve made me.

IT WAS A PRETTY GOOD START..
Love, Karianne

Preparing for Surgery

These are my thoughts as I prepared for this next step in my journey to a better life.
Back in Aug 2008 Dr. Katz set out to get me qualified to have bariactric surgery and we went through appeals after appeals, finally in mar 2009 We recieved notice from the insurance company that I was approved.

On April 15th I went to see the Surgeon Dr. Sherman Smith We decided to go with the Gastric band, Dr. felt that this would be the best route for me.

Gastric banding surgery involves the following:
Using laparoscopic tools, the surgeon places an adjustable silicone band around the upper part of the stomach. Squeezed by the silicone band, the stomach becomes a pouch with about an inch-wide outlet. After banding, the stomach can only hold about an ounce of food. A plastic tube runs from the silicone band to a device just under the skin, Saline (sterile salt water) can be injected or removed through the skin, flowing into or out of the silicone band. Injecting saline fills the band and makes it tighter.

In this way, the band can be tightened or loosened as needed. This can reduce side effects and improve weight loss...

Well, we scheduled my surgery date for May 6th. and I had my pre-surgery appt on April 29th 2009 and had my before picture taken and was weighed in. I Started my 10 day pre-surgery Diet which consistated of 3 protein shakes a day and 1 high protein low carb meal per day not to exceed 900 calories for the whole day (including shake calories)

I took this time to also do portion control and get use to eating smaller amounts and with smaller plates ext.

Don't get me wrong it was an adjustment, and I had some cravings like no other, but I didnt cheat my self, when the kids had some cake for Keegan's and Steve's Birthday I had a bite but I stopped there and didnt have anymore. those 2 weeks were really hard I am not sure I would have been able to maintain that for much longer. It was a difficult 10 days.. But it did jump start my weight loss. I had faith that it would.

So, that is in short some thoughts on the first few steps in starting this journey. And also understanding what I had done.

Karianne