04/15/10: Moving along now...........

Howdy y'all.  Thought I should blog a little cause I miss y'all.  I have not felt at all like looking at a computer screen - the Lortab was playing tricks with my eyes.  And now I'm just flat out exhausted so still won't be trying to catch up on all that I am missing.  Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

Tuesday was surprisingly easy.  I went on a small easy walk around my lake at one point - one time around is a third of a mile and it was nice to be out and moving.  I think a nap was taken and, in general, I thought I was doing very well.  But then tues night/weds morning came.  And I couldn't sleep a bit.  I could not get comfortable for the life of me.  I ended up just getting up at 4am and wandering the house for about an hour trying to feel better.  Eventually I sat down at my laptop and updated my before and during photos on the side bar.  So that slide show now includes the pictures from the night before surgery.  I did read a few blogs but not many.

Yesterday just seemed brutal.  If I took the Lortab then I felt like crap because of that.  If I didn't take the Lortab then I felt like a different kind of crap because of that.  And last night was just as bad as the night before.  I didn't get any sleep.  I think I got about two hours total with the little catnaps I did catch.  I got up this morning around 6 and wandered the house for two hours and then settled on the couch for a little while.  I felt like I was exhausted enough that I could sleep so I went back to bed and did fall asleep just to have the UPS guy ring the doorbell half an hour later. 

So I'm not getting any sleep.  If I were, I think I'd be feeling a lot better overall.  But I'm exhausted.

In other news, I am learning what restriction fills like.  They gave me a copy of the fluoroscopy image and I literally have a straw hole opening.  And if I drink anything too fast I feel it sit there before it gurgles down.  Still doing liquids like I'm supposed to but I'm getting in about half the amounts that I was getting with the pre-op diet.  I am definitely struggling to get water in but I'm trying.  Since Monday I am down 6 pounds.  I need to update my ticker.  4 of that is what I figure came about from swelling and whatnot.  And I'm still swollen, too, so who knows when this will actually just be weightloss.  All I know is I am seeing a number now that I have not seen before in this process.

I am staying away from the Lortab now, just taking liquid tylenol which is working just fine.  The dry mouth I was getting from the Lortab was awful!

I know I was expecting to feel better by now - but I know not getting any sleep the last two nights is my biggest problem.  And hopefully tonight breaks that pattern.  I can't imagine how people go back to work within 3 days.  I don't care if it's a desk job or not, there's enough going on with my body that work could not happen right now.

I feel the gas still sitting around my sternum, on occasion.  When it starts to feel like it's pushing up, like it wants to move, I get up and walk around and then the whole sensation passes.  I have not had the feeling of the gas in my shoulder at this point and the sensation of it sitting around my sternum is getting to be less and  less frequent.  I know that no amount of gas-x is giving relief from my wonderful farts and burps any longer, though, so I'm taking that to mean it's passing.

Other than that I am hanging in there.  I am in good spirits and I feel great about what I've done.  Right now I just want some sleep!  :)

I hope everyone is having a good week!  I'll catch up soon, I promise!!

04/13/10: Another day

So I have now been banded for a little over 24 hours.  I am still feeling a lot better than I thought I would but..I think they put some sort of numbing stuff around the largest incision (for the port).  And that numbing stuff made a world of difference yesterday.  That numbing stuff is starting to wear off so there is a discomfort with the actual incision that wasn't there yesterday.

I am also pretty gassy and I can't really tell if the gas-x is working.  I took a couple of the strips yesterday and one last night when I woke up around 3 and couldn't get back to sleep easily.  I also took more Lortab at that time.

Yesterday, I had my pain meds as soon as my Honeybunny walked in the door.  I took another dose a little over three hours later.  I took a third dose over four hours after that.  And finally, one last dose just before bedtime which was around 10:30 - which meant a gap in doses of a little over four hours again.  I woke up at 3 because I was trying to turn over and the pain was yelling at me to do something.  So I got up, took the Lortab and one strip of gas-x and got settled in bed just fine then.  I took my most recent dose around 8:30am, so a little over 5 hours before I needed it.  We'll see when I need it again.  I'd love to be done with it but will take it as long as I need to.

One of my favorite things I realized this morning, or maybe last night, was that I just lost 12 pounds in about 5 weeks without a band!   Now, true, that pre-op diet was brutal and I was on it for way too long.  I think my body got used to it and stopped responding very well to it.  I also know that I did a few no-no's too, especially after realizing why I was so freaked about no carbs.  And I will also say, I let myself have Easter Sunday to eat whatever I wanted.  We went to a Tex-Mex restaurant with friends of ours and I ate the tortilla chips and I also ate the tortillas that the fajitas were served with.  I also ate the baracho beans, too.  There were a few other no-no's while on that diet and it all worked out well anyway.  I am glad the surgeon was impressed although I know it could have been more.  I'm fine with that, though - this isn't a race.  And 12 pounds in 5 weeks is nothing to lose sleep over! 

I do know that the scales at this center are off.  The scale on the side of the center where I was going for my unweightloss visits and where I will go for my fills, matched my scale exactly at home.  The scale on the surgery side, though, I've been on that one twice and that one, both times was 4 pounds heavier than my scale at home.  So if we'd have used my weight at home instead of that incorrectly calibrated scale, I would have been 238.  Oh well.  Now, the numbers are for me.  I am no longer trying to prove anything to my insurance company and I am no longer playing my surgeon's game.  I won't be on this scale on the surgery side again, anyway.

But just think - what would my surgeon have thought if he'd seen the real number (to me anyway) and then that it meant 16 pounds lost?

Oh well.  Not bothered by it.  Just one of those I wish I'd had a hammer so I could have beat that scale and then we'd have had to go use the one on the clinic side.

Welp, I think it's time to go walk.  And then phone calls to make.  Our fresh mulch will be spread around the flowerbeds this week.  When I went to work in the backyard on Sunday my sweet hubby and I both found ant hills - a total of five of them.  Our pest control service also does ant hill treatments and I don't know if these five are just new (last time they were out to spray was about three weeks ago) or if they just were missed.  But someone will be out here on Thursday to knock them back. So I asked our gardeners to not lay the new mulch until after the ants are dealt with.  I'd hate to have the anthills hidden and then come back when things are settled with the mulch.

So the phone just rang and it was the bariatric center calling to check up on me.  That was sweet!  They wanted to make sure I could still pee and that I am getting enough water.  Wanted to make sure the incisions still look good and clean.  And that I felt ok.

I feel fine.  A little tenderness in the belly area, but that's to be expected.  I will be happy to stop taking the Lortab because it's giving me a raw throat.

I took a shower this morning, and that felt fantastic.  I also have been using my heating pad quite a lot to help with the gas.  I do know that when the gas starts to feel uncomfortable - like an elephant sitting on my chest - that if I get up and walk that does more for me than the Lortab or definitely the gas-x.

So enough babble for now. 

I hope all is well for everyone out there in our wonderful blog world.  I can't say how much it means to me to have this cheering squad.  So thank you so very much for taking the time to share your sentiments with me!  It's really been bringing a smile to my face!!!