04/19/10: Back to work

It's back to work day and I can say I whole-heartedly "don wanna!"

I have some secrets to share.  I'm eating food.  It all tends toward mushy stuff - mashed taters and chicken salad.  But I was supposed to do one week clear liquids, one week full liquids, one week mushies, then ease back onto real food.

I was given two sets of instructions.  One that my bariatric center endorses and one that my surgeon endorses.  My surgeon's instructions were the whole week of clear liquids.  My bariatric center says one week liquids, one week mushies, one week solids. 

I like my bariatric center's instructions. 

Last week, mon-weds I'd say I did do the clear liquids.  I don't remember much about what I did but I do know that if I wanted apple sauce, I ate apple sauce.  I also remember that I wasn't really hungry and I wasn't force-feeding myself anything.  I was supposed to have my protein shakes on tues and they just sounded horrid.  So I didn't have them.  I know, bad bad bad.  Spank me!  :P  I didn't have anything in their place, either.  I didn't have anything.

Except for maybe apple sauce.  I know apple sauce was my savior last week!

Thurs I think I started to get interested in food but for the life of me, I can't tell you what I had.

But Friday.  Friday I know.  I had mashed taters and I had chicken salad and I had cottage cheese.  Not all at the same time.  But it all tasted fantastic and made me feel better, too.

Saturday I know I overdid it.  I won't tell you what I had.  I just know I overdid it.

Sunday I reigned myself back in and ate reasonable mushie stuff.

Today is being reigned in even more and is even more reasonable and mushy.

So with that said...I went from nothing...to mushy...to maybe too solid/too normal....back to mushy...back to mushier.  And I've had diarrhea like you wouldn't believe.

Please don't tell me liquid in equals liquid out.  What you should gather from the above explanations is it hasn't been "liquid in".

I have no idea where it's coming from.  I took some immodium on Saturday and it helped with the rest of Saturday but yesterday, sure as can be, it all came gushing out again.  Same today.  And I'm scared to take the immodium, to be honest.  If this is supposed to be happening I don't want to plug it up, ya know?  And honestly, I might actually be willing to say I'd rather this than the alternative as being plugged up sounds way more horrible to me than this.

It's weird.

In other news - I bought myself a plane ticket to Chicago last night!  I am sooo super excited!  There is only one problem with this weekend, from where I sit - and that is that it's way too far away!  But September certainly gives plenty of time for planning and organizing so it is what it is.  I can't wait!!!

And finally, today is back to work day.  I honestly don't see pulling off 8 hours.  My belly is yelling at me already, can't get comfortable and the incisions are mad mad mad!  We'll see how long I last but when I've hit my max-tolerant-level for how much I'll deal with I will say I'm done and go home.  I will say that thurs and fri felt a zillion times better than how sat, sun and now today have felt.  I sure didn't expect a backwards slide but that appears to be what I'm experiencing.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Monday.  And I hope everyone has a fabulous week!

04/16/10: Still moving....

Good Morning, y'all!

What a difference a day makes!

I took the Lortab once yesterday and it made me feel horribly!  I won't be taking it again.  On the same token, I took my liquid Tylenol yesterday, too (not at the same time) and while it worked, it also didn't.  You see...somehow...I lost track of time...and it's now the TOM.  And neither the Lortab or the Tylenol were making my cramps go away.  And turns out, the cramps were my major issue!

Last night my sweet hubby went back to CVS for, like, the ga-zillionth time.  This time he picked up children's zyrtec and a pill breaker and a pill crusher and a dissolvable sleep aid.

The zyrtec cause I'm not supposed to be taking pills.  I know, at least I believe, that most of y'all get past the healing stage and tend to move back to pills right?  The children's zyrtec is the same dosage but it's expensive and it comes with 12.  I actually think 12 will get me through the rest of my personal allergy season just fine and I won't need to take zyrtec again until next spring.  I know those pills are so tiny that it shouldn't be an issue but I've literally been feeling that pill, which I broke in half, stick there before it goes through 20 minutes or so later.  I'm sure it's swelling and that this won't last, but by the time the swelling is really gone, I won't need zyrtec anyway.

The pill breaker and the pill crusher - self-explanatory.

The dissolvable sleep aid..well..they don't make Tylenol PM in a liquid - at least not that we can find.  And who needs it anyway?  I have the liquid tylenol.  I need that other magic ingredient and it's sold as Unisom which also makes a dissolvable tablet.

So armed with a sleep aid and tylenol I thought I was set.

All day I'd had the start of cramps rumbling away in the lady region and I was baffled.  And then I went to the bathroom and...oops...the calendar snuck up on me.  Well dangit.  The only thing I've ever found that works wonders on my cramps is Midol.  And those pills are way too big if I can barely get zyrtec down.  Dangit.  And then I start to put together, a lot of what I was still feeling was that, not surgery.  Crazy.  So this was when we decided we needed the pill-breaker-upper.

Armed with the pill-breaker-upper I went crazy on the Midol.  Got the two pills to many smaller pieces, much smaller than a half a zyrtec.  I took the midol when my time window had expired on the tylenol I'd taken earlier in the evening.

Now let me say, I took that Tylenol and I was aware that I felt better but I still hurt and I still didn't feel well.

When I could, I took the Midol.  And it kicked in.  Pretty quickly, I might add, since it was already broken down a bit.  :)

And dangit if I didn't feel absolutely fine!  The cramps were gone, the acheyness was gone, the lethargy was gone, I felt fine!

That lasted until bedtime when it was time for another dose (min 4 hours) and I crushed that one to see the difference.  Yeah.  Use the breaker-upper if there's a choice.  I mixed the crushed Midol into apple sauce and it was doable but it wasn't preferable.

I am sure I would have slept the night through last night, too, except for those gall-derned cramps woke me up at 5.  So I got up and took more Midol and once back asleep, slept like a baby!

I slept sooooo well last night!

Now it's time for another dose - I HATE CRAMPS! - but after drinking my breakfast I feel like I can't possibly get another thing in my belly.  I'm trying to walk and to get things to settle so that I can drink enough juice to get the pieces in.

Dang cramps.  I HATE CRAMPS!

Other than that, I really am feeling a zillion times better.  I have not had anything since the last midol I took at 5 this morning and while there is a tenderness around the port area, I feel fine.  And the tenderness around the port area is only a problem when I sneeze or cough - so thank God for zyrtec!!!

I'm glad to be done with the Lortab - I think I feel a zillion times better just because of that!

In other news I lost another two pounds yesterday.  I now weigh what I weighed the day I married my husband.  20 more pounds and he'll start seeing me lighter than I've ever been since we've been together.

I actually want to respond to yesterday's comments, so here is:

Most importantly, thank you to you all for letting me know you are thinking of me.  I really appreciate that!

I am definitely working on the water.  sip sip sip at all times.  I love those water bottles (that I found through Amy W.) cause otherwise I'd have no idea what I'm getting in right now!

I completely agree with the heating pad.  That thing has been my best friend!  I drag it from room to room with me!!

Yeah, ambien would have been nice.  The unisom helped a lot last night, I think.

Fat Bastard - you might be ok with a weds surgery and back to work the following mon.  Today is day 4 (not counting surgery day) and I feel like a whole new person.  The only thing I can say, and this is just my experience, is that the quicker you get off the Lortab and onto regular Tylenol, the quicker you will start to feel more normal.  The Lortab messes with everything.  I took one dose yesterday and I wish I hadn't.  It works about as well as good ol' Tylenol.  I would make sure you get some liquid tylenol and switch to that when you can.  I took the Lortab on Monday and Tuesday and then Wednesday I did Tylenol during the day and Lortab just before bed.  Yesterday, (I know this isn't the case with you and sorry for TMI, but it's part of the story) with my cramps kicking in and being afraid to take the midol (before we got the pill-chopper-upper, I thought Lortab would take care of it all.  It didn't.  It didn't touch the pain and it just made me feel druggy and woozy.  Once that wore off, I went back to Tylenol and that made a world of difference.  So...if you have to do five days like that, that's the best I can say - get off the Lortab as quickly as you feel comfortable doing.  The incisions don't hurt a bit, it's just tenderness in the port area.  And so long as I don't twist suddenly or cough or sneeze, I am generally not even aware of it.

Other thing I can say is the eating.  Make sure you are getting protein and you will feel better faster.  Inclination is to not eat cause you just don't feel like it.  But when I have forced myself to get my protein, I've felt better for the day.  That and walking.  Get up and move.  But don't do too much.  There is a fine line between getting enough of a walk and too much of a walk.  Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

I am glad I have 7 days, though.  If you can, I would try for that.

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!!!

04/12/10: So far so good

Good evening y'all.  I hope y'all had a happy Monday.  I did.  Hah.  Someone cut on me and then I was in pain...but I still call that a good day - cause it's the first day of the rest of my life, in my book.  No more waiting for it to happen, no more stressing about whether it will or not, no more being on hold.  I am now a banded women.  Here are a couple of pictures of "My Lady".

So surgery did not start at 7.  My surgeon was barely walking in around 7:10 this morning.  Oh well, they kept me busy with paperwork and the post-op diet explanation and getting me ready and all that.  So when my surgeon walked in, it was just starting to settle down.  I asked him a couple of questions, one of which was "can you please do as few incisions as possible?"  I was really hoping for the single incision thing - and even with that, when I asked last fall if he was doing that, he said it still required three incisions.  And he laughed and said "sure, we'll keep the number down.  I also asked about where the port would be placed and he showed me.

So around 7:20, I was taken away from my sweet hubby and back to the OR.  Just before taking me away from my sweet hubby they gave me feel good drugs.  I think the timing was perfect on that one, if they had waited a second longer I probably would have been a wreck about leaving my sweet hubby.  They took me through the door and said I should be feeling the drugs any minute now to which I said 'oh yeah I am'.  The way I said it made my sweet hubby laugh which also relaxed him.

So they took me to the OR and I slithered across to the operating bed.  They put the O2 mask on me and just kept telling me to relax and breathe.  Hmmm...didn't know I wasn't breathing.  :)  And I sure felt relaxed, too!

And then I woke up.  Thrashing and kicking and screaming.  They were yelling at me to relax because I was going to hurt the incisions but I didn't care.  My sweet hubby needed water.  As soon as they promised me they'd take him some water, I calmed down.  And they did take him some water.  I also told one of the nurses that she needed water, too.  And I wasn't happy until she went and got her water and started drinking from it.  About that time that I was ok with the water situation, the Demerol kicked in.

They asked me if I was in any pain and surprisingly it wasn't nearly what I thought it would be.  So I said that.  So they only gave me half the normal dose of demerol.  The next thing I know, though, the nurse has me sitting up and laying down and slithering into clothes while in bed..and then everything, specifically the port site, did get mad.  So she gave me the rest of the demerol.

Once dressed and completely drugged it was time to get up.   I was so ready to get up, I knew I would feel better if I did and I was right.  I've noticed that the gas gets mad when I sit/lay too long and just getting up gets everything calm again.  So I've been up and down a lot today.  Enough so that my sweet hubby hasn't had to bark at me to get walking.  He seems to get the idea that it's time for me to walk just when I think I want to go for another walk.

So once up, I walked myself down to the x-ray room where they did a barium swallow.  I have a tiny little opening - about the inner circumferene of a straw.  They were happy that things were moving through it so off I went to a lounge room where my sweet hubby got to join me.  He comes walking in with the water bottle in hand and asked what that was all about.  I have no idea.  I'm on drugs, remember?

We sat there for awhile.  He told me what my surgeon told him when the procedure was over and it was good.  He said there was not a lick of fat in my liver and he was extremely pleased with the efforts I took.  He said I did very well and he was super pleased with my 12 pound weightloss since my last weigh in.  He told my sweet hubby that he gave me as much fill as he could - it is as tight as it can get for now - and it only took 1cc to do that.  He would have given me more if it was necessary but it wasn't necessary because of how tight it already is.

So we sat there and then the nurse asked me if I could go to the bathroom.  Yes, I could.  Not much, but I could.  So I went into the bathroom and gave them about 3/4 of a cup.  Don't know how many ounces it was, I didn't think to look.

So with that, I was free to go home.  It was just after 9 when I was cleared.  The nurse told me I set a record for getting out of there so quickly and everyone was amazed at how normal and ok I looked.  I'm pretty amazed, too.

From this mornings weigh in, I only gained 4 pounds from the surgery.

I had been expecting way more weight and way more pain and so far I've been quite pleasantly surprised.

I did take my pain meds when we got home.  My sweet hubby had to run back out to get them as I didn't take my insurance card for prescriotions with me.  I had also forgotten a money-spending-device this morning so my sweet hubby had to whip out his money-spending-device to get the first half paid.

Anyway, when my sweet hubby got home from CVS, I immediately took a dose of the lortab.  YUCK!  But whatever, it is definitely helping with the little pain I have and I can follow it with water which helps a lot.

I had to take another dose about 3 hours later as the first dose was wearing off again.  And I wasn't going to wait until the allotted 4 hours were up - once pain gets away from you, you're screwed!  So in efforts to keep it in check, I took it early.  But I didn't take another dose until over 4 hours later.  I won't take it until I start to need it, not just doing 4 hours take it even if I don't need it.  And given how well I feel right now, I think bedtime is reasonable.

I've had a couple of mini-naps today, each about an hour long.  I'm tired, that I know, but as soon as I fall asleep the phone rings or something and I'm back awake.  I think I'll turn the phone off.  :)

What else.  My official weight on their scale was 242 but on my scale this morning I was 237.  Oh well.  If he was pleased and impressed then I did what I needed to do.

I really am surprised at how well I am feeling.  Not perfect, and feel a little like I was hit by a truck.  But it's nowhere near what I was expecting.  I expected this to be worse than the boob job but it hasn't been.  It's been a zillion times easier!

I think the bad news is I haven't seemed to have lost my appetite.  But I didn't want anything other than clear liquids - water, chicken broth, miso soup broth.  I am not getting enough water in and I need it right now because I ended up a bit dehydrated with all the yard work this weekend.  So dehydrated that when the pre-op nurse tried to start my IV, it wasn't going in very easily.  Luckily she gave me the numbing shot first but she was sure that when the IV went past my wrist that it should have been painful because of the amount of force she was having to use.  But it didn't bother me a bit.  I think the numbing stuff made the difference but she said the numbing stuff wouldn't have gone past my wrist.  All I know was that watching her push that pic line very hard, I agreed, it should have hurt but it didn't.

So the other bad news is I didn't get three incisions.  I got four with a little point pick in my lower belly.

Final news is that I didn't not have a hiatal hernia.  So I thought that was good.

And that's what I know.  I'll be back with more posts sometime but I want to get caught up with what I missed today.  But my eyes aren't the clearest ever right now, so I don't really feel like reading at the moment.  :)

Thank you all for the welcoming comments and the well wishes.  It has totally made my day everytime anyone comments!  I heart everyone in this here blogworld!  You are all so amazing.  And thank you for putting up with me in my craziness while waiting for approval!