back to work

Well its my first day back to work since surgery. Everyone is full of questions. I'm doing okay with food so far. I had an egg and half a banana for breakfast. A quarter of a cup cottage cheese with a quarter cup diced pears for a snack. 2 oz chicken and a quarter cup of beans for lunch. Afternoon snack is half a cup of Cheerios. Yum! Dinner will be 2 oz ground beef Patty with mushroom gravy and a quarter cup potatoes with a tablespoon green beans!

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Dog park and house hunting

So, dinner yesterday was yummy.  I took some chicken breasts and a jar of salsa and cooked them until I could easily shred the meat with 2 forks.  Hubby made his into tacos and I ate just the meat as is with some beans.  I can have "toast" but I was not sure yet about tortillas, so I decided to hold off....  Anyone have experience with tortillas?  Are corn tortillas better tolerated?  For now I'll avoid since it is so soon, but in the future I'll want one eventually!
So today we took Tippie to the dog park and of course it rained while we were there, of well, she had fun anyway.  I made sure to take a snack with me so I could have it because I knew we were going to drive and look at some houses, which we did.  Found a new neighborhood that looks nice, but maybe a little pricey especially since it would mean having to buy a 2nd car.  We'll see, we just started looking.  We spent a little too much time out and I started getting hungry again.  So we stopped at our fave Greek place.  I was looking at the menu and couldnt figure out what would be safe to eat that didn't have a ton of fresh veggies which are off limits right now or rice and pita, so finally, it dawned on me!  Hello!  They have lentil soup!  I know soups are not the best for us since they go right through, but with the cold and rain outside and no other easy choice that's what I got!  I don't know how much I ate, but it was delicious and I brought home left overs!  YUM!  Still trying to figure out dinner.  I'm using yesterday's leftovers for lunches at work, so I took out some ground beef.  Hubby was going to grill it into hamburger patties but the weather isn't going to allow that.  I'm thinking meatballs maybe, but I can't have pasta yet so not sure what I'll do with them.

Wow, what a difference

Okay, so I took a chance last night and decided to give in and let hubby go out to dinner cause he has not been out in a long time.  So we picked a steak house that we love going to that is a bit on the pricey side. I scoped out the menu online though so make sure I'd easily be able to get something I could tolerate as this was my first meal with solid foods and not mushies.

The most amazing this happened at dinner that made me feel WONDERFUL..  Let's start with background - the FIRST time hubby and I went to this place BEFORE my band - they brought us a free shrimp cocktail appetizer.  Hubby does not eat shrimp and I normally only eat it fried...  Not a big seafood fan, but none the less, I ate the entire shrimp cocktail, my salad, some bread, my steak, baked potato, mushrooms, and veggies.

Looking back, I don't know how in the heck I ate all that, but again, that was before band.  So fast forward to last night.  I was a little worried since this was my first solid meal and I'm worried about getting stuck, especially trying out a new food.  So after some thought on if I should order a chicken dish and get a to go box for left overs or an app and share some of hubbies potatoes and veggies, I decided on the shrimp cocktail!
 I ate 2 shrimp, a tablespoon or so of mashed potatoes, and 2 bites of the veggies.......  Yup.  I was satisfied. I stopped when I didn't feel hungry any more and I stretched all that out to last with how long it took hubby to eat his prime rib and potatoes!
After that I just couldn't believe how I went from eating everything to eating such a small portion.  It felt GREAT!!!   :)

Banana and BYOC

Hello all!!   I saw my nutritionist today!  and when I got home I had lunch.  1 Scrambled egg and ............. wait for it, 1/2 a banana!!!!! I was so happy to be able to have bananas again!  So, I'm starting soft solids now.  I'm excited!  I have my plan set up so I can get the right amount of protein and still have some flexibility, but for now I'll be eating mostly the same stuff for my meals every day with the exception of dinners, but at least it will make it easier for meal planning.   Funny thing is though, poor hubby has not been out to dinner since I started the pre-op diet, so now he's begging to go out since I can eat some foods. Not sure how I feel about going out so soon, but I am happy so add some real foods and not just mushies into my diet!

1. Are you a heavy or light sleeper?
It depends.  Fairly heavy I guess, I cannot hear when my husband gets up and moves around, but sure enough come morning my dog gets me up easily enough when she wants breakfast...
2. If you were made into a professor for a day, what topic would you lecture on?
English Literature!!  I love reading and would love to share that passion with others!
3. What’s a skill you’ve always wanted that you don’t currently have?
To FLUENTLY speak a 2nd language.  I studied Spanish all through highschool and college and still cannot speak it....

4. Have you ever been in a real cat fight?

No...
5. Repeat question: Summarize your week in real life and in blog land.

It's been a boring week of sitting around the house watching TV, playing on the computer, healing from surgery, eating my mushies and drinking lots of water.

In blog land I've been discovering all of your great blogs out there to help me on this new journey!!

Allergic Reaction

Fun stuff.  So I've been very itchy on my right side.  It's just kind of a splotchy looking rash.  It seems to be okay one day and the next really itchy.  So this morning I gave it and just decided to call my primary care doc to see if she could squeeze me in today.  Sure enough they said c'mon in, we got space.  So I headed over there.  I have not seen her since my annual physical in early January.  She was quite impressed with my weight loss already and was curious when I had the surgery, so we talked about that, she was very happy.  Anyway, it seems I am having an allergic reaction to something, but what we don't know.  She gave me a cream to rub on it and told me if I needed to take benadryl I could look for Children's Liquid bendryl so I wouldn't have to worry about crushing the pills.  So we'll see how I do with the the cream, but I would have never thought of using a children's version of something to get it in liquid!

Day 13 Post Op

Well hello everyone!  Doing good here.  The soreness on my left side appears to be almost gone, yay!  Still there when I move certain ways, but it's nice not to feel it all the time.    I'm still on mushies, but doing okay with that.  At least mushies include scrambled eggs or hardboiled eggs chopped up really well, refried beans, applesauce, etc...  So I'm happy.  Friday I see my nutritionist and I'll get to start soft solids.  I'll admit, I'm a little bit afraid of starting soft solids, I'm afraid of getting stuck, but I know, slow down and really chew!  :)  
I need to go this week and get my hair cut and colored because I go back to work on Monday!  It's crazy, 2 1/2 weeks off I feel like I've missed so much!  I get back and 2 days later, I have to start training my newest employee.  then the following week another new employee starts.   At least I get a little bit of time in between the two.  That's kind of nice.  But then again, shortly after that, my boss goes on her 2 week vacation leaving me working all the hours.  There's only 2 managers, me and her.  There always has to be one of us there.  So when I'm gone like now, she's working open to close m-saturday and I'll have to do the same while she's gone.  I've done it before, it's not that bad, but it can be tiring.
I'm down to 220 lbs!  Yay!!  I'm also looking forward to starting back up with my trainer!  I have not seen her since the Monday before my surgery and I miss her!  She's awesome.  I'll start back up with her soon!  The doctor has cleared me to increase cardio but that's it so far.  Well, off to enjoy my last couple of days of having the house to my self all day and being off work.  Hubby is off Friday, Saturday, Sunday this week, so I gotta enjoy my peace and quiet while I got it!  :)

Is is too much to ask?

So, hubby and I went grocery shopping today.  Ugh!  I swear, I don't think it is too much to ask for him to not buy and keep soda in the house.He does not do this often, maybe once every couple of months, but still, I can't have it and I don't really want it in the house.... I'm not saying he can't have it.  He can have it when we go out to eat or even buy it and take it to work, but having it in the house is tempting fate. I know I can't have it, but why tempt it!

Anyway, in other news, we took the dog to the park again, that was nice!  She loves the dog park!! Now, she's resting next to me on the couch, the sweetie that she is!  After that hubby was hungry, so I told him, he had to pick somewhere that has either mashed potatoes, cream soup or refried beans so I'd be able to eat something.  (I did have some applesauce in the car just in case cause I knew we'd be out for awhile.)  So, we went to one of our normal lunch spots, a nice little mexican restaurant.  Hubby ordered some enchiladas and instead of his black beans that it came with, he asked them to swap it out with refried beans and put them on the side, so that's what I ate.  They served it on this oval side plate, so I had no clue how much was there, but I ate about 1/3 of it.  I ate slow and listened to my body for when I didn't feel hungry anymore.  I think I did okay.

Day 9 - Post Op

Well, today I have my appointment with my surgeon to follow up.  I told him about the tenderness and soreness I'm having on my left side, he confirmed, it's from the port, and is mostly normal and most likely pretty bruised.  He then took a look and yes I could have told him I am all bruised up over there.   He said it should go away in a couple of weeks.  Pretty simple visit - he looked over the incisions, asked me a few questions and was on his way.  I have my first fill appointment set for March 21st.  They may or may not actually do a fill, but I'm on the calendar at least.  We'll determine that day if I'm ready or not.  If so, they'll send me down to radiology and take care of the first fill there to make sure they can easily find the port.  On the bright side of this visit, they of course had me step on TANITA, their scale.  My prior visit was on 1/24 the day I started my pre-op diet and they showed me at 246.5 lbs, with a BMI of 44.4 and a Fat % of 49.1%.  Drum roll please, today - just 9 days after surgery I'm at 226.5 lbs, with a BMI of 40.8 and a Fat % of 48.4!!!  Yay!!  20 lbs gone and it's NOT coming back!! :)  I like this, cause it's pretty equal to my home scale.  My home scale, I was 242 on 1/24 and this morning  was 222, so still 20 lbs.  I like my home scale better!  ;)

Had some yummy refried beans for lunch.  Delicious!!

Mushies, How I love thee!!

Oh how I never thought I would be so happy to be able to eat mushie foods!  So I gave mashed potatoes a try last night.  I handled it okay, but they turned out too salty for my taste.  It's okay, though, I'll survive.  Ran to the store this morning to grab a few more mushie supplies.  Got me some refried beans, applesauce, cottage cheese and a couple of soups I can puree for a thicker soup than I've been eating.  Yum!!  I was going to try some scrambled eggs this morning, cause they are on my list for this stage, but I'll be honest, I was scared.  I guess I'm scared for getting something stuck.....  I know, chew chew chew.  So instead of the eggs, I had cottage cheese.  That was a yummy change from yogurt!  Maybe tomorrow I'll have the courage to have eggs, but then again, tomorrow I have to wake up and go to my doctor visit, so who knows.  Also, I made a pitcher of decaf iced tea to sip on some.  I'm getting a little bored with water water water.

Days 5 and 6

Let me start off by saying THANK YOU to all of you that have left me comments and support!  It means alot to me! 

So I'm noticing a lot less pain, which is nice, but it sucks, it is still uncomfortable to sleep on my left side. I've tried a pillow which helps some.  Sleeping on my back in a no go and by morning my right side hurts so bad from sleeping on it all night, but I'm guessing this too shall pass.

Now, my big complaint, why does every other commercial on TV have to be about food?!  I'm c'mon, don't they understand I'm on liquids only right now and they are not helping me any?  I'm starting to notice more and more hunger with each day.  Good thing I get to start mushies on Thursday!!  I'm looking forward to some scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, and refried beans, just not all at once!  I see my surgeon on Friday, so that's nice I can check in with him to make sure everything is going as planned.  

As for the disgusting part - reader beware - what's up with the bathroom issues?  I was worried about constipation, so day of surgery I asked my doc about miralax just in case...  No no, it's not needed, I'm so tempted to call and see if I can take some Immodium instead, but I'm afraid that will send me back to needing miralax.  Fingers crossed this passes as I eat more foods instead of all liquids

Anyway, other than that, I'm relaxing and enjoying my time off.  Seriously, watching movies and reruns on TV.  I even busted out my coloring books- yes I still color!   Now just to convince myself to go play Sims 3 on the upstairs computer or maybe something on my Wii....

Day 4 POST OP

Well, I think yesterday I over did it.  We went and took the dog to the vet, then went to get hubby's hair cut, then took the dog to the dog park, then the pet store, then home for an hour or two and then hubby and I went to the movies.  Watched Black Swan...  Didn't really like the movie and then I got terribly sick during it.  Thankfully I had my nausea meds with me and I was able to take one.  It sorta helped, but too much shaky cam on the movie was not helping at all!!  Came home about 8 and I was sound asleep!!
Today is Day 4!!  I'm going to try some yogurt today, hopefully I'll be okay with it.  Looking at my incisions, I noticed two things that struck me as a little odd - I seemed to have a reaction to the tape they used and I have a few spots that are incredibly irritated and then one of the incisions, on my left side, I'm guessing my port, is bruised!  Everything looks fairly healthy but I thought those two were kind of odd.  Anyone else have bruising or reactions to the tape??
Well, I'm going to get out here for now.  See ya later!

Days 2 and 3 POST OP

Day one post op ended with some serious nausea and mild vomiting.  This made me call the surgeon who reassured me this was not uncommon but could be something serious to watch.  He told me to only take in what liquids I could, not to overdo it, but to also stay hydrated if possible.   He then called me in a prescription to help with the nausea.  That did the trick.  Next day, day 2 I was fine.  Day 2 brought some pain still, especially in the area of the port, and plenty of gas pains.  Nothing too terrible though.  Continued with pain meds every 4 hours and took a great walk with my dog.  A little on the slow side, but I'm making great progress I think!!
Day 3 is today.  After the nausea I was really afraid to move off of clear liquids on to full liquids, but I gave it a small try last night with some skim milk.  That went down okay, so today for lunch I tried some cream soup - tomato basil.  I really only had a couple of spoons before I was full... Hubby asked what was wrong and I just explained that nothing was wrong, the soup was delicious, I was handling it okay, I was just full.  Took the dog to the dog park for our walk today,  I didn't last very long, but it was better than nothing.  I'm not having to take pain meds every 4 hours, although still taking them, and I picked up some GasX to help with all the gassy feelings I'm having, but I can't really tell if it's gas or indigestion or what...

Day one - POST OP

Had my surgery yesterday.  Everything seems to have gone well during surgery.  My check in time was at  6 am.  They took me back for pre-op at about 7:20, hubby said they started my surgery at almost 8.  I remember waking up in recovery with my anesthesiologist  and the nurses.  They were very nice.  I remember staying there for a while so they could monitor me and then they moved me up to the next level of recovery where my hubby could come in and join me. At this point I was told that as soon as I could comfortably walk up and down the halls, drink 8 ounces of liquid, have manageable pain and nausea and use the restroom I could go home.  Yay!   Things were looking up for me to get home soon.  Until I couldn't use the restroom. Seriously, I couldn't pee....  Hours went by and finally I went, a little....  The said no, you gotta give us more than that.  They brought in a bladder ultrasound and said I still had 256ml in my bladder.  great.  another hour went by before I could get any more out.  Finally they did a 2nd scan and said okay.  So at about 6pm I was able to leave.  The drive home made everything hurt!   Sleeping was fun..  I'm a side sleeper, which is good, but I can't stay on the same side all night, it makes my hip hurt. I tried sleeping on my left side and that was NOT going to happen.  My left side seems to be where everything hurts the most. I think thats where the port is.
Sitting up, sitting down, and walking too fast hurt.  I just did a 15 minute walk around the block.  Deep breaths hurt, but it's all manageable. It's like a really really tough workout!
I'm drinking lots of water and other liquids to stay hydrated.  It's a weird feeling when I drink a certain amount at one time I suddenly feel full.
So my stats were 242 when I started pre-op diet. Today I'm 230, so 12 lbs gone on pre-op!!!  Yay!!!  Let's see what happens now.

Surgery Day is almost here!!

My check in time is 6 am tomorrow morning.  When I come home, I will have my band!!!  yahoo!!!!