Two days after surgery

I haven't been feeling up to writing the last couple of days as I recuperate from surgery.  I must say, I am feeling much better than I thought I would.  So, let me tell you all about my day at the hospital and recovery thus far.

Firstly, I had to go the doctor's office prior to leaving for the hospital.  This is because I had gained weight prior to my pre-op appointment and the doctor needed to feel assured that my liver was in tip top shape for the surgery.  Considering the very low carb diet and the two days of nothing but liquids, I knew I had to have lost SOMETHING.  Little did I know I lost 14 pounds in one week!  I was more than ready to move on to the hospital for the moment I had been waiting for!

Once I got to the hospital and checked in, it was a fairly normal preparation for surgery.  IV was put in, I was put in circulation socks and a machine was attached to my legs to help promote circulation while I was laying.  My doctor came by to visit and let me know that I would be in surgery for approximately one hour and then would be in recovery for two hours.  After what felt like forever, they finally wheeled me away and into the OR.  I don't remember much after I got into the operating room since they knocked me out pretty quickly.

I woke up (reluctantly) a little while later in recovery, and I did not feel well at all.  I had this immense pain in my chest and in my left shoulder and couldn't figure out why.  The moment I mentioned I was in pain, they gave me medicine and I went back to sleep.

A little while later, they allowed my husband to come and see me in recovery since they didn't have any room available in the short stay area.  He told me that the doctor said everything went well and that I should be out of there in no time!  Eventually there was space available in short stay, so I was moved to my own little private area to recuperate.  I was more awake by this time and was able to question the pain that I was experiencing.

Firstly, the chest pain.  The doctor's inject a large about of CO2 into your chest cavity to help expand the area during surgery.  This allows them to maneuver the instruments more freely and complete the surgery more safely and quickly.  Because of all of this excess gas, it causes a large amount of pain/pressure in your chest.  The gas is eventually reabsorbed into the body, but until then, all I can do is take some liquid gas medicine to try and help break it up and move it along.  I must be honest and say this is the worst part of my recovery.  I am not a fan of the pain in my chest and the huge amount of pressure, but was assured it would pass.

Second, the pain in my left shoulder.  When they were performing the surgery they found that I had a hiatal hernia.  The doctor had pre-warned me that I most likely would have one since I suffer from chronic acid reflux that I have to take medicine for daily.  According to Google health, " Hiatal Hernia is a condition in which a portion of the stomach protrudes upward into the chest through an opening in the diaphragm."  Obesity is one of the major causes of this condition.  The nerve that is connected to this portion of the stomach actually runs up your body into your left shoulder.  So, when they repair the hernia, the pain you experience is in your left shoulder.  Seems strange, but based on the pain I was experiencing, I know it is true!

Other than these two types of pain, I actually was not feeling any pain in my stomach or any of my incisions.  Unfortunately, my doctor was stuck in surgery until after 8pm, so even though I should have been discharged from the hospital around 4pm, I was there until almost 9.....  That makes for a really fun time trying to entertain a 3 year old.  On the way home, we dropped off my prescriptions for my pain medicine and my nausea medicine.  That night, I slept on the couch as I wasn't sure if I would make it upstairs and knew I would be comfortable.

Yesterday, the day after surgery, I felt better than I thought I would.  The pain in my chest had subsided a little and I wasn't as tired/groggy as I imagined I would be.  I actually was able to get out of the house and went and took a walk around the mall.  They said that movement can help with the chest and shoulder pain, and I was and still am willing to do whatever is needed to keep this moving along.  I am not sure if I mentioned it, but including the weekend, I am only taking four days off from work.  Surgery on Thursday, back to work on Monday.  I know it sounds crazy, but, I figured that any longer than that would have people asking questions, and frankly, it's not any of their business.

So here we are on Saturday.  Today is the first day I can begin incorporating more liquids into my diet, like protein shakes.  At this point, I have not eaten anything solid in 5 days, but, I am actually not hungry.  I suppose it is because my stomach is still swollen, but whatever works.  Starting next Thursday, a week after surgery, I can begin eating soft foods.  Peas, tuna salad, egg salad, eggs, and soft meats like fish and chicken are going to be my new friends. 

It has been an interesting last couple of days.  It is still hard to believe that the band is inside me, and that I actually made it!  I will be keeping you posted on my progress, my diet, my weight loss, and everything that I experience that is related to the band.

See you soon!

First day with no food

This is going to be quick because I am exhausted.  Today was my first of two days where I can't eat anything.  I can only have sugar free drinks, jello, and bouillon cubes.  It didn't go nearly as bad as I thought it would.  I had coffee for breakfast, jello for lunch and bouillon and jello for snack.  Went and did yoga tonight and am ready to go to sleep!  I will let you know tomorrow how the second day goes!!!

A bump in the road

About my third month into my new diet and my preparations for applying for the surgery, I had a setback.  It was the night of the Oscars and I had just enjoyed watching the red carpet, when I started having a horrible pain in my chest.  I thought maybe I tore something or was just gassy, so, I took a pain reliever and gas relief pills hoping that would do the trick.  As the night progressed, the pain only got worse. My husband offered to take me to the hospital, but I thought that the pain would eventually subside, so I stubbornly declined.

Eleven o'clock came and I was heading to bed.  I did everything I could to get comfortable, but no matter what position I laid in, the pain only seemed to worsen.   I finally gave in and asked my husband to bring me to the ER.  After dropping our son off with my parents, we made our way to what I was sure was going to be a very long night.

I was seen almost immediately and brought quickly to have an ultrasound done on my abdomen.  Based on the pain I was having, the doctor was pretty sure he knew what was wrong with me.  He turned out to be right.  I had severe gall stones and my gall bladder needed to come out.  I went home that night groggy from the pain medicine and angry that I was going to have to have another surgery.  I met with the surgeon several days later and scheduled my procedure.  The biggest setback was the fact that I could not stay on my diet.  I was used to having a lot of meats and vegetables and fat content wasn't my biggest worry.  Unfortunately, carbs had to become a big part of my life for almost a month. 

I ended up gaining weight back during this time, and I don't think that I ever truly recovered from the diet set back.  Sure, I was watching my carbs, but I began cheating more than I was supposed to and would make excuses for myself.  It was a horrible decision that I regret, but I can't go back now.

During the last half of my 6 months, I made sure to get my psych evaluation, doctor's note, EKG, blood work, and even began exercising.  Although I was making all of these efforts, I still found myself cheating and justifying it.  Then I got the call I had been waiting for.  The doctor's office had everything they needed to submit my case to the insurance company.  They sent it out on August 17th.  Now the insurance company technically had 30 days to make a decision, but the doctor's office said we usually hear something earlier than that.

My husband rarely checks the mail.  I have to bug him constantly to bring the mail home, cause you just never know what you are going to get.  One day, he checked the mail after I annoyed him long enough, and there was a letter from the insurance company.  I opened it not understanding why they would be writing to me directly as my husband is the primary on our plan.  When I looked, there it was.  My surgery was AUTHORIZED!  After all of this time, I was approved and I was going to be able to have the surgery.

I immediately scheduled my surgery, and my pre-op visits.  Even though I knew my surgery is coming up, I still cheated several times.  The day for my pre-op came and I had gained back 8 pounds.  I was devastated.  But all was not lost.  My surgery is still on schedule and I have to adhere to the special one week prior diet.  Before I can go to the hospital I have to go and get weighed in and make sure I haven't gained any weight.  That would cause the doctor to call off the surgery.

The reason the doctor wants us to make sure we are losing weight is because of our liver.  When you eat a meal that is high in carbs, your liver swells to 5 or 6 times its normal size.  In addition, the consistency of the liver itself changes and becomes gelatinous.  This causes a lot of complications in surgery as the doctor has to move the liver out of the way in order to access the part of the stomach that the band goes around.  So, to see that you have gained weight tells the doctor you have been eating carbs, therefore your liver is not ready for surgery.

I have been following the week long preparation diet to the T.  I am not taking any chances in not being able to have my surgery.  I have worked hard and waited months for this moment, and I don't want to screw it up. My surgery is scheduled for this Thursday the 23rd.  Starting tomorrow, I am on a strictly liquid no sugar diet for two days.  I know it is going to be tough, but in the scheme of things, two days of feeling hungry is not very much, and is not a huge sacrifice when I think about what it will mean to me.

I will write tomorrow and let you know how the first day with NO food went!  Thanks for listening and I will see you all tomorrow!

My six month journey

I realize now that I should have been keeping a blog of my journey this whole time,  but as I draw towards the end of my journey, I have just now come to the realization that it may be helpful for other people out there like me if I gave you an inside look at this lifestyle.

As I said yesterday, I did make the decision to pursue the lap band surgery, despite all of the hoops that I was going to have to jump through.  The first and most important step was beginning the 6 month physician supervised weight loss.  What this involved was following the diet that the doctor gave me, and coming in once a month to get weighed.  Sounds simple enough, but it was hell.

The diet.  Oh how I loathe the diet.  Trust me, it has grown on me, but it scared me to death to start it.  No carbs.  Now, I have tried the Atkins diet before, but it was with minimal success.  But at this point, I was willing to try anything.

Now, when I say no carbs, I really mean an extremely low amount of carbs; less than 30 grams a day.  It seems easy enough, but I'll tell you, eggs and bacon get old after a while.  So my journey began, eating as few carbs as possible and trying to fight temptation.  But, at my first visit to the doctor, when I had already lost 6 pounds, temptation became easier to fight, and I really felt that I was on my way to finally finding an answer to my weight issue.

It wouldn't really make sense for me to be telling you all of this unless I let you know truly where I started.  I am 5'2" tall, and at my very first doctor's visit, I weighed in at 267 pounds.  According to all the websites I found, someone of my height should weigh between 100-127 pounds.  Man am I WAY off! 

As I was saying, the no carb diet can feel pretty limiting. My husband bought a few cook books and low carb guides, and has done everything that he can to always have a low carb meal for me.  I love my husband, and am grateful for all of his support. But, one thing that I will say is it makes it so much harder to take this journey when you are the only one eating this diet.  My husband and son would still eat their rice, mashed potatoes, ice cream, cookies, and all the other wonderfully yummy things that I just couldn't have.  It sucked. Every once in a while, I did unfortunately give in to temptation.  I am only human and I knew better, but I couldn't help myself.  I have a wonderful relationship with carbs,  I always have. I am an emotional eater and they have always been there for me when I turned to them for comfort.  Kicking them out of my life was proving very difficult and it was only about to get worse. 

How it all began............

I wasn't always overweight. Growing up, my family actually called me "skinny minnie."  As a matter of fact, up until I reached high school, I was an average weight, an average size, an average girl.  After high school, that all ended.

From the time I entered college until today, I have gained and lost and gained and lost over 100 pounds.  But, I never took the initiative to really do anything about it.  Sure, I dieted.  I have tried almost every diet fad, program, and product that is out there.  But, nothing gave me real results, and they never lasted very long.

I have always heard that when you are truly ready to make a change, you will, and sometimes you need a good swift kick in the behind to steer you in the right direction.  My swift kick in the behind came in the form of a 4-year-old girl.

It was a typical family Thanksgiving.  Too many people in a space that really couldn't fit us all.  But, we love each other, so it never bothered us!  My parents were so happy to have all three of their children there with all of the grandchildren.  My 4-year-old niece was among all of the children.  She has always adored me (the feeling is mutual) and has never made any indication that I was anything less than perfect in her eyes, at least up until that point.  As I was setting the table for dinner, she walked up to me and said, "Aunt Amanda, why do you have two stomachs?"  I felt like someone had just punched me in the gut. 

They say that small children are the most honest people you will meet.  They don't yet know what it means to truly deceive you or be malicious.  It was an honest comment from a young girl, who didn't realize that the very question she was asking had made me feel as small as her.  It was that night that I told my husband that I needed to do something.

I am a very lucky woman.  I am married to a wonderful man who thinks that I am beautiful and perfect exactly how I am, but, who supports me in any decision I make regarding my well-being.  So, I started brainstorming with him ways that I could lose the weight, be healthier and happier, and keep it off!  It was my husband who ultimately made the suggestion to look into the lap-band.  I am so grateful that he did.

For anyone who thinks that they can just open a phone book, call a doctor and schedule a lap band procedure, I am sorry to tell you that you are sadly mistaken.  We began researching local doctors and the different gastric banding options and I immediately became overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that I was ingesting.  Luckily, I found a doctor here in my hometown who begins the journey with a seminar at their office.  I immediately scheduled myself an appointment to go and see what they had to offer.

This may sound selfish, but I was relieved when I walked into the doctors office for the first time.  Never had I been sitting in a room with so many people who were just like me.  It was a group session and we all were treated to a good hours worth of information regarding the procedure.  Everything from what the band looks like (we got to hold one,) what the surgery is like, what type of results patients typically see, and what is involved in getting started.

For me, getting started meant the beginning of jumping through a lot of hoops.  If you decide to pursue this surgery, the next steps are all solely dependent on your insurance company.  In my case, I had to do 6 months of supervised weight loss, a session with a nutritionist, a visit with a fitness expert, a psychological evaluation, numerous blood tests, an EKG, a chest X-Ray, a letter from my primary care physician stating this was medically necessary, 5 years of weight and medical history, and the list goes on.  All of these items had to be completed in order for the doctors office to even submit my case to my insurance company.  The feeling of dread began to set in and I was ready to give up already.  I was ready now, not 6 or 7 months from now.  How could I wait?  Would I be able to do everything they wanted from me?

Once I met my doctor for the first time, my confidence in myself rose.  He is a tall and fit man, who used to be fat.  He understands how I feel, because he has been there.  Now, he leads his life doing what he can to help people like you and me become healthier and happier.

Tomorrow, I am going to post about everything I learned in regards to the diet that I had to conform to and the 6 month journey that I made to accomplish all of the tasks that the doctors office needed me to complete in order to submit to the insurance company, and what has ultimately become of that request....I hope to see you tomorrow!