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About this blog

Follow me as I go through pre-op, surgery, and more...

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Welcome

Hello, Thank you for visiting my blog. It is my hope that sharing my journey with you will help along yours. I have an amazing surgical team, nutritionist, & exercise physiologist, but I would have loved to have a "go to" person to answer any of my questions and address any concerns. I hope to be that person for you.   A little background about myself. I am a married mother of two children. I have been overweight, obese, and morbidly obese for as long as I remember. I was a yo yo dieter, a fad dieter, a "I WILL DO ANYTHING" dieter, and yet here I am still overweight. My weight has gone up from its highest at 264lbs to its lowest at 170lbs. I underwent Lap Band© in November 2008. I had what all the doctors would consider success, I felt successful. I went from 264lbs to about 175lbs through the course of 2 years. I felt amazing, I was exercising and really enjoying life. I had a few fills here and there trying to find that "sweet spot" we hear so much of. All at once, about four years into my band things started to go sour. I had difficulty eating pretty much anything that wasn't a slip food. By slip food I mean something that would go right through my band, with ZERO difficulty. Slip foods are usually horrilbe foods, ice cream, candy...you know the healthy stuff (sarcasm). If I ate regular food, healthy food, pretty much everything at somepoint came back up. I would be in the bathroom throwing up food that didn't pass through the band, or did pass and...well..it was not pleasant and certainly was getting to be too much.   I saw a surgeon after I had my second child because I decided at 33 years old, I couldn't live like this, something had to be done. My surgeon and his staff are AMAZING. After my first visit Dr. said that he would like to do an Upper GI barium swallow in flouroscopy. He saw that I had a hiatal hernia, he then drained my band. That was on Christmas eve. On Feb 10, I had an EGD, it was painless, and quick, I remember pretty much nothing. The dr. did find that my band was so tight he had difficulty passing the camera into the stoma. Yikes! It was empty! No wonder. On the 21st of Feb I had my follow up with the surgeon. We deteremined that I was going to remove the band, and convert to sleeve. After 3 short days insurance approved both procedures at once! I have my pre-op appointment tomorrow at noon. It will last 3 hours. It is there I will learn exactly what will be done, I will be taught how to inject heparin into myself (OMG HELP ME---IM DREADING IT!) my liquid diet etc. I will keep you all posted.   I am excited to enter this new stage of my life. I feel like I am a thin person in hiding, I cant wait to come out! Please feel free to share your thoughts, your feelings etc. If you have been there, done that I would love to hear as well! Stay tuned....
jeninpink

jeninpink

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Day 3 of Pre Op Diet

Hello everyone! Today is day 3 of my pre op diet. Well...first let me give you my daily menu: breakfast: 1 scoop protein powder and 8oz milk morning snack: sugar free jello lunch: 1 scoop protein powder afternoon snack: sugar free jello dinner: 3 oz chicken, turkey, or fish with 2 cups salad or 1 cup cooked veggies. 1TB of dressing or oil and water.....water.....water......did I say water?   So its the third day, I have had a headache now for three days to match. I think its the lack of carbs, maybe a carb withdrawl. Im not supposed to have caffeine, today I just poured a cup of coffee, and used a dash of my milk that was for my protein shake...I need to rid myself of the headaches, I cant deal with it all day. Im a bit tired and my brain is foggy. Ive read this happens on Atkin type diets from lack of carbs, and supposedly passes. PLEASE PASS QUICKLY.   Once you get over the idea that you aren't going to eat you start to forget about it. All doctors have differet preps prior to surgery. What are yours? What about post op? Post op I am a week of the same diet I am on now and then followed by two weeks of pureed foods, then gradually into regular foods.   When I did my pre op diet for the band it was similar to this, but no dinner, only liquids and one "cream of.." soup, strained a day. I dont remember being this lethargic or the headaches.   I had my pre op appointment on Tuesday. I lost four lbs, which was nice. I also met with the exercise physiologist, who gave me post op instructions, the nutrionist, who gave me 4 one ounce cups to show me what I will be drinking/eating (4 cups is the total quanity to equal a half cup, for each is 1 oz) we practiced how I should sip after surgery, take a sip, breathe out, swallow slowly. The reason for this is to expel any gas from the tummy. Otherwise you get painful gas, and have to be BURPED, OMG! They also gave me a spoon, to remind me of the size bites I should eat..funny, my 7 month old has the same one!   I met with my surgeon, he is awesome, he went over the procedure from the moment I am checked into the hosptial. Reassuring me of statistics and my safety. We discussed the dreaded drain that is used after surgery, the good news is, its taken out before I leave "phew" the bad news is...OMG THEY PULL IT OUT WHILE YOURE AWAKE!   Finally I met with the nurse who showed me how I will inject my Heparin, 3 shots a day for two weeks, to avoid any clots. Yikes. I hate needles but I definitely dont want to suffer a stroke, embolism, or DVT. So, I will comply. I left with my prescriptions, my shopping list...and here I am today.   I will keep you posted! I have to schedule my pre surgical clearance appt with my primary care doctor, and get some blood work too. Report back later. Take care!   Jen
jeninpink

jeninpink

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