Day 5 - Feb. 11, 2011

Starting weight: 283

Current weight: 272

Mini Goal: 250

Goal: 199

Dream Goal: 150-165ish

I woke up in a bit more pain today. I am having internal pain, my husband said it must be my stomach healing from the inside. So I took some pain medication and laid back down. I slept another 2 hours and when I woke up I felt slightly better. I have been sipping water whenever I’m awake. For breakfast this morning I mixed 2 oz. of water with 2 oz. of cran-grape juice and mixed in some unflavored protein powder.  I’m still sipping it after about 30 minutes. I think I can drink faster and bigger sips but I’m afraid to. After having the band, I learned that if I take too big of a sip - it will come right back out! So I’m going slowly. I walked around the house a bit today also. It’s a gorgeous, sunny day outside so I’m gonna put on my sweats and slippers and shuffle outside for a little bit.

I’m down 11 pounds in 5 days. I’m assuming some of that is water weight even though I’m trying to drink water constantly. My husband said my tummy looks less poofy today so maybe some of the swelling is going down. I gained 2 pounds in the hospital from all the IV fluids but I’ll take any weight loss!!

My goal for month 1 is to lose at least 20% EWL (Excess Weight Loss). Since I’d like to lose 130 pounds - 20% of that is 26 pounds. I’m almost 1/2 way to my first goal! I know once I start eating mushies and “real” food, my weight loss will slow significantly so I wanna make the most out of this liquid phase.

My dr. has me on full liquids for the first 2 weeks. Since I was his very first plication patient, he is being a little more strict with me than he usually is with his WLS patients and I’m fine with that. I want to do what’s best for my new tummy. I want to give it time to heal properly.

When I was banded (in 2001) I had an extremely difficult time following the diet guidelines afterwards. The first few days after I was banded I was swollen and sore. But within about 1 week I was pretty hungry and was having a really hard time staying on the liquids only diet. I did it but I remember adding sugar free sherbert to my protein shakes because I needed more than just the protein shakes!  So far I haven’t experienced that.

My doctor, Dr. Billy said that some of the patients he has seen with plication (he worked with several other doctors while studying plication) experienced a lot of nausea. I did have a lot of nausea on the first day which I usually get anyway from the anesthesia. The next day I did feel a little bit nauseous but nothing too severe. By about day 3, the nausea was pretty much gone.

I will be seeing Dr. Billy next Friday (2/18) for an x-ray to make sure my tummy looks okay. If everything is fine I will get the go ahead to start on mushies. I am looking forward to eating soft foods but I haven’t minded the liquid diet as much as I thought I would. I actually think the pre-op diet helps out a bit with the post-op diet cause you are kind of in the habit of eating the right things anyway.