I've always said, I will not listen to anyone giving me advice who hasn't been through the same journey. I hope that my story will add some credibility to my posts and inspire someone considered WLS.
I'm on a quest to find the woman I lost years ago. She's somewhere in this body, I know that, I just haven't seen here in almost a decade. I'm almost 300 pounds on a 5 foot 7 frame. My family medical history is like Wal-Mart, you name it someone has it. I want to break the cycle of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc. . I can't get back the years I've already lost, but I can make the years I have left that much better.
I have a carb addiction, disillusion about the amount of food I should be eating, and an emotional eating habit. I was taught as a child to clean my plate, I remember at 8 years old looking forward to going to my grandma's because she always had pound cake made, and dinner consisted of meat, a few veggies, heaping mounds of carbs (rice/potatos) and rolls. 20 Years I've been addicted to carbs. My mom and I could go to a restaurant and finish an entire basket of rolls before our food came and still eat everything on our plate, plus another basket of rolls. Needless to say, I've never had a good example when it came to eating.
Fast forward through middle school, when at 5"7 and 130 lbs I was the tallest girl in my entire school. Talk about a complex. At 9 I thought I was fat. Junior high, I'm still tall and muscular but everyone else is catching up. Rumors start that I'm taking steroids. Hence another complex about being "thick" and muscular.
High School, the Revolution Years. I rebelled against EVERYTHING! Stress at home= emotional eating. I remember coming home from school and eating half a loaf of bread, toasted with butter and jelly because it made me feel better. Nutrition? What's that? It wasn't taught at our school. Lunch for 4 years, FOUR YEARS, consisted of chili cheese fries with extra cheese and sweet and sour dipping sauce, juice or soda, and some other high carb or fried food. FOUR. YEARS. I do remember a salad but it was far and few in-between. I think back on this and I cringe. What the heck are we doing to our kids??? My saving grace was band. The amount of practice we did counteracted some of the weight gain. I stayed around 180-200 lbs.
College, the fittest years of my life. I decided to major in Nutrition, the one thing I had no knowledge of. Freedom to come and go as I pleased means more time in the gym. HBCU band practice consisted of intense PT at 5 am and intense practice from 3-7. I was at my fittest ever. I wouldn't believe it myself if I didn't have pics to prove it.
Grad school I continued my good gym habits, but even a nutrition degree can't combat the psychological condition of emotional eating. I started gaining weight. Then I got pregnant. My weight shot up to 230 with the first pregnancy and miscarriage and I gained 20 more from the stress. Pregnant again at 260 with the help of pills. I went up to 285. Lost 20 and have been stuck at 270 for 3 years.
This brings us to today. 10 days from VSG surgery and positive about where my life is heading. I'm not one for sharing a lot of personal information, but I will try to keep this "blog" updated as I progress through. I need to learn how to let people in and break down this brick wall that I've built.
Well, I finally got sick from not eating right. It wasn't what I ate, that was fine. I was eating a salad with chicken, cheese, some tomatos and dressing. The problem was I ate too much, too fast and didn't chew properly. Wow, that sucked.
Last night was one of those nights where I got home, only had enough time to change cltohes, grab a Bariatric Advantage protien bar and then head out to coach my son's lacrosse practice. Three hours later, I was starved. Like I said, I ate too much, too fast and didn't chew the recommended 20 times.
I had no nauesua or vomiting at any time after my surgery and consider my self very, very lucky. After last night, I hope it doesn't happen again.
Everything went great and it didn't take as long as i thought. I feel so much better after talking to everyone about exactly what will happen. Just 4 days left.. I'm so excited!!
I'm down over 30 lbs since I started my preop. I feel great about that. I'm eating okay and getting in a walk every day. stitches come out tomorrow. Yay!
My surgery was on Tuesday. I was supposed to be first of the day, but got pushed back since I was relatively healthy compared to the other cases. So I didn't get out of recovery and into my room until 6pm that night. I had alot of pain that first night, mostly from the gas that they pumped in. But I asked my nurse to help me get up... I think I only walked about 10feet but it really helped loosen everything up and I felt better afterwards.
I had my leak test first thing Wednesday morning... I'm convinced that was the WORST part of the whole thing. I still don't know how I managed to NOT vomit! But, it was good news because there were no leaks. When I got back to my room, I have never been so excited to see chicken broth in my whole life! I walked a mile that day (in small increments) and did my one-oz-per-hour.
I stayed Wednesday night because I still had drainage from my JP. On Thursday morning the fellow came by and told me I could go home that evening. I told him I didn't care whether I went home or not as long as they took that stupid drain out! I was hard to do anything with that attached! I walked another mile that day and worked my way up to about 4-oz-per-hour.
Last night I slept in my own bed, albeit propped up quite a bit. So, my goal for this weekend is to work my way into sleeping flat! I'm still trying to increase my liquid intake, thats been hardest, but I'm "sip, sip, sipping" just like every one says to.
I'm glad I took two weeks off work because I definitely could not face going back on Monday!
