4me4them

I used to be able to lay in bed, prop my kindle on my belly and it was the perfect reading height for reading...lol. That tummy is gone so now I use a pillow...

I still get that sometimes...about 2 months post surgery and I never had a band. I swear sometimes I can feel the warm tea drip into my stomach...and the sounds it makes...while no one has said anything, I can't believe they don't hear it...

I lost 1.3 pounds my first two weeks post op....that is all! I was soooo frustrated! In fact, I didn't really get in losing groove until about 6 weeks after surgery. Hang in there, follow your plan to the best of your ability and remember that we can't compare ourselves to each other....everyone who works the plan will see the plan work....it might take longer than you thought but it will happen!

I've cooked for my husband and adult brother that lives with us throughout. Cooking is something I enjoy and while there were a couple of times it was difficult, most of the time it was OK. Now that I'm on pureed, I'm playing with flavors in my chicken and looking for a great healthy lowfat crustless quiche recipe for Christmas morning....my next step up from pureed. I know that what I'm cooking I'll be able to eat again in moderation so I don't look at it negatively.

Thanks for posting this. You opened my eyes to a couple of things I hadn't thought of,,,,gotta check for those mini crustless quiches when I get past pureed and soft....lol

I went to the pre-program seminar on June 26th, had my first apt with the Surgeon and my first of 3 NUT appts on the 7th of July. Worked on getting all the other requirements (cardiac clearance, psych, PCP signoff, upper GI) so that by the time I had my last NUT on 08 October I was ready to submit for insurance. I was approved on first try. Could have had surgery in November, but chose to delay until 03 December because the holidays is a down time at work. So apt to surgery was 5 months.

Woo Hoo! So happy for you...

You could also try Water poaching the egg (just google it). Pretty easy to do and much softer than scrambled. In fact on my plan I can have poached during the pureed phase and not scrambled till 12 days later. Made my first poached egg this morning...was able to eat about 2/3 of it...lol My pooches are going to love my sleeve! Good luck!

Just focus on doing what you can and getting home...Life improves greatly when you leave the hospital!

If you can take your pulse that is probably better than blood pressure. I had a complication after surgery called atrial fibrillation and although my blood pressure was a bit higher for me than normal, my heart rate when I stood up would be near 200 beats a minute...which definitely causes dizziness....is there any way you can stop by your doctor's office just to let them listen to your heart?

OMG I am so sorry for you. I was sleeved on the 3rd of December and slipped into atrial fibrillation as well. Totally feel your frustration at being a bariatric patient with cardiac complications (my heart rate pegged at 200 every time I got out of bed). 4 days after starting afib I converted back to normal rhythm. Hang in there....I can't answer the vomiting question as I only did it a couple of times...although one was after the swallow test.

Congrats!

IF you are allowed yogurt on your preop diet try the Dannon Lite and Fit 80 calorie ones...the chocolate raspberry and the caramel macchiato are really good and the container has 12 g Protein. You are moving towards something awesome! These are just the steps on the way.

HMMM I'm guessing this is your last NUT before surgery? At mine, we went over the pre-op diet, discussed the stages I would go through after and booked my first follow up after surgery....hope this helps!

I'm starting them tomorrow...I looked up a "baby food" recipe for chicken because I couldn't stand the thought of actually eating baby food. Here is the base recipe...I'll tell you tomorrow how it is... Use cold, cooked chicken breast in a food processor (I have a mini/1Cup one) and process till crumbly. Add liquid (I"m going to use Water and 1oz of avocado) until it gets to the baby food consistency. Then I can mix it with other stuff when I'm reheating...I'm thinking of trying 1T of low fat ricotta as a first step...

My NUT said as long as there wasn't anything in it...but I agree with tamg26k I'd be worried about sodium....especially if you are having any problem at all getting your Water in. Good luck...does sound yummy!

Just got out of the hospital Tuesday....top 3 used things: Chapstick, ipod and cell phone. I also took a light robe to cover the back of my gown when I was walking in case it didn't tie all the way. Took my Kindle, but didn't use it once. I was really glad I had my iPod though...it definitely helped me get to sleep on nights I had a roommate.

Hi all, I was sleeved on December 3rd and on December 5th developed cardiac complications. I'm not going to detail those here, but if you are interested you can check out my blog. The reason for this post is to remind everyone that you have to be your own advocate after surgery. The medical staff throughout all stages of my complications were competent...but not knowledgeable about bariatric patients needs. The hospital kitchens are not stocked with the type of high quality, low carb Protein we need post surgery. I had great support from my husband who brought me Isopure/outside stuff so I could come close to following my plan. I'm thankful for my surgeon, Dr. Carlos Galvani at UMC in Tucson AZ for staying engaged and advocating for me even throughout the whole thing. After 7 days, the complication has, for the most part, resolved, and other than a ton of new medicine that I'm on for the next 3 months, I'm now able to walk, and really start my sleeve journey. God and life are good. I think it is time for some yogurt! Beth BTW....only made me second guess myself once in a pity party attended by me and my husband on Sunday evening when I realized I was on the way back to the hospital...Even if I knew going in I was going to have this bump in the road, I would go through with the surgery...it will lead to better health!

So....this is a long story but I'm going to put the point right up front. Be prepared to be your own advocate after your surgery! I had my sleeve surgery on 03 December. 04 was a bit rough but that night I was finally making peace with my sleeve when at about 0130 in the morning I slipped into atrial fibrillation...which means the heart is not beating correctly. The atria, which squeeze the blood away from the heart were fluttering and my heart rate was fluctuating between 120-200...normal is a range, but generally under 90. I was quickly moved out of my room on a floor that has had extra training in bariatric surgery care and moved to the cardiac unit. I wasn't in pain or uncomfortable at all...in fact my surgery healing has been amazing! However, the cardiac nurses required a lot of education about what I could and could not have/eat/drink. The hospital is not prepared to feed a new bariatric patient. The only "protein drink" they had was Ensure which was over 350 calories for only 11 g protein. Then they started bringing the pills. I don't know about you, but it has been drilled into me NO PILLS! So I refused to take them until the surgeon gave his ok which he eventually did. THEN, the put me on nothing by mouth, meaning no water, no nothing until they did a procedure where they tried to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm. This whole time I'm only allowed to go to the bathroom otherwise I had to be in bed...so much for walk, walk, walk. Conversion attempts failed and they discharged my on the 6th still in Afib but with what we thought was a controlled heart rate. Best.Shower.Ever was how I would describe getting home! Unfortunately because the heart medications were run through the same IV, I developed cellulitis and by Sunday evening my forearm was hot, swollen and the redness was moving up my arm....so back to the ER we went....here in my hometown which is 75 miles away from the hospital I had my surgery. The local ER folks FLIPPED OUT because my heart rate was 190 when I showed up....and by midnight I had been transported back to the hospital in Tucson. Now I was a bariatric patient with cardiac complications on a general medicine floor...kind of like the Island of Misfit Toys from Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer. The staff here were competent, but definitely not the A-team I experienced on the cardiac floor. So back to the same old thing, only in bed and to the bathroom....spend all day Monday waiting for a cardiac consult that never came. Didn't see a dr after 0700...very frustrating. At one point they brought me 2 horse pills to take and when I said I couldn't the nurse asked "Why not?" It took everything I had not to unload on her..."Um...let see because my stomach is the size of a sharpie....let's start there". Then she came back a couple of hours later with 7 pills at once...she was not my favorite as she never did get my situation. Tuesday morning the surgical fellow came by and I kind of unburdened myself to him...I was frustrated that no one was talking/consulting with me. I had been in Afib for over 4 days now, still had a heart rate that spiked every time I walked the 6 steps to the bathroom and was worried they were going to discharge me still in Afib again. I told him my "island of misfit toys" analogy and he agreed. He also got my surgeon involved (Dr. Galvani is head of surgery at UofA) and by 0900 I had 3 doctor visits! When I told the internal medicine doctor that I was still spking up as high as 205, she had no idea....not a real confidence builder in the staff of the floor. She agreed though that they wouldn't send me home with an unstable heart rate...which is all I wanted to hear. At about 1130 Tuesday morning as fast as it started, my heart converted on its own back to normal sinus rhythm. YAY! A few quick laps around to ward to make sure it wasn't joking around and I was being processed to leave the hospital!!!!! So upshot is I'm on a ton of new medications, including a blood thinner and will remain on them for at least 3 months. They think it was all caused by the fluids/electrolytes/stress of surgery but want to make sure. I'm home, eating my plain yogurt and I couldn't be happier! I'll post later about what my husband brought to the hospital to help me stay close to being on my plan. Cheers! Beth

So this is my last post before surgery. Tonight we are going to a hotel in the city where the hospital is. Tomorrow at 0900 my surgery will happen. I've been more nervous today, I think it is as much anticipation and the unknown as anything. I have a great support system, did not cheat once on the preop diet and am ready to face what comes the next few months. I thought about leaving a bunch of "If you are reading this bad things happened...." notes for my kids and husband but decided against it. I didn't want to spend time focusing on the sad/bad/negative. I'm comfortable that they know I love them and that they understand my wishes should things go wrong. Enough said. I'll post again in a few days! Beth

So you can probably tell from the title that my mind is all over the place today! Less than 48 hours to go and I'm getting more nervous by the hour...lol. I'm glad it didn't start till this late in the game. Had the final appointment with the surgeon today. Very short. His resident asked if I had any questions which I did: 1. How do you manage pain? IV injections and then liquid pain meds...no pump 2. How long do you anticipate the surgery will be? About 2 hrs 3. Will I have a drain? No. If I wake up with a drain that is not a good thing. 4. Does fixing the hiatal hernia found during the EGD change the recovery time? No. While we were waiting to go in I found myself looking at everyones butt and wondering....will mine look like that, or I hope pants fit me like that when I'm done...anyway I am not a perv. I do not normally go around fixated on peoples butts. Then hubs and I started talking about what he wanted for dinner....the hospital is about 1.6 hours from home and I didn't want to cook. So we are talking and keep saying...do you want mashed potatoes? He actually doesn't eat mashed potatoes but I couldn't get them off my mind. We picked up his food and it smelled AMAZING! But I stayed strong and put some curry powder on my cottage cheese for a treat.

So I put my 50 year old self in time out last night. I really deserved it. I totally went berserk over a string of Christmas lights that wouldn't light. Of course I was tired, feeling head hungry, frustrated that my day to day plan before surgery was getting disrupted, anxious to get the tree done, melancholy about surgery Wednesday....and probably a bunch more. The line Ron Weasley utters when Hermione tells them about what Cho is feeling comes to mind...."No one can feel all that or they would explode" just came to mind. He's right! OLD Beth would have said screw the diet, and would have eaten everything in site. EMERGING Beth told the family (husband and adult brother) I'm going to the bedroom. I was in time out about 1.5 hours, then I took a hot shower and rejoined the husband to watch football and eat my yogurt. I slept almost 10 hours and this morning I'm much clearer of mind and I didn't bust my plan! YAY. Now to go fix those dang lights. Beth

My only restriction will be no driving while on the pain meds....and...I'm December 3rd too! Good luck!