EverLearning

I would have LOVED to know the hernia repair can cause spasms - it really does! I have gotten better in my med routine but that diaphragm is a PAIN. It all makes sense now in hindsight. Hold your tummy high and go for it. It does get better daily.

I used NOTHING I took to the hospital but my tablet and phone charger. I did use my toothbrush but NOTHING else made it out of the bag. A "complication" I had which was really an inconvenience was anesthesia totally messed with my bladder and sphincter so going to the bathroom became an exercise in patience to get the urine OUT. I couldn't open or contract my bladder! It all resolved with time and I am still feeling pleased when I void that I can do it now! LOL - but I am celebrating all victories here!

You look great! I love the sparkly you possess in both pictures but you are right you can really see a difference in you face in just a month! I guess I better start taking pictures of me so I can see changes as they happen!

That is wonderful for you! They kept calling me a rockstar at the hospital as my post op has gone ideal, if I didn't have that coughing fit I would agree completely that it was too good to be true. I am trying to adjust to this new eating and drinking and I am doing pretty well. I wish I knew how to burp!

I was so pumped full of IV fluids in the hospital I weighed the same as I had BEFORE my preop diet! I am looking forward to weighing tomorrow - I hope my kidneys have caught up by then.

I am so glad to be home! The nap I took today on my OWN bed in my own sheets and with my own pillow was AWESOME! Hospitals are noisy - the IV machine I had to name and pretend it was my own personal frogs peeping. The bed can get ready for lift off to Mars at any time and does prepare for take off, and the compression boots - well if you make them loose you can pretend it is your dog cuddling up to your feet. I did it! All is well and I feel pretty good. The transition from the pain med drip to oral was a bit rougher than I expected. It also coincided with my first "meal" of pureed chicken and a tablespoon of asparagus soup that was strained. I think hurting and seeing that food combined into "what have I done?" I am supposed to live on THAT? It tasted good, I ate until I was burpy. Telling when I am full is being a challenge, I have never been able to burp and I am not sure I can now! New skill to be mastered? If you stand with great posture and your tummy firm it hurts less when you walk. My hiatal hernia repair has actually hurt the worst - especially when I got coughing last night and I could breathe in smell of anesthesia. I think my lungs needed a good clean out of all that anesthesia and it just happened when I was low on pain meds. Things learned so far....I need a check off list for all the meds and when they are due for me. I am doing better than I think I am on both drinking and eating. Trying to burp hurts. Any suggestions on taking the capsules you break open and sprinkle on food? They are a new level of nasty so far and I hated wasting a bite on such a bitter pill as the ursolidaol is. I am awaiting to take my pain meds and go to bed. I am planning on waking tonight to take them when due. If you are in pain you don't heal as fast or well as your body is too busy coping with the pain. Take you pain meds my friends there is NO advantage to toughing it out! I am glad to be on this side. My family loves my scars and thinks they look like stab wounds LOL! the bruising is pretty awesome. I should state, I never looked at where the scars were going to be or what was involved before surgery. I just didn't want to know. It has been a fun surprise and I am glad to have had the surprise now.

I am feeling pretty smart here and have to share. I packaged up some leftover Sunday dinner of chicken and veggies and froze it. Tonight I wanted my single meal on pre op and thought of it - but it was rock solid frozen. I put it in a double ziplock and boiled it and it is as good as it was the first time! Super moist and tender. Enjoying my meal of chicken and veggies and not feeling one bit deprived on this pre op diet! It is about time I adapted - it has been 10 days! Surgery Monday....YEA!

Howdy, I have caught a cold! It hit like a truck Saturday night and I am home from work with it today! Now what? Any suggestions? I so don't want to put off my surgery....... I also realized I have been doing WEAK Protein shakes! I invested in CASES of Low sugar carnation instant Breakfast and mis read - I thought I was getting 13 grams protein per packet - NO it is only 5 grams THEN you add the milk to get 13. I am so disappointed. I started doubling the packets up but now the calories are higher than I want. I need better protein FAST. I did order an unjury sample pack but it hasn't shown up yet. December 15 is next week.....I so hope this is a 3 day or less cold!

The first 3 days were the hardest. Day 3 especially. Day 4 was AWESOME and I had energy and did stuff and worked full day without falling asleep until bed time! Today is day 6. I am pretty emotional, sensitive, headachey and without much confidence. I did my weight and measurements this morning and found I am down 6 pounds - 5 of which appear to be muscle. DANG, no energy to exercise and my muscle is disappearing faster than my fat. I am also only down 3 cm as I went up 5 and lost 8. Why in the world? I am feeling frustrated, disappointed, questioning everything except the need for something different than being fat.

It is your placenta. IF you have IUGR and high blood pressure it is your placenta that is the weak link. Keep your diet healthy, she will take all she needs from you and leave you drained of nutrients if your diet is poor. You won't notice for years - but that is what pregnancies do to us if we don't take care of ourselves. It sounds like you are on the "better in or out" point for her and if she is better off and better able to grow outside - accept it and know you did the best you could but she chose her birth date. Keep up with the ultrasounds and blood flow, placenta's have a short life span as an organ - they are amazing - but when they go bad, get old and calcify, the baby just can't keep growing at the rate they would like. Trust your team and take her sooner than later as if they are watching blood flow that is concerning. Any labor and delivery nurse will tell you post term placentas generally give the worst heart tracings in labor because there is no reserve for the baby to make it through the contractions so you end up putting mom on oxygen and everyone gets more stressed out because the baby is. You can do nothing about your placenta, nothing you did in the past caused this, nothing you do now can change it or direct the outcome. Follow the advice of your OB team and plan on a little gal who will probably come early and be skinny. But remember skinny doesn't matter in the organ development - it is gestational age. Any you already have that covered by how far along you are now. She has the maturity she needs. Good luck in your next few weeks!

I just saw this on facebook and thought to re post it here: One of the most important things a person can do is master his or her ability to upgrade the state they're in. Frustration and Failure are powerful forces that can be harnessed, channeled and used productively, upgraded or even just neutralized. NO ONE can cause you to feel something without you buying into it first. That is my attitude adjustment to let it go and move forward - I am learning to harness my frustration.

I have been soooooo good on the pre op until tonight. I put nutella on my german puff pancake. I have felt yucky since and am not sure if it is food related or guilt. I even went to a party last night and brought my own Protein and ate that and green Beans - plain green beans! Nothing else. I did it just! Now to mess up today, I am tired, I am grumpy, I am easily offended and I fell asleep in a meeting at work. I emailed the nut today and learned I have been under doing my calories which may be why I am so tired. I was aiming for the 800 per day goal and she said I should do 1200. I have never lost weight on 1200 calories so we negotiated to 1000 I guess. My husband says I am trying to be too perfect. I just know I don't want to fail again, and others lose a lot pre op so I was trying to also. I wasn't even feeling deprived and I went and ate a bit of nutella. WHY? too hungry, too emotional, too tired. My diet is Protein Drink and a fruit or veggie for Breakfast and lunch. Dairy snack with a fruit or veggie. Light dinner of 3 oz protein, a veggie and a small whole grain serving. And all the calorie free drinks I want. I am meeting all of it but nutella? Oh well.....I guess it is time to move forward.

mroth - I so get it! I just returned from a holiday party where I played invisible well. My daughter went with me. In theory it was with friends and should have been great, but I had a hard time making conversation at my table and was worried about eating and the pre op and being hungry! I am home and just want to curl up in bed now as I feel emotionally drained. Will the skinny people talk to me when I am thinner? Will my overweight friends avoid me? will I be able to be me? Good news - I took my 3 oz of left over turkey, I put that on my plate and acted like nothing was different and ate a serving of green beans and passed all the rest right along past. I stayed with my pre op diet in a social situation. We can do this, we want to do this, and there is no need to worry about aspects we can't control. We will be fine and we will grow internally as we shrink internally - we got this!

You make sense to me. Thank you for sharing!