mngreeneyes

I am a huge fan of unjury chocolate Splendor. I have it with Fairlife milk almost every day. It tastes like chocolate milk, but not too sweet. Unjury has a starter back of individual packages so you can try it before you have to buy a canister. You have to purchase Unjury online, but their shipping is really reasonable. pam

I have a small note on my bathroom mirror from my youngest niece that she wrote to me a couple of years before my surgery. She was about 5 at the time. It simply says, "Pam, You are beautiful!" She is one of my most consistent walking buddies when I go to visit them and always has been. She is the one that when I say I am going for a walk. Does anyone want to join me? She is always willing. The only one more consistent is their dog, Sadie. pam

Stalls happen. Usually it means your body is adjusting to its new normal. Have you been measuring yourself? This is usually the time I notice the largest drop in clothes size and measurements. For example, I am just over 4 month out. I had lost 20 lbs both month one and two, and 15 lbs. in month 3. Month 4 I stalled for three weeks and "just" lost 5 lbs. All in one week. During that time, I lost 9 total inches from my body, compared with the 13 inches I lost during month 3! I also dropped another clothing size. In fact during month for 1 went from a 20W pants to an 18 (no W) and still only lost 5 lbs. I think sometimes we focus too much on the number on the scale and not enough on the health and wellness benefits we are also gaining. One of which is loss of fat. Just stick with the plan, get/keep moving, and you will notice the difference. pam

@@Commander I had never made it past the 20 minute run either until Monday night. I will admit that last night's run sucked. I dont' think I did enough to aid my recovery in between. I usually take a bath in epsom salts after my longer workouts, especially if they are back to back. I try not to go back to back, but sometimes its the only way to get it into my schedule. I didn't take a bath and I went to the chiropractor on Tuesday morning so I was a hurting unit when it came time to run last night. I feel much better today so I am confident that tomorrow's workout will be much better. pam

Congrats for taking the first steps. Good luck with your continuing steps to surgery! WHOOOHOOOO! pam

@@Indieflickers hmmm. That's frustrating about the breathing. Sounds like the infection isn't all gone yet. I've had lung infections that hung on a long time which is frustrating. I am glad your shin splints are doing better. Hopefully your knee and lungs will improve soon. Good luck! pam

@@Indieflickers I also have battled shin splints in the past. It helps to go slower to let your body adjust to running. Also make sure you aren't overstriding. If you take steps that are too long, it can cause shin splints and all kinds of other issues. I know the feeling about being frustrated. You will get there. Start slow and perhaps do the C25k at a very slow pace to allow your lungs and legs to get back into shape. Another thing would be to make absolutely sure that you have the right shoes for you. I had issues with the running store people putting me in the completely wrong shoes because they looked at me and saw fat girl so put me in motion control shoes. I have high arches and am a neutral runner. The wrong shoes will also mess you up good. It took going to a different store and getting refitted after I had healed to realize what had happened. EIA-albuterol is your friend. My PCP keeps me up on my prescription. I only use it when I must. pam

@@darinak I have been super impressed with Fairview Southdale and their team. I had Dr. Pierce for my surgeon. I loved him. He was the surgeon who did my initial information meeting and I was so impressed with him, I never considered either of the other surgeons. I've heard great things about both of the others as well. I also had never had surgery before my surgery, except the stitches I got when I took a header into a metal door frame at the age of about 4. The only issue I had with surgery was that they tried to make it less painful to put in my line/iv and kept giving me pain killer and it kept causing my veins to collapse in that area! It took 7 tries to get one in for surgery and that one had problems post surgery so they had to try again. The 8th one lasted the rest of my stay. Have you been to any of the support group meetings? I highly recommend them. Both the ones I go to are amazing groups of people who genuinely want to help. We don't meet until the 20th this month, but if you can make it to Fairview Riverside next Wednesday from 6:30 to 8, we would love to answer any of your questions and alleviate any fears we can. In fact, this month's speaker is one of the U surgeons talking about complications after surgery. That alone might help some of your concerns. My attitude going in to the surgery was that I wanted to know the worst, but expect the best. I had a really smooth recovery so the best was what happened, but I am also glad I knew the worst because I had figured out how I wanted to react to each of the complications as they happened. Once I came up with a plan of sorts for complications, I knew I could deal with whatever came my way. Best wishes, and feel free to private message me if you have any questions or just want to vent or whatever. pam

I second @@James Marusek on the walking and caffeine. I did both and it helped immensely. I actually was so terrified of going through caffeine withdrawal after surgery that I gave up my 25+ year Diet Coke Habit before I even had my first appointment with the NUT! I did it slowly, taking a full month, weening myself off a little at a time. First I drank less, then I drank smaller containers. Until I stopped. I still had another 2 weeks of headaches, but now I am great. As far as messing up, liquids are hard. You messed up. Its good that you feel bad because it means you really are trying, but let's face it, we have lots of issues to overcome and slipping up is going to happen. The only thing you can do is acknowledge your goof, IMMEDIATELY get back up and get back on track. The longer we wait to get back on track, the harder it becomes and that's what causes weight gain after surgery. "well I've already messed up so I'll just X." Don't beat yourself up, just get back into the plan. Mistakes happen. Its how you recover that is the measure of success. Good luck, pam

I just started month 5 post op and there are several veterans/people who had surgery before me that I look up to and look forward to reading. I have appreciated the truth, the back to basics, and the cheerleading. I have noticed that some have gotten upset with answers to their questions and sometimes I understand their sensitiveness and sometimes I can't figure out what got their undies in a bunch! But @@CowgirlJane I have yet to see one of your posts that I thought was actually mean in any way. I am pretty empathetic and sensitive myself and I just haven't seen it. I wonder if the webpage medium/writing is part of the issue. It is hard to convey emotions in writing sometimes and if someone is worried about being judged, will transfer that to a writer who was in no way judging and get defensive. I have to say I try to judge tone on a persons body of posts not on individual ones and as someone pointed out earlier, I don't think that everyone is doing that. Thank you to all the vets for everything in the last 9 months since I joined. You have been invaluable to me. pam

Not embarrassed to cry. Just haven't done it yet, although last night was a close thing. If I had had my sunglasses on I might have let the tears flow, but there were too many people around who might have called the cops on the sobbing woman on the trail! I got home last night after my run and texted my sister-in-law who I worked out with over the weekend to let her know that I made it. (She called me at work yesterday to help her sign up for the triathlon that I am doing in August, but she is afraid to swim so she is going to work on getting past that by August!) When we worked out this weekend she commented that I walked faster than she does. I am at least 3" shorter and have really short legs. She has really long legs. She still runs faster, but I walk faster! pam

I can attest to the wonderfulness that is C25k. Last night I ran week 5 day 3 of the plan. It is warm up 5 minutes run 20 minutes, cool down 5 minutes. It is a big psychological hurdle that I have never been able to pass in previous attempts. (previous longest run segment is 8 minutes!) I planned carefully. I didn't want to get bored so instead of doing my usual run on the treadmill, I took it outside and ran on the streets and local trail along the Mississippi River - lots more to see and keep me from being bored. Although I was incredibly thankful that the one stoplight I had on my run turned right before I got to it so I stopped for a short breather, I could have kept running and still would have made it. I evidently run faster outside too, as on the treadmill I never have any problems with my exercise induced asthma, but running outside causes me problems. Gotta remember the inhaler before a run now. As it was I made it better than 1.5 miles during that 20 minutes. That distance alone is a new personal record! I have never gone that far or that "fast". I RUN my first 5k on April 9th. I intend to run a minimum of 80% of the race. I am slow and the 30 minutes of running at the end of the plan will not carry me the full 3.1 miles, but I will be on week 8 day 2 of the plan on race day and plan to kill it! And when I cross the 50 yard line at the football stadium/finish line, I will probably cry! (I almost did last night when I finished my 20 minutes!) The only other thing that I would add to the wonderful information that JamieLogical posted is to take it slow. keep your eye on becoming a runner. You can add speed later. One of the fastest way to get injured and give up is to go out too fast before your body is ready for the pounding. This is a big reason why I have never gotten this far before. That and an extra 62+ pounds. Because I won't be able to run the full 5k on April 9th, I will start the C210K (run for 1 hour) training plan as soon as I finish the C25K (run for 30 minutes). I have another 5k in June that should be no trouble to run the whole thing, although it is a killer hilly course so I will need to work on hills at some point. I have always been active, but never LIKED exercising, but I have found that there is something amazing about putting your body through a challenge and it doing what you never believed possible. I know people who hate to run. I was always a little jealous of those who could. I may never be fast and at 44, I am past my "peak" for ever being as fast as I might have been, but I only have to keep improving. I like having a race to train for as it gives me a goal and motivation not to slack off. I used to run with a friend, which was great fun, but we haven't been able to get our schedules to sync since my surgery. We were both similar sizes and kept having issues with our legs so we never got as far as I am in the plan now. Another suggestion/hint I would like to share is schedule your workouts. I currently have my workouts, including where I am in my plan, on my calendar so if I skip a workout, I have to find a way to get it in somewhere else so I don't' get behind. It also means that I have blocked off time for me each day. I am not good at getting up in the morning so I go after work. Its becoming a habit, but I have learned that Fridays are hard to convince myself to work out so that is my one day off each week. Otherwise, I alternate swimming and running with a little bit of weight lifting. Find something you like to do. don't worry if you don't think you can because of your size. Do it. It will get easier and you will get smaller because of the exercise. Walk, run, swim, Water aerobics, yoga, bike, whatever, just move. You'll be glad you did. Maybe not the first day or week, but it will get better and you will be glad you kept it up. Whoops that got really long. I guess I am a little excited! pam

Glad you are doing better. Hope the monitor helps find the cause so it won't happen again. I can completely understand how this can be an NSV. Thanks for sharing. pam

I was diabetic for about 5 years before my surgery. I have never been insulin dependent, just metformin. While I was in the hospital after surgery they gave me insulin because my numbers were elevated (150-180) and I couldn't swallow my metformin yet. I went to my PCP three weeks after surgery and was taken off my high blood pressure meds. My PCP and I decided to wait until I had an A1C that was totally post-op before taking me off my diabetes meds. After three months, my A1C was 4.9 and we decided it was time. Now I have normal numbers so I guess I am in remission, but it took three months to be certain. pam

I had a very similar recovery to what James described. I had very little pain and when I did, I pressed my button and went to sleep. I wore out really easily so as long as I walked as soon as I woke up, I could get several laps in before I tired out. They called me Speedy in the hospital because I wanted to get up right away and after my first shuffley walk, I was almost up to speed. Overall, I had a dream recovery and aside from tiredness, I was very lucky and blessed. Sounds like you might be too. Just be careful and take things slow and you should be fine. pam

They will get better. pam

I lost 20 pounds each the first two months, then 15 the third, I am now more than for months out. I lost 5 pounds in month 4. Between months three and four I started eating regular food. I think that explains my drastic slow down. In the first two weeks of month 5, I have already lost about 3 pounds so I think my combination of working out religiously and eating carefully has helped already. Sounds like you are doing well! pam

I flew about 10 weeks after surgery (Minnesota to Atlanta). It was no problem. I don't' know that I heard anything about not flying. pam