istytehcrawk

I'm 6.5 weeks out from surgery, and I'm desperately craving a sandwich or wrap or something of the like. Just eating the cold cuts/cheese or chicken salad or whatever isn't cutting it. I don't currently have any food restrictions from my team (I'm allowed to try whatever I want in small amounts), just whatever my body decides is a no-go, but it's already rejected 100% whole wheat toast, so I'm terrified what it would do with soft bread. Would a wheat or spinach tortilla be a better option? What about a FlatOut wrap (well, part of one, since they're large)? I haven't tried any of the above yet because I'm leery of dumping again like I did after just two tiny bites of the toast, but I'm not sure if there's a better way to get over and/or satisfy the craving.

Friday was my first surgiversary, so I wrote 3,000 words about it on Medium, if you want to check it out: https://medium.com/@mistyfritz/life-after-having-my-intestines-rerouted-d7baf9c8c39f

I went from being someone who was hot all the time pre-surgery to someone who freezes constantly now that I'm down ~100 pounds. It turns out that for me there is a fine line between "comfortable" and "ice cube" and that line is about 73 degrees. I've been so cold this winter that I bought a scarf for the first time in years, and between my birthday and Christmas (four days apart), I was given a sweater for work (where I use a space heater every day) and not one, not two, but THREE electric blankets. One for my bed, one for the living room, and one that plugs into the cigarette lighter in the car.

My first restaurant meal post-op was at about 7 weeks, and I had a "pizza" burger (no bun) which was really just a burger patty topped with marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella. It was delicious, but I could only eat about a third of it, plus a few bites of whatever veggie I had on the side.

My program requires you to stay in the hospital for a few days, so I don't know how it goes with outpatient surgeries.

That'll depend partly on how much you gain in fluids from the surgery (for me, I gained at least seven pounds between my weigh-in at home the morning of surgery and the weigh-in my first morning home the day after I got out of the hospital). With a surgery weight of 413, it took me about 12 days to get down to 393.

As of today, I am six months post-op from gastric bypass. In that time, I have gone from a size 34/5X to a 24/3X and lost 75.4 pounds (89.8 since Jan. 2). That is 18.3 percent of my body weight since surgery and 21.7 since January. My BMI has gone from 75.7 to 59.8. I have lost 34.2 percent of the weight I would like to lose and am averaging a loss of .4 pounds per day; that is with a stall of about a month (recently ended) when I hovered within a range of about 4 pounds. As of today, I am at the lowest weight I have been since December 2007. Hair loss started in earnest right at the three-month mark and has now slowed considerably (I don’t expect it will ever stop completely, as I’ve always been a shedder) but regrowth has not yet begun. I've been taking hair/skin/nail vitamins and recently started taking flaxseed oil; I've also been using shampoos/conditioners with biotin and collagen, and drastically reduced how much dandruff shampoo I was using (which I'm sure wasn't helping anything, including my hair color). I'm hoping it will resolve itself. I've also stopped putting my hair in ponytails unless it's necessary (that was how my hair initially started thinning, long before surgery -- I wore tight ponytails ALL THE TIME for many years, and my once-thick hair is no longer). I'm averaging about 1,000 calories per day, up to a cup at a time depending on the food (both are in accordance with where my program says I should be), and easily surpassing the minimum of 48 ounces of fluid and 60 grams of protein per day (usually at least 64 ounces and 70 grams, which includes one 11-ounce, 30-gram Premier Protein every morning). Haven't had too much trouble with food, though I do still slime occasionally. I finally am able to eat Mexican food without the spices bothering my stomach (not the heat, because I don't like spicy food, but the actual spices -- I think cumin was the main culprit). Just had my six-month lab work done, and everything was great except for my vitamin D, so I'm on a megadose for 12 weeks to get that boosted up to where it needs to be.

Uh, thanks, but I'm not sure where you're getting that number?

I just got my second Nexplanon implant last week after having my previous one for the full three years. I love it. I don't have a period at all, though I do liiiiiiightly spot every once in a while, and I still have cyclical breakouts and sore boobs.

I second the recommendations for Hint and Propel; I also have become quite fond of the Lipton diet green teas in the mixed berry and citrus flavors (there are others, but I haven't tried them).

I've become a big fan of the JIF powerups clusters, in strawberry or apple cinnamon. They come in individual bags of about six clusters, for 190 calories, 7g sugar (a little more than usually recommended, but I tolerate it without any issues), and 6g protein. They're a decent option for when there's a deluge of sweets in the office.

Mine, too! I'm definitely still losing hair, but not NEARLY as much. It's definitely a relief, because it was starting to get worrisome.

I had a catheter that was inserted while I was sedated and taken out later that evening after surgery. It hurt a little (burning sensation) but mostly just felt really freaking WEIRD. The drain, on the other hand, hurt like hell coming out one week post-op.

I personally prefer Splenda, which also now has a liquid version (Splenda Zero) that comes in a Mio-like package. Saw it at Target for the first time this weekend.

Not necessary to be more specific, because I was talking to Ash, who knows exactly which Springfield I mean (Frust is correct) because Ash and i have previously discussed where we are in relation to each other (I went to college where she lives now).

We need to meet in the middle in Springfield at some point. I'm there several times a month, but I don't make it up your way very often.

My go-to drink is their iced green tea, unsweetened -- or, sometimes, the strawberry green tea infusion, also unsweetened. Whatever little natural sugar there is from the strawberry infusion doesn't bother me; I eat fruit all the time.

I was going to, but after a variety of setbacks (I was in the Memorial program for nearly two years), I switched to a program out of St. Louis instead.

I burp all the time anyway since surgery, no matter what I eat or drink, so the carbonation doesn't make a difference to me in that regard.

The last pending insurance claim for my surgery/hospital stay processed today, so I thought I'd give the cost breakdown for anyone who is interested. Context: I live in Illinois and had my surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo., through the Washington University WLS program. My primary surgeon was Dr. Arghavan Salles, though Dr. Christopher Eagon assisted. My surgery was on Feb. 15, and I went home on the afternoon of Feb. 17. My insurance is the Health Alliance POS 6300 Elite Silver CS plan, purchased through the Illinois Health Marketplace. I have a $1,000 deductible. Laparscopic gastric bypass w/ Roux-en-Y: Billed = $5,100, My cost = $145.97 (I believe this is for Dr. Salles) Laparscopic gastric bypass w/ Roux-en-Y: Billed = $2,550, My cost = $29.19 (I believe this is for Dr. Eagon) Anesthesia gastric restrictive for morbid obesity: Billed = $3,360.00, My cost - $1,013.22 (includes $1,000 deductible) Anesthesia gastric restrictive for morbid obesity: Billed = $3,360.00, My cost - $63.22 (not sure why there are two anesthesia charges) Contrast X-ray - Esophagus: Billed = $123, My cost =$0 Each of the above were individual claims. Then there's the big one, for the hospital stay, which breaks out as follows: Room-board/semi: $2,210.00 Pharmacy: $439.90 Med-sur supplies: $10,306.95 Sterile supply: $472.50 Laboratory OR (Lab): $35.00 Lab/Chemistry: $244.00 Lab/Hematology: $81.00 DX X-ray: $448.00 OR services: $23,365.00 Anesthesia: $8,336.00 Occup Therp/Eval: $259.00 Drugs/detail code: $698.15 Drugs/self-admin: $8.00 Recovery room: $2,460.00 Educ/training: $110.00 O.R. procedures for obesity W/O.CC/MCC: $0.00 TOTAL billed = $49,473.50, My cost = $100.00 All told, I only have to pay $1,351.60 out of $63,966.50, or roughly 2.11 percent of the overall cost, and my portion includes the $1,000 deductible. Without that, I'd only be responsible for $351.60, or 0.55 percent of the overall cost.

HW 427.4 (Jan. 2) SW: 413 (Feb. 15) Last week: 347.4 Today: 346.2 So down 1.2 since last week, 66.8 since surgery and 81.2 since my high weight in January! Had a great NSV this week - moved my steering wheel down so that it's no longer in the highest possible position, because I had a good four-inch gap between it and my stomach! Have definitely noticed the seatbelt not having to extend as much, too.