draikaina8503

I started wearing jeans on Tuesday. You all are making me feel like I jumped the gun lol.

I use the grocery ones, I think they are all pure enough without having to pay a months salary for some gimmicky one

Maybe start with a short stroll around the block. If you go during before or after work hours you will see lots of people out walking dogs and working on their yards and stuff to make it go by faster. Or that’s my hopes at least. lol. I ordered my shoes and plan to start as soon as they get here.

ooh and try mixing some cottage cheese into your eggs before you cook them. Makes them creamier and ups the Protein.

Happy Friday everyone! I had my 2 week follow-up with my dietitian yesterday and got my diet progression schedule! I'm officially on mashable right now. I meal-prepped some ricotta bakes and refried Beans last night. I get to have eggs which I'm excited about. In two weeks I go to soft and two weeks after that I move to solids and adding meat back in. No bread/rice/pasta/alcohol for 6 months. I also got to start my Vitamins which should help with my energy levels.
The only thing I need to work on right now is upping my Water intake and getting back into walking. I was going to the gym consistently before my surgery but I've just been so tired it's been hard to get on the treadmill.

🤣 🤣. Not trying to torture anyone still early out Just figured it may give everyone some ideas and something to look forward to. Plus wanted to make sure it looks good to everyone else. After looking for recipes I think the brussel sprouts may not be soft enough quite yet.

I added tumeric as a spice in my Soups and soft food and added cinnamon to my yoghurts to help with inflammation - both recommended to me in the hospital and I think they helped. The hospital actually said they could be taken together as a tea but I am not a great tea drinker so went with the adding to food option.
I still take cinnamon frequently just to keep up the good habit, travel with a jar of it for adding to coffee and yoghurts if needed.

Umm that sounds amazing!!!!!!! I tasted every dish you wrote hahaah

I am sooooo anticipating my soft foods beginning on Monday. I have been working on my menu and my grocery cart for a while. This is my menu so far.
Monday-Snow Crab with skinny scampi sauce and mashed cauliflower
Tuesday-Turkey Meatballs with peppers and onions (low carb marinara)
Wednesday-Chili with side of zucchini, butternut squash and onions
Thursday-Blackened Salmon with Brussel Sprouts
Friday-Turkey Taco Fillings with fresh Pico and fresh Guacamole
Saturday-Mahi with Jerk seasoning and green Beans
Sunday- Black Bean Veggie Burger Patty with carrots
Lunches
Monday- MUSH overnight oats (with Protein powder)
Tuesday- Spinach and onion Skinny Omelette
Wednesday- Egg salad
Thursday- Greek yogurt with berries (and protein powder)
Friday- tuna Salad
Saturday- squash and onion Skinny Omelette
Sunday- chicken Salad

Ooh that’s great to hear about the dented in incision being okay, thank you. The NP said she is not overly concerned but I still feel more confident hearing stuff about the actual surgical stuff from the surgeons. Wow. I’m 3 weeks too and I wouldn’t even dare attempt jeans yet. I still wear my binder if I’m going further than to do grocery pickup. Glad to hear your are okay though. Do you think it would help to get your restrictions in writing from your Dr before that big move? You really don’t want them making you feel pressured to the point you do something to hurt yourself. I think 16 days in 3 weeks is great. That’s over 5 pounds a week!!

@ShoppGirl my biggest incision is kind of dented in also. My surgeon said it will flatten out. It is also where they removed my stomach.

Steristrips: I did not have them, or staples. My incisions all have stitches and a strange purple glue covering them. It is slowly wearing off.

Food: We had a vegetarian potluck at work today and I did have a small teaspoon of ranch dip, one bite of a very spicy hummus, and a bite of a veggie meatball. I knew I could tolerate the food and did not want to punish myself by not having anything.
Today I am 3 weeks and 2 days post-op and wore jeans for the first time. Not the brightest idea but I survived the day. LoL going to change as soon as I get home.
I have lost 16 pounds since my surgery day. I am a slower loser and have had a couple of 3 day stalls. I like to weigh daily to see if a certain food or activity affects my weight loss. It also keeps me accountable. I know this may not be good for all people.
I can’t wait for my 6 week checkup so I can be cleared to go to the gym.
We have a large department move at work coming up in a couple of weeks and know that may pose some problems with my weight restrictions.
Hope everyone is doing well and it seems like we are progressing along from all the posts. Keep up the good work. We’ve got this!

So I got another Steri strip off and my belly button looks funny now. My husband said he’s guessing it’s caused by some swelling I still have which is also why he thinks one of my incisions looks sort of dented in. I certainly hope so. I mean the scars I can deal with (although the belly button one is pretty thick unfortunately). I don’t plan to be wearing any bikinis anytime soon anyways but the weird belly button I don’t think I can get past.

Went to my crochet/ knit group today and it was even easier than last week. I felt up to stopping by the fresh market after to just scope it out. I really thought I remembered it having more lower calorie/ low fat stuff. I mean they do have a much better variety or produce and seafood which is good and they have some convenience foods that are healthy-ish (like they have steamer bags of cut veggies that look delicious but they have butter or another sauce in them) things that look like they will be awesome for maintenance but maybe not quite yet. They do have like fresh prepared stuff that’s relatively healthy and would be a really good alternative to take out like salmon and veggie meals that are already prepared and Turkey meatballs as well as a Turkey meatloaf . The ingredients in the meatballs aren’t too bad (it prints on the sticker but she printed one for me to read ahead). It doesn’t have nutrition info though. I just really thought they had more fat free in like cheeses and all that. They do have lots of cheeses and dressings and all that just not a lot of low fat or fat free.

Anyways, last week I just did the crochet group and came home and crashed because it zapped my energy. Today I did the store too and I’m not feeling exhausted.it really has gotten better day by day for me. Hopefully at this point I can just stay up and get back on track a little with my sleep schedule. That afternoon nap has been making me stay up later and later and then I want to sleep in.

I am not sure if I mentioned but I ordered some Walking shoes. I am going to try to walk around the neighborhood and see if I can handle the heat as well as the activity. I think I’m going to start in the evenings since I haven’t been getting up early but hope to eventually switch it to mornings to get it done for the day.

Pretty excited still for Monday. Not sure what I’m going to have with my snow crabs yet. I would normally have a potato or rice. Maybe some grilled squash with onions. Those are pretty soft.

My surgery was robotic and they took my gallbladder unexpectedly too. I’m guessing one of them things means more incisions?

I think if you have any oil on your skin they don’t stick so it would make sense that fresh out of surgery I was squeaky clean and they would stick longer than at a follow up appointment but also it has to do with if it’s an area that has to bend. My top ones came off but the lower ones all stayed.

oh yea. I remember them first scrambled eggs. Best eggs of my life. lol. The mug warmer really helps for that to keep them warm throughout but I found it was only really good for that. I tried it with the refried Beans and it didn’t keep them as warm.

I did ask, and essentially I can have -any- beans so long as they are smashed up. So that's exciting for me as a bean lover. lol

I'm honestly not sure. pureed stage is stage 3 for me, but I'm not allowed anything with firm shells until stage 5. Stage 5 is also when I can get canned fruits and things like that too.
9 incisions sounds like a lot, but I know you had a different surgery than I did. I had 5 incisions plus an additional one for the drain. 19 staples. They took the staples out yesterday and then put steristrips on then. But by the end of the day, the steristrips were gone. I don't know if it's just how they were placed or what, but they did not stay long at all.

I just ate my first meal of scrambled egg whites. Here's hoping!

So at one point when I was in the hospital someome said I had nine incisions including the drain but if i did it was tiny and healed before I left cause I left with 7 steri strips and a band aid where the drain was. Anyways, out of 7, only two had fallen off. The NP commented on the fact that it was unusual today and said if any start to lift I could take tjem off. Well after my shower one was lifted a little so I carefully took it off and I do not reccomend it unless they are pretty loose (looser than mine was). It pulled and it hurts quite a bit. Of course ask your team if they suggested differently but from the patient perspective it doesn’t feel very good.

I did ask, and essentially I can have -any- beans so long as they are smashed up. So that's exciting for me as a bean lover. lol

I did tell my husband that doing laundry today was too much bending. So he knows that if laundry is getting done again in the next few weeks, it's on him to load and unload. I can pour in the detergent and get it going, but I just can't bend over to move the clothes around.
I've been using alcohol swabs to try to get the sticky stuff off, but some of it is absolutely being hardheaded and wanting to stick around. Oh well, it comes off a little bit at a time lol.
The grabber thing is a great idea. I hadn't thought about that.
For the allergy tests, they do keep medicine in the office to reverse reactions. So if you want to play it risky at home, just make sure that there is someone with you in case you go into anaphylaxis. In office, ambulances are only called when even an Epi Pen doesn't cut it.

I did ask, and essentially I can have -any- beans so long as they are smashed up. So that's exciting for me as a bean lover. lol

I wish we had an in person support group. We have a Facebook group for our team. But the only in person groups locally are for other hospitals, and they won't let you join unless you had your surgery with them.

@draikaina8503 i really hope They underneath you for purée anyways. I have my fingers crossed for you. And I hope you get some answers and solutions about the blisters and the pain as well.
To me, cottage cheese has a kinda weird consistency and it’s sorta salty. Which is odd because I like salt and my friend who always thinks things are too salty loves the stuff. I am waiting for soft foods because I found a list of things to mix in with it to make it taste better but for purée you can mix it in with eggs. The recipe is 1/4 cup with two eggs. I tried it and of course that’s more than we should eat so I saved it for the next day. It did dry out a bit if your super sensitive I would just make one at a time and estimate an eight if a cup.
Thank you for reminding me about the ac. My husband said he was gonna call and ask them about the error code if we still needed a tech and he hasn’t mentioned anything. It’s still working but I need to make sure he didn’t forget to ask.
Thanks for the heads up about the allergy tests. Sounds like I can pretty much do the same thing at home for free and just call for an ambulance if I need one. I assume that’s what they do as well.
Take it easy with the Bending. I know the feeling of just wanting to do it yourself but I seen my NP today and asked what i can do in terms of housework. She said you have to be super careful engaging your abdominal muscles. She said I probably wouldn’t tear anything at this point but I could develop a hernia. And that’s another surgery with another recovery. Better to do a little while longer now then to have to start all over. Do you have one of them grabber things for picking stuff up? I got one at dollar tree that’s probably won’t last too long cause it’s plastic but it’s been fine for now. I had a metal one but I’m pretty sure it found its way to the garage and that’s the land of no return. They come in handy outside of surgery when something gets underneath things and is hard to reach too.
The sticky stuff comes off easily with alcohol and the NP said today baby oil too. And you will sleep less and less as time goes on. Your body is just living on so few calories right now it thinks it’s starving and wants to hibernate. In terms of the routine it sounds like yours will have to be more flexible but you will figure it out I’m sure once we make the exercise and stuff a habit it’s just a matter of changing times of day to keep it up if other things come up We can do this

Update. Glad to hear you get to start puree and that you do not have any infection. All of us seem to be making the little steps day by day towards getting back to our presurgery grove with our post surgery bodies. It’s so exciting!!

I got some clarification on what to start with on soft foods. It’s basically anything that you can cut easily with the side of your fork but chewed really well of course. With the exception or broccoli and asparagus or celery. She said those tend to cause issues for some people so just don’t start with them.

The in person meeting was actually cool. He had a planned topic to present and asked if we had questions about that and then he opened it up to ask any questions we had about anything. They have different people cover it each month but last night was the surgeon so that was kinda cool.

Congratulations 🎊🎈🎉. Hopefully it’s heal just nicely. One day at a time. Not everyday will be the same just go with the flow. You got this!

Have a great time if you’re vacation!! I’ll be heading into “regular “ foods but I still will stay on the softer side just in case. Thank you for the tip for the restaurant!!. I think being foward is best. My doctors office gave me a medical card as well that says I can order kids meal (later on of course) so I plan on using that but for now sharing meals.

I LOVED cottage cheese. It’s an acquired taste but two days ago I could not stand the smell so my husband ate the cup. I say #1 is eat what you like. If you don’t like it don’t eat it. Maybe yogurt is our thing or Protein Shakes, find what works for you.

Hey! 👋 I hope your post op went super well! Once you’re out of liquids it’s a whole new world! The feeling of fullness might start kicking in. I’m probably under on protein but my focus is hydration and getting protein from eat of my meals. I’ve add 3oz of protein in the morning after my coconut water before my walk and it’s doing good. My baby stomach just can’t handle water, food and Protein Shakes all in one day, it’s too much. So my doctors and nutritionist said don’t worry about it stay hydrated then protein. The video was neat! The hospital actually provided it to the doctors and they sent it to me. They recorded all the medical procedures.

I’ve found that 3oz works really well for me 2/3 hrs . I weigh everything and I got some new cups.