Friday, November 5, 2010

Post surgery.

Day four and since:
The trip home was pretty rough.  It was a long flight, tiny seats and lots of gas pain.  If I was doing this again I would have booked first class on the way home, just for the extra room to move.  It was also kind of hard doing the whole security thing at the airport after surgery.  I forgot I was not supposed to bend over and hurt myself a bit taking my shoes off and putting my bad on the scanner thing. Oh I forgot to tell you that it took us 2.5 hours to get across the border so keep that in mind when you book a flight out.  Anyways,  I was so glad when we finally made it back to our house and then immediately into bed.  The gas pain was pretty intense by this time and it was even uncomfortable to lie down.  I could actually see it move under my skin, like when I was pregnant.  I pulled several pillows from our couch and slept in an upright position for the most part.  This was fine by me since I was so tired I just crashed. 
I had an additional 2 days I took off for work to “recover” and I am glad I did.  I needed that time to work out the gas and to adjust to everything.  I was dizzy and light headed because of the lack of food and calories (still only a couple of ounces at a time) and slept a lot too.  My husband redboxed several movies for me and stocked up on the creamy soups and popsicles that would be my diet for the next 2.5 weeks.  I walked a bit to since that was the only cure for the pressure.  The swelling was really odd too, my belly was lopsided and bruised.  After a few days this went down and I started to be able to eat more.  By Thursday (7 days) I was able to sip on a 10oz soup over an hour and finish it.  This made things a little happier for me.  I lost 6 pounds in the first week.
Week Two:
I started the creamy stage and even though it was better than the broth stage I learned that it is not low carb.  I just finished my second week and I gained back the 6 pounds and had a bit of a sob fest because of it.  I mean, total breakdown, why did I waste 6,000 dollars if I can’t lose weight type of breakdown.  Lucky for me my husband was very patient, understanding and loving while I vented and cried.  He even had great advice and after a night of pouting I took it to heart and feel much better.  He was right, I only have one more week of this creamy diet and then I can get back to the low carb diet that I have already proven that I can stay on.  He also reminded me that the band is not working until I start getting fills and that I need to not expect the weight to just fall off but to be patient and work hard.  He told me that one day I will be losing weight easier and he will remind me of the night I broke down and how far I have been since then.  I hope he is right and now I am just waiting until the time and money for the fill happens.  Wish me luck!

3 comments:

  1. Hi there! I love your blog and thank you for providing it as a resource for people like me who are about to take the leap. I am about to send it my deposit to Dr. Ortiz's clinic, which I'm glad to hear you had a good experience with since I have no real references. I'm pretty nervous to even to just sent the deposit! Anyway, I am very curious about the trip overall. I will be traveling from the midwest and am nervous about the airplane experience and gas that I have been reading about all over the boards. First of all do you reccomend staying an extra day or so after the surgery to chill out before flying across the country? Also, should I be pretty nervous about the gas issue? I know it should be the least of my worries but I really hate that feeling and flying with it sounds terrible. Thanks again!
    Melissa

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  2. I felt the same way! That is a big check to send off but I knew it would be for a better me. I had gas pain but my husband and I went to the revelutional (sp) market and walked for hours the day after my surgery and that helped a lot. Also, I packed liquid tylonol (adult at walmart) in travel size containers and gas x strips too. Both of these things helped on the ride home. I got to mexico on a thursday and left on sunday. I am not going to lie, the ride home was a bit rough but that is mainly because we flew through a storm and it got really bumpy. The hardest thing for me was walking around the airport and smelling all the great foods! I was very glad to be home and did take a few extra days off work to just relax and get past the clear liquids phase. Thanks for the great words and that is the whole reason I created this blog. To let others go through this journey with me. We have to stick together! Let me know if you have any more questions! BTW, Loved the clinic!

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  3. SO glad to hear back from you. Thanks for the info. It really does help a ton. I look forward to your future posts. You are doing great! You are a true inspiriation! Deep breath...here I go!

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