3 weeks post op and my birthday...

Well it has been 3 weeks since my surgery and I'm not where I hoped I would be dang it. My weight is still dropping although at a slower pace now that I am off liquids. After my doctor visit I was so excited and energized that I worked Wed-Fri at least half days and felt so stimulated physically and mentally. That all ended on Saturday unfortunately.

I spent Saturday afternoon through Sunday night basically immobile due to stomach, back, abdomen pain. When I visited my doctor last Tuesday they basically said you can eat what you want. I was very careful...ate small salads with soft veggies (tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives), tuna salad and other semi-soft food. Then on Friday we went out to dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant (I Love Sushi by Winco) and I ate miso soup, salad and 3 pieces of a shrimp tempura roll. Felt ok afterwards so on Sat am I had 1/2 a piece of toast (crusts cut off) in the morning and worked in the kitchen for 3 hours roasting tomatoes from our garden and making salsa. Guess I over did it and it was downhill from there. Had to go back on liquids on Sunday and resorted to taking pain medicine last night. Got rid of the pain but had to get in bed and turn off the lights to keep from being sick from the medicine (pain meds do not agree with me). I am hoping that the problem was a simple stomach irritation due to new foods and physically over doing it and nothing else. I am so fearful of band slippage or something worse so it was a rough weekend. Had my first big cry yesterday from being frustrated and couldn't even cry very well for fear of hurting my stomach :((

Today is a new day and my 53 birthday. I feel better today...not in as much pain but really wrung out...no energy and definitely down in the dumps. I am waiting for that energy surge that I read about on blogs. I had it for a few days so I was unprepared for the big let down and misery of this weekend. My husband reminds me that it has only been 3 weeks since surgery afterall and there are bound to ups and downs. I am praying that it was the rice and bread and over activity that started this otherwise I am clueless.

Anyone else have this experience?
Is it an up and down kind of thing until you figure out what foods agree with you and which ones don't?

I did not have any of the stuck feelings...just generalized bad abdomen and referred back pain. Fortunately I have not thrown up yet or had an urge to eat bad stuff or over eat (I'm too scared to do that). Comments and opinions welcome. Hoping for a better week! Take care all.

2 weeks post op and I am feeling good :)

First Doctor Visit-It's been 2 weeks since my surgery and I am really feeling good! Went to the doctor today for the first time and they are thrilled with everything. My incisions are healing well (no visible stiches or staples...just little red lines), I have lost 14 lbs according to one of their scales and close to 20 lbs according to the other scale in the 3 weeks since I started the liquid diet. I like the latter scale the best :). I can really feel the weight loss and it is just wonderful. I go back to the doctor in 4 weeks for my first fill. They told me that I have about 4 cc residual fill in the band already which explains why I have been eating so little. This is better than the opposite. I feel so blessed that I have not had one incident or nausea or vomiting. YAY. I will do anything to avoid that. I did have a really scary incident on Saturday when I had crushing left chest, left arm and neck and jaw pain....had to sit completely still for hours and take the heavy duty pain meds (which I hate cause they make me loopy). It finally resolved after 4 hours and must have been gas pain (from left over surgical gas when they blow up your abdomen). That is the first real pain I have had thankfully. I really thought I was having a heart attack at first.

Diet-They gave me the green light today to eat normal food which I did reluctantly since I have been on liquids for 3 weeks. So I made a turkey, lettuce and tomato wrap with a small soft wheat tortilla and it was pretty icky. I was shocked at how things I normally love just don't taste the same...lunch meats are too salty, mayo is weird, the little liverwurst (my fav) I tried was disgusting. The best thing I have eaten today was a fresh cucumber and tomato salad (from our garden) with rice vinegar and toasted sesame seeds. It will be an adventure to create new healthy meals. Fortunately I have had no cravings for sweets or anything (sugar free jello and puddings are terrific)...I just want to chew healthy stuff .

Energy-still don't have much energy...doctor's appt. grocery store and bank pooped me out today. Need to be walking 30 min a day (in 5-10 min shifts) but I have a hard time doing that, so tried our recumbent life cycle today and it was great. I can now swim but our pool is getting cold with the cold nights.

Singing-my big fear was that the intubation tube would damage my chords and affect my voice. Dr. Traul said they used the smallest tube thankfully. So I tested my voice today (which I have not done because of my diaphragm tenderness) and I sang fine. woohoo. Bodes well for an upcoming opera role. I knew it was going to be ok when Hanna (our maltipoo) started singing along with me. She is so talented :)

Good luck everyone and thanks for reading!