Anemic

This is what I look like as of yesterday March 12, 2008. I'm blond again. Cute, huh?


Went to the doctor last week for my 15 month check up. I am down 88 pounds! Very pleased with my progress. The not so good news is that I am incredibly deficient in iron. He said I am one point away from being anemic. The doctor advised me to take an iron pill three times a day! Yikes!!! If you know anything about iron supplements you know that they can constipate you. He advised three times a day so that my body can catch up and so I bought iron pills at GNC that claim to be non-constipating...we'll see about that. I will also step up my fiber intake as I think I am going to need it.

I know part of the problem is that I do NOT take my vitamins every day. I know it is silly, but on some level I resent having to take these pills. I mean, I'm not 70 years old and yet I have this ridiculous pill box laid out with all my vitamins in it. How can I forget when the pill box is right there on the table, right? So I think there is some deep-rooted psychological reason for my "forgetting" to take my meds every day. I'm hoping that the doctor visit will be the wake up call that I need.

Oh, and of course he told me to exercise more because, as he put it, "you can still lose more weight." Ouch! Yeah, I know! I want to lose 30 more pounds and it has been hard the last 10 pounds or so. Hubby and I joined a gym together and I think we went about 10 times at 5 am together. After that we split up and go on our own time. Still, I haven't been going often enough and I need to. Yeah, there were some good excuses I've had recently for not going, but even if it is just for a practical reason. I'm paying for this so I better get my fat ass over there! hee hee.

Happy Anniversary

My labs last doctor visit indicated that I have a vitamin d deficiency. I didn't tell the doctor, but I haven't been taking my vitamins regularly. I know I have to, but I hate taking these horsepills! I get on a roll taking them religiously and then I just forget one day and that sets the slide into motion where I go a whole week without taking a vitamin. Not good, so NO lectures please. I need to find a solution to this madness.

This doctor visit in November marked my one year anniversary. I lost 80 pounds in the year and that is great for me. The doctor thinks that I need to exercise more now because this is the critical juncture for me. He loses (no pun intended) many patients at this point because they know by now what they can and cannot "get away" with eating. Those who continue seeing him have a better weight loss than those who stop. I need to boost the exercise to keep the weight loss going, so that means hitting the gym more than twice a week. Ugh! I can do it and I will.

I will see him later this month for my 13 month post-op check-up and will let you know how it went at that time.

Offical Weigh In

Saw Dr. Bypass this morning. It has been 19 days since my surgery. I lost 14 official pounds. I say "official" because when I came home from the hospital, I had gained SIX pounds, so I lost those too, but my weight loss goes according to Dr. Bypass' scale and last official weigh-in, so he doesn't count those 6 pounds. Fair enough, but I will keep the tally in my head anyway :)

I can exercise only as far as walking right now. After 4 weeks I can start a more vigorous work out. The hospital offers an exercise program specifically for people who have had weight loss surgery. I will check them out some time this week to see what they are all about. In the meantime, I shall be walking.

Monday I can start adding moist and mushy foods to my diet. I am looking forward to it. This clear liquid diet is kind of boring, but I can't say that I'm hungry, so its definitely working. I asked the doctor why I'm not hungry and he basically said that they don't know why! It has something to do with hormones, but it is a great side effecft of the surgery. Yee Hah! It sure is.

Post-Op Day 3 & 4

I keep waking up at 3:30 in the morning. Its really hot. The weather is unseasonably warm so that hasn't helped. I get up and pee, but then the dogs wanna go out to so I let them out and then try to go back to bed. I'm able to sleep a bit more on my side so that is good.

I'm not supposed to lift anything over 5 pounds, which means that Pinky isn't sleeping with me. She cannot jump on the bed. Its too high for her and I can't lift her up so it is driving her mad. I can hear her pacing around the bed with her tags a jingling.

Every day is getting a little easier. I'm getting my 4 ounces of liquids in every hour and I am taking all my vitamins. My daughter understands that she can't pounce on me and is very concerned about "mommy's belly." She has been taking out her doctor's kit to take care of me. Its cute.

Day 4 I am not napping as much during the day. AR took me for a ride in the car and for a trip to WalMart. It was good to get out into the fresh air, but as I mentioned, its like spring. You don't really need a jacket. Walking around WalMart tired me out pretty quickly. We bought a few things and came home. I had some broth and napped for about 45 minutes.

I would have napped longer, but I had a visitor. My first one! My uncle came and brought me two dozen roses. I couldn't believe how heavy they were! I put them in water and we visited for a while. Of course, the house was a complete disaster. The slipcovers were half on and off the couch & love seat, there were toys all over and leave particles were all on the carpet, and there were goldfish crumbs on the coffee table and a sock was on the floor. It was my husband's!

Well, what can you do? I'm not able to vacuum and such and AR has had his hands full with taking care of our daughter & dogs 24/7. By the time he left, it was time for Dr. Phil so the nap portion if my day was over. I made some peach jello. Not bad at all. I measured it out into two ounce portions and poured into little Solo cups.

I have only been taking the Percoset at night, but it seems to have no effect on me. I am still waking up at 3:30 in the morning, so maybe I will stop taking it. I definitely do not need it during the day. I am not in pain. I am just a little uncomfortable.

Tomorrow is Poo day. Dr. Bypass said I should have a bowel movement 4-5 days after the surgery and tomorrow is day 5. I thought I was gonna poo today a few times, but it was only gas. Yeah, I have a lot of that, but more burping than flatulence.

Day 2 Post-Op

I was up at 6 am and started on trying to get down 4 ounces of liquids an hour. I was able to tolerate the juice if I watered it down. The tea was okay too and the jello, well, maybe I just don't like jello that much. I took a few more walks and then lay down on the bed at 7:30.

Dr Bypass and his assistant came by to check on me again. My incisions all looked good. He asked if I wanted to go home today or if I wanted to stay another day in the hospital.. Are you kidding me? I wanna go home! He prescribed Percocet for me for the pain, but the pills are too big for me to take, so he suggested quartering them or crushing them to get them down. I could shower and I could remove the patches over my incisions in 4 days and then I needed to see him in one week.

The nurse came in and asked what time I wanted to leave. I knew AR was taking our daughter for her flu shot at 9:30 so I said noon. I washed my hair and put on underwear and a bra. I still left the hospital gown on because I was still getting shots and stuff.

Dr. Fink saw me again today as well. My blood sugar was still high, 160 vs the 190 it was yesterday. This is normal to have lousy sugar levels after the surgery, but with not eating anything, my levels are expected to go pretty low. He doesn't want me to take any pills, but he wanted me to monitor my sugar levels which I haven't been doing so he wrote a script for the monitor. He wants me to write down my sugar levels after testing and he wants to see me on Monday.

AR came to get me at noon and it was pouring rain. I just wanted to go home. The ride home was so bumpy and every bump hurt. He dropped me off at home and went out to get my prescriptions. The dogs were overjoyed to see me. They wanted to jump on me, which isn't something that you want after surgery. I took a nap on the bed and put a pill low on my belly to prevent doggy attacks. It worked pretty well.

I am going to have broth for dinner tonight.

Day 1 Post-op

In the morning, a nurse came to remove the catheter. As soon as that was done, I wanted to pee, so they had to get me up, which was tough. I have 7 incisions in my stomach so just pulling myself up was a major feat. Hardly any pee came out though. My mouth was severely dry. I Brushed my teeth and it felt wonderful.

I went for a walk around the floor, which felt pretty good. When I came back to my room, a nutritionist was there telling me what I was going to be eating, or rather what I'd be drinking for the next two weeks. Clear liquids, so I could have water, diet tea like crystal light, diet jello, caffeine free tea and coffee, broth and sugar free ice pops. Day one I had to try to drink one ounce every 30 minutes by sipping slowly. The jello and juice did not agree with me. Not even the tea could I get down, so I stuck with water.

The more I drank, the more I peed, so that was pretty much the rest of the day for me. I tried the broth, but it made me naseous, so I would have to try that again tomorrow. I walked some more, but I was so tired from lack of sleep last night that I catnapped during the day.

At night I received a new roommate. She was having surgery on her arm tomorrow. Again, there was a lot of activity at night. Because I had been drinking so much, I was up ever hour to pee and then I decided to take a walk. This is how I got through the night.