My Switch Story - 2 months

[Guest guest]

Two Months

10/22/00 – 50 pounds and 50 inches gone! Wooooooooooo! Hooooooooooooo! The pneumonia is gone out of my lungs and I am almost 100%. Started doing nautilus again last Wednesday and it went well – will go again Monday and Wednesday this week and then probably 3 days a week after that. With at least two days of cardio (Fast Track) on the off days. This surgery is SUCH a blessing that one morning I woke up and the thought that crossed my mind was that EVERY day is like Christmas.

I have had a few problems – dehydrated to the point or almost needing to be readmitted, had a pinched nerve in my thigh (ice 3-4 x a day for 20 minutes at a time and it was gone in a couple days), fear of aspirating vomit when I threw up once and it came back up my nose (was told that wasn’t a concern that far out – 6 or 7 weeks, I think), had pneumonia for 3 weeks, but am almost 100% healthy now. While mine hasn’t been a totally uneventful recovery – it has been very “doable”. And, I would do it again in a heartbeat!

My appetite is getting better (it was not too hot during the pneumonia). We went to the Outback the other night and I had about a handful of bloomin’ onion with sauce, a half a dozen bites of salad w/ a teeny piece of bread, about 1/3 of my filet mignon, about 1/3 of my baked potato and a couple grilled shrimp.

I am trying to just eat like I “normally” (with this surgery normal, that is – not like my pre-op normal) and not worry too much about my intake, as long as I concentrate on protein. I have thrown my food in dietwatch to calculate the protein a couple times and both days averaged around 1400 calories and 73 protein grams. I decided not to be too obsessive about tracking my protein and food, unless my first bloodwork does not come back okay. If it comes back okay – I can just continue doing what I’ve been doing and not obsess about tracking things – what a (BPA) switch from the diet days. No more dieting – EVER!

Water still does not agree me with well – in that it doesn’t taste/feel good – it seems to still be too “heavy” for my stomach, but it has improved a bit. I’ll look forward when I can drink it as my main liquid intake. Right now, diet pepsi is it – its what goes down the best – poured over ice to remove the carbonation.

I can no longer wear any of my pre-op clothes, unless I want the REAL baggy look. I am wearing 18’s in shorts and pants and 1X in tops. I have tried on some 16 jeans that fit me when I lost weight from 220-181 in 1993, and I can already get them on – just not buttoned up. This is almost too good to be true – I have to pinch myself every now and then and make sure I’m not dreaming.

I do have the oil slicks in the toilet fairly often – but I have a fairly high fat content diet. I have never “leaked” or gotten the oil slicks or the orange oil on my clothing. I am going to call and order some Devrom as so many of said how excellent it works. I gotta tell you that sometimes (just like pre-op) the bm’s can smell pretty horrible. And, while Ozium does the best job at dissipating that odor, I’d like to see how well Devrom would work for me. However, today was a perfect example in comparing non-DS to DS bm odors in this household. I have to say that my DH’s smelled worse than mine did – and this was usually true pre-op too. Some times my bms are worse smelling than others – the worst being kind of a major sulfur smell, but it was worse than most times occasionally pre-op too. I do not feel like it is anything that will be a social embarrassment or something with which I can not live the rest of my life – even if it didn’t get any better than now. I usually have 2-3 bms when I get up in the morning – within the first ½ hour to hour. That is my norm – occasionally, I’ll have one later in the day and sometimes one in the evening – but mostly just the morning sessions.

All my innards are feeling well enough to have sex now, much to my DH’s pleasure. And it is already more pleasurable for me than pre-op, because I am less inhibited – I know it will only get better!

I am extremely thankful for this surgery and feel so very blessed that it is working for me. Aside from the birth of my son, this is the BEST gift I have ever received. And, I plan to be as compliant as possible to make sure to reap the full benefits of the gift.

Speaking of compliance, I do have sugar on occasion – well actually, probably a little each day. And, was told not to have sugar the first year. So, I guess I’m not completely compliant. But, I wanted to see just how close I can eat to “regular” – ie. not worry about what I’m eating – eat til satisfied (with is very quick and easy to do) and eat exactly what I have a craving for. I talked to Doc M about this – specifically about having regular popsicles during my first few weeks post-op (the ones with aspartame tasted disgusting to me) and he said not to worry about having a moderate amount of sugar, unless it appeared to be a culprit in slowing the weight loss. Which, at this point, it doesn’t appear to. I started my period yesterday and as it was pre-op, I usually had a chocolate craving (post-op, not necessarily chocolate but something sweet – chocolate is often TOO sweet). I found the Reese Sticks that are 90 cal. a stick, 7 g of sugar and 2 g of protein per stick. One of those – on a couple occasions two of those, did the trick in satisfying the sweet craving.

I take Twinlabs vitamins which Dr. Maguire stocks and sells (at a cheaper price than I can get them at GNC or online at vitaminshoppe, where I usually buy vitamins) – the Allergy A & D, Calcium Citrate Caps and Mega 3 Caps. I am also still taking Prevacid (which I think I will be for 4-6 months, if I remember correctly), my Prozac and birth control.

My liquids are good – at least good enough to not dehydrate, but like I said – I’ll be glad when I do better with water, as it is so much more healthy to drink.

Guess, I’ll quit rambling on now. Any questions, just lemme know. Life is great and just keeps on getting better!!!!! I was excited to check out the measurements today, which I’ll take on the 22nd of each month:

1st Mo. Loss

2nd Mo Loss

Acc. Loss

Weight

32

18

50

Neck

0.25

0.25

0.5

Bust

3

2

5

Under Bust

3

3

6

Left Bicep

1.25

1.25

2.5

Left Forearm

0.5

0

0.5

Left Wrist

0

0

0

Left Thigh

1

1.25

2.25

Left Knee

0

0

0

Left Calf

0.5

0.25

0.75

Left Ankle

0.25

0

0.25

Right Bicep

1.25

1

2.25

Right Forearm

0.5

0.25

0.75

Right Wrist

0.5

0

0.5

Right Thigh

1.75

1

2.75

Right Knee

0

0

0

Right Calf

0.5

0.25

0.75

Right Ankle

0

0

0

Waist

4.25

4

8.25

Stomach

8

3

11

Hips

4

2

6

30.5

19.5

50

KristiCincinnati, Ohio5'7", 39 years old8/22 - 283 - BMI 44.310/22 - 233 - BMI 36.5ciao to 50 lbs. & 50 inches in 2 monthsOpen BPD/DS 08/22/00Dr. Maguire, Kettering OHHumanaFreedom Plus Planwillbefit@...