15 days post op and doing well.

[Guest guest]

I thought I'd drop another post, because I know I hung on every post

ops word prior to my surgery and I'm sure there's many of you out

there that do the same. I am only 15 days post op but I am doing

absolutley fantastic. My incisions are almost healed and I have no

abdominal pain. I started the pill regimen yesterday. The vitamins

are like horse pills and are a meal in themselves. I think I had one

lay sideways in my stomach. What a feeling. About 10 days post op, I

started fudging on the food. A little lean lunchmeat on a cracker for

a snack for example. My diet right now is a yogurt for breakfast, a

mug of soup and crackers for lunch, and a small meal for dinner. I

had a Healthy Choice Lemon Pepper Fish with rice and broccoli last

night. MAN WAS THAT GOOD! I peppered the meal and found that the

pepper was extremely spicy. I don't know if my taste is changing or

if the additional chewing just leaves the pepper in my mouth longer.

But it was spicy. I ate slow and chewed well and ate it in about 45

minutes. I don't just sit and eat anymore. I work right next door to

my house, and I work a lot of hours, so I eat at work while working.

Its a bite and go do something. Eating solids is a little different.

I take a bite and have a moment of extreme fullness. Not painful. Its

just that each bite lets me know it went down and its arranging

itself. By the time I finished I had a complete fullness, almost to

excess, but it felt wonderful. It lasted all night going from

comfortably full to not full but not hungry. I would have never

bought a Healthy Choice meal 2 weeks ago. It would've taken 6 of them

to satisfy me. All the pills seem OK. No aches or pains have started

from the Actigall or Prevacid. I am so sick of Carafate. Its like an

orange syrup with sand. Why is it that everything nasty (carafate and

Citrucel)is orange flavored? Anyway, I plan to stay on the

yogurt/soup/light dinner routine. It seems to keep me comfortable and

not thinking about food. It almost feels natural to chew a lot and

eat slowly. Your stomach just will not let you eat fast. It is

impossible. The mindset that you can't do it helps the action of not

doing it. I have made fat free pudding and fat free jello and added

some fresh fruit and that has been a wonderful snack. I still sip

diluted fruit juice during the day. Juice does make you full, but its

a momentary sensation that passes in about 5 minutes. Take another

couple sips and your full again. This works pretty well during the

day, but around dinner time this ploy doesn't seem to work and I need

to chew something. I haven't had a cup of coffee since surgery and

I'm amazed I really don't miss it. I was a 6 cup a day person. I

drank it from the first thing in the morning to the last thing at

night. Maybe it was just convenient, I don't know. I haven't had a

lick of acid, bile, throwing up, constipation, abdominal pain, or

anything else I can think of. Bowel movements are normal in content

and frequency. I'm not weak and have normal energy levels. I am

losing weight very quickly. At 15 days I am still losing 2 lbs a day.

I am down 30 lbs today. I weigh myself every day, just because its so

exciting to do that right now. I know it will taper off as everyone

talks of their plateus. When it tapers off, I'll weigh weekly, but

for now, its a joy. This surgery was the best decision that I have

made. I am happy that I did it and I would do it again at twice the

price. Dr. Rutledge is more open and honest abut this procedure than

any other surgeon about any other procedure. You preops are making

the right decision.

Best Wishes,

Ken Grakauskas

348/318/190