So here I am 6 days out of surgery.. it has been one hell of a journey already.
Up until today I was getting dangerously close to being hospitalized for dehydration. And to make matters worse the gas pains were unbearable. And the icing on the cake.. aunt flow decided to start two days after surgery.. lol.. lucky me.
So night before last I had asked my mom to get me some gas x, which really really really helped. And thankfully my periods only last about 3 days and are very light, so today it ended.. whew! When I woke up this morning I felt like a new person.. no gas pain, no cramps, just a little tenderness near my incisions was all the discomfort I felt.
I was so excited that I decided to go for a walk outside.. which is nice because I literally hadn’t been outside since I had the surgery. I barely got out of bed for most of the 6 days. But, today I went for a walk around the block which was about a mile and a half and it felt GOOD!!!!!!
Furthermore, I decided to weigh myself…. He he he.. this is where I just got a huge grin… on the day of surgery 12-12-11 I weighed in 238.1….. as of today 12-18-11 I weigh 230! I haven’t seen that number in over a year! And what really made me laugh is I have an appetite, so I go eat my jello or my cream of wheat and take a few bites and im stuffed! The only thing that goes thru my head is… HELL YEAH BABY!!!! I LOVE MY NEW TUMMY.. I AM GONNA LOVE TO EAT AND FEEL FULL EARLY IN THE MEAL AND NOT FEEL LIKE I HAVE TO DEVOUR MY ENTIRE LASAGNA THAT I COULD HAVE GOTTEN FROM BUCA DI BEPPO (FAMILY STYLE RESTAURANT) BASICALLY YOU ARE REALLY NOT SUPPOSED TO EAT AND ENTIRE PLATE TO YOUR SELF!.
In fact I wake up and I WANT let me repeat that I WANT TO START EXERCISING…. I almost can’t wait. In 6 days I dropped 8 lbs, my face I already thinner, I am freakin happy, and I have energy.
I will just say that 1 in 3 people who get WLS fails. So instead of getting indigent, I will be happy with the fact that those who are doing it wrong will be that 1 and I will be one of the 2 who will be successful.
I had to get that out. Because I can't just post where it's pissing me off, "WTF, you're doing it wrong! Do you want to be successful or not?!"
This is my first blog, but you probably new that. Let's start off with a little about me. My name is Kelli, I'm 27 (as of tomorrow) and am from Indianapolis. I had my VSG on 10/11/2011, just over a month ago. So far, things have been good, at least the past few weeks. In my personal experience, the first few days after surgery were hell. The pain was a bit more than I had expected. Not from the incisions, just from the gas pressure from the laproscopy. I have had two previous abdominal surgeries, but they were "open" and extremely painful but this type of surgery was just as painful but in a different way. I expected this surgery to be breezy, and when you assume things it usually bites you in the ass lol. I also had a few complications post-op. I had trouble coming out of anesthesia, but that doesn't happen to everyone. The gas pressure is awful! I can't even describe how bad it was, I couldn't take deep breaths or move around very easily, and after a few days the gas settled in my shoulders and was unbearable. Nothing helped. Walking around and taking gas-x only helped with the intestinal gas, the CO2 they use to pump you up with surgery evaporates through your pores, and it just has to work its way out by itself. I went home the day after surgery, which was probably another mistake of mine. I was so anxious to go home, I was feeling better and keeping down fluids so I was discharged. The next day, I started having very sharp, cramping pain in my stomach, especially after drinking. I eventually had to go back to the ER because the pain was so bad and I was dehydrated. Apparently I was having muscle spasms in my stomach, which happens sometimes because of the trauma of surgery. I also experienced severe nausea. Once they got the spasms under control and filled me up with fluids (5lbs of water weight) for two days I got to go home. Since then, things have been significantly better.
The second week after surgery, I was feeling much better. My only issue was having absolutely no energy. I would get so tired just from walking around for 20 minutes. I also started the pureed phase of my post-op diet that week. I haven't had any food intolerance so far, but when I drink home made protein shakes I have a slight lactose intolerance reaction. I haven't had issues with cheese or yogurt though. By the end of the second week, I had lost 20lbs! I was so happy. I haven't seen the scale move like that in..forever. I know that was mostly water weight, but a pound is a pound and that is 20 pounds gone forever!!! My pain was minimal that week.
Weeks three and four were good. Energy slowly but surely starts to come back. I noticed my energy level was starting to get back to normal last week. My boyfriend and I went to Tennessee and did a lot of walking around and hiking. Surprisingly after we had been walking for 2 hours I still had plenty of energy to do other things. I also started soft solid foods this week. I also am pain free. I have been for over a week now. No more muscle soreness from surgery made it much easier to move around. I had an almost 2 week stall of weight loss, which apparently is normal during weeks 3 or 4. I got on the scale yesterday and I've gone down another 4lbs. This was my first stall, and it definitely sucked. I felt like I was doing everything right and not losing one pound. I felt discouraged and thought I went through all of this pain and suffering after surgery for nothing. I know its not for nothing and I know there are several others that have had VSG and have experienced the same stalls and the sucky emotions that come along with them. :smile1:
So its been a month and I am mostly back to normal...or at least creating a "new" normal. I go back to work on Tuesday after being off for 5 weeks. I am thankful to have had all of that time off to heal, I needed it! Losing 24lbs in one month isn't too shabby either.
