lirri

I posted a reply under another area where you asked as well. But I had sex 6 days after surgery in a position that I felt was less stressful on my stomach muscles (read doggy style). Like deaddemama says, talk with your doc. If your doc says to wait, he/she's the boss and has the best grasp on the state of your body, inside and out. I stay away from positions where I'm getting my stomach squished like full missionary. There are many positions out there that don't cause you to get squished or strain your stomach muscles. I don't know if I could go three weeks.

I had sex at I think 6 days after my surgery. We did it in a way that didn't cause my abs to be stressed at all (read doggy style). I'm 11 days out and feel almost back to normal. My sex drive is through the roof right now too.

I'm now 9 days post-op. Gained about 10 pounds while in the hospital and didn't start getting it all out until the day I got home. I think in the first day and a half I lost all those pounds and more just from going to the bathroom. And Jeepchick42, I did a reality check what felt like every moment leading up to my surgery. I'd wake up at night and freak out because I couldn't believe I was having it done. Best wishes to both of you.

Hi all. I joined the site today. I've been lurking for a while during the months up to my surgery. My gastric bypass surgery was two days ago and this is my first day home. I really don't catalogue things online, but I realized that there was such good support out there and I could give as much as I am getting if I chose to do so. This first day home has been interesting. I'm having a hard time dealing with any type of stimulus after the surgery. I was put into recovery for 7 hours after my surgery on Friday without pain meds while they waited for a room to open up. During that time my boyfriend was given no information on what was wrong or what we were waiting for. I was awake the entire time listening to people come in and out of recovery and I learned a lot about how ambivalent nurses can be. After I was moved to my shared room upstairs I was put with a lady who had her tv on very loud, who continuously talked to the tv, and when she wasn't talking to the tv her phone was ringing and she was on it. I lasted about an hour before I asked that they move me to another room. I spent the time in my hospital room with the door shut and silence whenever possible. Now that I'm at home I still am having problems with too much stimuli. I'm hoping that a few days of rest and quiet will ease that. I tried the unjury chicken Soup Protein powder today for dinner. The Water was too hot and there were clumps that I couldn't get rid of, but I got it down. I'll get the hang of this though! I'm tracking my activity using a fitbit and my diet through myfitnesspal. I'm happy that I was able to meet my protein goal today. My pain is manageable, as long as I take my meds on time. I was up and walking around the day of surgery. Yesterday I did a lot of walking and ended up in a bit of pain at about midnight last night. My surgeon told me today that it's expected to feel the pain more at night because you are more aware of it. There are at times many things holding my attention during the day where I may not notice the pain as much as I would during the quiet times at night. I set up notifications on my Google calendar to give me a heads up when I should be having fluids, meals, or Snacks for the next three weeks. I'm hoping that if I inject enough structure now, things will go smoothly during this transitional phase. Check out my profile. I've added some pictures to my gallery and have started on my story. I'm sure the story will evolve the more I'm online, but it's a start for now.

A few days ago my stomach started itching. Then, my legs, back and hips. Last night I looked down at my hips and noticed a rash that spread from my upper legs, up my thighs and onto my back. None on my stomach yet but it's still itching like crazy. I immediately went to the internet and found that docs at times attribute it to the pain meds. I contacted the on call docs at the hospital where I had my surgery and explained the situation. The doc who helped me said the same thing, take some benadryl and then she suggested taking tylenol or advil for the pain to supplement if I don't want to take my prescription pain meds. I reminded her that as a gastric bypass patient I am not to take ibuprofen at all anymore (this leads to ulcers and the last thing I want is another ulcer in my stomach). So last night I took my benedryl and passed out. This morning I got up super early and as I was sitting at my desk reading through the news and chatting with a friend when I remembered that I had this same reaction before. Now I never get rashes, mind you, so when I do get them it is a memorable occurrence. The last time I had a rash it started out very weird. I would scratch somewhere and overnight I would develop an itchy, highly-painful rash there. It began to spread wherever I itched until it was all over my body and hurt so much I finally called the doctor. By then then the rash had taken over some large areas of my body and it hurt to even touch the skin. Even my chin and my neck were covered and in pain. The culprit? The cheap-ass multivitamins I bought at the store (Womens 1 a day) and started taking. The doc thought that I had been into some poison of some sort because the look of my skin screamed poison. He gave me a shot of something and sent me on my way. The rash started to clear up and I stopped taking those stupid vitamins. Fast forward to a week ago when I started taking these Flintstones vitamins. I bought them because the surgical team insisted that I need the iron. As far as I can tell, unless I have an iron deficiency I won't need the iron. I have been postmenopausal for over 10 years now. I'm going back to use my chewable gummy multivitamins that I first bought for the surgery for now and my appointment with my PCP is on Wednesday. I am already putting together a list of questions that I want to ask. The cool part is that my PCP did her residency at the hospital where I had my surgery done in the bariatric patient ward. So she is very familiar with my individual needs. Additionally, the office that I visit is focused on naturopathic care, augmenting with medical treatment when necessary. Up to the surgery I was taking the vitamins bought at my Dr's office (Equi Fem). I could buy them anywhere, I just chose to get them at the office for convenience. And boy were they good vitamins. No limit to my energy and they made me feel good all over. I could really tell when I didn't take my vitamins. Problem is, I believe I need a chewable vitamin now, which means I probably won't be able to take my old vitamins. So now I just need to know what to do. Can I take the chewy multivitamins without iron and be fine or is there another option that will give me back the energy that I am missing without taking my old vitamins? Also on the evolving list of things to discuss with my PCP include when would be the best time to take my cholesterol, insulin, and hormone level tests again. I'm not diabetic, but I am insulin resistant and I'd like to see if there's some progress made on that since last time my labs were ran.

Read through the site. Such a good resource. Thank you!

I decided to head out to find a new and different way of getting my protein. I stopped by GNC, they are having a big sale until June 22 with buy one get one half off on everything. I got myself a little blender bottle and some Amplified Wheybolic. I ended up getting the fruit punch flavored, though the guy helping me said that the vanilla with orange juice is a good way to go as well. Now to only find orange juice that won't have a high sugar content eh? Tastes very good and is a welcome change from my chocolate-flavored protein. There's also a return policy so that if you don't like the taste of anything you buy there you can return it. I'm a happy customer!

My thoughts are with you. Let us know how it goes!

Thanks guys, things are slowly getting better. I can tolerate sounds a lot better today. Smells are a big thing for me. It's nice to smell food cooking in the house. I don't see it as me missing out on it, but it's a way for me to experience a sensation that I can't any other way right now on a liquid diet. I savor every smell now.

Glad to hear you are doing well. My mouth and throat were so dry and irritated by whatever was down my throat during surgery that I couldn't talk right until into the following day. Wish you a speedy recovery!

I'd love a copy of the protein list! lirrianna@gmail.com. Thanks!

Keep doing what you are doing. You'll be able to take in more soon. My surgical team suggested sipping every two minutes except 30 min before and after a meal.

Woo! Congrats!

I think everyone has covered it. Toiletries are a must. I felt so much better after I had a shower. I went a full day of walking around before I remembered I had my flip flops. Such a game changer after I could walk around in something besides the booties. A robe would be good, or at least ask them to give you something that works like a robe while you walk around. I brought some loose-fitting knit pants with me to the hospital to wear home. But I ended up calling Will and asked him to bring me a dress to wear home because they elastic waist was too much against my incisions on my waist. I wore a dress the first two days I was home and it was very good. I brought my iPad, S3, and laptop to entertain during the longer times of doing nothing at the hospital. I didn't end up taking out my iPad because it was too much stimulation. When Will would go home for the night, I had him take the laptop and iPad with him, keeping the valuables away from the hospital. The only thing that stayed with my was my phone and my charger. You may want to ask if the hospital has a safe that you can put your kindle in. When you are in the hospital, ask for Water whenever you can and don't use a straw. The straw can get more air into your stomach and you don't want that. I had a hard time getting enough water while I was at the hospital.

Just a quick blog post while I have this on my mind. I need to drink more water. My goal today is to drink all the water I need to when I am supposed to. I have 12 oz down so far this morning. I woke up a few times last night to use the restroom and to re-up my pain pills, but then I went right back to sleep. I got out of bed at 8:30 and started drinking water. One of the things I've been religious about is taking a shower. I feel so much better after my showers. Completely energized. What do I plan on doing today? I think first thing is I'm going to get out and do some walking this morning. I will try to get three sessions of walking in today. My mobility is a lot better today. I sat up out of bed without my stomach muscles screaming at me. And I had to pick up a towel off of the floor this morning without any pain. All good things!

Hi guys! New here, 4 days post-op. I'm not getting enough water so my goal today is to make sure I consume all the water I need to today. I can sit up so much easier today. Every day is getting better. And I was able to sleep most of the night last night. I woke up twice to re-up my pain meds and went right back to sleep. Progress!

Very good advice. Our docs are the ones that have the most information regarding our specific case and should be our final sounding board before making any changes to our current plan.

Welcome!

Yep, yesterday was the first day I woke up and went to bed at my house. I got home from the hospital on Sunday afternoon.

I'm writing this entry a bit early today. It's my first full day at home. I attached a screenshot of my MyFitnessPal progress for the day. I'm using MFP to ensure I'm getting all the protein I need while staying under the sugars and fats for the day. I didn't sleep well at all last night. I'm hoping that the sleep gets better. I was able to get a few hours of sleep in from 2 to 5 am this morning before I finally got up. I didn't end up following the food schedule I wanted to today. Mainly because my sleep was all messed up. I'll try again tomorrow. I took all the meds and my multi-vitamin I was supposed to take and had a BM finally. I was worried about not having one. I had a little bit of help though, because I took a suppository. One of the food suggestions during this phase for me is cream of wheat with a scoop of protein powder. I use chocolate light muscle milk to mix in and it tastes so good! My worry is that I don't have the ability to feel full yet so I'm eating it very slowly. Cream of wheat changes its texture very quickly to hard and dry once it's out too long. So I got two good bites in before it got hard and I couldn't eat anymore. Anyone with any suggestions would be nice. It's one only thicker consistency things I can eat right now and the taste is so lovely. For dinner I decided to try some fat-free yogurt with the unflavored Unjury protein powder. I found is that once I mix the powder in to the yogurt, the yogurt is a little too watery. Probably the temperature causing that. And though it says it's unflavored, I could still taste there was something different about the yogurt. It's sort of the same reason I don't do those unflavored mix ins for fiber or drink miralax in water. I can always taste the change and it makes me not want to finish whatever it is I'm eating. I decided to try out one of the trazodones that I had left over from last year when I stopped taking them to see if I could sleep this afternoon. I took a 50 mg tablet and it worked almost instantly. I slept for a little over 3.5 hours. Waking back up felt so nice. My best friend made dinner for the family today. Spaghetti with italian sausage and some garlic bread. I snuck a small bit of the garlic bread and immediately felt icky. I chewed it up until the point where there was hardly anything in my mouth and swallowed. Then for about 10 minutes I felt like it was lodged inside my esophagus. That was a stupid move, one I won't make again. I had 76 grams of protein today from the small amount of muscle milk I had in my cream of wheat, premium protein chocolate shakes - I had two to make up for not eating much at breakfast, and the unjury protein packet for dinner with my yogurt. I'm getting tired of the current set of meal choices. I'll have to change some things up tomorrow to keep things interesting. My mood today started on the sad side. But after waking up from my nap this afternoon I felt a little better. I need to get a little bit of walking in tonight before it gets much darker. I weighed myself and I'm close to losing all of the water weight gain from my time in the hospital. I peed so frequently yesterday that I dropped 6 pounds from morning until about 5pm. By tomorrow morning I should be back to my weight I was at before going into surgery.