Lite'N'Sweet

Day 6 was the return to work. Which was good and bad. Good because I have an office that I can't readily see everyone so when they're chowing down out there I'm oblivious. Bad because I work in entertainment and entertainment people are ALWAYS. EATING. So there's always yummy food just around the corner. Of course on the day I return there's a meet and greet with an artist and they catered it with the most delectable smelling soul food. But... I sipped my water. I went to Hale and Hearty to get soup for lunch because I figured if I try to incorporate normality in this not completely normal way of doing things it won't feel like so much of a restriction. So yes, go out at lunch and purchase a lunch (even if it IS broth) and then come back and eat it at lunch time just like it's an actual meal. I asked them to give me just the broth from the chicken noodle soup but I forget that their soups are mass made and stew for a while in those vats so the ingredients tend to melt and fall apart... making it very difficult to get a spoonful of just broth. But I worked at it long and hard and got my broth out. I was proud of myself. Day 7 was my follow up at the doctor. Traffic made me late (I was pissed) but when I called and asked if I could still come in they assured me that they'd see me at whatever time I showed up. That put me at ease, so I enjoyed the rest of the ride there. I got there and they saw me almost immediately. Firstly for the weigh in. They have this huge plate that you step on and the read out for the scale is off to your left (you the weigh-ee are facing a wall)... so you kind of have an option of NOT looking at the number. Which I kind of didn't want to see. I stepped on and clinched my eyes closed ... What if I hadn't lost? What if it didn't budge? What if i GAINED...? *gasp* I mean... my TOM is looming... maybe I'm retaining water... all these thoughts poofed like a little cloud when I heard the nurse say, "Well, look at you?!?" I turned to my left and there it was. 226. Quick calculations in my head (because I'm soooo bad at math). 14 lbs... in 7 days. Really? REALLY? Okay okay - don't get TOO excited... just calm down because ... cause .... WOW 14 LBS????? Man! Then a chat with my surgeon who explained why I had 3 incisions instead of the afore promised 1. "Your liver was a little enlarged. So we needed an additional trocar to hold it up better so we could see." Sure didn't love hearing that. But hey... they made it happen. He took a quick look at my incisions, asked me if I'd had any vomiting or nausea, gave me the clean bill of health and then whisked me off to the nutritionist. She marveled at the number and kept stopping short of saying "you got through this all with flying colors!" She'd say "You got through this all with... you did really well." And I'm wondering if that's like a jinx thing for her... or maybe she forgot the phrase. Whatevvs. She went over what my next 3 weeks should look like. Talked about 2 protein shakes a day to supplement my 48 ounces of liquid. Just that for 1 week. Then in week two introduce thinned liquid foods - mashed potatoes, cream of wheat, farina, oatmeal, lowfat yogurt, pureed vegetable only soups (with NO "beans" in them -- too fibrous she said). Then by week three, I can start to experiment with the same foods but thicker. She broke it down by saying "do you have kids?" I replied yes... and she said - so you would give a newborn an apple to eat. You'd graduate them to the apple. So you start with formula, then a little rice cereal in the formula, then a little rice cereal alone... etc... I nodded with understanding. She gave me some more accolades and pats on the back and then walked me out to the reception area where I waited to settle up my bill. Then she exclaimed... "WAIT... you had the lap band??" and I said kind of suspiciously, "Yeeeaaaah.....?" And she replied quickly, "Oh noo... come back in here... I gave you the wrong plan. I thought you were a Sleeve patient by the amount of weight you lost!" The little cheerleader inside of me did a backflip. She called me back in and quickened the plan. NOT over 3 weeks. Actually I can start experimenting with foods THIS week, etc... then the following week for pureed foods, then to solids adding one a day. I finished by asking her if I could stick to the Sleeve plan and before I could finish the question she said "Absolutely!!" Things are going well. NOW... i gotta manage my expectations and reactions for the slow down which may or may not happen... so I don't get discouraged. But for now? I'm walkin' on sunshine! #lovethelapband

You can do it. It's not easy - but nothing worth anything ever is.

What I've been reading on most of these boards is that Day 3 after the surgery is usually the worst. The swelling begins to subside and your stomach starts to function as it did in terms of hunger. But all you're shoveling into it is clear liquid. Well... Day 3 managed to get by me. I discovered clear SOUP broth (see my previous post about the distinction between that and "clear broth") and that helped me by greatly. Until today. I was due to go see my Godmother because she had cooked up a huge vat of Haitian Soup (Bouillon) for me to freeze and use during my puree stage. I was excited to see her because she had her grand daughter who is 1 year older than my daughter with her and I knew they could play together and my husband loves her too. I call her Nininne. So we get to Nininne's sister's house and everyone is pretty silent. Just on their respective pieces of technology ( laptops, tablets, cellphones ) and making idle chatter. I'm sure everyone in there knew that I'd just had the surgery and had little to say. Bigger things were afoot - my Nininne's niece is pregnant so that makes for better conversation. But she chatted with me about it and what it took and people she knew who had the surgery, etc. It was nice... I was drinking my water... and then it happened. They started cooking. First they pulled out the Haitian Patties which are these beautiful puff pastry creations that cradle ground chicken, beef or saltfish in it's center. EVERYONE had one in the room (except for me). Then they started serving up the hot link sausages to the kids with glorious white bread... then... they started cooking vegetable rice to go with their fried pork tenderloins (Griot). I? was going to lose my mind. EVERYTHING IN ME... it took EVERYTHING in me not to shove a patty in my mouth or a handful of rice or swipe the hotlink from my daughter's plate. I WAS SO HUNGRY. I'd not been that hungry in a very long time. I drank my water for a while longer, announced that it was time to go after my daughter was done with her hot link and made our way out of there. (Don't worry - we'd been there for about 2 hours so it wasn't like we'd just gotten there). I felt like I wanted to cry. It was too much. All the comforts of the foods from my childhood coupled with the presence of family ( my parents have gone from this worldly existence ) which I seldom get anymore... there were so many strings being pulled to get me to fall. I had to remove myself from the situation. And good that I did. I'm sure they would have had to wrestle me down to unhinge my hands open from clutching whatever food I snagged. Got home - and had some vegetable soup broth. And all was right with the world again. I've told myself that if i was in the mushy stage or even just the liquid protein stage... I might have been able to do better than I did today (which wasn't bad, considering i didn't cave at all)... but I could have had some great tasting alternative to everything they were eating. It's a process... I'm going through it... I just can't wait for the next phase that will hold me over a little better than clear liquid.

Well... I should have been paying closer attention to all the messages on the board that say "liquid in, liquid out". I have nothing binding me and it should have made sense that air alone could not pass from within. And so out of laziness because I had found a comfortable spot on my recliner (can't WAIT to go back to my bed in a week) and the dream was too good to leave behind... i sharted. It was terrible. In the middle of the night, I had to shower change and clean (it wasn't alot but I'm totally anal about that kind of thing -- see what I did there? LOL) So it just jostled my whole sleep flow then i had nightmares all night (unrelated). It was just bad. It made me remember a meme I saw online that said "Love is like a fart... if you have to force it then it must be ****." So... lesson learned - just take it to the bathroom. The timely discovery of chicken soup broth on the dreaded Day 3 was a total win for me. I mean... chicken broth is just colored tears. It's horrid. It has this irony smell to it and it leaves your mouth tasting all .... gamey. So my husband suggested to me, as he sat there looking at me stare off into the distance undoubtedly wishing for something I could chew, to boil up a Progresso chicken noodle soup then strain out all the stuffs and drink THAT broth. I mean... a single tear wants to fall when I think how ingenious that was. I could taste the chicken.... but the carrots and the celery and the noodles.... it was all a part of that beautiful bowl of liquid gold. And I felt satisfied when I was done. The chicken soup broth was a game changer. So the hubby went out and bought all sorts of brothy soups that I'll strain and enjoy in the coming days! Exercise wise, just in time, I've stumbled across an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game called Ingress. So the whole purpose of this game is to get you out walking, hiking, biking. That's the bottom line. But they've entrenched the game in this Matrix like story line that there are portals all over the world that XM (exotic matter) is leaking through and there are two factions of belief about what can be done with XM - The Resistance (who believes that XM is going to be harnessed to enslave the human race so we have to fight against whoever is trying to do so) or The Enlightenment (who believes that XM could be our passage way to "leveling up" as humans and taking us to the next plateau). And so you have to walk around claiming portals (that are just really buildings, murals, landmarks and other sight seeing things...) in the name of your faction. I'm part of the Enlightenment and man... this thing has gotten me SO excited about walking!! I am sitting here icing my Achilles wondering if I can go back out and check out some portals I saw earlier. This was incredibly timely and just what i needed. All the pieces are falling into place just like they really should - because I was supposed to do this. I was supposed to finally shed this weight and burden and get back to the business of being me. To quote a late 80's visionary... "I love it when a plan comes together." -Hannibal of the A-Team

OH MY... that was an M. Night Shyamalan ending to that story.... I was all warm and fuzzy feeling good that you had your mushy crunch berries then.... WHAMO!! Sorry that happened to you.

I may be wrong but I think the chickpeas are the protein in that recipe

Hey there @@scubasteph Congratulations on your surgery!! A few questions before anyone can properly answer your question - what kind of diet do they have you on post-op (clear liquid? Protein liquid?) How long have you been on that diet (may answer the 2nd question)

Keep us posted! Our thoughts are with you!!

It's totally normal to be nervous (and those ARE nerves taking over). You have to try to regain control of your breathing. My mom used to make me do jumping jacks when I'd have a panic attack and it helped me get back to my right mind. I'm sure that your doctor will do nothing short of reassure you of your decision. Mine did. I told him I was nervous. He said "What are you having again?" and I said "Lap Band" and he waved me off like it was nothing and said "That's a piece of cake - nothing to worry about." And with saying that ... I felt at ease. And you know what - your nerves won't matter when you're under the anesthesia. They'll have it all under control - bp, breathing, everything. You just have to lay back and enjoy that sleep. Good Luck today and see you on the other side!!!

So the one thing I've had to learn as I recover from surgery is that even though they tell you that you have to take it easy and not do A LOT of the things that you're used to doing, there are some things you kind of have to figure out for yourself. Like if you drop the soap in the shower, you certainly (well... i certainly) can't ask someone to come in from wherever they are in the house and pick up the soap for me. So I've been revisiting a lot of knee bends that don't require bending at the waist at all. Deep modified plies have been helping me a lot with mobility. I still can't wait till I can just move freely. I'm getting that slight "tearing" sensation when I do something too suddenly or move in a direction that my body's not ready for. But it's familiar from when I was recovering from my lateral myomectomy and my c-section. It's about the same but I don't want to exasperate anything. The glue hasn't fallen off of the incision spots yet, so that's good that they're holding on. I'm noticing a more pronounced "sensation" we'll call it, when I swallow. Like a lump in my throat but further down. And a tightness in my chest a little to the left. I'm assuming that's the band. I'm sure all my questions will be answered at my follow up. I've been really thinking about foods I enjoyed, the textures and the tastes and how i was comforted by eating them. But going through this surgery and the presence of the band puts such a hard "stop" on these thoughts. Like I start to reminisce and when it begins to head down the road of "would be nice to have it again" - a new voice in my head kicks in and says rather forcefully, "Well you CAN'T. And stop that. It's physically impossible and get used to this now." Might sound harsh, but it's good to know that this battle is being won on a mental front. It's what I need. I'm realizing one of the things taking a serious hit is my bonding time with the hubby. A typical day would consist of us getting up, playing with our daughter, getting ready for work, bringing her to school, getting to work, reclaiming her from school, playing with her a little more, putting her to bed and then we'd reconvene as a couple over a meal. Catch up on the stuff that happened in the day, discuss what's going on during the week... comment on the TV show that we're watching. The band has really changed that dynamic. I know that it's really early still but he feels guilty having food around me since I'm in this clear liquid phase still. And honestly I remove myself sometimes whey they're having popcorn or fruits because I feel my will waning. I know it will get better soon, but it's hard now as we adjust. He did say that he noticed the top of my tummy is starting to flatten down which gave me chills for 2 reasons. 1) because it's true and maybe something is working - i'm not gonna look at the scale though; and 2) because he's looking. And that always gives me good chills. Bring it on Day #3... They said you were the worst one... But I'm ready.

This gives me a LOT of hope! Yaaaay!! Congrats and keep it up!

I am excited for the change you're about to experience in your life. It is so unbelievably painful when you lose your loved ones, you definitely reassess everything you're doing, especially if you have a little one depending on you. It is NEVER too late for you to decide you want to better your life. And we're here to support you with words, information and inspiration. Congratulations on this revelation! You're on the cusp of your new life!! Keep us posted on your decisions and progress!! This community ROCKS!!

Thank you for keeping it real. Sometimes we think that we're just supposed to snap into place with all this change but it's experiences like that mold us into who we need to be in order make the best out of this whole process! I read somewhere that you learn to reward yourself with a spa day or take in a concert at the park, go for a road trip to somewhere scenic, maybe even a movie (which is tricky cause of the food)... but try not to reward with food. It's the way Society has raised us and we have to break out of that. I respect and appreciate your imperfection but moreso your willingness to keep fighting!

I had no idea that this feature was available on this site. I really love BariatricPal.com. It's given me an outlet for all these thoughts circulating around in my head and how to deal with them all as I get adjusted to this new life. A little background about me - I'll be turning 40 this year. I've been struggling with my weight for the better part of 20 years now but have always struggled with my image. I look back at pictures of me when I was thin and healthy and fit and remember thinking how fat I thought I was. I now have a 3 year old and doctors were beginning to use words like diabetes, hypertension and "morbidly" obese around me. The biggest I ever got was 240 and that was quite enough for me. My mom died when she was 65 from all the aforementioned conditions and their complications. I already started late out of the gate having my daughter late in life. The least I can do is try to extend this here life a little longer. That's not really possible / an option if diabetes and hypertension are eating away at my ability to exist. So I banded! My surgery date was 7/11 and it's been pretty smooth so far. Just getting adjusted to it all. Today's challenge is gas, feeling tightness in my esophagus (which I think is my body just now taking inventory of the band install) and I can't wait for these incisions to heal so that I can pick up and hug up on my daughter. The journey continues!

I can't speak from experience but all the research I've done (because I hope to get pregnant again by the end of this year and i'm 2 days post op) says that you can have a normal pregnancy with the lap band. I understand that they recommend that you don't get pregnant RIGHT away after you've banded and try to lose all the weight that you need to lose before you get pregnant. And once you do you have to watch your nutrients very carefully. There is someone on this forum that was documenting what they went through being pregnant and banded here: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/137406-my-experience-being-pregnant-with-the-lap-band/ I hope this is helpful! CONGRATULATIONS on this amazing news and Good luck to you!

Okay - I'm going to call this Day 2. Not counting the surgery day as an official day 1. Last night was pretty tough because the gas... I mean... c'mon. It was just gurgling through me but there wasn't any real relief if I released it... it just made new gas. So I think that's topic #1 I'll bring up to the doctor once I call through tomorrow. Gas X didn't help because I think once it's in the large intestines there isn't much it can do to help. I'm starting to feel something when I swallow now. Almost feels like a little lump in my throat. I'm wondering if that is the band. And I have a little tight spot in my chest a little to the left. I guess since the swelling is finally going down, my body is taking inventory of all these new little parts to me. The sore throat is all but gone except for a tiny bit of phlegm that keeps lingering at the back of my throat no matter what I do. I suspect that will go away soon enough too. Doing my best to stay away from the scale. I'll let the doctor weigh me in this week.

So.... I'm 2 days post op... 4 total days on a clear liquid diet. I'm just wondering - how much should I be expecting to eliminate (poop)? It's all liquid right now and it's not a lot at all. Am I stopped up and should get some laxative assistance? Or is this to be expected till I actually ingest something with some substance? Looking for some feedback since the dr's office isn't open till tomorrow Thanks in advance!

@@2muchfun Thanks for supplying these videos. In all honesty, I didn't get that much detail from my doctor (i'm 2 days post op). I did a lot of the research on my own and watched actual surgery videos online to get familiar with the process. But hearing a doctor detail it out has put me at ease greatly. I might have to show my doctor this stuff......... have him step his game up Thanks again!

CONGRATULATIONS, @@Wendydarling19!! That's great to hear and inspiring to me! I sincerely doubt that you'll do anything to jeopardize this success for any trips back to Twodorville. Can't wait to join you in Onederland!

Here's the update on this - I'm 2 days post op and I've shown my daughter my "ouchies" and she has acknowledged that it looks pretty bad, "WOW mommy, you have a big booboo... can I kiss it to make it better?" So that's positive - but she's making a negative connection between when she tries to jump on me or run into me head first with my reactionary cringe... I think she thinks I hate her. :=< . She took it personal the first night and now she just kind of avoids me. The few times I've broken the rule and actually picked her up or sat her in my lap, she made me pay for it (kneed or elbowed me in the stomach). So i won't be doing that again soon. But I hope I can reverse whatever she's set in her mind about why mommy won't pick her up / lay with her / let her cuddle. *sigh* it's all a process.

Thank you @@Bandista !! I'm just muddling through today. Gas is my biggest issue today. Just rumbling through my abdomen. I am going to go for a walk in a little bit to see if I can work it down and see if I can pick up some gas relief that is in liquid form. Hunger is starting to set in. I keep thinking about food but there is a rather abrupt stop to those thoughts now that I can't fulfill them or even take anything else in to satisfy it all. Just Water, tea, broth. Hopefully tomorrow and the following days might be the worst of it and then I'll be done with that hump.

Congratulations on your decision and all the best to you in your procedure and recovery! I was just banded yesterday and I have a 3 year old She is VERY active and seemingly all she wants to do is attempt to ram into me head first into my tummy. My mother in law and my husband have helped greatly. They keep her busy, entertain her or just keep watchful eye over her when we're both interacting so I don't pick her up or let her lay on my tummy. It's hard. I miss the bonding already and I think she's taking it personal. :-( But i just keep reminding myself that it's temporary. I'm going back to work in 1 week. If things keep progressing the way they are now - I should be in good shape to do so. Good Luck!

@@pink dahlia Thank you so much. I had a cup of tea with some lemon puree i made this morning and packet of splenda and everything seems fine. I have no intention of this whole thing NOT working. So I'm doing all that I can. @@NolansNana Oh... WHOOPS *whips heat pad under the bed before NolansNana sees* WHEW. It was feeling kind of nice but i'll switch to ice (that rhymed LOL) Thanks!