kelmelnel

I'm one month post-op today. I've taken some time to reflect on the experience to date, and thought I would share my thoughts for those of you that are interested (it's going to be fairly long):


First, the stats:

HW: 333 (February 9th, 2016)
SW: 287 (March 21st, 2016)
CW: 262 (April 21st, 2016)

Experience:
1) This is a full time job. I'm surprised at how much of my day is consumed with planning and counting calories, making sure to be constantly drinking to meet liquids goals, and eating even small amounts takes a LONG time. If you are not completely focused on the task it can be hard to get your required Protein and fluids.

2) I do not enjoy eating at all. Adjusting to eating has been a roller coaster. When I first started on actual food (for me it was soft dairy, then eggs & Beans, then fish and nuts and finally chicken (not there yet)) I felt no restriction. I was very confused on how much I should eat (my surgeon does not provide quantity guidelines as he feels everyone is different, and you should listen to your body). All well and good, but my body wasn't telling me anything! Based on what I learned from you guys at BP, I tried to limit myself to more than 4oz, or 1 cup at any meal. I had no problem with these portions. Then after about two weeks, everything changed. I have MASSIVE restriction. I ate less than an ounce of fish, was in massive pain and vomited. I had about 3-4 TBSP of bean Soup and had the same reaction. I have had to re-learn how to eat. I take extremely small bites, chew very well, and wait between each bite of food. It took my almost 40 minutes to eat a single scallop (a little under an oz) the other night.

3) I'm never hungry. In the last month I have had not one sensation of hunger. It's weird.

4) The first stall sucked. My stall started just about two weeks after surgery and lasted for 14 days. It was really frustrating to be following every instruction to the letter, and not see the scale move. I know many people say to stay off the scale, but to me, getting on the scale after a week and seeing no movement would be devastating. The small disappointment everyday was easier to handle than a massive disappointment every week. I suppose if you had the self control to only get on the scale once a month or once a quarter, you would never know you had a stall. I'm a data guy and I just don't have that kind of self control!

5) The first stall was rewarding. Yes, it was hard mentally; however, it's true what people say, your body is adjusting, I dropped a pant size and a shirt size while I was "not losing weight". I'm not sure exactly what my body was doing, but it was doing something. More importantly, probably most important of all, I got through it. I would never have gotten through that on a normal diet. I would have been overcome with frustration, decided it wasn't worth starving myself, and gone back to old habits. I would now be well back to gaining all the weight I lost (and more probably). That wasn't an option this time. So instead of gaining weight, I'm through the stall and down another 7 lbs. I can not stress enough how life changing this is. This is why I had this surgery.

6) I truly believe my pre-op diet and weight loss has helped me tremendously. I had been eating very healthy and had lost 45 lbs in 6 weeks prior to surgery. Many of the addictions to carbs, sugar, etc had been broken prior to surgery. I really don't have many cravings, and I believe it's made the adjustment easier. Plus, how cool is it that I'm not "wasting time" losing those 45 lbs, but am so far ahead of the game. And I'm not sure that the pre-op loss has slowed my post-op loss much. I've lost 25 lbs in a month, and that was with a 14 day stall.


Big Victories:

I was taking 100-25 of Losartan HCL and 10mg of Amlodopine to control my blood pressure. I am now down to 5mg of Amlodopine, and my BP is around 120/70. I am confident with a little more weight loss and exercise I will be completely off meds (except my PPI which is prescribed post surgery for some duration, and Vitamins of course)

I can shop in normal stores. For the first time in many, many, many years, I can walk into a regular store and buy clothes. Granted, it's still 2XL shirts and XL shorts/pant (wearing 44s, but they are a bit lose, probably about ready for 42s), but they are there and available. This is huge. I am also shocked at how cheap things are. I can get name brand (Polo, Calvin Klein, Izod) casual button downs for around $20. As compared to DXL brand for $60.

I am no longer morbidly obese. As of this morning, I have a BMI of 39.9. I am "only" severely obese for the first time in probably close to 20 years.

In summary, life is better now that I've lost 71lbs. I still have a long way to go to goal (77lbs), but I am highly confident I'm going to make it. Of course I have longer term concerns about maintenance, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. I plan on making the most of this opportunity, and am adamant about making healthy food choices. It's easy now, but my hope is that by the time I get to maintenance it's a habit (I started making extremely healthy choices over 2.5 months ago, so I am well on my way).

This site has been an incredible wealth of information, and for the most part people are extremely supportive and encouraging. I appreciate all the information and feedback along the way, it has been invaluable to my success thus far.

Did you do ok with those first foods? I'm a little nervous that my first day of soft foods is my first day back at work! Maybe I'll try a little tomorrow just to be safe. I'm pretty sick of liquids at this point.
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I had my surgery about the same time as you guys and I'm in soft solid food for 5 days because I couldn't stand anymore liquids of purée... And I'm doing really well.
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Happy surgery eve to a lot of you! Hope all goes well!

Good luck everyone, I'm 3/28 can't wait
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Good luck tomorrow @kelmelnel, @prettymee and @teabear! Post when you can to let us know how you're doing! And just in case I'm out of it for a couple of days, good luck to you on Tuesday @sunshine1531 and good luck to you on Wednesday @Roalmc77!
Let the good times begin!

Day 4 of the liquid diet. Much easier than I expected. I've discovered that I really, really like broth now considering it actually smells and tastes like food. Plus, I'm down 7 lbs! Can't tell you how long it's been since the scale has actually moved down. 48 hours from now I will be in pre-op. Right now I'm trying to stay busy cleaning house, doing laundry and doing my best not to let my anxiety build. Somehow, the closer I'm getting to Monday the calmer I'm getting. I really wasn't expecting that. Now let's just hope it stays that way! Good luck everyone getting their Protein on this weekend

I am extremely fortunate as my liquid pre-op diet was waved given I have lost 42 pounds in the last five weeks. He felt I was in a good place, so he let me skip the liquid diet portion of the plan and just has me keep doing what I was doing.
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My advice is to take in as much information as possible, follow instructions and you will be fine. Do not worry about anything except for what you are supposed to be doing, a lot of people have horror stories that quite possibly will never happen to you! I was in the hospital on Tuesday am, home Thursday afternoon, back to work 5 days later. I never took a pain pill (my doctor doesn't believe in them) and I started exercising day 4 post op. I have never had vomiting or diarrhea I met my goal weight in 16 months and 18 days. I can do things now I never thought were possible, you will too! Good luck and keep us posted!
All jewelry will have to come off, I don't know about your nails:)

I will be having my RNY on Monday, March 21st. I'm ready. This is going to be a long week, I can tell. I'm already having trouble sleeping as I just keep thinking about the surgery and the post-surgery recovery process. I'm also not sure I'm going to have the most productive week at work!
Thank god for March Madness this weekend. Otherwise I could lose my mind prior to Monday.

Wow, looks like next week (or two) will be a big one for a number of us! Here's what I think I have from this thread:
@@kelmelnel - Monday, 3/21
@@prettymee - Monday, 3/21
@@teabear - Monday, 3/21
@@sunshine1531 - Tuesday, 3/22
@@Roalmc77 - Wednesday, 3/23
@@kjwrn - Monday, 4/4
Please check-in to let me know how you're doing as we will all be going through this at about the same time!
**Edited to update list

1 week from today is mine also! I go for pre-op testing tomorrow. liquid diet starts Wednesday. I think I'm more nervous about that than the actual surgery! I just started losing sleep last night. I kept waking up thinking 1 more week, 1 more week. Hoping for a better night tonight or this could be one really long week!!!!