ouroborous

I hear you. Even though I can eat much faster than my girlfriend, I'm still eating less than 500 calories per day. Compared to my previous 2500-3000 cals, I'm still going to be losing weight like gangbusters. I'm following all of my doctor's rules and I'm trying to consciously slow down while eating as much as possible.

Yeah, I'm going to try to slow it down just so I don't sabotage my weight loss in the future.

Yeah, I figured that at the soft/slushy stage I could probably eat more. And even so, that whole portion of yogurt that I ate was 60 calories, so it's not like I'm pigging out.

So my girlfriend had the sleeve in November, and I've had it for four days. We've noticed something... she was barely able to get down a quarter cup of Greek yogurt, whereas I was able to down the entire thing. Now I'm probably eating too fast -- from habit, I'm sure -- but honestly, there was NO discomfort. NO full feeling. I ate the entire 1/2 cup serving over the course of an hour. So I was wondering, is this normal? I was happy that I'm able to eat "real food" and keep my body nourished, but after she said that, I started getting paranoid that I don't have "enough" restriction and won't lose weight. I still have a LOT of restriction, mind you. Even too large of a sip of Water can give me that over-full, "stuck" feeling. I was just wondering if this much variation is normal. I'm a fairly large man (not just in gut, but in stature and build), and she's small. Maybe my sleeve just has more capacity? I've decided to slow down and pace myself more -- she suggested that I aim to eat my meals over the course of a half an hour. I don't want to stretch my sleeve (especially not right now, but also in general). But I'm just wondering, is this amount of variation normal?

Well my BP is very dynamic -- it varies from borderline high to borderline low, and I don't know what triggers it. Right after surgery it was incredibly high -- 160/90 or something, but then when I went back for fluids the next day it was 130/70 or so. It could have been blood pressure. Could also have been anxiety. I took a half a Xanax and it "went away."

So far today was shaping up to be pretty good... I've already met my hydration goal and then some (~80 oz so far). I've taken half of my Vitamins, and about half my Protein. I managed to get some real "food" in me (a 1/2 cup serving of Greek yogurt). I was doing pretty well (had taken a couple of walks, too). I've noticed that my stomach has been churning -- it feels like hunger. And then I was rearranging my sleeping space, moving things around -- not heavy stuff, just my CPAP and a few things that are similar weight, 8-10 pounds -- and I started to feel sort of breathless and woozy and a little sick to my stomach. My girlfriend seems to think that maybe I've finally burned through all of my blood sugar reserves, and my body is sort of "running on empty." Anyone else have a theory? I'm drinking a cup of watered-down apple juice now to attempt to resupply myself with blood sugar. I had felt a little flushed, but that seems to be passing. Now I just feel a little wobbly.

Isn't Dr. L a great guy? He's been so very caring and open with me. I was able to call after hours about my fever, and he was pretty effective at calming me down and explaining that some fever post-op is normal. PSSC has great docs and medical staff. Their administrative staff can be a little annoying, but honestly I picked them for their medical skill, not for how quickly someone at the front desk answers the phones!

You'll be great! As I'm discovering, the first few days post-op can be a little rocky, but if you follow your doc's orders to the letter and remember to sip and walk (dehydration will just make you feel miserable!), you should be fine!

Ah, hello fellow PSSC sleever! Yeah, the first few days are rough. Or maybe I'm just a wimp, who knows But it's definitely requiring me to juggle a lot of things at once -- Water, Protein, Vitamins, sipping, etc. I get the feeling that once this first week or so is past, it'll be smooth sailing.

Well the good news is that I got in >64 oz Water, >60g Protein, all my Vitamins and minerals, and about a mile walking today. The fever and tickle/cough is still there, but it's still fairly low grade, and it actually has moments of fading away. Hopefully in a day or two it (the fever) will be gone and I'll just be working on the daily business of making sure I get enough water and protein and vitamins. I'm really glad I decided to take a week to work from home; I don't think I'd want to try to juggle my commute as well as all of the pills and liquids and stuff I have to take! Hopefully this will all get easier as it becomes a habit... I think that some of my headache, icky feeling from earlier was dehydration; I had let it go to 1 o'clock and I'd only had 16 oz of water! I made it a priority after that and felt better.

Yeah I'm already drinking protein in a smoothie. It'll be a challenge to drink it all down, but I'm not having any nausea or problems with keeping it down. It's going to be challenging to keep up with hydration and protein, but I think I can do it.

Congrats on your recovery, brother! My outcome was a little different -- the pain isn't too bad. My abdomen feels like it's been run over by a truck, but I only really notice it if I cough or when I stand up. The most annoying thing has been this persistent low-grade fever, but that seems to be breaking up. They've got me on "full liquids" now, so I'm drinking a smoothy made out of Protein powder, skim milk, and a half banana blended into a liquid. It tastes pretty good, but it's SUPER foamy so I can only take tiny sips without burping. I'm glad to hear you're out of the woods, and I agree with you -- walking is key.

Hmm, I hadn't thought about the oxygen. Yesterday and Thursday I had a really raspy, sore throat from being intubated. That might be playing a factor as well. Also, this could be post-nasal drip -- I had to stop all my allergy meds for the surgery, and I get wicked bad allergies. Whatever the cause, the cough seems to have died down a bit since I took 20 mg of Omeprazole and a hit of Flonase.

Can I hurt my sleeve by coughing or repeatedly clearing my throat? Something -- probably acid reflux -- is giving me a MASSIVE tickle in the back of my throat, and I've had some spectacular coughing jags and a lot of deep throat clearing. So, should I fear for my sleeve? I haven't vomited.

Well I've got you beat -- I've *gained* two pounds since surgery day. I know it's all water retention as my body tries to cope with the "injury" it received, but still -- my weight is not supposed to go in THAT direction!

Yeah I called Dr. Landerholm and he assured me that at 100 degrees, I didn't have anything to worry about. He just said to keep doing deep breathing as much as possible. Now my new hassle is what's probably acid reflux; I wake up with a tickle or cough in my throat. But since I start on "full liquids" today, I can sprinkle my Omeprazole capsules into my smoothy. That will help!

Thanks for all the good wishes. I'm still feverish (it's hovering right around 99-100) and all over achey. My abdomen feels like I've been hit by a bison. And the most bizarre muscles are sore -- my calves, my shoulders, and so on. My girlfriend thinks that some of that may be because I'm using strange muscles to sit down and stand up, since I'm sort of sparing my core muscles. I have a fair amount of congestion in my lungs, but I don't think I'm at risk of pneumonia; I've had pneumonia before and I remember that horrible whistling, wet breathing sound, and I have NOTHING like that -- just some yellowish mucous (sorry, TMI, I know, but hey, we're all family here, right?) I just discovered that my prescription pain med (Roxicet) makes my fever go down a little, makes most of my aches and pains fade away and (probably most important for me!) tamps down my anxiety quite a bit. I know it's addictive (which is why I was avoiding it), but I figure the doc prescribed it for just this reason, so I've been taking half doses, and it really seems to help. I'm HOPING I can get a few restful hours of sleep tonight. I'm really hopeful that people are right when they say that things start getting better around day 4. That means just one more day of miserable, hopefully, and I'll start feeling better. The pain, I can deal with. The fever is really the unpleasant bit. On a plus note, I'm not hungry at ALL, despite having basically 0 calories for two days. Well, maybe 50-60 calories in some watered down apple juice but still, normally I'd be starving by now. At the moment, the thought of food revolts me (which may be tricky when I have to start on the "full liquids" tomorrow). Also apparently my wounds look really good (when the MA changed my dressings today, he commented that a couple of the wounds didn't look like they'd bled at all). And I can walk almost 3/4 of a mile without getting winded or tired. So on some levels my recovery is going really smoothly. If only this darned fever would break!

So far today I've taken in 45 oz of Water (not counting the two 1-liter IV bags they pushed in at the hospital). I'm hoping that this fever is just temporary and not a sign of an infection.

Temp is 100.2 I HATE running a fever. It makes me feel all-over ick.

Unfortunately, it was an outpatient procedure. I went in today for two liters of hydration and I think that helped. Now I'm just focusing on sipping and walking.

It feels like my entire body has been pummeled by a prize fighter. Even weird places like my neck, my thighs, and my calves.

It's my first night post-op, and frankly I feel like death warmed over. I'm constantly running about a 100 degree fever, my stomach hurts (can't tell if it's surface pain or inside), I'm on-again-off-again nauseous, and I generally feel like doots. I've probably only got in about 20 oz of Water today; I was all gung ho to stay hydrated, but when you can only take the tiniest of tiny sips at a time, it's really hard! I doubt I'll get much sleep tonight. I sure hope this gets better!

I'll post updates on my next blog entry.

Aww geez. You guys should get the doc to buy a round of drinks and invite all your sleeve buddies down! In retrospect, though, I'm glad that I was so compliant with my low carb preop diet. The surgeon said that my liver looked amazingly healthy; "you have the liver of a 20 year old" were his exact words. As a 39 y.o. man, I'll take any comparison to 20 y.o. man, gladly.

Yeah I called the doctor. He didn't seem too concerned. He mostly just told me not to gulp (duh) and take deep breaths. Thanks all. I'm such a hypochondriac. It feels like it's taking hours, literally, for the gulp of Water to go down.