hey guys! I just wanted to update everyone. I had my surgery yesterday morning, and my doctor said it was a surgery by the books-- so easy and everything went smoothly! Sorry for the long post ahead, but if you are interested in what I've done the past 2 days this is a break-down:

My doc is an expert in laparoscopic surgeries (the majority of his surgeries are colonoscopies, hernia repairs, etc through a laparoscope)... so I am really interested to see how good my incisions will look. From what I hear he is very good at that.

He also took pictures inside of me and gave me a copy on a CD! He was going over them with me in the recovery room, and my mom was so grossed out it was hilarious. He pointed to my liver and told me how skinny it looked, and praised me on a job well done on the pre-op diet! (I think I did pretty well-- I lost 7 pounds in 10 days!)

My surgery was at 7am, I woke up as I was going to the recovery room around 8:30 and the only thing I remember was how incredibly cold and thirsty I was. I must have had about ten blankets on top of me, and all you could see was my head! I slept for a little bit, and my mom kept feeding me ice chips. A nurse walked me around the hallways about noon, and then I got dressed and left at around 1pm! All in all a very short hospital stay.

I'm staying with my mom at the hotel she's at in town, even though I have my own apartment here, since it's where I go to school. I definitely picked the right place. The hotel is practically empty so the staff is bored and waiting on me hand and foot! There are three chefs at the restaurant, and they have been busy making up homemade broths and all sorts of fancy presentations. Yesterday a chef spent 3 hours making this chicken broth that was divine! Except I could only put down about 1 or 2 spoonfuls.

My back is really achey.... it kind of feels like when you sleep the wrong way. My stomach is sore only when I move up and down, so I am trying to limit that. My mom kind of feels like I've become her baby again, as she is "burping me" by rubbing my back and hitting it a little so I can get the gas out. It feels sooooo goooood though!

My goals for today so far are to get down a cup of sf pudding with my Protein supplement in it, and to shower. We'll see how the last one goes!

NICE!!! So glad to hear an easy surgery! Mine should be about 2 months away and I'm starting to get nervous! Good luck with everything!

im pretty jealous that you got pictures of your surgery.. UGH!

congrats though, glad everything went well..Hopefully your mom doesn't let this get to her head to bad..

Keep me updated..

gratz! the only advice I can give is keep your Protein levels up - no matter what anyone says. My doctor told me not to take the Protein shakes, to get all of my protein from the food - and for me personally at least, it just wasn't enough. I felt like crap.

A good soy protein mix is easy to digest, 25grams of protein a scoop, taste decent, and is proven to reduce bad cholesterol sharply and reduce the chances of certain cancers, including breast and colon. And the protein will make ya feel a ton better, and help your body burn off a higher fat content and less calorie-burning muscle : ) .

Also keep your stitches as dry as you can and don't pick at them! I only have 1 visible scar from the surgery, and it's the one I just couldn't stop messing with.

You saw your liver? That's just not natural. Like when you see your favorite radio DJ in person, and it's odd because they looking nothing like what you've always thought. Some things you just aren't supposed to see. I hope my liver and I have a long working relationship together without ever having to meet.

Goodluck, you're gonna do great!

thanks scarecrow! yeah, before surgery i was able to find the most AMAZING Protein supplement in the world, jay robb's whey protein isolates (chocolate or vanilla), but he also makes a soy protein version so i think i will try that next! i could only find it at one grocery store in town, but they also sell it online if that store stops keeping it in stock. but seriously, it tastes sooo good, the vanilla mixed with sf vanilla pudding and a little skim milk tastes like cake batter... the chocolate mixed with sf choc pudding tastes like brownie batter! haha and the best part is the nutrition value! i had to bring it in to my nutritionist to check it out because i just couldn't believe that something could taste so good yet be so good for you. 25g of protein a scoop, so before surgery i was getting in like 70-80g of protein a day and now i am getting in about 50g of protein a day. (though i struggle some days-- it just makes me so full! but i really am trying on this one).

and thank you SO much for the advice on the scars! they still have the steri-strips on, barely, because the doc said to just take them off after ten days if they haven't fallen off on their own. it's been 8 days. they are starting to scab over which is good... but sometimes it just gets sooo ichy! i scratch around them but never on them. i have a bad habit of picking at things so i will do my best to stay AWAY from them! except for when i wash them every day with regular soap and Water when im in the shower.... im guessing that's ok to do.

thanks so much for all the advice!

I'm glad to hear that your surgery went well! Keep up the good work.

I can't wait. I should be having my surgery in a few weeks! My stuff just got sent to the insurance for approval. Glad to hear your surgery went well!

You are TOO cute! (Your words AND you!) I never read posts that long, or at least rarely, but as I'm going in for surgery Monday morning, I'm looking for others experiences to give me a "heads up"! How is life with the band now?

aw im blushing... YOU are too cute!!! lol i am doing SO good right now... almost too good, because i'm all healed now so although i am trying to eat healthy and all, i havent lost weight in 3 weeks. but at least i haven't gained any! i am up to my normal activity level and energy level... but stuck with studying for finals now. ugh! GOOD LUCK with your surgery monday! hopefully it will be a breeze!

Aw man, exams make me cram more food in my mouth than actually cram facts! I'm SUCH a stress-eater. Me + a bag of tortilla chips = A or B on final. Me + Pre-Op diet = C UGHHHH! Haha I'm sure it's all in my head, though. Good luck, chica! Kick some serious tukkus!

Mom is real bummed cos she's losing weight really slow ever since Thanksgiving. Said she gained a lb over thanksgiving and its' taken forever to get back off. But I think we naturally eat more in the winter maybe cos thousands of years ago we used to hibernate?! HAHAHAH Prolly not, but I'll pretend like we did. :3

I guess this is my "update" thread so instead of telling people who ask about me separately I'll just put it in here.. It's long because I guess now I'm using this as my own personal journal, so just read the parts that you want to know about.

Today I had my 4 week visits. I met with the personal trainer (physical therapist as far as my insurance company knows... haha I love my hospital), then I met with my surgeon and adjustment nurse, and then the dietician.

Personal Trainer-- I love going to work out with this guy because (a) he's really smart, so I can trust that he's telling me the right things to do for my body... but (:shades_smile: more importantly HE IS REALLY HOT! haha i tell myself that he is totally checking out my butt when I'm doing squats and lunges and stuff (cmon, I've got a cute butt in these workout pants) so I guess that's motivating me to work harder! haha no but really, I push myself a lot more with him than I do working out by myself. Today I may have pushed myself too hard, he kept telling me that this 96 year old woman he works with could lift more weight/walk faster/do more pushups than me. I pushed myself so hard that I nearly blacked out when I was doing backward lunges and he had to come catch me! Totally romantic in the movies but so embarrassing in real life, haha. I also almost blacked out again in the locker room too! Which is really weird for me, because I never get like that, ever. I had to sit down for a bit and was late to my adjustment appointment. woops! anyways, he does tests with me every time, like there is one physical test so he can see how fast I can walk (that speedwalking at the olympics is harder than it looks!) The last time we met was 20 pounds ago, and I walked 1900 feet in six minutes and my heart rate was 170. This time, I walked 2000 feet in six minutes and my heart rate was 150! So basically, in the last six weeks I upped my speed a little and my heart was working less hard to do it.

Fill Nurse/Surgeon - This was my first time really meeting the fill nurse, Tina. She is so awesome! My surgeon came in to check on me and goes "wow you've really lost weight haven't you!?" I go, "oh you tell that to all your patients," and of course he was like, yeah, actually I do, that's why I'm a good surgeon. (He was just nominated for a "top docs" award at the magazine I work for) Anyways, needles have never been a big deal for me at all so that didn't hurt. She said there were 5ccs in my band already though? So she just added 1 more cc since I told her I had healed about 3 weeks ago. It was definitely a strange experience though! I could totally feel the saline going in through the tube, I guess because it was so cold.

Nothing exciting happened with the dietician. She said I've been doing well and while for the rest of the day should stick to full liquids, starting tomorrow I can go back to "testing" foods and eating solids.

Alright! That's all I've got to update. I'm going to be soooo sore tomorrow from my personal trainer.. I can already feel it, since I haven't worked out that hard since before surgery. My legs and arms are like spaghetti!

Excellent!

That's GREAT that your trainer has you lifting hard, it always irritates me when I hear of women visiting their trainers on here and the trainer concentrates only on cardio. That muscle your building is what BURNS your calories, it's necessary. What's really nice is about a year from now (if you keep it up) when you can eat a LOT more while still losing weight because your body has all that muscle to maintain.

And it doesn't hurt that he's hot I guess. Is he a Mizzou fan? That's what's important Jane, not how he looks. It's whats inside that counts. Well, not personality and all that crap, but what team they route for... inside.

I'm pretty sure that my trainer checked me out a few times. He was... colorful.

I've never blacked out though... did you mention that to your nutritionist? How's your blood sugar? I get nauseous while working out if I go really heavy, never blacked out though.... Are you breathing correctly? It's in... THEN out. : P

Spaghetti arms and legs! That's excellent, micro-tears are your friend : P. Make sure you get in plenty of Protein the night after the exercise, your body does most muscle healing (and building) while you sleep, so some good lean slow-digesting protein before going to bed is great, like casein or soy protein, or just some plain old Fish. Take care Jane

Edited December 20, 200817 yr by scarecrow

Well how could your trainer resist checking you out scarecrow, with all the weightlifting you are doing! I'm hoping I can keep it up and build up my strength again. I used to be pretty strong back when i was an athlete! (ha! I quit school sports for choir/theater back in 9th grade. look where that got me...) my other main workout goal is to get a pretty solid running speed. when I did track/field (this was like 8th grade or something) I ran like an 8.5 minute mile at my fastest..... granted this made me the slowest person on the team, but I was just in athletics because they required the volleyball players to join... I did shotput and disc (I was one of like 3 girls with upper body strength.. though thats all but disappeared now)

haha yeah he's a mizzou fan. clearly, I said he was smart! but I'm pretty sure he's married and off limits, not like I would ever try anything though. no worries-- he's just there to get me motivated to go to the gym.

I also talked to the nutritionist about the blacking out, and she said pretty much exactly what you said! I see a new career in your future....