Felicity Q.

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Today marks day #14 post-op from my lap-band removal and Duodenal Switch surgery.  The last two weeks haven't been a cake walk but every day is a small improvement from the day before.

 

Scale Victory

I am very happy to report that I weighed in this morning at 299.4 pounds!  This is the first time I have been under 300lb since I was 21 years old (11 years ago). 

 

 

 

In the weight loss community, this milestone has been adorably named "Twoterville" -- meaning the person has gotten down to a weight that starts with the number two.  The next milestone is named "Onederland" for having a weight that starts with the number one.  For me, I have not been to Onederland since before I was 14 years old.  They better save me a spot, since I am on my way!

 

Food Progress

Eating post-op was more difficult than I had anticipated. I came home from the hospital and did NOT want to have any part of any of my protein options available.  The Nectar products smelled like powdered baby formula to me (including the unflavored). My oh-so-reliable Premier Protein RTD cartons that I had been living off of pre-op were now unbearably sweet.  I just couldn't drink my Optimum Nutrition option either.  I even tried Isopure again (pre-surgery I thought it was NASTY) and my feelings didn't change with my new taste buds after surgery to suddenly start liking it!

 

Not only were the protein options not appealing, but I also didn't want to drink anything. No interest in plain water (regardless of temperature). I didn't want crystal light (my favorite), and chicken broth (plain or Asian flavored) was unappealing.  I had become the pickiest of eaters... and that was really bad!  

 

How did I get past it?  This may be counter-intuitive because of the sugar content, but Lemon-Lime Gatorade helped. I watered it down to 50% potency and was able to get it down.  I forced myself to SIP SIP SIP because it was better than battling the nausea that was creeping in from not drinking.  

 

The next concern was that I wasn't getting in any protein!  As a DS patient, I only absorb about 60% of the protein I take in, too... so I started to get concerned that too many days without protein, I would start to become protein deficient.   Post-surgery, the general rule of thumb is the 30/60/90 rule for DS patients. 30g of protein by day 30, 60g by day 60, 90g by day 90.  For a few days, I decided to force down at least 1 serving of protein per day. I didn't like it (AT ALL) but stomach-turning and all, getting in some protein was more important than my picky taste buds.

 

Because protein drinks were so BLAH to me, I sought out some protein via food as well. Thankfully, Greek Yogurt tasted good!  As did cottage cheese!  I tried blending mayo with tuna (into a tuna puree) but did not enjoy the texture or flavor at all. Thankfully, my 1/2 cup of Cottage Cheese or my small package of Greek Yogurt both come in at 13g of protein. 

 

Another solution that I found is Unjury Chicken Soup protein powder. I have only used it a few times so far, but it does not set off my "Eww Gross Protein Powder" alarm that has been on high alert lately.  I highly recommend having this on hand after surgery just in case you're also averse to anything sweet-smelling!

Bathroom Issues

If you're grossed out by bathroom issues (or don't want any of the TMI) then stop reading!  

Let me start out with the saying pretty common in the WLS community: "Liquids In = Liquids Out". This is a very true statement!  I thankfully only had one encounter during my pre-surgery liquid diet week with the dreaded diarrhea. Other than the one time, my stools were very small little 'pebbles' basically.  

 

During my 3 days and 2 nights in the hospital, I only ever had the urge to urinate (due to the TON of liquids they were pumping into me) so thankfully no foul experiences while still in the hospital. Unfortunately, as soon as I got home, the bathroom issues started!  

It was about 4 or 5 days post-op before I even passed gas. It was a relief to do so, since gas pains after surgery are common. Then, a few hours later that night (in the middle of the night) I had my first round of DS diarrhea! Oh my lord was it gross.  The smell was that of raw sewage.  I had to put my shirt over my nose to try to filter the air because it made me nauseous.  Then, every few hours for the next few days, I was back in the bathroom with more diarrhea. The colors each time varied pretty significantly. The smell did not.  

 

I was worried that I had signed up for a lifetime of this issue, but then remembered reading that it's pretty common for new DS'ers to have bathroom issues early on before we can eat enough of the right foods to make us more regular.  This was confirmed a few days later after I added the Greek Yogurt and Cottage Cheese to my diet. I suspect it is a combination of the food having protein, as well as the calcium content that helped stave off the diarrhea. For a few days now, I have been somewhat regular!  What a stinky NSV!

 

 

Do Not Progress Diet Too Soon!

 I learned this the hard way. I was doing well with my soft dairy products and felt like I could handle some kielbasa. I figured I would chew it REALLY well and it would basically be pureed food, right?  Nope.  The sausage felt fine while I was cutting it into small pieces, chewing it excessively, then slowly swallowing.  I even felt fine hours later.  Then, about 5 hours after eating, I was hit by nausea.  Then it got more serious.  Then diarrhea while vomiting.  Nothing came of the vomiting except for liquid (my own saliva). The nausea persisted after the bathroom trip and two hours later I was vomiting again. Still just saliva.  It was an awful experience, especially with recently rearranged guts, healing incisions, and healing abdominal muscles.  The only part that I believe could have triggered it is adding the greasy sausage too early and I paid the price!

 

Sleep & Pain 

My biggest complaint so far about my DS Surgery is the amount of pain I had to go through. I do not blame the surgery itself, but rather that my surgeon did not adequately manage my pain.  Once released from the hospital, the pain transferred from being mostly surgery pain to being mostly body aches.  My tailbone, buttocks, and lower back were in hell from the awkward sleeping positions I tried to find on the couch and in bed. If I lie THIS way, then THAT ends up hurting.  It was not the best of times.  I made a post on BariatricFacts.org at the height of my frustration if you're interested in knowing more details (Link).

 

Now that I am at Day 14, I am happy to report the pain level is much more manageable -- no surgery-related pain, other than briefly while standing or sitting, or getting in and out of bed. Since about day 10, I was able to sleep in bed again, and being able to sleep on my side was a huge help.  I put a pillow under my stomach to support it (and lessen the 'pulling' feeling) and finally was able to get some restful sleep.  

 

What's Next?

Well, I have one more week of Disability Sick Leave left, so I plan on using this time to continue to heal and continue learning about my new set of guts!  My diet plan has me on 2 more weeks of pureed/soft foods before 'Lifestyle Maintenance' where I get to introduce more normal foods.  I plan to walk more every day, and really work hard to get in my 64oz of water every day!  

I'm excited to see where this journey takes me next!!

Today is a small milestone after my surgery on 9/28. One week down! 

Last week at this time, I was sitting in pre-op (for 6 hours total) getting poked for an IV repeatedly. They finally got it on their 6th try?

How am I today, a week later?

I'm not quite sure.  It's been one interesting week. Here are a few bullet points:

• My pain and nausea meds ran out Saturday morning and the prescription transfer didn't go through before the pharmacy closed... so 'white knuckling' the pain all weekend.
• My sense of smell is insanely sensitive.
• I don't like the taste of ANY of the 4 protein options I had available.
• Drinking 64oz a day is harder to do than I thought.
• I gained TWENTY POUNDS of water weight in the hospital. Holy cow!
• I can't seem to get comfortable (probably due to the 1st bullet point above).
• I am super irritable. Mostly towards my husband whom I feel has stopped being as supportive as he was pre-op. Now that I need him, he's nowhere to be found! I also somewhat blame him for letting my pain and nausea meds run out without having the prescriptions ready. How am I supposed to coordinate EVERYTHING while still healing? Ugh.

Today marks the first day of 'full liquids' and I am not sure if I am going to change much. I might experiment and try some cream or tomato soups a few days from now when I am feeling a little more healed.

Here's a little jumbled status update... I am not thinking too clearly and teetering on falling asleep, so apologies in advance if this makes no sense!

I was released from the hospital yesterday -- since I am an out-of-town patient, I stayed for 2 nights. The 6-hour drive home was torture; especially having to stop every hour to walk for a few minutes. I swear, Texas freeways have SO MANY BUMPS!

For now, I am stationed on my couch, since my bed just feels too high, and lying flat on my back did not feel like a good idea.
So far, I have been thankful for my Rx Reminder app on my phone to keep me on track with my 4 prescriptions (Codiene -- for pain -- every 4 hours, Promethazine -- for nausea -- every 6 hours, a Enoxaparian shot -- a blood thinner -- once a day, and an Omeprazole capsule 'innards' -- stomach acid reducer -- once a day).  I'm apparently also going to have some topical pain relief arriving via mail soon - I am looking forward to that, since it feels like my incisions hurt on the outside more than the inside.

Those people who say they never had to take their pain medication... I have no idea how you do it! This surgery HURTS!  From the first time I was awake in the recovery room until I was discharged, I would say my pain level never got lower than a 6! At times it was an outright 10! Walking is definitely an adventure... I feel like I need a wheelbarrow to haul and support my massive stomach so it stops being pulled down by gravity.  Speaking of which, I was 304lb when I checked in, and 324lb when I checked out! My stomach, legs, and other areas look super bloated! I am seriously blown up like a balloon. It's good though; I had heard of some people being taken off of their IV on day 2 and expected to keep themselves hydrated.  I know some people drive themselves crazy with weighing in too often after being released from the hospital - I am OK with having gained 20lb there, I knew to expect it, and know its just extra water weight that will come off shortly.

I've only had one really bad experience so far... last night when we got home, I just wanted to rest after the trip so I went to lay down. When I woke up, I was dizzy, had a pounding headache, then started dry-heaving.  My husband pointed out I hadn't been drinking anything yet and suggested I go back to fluids on a 15-minute timer. Thankfully no more experiences like that yet and drinking fluids has kept me from any more dry-heaving.

Short post because I'm highly drugged!

Im OK and in my recovery room!

Made it to the hospital ok, in the lovely and fashionable gown, and 3 unsuccessful IV attempts later, I am sitting comfy and waiting for them to bring my husband to me. Unsure what time surgery is today, so I am sure a lot of waiting in front of me. Feeling good and excited!!!

 

Right now, I am laying in bed in my Dallas hotel room, it's 11:00pm, and I report to the hospital for surgery in 9 hours! I made it through the week-long liquid diet without even being tempted to cheat. I dropped 8 pounds as of today... Then a day of travel and water, so who knows if I will have an official pre-surgery weigh-in. Either way, I am thrilled to be here, SO EXCITED to be having surgery tomorrow, and overall in just a really good place. My parents are here in town to be there for me in the hospital, my husband has been fantastic.

I will update y'all as soon as I can tomorrow!

As I sit here writing this, it is Friday evening - I just finished my last day of work before being out for 3 weeks on disability.  The work week has been hectic!  My department is only 5 people and 2 of them have been out all week, so I am doing at least 2x as much as I usually do.  It's good though, as it made the week FLY BY!  It was a bit stressful today, as my Fridays are 10-hour days and I barely had time to get up to go to the bathroom!  All in all, I love my job - I love working from home - I am really good at what I do. I might actually miss working while I am out. We'll see!

In the evenings after work this week, I have been tackling my big pre-surgery To-Do list!  Some days have been much more productive than others.  I learned on Monday that my mother and father are going to be driving into town and staying the night Saturday before we leave together on Sunday to travel to my out-of-town surgery.  Eek!  The original plan was for them to fly directly to Dallas, but their plans changed and they decided to drive instead. 

A little bit of back story... my parents are pretty young (52 and 53, respectively) and I still consider myself pretty young (32).  My husband and I bought our first house last year, and we have been planning for over a year to have a big family Christmas out here in the new house... kinda a delayed housewarming party.  Well, knowing this, I have been making big plans on what I want to have done in the house before everyone sees it for the first time!  I wanted to make a good first impression to my parents (show off a little bit - let them see how well their eldest daughter is doing!) but now they arrive Saturday and that throws a wrench in my plans.

The first issue is what they're going to sleep on. 
My husband and I sleep in the only bed in our house. We *BARELY* just bought our own bedroom set after having the mattress sitting on the floor for 2 years since we moved to this state. Not wanting to make my parents sleep on the couch, the first order of business was to order an air mattress.  And I didn't stop there! I also ordered a mattress pad, sheet set, comforter, and pillows. Don't tell my husband that I spent $300 on all that.

The second issue is where they're going to sleep.
Our house is a 3-bedroom, with one bedroom our dedicated office (since I work from home). Then we have the master bedroom, and a 3rd room, which we were using for storage.  Because I didn't want to make my parents sleep in the living room, the new project became to prepare the 3rd bedroom and make it guest-ready!

Here's the mess that it was before:

 

Not pictured: Closet and 3 suitcases stuffed full of clothes!

After 5 hours of sorting, folding, collapsing boxes, finding places homes... the room was ready to put the new air mattress in!  Here's the proud 'after' picture:

Not pictured: ORGANIZED CLOSET!    

I finally went through the bedroom and cleaned it up. It's a little too 'bare' for my tastes, but it'll do for a short-term solution. I'm hoping that by Christmas, we have a much nicer guest bedroom!  The 5 hours of hard labor left me a bit dizzy and light-headed... I think I may have over-exerted myself a bit.  My energy isn't what it usually is (having been on day 4 of the liquid diet at that point).   Whew!  My parents have somewhere to sleep on Saturday.  Now all that's left is the long list of house cleaning that I have to do for my parents arrival -- not to mention my actual pre-surgery checklist!  My mom is not 'white glove' at all... I just want to make her proud of me.    Anyway - much more to do and not much time left!  48 hours from now I will be in the hotel in Dallas, awaiting surgery the next morning!  Time to make the time fly by keeping myself busy!

As a Duodenal Switch patient, I will need to be diligent about getting lab work done, and tracking my numbers so I do not become vitamin deficient in an area.  I am pretty excited about this "job" I will have (I love planning, numbers, spreadsheets!) and I don't mind taking vitamins.

Well, today as part of my pre-op planning, I acquired my lab results I had done in January as well as a copy of the lab work done just a few weeks ago.  I entered both into the spreadsheet and came across something amazing! 

I am no longer pre-diabetic!  My A1-C is in a normal range!  I'm so incredibly happy! 
My 3 months of self-prescribed dieting before surgery has paid off.  Diabetes runs in both sides of my family, and I have been "at risk" for many years. I used to think of diabetes as an eventuality for me... but I have dodged the bullet by making good choices and focusing on eating healthy to prepare for my weight loss surgery!

This good news has definitely put some wind in my sails and is making this week's liquid diet easier to handle.  Only 4 more days to go!

I have been wanting to get rid of my lap-band for over 4 years now. My husband had a co-worker who also had a terrible experience with their lap-band, and that is where I heard that there is a thing called a "revision" in which you can get your old surgery redone to have another form of weight loss surgery.  I started researching other weight loss surgeries available, and decided that a Gastric Bypass (RNY) looked like the best one out there.  I made an appointment back in June with a surgeon and told him I want an RNY revision.  He presented the other 2 major surgery types to me: the Sleeve (VSG) and the Duodenal Switch (DS) as well, but I didn't want a VSG and I had never heard of a DS, so I didn't listen much.  He said I had to eat 100g+ of protein each day with the DS, and that sounded like too much, so I stuck to my guns and told him I wanted an RNY.

Shortly after that appointment with my Surgeon, I joined the ObesityHelp community.  In that time, I have read posts on the forums from countless individuals who had experiences with the band, RNY, VSG, and DS. I became somewhat of a 'regular' on the RNY forums, and also read the General Discussion forum, the 50+ BMI forum, and the Revision forum daily.  With all of this reading, I gained a TON of useful information to help me with my RNY, as well as gained information about the other surgeries - their strengths, weaknesses, typical diets, vitamin requirements, and different success rates. As I heard more and more about the DS, I became more curious. The more I tracked my current food intake, the more I realized that 100g of protein is actually something I could do.  As I kept reading and hearing stories from others, the more I came to want the DS. 

My biggest concern with my revision weight loss surgery is long-term regain.  I was blown away by the Excess Weight Loss statistics presented at DSFacts.com (LINK).  I will share the most dramatic and impactful statistic (in my opinion) here:

RNY

EWL% at 1-2 years 48%-85%

EWL% at 3-6 years 53%-77%

EWL% at 7-10 years 25%-68%

DS

EWL% at 1-2 years 65%-83%

EWL% at 3-6 years 62%-81%

EWL% at 7-10 years 60%-80%

This was the information that 'sealed the deal' in my mind.  If I was going under the knife again to have another weight loss surgery, I needed to go with the surgery that has the best long-term success rate.  I discussed my findings and my desire to change my surgery to a DS with my husband. He was hesitant at first, but after explaining the success rate difference and the difference in diet, I had his full support.  I called my Surgeon's office the next day.

My surgery is in a little more than a week, now.  Today is a Friday and I start my liquid diet on Monday.  I am both excited and anxious for surgery to get here!  I have no doubts about my decision to change surgeries; only more confidence that I made the right decision, and thankfully I made the decision in time to change!

I usually grow my hair long then donate it every 4-5 years or so.  Because I will probably lose a lot of hair due to my WLS, I decided to donate before surgery, in case I am not able to again.  My hair has never been this short before, but I love it!  I can't wait to try out a bunch of new short hairstyles! 

Surgery is T-minus 12 days!

If you are interested in donating YOUR hair, I highly recommend Pantene's Beautiful Lengths. Their wigs help women fighting cancer!