Little Sleevie Wonder strikes again

On my way home from seeing New Moon today, I stopped by a little nearby grocery store for some soup.  They have a good selection, so it was a big decision, but I chose the butternut squash soup.  Maybe not the best choice, as there's little to no protein in it, but I figured I could just add some dried milk to it. 

I bought the smallest container for obvious reasons, and also because I don't know the nutritional value, so I don't want to eat it for more than one meal, two at the most.

The soup was so very yummy.  After my first bite, I was all, "I'm going to eat it all for sure.  So good!"  I was certain I would be able to eat the entire eight ounces, and honestly, I was pretty excited about it.  It turned out not to be the case.  I started feeling full after three spoonfuls.  Three!  I shoveled a couple more spoons in, but still ended up eating only about a quarter of it before I was stuffed.  I thought soup was a slider food!

Now, it may seem as though I'm complaining, and I can't deny that I was a little disappointed not to be able to eat more of the yummy soup, but there are other meals, and mostly I just wanted to say once again how much I love my sleeve.  It really does its job!

Midway through the third week

I'm not doing very well keeping up with this blog.  I want some sort of documentation of my process, so I need to get better.

I had a bad day yesterday when I weighed in and had somehow gained two pounds.  Why the face?  I'm assuming it was water retention, because I can't possibly gain weight when I'm eating 600 calories a day.  So that sucked.  I'm going to let a few days go by and weigh myself again Wednesday to make sure the number is going in the right direction.

I'm eating soft solid food now.  I can easily tell the difference in restriction as opposed to liquids and purees.  I can't take much more than a few small bites before I start to feel full.  Little Sleevie Wonder is definitely doing his job.  I can't eat a whole scrambled egg.  I, and sorry if this starts to get gross, couldn't finish two shrimp.  I almost did, but I ended up spitting out the last bite instead of swallowing it.  I'm terrified of the slimies.

I've learned that I can't have liquids near me when I eat, otherwise I'll mindlessly take a drink.  Yeah, learned that one the hard way.  Ouch.  Watching the clock to make sure I stop drinking half an hour before eating can be annoying, but I understand why I have to do it, and now I've experienced the consequences of drinking while eating.  I don't plan to do it again.

I still haven't felt any real hunger, though I did experience some head hunger over the weekend.  It was nothing a good fanfic couldn't cure.  Thankfully it hasn't come back since.  I think it was in response to being able to eat regular food for the first time.  My foody brain was all, "Mmmmm... food!  We should eat more.  Yum!"  And my stomach was all, "Yeah, you go ahead and try that.  I bet I can change your mind."  Then my Edwardy brain was all, "Hey!  Clipped Wings and Inked Armor just updated!"  Then I read and by the time I finished the chapter is was time for a protein shake and all was well.

Speaking of, it is time for a protein shake now.

Slow news day

When I started this blog, I thought it would be a good place to whine and complain about the pain I was in or how hungry I was.  Maybe that's coming, but so far, I have only positive things to say about my surgery and the after effects.  I still have no hunger.  There's a tiny bit of discomfort when I bend certain ways, so I avoid that.  If I drink too fast or take too big of a drink, I get chest pain, but again, it's easy to avoid that.

If I have anything to complain about, it's that I can't drink as quickly as I'd like to, and I'm kind of bored.  I want to get out and take a long walk or hop on the treadmill, but my surgeon advised me not to get too far away from my couch for the first week.  I was encouraged to walk often, but not much and not far at first, because I'll lose my energy really quickly.  That makes sense.  I'm only taking in about 300-400 calories a day, if that.  And I'm still not getting as much liquids as I need to, so I need to be really aware of symptoms of dehydration.

I'm excited to say that I finally weigh less than I did when they weighed me right before surgery.  It's typical to gain several pounds after surgery because of all the fluids pumped into me.  It was fun to finally feel like I'm losing.  I'm going to try really hard to not be a scale addict.  Once a week should be sufficient.  I'll be weighed when I go in for my check-up on Friday, so I'm going to try to stay away from the scale until then.

For now I'm going to keep wandering around my apartment for 10 minutes every hour, maybe venture outside for a few minutes, drink my water, finish my breakfast protein shake, do some laundry, and probably nap later. 

Day 3

Today has been an exciting day for me.  The best thing was that I got to take the dressings off of my incisions.  Not so thrilling on its own, but taking the dressings off meant I was allowed to take a shower.  Yay!  That was a nice shower.

I also moved from clear liquids to full liquids.  I was living on water, Crystal Light, and popsicles, so it was nice to be able to drink something that has nutritional value.

The suggested meal plan has six small meals throughout the day.  I'll have to work up to that.  I was able to get to three of them, and I'm still working on the third.  It turns out that a four ounce protein shake takes me about two hours to finish.  Yikes.  It'll improve as I move forward, but there's no way I'll meet my protein needs for the day.  I'll end up with about 45g of protein.  I'm supposed to get at least 60g.  It'll happen eventually, but it doesn't look good for today.

My meals for today have been a protein shake for breakfast, sugar-free pudding thinned with milk for lunch, and another protein shake for dinner.  

I'm not going to hit my goal for liquids today, either.  I'm trying, I really am, but I feel full really quickly, and I'm afraid I'll burst my banana if I try to swallow more.

I still have zero hunger... I don't even have head hunger.  Food commercials do nothing for me.  An hour or so ago, someone tried to deliver a pizza to me (he had the wrong apt.), and I wasn't at all disappointed that I couldn't eat it.  I'm sure eventually it'll come back, but for now I'm loving this lack of appetite and especially the lack of head hunger.  Head hunger is what got me into this mess in the first place.

I went through most of the day without any pain medication.  I wouldn't be a good drug addict at all.  I can't stand the blurred vision that impedes my ability to read.  Yuck.  I did eventually take some, because a couple of my incisions were bothering me.  Beyond that, I do feel a little bit of pain when I bend or twist certain ways, but following the surgeon's order of "if it hurts, don't do it" takes care of that quite nicely.

The other exciting thing from today is that I pooped!  Twice!  The first one was a big surprise, as I hadn't eaten anything in 72 hours, so I didn't think there was anything in there.  The second time was after I'd had a protein shake, so that seemed normal.  I also learned, to no surprise, that liquids in equals liquids out.  Fun!

That was my eventful day.  It may not have been exciting, but the fact that I feel this good two days after surgery is something to celebrate, even if I celebrate by going to bed early.

Pre-op diet

As I was researching VSG (vertical sleeve gastrectomy), I saw many different versions of the pre-op liver shrinking diet.  The majority of them were some version of an all-liquid or mostly liquid diet.  Protein shakes and sugar free jello, two meals of protein shakes and one meal of lean protein and vegetables, some lasted two weeks, some up to four weeks, some allowed only clear liquids for the final three days before surgery.

Mine came with only one restriction:  no more than 40g of carbs a day.  It hasn't been difficult at all to stick to it.  In fact, the only thing that has been difficult is to get in as many calories as I should.

The scale went insane, and I lost nine pounds in the first five days.  Crazy!  Right around then was when I started to have a hard time getting enough calories, and for about a week, the scale didn't move much-- just a fraction of a pound here and there.

Over the weekend I got my 1200 calories each day, and I'm happy to say I was down another 2.4 pounds this morning.  Yay!  That's 13.6 pounds I've lost since I started this almost two weeks ago.  That is insane for two weeks.  Yeah, I know a lot of it is water, but it's fun to see anyway.  Too bad I can't trust  myself to stick with this for the long haul without the help of a teeny stomach.  I could save $20,000 (actually, with all the pre-screenings and PCP visits and prescriptions, there's another $2000 added to that).  Unfortunately, my problem is less losing weight than it is keeping it off.

I don't know what sparked the scale to move again.  I hate to believe it was getting the calories in, because after surgery it's going to be quite some time before I'll be able to get that many calories in one day.  For the first couple of days it'll be almost no calories.  Once I work up to full liquids, which should start around the third day after surgery, I'll be lucky to get 500 calories in.  I'll only be able to drink/eat around 1/3 of a cup at a time, and I'm sure I'll have to work up to that.

Whatever.  I should stop worrying about that.  This surgery is a proven weight loss method.  I might post more later about my fears there.