Okay, so not plucked as in feathers, but I had my first follow-up visit with my surgeon, Dr. Minkin, today and he plucked out all of my staples. Yay! They were starting to itch! Let’s see, what else has happened since my last update, but first a quick clearing of a myth about weight loss surgery.
MYTH – Weight loss surgery makes you lose weight and is a cheat or quick & easy way to do things. Wrong, wrong wrong! I knew this going in, but it seems a lot of folks are under that misconception. The surgery is a tool that will help me stay within the boundaries I need to for eating generally, but it is not something that actually makes you lose weight or lets you eat anything you want or anything like that at all. You can actually still gain weight after weight loss surgery if you eat too much, continue to high calorie and high fat items, and not exercise. For me though, I needed this jumpstart and now I have to work hard to get rid of my weight!
Now that I got that out of my system…. I did start feeling hungry a few days after surgery. Part of it was real hunger, part of it was in my head out of eating habits and a few triggers for emotional eating. I’m working hard on being able to tell the difference with all of those. Week 1 was still clear liquids, now I’m in week 2 with all liquids. Tonight I had 1/2 cup of Progresso Light Zesty Santa Fe Style Chicken soup that I blended up with my Cuisinart Immersion blender to make it smooth. I made tacos for Hubby and Taylor, so I added a small dollop of Greek yogurt to my soup also. It was really good and yes, just that 1/2 cup of soup did fill me up. This Thursday I add soft foods! After six weeks I am pretty much back on regular food, but smaller portions and focus is on high protein especially.
Up until day 8 after surgery I was taking pain meds (Lortab liquid), but not even as much as I was allowed. I don’t need it anymore. The pain is not really bad, more uncomfortable. A lot easier than a c-section. I had a large cyst right under the surface of my abdomen also and that had to be removed – that incision would was the most painful as it was the largest. By the way, the cyst was sent to the lab and no problems. Happy Dance!
I can drive now and have been out and about the last couple of days. I still tire easily, but honestly I did that before the surgery because of weight. It is getting better though. Today I was very happy at the doctor because he has this looooooooonnnnnnngggggg hallway to get to his office at the end. The last two times I was there I ended up really huffing and puffing and had to stop a moment on the way. Today I just walked all the way down and back no problem! Super Happy Dance!!! When we left I did not have Hubby go get the car either, I walked with him all the way to the back corner of the parking lot! My official weight loss per the doctor’s scale is 26 pounds. I told Dr. Minkin I was surprised at how much that little bit of weight loss helped – he said that isn’t just a little. To me it seemed like that since I have a lot more to go.
One of the worst things has been the icky vitamins. I am not anti-vitamin at all, but right now I’m not supposed to swallow any big pills. That means vitamins need to be liquid, chewable, or chewy. Most of mine are chewable which is slang for fruity flavored CHALK! Blech! I’m taking the brand Bariatric Advantage but I just hate the taste of these things. Life will be better when I can go back to swallowing vitamin pills again.
I think that covers things, but as always I am happy to answer questions as best I can. I am sharing my process with the sleeve gastrectomy and weight loss on my blog because the wonderful Nicole of Beauty and the Bypass has shared with me and been such a huge support. Hopefully, I can help at least one other person like she has helped me!
P.S. If you missed the first few posts about this journey you can read them here.
Disclosure: None – there are no sponsored items mentioned in this post.
© 2013, Robyn Wright. All rights reserved.
