Plateau *scowl*

Wow!  So much for my every two week post, eh?  Suddenly it's been a month.  for a quick check-in, it's been ok.  Consistently losing about 2-2.5 lbs. a week, slowly getting more food options back, and I've lost a total of 83lbs since starting this journey last October.  however, now I've hit a plateau.  I've been the same weight for over a week now.  It's super frustrating.  They did say this would happen.  It usually happens to people sooner than this and when i was told to expect it, it didn't happen.  Guess i thought i was special.  Lol.  It's something to do with metabolic changes and bla bla bla, in other words, my 'system' is throwing a tantrum.  Shouldn't last much longer.....I hope.  I did just pass the time when i have weight restrictions for lifting, so I've brought out the weights and will start working with those again tomorrow.  E is going to join me too! :)  This has also been by suddenly sedentary week after several weeks of go go go and then this week, i think the most strenuous thing i did was help pack some boxed at a friends house.  If you've been through the plateau stage, did you do anything special to break it?  Or did you just wait it out?  Anyway, short one this time.  Here's a pick of the girl and I at camp two weeks ago.  I actually wore a shirt 2 sizes smaller than I have worn over the past several years and.....i didn't do the stretch-out before putting it on (IYKYK)!  and then a pic from the other day when I went from color to more professional hair again.  

 

  

Salsa and Pill Crushers

I'm a little late in posting this time.  Life is, as always, hectic, but we are approaching day camp season as well as finishing softball and soccer and girl scouts and school, so it's a bit chaotic to say the least.  So, updates.....I'm at a total lost of 71lb as of this morning.  I did get cleared for the next stage which means I got to add cooked veggies, ground meat, lunch meat, beans, and canned fruit to my diet.  My slightly tweaked meatloaf, leftover, with a tiny scoop of cottage cheese?  SOOO good!  And hubby fixed me some chicken with red onion and cheese and a little sugar-free BBQ.  Delicious!  But, I'll tell you what, you never really really know what your food weakness is until you have a very limited selection to choose from and it's not on the list.  I think about it all the time, I just want chips and salsa.  Eventually, i will get there.  It won't look the same as a simple bag of tortillas and some salsa from a jar, but it will be epic.  Protein or chicken chips and homemade salsa (no sugar).  Oh!  you have no idea!

Other than the menu, the other thing of note.  Pain management.  With bariatric surgery, you can't have NSAIDs, at least for the first several months.  So, guess what all of my friends of a similar age or more?  No Motrin.  None.  Zip. Nada.  So, what does one do when you're only 3 weeks post-op and you suddenly find yourself sporting a pinched nerve in your shoulder?  Well, let me tell you.  Heat, ice, showers, stretching, topical creams, massage gun, and tens machine.......do exactly NOTHING.  I endured for almost a week before i took myself over to Patient First.  X-ray showed nothing.  They gave me a muscle relaxer and a steroid.  I called the on-call doctor at my surgeon's office, because of course why would i take care of anything during normal business hours, and was forbidden to take the steroids (possible ulcers) and they said to try the muscle relaxers.  Well, broken up pills......still too big to dissolve in my stomach before heading out of the range of usefulness.  I woke up at midnight with my arm throbbing and jumping around.  I freaked out and took myself over the ER, because surely something is really wrong and they can do something, right?  Yeah....no.  The doctor......who took his sweet time to see me......decided to do an EKG even though I told him, this isn't my heart.  I know heart pain.  I've had heart pain.  I've got the surgical scars to prove it.  But why would he believe the patient?  So, guess who's EKG is perfect?  smh.  Then they did another Xray.  Nothing there, duh.  Told him that too.  He said he'd given me muscle relaxers and a strong pain med and I'd want to follow up with ortho and they could get an MRI if they wanted.  I asked why he couldn't do it........apparently they didn't see a need.  really?  fine.  so, home i go........now with another bottle of the SAME muscle relaxer.  My Genius hubby is like "this is going to be foul, but do it".  He crushed those pills to powder and i knocked it back.  Total game changer.  about two hours later, i noticed that i hadn't even noticed i wasn't in pain anymore.  Went ahead and took another dose that night and I'm happy to report, I'm as good as new and back t the crazy pace again with TWO good arms!

So, leaving you with this......if you're having surgery or considering it........get a pill crusher (just in case!)

One Month Pic Update

 One month since the last pics, 3 weeks post-surgery.  I'm mostly posting these so I can see the transformation.

A Week Into It

Well, I'm a week into this stage of the journey.  I wouldn't say it's been hard or something to overcome, it's just different with some inconveniences.  Pain.  Yes, there's been pain.  Of course.  I had major anatomy-changing surgery.  It wasn't magic.  There were machines and scalpels and stitches involved.  I had to figure out how to sit and stand based on the pain radiating from my right side when I moved certain ways.  I almost resorted to calling the doctor, because, why is there pain there?!  Well, i revisited the video of the surgery, and the pain I was experiencing was from my irritated stomach and irritated intestines and where they were forced to become new friends.  Duh.  That has since dissipated (a little over a week) and now I'm on to the best part.......itching.  Dear lord.  The itching.  Thankfully, it's not hitting me constantly, just in waves.  And my incision sites are a little irritated.  We (me, my expert friends, and the surgeon's nurse) figure it's from the glue that is still present.  At CVS, i found a hydrocortisone roller, so that is now my new best friend and in just 24 hours the glue has started to peel and flake off with a purpose.  None of this lazy, take our time, crap.  LOL.  

As for eating; I'm doing ok.  the first 2 weeks are liquid only.  So, watered-down protein shakes, broth with unflavored protein powder, Gatorade, ice pops, and a i get my one Jell-O cup a day.  My one fear of all of this was that I would be the one person in the world for whom this didn't work and I will have majorly impacted my existence for no reason.  Well, apparently, i was wrong.  I have been losing 1-2 lbs. a day.  Yay me!  I know this will slow down as I become able to consume some solids again, but I'm optimistic in my continued progress.  Now, don't get me wrong, the eating part is FREAKING HARD.  My hubby is an amazing cook and what i smell and see the kids eating everyday makes my mouth water.  Also, just walking through CVS yesterday, i saw all the things I COULD buy.  Stuff I probably would have bought myself before.  I mean, i was stopping in to get anti-itchy stuff and a Gatorade, but then heading to the softball field for the girl's practice.  Perfect opportunity for a snack, right?  Anytime, you're going to just be sitting and watching is snack time, right?  There in lies the problems for so many people.  I was not a binger.  I was not someone who only consumed junk.  We don't eat out on a regular basis.  I don't even really buy prepared food.  My weekly trip consists of 80% from the perimeter of the store with a few things from the center.  However, snacks.  Especially, when you're on the go a lot and the kids "need" a boost.  It's so easy to stop and grab stuff.  And, OH, the choices we have!!  I tell you what, I honed in on a bag of ranch Doritos yesterday and was like, wow, that would be great.  I could almost imagine the taste and texture.  But this is a whole new way of looking at food and at my habits.  I don't expect I will ever entirely overcome my desire for tasty things, but I know now that my body is not going to handle it well.  I know some day I will get to eat again, just in a much more conscientious and deliberate way.  Hubby and I have been plotting my next couple of months.  Tuna, salmon, crab, discovering sugar free sauces, cheeses, etc.  I've never been so excited at the thought of a couple mouthfuls of tuna salad. LOL.  

I don't have a picture for you today.  Meant to, since we had a scout thing on Tuesday and my shirt was a lot looser and i tucked it in, but alas, it didn't happen.  So, for my "visual" progress note, I will state that since I started the full journey in October, I've lost 52lbs as of this morning.  A long way to go, but that's not a bad start at all!

A New Leg of the Journey

I haven't used this blog for nearly 5 years now.  I used to be all over it just putting, mostly random, thoughts on the 'paper' especially when I participated in the A-Z challenge and also documenting all of my kid's birthdays.  I still encourage you to look if you need an idea!  However, life evolves.  My kids are no longer interested in the over-the-top parties, and I lost interest in the A-Z challenge.  So, here we are, 5 years later.  Why?  Because I have taken a huge step in my journey.  Thanks to support from family and friends and new insurance that actually covers the procedure, I embarked on my path to better physical health with a new tool.  The Single Anastomosis Duodeno-ileal Bypass or SADI-S.  This is a nifty, fairly new procedure that was first brought to medical world in 2007.  You've probably heard of the gastric bypass (started in 1966) or the gastric sleeve (1980), but not the SADI-S.  It's a combination of the two.  Care to see more?  https://youtu.be/JpjFoVoOVZg 

Anyhow, I've been working on just getting approval since October.  Insurance may cover, but they still make you work for it!  I had to get cardiac clearance, psychological clearance, and then attend separate appointments with either the nurse or the dietician.  Y'all know how patient I am, right?  lol.  every time an appointment got moved or they couldn't get me in for the next one for 2-3 weeks drove me batty!!  I mean, come on people, let's do this!  Anyway, as I've been told multiple times and, while I still don't like it, time passes quickly and we finally completed the package of requirements and insurance approved it and then....well, it took 2 months to get scheduled (aacckkk!!!).  But April 21 came, surgery happened, and now I'm in the recovery phase of this adventure.  Some interesting take-aways this week....

- I only remember being in pre-op and then I was scooting over to the operating table.  I do not recall leaving pre-op at all and I have no memories after the scoot.  Just waking up.  It’s really weird.  I'm sure they talked to me, right?  Told me to scoot up or down on the table, lay on my back, tell me when they were giving me the good meds?  but there's nothing in my memory bank.  It's strange to know I'm missing a segment.

- I can remember what I said while waking up and loopy, like asking the nurses if they liked cookies.  They thought I was just saying random things.  They were surprised when, through the efforts of 2 friends, a kid I birthed and the hubby, an entire case of GS cookies arrived the next morning for them.  

- NOTE - do NOT give the nurses the cookies BEFORE they finish your discharge paperwork.  These are words of wisdom, trust me.  Those nurses disappeared so fast with my papers just sitting there on the desk waiting to be finished.  Sigh.

- My mother is awesome!  When I finally got to my room, every nurse around already knew me quite well.  Like mother, like daughter, I guess.  Once you get us started, over-sharing is a thing.  It's what makes us so lovable!

- And lastly, and this really important in case anyone else does this.  No one verbally explained that the Tylenol should be either liquid or crushed.  It's buried in the paperwork (i found later) but for the last 2.5 days, I've been hurting.  One of my incisions apparently got more if the surgical action than the others and it is not a happy place.  no infection, just bruised and sore.  I've been holding my stomach when doing any kind of movement.  Today, i called to ask if this was a sign of something bad.  The surgeon's nurse asked if I was keeping up with my meds and if i was crushing everything into water.  Umm....no.  the hospital even gave me pills to swallow.  She pointed out that the pills at the hospital were in the gel tabs.  I have regular old Walmart brand white pills here.  Guess what, (dummy here), my stomach can no longer dissolve the cheapo pills in time to make a difference.  Hubby has since retrieved both liquid and powdered Tylenol and my outlook had really improved!  the more you know!

So, this has gone on longer than intended and I haven't even posted my goals or my before pic.  Geez, Jenna, get with it! 

My goals:

1. More time with my kids

2. Hiking with my scouts

3. normal chairs

4. Not paying extra for the larger sizes

5. rides that I don’t have to squeeze into

6. My uniforms fitting

7. getting off the medications (I'm diabetic)

And, alas, the before pics. These were taken about a week ago. I did lose 40lbs prior to this picture throughout the prep process.