Had doctor visit today

Had doctor appointment. And found out that I am in the oh so lucky (sarcasm) 10%  who have VSG and suffer from dumping syndrome as if I would have had gastric bypass surgery. 

My body cannot tolerate anything sugar free, be that SF Popsicles, ISOPURE, SF jello, yogurt, SF pudding, Boost, Slim fast, or muscle milk.  I haven't had sugar for years prior to surgery and occasionally would have a sugar free something (usually yoplait yogurt lite) I never drink soda, and only have ice tea with a packet of sweet and low. Now I can't even handle the sweet and low, Splenda, Stevia, Truvia, anything. 

I have watered down everything and still was getting violently ill. My doctor said the portion of the stomach that is removed allows extra room and for processing of sugars before it hits the intestines, be it regular or artificial sugars. Now that it's gone, (for me) my stomach cannot process what it wasn't use to having in the first place (I don't eat sweets or sugar) and therefore I'm experiencing dumping. 

He told me to stop all protein drinks and move on to stage 3 of the diet. Eggs, mashed up beans and fish in moderate amounts and chewed very well. I can also have soup. Nothing needs to be puréed I just need to be sure to chew very well and drink water. 

He also said no vitamins or b-12 for me yet until I'm 4 weeks out. (Currently 8 days post-op) he also told me I was walking too much and to slow it down, again he reinforced it's not about losing the weight as much as it is staying hydrated. He weighed me today and I've lost 23 pounds so far.

Worst day ever...

Weight: 237.6

Dunno what happened yesterday but had the worst day ever. Woke up dizzy and feeling faint. Had my protein drink and did my 15 minutes of brisk walking and thought I was going to pass out. Hubby was very concerned and said I looked terrible. Huge bags under my eyes even though I'm sleeping fairly well. I wake up during the night and take sips of water. I had an appointment for our car and once I felt pretty steady and the dizziness wore off,   We thought maybe I was getting dehydrated. So I kept pushing fluids and I went to the dealership and sat for a couple of hours in the waiting room sipping more protein while I waited.  As the time passed I felt much better. Came home and kept drinking. But my stomach was killing me. It just seemed full, like I couldn't get more in. 

I felt terrible! But kept drinking my ounce of ISOPURE mixed with water every 15 minutes (I set a timer) 

Everything has been going so well, I've had no pain, no pain meds, no nausea, nothing. It's been perfect, absolutely no problems so I don't understand what's happening. 

I went to bed, felt really cold so i bundled up. My doctors office called and I told them what was happening. They told me to keep pushing fluids. So I did. My husband and daughter kept calling to check up on me and I started bawling because of the pain. So hubby told me to take a pain med. I did that and fell asleep for a while. I stayed in bed all day with severe cramping. 

That was ok until 6. Pain med wore off, took second one and puked my guts out. It was like everything I had consumed (my protein drink from earlier in the morning) and the ISOPURE mixed with water to get my fluids in all came up. It seemed like nothing had digested. 

I'm seeing my doctor today to have my drain removed. But this was awful and I don't understand what the heck happened. It was seriously the worst day ever.

Scary moment

Weight: 238.4

I had a bit of a scary moment this morning and I know my hubby was not at all happy. I think even with trying to drink as much as I am it's not enough. 

I got up this morning and did my workout, got my heart rate up to 135 for a good 15 minutes and then it hit me, I was light headed, dizzy, out of breath, and couldn't quite steady mysel. Hubby got very concerned with the way I looked I could see the concern on his face. 

I had an appointment I needed to keep this morning and he made me promise to text when I get there, leave and get home. Currently I'm sitting here waiting and sipping a protein drink with cream of wheat and extra water. I don't feel so light headed any more. 

I will not let myself get dehydrated! This was a huge wake up call 

Feeling grateful

Weight: 241.3

Today is the first day I'm going to be alone without my husband. So I'm trying to get into a regimen. Woke up the morning and first thing I did was make a nice tall cup of warm tea. I'm having a very difficult time getting in fluids. I'm supposed to get a minimum of 30 ounces and the goal should be 64. 

With a stomach now the size of a banana  trying to get that in has been difficult. However the consequences of dehydration are worse so I keep sipping and clock watching. 

After getting in some tea I started walking. Now, I've been walking on the treadmill for quite some time at the gym and I don't have a treadmill at home and I'm still attached to my drain. I do however, have a long "pathway" from my front door to my back door. So I did 15 minutes of brisk walking in my house and was able to get my heart rate up and it felt pretty good. 

Once that was done (and yes, I still need to get in at least 15 more minutes ) I put together some breakfast. 1 package of instant cream of wheat and a lot of water to make it runny. Then I also added 1/2 a scoop of protein powder which will now give me 10 grams of protein. 

And I've peed twice already today. Yes, weight loss surgery is about drinking, peeing, eating and pooping. It just is. You focus on having nice light yellow pee instead of dark and cloudy because then you know you're getting your fluids in and not risking dehydration. 

I also am feeling really pretty wonderful pain wise. I'm able to sleep on my side, on my stomach and have not taken any pain meds since my first night in the hospital. For that, I really do want to thank two people. First my daughter because she has been working out with me each week. Because of her I joined the gym and she was the one who found my awesome trainer who didn't shy away from the fact that I have a bad spine, no reflexes in my knees and a partially permanently disabled hand. 

Trainer Sadie made me and helped me stick to it when I was crying and really pissy with some of our workout sessions, she kept encouraging me and pushing me to work harder and now I can see the benefits of all that hard work. I'm really blessed that she CARED about me and helped me to achieve the level of strength that I'm at now by working with me not only physically but financially so I could be as prepared for this as possible. So I sent her this text today: 

I'm feeling very grateful and blessed. 

Dec 21st, five days later....

FOOD !!!

My doctor called and said I could have cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, cream of wheat and oatmeal!!!!  I'm so freaking excited that my hubby took me right to the grocery store to pick it all up!! 

By the way my weight today is 243.0 

Sick of "sweet"

Can I complain for a moment about how everything "diet related" is so sickeningly sweet?  From the Boost or Slim Fast protein shakes to the sugar free Popsicles it's absolutely disgusting. 

I'm do over the aspertame, Splenda, etc artificial sweeteners. I just want something that tastes like real regular food again. 

4 days post op

Weight:  244.8

When I first started this journey I kept fluctuating between 257 and 260 pounds. Then in preparation for the surgery and doing the liver shrinking diet, I walked in to surgery at 249 lbs. as of today I've lost 14.6 pounds. However going forward, I'm going to use the weight I was on my surgery date as a baseline because I want to know how much I'm losing BECAUSE of the VSG and not the liquid liver shrinking diet. 

With that being said, my weight on the date of surgery was: 249.0 lbs

Since the day of my surgery I've lost 4.2 lbs.

My laparoscope incisions seem to be healing nicely. No infection that I can see and no pain. They are really starting to itch which is a good sign. My JP tube/drain is still filling up twice a day with excess fluid. 

I don't think I've addressed my tubing. In my photo showing the lapriscopic incisions you can see the big white patch and underneath that is where my drainage tube goes into my belly and on the other end is a grenade looking like ball. Like this:  

This basically acts like a "wick" using gravity and suction to drain out any fluid or blood clots that are collecting in my belly where my stomach was. It also helps the doctor check at a glance for internal bleeding and infection. The ball holds about 3 ounces of fluid. Since coming home from the hospital and emptying the fluid and measuring myself, I've had just about 2 ounces of fluid collect in it each morning and night. I also need to "strip" the tubing at each emptying. 

The first time I did it, I evidently didn't have enough finger strength to pinch the line off on my own while stripping it. The result was I nearly fell to my knees in pain and it felt like someone had sucked all the air out of my body. I screamed out and my hubby came running. I spent most of the day yesterday in bed with a heating pad on my tummy. It was awful. 

I drained last night but didn't strip and this morning my hubby pinched off the tube while I stripped (sounds so sexy huh?) and I had absolutely no pain. Yay!

I'm having a hard time getting all of my water in, I do sip, sip, sip but you tend to forget to drink 1 ounce of liquid every 15 minutes. So now I'm conditioning myself to sip whenever I hear a commercial on TV, or the radio, or if I'm listening to my iPod, I sip at the end of 3 songs. I'm not experiencing nausea, but I ran my finger over the back of my neck and I still have a nausea patch on. I do vaguely remember the nuse saying it would last for 3 days. 

I am still experiencing gas. Not a lot of passing gas, but burping tremendous amounts. I'm not sure if that is related to the Sleeve or the repair of my hiatal hernia.  Yes, I had two surgeries in one day, a hiatal hernia that was as large as a grapefruit and my stomach was jutting up through the opening into my chest cavity. My surgeon said I had a stomach the size of a football and this was one of the largest hernias he'd ever seen. The worst thing I've experienced is getting the hiccups. Omg it sucks when that happens. 

Eating: I made my hubby dinner last night. Chicken soup with veggies and rice. It was nice to flavor it all and  then I had some of the broth and it was really good, it didn't taste all blah out of the container. 

During the day I drank maybe 24 ounces of water (which is bad)  4 ounces of Slim Fast protein drink (still a bit too think and sweet for me) and 1 container of yoplait lite yogurt (which took alllll day for me to get down) and a sugar free (SF) Popsicle. 

Today my goal is to be better.  I woke up dreaming I was eating cheetos. That's never happened to me Ever. I immediately got up and began drinking my protein. I've had 5 ounces of my Muscle Milk protein powder and two dime sized bites of yoghurt. 

I'm hoping for a better fluid day today :-)

Laparoscopic incisions

This is what my tummy looks look now. 5 incisions including the drain tube. It's not too bad. What really  sucks is all the shots they are giving me. I asked if they could put them in the IV and was told no, they had to be given right into flesh. GRRRRREEAAAATT.  So I've had 3 shots of blood thinners put right into my stomach, 2 nausea injections into my hip. And something else they gave me but I was so groggy I can't recall what it was. On top of it all I got a massive migraine. So I had a shot of Imitrex. 

After that shot, I didn't care anymore. I just wanted the room dark and to close my eyes and make the headache pain all go away. 

For breakfast, lunch and dinner I get wee bitty cups of red and orange gelatin and chicken broth along with a packet of crystal lite to add to my water.  I like jello. Thought I could handle eating the jello. One small bite and it was not jello. It's some off brand, skunky water, moldy tasting "jello wanna be"  UGH! I threw every single meal away after that. It was seriously gross and I'd rather not even try to swallow or taste it again. 

I'm not in any pain. Just a bit of an ache. My drainage collection bottle keeps filling up and they measure it, it's supposed to take the extra fluid out of the area where my stomach was removed and the doctor can easily see if I have any internal bleeding by checking the volume and color of the liquid that flows into the little grenade looking bottle on the end of the tube. I did have quite a few clots gather in the bottle but I've noticed the fluid isn't so bloody anymore. (TMI yes, I know, but what's the point in documenting all of this if it's not honest?) 

I am able to sleep on my sides, that's great because I'm a side sleeper and still have no pain. Any little twinges of pain has been rectified by simply taking a 500mg Tylenol Tablet. At fist I was hesitant to take the tablet. I kept hearing how it would get "stuck" and I'd be uncomfortable. But I did not experience that and it was just enough pain reliever to help with my back. 

Yes, my back. I have Degenerative Disc Disease in my spine and this is the kicker; my regular back pain hurts WORSE than my surgery! I'm kinda happy about that since I know how to deal with the back pain. 

That's all for now, I'm getting sleepy again so I'm gonna take a nap. 

Post-op

I have no idea what my weight is.

Today is my 3rd day post op and I'm still in the hospital. My doctor originally said it would be one day in and then I could go home, but that wasn't the case. Actually I don't know why I'm still here. This whole ordeal has been very stressful for my husband. He has spent every single second with me,

I did send him home last night. He was very reluctant to go, but I think he needs the rest and he's not getting it here. He made me promise to call him when wake up this morning. 

So, where am I now?

Well the doctor did find the hiatal hernia and fixed it. The doctor said the hole itself has was larger than a normal stomach my hernia was the size of a grapefruit. One of the largest he has ever seen. He also said he didn't know how I've been able to function with it being so large. That I should have had massive gurd and reflux. 

 For those who don't know a hiatal hernia is when part of your stomach sticks upwards into the chest cavity through an opening in the hiatus lining. I don't believe I've shared on this blog that after tests it was determined that my stomach was as large as a football. As for the umbilical hernia I have , he did not fix it.  Said he thinks it may resolve on its own, I don't know about that one. 

 I have 5 incisions scattered across my belly. All but one ( where my drainage tube is) are sealed with glue. No stitches or dressing of any kind except where the drain tube is and will remain for the next week, I have a huge bandage. honestly they don't hurt that much, where I feel the pain is inside, it feels like I'm having severe menstrual cramps. 

One thing I haven't mentioned is I'm not on ANY pain meds. The first day they had me pumping dillaud with a self administering pump attached to the IV.  If I felt like I was in pain I would give the pump a little squeeze and the dilaudid would go right into my IV. Nifty contraption but I've taken a lot of pain meds in my day and I know that the dilaudid kills me after a while. And it makes me have terrible stomach aches, dry mouth, and nausea. 

I experienced an entire day of dry heaves, and then some pretty fantastic wretching and vomiting. That's when my husband and I told them to stop the pain meds. So I haven't had any pain medication since the day of surgery (12/16) and the vomiting has stopped. 

I have a bit of pain (menstrual cramp feeling remember?) and I've been peeing like a freaking race horse. At 3:30 this morning I unhooked myself from everything and went to the bathroom. Tried to get back into bed when I realized I actually needed to have a bowel movement. I did call the nursing staff this time to let them know, they get me all prepared and then...Nothing but massive gas. 

They say that's a good thing, but I still feel all bottled up. 

The other thing is I've lost complete control of my bladder muscles. Nobody told me that would happen. I've completely pee'd myself in bed FOUR tImes and it SUCKS!!! Thank god the nurses are so easy going, they had to redo my bed once and then as I was getting back in, it happened all over again in less than a minute, :-(

I'm going to stop writing now because I'm getting really tired and want to go back to laying down. 

More later. 

At the hospital

Weight: 246.0

We're at the hospital, I'm checked in and this show is on the road. I didn't get much sleep. 

I was instructed to take a shower before bed with hibiclens. I took my shower at 11:30. Then took my very last huge drink of water. (Like 1/2 of a 16 oz water bottle) As I was doing it all I could think of was I'll never take a drink of water like that again in my life. 

I woke up twice and then our cat woke us up at 3:30. That was pretty much it. We were up. I had to be at the hospital for check in at 5:30 am. 

I flat ironed my hair, (no frizzies for me) and took my second shower with the hibiclens. Then wiped down with some anti-bacterial wipes and got dressed. 

So here we are. My hubby looks very tired. He says he didn't get any sleep. I can see the stress and worry in his face even though he's trying to keep it frome. 

I snapped this photo before we left home. And I'll never see this weight again in my life. 

Really proud of myself

I made breakfast for my hubby. Eggs, potatoes and toast. (Okay he put the toast in the toaster). Why is this so significant? Because I'm on the full clear liquid diet and it's not easy. So I had a water bottle and took sips every time I thought about tasting or how good it looked. I came up with this idea after I nearly popped a diced potato into my mouth. 

Today I start drinking ISOPURE.  40 grams of protein, 0 carbs and 80 grams of sodium. It's sweetened with aspertame and it tastes ... Eh. 

The way I can describe it is liquid sour patch kids. Why are these things so sickingly sweet and then a huge tart after -taste? So I mixed some up in some water and managed to get it down 

Thank god I have all day to drink this. 

So what is VSG surgery anyway???

It is NOT Gastric Bypass Surgery where your stomach is divided up into a pouch the size of a walnut which will hold 1 oz of food/liquid and then your intestines are attached to a small hole in your pouch.

With VSG surgery nothing is "bypassed".

This is what VSG Surgery is:

You have a proper functioning stomach (just as it was intended) however, a portion of your stomach is removed and then it looks happy like this:

Okay, so it's not really "happy" but it's a great visual of what the "sleeve" looks like. It's not a device or an actual "sleeve".  Here's the technical jargon:

Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy  

Vertical sleeve gastrectomy is surgery to help with weight loss. The surgeon removes a large portion of your stomach.The new, smaller stomach is about the size of a banana. It limits the amount of food you can eat by making you feel full after eating small amounts of food.

Description of procedure:

You will receive general anesthesia  before this surgery. This will make you sleep and keep you pain-free.

The surgery is usually done using a tiny camera that is placed in your belly. This type of surgery is called laparoscopy. The camera is called a laparoscope. It allows your surgeon to see inside your belly.

In this surgery:

• Your surgeon will make 2 to 5 small cuts in your abdomen.
• The surgeon will pass the laparoscope and the instruments needed to perform the surgery through these openings.
• The camera is connected to a video monitor in the operating room. Your surgeon will look at the monitor to see inside your belly.
• Your surgeon will insert thin surgical instruments through the other openings.

Your surgeon will remove most of your stomach.

• The remaining portions of your stomach are joined together using surgical staples. This creates a long vertical tube or banana-shaped stomach.
• The surgery does not involve cutting or changing the sphincter muscles that allow food to enter or leave the stomach
• The surgery may take only 60 to 90 minutes if your surgeon has done many of these procedures.

I love that it says "if your surgeon has done many of these procedures"  Trust me, I've researched my surgeon to death and he's done plenty! I don't think I could go with an "if" surgeon!

I hope that gives you a little more information on the process.
Please feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments

Just about 32 hours pre-op...

Weight is 250.0 lbs. (hmm guess this liver shrinking diet is working. I'm actually losing weight not only shrinking my liver it seems)

I love my husband. I honestly can say no one in my life has loved ME on the level he does except maybe my mother. Okay, maybe my children. (two adult daughters ages 28 and 26). He keeps checking in with me to see if I'm ok. I know he's worried about my emotional health right now. He's taking care of my trust and faith in him. I could see it in his face yesterday when we were at the grocery store getting the things I'll need to have here at home after the surgery.  While I was sitting in the car alone I said a prayer asking for strength. Not just for me but for both of us. And it was answered.

It's funny (and I honestly feel by no means coincidental and I'm not overly religious) but there are moments in my life that I KNOW are specific answers to a prayer.  And it happened a few hours after my prayer last night.

My hubby said something about an event that happened to us. He mentioned how timely it was and how nothing like it had happened before and now that this particular kind of support was needed... there it was. Just showing up out of nowhere.

It was then I told him that I had prayed about it and he was like "hmm...I didn't know that. I thought it was interesting it happened and now that I know you prayed for it, I believe it was an answer". Yes, the "answer" was that noticeable to both of us. I very much agree with him.  It's a personal and private thing but I wanted to make note of it. 

Anyhow...

My hubby is following my eating pattern. If I can't eat, he doesn't eat. When I can eat my protein, he does also. Today we went to GNC and bought the bottles of ISOPURE clear protein that I'll be on for the next few days. (I'm honestly not sure how long) but we picked up 6 bottles and my plan is to add a 5-6 ice cubes and some water into my food processor and whip them up like a slushie so I have that "eating/chewing" sensation. 

We're getting my list of necessities together that I need to take to the hospital with me... Gas-X, Milk of Magnesia, Tylenol Rapid Blast. I'm not sure if I will actually need this at the hospital but we're taking it all along. I've got new little sock slippers, Chapstick, pocket Kleenex, phone and ipad chargers, my nightgown, quilt, a couple of silly little puzzle games for us to play and will probably take my special neck pillow. 

13 days out from VSG surgery

This blog post date should be Wednesday, Dec 3, 2014

I've decided to start this blog to track my journey as I go through Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy (VSG) surgery. 

Going forward; at the beginning of each post I will try to put my current weight. 

I started this journey in August 2014, My physician suggested it after noticing that with my calorie consumption of less than 1,200 per day, negative thyroid tests (meaning nothing was/is wrong with my thyroid) and exercising, I was not losing weight. 

I am not a smoker, I very, very rarely drink alcohol or soda. It was determined that I would be a good candidate for metabolic weight loss. 

I however was not convinced. 

To help my decision I met with a nutritionist who said I was doing everything right and then I enrolled in a metabolic weight loss group. This would give me a chance to learn more about the possibility of bariatric surgery and my metabolism under a nutritionists and physicians weekly supervision for 6 weeks. At the start of the group (Sept 24, 2014) my weight was 260lbs. 

I tracked everything I ate. Even the mints or stick of gum with a calorie intake of no more than 1,200. In the first two weeks I lost a whopping total of zero.  

The biggest problem was I could not eat 1,200 calories per day. I was barely hitting 800 per day. 

Week 3 I lost 1/2 lb. then it was suggested I up my daily exercising, I went from a daily 1 hour work out (and also a personal trainer for an hour 2 times a week) to two hours per day. Week 4 brought a result of a regain for the lost 1/2 lb. then my calorie intake was dropped to 500 per day. This lasted for a day and one half after I nearly passed out walking on the treadmill and my trainer (and family) were horrified that I wasn't consuming enough food. 

My trainer Sadie came up with an eating plan she thought would work to keep my metabolism working and give me enough energy for my workouts. It consisted of me eating protein every 2-3 hours. I abandoned the food regime the nutritionists had me on and began following Trainer Sadie's nutrition schedule.

After a series of calls with my physician and various nutritionists at the hospital and blood work they agreed I should implement Trainer Sadie's nutrition plan. They also didn't realize I was working out for an hour each day already when they told me to up my exercise routine (which was now 2 hours per day) and told me that they believed 30 minutes was sufficient. I went back to my regular routine of an hour and on the days I have my personal training we do an hour of strength training as I've already completed an hour of cardio earlier in the day. 

Following Trainer Sadie's plan I lost 

5 lbs on week 4. But on week 5 they were back again. So I'm attributing it to water weight and not real weight lost. Since that last class in October I fluctuate between 254 and 260lbs. I can go to bed weighing 254 and wake up weighing 257. 

After my husband and I had a meeting with the metabolic surgeon and his lengthy explanation of the genetic metabolism issues I'm experiencing after my weeks of testing,appointments and discussions, I decided to move forward with VSG surgery. 

Today I'm 258lbs, 13 days out from surgery and I have started my liver shrinking diet. My liver will need to be lifted and moved out I the way and the shrinking my liver will allow the surgeon easier access to my stomach via the incisions he will need to make for the laparoscopic tools used during surgery. 

The diet consists of the following:

Breakfast: Protein drink no more than 200 calories with at least 12 grams of protein)

Lunch: Protein drink no more than 200 calories with at least 12 grams of protein)  and one small piece of fresh fruit. 

Afternoon Snack (which you should try to avoid if possible) 6 oz of light yogurt or 1/2 cup cottage cheese. 

Dinner: 4 ounces of lean turkey, chicken, ham, roast beef or fish. 1 cup cooked or raw green vegetables or 1/2 cup V8 juice

Optional: 1 slice of low calorie multigrain bread or 1 tablespoon potato, rice, pasta or beans. 

Evening Snack: 1/2 apple or 10 baby carrots.

 

During this time I need to also drink at least 64oz of water daily. 

Today I had my pre-op appointment which included an EKG and more blood work along with a final surgeons visit.