New Gut: Day 3

10.03.2013

I've had more people than I would have though ask about what I can eat now. I thought I would share that here, so that maybe I can keep my story straight.

The first 2 weeks after Sleeve surgery are the most restrictive because your stomach lining has to heal, and as such you want to minimize your stomach acid. My first two days at home I ate:

• Popsicles
• Jello
• Water

Because the size of my stomach has been reduced, I aim to take in no more than an ounce per 15 minutes. I can probably try to take in more, but this was the number stressed in all the documentation and diet class. More than anything I don't want to throw up, so I keep to that limit pretty well. I've been trying to mainly drink water to keep hydrated, while the popsicles and Jello were for those time I was feeling a little nausea. Because Jerry is counting his calories, I think I took in just under 70 calories over those two days.

Today I get to add protein shakes, pudding, broth, and yogurt. None of that can have chunks of fruit or extra stuff - it still has to be liquid, and it has to be sugar free/fat free. I'm a little shocked that yogurt is on the list as I would think the enzymes would stir up the stomach.

When I got up at 7:00 this morning I mixed up my protein shake. I've heard some people are lactose intolerant after surgery, so as I poured 8oz of skim milk into my shaker cup I was a little worried. Lots of sips and 45 minutes later I had drank roughly 1/3 of the shake and was feeling ok. Looks like I can keep on shaking!

I've been lucky with not suffering many side effects from surgery. I don't seem to have these gas bubbles of pain (although I was farting a lot Tuesday). My incision sites don't hurt too bad, and the 2 spots that hurt the most are the ones that are supposed to. There have been silly little things I've noticed - my right hand was where my IV was attached, and it was pretty swollen. Last night I was finally able to close my right hand into a fist, but this morning you can still see the swelling around the knuckles. I also can't properly play Grand Theft Auto as I tend to rest my hands and controller on my gut, which seems to be the key incision locations (I actually press into my stomach with my hands/controller when playing).

When I have to search for things like that to complain about, I must be doing pretty good.

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New Gut: Day 2

10.02.2013

Surgery on Monday went without any problems. I learned afterward that I have a huge liver. If I hadn't lost those 30 lbs the doctor wanted me to lose before surgery, he said he wouldn't have been able to safely perform the surgery. There's also a high chance that this would have eventually lead to Cirrhosis.

I did well on my hospital stay. My main goal was to get up and walk since that's the best way to alleviate the laproscopic gas pain. Walking a minimum distance is also the crux of the doctor saying it's ok to go home. I learned from the nurses that 20 laps around the floor seems to be the minimum. From talking to the doctor in his office it seems most people go from 20-30 laps. I'm a super hero, so I did 50. Mainly it felt good to get up and move around, and I wasn't in too much pain - thanks in part to the morphine pump.

I got home yesterday around noon. Since then I've been concentrating on drinking water and taking naps. I still walk through the house, but not as much as I was walking in the hospital. I can feel more gas moving through my system, but that's good. After I'm up and moving around for about 20 minutes, I'm ready for a 30 minute nap.

Speaking of which, I think I may slip into the next nap phase.

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40 pounds

09.30.2013

5 more pounds in a week - that's what having protein shakes at 2 meals plus a meal of meat will do for me. This also means that since January, I managed to drop 40 pounds.

That's good, as today is surgery day. In roughly 3 hours I should be getting a Gastric Sleeve. Oddly enough, as the time has been drawing closer over the last week I've been getting less and less nervous. If you don't count having to get up a couple of times in during the night thanks to some Magnesium Citrate, I slept rather sound.

The rest of the week should be interesting. I should be back home tomorrow. At that point, everything truly is on me to see how much weight I can lose. You would think that 40 pounds is a good amount of weight to lose. Unfortunately, losing that has only gotten me back to where I started when I had success with Atkins/South Beach a few years ago (and I lost 56 pounds that time).

So, I lost 40 pounds on my own. Let's see how much surgery helps from here on out.

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Ignore the 2% Fat Percentage Increase

09.24.2013

Today was my final visit with the bariatric surgeon before surgery on Monday. I now have a time (11:00 AM) for surgery! In addition, I got them to print me a receipt from the Scale of Doom, previously visited on January 31 (see receipt above to the left). Now I can see what difference I really made in the past 7 months.

• Original Weight: 439.2
• New Weight: 410.8

An official loss of 28.4 pounds. That puts me smack dab in the middle of the requested 25-30 pounds to lose. Go me!

• Original BMI: 62.0
• New BMI: 57.8

Still fat. Actually, I'm still Super Obese (BMI over 50).

• Original Fat Mass: 258.6
• New Fat Mass: 249.8

Of that 28.4 pounds gone, roughly 9 pounds was pure fat.

• Original FFM: 180.6
• New FFM: 161.0

This is the part I don't like so much, as my lean muscle mass (muscle, bones, water) dropped 19 pounds. This is the side of the weight I want to retain that makes me strong and buff!

• Original TBW: 132.2
• New TBW: 117.8

This is the amount of water I'm carrying, so it looks like most of that lean mass that I loss was fluid. I can trick myself into accepting that for now.

Next up is all the shopping for the stuff I'll need to get ready for surgery, as well as those things I'll need right after getting back home. Luckily, Gina is familiar with the layout of Walgreens so I'm taking her on a shopping spree later tonight.

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The last 10 pounds only took 5 months.

09.23.2013

Back in February I started my path to gastric surgery at 437 pounds (according to my scale). The bariatric surgeon wanted me to lose 25-30 pounds over the next 6 months. After gaining another 4 pounds after I heard that, I started dieting in earnest and dropped to 427 after a little more than a week. 2 weeks later I was down to 417, but like any diet, that rate wouldn't last.

Between March and September, my weight has fluctuated between 409 and 423. There are times I wouldn't classify what I was eating as being "on a diet", but my target of 407 was always eluding me.

This month I reached the end of my insurance mandated 6 months of primary care physician visits focused on my weight. The paperwork was turned in to the insurance company and bariatric surgery was approved. I went to the bariatric surgeon's office and got weighed and was told I had lost 21 pounds (which would put me at 416 on my scale). Not 25-30 pounds, but not a weight loss I was chastised for. We set my surgery date for the 30th, and the nurse told me to try not to gain any weight by then.

One of the important pre-surgery items is a 2-week mostly liquid diet they recommend. Breakfast and lunch are replace by protein shakes, and dinner is 6 oz of meat with some low-carb vegetables. This should not only allow for more weight loss (this is actually the weight loss diet recommended at the beginning of the 6-month insurance watching period) but to prep your stomach for surgery - the emptier the stomach is, the better. Last week I started the above diet. Over the weekend my scales bottomed out at 406, so I've reached my pre-surgery target weight!

Tuesday I go back to the bariatric surgeon to find out (I hope) what time on the 30th my surgery is, along with whatever happens at his last-visit-before-surgery appointment.

Although I've been pretty quiet here about my upcoming surgery, I feel a sudden purge of info coming.

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