21 days out ...

I had surgery on April 7th. I went in expecting the worse and was surprised that it went much better than expected. I came out of surgery in some pain, but the nurse was there with medicine to help with that. I had major soreness in left shoulder and neck. Asked for a heating pad and within a day it had move and was feeling much better. Was up and sitting by nightfall. They next few days, I slowly improved and the test they needed to do wasn't so bad. I had worse. I also had medicine that tasted worse than they gave. I know everyone is different and my experience may be different from yours. The only thing that was a problem was I had low blood and anemia. It required me to have to recieved blood and stay on iron even now. Came home on the 11th. It was hard at times. I felt nauseous and was in pain, every time I ate. Later learn I was trying to eat too much and was advised how I should be eating. It is a good idea to have an open connection with your doctor or dietian. Its a big help. I can tell you that something that helped with the pain was to make yourself walk. I started with only 5 minutes about 6 times a day and worked up to 10 minutes. At my 2 week check up, they said I needed to start to decrease the time in between and go for 20-30 minutes at least once a day. I still working on it. I can increase the time to continue the weight loss later. Just listen to your body and it will tell what you can do. Now I am 21 days out and down 23 pounds. I am slowly introducing pureed foods. It is giving me some trouble, but I know it will get better. My body knows what it wants and for a while I'll just have to do what it wants. As for pain, still some in the left side, but managable. I AM SO GLAD I HAVE HAD THE SURGERY!!! Please if anyone has any questions or comments, e-mail me. Ellen

A fellow 4/7'er. Congratulations on your weight loss. No one said it was going to be easy but we are in this for the long haul and will come out the other side the better for it. You are right to listen to your body. I use it to gauge the days I can handle walking at the gym. If it's manageable, I go for it and it seems to help. If it seems pretty intense, I take a day off. For now, I'm shooting for every other day for a 25-30 minute treadmill walk. On the off days, I just shoot for a quick quarter mile trek around the neighborhood with both kids in tow if I have to now that the weather is getting nicer (though we had snow here last week! AARGH!) Keep it up!! Christi Waterford, MI

Hello, the first couple of shakes I was allowed to have, I over did it. I took the shake and drank it and was REALLY sorry. Now I have to sip it and maybe only get 1/2-3/4 down. I have to re learn how to eat (and drink) and your right, we have to learn to listen to our bodies. Good post thanks! Kristy