One week post op

I am one week post op, and was just reflecting about my post op journey so far, so thought I'd share. :)

It's been a roller coaster week! I was expecting it to be easy, since I've read so many ppl say it is easy for them (which is great!). I have a high pain tolerance, and a high "bounce back-ability". This week was not easy! But... it was manageable. So I'll take that!

Things that were difficult:

• Figuring out what to eat - oh boy, that was surprising. I like almost everything! Well, post op, it's a different story. But I've found a few things my pouch and I can agree on, and I'm good.
• Vitamins. Not getting them in, but more that my first vitamin I had, I popped the whole thing in my mouth, chewed, chewed, kept chewing and eventually swallowed. Wow, that was way too big a bite!!! So I've learned to bite off little pieces of my vitamins like they are food, chew, swallow and repeat.
• Bowels. Yep, me again with the bowels!! TWH had me on a whole bunch of laxatives and stool softeners - way too much for my system. I waited one extr day to call the nurse hotline, thinking it would resolve itself. Umm, why? I was still taking the meds! When I finally called, they took me off all those meds. I'm now back to normal. :) Lesson learned: call the nurse hotline, that's what they are there for!
• My insides and my outsides hurt... more than I realized they would. Sometimes an ice pack would help. Other times, Tylenol. Thankfully I didn't need anything stronger.
• Emotions. It was just... emotional. I was tired. It was more painful than I imagined. I had no clue what to eat. Oh, and an hour after my bowels calmed down, I got my period!!! Super heavy, and I wasn't due for 2 weeks. Definitely an emotional week!!

Some successes this week:

• I didn't need the narcotics they prescribed.
• I slept through every night (well, I woke up, but went right back to sleep).
• I've only had to nap twice this week!
• I'm down 14 lbs since surgery!!!
• I saw my doc for my 1 week f/u today and he's thrilled with the progress of my healing.
• I work from home (self employed) and have been able to work a few hours every day this week!!
• I actually did my hair today, put on makeup, went out for a mani/pedi and this evening for a girls night! (My sister drove)

Things I am looking forward to:

• Driving!!!
• Eating actual food!!
• Having my dog back with me (even though my sister brings her every day; she's too much for me to walk)
• Feeling like myself again, although today, for the first time since surgery, got pretty close!!!
• And of course... weight loss. :)

Yay! You can be my coach.. so happy for you!!

Thanks girl! We're in this together. :)

;)

So so great! Lots of ups and downs (sorry you are in more pain than expected) but seems the ups are outweighing the downs and that's pretty spectacular for one week out. Yay for sleep, yay for little meds, ya for getting your make up on and for finding your new grove with food. You're doing awesome!! Thanks for the insight and keep up the good work and great attitude! Proud of you.

Thanks girl! I'm so excited for your surgery coming up so soon. I think expectations are half the battle. It's going to be different for everyone, but I think I felt like "everyone" had an easy time post op, so why was it so hard for me? I've only been learning this past week that many ppl find the first week difficult. And for many, like me, at the end of that first week, it starts to normalize.

That's really what I wanted to share. :)

I think it's great that you're sharing that. It's important to hear all experiences good and bad. It's great to cheer each other on but we need to also be unmasked about how truly challenging this journey is and right now you're in one of the hardest places AND you're doing great, so I appreciate the honesty. It's not easy. I had a friend who'd been through it tell me it was much more painful than both her c-sections so I had mentally prepared for that and then went to a TWH support meeting and saw people who were a week out saying how great they felt, and yes, I was surprised. All we can do is hope for the best and keep a healthy attitude and you're rocking that!

Right now I'm trying to temper my expectations that food will never be the same for me as the reality of that impending "divorce" ha**** me since starting Opti. It's all good though. I'm ready.

Thanks for being candid and giving a glimpse into what's to come. Glad you survived the week smiling!

I think we build a new relationship with food... but I think that's essentially why we're having this surgery right? We can't do what we always did and expect to get different results. Things have to be different in order to get different results. And the only thing that can be different in order to lose weight is food. I think eventually food will be much better than it has been this week. It's already better! The goal of the surgery at least at TWH, is that we get back to eating regular food just in different quantities then we did before.

It's definitely an adjustment on all fronts of life. I think though it will be the greatest adjustment of life. I'm excited to see your progress as you move through your post Op journey. :)

Thank you oneatatime. Seeing your progress is very helpful too. I got a bit freaked out today seeing an Instagram feed with the topic of not enjoying eating anymore and how awful it was and these were people months out. I'm sure that's not the case for everyone it just gave me a reality check a bit that I can't know just how different things might be till I get there and will I like it? Perhaps not all of it. Either way the pros still outweigh the cons. It's frustrating though when I once thought I had my weight issues beat, going down to 159 and said NEVER again, that here I am a decade later and higher than I could have ever expected awaiting a major life altering change. I see why it's necessary and want to not only lose but actually have a chance of keeping it off. I have definitely learned not to take that weight loss for granted. I just hope it's more pleasant than not. I do think the pouch will give me tools and learning I didn't have the first time I lost the weight and that will be so worth it. Even if it's a hard process of change and learning.

Yeah, the fear is real. I get it. I have been looking at recipe books and magazines and online non-stop for a couple of days actually. It's interesting though... I look at things and I can almost taste them, and I have a good sense of what I think I'll like and won't like. I've always been a foodie though, and always preferred savoury to sweet. Don't get me wrong, I love sweet (or did) and love to bake and eat it!!! But I find myself craving meat/protein already. And veg... but I love veg and miss it!

We'll figure this out!! Trust me... I'll be posting food successes and failures. Lol. Hopefully, not so many failures. :)