VSG Maintenance Group
Friday, March 29, 2024
5 days to Florida. Reverse countdown from a couple of weeks ago. The cool and frequently rainy weather here makes me yearn for sun and warmth wile working through my shoulder surgery recovery.
Boy has my appetite kicked in! Mostly in terms of cravings especially in the afternoon. I'm not eating a lot at any one time but yesterday kept craving something most of the afternoon. Which led to buying a small carrot cake to belatedly celebrate DS and my birthday (his is 6 days before mine****pt thinking about it all afternoon but by 8:30 when we had it I really didn't care much anymore. So I had a very small slice. i hope today is not a repeat of yesterday though I may have an egg this morning as my stomach is rumbling. The lure of calming down the cravings via the new weight loss drugs really appeals to me.
In the meantime, I slept okay last night except for a constant dull ache in my shoulder. I can deal with it during the day but is really tough at night. The Tylenol only seems to work for a couple of hours but the Oxy is way more than I need. I feel like Advil would work better but I can't take NSAIDS until 2 weeks post-surgery. Catch-22.
Not much else in the cold, wet, boring world here. Have a finicky Friday!
on 3/29/24 7:57 am
Interesting about the Advil! I have never understood the medical world's embrace of Tylenol. I don't think it reduces pain worth beans.
I had a really fun lunch with my two closest friends here. Fun too that I introduced them and we all get along so well! Nothing on the menu looked good to me. I kept thinking, that will make me full in a nanosecond, and that one, and that one... I settled on sliders. It was two tiny ones and fries. I ended up just eating the patties from the sliders after a few bites in the bun and picked at the fries. Looking at the other two meals at the table I'm not sure I would have made a dent. This is NOT like me, I assure you! I've never felt like those of you who could make one restaurant meal feed me 3 times. I might not have been able to finish a large plate, but would do enough damage that there wasn't any point in taking the rest home. This is really a foreign feeling. And I wonder, will this dose just eventually not work and I'll have to go up? Because I can't imagine needing or wanting more help than this.
A beautiful day here (it was in the 70s yesterday!) and then rain this weekend. I really just have tidying to do. I've always been messy (not dirty), but having dog paraphernalia everywhere really adds to my clutter tendencies.
Take care all!
My guess is that maintenance will be similar to after VSG. Once you get to goal do what you have been doing. If you stay within a band keep doing it. If you continue to lose, reduce the med or vice versa. Should be interesting!
I think the NSAID thing is a leftover of animal studies that said tendons didn't heal as well when the animals were on NSAIDs. But there was a human study done in 2023 and found no difference in the healing of humans who used NSAIDs vs those who didn't after shoulder surgery. The only difference was lower use of opiates in the group who took NSAIDs. A piece of me wants to sneak some if this continues at night.
Ah, Good Friday! Easter "Hell" started in my house last Sunday. I have grown to dislike the Christmas and Easter season living with a church musician. Ron's' hyper focus on making the music and liturgy "perfect" for these two seasons has kind of sucked the joy out of the seasons for me. Hard to explain, but after 35 years I have learned to keep my head down, breathe deeply, and focus on being kind. It's truly not always easy.
Almost went to bed without giving myself my shot!!!! Silly, silly me! But at least I remembered. I'm pleased with how the med is working for me, too. Though I am seriously thinking of switching to Zepbound/tirzapetide after this vial is finished. Only thing is I will most likely have to switch companies. The other option is that I can go to a 2.0 mg dose of semaglutide for an extra $100 per month, but that's still not even the Wegovy maximum dose. From talking to friends who have been on both semaglutide and tirzapetide, those with serious weight issues prefer the tirzapetide.
Liz, you know me and sweets. My team mate brought donuts. He plopped a raised glazed down beside me and there is sits. I have no interest in eating it. Yesterday and Wednesday I would have been much more tempted, but with a fresh shot it's a non issue. There is no noise. There is no battle of will. There is simply little, if any, interest. Like CC said... Who is this person????
My biggest fear with the meds is muscle loss. The lack of appetite in the first part of the "shot week" and then later in the "shot week" as noise begins to return, I start craving carbs instead of protein. It seems like they go down more easily. Yesterday, I picked up Kathryn from the surgery center (meniscus repair). She wanted to stop on the way home and get crackers because she was feeling nausea from the anesthesia. OMG! Those crackers were addictive!!!! I'm not even a cracker type of person, but these were DELICIOUS! Some type of Ritz dip cracker. Lord, do not bring those into the house if you are a cracker person! Anyhow, yesterday I made my trainer promise me she would tell me if I looked like I was losing muscle rather than fat. I am trying very hard to be protein forward, but sometimes it's not as easy as it was after VSG.
No shows this weekend. We have plans to drive up to Kenwood for Easter with one of Ron's sisters. I'm sure it will be a nice time.
Festive, Frivolous, Frolicking Friday to all!
Liz, it seems like your recovery is racing forward! Arm out of the sling and self care. That's awesome.
All things considered, I think the tirzepatide is the way to go. Weight loss trials show it is more effective than Wegovy. Why not use the big guns if a available. My insurance doesn't cover it yet, so I'll be staying with Wegovy.
The protein issue annoys me. Before, anxiety that I was eating something that would lead to weight gain. Now anxiety that I'm not getting enough protein. I'm not. I know I'm not. And despite knowing how to "focus on protein" it's very hard to execute.
I think I've completed all the required training modules, and earned all my badges and CEUs. Going to close my laptop shortly, and then just check my email on my phone a couple of times. Spring Break here I come!!!
