Back to work- great one week, not so much next...

I went back to work a week ago, and the first week felt fine.  I was getting back my stamina and was working up to a big event on Saturday.  Unfortunately, I think I overdid it and did not drink much on Saturday as I got too busy and probably only drank about 8oz. of fluids all day.  By Sunday I was feeling a touch of nausea.  Monday at work, I was struggling, but I had so much to do I felt like I need to push through it all.

Then today, even after a great night's sleep, I woke up proceeded to get dressed and ready for work and as I was walking out the door I felt the nausea come back again.  I decided to try and tough it out again, but by mid-afternoon I no longer could stop thinking about it.  I just came home at that point.  I got onto the forums that I usually frequent on obesityhelp.com and found someone going through the same thing but on a much grander scale to where she had to go to the E.R.. It appears I may have a touch of dehydration.  I am not surprised because lately the plain water is just not going down too well.  I've tried herbal tea and other liquids, but it just isn't getting me back on track.  So, tonight is my goal to just keep drinking fluids until I go to bed.  Perhaps this will be the answer.  

I have always had a tough time drinking enough and eating enough at work.  This has been a bad habit of mind for years and it'll be more important now to make sure it doesn't continue.  Typically, before I got the surgery, I may eat lunch some days, or I would not.  Most often I would come home so hungry and just start eating even before my dinner was ready.  I would eat at night and then go to bed.  That was one of my worst problems.  Now, I am still forgetting as the day goes by to continually drink whatever is on my desk.  I try to eat, but with this nauseous feeling I'm not hungry.  At least at the moment, as I write this, I am drinking a 16oz. Crystal Light.  I am hoping this will help, and when I did get home I had a sugar-free popsicle.  As much as I don't feel like having anything I know this is important.

Funny, five weeks after surgery and this is when I start to not feel good.  I was looking forward to my doctor's appointment next week so I could move up to soft foods.  I sure hope I can stave off the hospital visit, if necessary I may have to stay home tomorrow and just rest up and drink more fluids around the clock.  This is not fun!

For what's its worth, I did call the doctor's office and the nurse did tell me this was normal around where I"m at in recovery.  I guess its my body trying to adjust and figure out what the heck is going on.  As I sit here now, I realize that it won't be all smooth sailing.  There will be times where I won't be perfect and I'll have to be okay with that.  I am grateful that I have a great job and they are completely understanding.

Until next time....hopefully I'll be much better:)

This really works!!! Smiles all day today:)

Well, today after so many days of waiting for the scale to drop like it did when I got home from the surgery it finally dropped nicely.  Now I am down a total of 32.6lbs since I started this process.  Tomorrow will mark my three week anniversary of the surgery.  I am totally content and have adjusted to this pureed diet well.  Not every day can I eat everything and not everyday do I feel I've eaten enough, but all in all I have done remarkably well without bad cravings and feeling sorry for myself.

One thing I did to get myself through this is make meals for my husband for when he gets home from work.  It forces me to face food that I cannot eat on a daily basis and the more I don't eat it the easier it gets.  I've gone to a movie and survived people eating that wonderful popcorn all around me.  By the end of the movie that smell, I was sick of it and wanted to nothing to do with it.  Sense of smell is a powerful tool and can be all a person needs to get the craving somewhat cured.  The pinto re-fried beans at Taco Bell are quite good too.  I longed for the Nachos my hubby had, but it wasn't long before the fullness returned to my stomach and I wasn't interested in thinking about eating anymore.

My next hurdle is to get the stamina level back up and be able to walk without any pain.  It's amazing how out of shape one can become recovering from surgery.  Last week I had little to no pain, now this week I can barely finish a walk with the excruciating pain in my upper back.  Either this is really good, or it's a setback.  I am too afraid to call the doctor, I'm just gonna suck it up.

I am hoping to go back to work next week, but I"m afraid it may be half-time for at least the first part of the week.  If this pain doesn't go away and if I don't up my stamina I won't be able to hack a full day at work yet.  I'll take it one day at a time, and if I'm not ready that's what it is.

I will keep posting as often as I can.  I really want people to get a good feel for what to expect when you get this surgery.  For me, there was a lot of things other people told me about it, but it's not like going through it yourself.  You really realize how drastic the decision you made was and embrace the loss once it begins.  I wished I didn't have to do this but it was really time to do something before things really started to happen that I could not back away from.  My line I used a lot was, "Oh, I'm still young I have plenty of time".  Truth is if you want to live a long healthy life you need to take care of yourself, the sooner the better.  I also want to grow old without a ton of health conditions that can prevent me from really enjoying life.  I want to be able to swim in the ocean with the dolphins again, zip-line across the rain forests, hike the Swiss Alps, or even wear a bikini for the first time in my life, publicly!  I know it won't be the answers to everything, but being healthy and fit will be far more easier to tackle life than the extra weight, high blood pressure, possibly diabetes and heart issues that can develop after a lifetime of abuse to your body.

Do yourself a favor, write a list of things you'd like to do...don't think about what you can do now but things you really want to do.  Look at the list and see how many of those things you can do now.  Take that list and map out your health and fitness to get you there.   What a sense of accomplishment once you get there!  Life is really short and it should be lived doing everything possible to get the most out of it.

I have a new lease on life and couldn't be more happier.  This is really just the beginning.  The joys of what will come down the road are waiting for me.  I can't wait!

Here is a good quote:

"No Matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of anyone who isn't trying"  

- Tony Robbins

Ten Days Since Surgery - all is going well

Hello!

Well, it appears it has been a few days since my last post.  I am still doing the pureed foods of course and will be for another 3-4 weeks.  I am finding that I struggle to get all the meals and snacks with my fluids in each day.  It's tough.  Spacing out a 1/2 hour at least between eating and drinking makes everything so timed and sometimes we don't want to feel like we're on a schedule, but really I am.  My daily meals have become: Breakfast - Oatmeal with sugar-free syrup and sugar-free/seedless blackberry jam
Mid-morning snack - if i get around to it usually is a popsicle, sometimes a protein shake
Lunch - Re-fried Beans 4 oz, or 2 oz of re-fried beans and 2 oz. of apple sauce
Mid-afternoon snack - once again either a popsicle or a protein shake. I seem to do this one as I get hungrier between lunch and dinner.
Dinner - Egg, a whole one if I can eat it.  Sometimes I do the egg for breakfast and mix all these dishes around.  Most times its egg for lunch and re-fried beans for dinner.
Late evening snack - if I get around to it, again a popsicle or a protein shake

I have been holding steady at 25lbs loss for a few days now (up and down a pound, kind of annoying).  I am a bit frustrated as I barely eat anything and my body is fighting me at the moment.  I know once I start any physical exercise that will make a difference.  I have been scared to lately though, I have had to contend with a pulled muscle on my left side rib-cage and I don't want to re-jar it again.  I find when I start doing chores around the house, about 5-10mins into it my stomach tightens like I've done a 1000 sit ups.  That's usually when I stop.  I am still not lifting anything and can't really for another 4 weeks.

I do have a doctor's appt in two days and will find it interesting to see how I've progressed in his eyes.  It'll be nearly two weeks since I had seen him last.

I am trying to keep myself busy as I am not one to just sit around and do nothing.  Between tending my small business at home, facebook, blogging, reading, watching the Olympics, and writing in my journal my days seem to go quite fast.  Reading has been hard on me, holding a book for long periods of time seems to be a challenge.  Even if I lay down to read, finding a comfortable position can be a struggle as my side begins to hurt and I am paranoid of straining my incisions on my stomach.

However, all things considered I am 25lbs less than I was when I started the two pre-op diet and since the surgery and that should make me happy.  It's nice to know that I am on my way!

Until next time...Thanks for visiting!

Here's an inspirational quote I like: 

"The virtue lies in the struggle, not in the prize." by Richard Monckton Milnes.