Little over two weeks post-op

Well, it is a little over two weeks, and I am feeling really good.
I am down about 32lbs since surgery, down 62lbs overall.

I got issued new work pants (BDU's) about 8 months ago. They have been sitting in the closet since then because they were way too tight. I wouldn't have been able to wear them at work. I tried them on a week before surgery and they fit, although still a bit snug, but they were wearable. Then last week when getting ready to return to work, I put them on again. They fit, and fit comfortably. In fact, they are a little loose now.

Thanksgiving was not too bad at all. I had a deviled egg and felt fully satisfied. Yeah, all the food looked and smelled so good, but I found it wasn't that hard to pass it all up after I had eaten the egg. Weird how one little deviled egg seemed to be enough. Other than that, got to hang out with the family and it was fun.

I am trying to get myself in the habit of walking each day. My goal is to walk 1 mile on the days I work, and 3 miles on the days I don't. I work 12 hour shifts, so I only work 3, sometimes 4 days a week, so i figured this would make about 15 miles a week.

I am eating soft foods this week, eggs, cottage cheese and have had no problems with anything so far. Everything else seems to be working just fine, and overall I am feeling really good.

Can't wait to see what the next few months have in store for me.

Post-op meeting

Went in Monday, Nov. 19th for post-op meeting with the doc. It was a pretty short one really. He wanted to know how I was feeling, looked at the stab wounds on my stomach and said he thought I was doing really good.
I asked him a few questions about nutrition and vitamins and then asked if i could go back to work. He said, sure, if you feel like it go for it.
I weighed in at 382lbs, which is a 23lb loss in two weeks. My blood pressure was also down to a good level. Last few times I had it checked before I had surgery it has been borderline high.

So I went back to work last night. This works out well because I only have to work last night and again tonight and then I am off for the next four days. It lets me kind of ease back into the routine a bit. Things went good last night and I felt just fine. I had one little problem when I first got to work because I forgot the papers the doc signed for me, but you can read all about that at my work blog here.

Well, that's about all the new news for now. Thanks for checking in on me.

My weight loss and exercise log

I looked around the internet and couldn't find a book I liked to keep a journal of my weight loss, and eventual exercise habits.

I decided to make my own and put the things in it I thought would be important.

I decided to make a little one page web site and make the journal available to other people.

The link is http://pruittclan.net/wlsjournal and can be found to the left in my links of interest.

If you know anyone interested, point them to the site.

One week out...

Well, it has been a week since doc went in and cut up my innards.
I feel great. I am doing the mantra...sip, sip, sip, walk, walk, walk, and healing up just fine.
All the puncture wounds in my belly are healing very nicely.
I have plenty of energy to get out and walk around.
Haven't taken any pain meds since Tuesday evening.
Don't even have much soreness in the stomach from getting up off the couch anymore.
Basically, I have been blessed, lucky or whatever you want to call it and have had no problems and am doing great.

I DID get the whole head hunger thing a couple times this week. I haven't been hungry by any means, but on Monday, the kids were home from school, my son cooked some spaghetti and meatballs for lunch. DAMN that smelled SOOOO good. Despite not being hungry, i wanted a bowl of that so bad. So, I grabbed a sugar free popsicle and just enjoyed the aroma. That happened again last night when my wife brought home chicken for dinner. That one was not as bad I think, just because I knew it wasn't too much longer and I could tear the skin off and join them for that one.

I was on full liquid this last week. I get to have "creamy" foods this week. Creamed soups, or cream of wheat, that sort of stuff. So today is looking even brighter with a bunch of new tastes and options opening up for me.

So, to make a long post even longer, I am basically doing very well, feel fantastic, spirits are up and want to thank everyone of you for all the support and help through this wonderful journey so far.

Surgery went well....

Well, the big day finally arrived.
I woke up WAY too early Friday morning (4:00 am) and jumped in the shower.
Made a last minute check to make sure I had everything. CPAP machine, bag with toothbrush, deoderant, all that good stuff, my Bariatric notebook, I was ready to go. We drove to Corvallis and checked in.
I was taken right into a room to await surgery. Changed into an interesting gown. It was your basic hospital type gown, but it was disposable and had these little pockets lining the inside. They had a hose that attached to it and it had a climate control. You could turn it up to warm you, or if you were hot you could cool it down. It was kind of cool. The anesthesiologist came in and asked a few questions and told me what he would be doing. Then Bobbie, who is the program manager for the Bariatric Program, came in and talked to me for a while. At 7:30 am they came in and wheeled me away.

They took me into the surgery room and had me scoot to the operating table. Then the anesthesiologist gave me a shot of the happy stuff and the lights went out.

I woke up in recovery. Pain. Lots of pain. Felt like someone had cut up my insides. Oh yeah, they did. The upper part of my belly was really sore. They eventually took me to my room. I was pretty out of it most of the day. I had a button I could hit every ten minutes to administer pain medicine. It would make me groggy as hell, I would sleep for 15 minutes or so, wake up, hit the button again....wash, rinse repeat. Most of the day went like that.

Then in the afternoon the physical therapist came in and had me moving my limbs and asked if I wanted to try going for a walk. Since my back was getting sore at this point, I figured I might as well give it a try. It was the best decision I could have made. Getting up seemed to help clear the head a little and helped relieve some of the pain. It also helped to get up and stretch the back a bit. I got up two more times that night to walk around.

By Saturday morning I was feeling much better. I wasn't hitting the pain medicine pump but once or twice an hour. The physical therapist came back in about 9:30 am and asked if I wanted to try walking again. I told her I did and that I had been up a couple more times the night before. She took me out walking and determined I could get up and walk on my own from now on, without having to have someone with me. By this time Dr. Read had come in and checked on me while I was standing next to the bed. He asked how I was doing and I told him I felt pretty good. I asked him to please have someone come in and take the damn catheter out. He said he would, and someone came in shortly after to remove it. Then I started pleading my case to go home that day. Bobbie came in and said that if I could go to the bathroom on my own, and if I could tolerate the liquid Vicadin for pain tolerance I could go home that afternoon.

I was able to meet the requirements, so by 3:00 pm they started the paperwork to release me. By about 3:30 pm I was on my way home.

It felt good to get home, and the last couple days have not been too bad. I haven't had any problem getting the amount of fluids down they want me to. I am supposed to get in at least about 50 ounces of liquids a day. Since I have to drink small sips, it means sipping on water all day, but I haven't had any problems with it. I also have had some sugar free popcicles and sugar free jello. That will pretty much be my diet for the rest of this week.

I have a post-op appointment for the 19th of November. Denise forgot to write the time down, so I have to call tomorrow and confirm the time for the appointment. Other than that, things are going pretty good.

Will update again after my post-op appointment unless something new comes up in the mean time.