Sunday, February 15, 2015

The other side

I am now 11 days post surgery.

I went through a lot of anxiety in the lead up to the surgery, wondering if I'd done the right thing or if the band was the right type of weight loss surgery for me. Luckily, I was also very busy finishing off work so that I could go on leave, so it made it harder to dwell on what was coming up.

The day of the surgery, we arrived at the hospital just after 7am and I was admitted straight away and taken to my room. Then came the waiting. I found out that I was 4th on my doctor's list for the morning, so I wouldn't get taken up to surgery until 11am or so.
I was sharing a room with another lady getting the same surgery that morning, but she was either first or second on the list so she was taken away fairly quickly.
The wait was the hardest. That did give me time to worry, but it was too late to back out :)
I hate waking from anaesthetic and that was what I worried about the most. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best experience, but I was back in my room fairly soon.

I spent the night in the hospital and the nurses there were all amazing. I didn't sleep well though and was keen to get home. I was up early and moving and ready to go when P came to get me in the morning. Then it was just waiting for the surgeon to visit before I got the all clear to go home.
When he came to see me, he said everything had gone well, so that was a relief. I had been worried that they would have trouble with my liver not shrinking enough in the Optifast period or that they would maybe find a hernia or something, but nope, all good.
The lady that I'd shared the room with had not done so well since surgery, suffering from a lot of nausea. She was still there when I left, but I hope that she is doing much better now.

At home, I was in more pain than I'd expected for the first 4 or 5 days. I had some trouble sitting and standing, changing position while sitting and with laying down.
I wished that we had a recliner or something for me to sleep in as even now, laying down is something that's not too comfortable.

The first few days were great, food-wise. I was not feeling hungry at all and I lost nearly 4kg in the first week. But after that my hunger came back and I've been able to drink more. I was totally over veggies from the optifast diet and so unfortunately I have been having quite a few milk based drinks every day, as well as ice cream. I think that's been boosting my calories enough that I haven't lost anymore weight since.
This week in the lead up to going back to work I will be gradually moving back to a low calorie diet, focusing on high protein and low carb.


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Highest Weight = 153.2kg (August 2014)
Optifast Starting Weight = 148kg (January 16, 2015)
Surgery Date = 140.6kg (February 6, 2015)
First Goal Weight = 99kg 

Current weight = 136.8kg (February 16, 2015)
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