The day following the surgery was pretty miserable. I was taking liquid pain medication because I'm not allowed to swallow pills or capsules anymore with the band in place. It helped holding a pillow against my stomach so I held that thing tightly all week long. The worst part of it was the gas that was still inside my stomach from the surgery that would cause insane pressure in my back and sides.
It also didn't help that I was having menstrual cramps the four days after having stomach surgery. I couldn't tell if the cramps were from that or my surgery-- all I knew is that it sucked. I also am NOT a back sleeper so it was hard for me just lay there with pillows all around me. It was about five or six days before I braved sleeping on my side/stomach. The pains were the worst at night because of how I was positioned in bed I guess.
The one good thing about the few days after surgery was that I didn't feel like eating much and since I was on the clear liquid diet until the following Tuesday, that was a good thing in my opinion. Day three after surgery I stopped taking the pain medicine and began having a lot of sugar free popsicles to take my mind off of how hungry I was. Not gonna lie, on day nine of the clear liquid diet, the same day my family barbequed for my dad's birthday, I cried. I. was. starving!
My family could really start to tell a difference in my face by the end of the week, but I couldn't believe it when I stepped on the scale one week after surgery, ten days after the clear liquid diet started and I had lost 18 pounds. (Went from 251 to 233 lbs. in ten days.) I was sooo excited.
Everything went great at my one week appointment, I was now allowed to eat blended soups and oatmeal. It was the first time I felt full and it was only after eating half a cup of blended potato soup! The reason why you have to ease into eating soft foods and take it in stages is because your stomach is inflamed after surgery and it needs to heal and settle before I try to digest anything more difficult.
After week two, I actually gained a pound and was a little disappointed but knew that it had to be normal, especially after losing 18 and then actually getting to eat real food. Week three and four, I have been able to eat a bigger variety of foods. I can have soft fish, mashed potatoes, eggs, cheese and crackers. I've also been able to eat some things that were listed for a few weeks later, but all I have to do is eat them very slowly and make sure I chew them up good enough in order to digest them properly. That was necessary while I was traveling back to Dubuque for one more week of work and then also when we attended the freaking four BBQs in a week where I just looked at the meat and wanted to cry. But it's definitely getting easier to accept that there are some things I cannot and will probably never be able to have.
Week four I started really working out for the first time since before surgery, and I have now worked out for seven days in a row, including three sessions of crossfit on top of walking every day.... though my trainer/friend Aubrey took it easier on me than normal as I'm getting used to it again.
I'm getting excited to step on the scale tomorrow to see if any of the hard work has paid off as I crossover into Week 5!
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