My Weight Loss Ticker

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Weight Loss Tools

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Hello all.........MOM here.  I will occasionally pop in for an update.  So surgery was Wednesday the 18th and I can only say it was nothing compared to having my gallbladder out 3 weeks prior.   I am glad I did not do those two together.  Band surgery was great (as great as any surgery can be) except for two bouts of nausea!!!  Double yuck!!!!  I really think it was from some of the pain medication. I didn't take anymore pain meds after the last bout and have had no more nausea since.  So after getting home Thursday afternoon I really just took things slow.  I made sure I was up and moving around the house every hour or so. (One of the most important things to do is MOVE; you feel better and of course its good to prevent blood clots and whatnot.) This weekend was busy as usual.  Saturday morning the 10 year old had a morning football game.  Made it through that with no problems.  Spent the rest of the day hanging around the house.  Sunday we decided it was time to break out---we headed to the Zoo.  It was a beautiful day for a leisurely stroll.  I had no problems with that but did check out quite a few benches to rest in between exhibits!!!!  So with all that what about food?  I am on full liquids right now and so far its been ok.  I have been having a small sugar free hot chocolate with Unjury each morning.  I like something warm first thing in the morning since cold stuff feels like it constricts my throat and upper stomach.  I had the usual yogurt, jello, soup throughout the day.  This soon after surgery its really just a few bites at a time throughout the day and we can't forget WATER, WATER, WATER.  I keep a bottle with me all the time.  I can't drink a lot at one time so I just drink all day in small sips. So all in all I can't complain and I just wanted to pop in and say hi to the blogosphere!! Thanks for reading!

Friday, September 20, 2013

Its weigh in day.................and the results are......................I've lost 2 more pounds!!! That's 7 pounds since surgery and 13 pounds overall! That's so mind blowing to me!

This has been a crazy busy week. Mom is home from her surgery and doing great! We are super excited to be in the same place now on this journey.

Last night was my first support group post-op. It was really great, we had a psychologist, Dr. Rose Smith, come and speak about the behaviors that we all have that need to change after surgery. She talked a lot about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy which is a tool I remember talking about in college in psychology and even in pharmacy school in several of my classes. Basically its another tool (just like the band itself) that helps you change emotional responses and ways of thinking that are influencing behaviors in a bad way. Specifically, CBT is used to help make you better able to handle situations which in turn makes you better able to control your eating. The example Dr. Smith gave was if I ate a piece of cake at work, I could think something like I've totally blown my diet and that I should just stop trying today and start fresh tomorrow. Maybe I would feel sad/guilty/ashamed/depressed/angry and if you're like me, with all those negative thoughts, you'd go back for a second piece of cake and probably overeat for the rest of the day. This example could be totally different with CBT, let's say I ate the piece of cake. I can train myself to think (quoting from Dr. Smith) "Okay, I shouldn't have eaten that, but I am not going to let this one mistake ruin my diet. I'm going back to my eating plan right now for the rest of the day; it makes no sense to wait until tomorrow." These thoughts probably would make me feel proud and good, leading to good behaviors like continuing to follow my diet the rest of the day and actually exercising that day. Dr. Smith also recommended a good book written by a psychologist who applied CBT to eating/weight issues called The Beck Diet Solution Weight Loss Workbook by Judith S. Beck. Just some food for thought!

Support group is so nice; I really love listening to all the folks at their different stages of their journeys. I also love listening to all the tips and advice from those further along. I encourage anyone embarking on this new lifestyle to get involved with a support group; most bariatric programs have one and its just so wonderful to have a group of people doing and going through the same things you are to interact with.

Thanks so much for all your support, comments, and for reading my silly ramblings! Y'all have a wonderful weekend.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Its officially been one week since I was banded. I've been blown away by how fast I've recovered. I feel wonderful! This week I've been working a little; just paperwork style since I can't do any lifting or strenuous stuff. I guess I should explain a little more about me. I've told you all that I'm in pharmacy school, so you may be wondering why I'm not in school right now... I'm in my fourth year of school which is a year of learning outside of the classroom. I have 9 month long rotations where I spend time in a pharmacy working as a pharmacist but under the close eye of a precepting pharmacist. To get all 120+ of my classmates around the state in different locations, we don't get a summer break. Instead we get to pick a month off and we get December off; not having us all off at one helps with scheduling us. So my month off is September and I've just been doing a bit of work as needed to help fill in. Its been really great to be off and it allowed me to have surgery!

Back to my recovery, life is good... I'm still on liquids. This continues for 2 weeks and then we progress to "mushies." My breakfast is usually a chocolate splendor unjury shake. Then about 10 am or so I have a greek yogurt. That normally takes me about 30 minutes to eat so its very filling. For lunch I usually have soup that's been strained or blended. Afternoon snacks are jello or jello pudding. Dinner varies from another Unjury shake to more soup or yogurt depending on how hungry I am. Especially early in the day, I've been very hungry. Liquids just don't hang around in the stomach long so I get hungry fast, usually within an hour or so after eating. I know this is just a phase and that things will settle down where I'm not so hungry once I can progress to mushies and further to real food. :)

In other news, today is my mom's lapband surgery! We are so excited to be embarking on this journey together and I'll let you all know how we are doing very soon.

Thanks for reading and ya'll have a fabulous day!

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Hey y'all! This is day 3 post-op and I'm feeling pretty good. I went to my little bro's peewee football game today. This was my first big outing since surgery and we were out for a couple of hours, baby steps. :)  Here's a pic of him just about to tackle the other team! He's in the blue and was just about to sack the kid in the purple!


I live in the south and down here, we love our football. It was also a great day since my Razorbacks won their game today!!! Woooo Pig Sooie!!!!

Anyways, I know lots of banded folks have issues with gas very early on. For those of you who don't know, during the actual surgical procedure, the surgeon fills up the abdomen with gas so he has room to work and can see everything. They try and take out as much as possible when they are done but a lot stays around in the tissues. This gas escapes over time through natural gas escaping methods.... belching and tooting!! So today was a day full of gas! Movement and activity really help to get rid of the gas. So after the game, I seriously thought my head would pop off from all the gas I was burping out! But although it is uncomfortable to burp constantly, its more uncomfortable when the gas just sits in your abdomen and up under your ribs. So passing it is definitely better than it hanging out! So I came home and laid down for a bit to rest after all the movement and gas expelling. I had this sweet little cuddle bug to hangout with. This is one of my 3 weenie dogs, Luci. I have two others: Maggie and Bella. 


Here's me enjoying a fabulous Yasso yogurt bar. These things rock! This flavor is mango, but there are lots of flavors out there. One bar has 80 calories and 6 grams of protein so its the perfect snack to help with a sweet tooth! And of course, if I'm having one, my dogs and my mom's dogs think they should have a bite too. The little orange one looking at me is Daphne and the white one is Emily. The large weenie dog on the arm of the chair is Maggie, the little black and tan is Bella and Luci is the one who is not quite in the picture all the way. Sorry for all the leg showing in the picture... shorts tend to drift up lol! 


So my incisions are healing well, I only really notice the largest one where the port was placed. Its much larger than the others and tends to twinge a bit if I move the wrong way. All in all, the liquid diet hasn't been too bad and I really have no complaints this far after surgery. I will say, I can't wait for another 2 weeks when I can have mushy foods!! How differently I already look at food and my journey is only just beginning! Thanks for reading everyone and I hope you all have a great rest of the weekend.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Hello blog-o-sphere! This is my first blog post-op. I got to come home yesterday around 3pm, and let me tell you, I was so exhausted that I had some chicken broth, sat up for another 30 minutes or so and went to bed! Hospitals are nice and all to take care of you, but you can pretty much forget sleeping there!

My surgery went very well! I have 6 small cuts on my abdomen (one of which is in my belly button=WEIRD). Here's a picture of 5 of the spots, you can't see the one in my belly button of course. And please ignore the not so pretty tummy showing but I really wanted to lay everything out for anyone considering such a surgery!



The incisions were pretty uncomfortable yesterday but I had some really good pain medicine that helped a lot.

Here's what the band looks like on the inside! Sorry if this is too nasty for some eyes...



When I got to my room mid-day on the 11th, my fabulous fiancé Judd had sent me flowers! Aren't they just beautiful!? He's too good to me!


So while in the hospital I was on clear liquids only. That meant things like chicken broth, jello, popsicles, etc. In addition to clear liquids, I was allowed to have a protein shake which was awesome, I'll share what kind they are as soon as I get all the info from my dietitian.

Today has been a fabulous day. I haven't really needed any pain medicine or the stuff for nausea. I've had part of a yogurt today (I'm back on full liquids since discharging from the hospital). It's amazing to me that I got full after only about 3 oz of yogurt! What a huge difference a few days and a lap band has made! Water is a new problem for me. I've always drank a ton of water each day but usually in big gulps, which we know is a no no after banding. So I've literally carried water with me everywhere throughout the house making sure a take a small sip every minute or two. Its such a new life after banding but I just know its going to be absolutely amazing!! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll be blogging more over the next few days, especially since my mom's surgery is only 5 days away!

Thanks for reading and for all of your encouraging comments!! 

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Well, its finally here! Tomorrow is my band-day! I'm so very excited and a little nervous. I have to be at the hospital very early...5:30AM! My surgery is scheduled to start at 7:30AM and shouldn't take more than an hour or two. Then I'll be in a room to stay overnight just to be sure there are no problems. I can't wait to see how things go and I hope to be blogging very soon! By the way, I'm down 6 pounds just from the liquid diet, its not on my ticker because when I figured out how to do that I'd already lost that! So I'll go into surgery at 234 pounds and hoping to be steadily losing soon!! Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Hello blog-o-sphere! I'd like to start off my blog by introducing myself. My name is Meagan and I'm a 25 year old pharmacy school student (4 months into my last year, Woot!) and I'll be having a lap band placed on Wednesday, September 11, 2013. My weight has been a battle my entire life. At my heaviest, I weighed 240 pounds... that was only a few days ago. That's really heavy on my 5 foot 5 inch frame! I've literally done nearly every diet out there, from weight watchers to curves complete to HCG; you name it, I've done it. So over the last year my mom and I started doing lots of research. Both of us are very overweight and really want to get healthy. We knew we've tried it all and finally realized what the common factor was in all our failed attempts to lose weight: HUNGER. So, instead of trying another diet, we decided together to get banded. My surgery is just days away and mom's is 7 days after mine on Wednesday, September 18th! We will be band buddies and we are so excited to be embarking on this journey together. So in case you're not a bandster (to steal a term from lapbandgal, who's journey has been an amazing inspiration!), let me explain how this journey to surgery begins. For my surgeon, it starts with a 10 day liquid diet to shrink the liver. For those of us who are overeaters and live on carbs and sugar, our livers are "fatty" meaning they are filled with glycogen (long links of glucose (sugar)) that our livers store up for use later... This makes lap band surgery hard. So I've been on a 1200-1800 calorie liquid diet these past few days. This means I can eat anything that can be drunk through a straw that doesn't contain sugar. So that means lots of soup! The other part of this diet means getting lots of protein, 50-60 grams per day. For me, that comes mostly from chocolate splendor Unjury! Its the best!! I hope to figure more of this blogging think out as I go. I'll be blogging again hopefully soon to update you on my status post-surgery! Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!