Rising_Sun: Journey to losing half of me

[Rising_Sun]

Hi all,

Well, here I am. On the loser’s bench; the losing side, whatever you call it, I am well and truly there now. I had my surgery with the wonderful Mr. Ammori and his fantastic team at Salford Royal on Monday, 3 August 2009, my official rebirthday. I arrived for my surgery happy; hopeful; prayerful and rebuking fear all the way. I took a deep breath before pushing open the door to the surgical lounge. I had a little wobble, an emotional moment there and then. I was mostly relieved that the surgery was going ahead, barring some catastrophic circumstance beyond anyone’s control. The first face I saw and recognised immediately was Fuze (Amanda), all happy, smiling and chatty. We made some small talk, which was very settling. There was another lady there too but I can’t be sure whether she was there for a bypass.

So next came all the pre-op preps and chat with the anaesthetist and then the surgeon. The really exciting bit for me was being weighed and discovering I had lost 24lbs, which brought me down from a starting weight of 422 to 398 lbs. That smashed my first goal, which was to be under 400 lbs. Mr Ammori came in and told me I had been pushed up to first on the list as number one hadn’t shown up. No worries, by this time, I just wanted it over and done with. The rest was an uneventful blur. The surgery went well. The recovery from anaesthesia went well. I hardly touched my PCA as I felt no pain. I have no gas pain. I kept checking the incisions just to be sure I had had the surgery. I mostly slept the rest of the day. In my rare waking moments, I caught sight of Fuze being wheeled onto the ward and then another lady whose op didn’t go ahead because of liver problems. I was dead tired. I was up and about for a bit late into the night but I still needed to sleep off the anaesthesia. Following day was a bit better and managed to roam the corridors a bit more to get the old circulation going. Then it was time to go home. I was discharged at 6:30pm. I walked to the Red area exit to meet my OH and kids. I didn’t want the kids in the hospital. Twins then ask: “Are you middle sized yet mummy” and “did you say thank you”. A little chuckle to myself and then I dosed off.

I think I’ve mostly slept off the tiredness now. Now it’s just the business of getting the fluids in and aiming for the 80g of protein daily and improving on the walking.

 

[rybens]

hope you did say thank you lol so glad all went well it still amazes me as to how soon people come out of hospital and get back to minis! well done keep up to them fluids x

 

[candie]

Hi hun, so glad you're back here safe and wellNow it's time to rest and relax, and drink and drink all those fluids so you don't get exhausted
well done on the pre op wl too x

 

[CCPM]

Well done and so glad you came through OK. Don't forget to rest though and take care of you.

Good luck

M

 

[fat-girl-slim08]

Congratulations and welcome to the losers side!
I am really pleased everything went well for you, Hope you have a speedy recovery and great weightloss journey!

 

[salski]

Howdy - welcome to the losing side x

 

[elffie01]

Well done Rising and good luck on your weight loss trip. Sounds like you had a lovely straight forward process.
Now go drink lol

 

[phatgirl]

So pleased for you hun, and welcome home you big loser! 24lbs gone already is FANTASTIC way to start off. Brilliant! Take good care of yourself and have a speedy recovery.

Nic

 

[Rising_Sun]

hope you did say thank you lol so glad all went well it still amazes me as to how soon people come out of hospital and get back to minis! well done keep up to them fluids x

Thanks Rybens. I was sure to say thank you. The last thing I was telling the anaesthetic team was be sure to pass my thanks to everyone involved in the surgery because my 5-year old twins demand that I do. Sometime ago I posted how my twins were recommending WLS to me so I could get middle-sized. I realised then I had been watching way too much Family Fat Surgeons. As far as they were concerned you (1) went to hospital to see the family fat “sugars”; (2) the doctors cut your tummy (it wont hurt because you will be sleeping); (3) they take the food out of your tummy (i.e the wheelbarrows carrying fat in that animated advert for that Fit4life campaign; (4)You say thank you then you go home and get middle-sized; (5) You go back again to say thank you when you are middle-sized. I can’t stop chuckling about this every time I think about it. I remember telling the Psychologist about it and she couldn’t stop laughing either. The great thing about this is that they had little anxiety about me going into hospital, which can’t be said for my OH, who was calling the ward every for often until I put a ban on it.

Hi hun, so glad you're back here safe and well. Now it's time to rest and relax, and drink and drink all those fluids so you don't get exhausted well done on the pre op wl too x

Thanks Candie. Oh, I’m relaxing alright. It’s usually difficult to relax in a house with three under 7’s on a school holiday. But OH is doing a great job of occupying them out of the house to give me some peace and quiet. Oh if only I could milk this for life. Drinking is a chore though but I’m sipping away.

Well done and so glad you came through OK. Don't forget to rest though and take care of you. Good luck M

Thanks M. Hope to emulate your fantastic weight loss so far.

Congratulations and welcome to the losers side. I am really pleased everything went well for you, Hope you have a speedy recovery and great weightloss journey!

Thanks FGS. I’m so very glad to be on the loser’s side. My recovery seems to be going alright so far. Just need to stay on top of getting the protein & water in. I just have no hunger whatsoever. Never thought I could ever say that.

Howdy - welcome to the losing side x

Thanks Salski. This losing side gets smaller and smaller with all you shrinking lovelies. I pledge to be a team player.

Well done Rising and good luck on your weight loss trip. Sounds like you had a lovely straight forward process. Now go drink lol

Oh yes Ma’am. Sipping away as I write. Thanks again Elfie.

So pleased for you hun, and welcome home you big loser! 24lbs gone already is FANTASTIC way to start off. Brilliant! Take good care of yourself and have a speedy recovery.

Thank you PG. ‘Big loser’, I like the sound of that. Hope to catch up with you and the rest of the SRH losers at the next support group on 09/09.

Thanks again everyone for dropping by. Much appreciated.

 

[CCPM]

Love those twins!! Hopefully you're doing fine and still sipping away.

M

 

[Sambucca]

Just subscribing to your thread hun so I can follow your amazing journey. Loved what your twins said, I have a 5 year old my self and might use the same description to try and explain to her why I'm going into hospital.

Congrats on smashing that first target already. Big hugs xx

 

[Rising_Sun]

Hey Sam,
You are most definitely welcome here hun. The more the merrier.

Will be keeping a warm spot on this here loser's bench just for you seeing as you're so close to surgery now. I hope you find a way to ease any anxieties your five year old might have about you going into hospital. Kids ey, they often understand more than we think they do.

 

[Rising_Sun]

End of week 1 post-op

....and it can only get better from here. I weighed in 18 pounds lighter than my pre-op weight. Three stone down since starting my pre-op. Now that's motivation.

Week 1 has been a learning curve. How much to drink in one sitting and how long it should take me to drink it etc. Mostly managed to consume my regulation protein and averaging 2litres in liquids per day. Made every liquid count towards my protein intake until that was done. Thank goodness for those IDS 42g liquid protein tubes. Not so nice neat, but better cold. Better added to jello or diluted in squash. Treating it as medicine but I reckon I could get used to the taste. Not the blueberry though. It's vile. Grape and Orange are okay. Learned I should have heeded the warning about stocking up on protein supplements pre-op as tastes change. Boy, have my tastes changed. Where I used to add a splash of hot water to tap water to make it tepid, now it wont go down unless its cold. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the sweetest, what used to be 1 is off the scale now. I hope that's my super sweet tooth done for, dead and buried.

Was excited to be able to weigh on my WW scales, the ones that used to flash ERR(or) each time I stood on them because for a long time I weighed over the maximum weight of 28st. Not so today. It was 27st 1lb that came up. Couldn't quite trust the scales though as they had been out of action for so long. Had to get a second referene point so I had the OH drive me to Boots, weighed on their scales and they put me at 19.6lbs lighter. For my ticker, I have decided to go with my own scales because I will be using these more regularly.

So, all in all a good week. Roll on week 2.

 

[candie]

well done hun, you're doing soo well

 

[32bme]

Rising Sun fantastic read all the way through love your twins comments.
Kids say it as they see it.
keep posting take it easy as weel Mia

 

[Neen]

Hi R-S, I read all through and just wanted to add my congratulations as well for the fabulous start to your weight loss journey! I think you're doing so well and I just know you'll go all the way and be sylph like let alone medium size, in no time!
Hugs and keep it going!

 

[Rising_Sun]

well done hun, you're doing soo well

Thanks Candie. Big losses for a big girl. For some reason, the "thanks" button on your post isn't active.

 

[Rising_Sun]

Rising Sun fantastic read all the way through love your twins comments.
Kids say it as they see it.
keep posting take it easy as weel Mia

Hi Mia and welcome to my diary. I do sometimes need prodding to keep up my diary, so thanks for that. I have another elsewhere on Mini's that fizzled out. However, I plan to update at least once a week as I will do shortly.

 

[Rising_Sun]

Hi R-S, I read all through and just wanted to add my congratulations as well for the fabulous start to your weight loss journey! I think you're doing so well and I just know you'll go all the way and be sylph like let alone medium size, in no time!
Hugs and keep it going!

Hi ya Neen. Thanks for your post. It's absolutely fantastic this initial weight loss. I am very excited and motivated by it. Long may it continue. You are doing pretty well yourself. We've got such fantastic tools to bust them pounds.

 

[Rising_Sun]

Two weeks out

Short post as I'm wiped out. Today was first day back to work. I cannot believe how much has piled up in two weeks. It's been non stop.

Okay, I feel I should have kept my counsel about my surgery, like I always thought I would do. To my horror, I found myself telling all and sundry about it. Not so much questions today, but visual scrutiny. I bet the less well informed were wondering, "Well how come she's still fat then?". I felt eyes on me each time I stood up. Not a problem because guess what, my clothes are smaller and I was feeling FINE. There will be a lot less of me in another 6 -12 months. I made sure I didn't give any opportunity to get into further conversation about the surgery except to say to people it went well and I'm recovering okay. I didn't like being watched as I had my chicken/shrimp puree. I suspect my eating will be a subject of interest from here on.

I suspect I might struggle with my eating schedule at work. Eating always goes to the bottom of the list when it's a particularly busy day. With no hunger, eating might just never feature. So, I have bought myself a cooler lunch bag and a set of 4 very small clippit boxes to fill with different things to have at set times. I even diarised my eating . I'm okay with drinking as I've always kept a 2 litre bottle of water at my desk and ensured I drank it all plus extra. I must thank the Cambridge Diet for giving me a great water drinking habit. I may have fallen off that diet, but drinking lots of water has stuck around. I will have to eat away from my desk from now on just so as I can pay attention to how I am eating and how much. Would have been great to have a week at home in this pureed stage.

My little victories so far:
LV 1: Discovering that it's so much easier to haul myself out of the bath.

LV 2: An expanded wardrobe. No shopping required. My 26/28's fit comfortably now. No more feeling trussed up in shapewaer in order to look half decent. Not writing off shapewear though. Just the plus size stuff.

LV 3: Parking furthest from the supermarket no longer seems such a chore. Finding that I am on the look out for walking opportunities.

Not such a great job list:
* Why at the end of 14 days did I still have 5 of 28 Fastab pills that should have been used up? Must do better.

Weight wise, the scales recorded a 10.5lb loss for week two. That would make it 28 lbs (2 stone) in the two weeks post surgery and just under 4 stone counting the pre-op loss. My pre-op lasted 3 weeks. (3st 11 gone, never to be seen again and that's a promise)

Not such a short post after all. Got a second wind typing that up.
xxx