Bleah

Sometimes I just can't figure this crap out.
Since surgery, I've had this kind of sore spot in my belly. It's not right underneath the incision line, it's a bit to the left of my belly button. I wasn't worried about it, just figured it's one of the places where something was done in there during surgery. Saturday night, every time I rolled over in bed or moved a certain way, it hurt. A sharp, poking pain. Enough to say "ouch!" out loud but not super bad. Sunday I woke up, went to get out of bed, and oh my gosh. Bad bad pain. Enough to double me over and almost start crying. After 5 or 10 minutes, the pain dissipated. I gingerly palpated my tummy and the site felt sore like a bad bruise but bearable. Over the course of the morning, I had a few more episodes, usually caused by getting up out of a chair or twisting slightly. Each time it really felt like something was tearing inside me.
I wanted to wait until Monday but was finally driven to call the surgeon. After a brief conversation, he told me that he thought it was a muscle sprain and prescribed Motrin (with some extra acid reducer to protect my stomach) and alternating ice and heat.
Who the hell gets a stomach muscle sprain by doing a gentle 1 mile walk on the treadmill?? This girl, apparently.

Ups and Downs

Today has definitely been an "up" day. I have felt pretty good all day, I got my first two sets of vitamins in with no problems, had bacon for the first time since surgery (a DSer's staple in life) and even felt good enough to get on the treadmill. I walked a brisk mile and could have done more but didn't want to tire myself out too much. This is the first time I've exercised since surgery and I'm pretty happy with how I felt afterwards. There is no question that a loss of over 40 lbs since I last exercised makes it a heck of a lot easier!
I'm already planning to go for a hike this weekend with the kids so that should be a lot of fun. I need to stock up on healthy snacks for the hike!
The downs have also been considerable. I finally am taking the full Vitalady regime and although it's difficult to get down all the pills, the Tender Iron is making my life a misery. Not long after taking it, I start getting these horrendous burps from hell.. It's like I'm burping out iron with a bad burning taste. Its even worse than I can describe it. I tried swapping out the morning and night vites so I would be taking the iron at bedtime but that was a bad decision. The burps actually woke me up and then prevented me from getting back to sleep and I just felt sick all night. I emailed Vitalady about it and was advised to start with 2 tender irons per day and gradually work up to 5. So this morning I just took 2. I still burped but the quantity and severity was nowhere near as bad. I'm going to give it a shot but if increasing the dosage brings back the misery, I'm switching to something else. Naturally, I bought 2 giant bottles of the tender iron so hopefully I can find someone to buy them off me, if that ends up being the case.

One Month Out

.....and 40 lbs down! But more importantly, I finally am starting to feel better. Yesterday I had to take one of my children to the orthodontist, then went on to stop at Ulta and finally Wegman's. And I didn't feel like I was going to fall over by the time I got to the last register. Mind you, I still spent the rest of the evening in the recliner but it was definitely the best I've felt yet while out and about.
While in the grocery store, one my kids asked me how I was feeling, then clarified that she was asking me about my back pain, the chronic low back pain that has been the plague of my life the last few years. Bad enough that I preferred to sleep on the couch, carried Motrin with me wherever I went, and made any shopping trip excruciating because I would almost be in tears by the end. And I realized that while my back is still hurting, the intensity level is far, far lower than it has been in a long while. If this is a side-benefit of losing weight, it's one I'll gladly take.

Almost one month

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my surgery. Overall things are going well. My biggest complaint is my tiredness and lack of energy. This is probably at least partially caused by me not getting enough fluids in. I'm still working on getting that 64 oz daily in, I've never made it yet but am getting closer.

Eating is going better as well. At first I could only take tiny sips of things, and if I forgot and took a bigger swallow, my stomach pain quickly reminded me! I'm in the pureed phase of foods which is appropriate because denser forms of protein do not sit well at all. Some things that have gone down well are refried beans with some shredded cheese melted in and a little bit of sour cream; soups (had some chicken tortilla soup from Costco that was yummy, it took me about 5 days to finish the 1.5 cup container haha); yogurt; ricotta fluff stuff; and slices of cheddar cheese. I'm having a lot of weird food aversions in that some things that are probably good for me to eat just sound vile and disgusting. I've been getting in a protein shake every other day because the in between days, I can't stomach it. The other days they taste good initially but by the time I'm done with it, I'm having to force it down like it's medicine. I guess I need 48 hours to recover from it.

Vitamin-wise, I'm only taking a limited amount so far. Anything in capsules is going down fine, D, A and the sublingual B12. After not being able to get down the calcium horse sized pills I bought originally (2 giant bottles of them, naturally) I bought another bottle of the Citrical petites. I can get down a couple a day, with some difficulty, but they seem to sit in my stomach forever. I saw that Vitalady has calcium capsules so I may get some of those eventually. I just hate to spend yet more money when I have some already that are the right formulation. Bah.
This week, I'm really going to focus on ramping up the vitamin regimen, even if it's hard to do.

Post-op Visit Update

I saw the surgeon yesterday for my first post-op visit. I am officially down 31 lbs since my preop visit and 38 lbs down since I first saw him in October. Even more if you count from my high weight over the summer but I'll take any of those numbers. :)
So the weight loss is definitely a plus. On the negative side, I have a lot of nausea and weakness every day and I am really struggling with eating or drinking much. The Dr. gave me an Rx for Zofran which should help, although he cautioned me that he doesn't want me to get dependent on it. I'm primarily concerned about getting dehydrated so I'm forcing the fluids more than food but it's really hard when just the thought of taking one more sip of anything makes me want to vomit. He also cleared me to start pureed foods so I have a wider variety of foods to choose from.
I took some sips of diet ginger ale yesterday and it was really helpful. I don't want to be drinking much (or any) diet soda at this point, but if it's something I can get down without feeling more sick, then I'll take it. Lemonade Crystal Light is also something I'm doing better with. Liquids that are very cold or very hot seem to sit the best.
Today so far I got down half a protein coffee and some crystal light. For food, I made some deviled eggs and ate 2 (both halves of a single egg)  over about 2 hours time. Hopefully I'll be able to get a few more things to eat before the day is out.
I still haven't learned the point in which I  need to stop eating before I get so full I want to vomit. It doesn't take much, i.e. 2 bites go down fine, then the third seems to sit in my throat for an hour. I would probably feel better if I upchucked that last bite but I don't want to start any bad habits. Plus I really do need the nutrition.
Pain-wise, the discomfort is getting better but I still have a lot of sharp, stabby pain at the incision line, especially while sitting up, even if I'm partially reclined. It feels better to stretch out fully and I can sleep on my stomach without much issue. However, that is dramatically getting better and I have moments where I realize my incision didn't hurt for a few hours.
Overall, I think I'm doing about as well as can be expected for 2.5 weeks after surgery. I do sense things getting better so I'm trying not to get discouraged.