Day 5: Bored and Bloated

This morning I woke up and my stomach hurt. I had taken some liquid Tylenol a few hours before bed, and it had clearly worn off while I slept.  My stomach has been hurting mostly where my actual stomach is, and I think it's because my liver might be a little sore from where they move it out of the way.  So not necessarily my stomach, but in that general area.  I got right up out of my recliner and the first thing I did was take the Tylenol and chase it with a few ounces of water. It takes me about ten minutes to get the medicine down, but by the time I'm finishing it, it's already kicking in and that's awesome.  I think my smaller stomach and the fact that it's liquid has something to do with that.  

After my shower I started working on some protein drink and my other medicine.  I made breakfast for my family (sausage and eggs and english muffins... something I would normally eat way too much of) and didn't even want a bite.  It's a crazy feeling.  Yesterday I watched my husband cook and eat bacon and didn't feel the urge to suck on the bacon or lick the grease off his fingers.  Yes, I was considering these things before surgery during my pre-op diet. 

So where am I at with my weight loss? I've finally lost the hospital water weight, and then some.  This morning I weighed in at 377.8 which means I've lost a total of 36.7 pounds in the last month, since I've started pre-op diet, and I've lost 3.4 since the day before surgery because I'm cancelling out the water weight I gained and lost which was about 6 pounds. 

Overall today was a fairly uneventful day.  I gave myself another Lovenox injection.  Literally it's the thing I'm hating the most.  The second thing I hate the most is this liquid diet.  I know it's for the best to allow my stomach to heal, but it's gross.  I'm so tired of sweet.  I want savory.  I can have broths and protein soups (like Proti or Health Wise brand) but they are not that good.  I have a bag of unflavored protein that I can add to some soups and stuff, but I haven't heard back from my nutritionist to see if it's okay to maybe have some strained Campbell's soup with the added protein instead of those.  I'm learning quickly that I can't really reach out to her in the way she kind of led me to believe.  In our binder it has her cell number and says we can text anytime, seven days a week between 8am-8pm.  I texted her at about 10am and haven't heard back.  I am trying really hard to follow my binder to the letter because I want to be super successful, but I'm not sure how successful I can be if the options are literally making me gag.  So we'll see.  Tomorrow I am going to try the Cream of Wheat thinned out with some vanilla Protein shake.  That sounds like it can work or be really gross.  Luckily I will only be able to eat about a half serving, so if I have to make it again, it's no sweat off my back.  I'm just so excited to eat something that isn't broth, protein soup, pudding, jello or protein shake.  I'm very eager to get into the pureed/soft foods. 

I've started making my own shopping list for when I'm about to hit soft foods.  I've decided that I'm going to do my own week (or a few days, we'll see how well it goes) of pureed foods before I get into soft foods.  The plan they gave me doesn't even list pureed at all.  So I want to be extra careful that I don't hurt myself.  I fully intended to go the route of baby food for this stage, but looking online it seems like a lot of it is really high in sugar, and I don't want to eat anything high in sugar. I'll check them out when I'm at the store, but may just live on mashed potatoes (yum) with gravy or some blended refried beans with cheese (yum).  I can't imagine myself ever really wanting to have sweets again after all this liquid diet business.  I will have to supplement with protein shakes twice a day probably forever so I know I'm getting that protein in, but that's okay.  I'll have other variety. 

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful.  I did leave the house for a couple of hours and today I drove for the first time since the day before my surgery.  That was a little uncomfortable because my belly feels so bloated still (I feel nine months pregnant), and I was so scared the steering wheel would hit my incisions that I drove awkwardly.  But I did it.  I got to socialize for a bit, and be up on my feet for a couple hours and that was good.  

Later in the evening I was starting to feel the urge to spend money.  Something that has been kind of an issue lately.  I don't have food to graze on, splurge on, and to satisfy me, and I feel like I've been spending money to make up for that.  This is something I had previously discussed with my therapist, as oftentimes people who have weight loss surgery turn to alcohol.  They can't eat, and they get buzzed much faster.  Well I don't drink, but it's become very clear how much time spent eating, cooking, grazing, and shopping.  So I kept myself home, and did something that is unheard of for me...I went for a walk around the block.  By myself, and left my phone at home.  I walked around the block which is only .1 mile, but 5 days after surgery, I felt great.  My legs really wanted to go one or two more times but my abdomen was feeling bloated and heavy and I felt like I didn't want to overdo it.  I am proud of myself, and will start doing it every night.  

I'm going to meet a friend for dinner on Tuesday evening.  One thing I'm good at is looking at a menu ahead of time to see what I can eat.  I picked a place that has soup, which I can have, and they have french onion which isn't a heavy cream soup.  I'll request a cup of soup, without bread and cheese, and will just not eat the onions.  I think that will be great.  I'll probably only be able to eat about half of it anyways, but it's more about being able to live a normal life, be social, but make good decisions.