Healing From Surgery

It has been five days since my lapband surgery, and I am feeling much better every day. However, whoever told me that lapband is a "2-3 day recovery period" is full of it! My mom came out last monday to help me with surgery which was really nice. I was on a three day clear liquid sugar-free diet before surgery which was absolutely torture... however I lost 15lbs in water weight by the morning of surgery! I had my surgery tuesday, March 27th in Denver and it went really well for the most part. My best friend Keren drove my Mom and I to the actual surgery (my car is a stick shift and my Mom doesn't know how to drive stick) and stayed the whole time through surgery and recovery. I woke up in quite a bit of pain, a different pain than I had ever felt before and had a nurse that mostly ignored me until I made enough of a fuss to get a new nurse who did a great job managing my pain and keeping me company. After waiting around for a few hours to control my pain and make sure I could walk, I was released home. When Keren dropped me off at home, she left me a very sweet care package with some beautiful jewelry she made, some sunglasses, a stuffed panda and panda rainbow bag, magazines... you name it! I am so lucky to have a such a great best friend. I got many calls and texts over the next few days from both family and friends checking on my well being which was incredibly nice. To say the least, I feel very supported and loved :) 

Here is a stunning photo from right before I went into surgery 3/27/12

The next few days were really hard and kind of a blur because of the pain medication. My Mom took care of me and made sure I got up every few hours to walk and take my medication etc... I was so grateful to have her here. On Friday, my Uncle Bob came to visit my Mom and I and take her to the airport. We went to "The Pumphouse", one of my favorite restaurants here in Longmont and though I didn't have much of an appetite, it was hard to not want to eat my usual 5 cheese grilled cheese sandwich and fries. I am on a "pureed" diet for the first two weeks after surgery (yogurt, protein shakes, applesauce, blended soup, etc...) so I ordered some mash potatoes. It was definitely the best thing I had eaten in over a week and a half! I was only able to eat about a quarter of a cup and then I was full which is amazing. I had a great time with Bob and my Mom, but was sad it was already time for my Mom to leave. I at least got to play my Mom in scrabble the last night she was here and I BEAT HER WOOHOO. I am slowly working my way through the family, I beat the ultimate champ Grandma Beth last year, now Mom; my next target is Uncle Bob! 

I have been eating a bit more and walking farther every day as I recover. Each day I feel a bit better and am really glad I chose to have the surgery. I have been keeping a diary and tracking my food and protein intake, feelings, liquid intake. weight, and meds. I find this has really helped, because for the first two weeks I need to ensure that I eat at least 40 grams of protein a day and 32 oz of liquid a day. These numbers will greatly increase as I get better, but that is what is recommended the first two weeks after surgery. You may be asking yourself, "How the hell is she getting that much protein in on a pureed diet?!" The answer is to add protein powder to everything... I have been making little custom low calorie shakes with flavored protein powder as well as drinking the GNC lean shakes which only have 2g of sugar and 25 grams of protein! It is definitely trial and error though... for instance today I tried to add "non-flavored" protein powder to mash potatoes and it was disgusting... oh well!

I am looking forward to progressing in the healing process and will be excited to get back in the pool when my stitches heal in 2 weeks. Tomorrow is my first day back to work which should be interesting. I plan on blogging a few times a week and uploading updates and new pictures every 2 weeks.