Friday 22 January 2010

One of my stomachs is hungry!

Day Two post-op
I'm sure in all of the blogs I've read about the days immediately following surgery everyone has said 'I wasn't hungry'; not me, 'one' of my stomachs has been rumbling today and I've been craving 'proper' food! Has anyone else felt like this just after surgery?

I've been sticking to the post-op liquid diet as much as I can, but I'm finding it difficult to stick to the hourly list: 7am protein shake (100ml), 8am milk (200ml), 9am fruit juice (100ml), 10am protein shake (100ml), etc, etc. Bit tricky when I didn't even get up til 9.30am! What do I do, ignore the 7-9am options or start with the 7am option and try to squeeze things in?! In the end I decided to just manage what I could from the list and take it as a guide rather than something that is set in stone. So today I've managed 200ml protein shake; 400ml tomato soup; 200ml fruit juice and 175ml of jelly; plus water sipped throughout the day.

The pain is much, much less today; in fact, I didn't take a painkiller until about 2pm, which was good. We all went out for a walk in the afternoon, but I think I overdid it and had to take more painkillers when we got back; still, it was good to get out, and we even went to Starbucks where I had my first latte since before starting the pre-op diet - yum!

Also had my first shower today, which felt great and afterwards I took the dressings off my 'wounds' and put fresh ones on. All seem to be healing ok, except the top one (which, incidentally, is much higher up than I had anticipated, just between my breasts) which looks a little inflamed.

Day One post-op
Going backwards, I know, but just wanted to fill you all in on what happened/how I felt.
Woke up about 5am having had 6 hours solid sleep, which I was really pleased about considering how much pain I'd been in the day before. The nurse gave me some painkillers and anti-inflammatories and I then dozed til about 7am when she came back with a vanilla protein shake - the first thing I'd had except water since 9pm the night before the op - boy, did it taste good! From then on in, it felt like a liquid conveyor belt - milk, fruit juice, another protein shake, and at the same time water, water, water. I dozed off again from about 10.30-midday so was saved from having to guzzle yet more liquids! The dietician came to see me to check how I was getting on and to make sure I was all set for going home and then at 1pm hubby came to collect me. The nurse gave me my pankillers and the fragmin injections for the next ten days, and off I went.

Got home about 1.30pm - so lovely to see my little boy and mum who was helping look after him. By about 3.30pm I was back in bed, worn out and I slept through til 6.30pm. Spent the evening in the armchair sipping water, soup and a jelly. Off to bed about 10.30pm; took a while to get off to sleep as I found it difficult to get comfortable - having to sleep on your back constantly becomes a little bothersome after a while; luckily, I've found that I can also sleep on my right side with a pillow tucked under my tummy (just like being pregnant!) Slept through til 9.30am, which was bliss.

5 comments:

  1. Glad you're feeling better! I had my surgery on Jan 12th, and I'm now feeling about 99%. I was surprised about the high incision near my breast too...I thought my bra strap might hurt it, but so far so good.

    I'm feeling I'm getting hungrier and hungrier. I found this website called www.sparkpeople.com and I'm tracking my food intake there, just to stay on track. I have to say, it's a fantastic resource, and there's even a recipe converter tool, like the one they had on the Weight Watchers site, but I had to PAY for that one! If you haven't already, check it out and see if it's for you!

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  2. When I visited the Doc that will do my fills he said the surgeon who will do my surgery (the same one that Gilly had) puts the port between the boobs instead of on the side. He said it stays stable. Maybe others have their port there?

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  3. I was hungry the first few days after my surgery, but it will subside. Your body is just getting used to the new way of eating! I am so excited for you!

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  4. Thanks for stopping by and following! I'm following you now, and I've got a lot to catch up on!! First CONGRATULATIONS on the banding...sounds like everything did/is going well. Keep an eye on the one incision! Feel better soon and keep sipping! -BG

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  5. I was one of those weird ones. I didn't have ANY gas pains at all!! But, I did start eating on the day after Surgery!

    I won't list everything, but if you are interested, I did talk about it in my post after Surgery. I was banded on Nov 19th, 09. So I believe the posting would be on the 20th-22nd timeframe.

    I did eat, just easy things that I knew wouldn't be hard to slide through the band & I ate small amounts.

    Some Doctor's (not many though), tell their patients that they can eat immediately if careful.

    My Doctor wasn't thrilled when we told him, but he said that the reason he tells them to follow the strict diet is because most people can't control their eating & eat things that get stuck or causes PB's which can cause damage to the band, etc.

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