Post-Op Week 1 Progress Report

I decided to go ahead and continue posting progress reports on Sunday even though my surgery took place on a Monday.  Sundays just work better for me.

So, last week was surgery.  You’ve had the privilege of reading all about that already so I won’t rehash what happened.  The week that followed was spent resting, sipping, walking and recovering from the trauma of surgery.  I have to say my body has handled it fairly well so far, which has made the recovery process a lot easier than I imagined.  I am still quite sore, quite puffy and edematous and now my incisions are starting to itch.  I take this as a good sign, especially since they are all pink, not oozing and are not overly warm to the touch.

Given all that, I did not expect to lose much weight this week since I was pumped full of fluids at the hospital.  I was also given a steroid during surgery, and steroids promote water retention.  With all that, even with the extreme calorie restriction I am experiencing daily, I did not expect to lose any weight this week.  But I did.

Now, if you are wondering why the total amount of weight lost jumped up so much, here’s why.  I decided to add what I’d lost prior to the pre-op diet to my total.  My highest weight (at least the most recent one, ugh–sadly, I’ve weighed more.  A LOT more.) was recorded at my surgeon’s office back in May, so that was the highest weight he has seen me at.  I am using that weight as my starting point, so when I calculate the total that I want to lose, I’m using my highest weight minus my current goal weight to get that number.

Prior to this, I didn’t include the weight I’d lost before pre-op dieting because I wanted to see how much I would lose just due to the pre-op diet.  I did manage to lose about 11 pounds before the pre-op diet, so that was good.  Needless to say when I showed up for surgery Monday and I told Dr. Nicholson I’d lost nearly 37 pounds before surgery, he was thrilled.

This week I’ve focused on walking, resting, getting in fluids and attempting to hit my protein target each day, which is 60-80 grams daily.  I am also keeping my carbs below 50 grams.  Once I am able to eat mushy foods, I plan to increase my target to 80-100 grams daily with the same carb target.

I’ve confined my intake this past week to clear fluids, even though I’m allowed milk and almond milk.  Feeling as wormy as I did for the first part of the week, I didn’t want to invite nausea, so I put myself on clear fluids until Tuesday, when I will have been home for a week.  I plan to brave milky protein beverages and tomato soup with protein powder stirred into it this week to see how my sleeve tolerates it.   I’m also slowly increasing the amount of walking I do each time I walk, but I am finding that I fatigue easily.  I’m not surprised by this.  I’m hoping that I can work up to 2 miles by 2 weeks post-op.   Until I am completely healed up, walking is the only exercise I can do.  Once I’m totally healed up, I plan to get back to riding the recumbent bike at the gym and doing light weights to start toning my muscles so that all the loose skin I know I will have doesn’t look quite so flappity.

Wish me luck!  I’m hopeful that next week will be a good one.