Six Week Follow Up

Today’s food choices:

From upper left: mini ham, egg and cheese frittatas x2; 3 tablespoons of this bowl of chili; Pei Wei lettuce wrap filling; Boar’s Head Maple Glazed turkey; the guts of a club sandwich from Jason’s Deli (school provided lunch today–I ate most of the turkey, a slice of cheese and the bacon); multivitamin x2.

I had my six week follow up appointment today at my surgeon’s office.  I knew I was going in today, so this morning I weighed myself to see if I’d had any scale movement since Sunday morning.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the scale had gone down again by 2.6 pounds.  I chalk this up to the increase in activity I’ve had since returning to work.  Mind you, a lot of what I’ve done is sit, but I’ve also walked a lot more in the past few days than I have since I had surgery.  Next week when school starts, I anticipate even MORE walking since I will be moving around my classroom while I work with my students.  I’m also planning on doing a little walking during my planning periods.  The other good thing about this downward dip in weight is that it puts me very nearly safely out of The Range for good.  I will celebrate that when it happens by adding this bead to my Pandora bracelet:

I went to my appointment this afternoon and met with my surgeon’s PA, who immediately let me know that all my activity and dietary restrictions were lifted since I was six weeks out and that at this point, everything inside had healed up.  I had a short list of questions I wanted to ask her, especially about the pain I was experiencing in my lower back and hips.

For the past few weeks, my lower back and hips have been especially painful when laying down at night.  I’d asked around on the OH VSG board and a couple of Facebook support groups I’m a member of if anyone else had experienced this, and many of them said they had.  The general consensus was that the pain was caused by my body shifting weight around due to the rapid weight loss, and compensation for its redistribution.  I even asked a guy in my Rotary Club tonight who is also a sleeve patient about this, and his hypothesis was that my spine was trying to realign itself.  Must it be so freakin’ painful?  Sleeping is actually a very unpleasant activity now!  I will say this:  I do notice that I sit up and stand up straighter, that my posture is better and that even my gait is different.  So if this is the tradeoff, I guess for now I’ll take it since the pain only really happens when I lay down.

Enough about that.  I am cleared to do intense workouts now, and I can eat anything–no dietary restrictions other than the no carbonation, low caffeine intake, no foods that expand (no breads, rice or pasta) and no alcohol for 7 more months.  I was grilled about how much protein I’m getting in (70-80 grams daily) and how many calories I take in (currently 600-800 daily).  I was advised to take in between 800-1000 as I was told I was actually slowing down my weight loss by taking in so few calories.  So now the problem becomes trying to figure out how to eat 800 calories a day on 2.5 ounces at a time AND getting in all my fluid and protein.  I can do it, but I am going to have to eat 6 or 7 times a day which will be tough at school.  I really don’t want to rely on shakes to make up the difference, but I also know I can’t keep relying on deli meats–the salt!  the nitrites!  the nitrates!–and I really, really want to add green veggies and some fruits back into my routine.  I miss them terribly.  I’d give my right tit for a Brussels sprout, no lie!  JUST ONE SPROUT!  And?  I need the fiber.  I mean, I have not had a problem going poo AT ALL, but I want to keep my colon as happy as possible and I know fiber will definitely help.

I told the PA that my PCP had decreased the dosage on my ACE inhibitor, cut my diuretic completely and told me to stop taking my metformin.  She was very excited about that.  When I get my labs done in October, I will have to make sure to have my PCP fax a copy to my surgeon’s office for my files.  I’m actually looking forward to having my blood drawn in October!  Freaky, huh?

My first trip back to the gym will be Saturday morning as I will likely stay at work late Friday afternoon to prepare my classroom for the arrival of 153 brand new AP students on Monday morning.  But Saturday morning, it’s ON.  The plan is to stretch a bit, ride the recumbent bike and maybe walk on the treadmill for a little bit.  I won’t lie, I friggin’ HATE the treadmill.  With a mad, raving passion I hate it.  You don’t GO anywhere.  Maybe I’ll just go to the mall and walk there instead.  At least I can window shop in air conditioned comfort there.  🙂

I have a little over 5 months to get as much of this weight gone as I can so that I can hopefully hit his weight loss goal for me.   Or at least so that I can get awfully damn close to it.  I’d like to hit his goal for me by my 41st birthday.  I don’t think that’s unreasonable.  If I could do that, that would be the best birthday present after having the surgery itself.

My next appointment is the day after New Year’s Day.  I think it’s symbolic.