Complications of Being Me

Yesterday I hit the one monthiversary milestone after surgery. Things have gone relatively well, with only a couple of setbacks, none of which are actually due to the surgery itself. How has the first month gone? Well, I took two weeks off of work following the surgery. For those who are considering lapband, I didn’t take two weeks off because it was mandated by the doctor, but more because I have too much vacation time stored up at work and needed to take some or lose it. Turns out I did need the two weeks off. The first week went by fairly well. My plan was to primarily rest the first week and get adjusted to the new regime, and take the second week and really start getting some things done (albeit with no lifting involved), like finishing the editing process on Nowhere Feels Like Home. Well, Murphy must be one of my best friends because he keeps invoking his law. Before the second week started, I ended up getting a virus flare up, which wiped me out. My poor body didn’t know whether it should be healing the surgery or healing the virus. So, week two was spent doing a lot of resting as well.

On Day 1 home, I found out quickly that I really needed to pump up the amount of protein in my morning protein drink. Because I had swelling from the surgery, my ability to drink was severely reduced and it took me all day just to drink one 8 oz bottle of Glucose Control Boost. That’s only 16 grams of protein for the entire day. I quickly adjusted and decided to pour the boost into a blender and add a scoop or two of protein powder to it. One of the things that I kept hearing over and over again at the support groups was hydration and protein. Those had to be the first focus. Well, I kind of threw hydration under the bus those first days after the surgery because I figured I was on liquids only anyway, so anything I was able to get in would help the hydration, so my primary focus had to be on boosting up the protein intake. About day 4, I finally started to be able to take in more than 4 sips at a time, and things became much easier in the food department.

Some people do not feel full right after surgery, but I certainly did. I have now normalized, so I am waiting for my first fill, which will happen on July 8th. I have spent the past month working on meal and hydration timing, and I have worked my way back up to solids. I stretched the initial phase of full liquids because by the time I was finally able to drink more, the week had almost passed and I just didn’t feel up to moving forward. I trust my body when it sends me those messages, so I held back moving on to purees for a few more days. The pictures are to help show my progress, although it is slight at the moment, the one on the left was taken a couple days after surgery and on the right was taken today for the one month picture. I have lost 11 lbs since surgery.

I was actually excited to be coming up to the month anniversary of the surgery. My energy was coming back and had the happy news that I could discontinue my blood pressure medication, I have been increasing the walking I’m doing and including stairs in my daily routine, so all in all things were going along well. Then, a friend gave me a different protein drink to try. She first asked whether I could have whey protein, which is what I do drink because I’m allergic to soy. Yesterday morning, I made up my breakfast drink, consisting of the chocolate protein drink, a scoop of Cappuccino Latte protein powder, and some Quephor by Organic Pastures. The only thing that changed from what I regularly have is the brand of chocolate protein drink. I was able to drink about half of it before getting ready for work. When I sat down to put on my shoes, I was experiencing an increase in port pain. Now, I generally have a high pain tolerance, so it bothered me a little to find the pain increasing rather than decreasing. But, I figured, I’d watch the situation and determine whether it was really an issue or a momentary thing. On the way to work, the pain began to increase and I was very uncomfortable just sitting in the car.

Then enlightenment dawned. I was having an allergic reaction. This was not a surgery complication, or something going wrong with the port, but simply a reaction to having ingested something I shouldn’t have which was causing me to bloat up like a balloon. As soon as I got to work, I grabbed the Tums and chomped a couple down. I then made a cup of decaf tea and sipped that to try and help ease the pain. Still uncomfortable, but trying to wait until the doctor’s office opened to find out what else I could do, I decided to try and walk some of the gas out, and went for a morning constitutional. My concern with the bloating was for the pouch because you don’t want to stretch it out and the amount of gas I had in my system was enough to cause lift off. The recommendation from the doctor’s office was to get an over the counter gas relief medication and wait it out. Fortunately, I work right across the street from a Walmart so was able to nip over and get something right away.

By noon, the gas was starting to abate a bit, and I wasn’t in as much discomfort, but then the allergy triggered migraine started to kick in. I struggled on until about 3 pm, when the migraine was threatening to fracture my vision. I went home, took a migraine pill, an allergy pill, chewed some more gas relief tablets, and went to bed. So, all in all, my monthiversary wasn’t the best day, but it had nothing to do with surgery complications, just complications of being me.

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