Post Op appointment & Willpower

I survived. 

 I have survived all the insanity that has been my life since surgery.  My surgery date was May 19th, the very next day was my gorgeous first born baby girls 9th birthday...No cake for you, Mama!!  My in-laws who are not even close to my favorite people in the world came in to town on May 19th to celebrate my daughters birthday and my husbands FINALLY THANK GOD graduation from college on May 22nd.  I managed to sit through the nearly 4 hour ceremony, but it hurt - A LOT. I excused myself from all the festivities - birthday dinner out, graduation dinner out, fried chicken and BBQ that my in-laws brought over, the huge pan of spaghetti bake from my youngest daughters preschool teacher for post-surgery (only a select few know what surgery I *really* had....inlaws not included).    In hind sight if I ever have to have any surgical procedures done I am going to schedule them around my in-laws visits because Vicodin truly helped me tolerate them and foggily forget to care that I blew them off at every turn.

The hardest part though was Hurricane Janet - Janet is my mom.  She came to help out for the week following surgery since my husband travels for work.  My mom knows I had weight loss surgery - that I was on a liquid diet.  Now don't get me wrong, I love my mom...and she helped out tremendously.  She did all of my laundry, cleaned my house, took care of my kids....but healthy eating and wise food choices - not my moms strong suit.  Leaving bad foods at the grocery store - not my mom's strong point.  So sheer willpower had to get me through the week.  My mom would had me $5 on the way out the door when I dropped my youngest at preschool each morning and asked me to pick up her Sausage, Egg and Cheese biscuit from McDonalds.  I did.  I had nothing.  Willpower.   She asked me to pick up her Plain Quarter Pounder with Cheese from McDonalds on my way home from picking up.  I had nothing.  Willpower.  She brought puffy Cheetos and Doritos into my house....Willpower. She bought Carmel corn and Cheesey popcorn from Yankee Candle into my house...Nothing.  Willpower.  She cooks, things like mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade mac and cheese (which has like 2 pounds of Velveeta), green beans (not the healthy kind, but with BACON and MORE BACON).  She cooks with Crisco.  She bakes with Crisco. Olive Oil is not in her vocabulary.  I know the habits that got me to where I am now started as a kid - nothing has changed with my mom. 

OMG - I'm glad she's gone.  First thing I did when I got home from the airport was throw everything out. It was SOOOOO hard not to blow it.  I was tempted to lick a Cheeto though - but that would have been crazy, right...licking a Cheeto.  I must draw the line at insanity somewhere.

Ok, post-op appointment was Thursday May 27th.  Everyone in the office kept saying how premature my appointment was - ummm, you guys scheduled it.  Duh.

I was officially down 15.1 pounds on their scale.  Not bad.  My home scale is now calibrated to match their scale.  I will be weighing in officially every  Monday, although I am weighing myself every day,  I'll record on Mondays.  I'm doing great according to Dr. Clark.  I have the green light for Full Liquids and Mushies shortly after.  My first fill is June 30th.  I have an 11cc Realize band and he suspects I'll get 4-6cc's my first fill.  He says since they do the fills under flouroscopy they can be pretty aggressive from the beginning, so that was great news to hear.  My incisions are healing nicely, and I had very very minimal gas pains during recovery.  I was worried about that - but it was nothing and I haven't felt shoulder pain in at least 5 days now. 

During surgery Dr. Clark biopsied fat from my liver to check for liver damage - fortunately those results are in and I'm clear no damage. Losing weight will help me.  He did find, however, that I have something that resembles a Hemangianoma (sp) on my Liver and I should probably see a specialist.  He took pictures and it's pretty big.  Had I not had this surgery though I wouldn't even know it was there.  I'll get that looked at ASAP.  He does not think it's cancerous at all.  I also had a hiatial hernia repaired during surgery.

So girlies - that's it.  Now I just have to stay accountable and on task for the next 30 days.  If I can fight off Hurricane Janet - I'm sure I can do it.

HUGS and Happy Memorial Day!!

~ Amy