My first week after Gastric Bypass Surgery

So now I am home from the hospital and on my own. You go to all the nutrition classes for months prior to the surgery, but yet all of a sudden your mind goes blank. You just want to get it right and not have any complications. I was so nervous, but ready – or was I?

I got home from the hospital on Wednesday January 25th at around 12:00pm and first on my agenda was to get a shower. It felt so good to be clean, but let me tell ya that sticky stuff from all those heart monitor leads and tape they used is a real bitch to get off. I got some of it off, but not all – I hate that.

Now every doctor has different rules and time frames when it comes to what you are to eat after your Gastric Bypass Surgery so be sure to follow the plan in place that was given to you. I am going share with you what my rules are and go from there.

Day 1 and 2 (which were in the hospital) is a Full Bariatric Liquid Diet – I had Broths, Decaf Tea and Sugar Free Jell-O those days – oh and a Sugar Free Italian Ice

Days 3 to 9 Bariatric Full Liquids – This is food that can pour off a spoon like soup. They should also supply protein and other nutrients too. You should be sent home with a list of things that your doctor says is allowed for you to have at each stage of your new diet. Protein Goal is 60 grams and they want you to try and get in 64 ounce of fluids.

I did not each much my first day home and I was still taking some pain meds which was Vicodin in liquid form (so gross). I am so not a fan of liquid medicine at all. One thing I did wrong on my first day home was to take my vitamins – yup – I had already screwed up. I totally forgot my doctor did not want me to start until I got to the pureed stage which is at day 10. Oops – no harm done hopefully.

I have documented everything I have eaten and the time I have had it in a notebook I keep in my kitchen. This is important to do for many reasons -1: So you can total your protein intake and 2: If you have a reaction to a food you can easily pinpoint what may have caused it and 3: it is a good thing to bring to your nutrition appointment to see if there is anything they would like to change. I also write down when I take my meds – I do not have a great memory so it really helps me a lot to do that too.

Here is what I ate so you can see each day for the first week:

(I am not gonna add the times on – just the order in which I ate)

January 25th (the day I came home)

1 Cup of Chicken Broth with a 1/2 scoop of unflavored protein powder mixed in

1 Sugar Free Jell-O

Got a headache – may be from the aspartame in the Jell-O – happened in the hospital too

Pain Meds

1 Cup Chicken Broth – only ate 1/2

Gas X – I had gas which is normal, but the Gas X is so helpful so have some on hand.

2 SF Fudge Pops – soooo good !!

I felt pretty good my first day home – just tired and still sore. I did a lot of pacing around the house to help move out any of the gas and it felt good to be up. If you are having this done remember to walk walk walk. I am telling ya it has helped me a lot. One thing that drove me nuts was that my new vacuum arrived this day. I had finally caved and bought a Dyson and there it was in a box and I was not allowed to touch it. See I have a vacuuming fetish – I love to vacuum and go through many each year. I have 8 pets in my home and I hate all the fur so I vacuum a lot. Yes once again I have issues – lol. I could not take it so I made hubby open it up and vacuum for me – it was nice he did so, but just not the same for me. Soon enough.

January 26th (My son’s birthday !!)

Crystal Light Iced Tea (drank over the course of the day)

Pain Meds

Chocolate Protein Shake

Dulcolax – this is a stool softener which is a good thing to start taking after surgery to help in the – you know.

Liquid Tylenol – at this point I felt I was not needing the heavy pains meds anymore so hubby went and got me liquid tylenol to take

Strawberry Protein Shake – Only drank 1/2 – that flavor was making me nauseous

1 Cup Cream of Chicken Soup

Liquid Tylenol

1 SF Fudge Pop

1 SF Ice Pop

Gas X

I felt pretty good this day and woke up early in the morning to see the kids off to school. Also being it was my son’s 14th birthday I could not miss making him a fun breakfast that morning. So I made him some heart shaped pancakes with red food coloring and a side of sausage (Yup I am a cool mom like that). I was surprised that I had no problems doing it. I would do anything for my babies – although my baby is not a baby anymore – whaaaaaah !!

Later I also baked him his birthday cake which was a carrot cake – his favorite. Now that smelled really good and I had to be so careful not to lick my fingers when frosting it. It is little habits like that which can cause problems. Again I did great.

I was a bit gassy this day, but nothing some Gas X was not able to handle – oh lots of walking around the house.

January 27th

Crystal Light (drank over the course of the day)

Liquid Tylenol

Gas X

Went back to bed feeling sluggish today – ended up getting up then at about 10:30am

Chocolate Protein Shake

Dulcolax

Liquid Tylenol

1/4 Cup Cream of Rice (I added a tiny bit of I cannot believe it is not butter and salt) – was not crazy about this

1/2 Chocolate Protein Shake

Liquid Tylenol & Gas X

One thing I can remember from this day, because I wrote it in my food diary, is that my hubby had bought some of those roasted chickens they cook at the store for their dinner. Those are my favorite. When he was stripping the chicken off the bone the smell was unreal and it was the first time I was envious. I was so sick of soups and liquids already. So later in the day I walked past the chicken in the kitchen and guess what I did? Nope I did not eat any, but I took a piece and sucked on it for a quick moment to get the flavor and then spit it out. I cannot tell you how hard it was not to chew it up, but I didn’t.

January 28th

Chocolate Protein Shake

Crystal Light (drank over the course of the day)

2 tsp Part Skim Ricotta Cheese (this was a cheat – explained below)

2 SF Ice Pops

1/4 Cup Part Skim Ricotta Cheese (explained below)

1/2 Cup SF Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream (spit out the cherry chunks)

I took it easy this day – I was feeling kinda blah. Maybe it was the withdrawal from the heavy pain meds, not sure. I took a long hot shower and got dressed in real clothes and that helped a bit. I still had no additional motivation to do much of anything else – so I took a couch and TV day. I am finding it hard to get in my fluids and the thoughts of any soups at this point now just completely gross me out.

Now lets talk about my cheating – “The Ricotta Cheese”. No that is not a liquid is it? This is an item allowed on the pureed diet which comes at day 10 and technically I had 4 days till then. Well my dreams of being the Gastric Bypass poster child went right out the window – I broke the rules. I just had to have a different flavor in my mouth and let me tell you it was beyond amazing for me. I tried out 2 tsp first to see how I would handle it and then a couple hours later I had 1/4 cup. I did wake up at midnight that night needing some Gas X -could have been from that – who knows.

NOW let me say that I do not recommend you cheat like I did – your pouch is still healing at this point and I could have caused issues for myself. Thank god I did not. It really was good though. OK shame on me.

January 29th

Crystal Light (drank over the course of the day)

1/4 Cup Part Skim Ricotta Cheese (still cheating)

Chocolate Protein Shake

Gas X (from Ricotta Cheese ???)

1 Laughing Cow Low Fat Swiss Cheese Wedge (cheat)

Lit and Fit Yogurt Vanilla (cheat)

Gas X before bed just in case

Ok so I had lots of cheats on this day. Seems like I just jumped to the pureed diet huh? Well That is because I kinda did. Guilt set in even though I was doing fine. I told myself I had to call my nutritionist tomorrow (Monday) to confess my sins. OH and guess what? I had my first Poop since surgery. I know gross why did I have to share that – well because to know your parts are working after this is a celebration I think. Hail the Poop !!! OH and this was also the day I decided to create this blog – hmmm Poop and Blog ???

January 30th (1 week since surgery – wow)

Crystal Light (drank over the course of the day)

Chocolate Protein Shake

1/4 Cup of Part Skim Ricotta Cheese (still cheating)

1 Laughing Cow Low Fat Swiss Cheese Wedge (cheating again)

Cream of Asparagus Soup Strained – did not eat – soup grossed me out

Chocolate Protein Shake

Cup of Coffee with SF Coffemate Hazelnut Creamer – maybe 20 sips

Holy cow – I week post op – I made it !!! Woooo Hooooo. So I called my nutritionist today and confessed my sins. She said that she could not tell me it was Ok to do that and I should go back on the liquids until Wednesday. Really? At this point what was one day I thought. I have always been known to break the rules – so would I do it again? I was good after the call and tried to have cream soup – which grossed me out and then I had a protein shake. You will have to read my next post to see if I was able to control myself.

So overall I had a great first week after my Gastric Bypass – so much so that I have started to question if he really performed the surgery on me at all. I keep telling my husband that maybe I had a placebo surgery to see if it is really a mind thing.

My pain has never been truly pain at all – just soreness. I have had no reactions of feeling ill from anything I have eaten. The only thing I have gotten was gas in my tummy. Yes I have farted a lot this week, which I am sorry to say is nothing new for me since I had stomach issues prior to surgery. My poor family – lol. I made sure to walk around the house a lot which I think has made a difference. On the days I felt blah – I just chilled out.

I have been just fine around food and the family eating and I did tell them they are not to hide from eating around me. If I felt uncomfortable I would walk away. The good thing is that at the time I did the surgery my hubby and kids made some huge changes themselves. They are living a much healthier lifestyle with food as well. My hubby took over the cooking – bad snacks are no longer in the home and portions have been cut down. So everyone is adjusting to a new lifestyle which is fantastic.

I have felt myself shrinking and my face already looks thinner – I always lose it there first. Yes I have stepped on the scale, BUT I will only be posting my weights in the My Weigh Ins section on a weekly basis. At the end of each month I will put up photos taken at each week to see the changes.

I am beyond excited to melt away !!! Hope you continue to follow my story and watch too.

Stay Tuned for posts on Week 2, What I purchased prior to surgery, What Protein Shakes I drink, Vitamins I use and more…