Two Weeks Post-Op

I had my two week post-op appointment with my surgeon yesterday evening. It went quite well. The day of surgery I weighed 386 pounds. At my appointment yesterday their scale weighed me at 369 which is down 17 pounds since surgery. They then looked at my weight loss since the end of July when I went on the pre-op diet and were quite impressed as that makes down a total of 40 pounds!

They removed my staples. I am now staple free! Yea for me. The incisions are ugly looking to me but he said in 48 hours they will look totally different. The surgeon said that the pulling I'm feeling could be from some inner stitches they had to put in one of the incisions on my right side. The back pain is likely due to the adjustment of core muscles as I heal. He said I have probably made an adjustment to the way I walk (no kidding) due to the pain and the tummy muscles being penetrated. He said the back pain should go away as I continue to heal. He suggested liquid Tylenol to help with the pain until then, especially before I'm going to move around a lot. I think I'll pick some up and go from there. I'm not one to take medication, even for headaches, but I'm considering this for now. At the very least, it will help the pain to not be so strong.

Then I met with the nutritionist. She didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, pretty much. She said I'm eating the way I should be but may want to eat a little more at each sitting. I'm currently eating only about 2 ounces of protein each time I eat. She wants that to be at least 3 ounces. She also wants me to track the protein intake a bit better. I keep a food log, but haven't bothered with the counts so much. Guess I'd better pick up a protein count pocket book so I can track more accurately. She also suggested I drink at least one protein drink per day. I'm going to get some EAS Lite today to try in shake form and also some Isopure which should help. She said that will at least boost my protein levels to where they should be and I won't have to worry so much about getting enough. They will draw blood at my next appointment in October to check all my levels.

I am to continue to increase my walking. It is slow going but every day I challenge myself to do a little more. The surgeon also wants me to add going up and down at least one flight of stairs per day. He said it will help me to build the core muscles and exercise my calves which is still important to keep me from developing blood clots in my legs. It hurts to just step up and down at curbs but I'll do my best to start this. We do have stairs in our apartment building and I'll just go out and climb one flight of them for now. Eventually I'll add going up to the third floor but baby steps right now.

Overall, things are going well. I still tire pretty easily. The walking increases my back pain. Still going to check into getting some Spanx (or something similar from Lane Bryant) to help in smoothing things out. It will also help my muscles develop a bit as well.