WARNING!!! TMI - proceed with caution!!

OOOUUUUCCCHHHH! :( I am currently up at my most favorite place - The Mello's in VT. I arrived yesterday and am loving every second of being here - well almost every second. So since last weekend I've been having a little, how should I say it... a little lower digestive trouble! I've started getting slightly constipated. Now I had been warned this could happen for one of many reasons. High protein diet, all the multi vitamins I am taking, the iron supplements, lack of fiber in the diet... Now most GBS patients have drastic changes in their bowel habits after surgery. We eat so little each day - there's not too much to digest each day!! So most people only go every 3 or 4 days - I was right along in this category - sometimes even more often than that! So.... this past week it's been a little longer than usual and a little more difficult "to go." So yesterday I was VERY VERY constipated.... and last night I really really had urges I could not ignore - so off the to the potty to go. Needless to say... I was there - for.... a long while. And ended up with the most MAJOR and painful hemorroids. So bad that sitting hurt, standing hurt, walking hurt - even peeing hurt. :( I went to bed around midnight, took until 1 ish for me to fall asleep... at 4:15 AM - I awoke to excrutiating pain. I laid awake until 7:30 AM not able to fall asleep. So at 7:30 I climbed carefully out of bed, grabbed Brenna's car keys and drove down to RiteAid to stock up on some hemorroid treatments.... tucks, preparation h, epsom salt. After easing the pain slightly enough so I could take a couple hour nap, I headed to the AWESOME jacuzzi tub of Dave and Terrie's and took a little sitz bath with epsom salt. I am feeling a little better.... still in pain - but not as much as in the middle of the night.

So while I was laying bed waiting for the meds to kick in, I chatted with Paula and commisserated together about hemorroids - it was nice to have someone who knew EXACTLY what I was feeling like. I was also on the forums for GBS trying to see what others said about Constipation and hemorroids. Here's what I learned... even though our doctors tell us to take fiber supplements like Benefiber or Metamucil... we shouldn't - unless we drink AT LEAST 120 fluid oz of PURE water a day (not counting protein shakes, crystal light, milk, etc...) Since benefiber is water soluable - it soaks up water... if you aren't getting those minimum of 12o oz... it will take water from you - ie - from your fecal matter - making it VERY hard... and large. Well wouldn't you know - about 2 weeks ago I began Benefiber because I knew i wasn't getting enough fiber since I mainly eat protien. And I am NO WHERE near 120 oz of water a day.... so problem solved (hopefully) no more Benefiber for me! For now its Milk of Magnesia, Tucks, Preparation H and some sitz baths and lots of prayers to get me through this retreat weekend without being in horrible pain! Prayers welcome!! :)

NSV's

NSV's

(Non Scale Victories)

Besides the 61 pounds that I am down - there are a list of NSV's that i've accomplished!

• My boobs stick out farther than my tummy roll!
• A belt doesn't really help at all for keeping my pants up.
• I can wear an XL shirt and not have to stretch it to fit!
• You can now see my collar bones!
• I RAN for a whole 1/2 mile at 4.5 mph WITH OUT stopping!!!
• A pair of capri's I bought over the summer that did not go on farther than my hips - now fit me like a glove!
• I have 8 pairs of pants that I have had to bag away into a bag labeled - TOO BIG!
• At my managers training this weekend - so many people commented on how great I look!! :)

Thank goodness for NSV's!! The scale creeping down is great - but these trump that!!

Travel

I am currently sitting in the Orlando International Airport waiting for my flight to begin to board. I've been here since 5:00 PM tonight. My original 6:25 PM Flight has been delayed to 8:55 PM. This now means that I will not arrive to Manchester, NH until 1:15 AM and not home until after 2:00 AM... needless to say I am tired and cranky. I've had a great weekend - and it was much too short. I plan to blog about my trip tomorrow since I have had much revalations this weekend (and some good "after" shots of me!) I would like today to blog about Airports. Traveling was always a small challenge for me before surgery with ya know my whole Gluten allergy. But I could always make do - cheeseburgers without buns, salads, yogurts, nuts, ice cream or frozen yogurt. But now it's almost impossible to eat at an airport - not to mention on a plane. I found out on the way down here that no airline serves decaf tea... now I am not suppose to have regular black tea - but my little pouch doesn't really like cold drinks right now and hot drinks seem to soothe it. I did drink the regular tea on the plane ride down - they don't give you much anyways - only about 4 ounces. And if caffeine is suppose to bother me - it didn't. Anyways, the snacks they serve on the planes too are of course a no go on this new lifestyle of mine! That didn't bother me actually - but its the "what if..." of the whole thing that does. What if I really needed to eat someting. What if we got stuck on the tarmat or something for a long time and i didn't have "pouch and gluten friendly" food? Now since I currently have been at the airport waiting for over 3 hours I've spent some time wandering around to kill time. There is basically NOTHING that I or anyone who's had GBS could eat. I mean you've got McDonalds (maybe a salad - maybe), Sbarro - no pizza for any of us GBSers, Au bo pain - again too much bread in there for anyone that's had the surgery. And finally there's Ben and Jerry's.... again - that's a definite NO! Thank goodness I packed protein bars, protein cereal, and protein powder in my carry!! Ok... we are boarding time to line up in numerical order - oh I love Southwest!! Until tomorrow....

OUCH!

All in all things are going great, however I did hurt my little pouch (or pocket as Scott likes me to call it) earlier this week and its still a little mad at me! Over the weekend my Dad made his most incredible Beef Stew! Yummy! I was looking forward to eating some all day on Saturday - when I got home Saturday evening I went and warmed me up some! The beef was oh so tender and moist and it was delic! However, about 10 bites into it an extremely sharp and painful pain struck me right in the middle of my chest (like exactly where if you were to do chest compressions where your palm is supposed to be placed!) That's exactly where my "new stomach"/pouch is located now. Oh man did it hurt. I waited a few minutes thinking maybe I just put too much in that bite... but 5 minutes later it was getting worse. I sat up straight, stretched, walked around the house - coughed a lot, tried to burp... no such luck. I got on the computer and hopped on to the bariatric eating message boards and looked around to see if I could find out what was wrong. So I found out that I got that some food stuck. It took about an hour for the pain to go away... I tried everything - even trying to make myself sick (as recommended on the boards) no such luck. Since then, my little pouchie poo doesn't like much food unless I drink something hot before I eat and even then it's a little sensitive. I got some chicken stuck last night - not nearly as bad as over the weekend, but still uncomfortable. So i'll be taking it easy this weekend while I am in Orlando at Catholic Heart managers training. Lots of protein drinks with me and soft protein bars... I hope taking it really easy this weekend will help the pouch to heal a little!! Looking forward to seeing everyone tonight at our CHWC gathering! Many haven't seen me since last January - 61 pounds heavier!! Sunday and Monday I am hanging with my family at their beach house in New Smyrna Beach until I fly home late Monday night. It will be my first time in a bathing suit since surgery... :/ But hey - i got to bring new clothes with me that I had in my closet that I bought that don't fit!! That will be fun!! :)

Day 72

Wow! Sorry for the long delay on posting!! Like the old saying goes - No news is good news!! Things are going very well! Today is day 72 post opp and I am down a total of 55 pounds as of this morning!! I'm beginning to look like a bag lady as most of my clothes are getting too big - especially pants! I'll be putting my sewing skills to good use this weekend to take in some of my pants! Monday was my last official day on a "staged diet." I am now on Stage 5 - which means - maintenance. I can eat really anything my little pouch will allow... not that I am eating anything that I want. I am learning from my time on support forums that the first year after WLS - nicely called "The Honeymoon Year" is for me to make the changes and create the habits for lifelong eating. They say I really could eat Doritos all day long and still lose weight, but after a year - the scale would start to creep back up. Thankfully I don't really crave "bad" foods like carbs and sweets! This is truly a blessing. Each day I aim for my 80-100 grams of protein and try not to get more than 35-40 grams of crabs. I still don't dare to test out my little pouchy poo with sugar - so everything I eat is either low or no sugar. I am becoming quite the cook! I've found an amazing website (www.bariatriceating.com) that has some of the most amazing recipes and stuff to buy! I am trying new foods and cooking away. I meal plan my whole week, and then cook on saturdays, tuesdays and thursdays. I do much better when I have my whole day planned out of what to eat - and bring it with me. When I don't - I barely get 300 calories in and I tend to have more carbs than protein cause of what's available to eat. I am back to work full time now. The hardest thing is remembering to eat and take vitamins while at work. I am gettting better slowly, but surely! My body seems to be changing everyday! It's really fun to go "shopping" in my wardrobe!! Lots of clothes that were too small now fit (or are even too big!) Things I haven't worn in years are making a comeback!! I have so much that i've been thinking about blogging about - and i can't seem to put my mind together to do it right now! I'll leave it all to blog over the next few days!! So far - 2009 is my year!! :) Happy New Year everyone!!