Hi my name is Sandi, and this is my personal WLS Journal.
I am writing this because by reading what other
people had written was a big part of my decision
to go ahead with the surgery. I hope you find this helpful.
I will try to be as honest, blunt, and direct as possible.
It is  in order according to month
My surgery was 12/9/99

12/9/99 - I had my wls surgery

12/22/99- POST OP REPORT #1
Well I survived. Hrmm, I went in and everything went as planned, surgery in and out,
text book, recovery, and then into my own room. I did great, well then I got sick,
I got pneumonia and ended up intubated in ICU for a few days, like 4 I think.
The good news is I don't hardly remember a scrape of any of it. This is my 6th day home
that's right almost a week, I was on the computer on my 2nd day home and my 4th day
but didn't have the strength or energy to really update this journal. But today I am yours.
OK here's the stuff I think the people want to know. The pain, if you had a c-section
it is really similiar, I had 2, over 8 years ago and they were "easy" the actuall
abdominal pain for me isn't that bad, I just go a lil slow and am cautious when I bend down.
My husband wants me to slow down, he doesnt' want me to get hurt or to be in pain.
I went to WalMart my 3rd day home, and rode in one of their lil electric carts. On my
4th day home the fabric store,  5th day home the Grocery store, and 6th day home
I went to the Mall. That's the activity report.  So it can be done, you may just have
to rest afterward.  As far as emotions. This has been a real triporoma. I have went
from a crying infant to a demanding ogar, screaming and yelling for no apparent reason.
Luckily I think my emotions are evening out a bit, tomorow I will be a full 2 weeks post
op, woo hoo. isn't that cool.  The first night home I cried and said this was the stupidist
thing I had ever done to my body in the world. Today I am thinking it was probably a good
decision, not quite sure yet.  My scales say I have dropped a lil over 20 lbs. But I am
not posting it anywhere, because I want to go by my surgeons scale. 
As far as food, OMG, I am starving to death LOL<  My surgeon has one of the most
strict diets around.  I should be on clear liquids for 2 full weeks, then at day 15 I can
go to full liquids, then at 2 months I can go to pureed. than at 4 months I can go to
soft foods.  I don't know if I am going to make it.  I can't begin to imagine that I went
thru everything for nothing, but geez, I want to chew somthing. I want to eat
I couldn't figure out why I was so starving.  I thought I was supposed to go by 2oz
incriments, and I beat myself up about it for 4 days.  I went back and re read
my surgeons book and it said, 4oz,  as quick as every hour. I am know where close
to  doing that much so heack woo hoo that means instead of doing really bad, I
am doing really good. I was told to up my diet schedule to full liquids a couple
days early and I did, that helped me sleep thru the night. when you get full,
you really get full, I mean to the point that you may want to take a nap like
after a good buffett or a Thanks giving dinner. Yeah sounds funny. But from
eating soup I have managed to get as full as eating a Thanksgiving dinner.
I will try to come back and update and post on here, I am going to start my post op
pics pretty soon and am trying to plot out an outfit and uniform postition and location
that will make it really clear to see the differances.  I will try to be good about updating
and posting,  I don't know how often I will do so. I do know that my above mentioned
friend Jill Booth, well she is 9 weeks and has lost over 50 infact I think it's like 60 lbs
she is almost below 200 already, unvelievable, her story worked out differant than mine
but she also has pictures on line and a journal, so you can also check her out, if you go
to the Flock of Angels main page and then pick Jill's page off the main page you can
see her story.

Good luck to all and I truly wish all of you a very Merry Christmas

12/30/99 POST OP UPDATE #2
- 3 weeks today-

Well I figured I might go ahead and give another update.  I am 3 weeks today. I haven't
had my first follow up apt with my wls Dr yet due to the Holidays, it's on Monday.
I haven't worn my binder in 2 days, I am walking fine.  I walk the block twice
a day for the past 3 days.  I have been tracking my calories, fat grams, and protien.
I have increased my water to 60 oz a day, but I don't think that my output is right, I think
I am holding a ton of water.  My daily calories for the past week are under 500, my fat grams
are under 5 and my protien is above 40 grams, but that takes serious work to get in all
that protien and not the calories.   Unfortunately I got a wonderful digital scale for Christmas
from my loving hubby, and now I am addicted, I weigh myself 3x's a day and I havent'
been happy about it at all.   I can drive now and that makes life better. I am still on full
liquieds for another week then woo hoo I can start pureed food. yippee huh??
The good news is the hunger has subsided. infact somtimes I have to remind myself
to eat somthing because it will be 6:30pm and I haven't eaten all day long, I stay
really full with all the water I drink. That and I am scared to try new foods, I am scared
to dump or take that chance. I got pretty sick I had 1/4 of a boiled egg and my heart raced,
I got boiling hot and had the chills at the same time. had to go to bed and felt like I was
gonna puke.  I woke up just fine though.  I am starting to get used to my new body,
and learning to read it and it's signals. It's really weird I don't think it had signals before
surgery other than FEED ME NOW. I definately have a drastic weight loss since before
surgery, but I am not posting any #'s until I go to the Dr and see what their scales say.
About 4 people have told me they can see it in my face, but I dont' see it. I know my
boobs are mushy for the first time in my life, I have always had these great boobs,
now I fear they will either go away or sag or both, and I would rather that didn't happen
and so would my hubby LOL.  The flock of angels wls support group is going good
I have to urge everyone to go to it, http://www.gcisnet.net/wls   it is even expanding.
We have added post op diets and nutritional info, and many other new things.
I will be posting a one month picture soon, I can't even believe it. TOO cool, seems
like yesturday I was on the phone crying to Jill that I would never get to
eat food again, and it's only 1 week away till puree. woo hoo !!!  Well that's
all for now, tomorow is New Years EVE for the new millenium,  and tomorow I
go and buy a almost lil black dress to wear tomorow night, didn't buy it sooner
because I want it to fit nicely.  I wont buy an expensive one because it wont fit in
2 weeks hehehehehehehehehehehehehhehehehehehe sorry, please excuse my
histaria but I have never been able to say that with total confidence before.

Happy New Year everyone !!!

1/8/00 POST OP REPORT #3, 4 weeks
Hi there everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful new year. I missed my
1st Dr's apt and had to reschedule it do to our leaving town. Here's the
scoop, tomorw I will be 4 weeks or 1 whole month post op. Today we
returned  from OKC, OK. My husband lost his oldest brother and
that is where he is from. it was a 13 hr drive here from the gulf coast and it didn't
bother me at all, infact I drove 1/2 way comming and going. I finally met his
family, I wish it was about 60 lbs from now but they all loved me anyway !!
There were 3 little boys there my new nephews and they crawled right up on
my lap and I read to them. I am telling you I feel spectacular. I don't even
notice I had surgery except every once in a while. What I am saying is that
I ran, I bent over, I played on the floor with the little ones, it was simply
terrific. The pain and the hurt is all subsiding even in my memory of the
whole ordeal.  The hardest part of the trip was eating in resturaunts and
convient stores along the way and while we were there.  But I learned several
key things and here they are: (1) I can eat resturaunt grilled chicken but
I squeeze the grease and juice out of it with napkins first and then 1/4 it
and only eat 1/4 of it.  (2) there is absolutely nothing in a convient store
that we can eat. (3) all the health bars, like snackwells and diet breakfast
bars and such, they are completely off limits, the minimum sugar
content I found ( and I looked hard) was 14 grams of sugar, that's enough
to knock me only my butt in the hospital. (4) sugar free syrup on a diet
IHOP silver dollar pancake is delicious (only eat 1/2 of it). (5)OKC has more
delicious looking resturaunts than anywhere I have ever been, I really wanted
a taco and a steak.  Sugar free gum is a life saver, and I can not drink room
temp water, it has to have ice.  I returned home today sure of a gain or a
platue, afterall it was my first experience with real world food and it lasted
4 days, I jumped on my scale and I had a loss, A GOOD LOSS. Like I
said before I am monitoring my wieght here at home, but I am not posting
any of these losses because I want to use my surgeons record. My first apt is
in 2 days check back then for the word on my progress. I posted
a pic of my scar on the pictures page. I haven't run across many of them
and I wanted people to be able to see it.  I will be adding the first set of
post op pics and weight losses after monday 1/10/99. bookmark my
page and come back and see.

1/12/99 POST OP UPDATE ( 4 WEEKS)

Well I went to my Dr on 1/10/99 and here's the loss wich I know is the
only reason you are reading this LOL. I lost an official 30lbs in 1 month.
I am quiet happy with that, that's more than I have lost on most diets, the
good news is our scales matched exactly and now I can keep track at home
I can also tell you that I am currently as of today not really far from being under
210 that makes me just giddy, because after that my next goal is to be under
200 because I aint seen that in a while, I hope to make it by the end of the month,
but I understand that platues are common so I will be happy with valentines day.
I have been working out  the past few days, doing  1-2 mile a day walks and
riding the exercize bike 15 miles. I have been doing some light weight work
on my arms and legs just for toning. I have done nothing abdominal as of
yet, techincally not supposed to for another few weeks, so thats good.
We took pictures for the site on my 4 week anniversary, but they were sooo
fuzzy you couldn't see.  So I dropped off another roll of film and we will try
those. the webcam just doesn't do me justice LOL. So they should be up in
a couple of days, sorry about that guys.  I did wake up yesturday feeling
as if a truck ran over me. It's that flu like feeling, our house has been lucky
as you know the rest of the country is in like an epidemic state with the flu
right now, and Mississippi is also, but we have all managaed to stay healthy so
far... KNOCK ON WOOD.  the problem is supposed to reach it's peek in
2 weeks, which means there is still plenty of time especially with the kiddos
going to that germ fair called public school every day. I still haven't gotten
"actually" sick from food yet. I dont' have much of an appetite, I did try somthing
new last night, I ate 1/2 of a regular hot dog, now this according to my dietician
is a bad thing, like I have said before I have a strict DR with a strict diet plan
I should still be eating pureed food. for about 3 1/2 more weeks. The main thing
I crave is a salad, I want a salad, with wonderful lettuce, and dressing mmmmm
my mouth just waters at the thought.  The amazing thing is I dont' want anything
sweet it's like my sweet cravings are just gone. I do believe it's totally a mental
thing because I dont want to get sick. But I can walk down the candy isle and
it's no problem for me. Infact my whole attitude about food is differant. I haven't
anything that I really shouldn't (maybe just early) and I don't want to because I
don't want to get back into the habbit of eating things just because they taste good
I actually enjoy eating healthier. The food I eat now taste great to me, after a couple
weeks of chicken broth actual soup taste like a T-Bone !! LOL. My friend jill is 3 days
short of 3 months and hit her first platue, I know it must be driving her crazy, my little
one did, I really feel for her, and know that I will also probably be hitting one within
the next 2 months, and when I do I hope I remember that eating right, taking my
vitamins, drinking my water and exercise will get me over that hump in time. as long
as I dont gain, I don't think I could handle that mentally, I would crack knowing as
little as I comsume that I was capable of gaining LOL.  I actually sent out my resume
for a part time job, LOL haven't worked in a year and have enjoyed it then 4 weeks
post I send out a resume LOL I must be cracked but I feel terrific. My hiusband and
some people he works with say they can see it in my face, my darling hubby held
me in his arms and got a said look on his face and said I was melting away.
LOL I wish! Well folks thats all for now. Take care and catch ya next week.

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