Category: Blog

I had a bit of a shock as my doctor has a different post-op diet than TLC Edge, so I wasn’t expecting it at all.

What is it?

1 week of clear liquids — I was expecting one day

1 week of full liquids — I was expecting two weeks

1 week of mushies — I was expecting two weeks

I asked about clear liquids and he recommended Protein Bullets and that I could get them at GNC.  Well, there is a GNC on the way home from the surgery center, so we stopped there and got a box of grape protein tubes.  They aren’t bad.

However, when I got home, I went out on the internet and went to order some  I found ProteinBullet.com and ordered both of the flavors, figuring they would get here about the time I would run out of the above.

Imagine my dismay when I got an email saying they would arrive next Thursday.  Good news — they are located in Lewisville, Texas, literally down the road from us, so I offered to pick the order up the day it was available.

Bigger shocker, they offered to deliver and refund the delivery fee!  They didn’t have to do either.  And both cases arrived this afternoon. 

I had my first one for "dinner", and it wasn’t bad. 

I recommend them if you are going through lap band or other bariactric surgery but also to diabetes having trouble getting enough protein as the drinks have none or little carbs.

Had a decent night.  Went to bed around 10:30, woke up with out the alarm for pain medication – which I took at 12:00 and 4:00.  At 4:00 went to straight Tylenol and stopped taking the codein.

I’m a bit sore still, especially my throat. 

I’ve gotten up, dressed, and have done some clear liquids.  Even walked for 5 minutes on the treadmill.  I’d like to take a nap, but I’m expecting a phone call and a visitor, and both are hard to deal with using CPAP.

So I’m hanging out and watching the Indy coverage on Versus.

I was able to take a 30 minute nap — my blood sugar meter woke me up — blood sugar was at 190 so I did a correction.

Right now, I have a sore throat, a bad one. Dr. Leonard, this is not "a little frog", it hurts to swallow, though popsicle, broth, and even cool water helps.  Can’t talk.  Very bad cause of larygetis.  This is on top of taking 1 tablespool of liquid hydrocodone/Apap 7.5 mg / 5000mg  — basically I call it happy syrup.

My plan is to take some this evening and switch to liquid acetaminphen in the morning as per the doctor’s suggestion.  I’d like to sleep for once.

I have a cool story to tell, and will it goes as well as it looks like it is going, I’m a customer for life.

I’m on clear liquids for a week — Dr. Gonzalez said to get some protein bullets.  We stopped at GNC and picked up their own box on their way home.  Haven’t tried it yet but I knew I needed more and didn’t feel like shopping everywhere for it. And of course, I buy everything online.

Did an internet search on Protein Bullet and came up withhttp://proteinbullet.com/ Price is reasonable, it’s something I’m going to need long term so ordered two cases.  BUT it wasn’t going to arrive until next Thursday, the END of my liquid diet.  Whoops.  That’s when I found out they were in Lewisville — emailed them and offered to pick it up BUT they did one better.  They are going to deliver it tomorrow AND refund the delivery charge, which they DO NOT have to do.

So we’ll see how it goes but I am already completely impressed.

So other than the sore throat, I feel fine.  Especially after the nap. Port incision was hurting before the pain medication / nap, but now it is good.  I may change my tune at 7:30 though….

So I’m home from surgery.

We got to the surgery center before 7:30.  Process was pretty smooth — they have been doing it awhile and most of the surgerys were for lapband.

I didn’t actually get operated on until 9:30, maybe later.  There were lots of things to do before hand.  Some was to do paperwork that was done over the phone.  Most of it was waiting.

Apparently the IV came out of my hand in the recovery room.

Insulin pump worked fine.  Here’s what I ended up doing:

Check blood sugar and was lower than I liked around 1:00 am so switched to surgery basal, which was 50% of my normal basal.

At 6:00 am I was still low, so switched to temp basal of -50.  At that point, I was doing 1/4 of the normal amount of insulin I do.

At 9:00 am I was at 135 but kept things at the same rate.  I just let my 4 hour basal temp run out.

I had four waves of naseau from the surgery so far.  Weird, because the right side of my body just feels like I need to toss cookies bad, but I don’t, which turns in a cough that makes me urinate, then turns into a sharp pain that goes away.  Fun.  Two at the surgery center, one in the car which wasn’t bad, and one at the house.

I’ve got liquid pain medication and liquid anti-naseau medication.

I have a REALLY REALLY sore throat and can’t talk as a result.  I’ve done about 5 popsicles that helped, but I decided that doing too many of those weren’t a good idea as they do have some sugar and calories.

At 3:00 my blood sugar was just around 200 so I’m working on bring it down.

I’ve had a few moments of doubt — one when we were waiting for the surgery and one on the way home from  surgery but it’s a bit too late now to change my mind.

I weighed 308 at the surgery center and I am doing just under 60 units of insulin.

We’re leaving the house in probably 30-45 minutes.  One thing I am worried about — blood sugar is 109.  I woke up around 1:00 am, saw blood sugar was at 111 so switched to the surgery basal — 50% less than my regular basal.

So I’ve turned down my pump another 50% and will watch my blood sugar.  This is one of those times that being a tad high won’t hurt, but will have to watch carefully after surgery so I don’t get infected.

Wearing a Vegas Tshirt and Sweat Pants — will add sneakers.  Debating on taking the CPA.  Will probably take it.  Have lip balm and need to grab a pillow and should be good to go.

My scales show that I’ve lost around 5 pounds on the liquid diet in a week and several people say I’m smaller in the upper chest area, so hopefully it’s a go on that end.

And yes, I have a few moments, of what the hell am I thinking.

Haven’t hear from the aesthlogist, but did hear from the surgeon’s office, they wanted to see reports from last summer cardiologist, right at 4:58 the night before surgery, you’re getting a report.  <sigh>

Did hear from the billing office — 100% covered, only have to pay co pays as I’ve met my out of pocket.

Tomorrow is clear liquids.

2 weeks of liquid diet.

2 weeks of mushies.

Bolus rates are going at half when I get upstairs and can attach to the PC.  Will switch to surgery basal rate when I wake up.

Also getting to the end of the school year.  We’ve got 3 days next week of classes, 1 day of finals, then 3 days of finals the next week.  Teachers have one extra day.

Then I go work for Testing — writing district finals.

One week later, Middle School Girls camp — two weeks of that, two different groups of girls.

Should be busy enough not to worry too much about food.

Got an email that the EKG was missing — man this is starting to feel like putting on a wedding or something.

Emailed and left voice message for nurse that it was missing, please send.  She did.  Pretty quickly.  Got an email about an hour later that everything was in and done and ready.

Just got off the phone with a nurse who gave us a time — 7:30 — and took my medical history. 

Said that I’d get a call from the aetheslogist tomorrow, maybe even evening.

That also means that my liquid diet will be over in about 16 days.  I’ve ordered some Unjury and I’m going to see about getting OptiFast Soup at Prestonwood as I am tired of sweet. I’ve also got some Unjury on order to try since they also have a soup.

Just sent off my copy of all the labs to the case manager.  We should be a go now for the surgery — the lab results were holding us up and as I said last night, the nurse got everything off before she left.

On the good news front — my weight is really dropping according my scales.  Tweaking my basal and bolus setting seems to have worked as I stayed below 200 all day yesterday and was in the 150-180 range most of the day.  Notice I don’t really believe my scales.  Once you get to a certain weight, scales are pretty inaccurate unless they are specifically designed for people this size.

Today I started out at 130.  So I’ll bolus with my Slimfast today instead of drinking it, and then correcting two hours later.

My TDD is under 60 — not bad as it was around 150 back in December to March.

And clothing — I’m wearing things that are two sizes smaller than what I had to buy in December. 

Progress all around.

So I left school right as the 6th period bell rang — my kids had to go to a Freshman awards ceremony (only 5 weren’t).

Got to the doctor’s office and they got me right in.  I’ll probably STILL get stuck with the copay, but oh well.

They did the blood draw and test in front of me, put it in the doctor’s computer.  His nurse had the surgery as the practice’s guinea pig — from the same place — so she knows what needs to be done and won’t mess around.  Besides, I just PDFed the lab results and sent them to my case manager.

Everything looks good but I am wondering about a low thryoid reading.

Good news — nurse emailed me that she had faxed all the information into TLC Edge.  Looking good, so far.

Dog agility was a bit weird tonight — especially running Macy — I’m used to being able to pull out a bit more speed from time to time but there was literally no gas in the tank.  I’m sure that’s a side effect from the liquid diet.

Even the people part went well.  One of my classmates is adamently opposed to the lapband.  The part that bothers me the most is from hearing that people knew people who had the surgery and didn’t lose weight.  It would be awful to go through this whole process and that would happen.

I’ve still got to get Rosetta Stone installed, still have to deal with seniors.  We have a plan in place for field testing so I think I’ll make it through the week.  Maybe have to beat a few seniors with a stick though.