Monday 12th June 2017
There are some things re: WLS that I am still adjusting too.
For the first few weeks post surgery I was still drinking water with my meals out of habit.
In the puree stage I was taking sips of water between ingesting teaspoons of pureed foods.
Now that I'm on soft foods I'm getting myself into the habit of either drinking or eating, not both at the same time.
When I'm eating I set aside my water and when I have finished eating I try to wait 20-30 minutes before drinking again as per instructions.
It takes a while for the body/brain to establish different eating/drinking habits.
Pre surgery I would drink water anytime I wanted and not have to worry about it - now it's different.
I know that I am still drinking enough as I still have to wake up at 2am to visit the loo.
For the first 2 weeks post op I didn't wake up to go to the loo at 2am because I wasn't able to drink enough.
There are other things to get used to.
I went out to a friends birthady party last Friday night.
It was a freezing night, got down to 5 degrees and most of the party was spent standing outside glued to the upright heater.
For me there was no drinking of alcohol or eating any of the junky party food.
It was my first social outing post op.
I did drink 2 plastic cups of orange juice and ate 2 carrot sticks with lashings of hommus.
The orange juice took a long time to drink and it helped to keep my energy levels up and the carrots with hummus helped to fill me up.
For the most part I had to eat the junky party food vicariously through my brother who also attended the party.
The junky food looked very tempting to look at as I usually would have partaken in such food.
I definitely missed the food more then I missed the alcohol.
I'm not much of a drinker anymore anyway so it was the food I was missing.
But I managed to have a good time out and stayed out long past my bed time.
Another change I've noticed since my WLS is with my energy levels.
I've always been a pretty tired low energy sort of person anywaybut I've noticed a distinct lack of energy even for me.
They definitely started to perk up a bit at the 2-3 week mark but they are not where they used to be.
I'm hoping that they continue to improve as time goes by.
The late night out at my friends party Friday night wiped me out pretty good for a few days.
Standing out in 5 degree weather for 4 hours probably didn't help matters much but I have definitely slowed down.
All in all though I've had a really positive experience with the surgery and post op.
I've heard about many people experiencing complications from the surgery via the Facebook online WLS support page.
Complications that include staple line leaks, intolerance to both food and water, nasogastric feeding tubes required, hypoglycemia, low heart rates, a lot of dumping, lactose intolerance, etc:
The list goes on...
I'm mentioning these complications not as a warning but as a realistic view of the surgery.
Everyone responds differently to WLS or any type of surgery and I was lucky enough to respond well to it.
There are some things re: WLS that I am still adjusting too.
For the first few weeks post surgery I was still drinking water with my meals out of habit.
In the puree stage I was taking sips of water between ingesting teaspoons of pureed foods.
Now that I'm on soft foods I'm getting myself into the habit of either drinking or eating, not both at the same time.
When I'm eating I set aside my water and when I have finished eating I try to wait 20-30 minutes before drinking again as per instructions.
It takes a while for the body/brain to establish different eating/drinking habits.
Pre surgery I would drink water anytime I wanted and not have to worry about it - now it's different.
I know that I am still drinking enough as I still have to wake up at 2am to visit the loo.
For the first 2 weeks post op I didn't wake up to go to the loo at 2am because I wasn't able to drink enough.
There are other things to get used to.
I went out to a friends birthady party last Friday night.
It was a freezing night, got down to 5 degrees and most of the party was spent standing outside glued to the upright heater.
For me there was no drinking of alcohol or eating any of the junky party food.
It was my first social outing post op.
I did drink 2 plastic cups of orange juice and ate 2 carrot sticks with lashings of hommus.
The orange juice took a long time to drink and it helped to keep my energy levels up and the carrots with hummus helped to fill me up.
For the most part I had to eat the junky party food vicariously through my brother who also attended the party.
The junky food looked very tempting to look at as I usually would have partaken in such food.
I definitely missed the food more then I missed the alcohol.
I'm not much of a drinker anymore anyway so it was the food I was missing.
But I managed to have a good time out and stayed out long past my bed time.
Another change I've noticed since my WLS is with my energy levels.
I've always been a pretty tired low energy sort of person anywaybut I've noticed a distinct lack of energy even for me.
They definitely started to perk up a bit at the 2-3 week mark but they are not where they used to be.
I'm hoping that they continue to improve as time goes by.
The late night out at my friends party Friday night wiped me out pretty good for a few days.
Standing out in 5 degree weather for 4 hours probably didn't help matters much but I have definitely slowed down.
All in all though I've had a really positive experience with the surgery and post op.
I've heard about many people experiencing complications from the surgery via the Facebook online WLS support page.
Complications that include staple line leaks, intolerance to both food and water, nasogastric feeding tubes required, hypoglycemia, low heart rates, a lot of dumping, lactose intolerance, etc:
The list goes on...
I'm mentioning these complications not as a warning but as a realistic view of the surgery.
Everyone responds differently to WLS or any type of surgery and I was lucky enough to respond well to it.
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