I Don't Think I'm Doing This Right
by
, 08-25-2017 at 07:05 PM (3026 Views)
I apologize in advance for this rather long post, but I'm trying to get my thoughts together and give anyone reading a complete background. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
I am now 15 days post-op, and I feel like I've already messed up. Before surgery, I saw a Bariatric physician and nutritionist who referred me to the surgeon (Dr. Sieloff) after I had satisfied all the requirements to get insurance approval. The Bariatric doctor and surgeon work together on all of this because they do seminars together. During my visits to the Bariatric doctor, she would occasionally make comments about Dr. Sieloff's office telling patients things that were different from her instructions.
Well, I ran into the right away when I got my surgery date. When they gave me my date, it was exactly two weeks out. I told the nurse that I would need to start my pre-op diet the next day. She agreed, but then told me that the pre-op diet was not a requirement of Dr. Sieloff. She said it was up to me, but they did not see a need for me to torture myself for two weeks before I even had the tool to help me. She said no one's liver had ever been too big for the surgery. So, I chose not to do the pre-op diet. I had already given up caffeine and alcohol months before the surgery. After the surgery, Dr. Sieloff told me everything went great and he did not encounter anything out of the ordinary. I was on the liquid diet in the hospital (3 nights). My surgery was on a Thursday, and I got to go home Sunday.
After I got home that Sunday, I continued the liquid diet for four more days. Again, there were differences in what the Bariatric doctor told me and what Dr. Sieloff's office told me but in the other direction. Bariatric told me I could go to full liquids 3 days after surgery. Dr. Sieloff's office told me to wait until that next Thursday, which was a week post-op. Again, I followed Dr. Sieloff's instructions. I started full liquids at 8 days post-op, which was great because I needed something a little more filling. I was already feeling hunger, which was a little bit of a disappointment, because the Bariatric doctor and my counselor both told me "you won't be hungry after the surgery". I thought, "well, you just can't kill my hunger". I continued the full liquids until my follow-up appointment with Dr. Sieloff that next Monday, which was 11 days post-op. At that appointment, Dr. Sieloff told me I could go ahead and start on pureed foods like chicken salad, but he also told me to spread it on a cracker so that I could practice chewing it enough to swallow it. He also told me I could eat vegetables mashed up with my fork...not pureed but soft. So, it didn't seem like I had to stick to pureed foods as long as they were soft and I could chew them down to mush. My Bariatric doctor told me NOT to go off full liquids until I saw her, which is not until August 30th. I don't think I could have stood it that long, but I didn't even try. Again, I followed Dr. Sieloff's guidance and started eating pureed/soft foods. Those few crackers with the chicken salad were heaven. I couldn't eat more that three of four bites before I was full, but I felt like I was cheating.
I made the mistake of weighing myself at my parent's house this past Wednesday. At my Monday appointment with Dr. Sieloff, I was 220.5, which is about 12 pounds down from pre-op. When I weighed Wednesday, I weighed 221.4. Needless to say, I immediately felt discouraged. I knew better, but I didn't feel like I was losing after I started soft foods, and I wanted to check.
At this point, I have pretty much started eating normal food (although I do try to pick soft foods...no steak or dry chicken or anything like that). I do focus on protein. Since I can't hold much, I don't have room to eat other things. My typical daily diet is one scrambled egg for breakfast, 1/2 shake for snack (although I was able to drink a whole one for snack today, which worries me), chicken salad with 2 or 3 crackers for lunch, another 1/2 shake for snack, and then supper is where I feel like I'm messing up. My sister is in the hospital and not doing well. I've been to visit her every night this week, and I've been grabbing something on the go for supper. Granted, it's only a very small portion, but for instance, last night I ate chili from the hospital cafeteria. It was about a cup of chili, and I couldn't eat it all. I ate half at the beginning of my visit and the other half about an hour later. I chewed everything really well. I did wind up feeling a little overfull, but luckily I didn't get sick. Oh, and I am avoiding water 30 prior to 30 after eating.
So, here is where my diet-damaged mind is driving me crazy. I know that when I go to my Bariatric doctor on the 30th, they're going to know I didn't do the pre-op because if I had, I would be down more than I am. I'm also afraid I'm not going to lose weight eating "normal" food.
Have I messed up the whole process? Should I go back to full liquids for a while? I don't want to fail at this like I've failed at every other weight loss attempt I've made. Thanks for listening to me vent. This is a mind challenging, life changing thing.