My Bariatric Surgery Adventure

I left the hospital two weeks ago Saturday and tomorrow I return to work. The journey so far has not been without its ups and down.  As I have discussed in prior posts the entire adventure is not without some regrets.  For anyone who has been so involved with food as a central part of their lives, the emotional loss of favorite foods and sufficient quantities is devastating.

I went for my post op visit on November 26 and it went well.  My scars are healing well and I weighed in at 21 pounds less than my weight on the date of my release from the hospital.  Also I was told I could progress to Stage 4 of the diet which includes some solid food and driving myself.

Of course the next day was Thanksgiving and we were off to a family Thanksgiving.  I looked forward to my three ounces of turkey with fat free gravy.  I drove myself for the first time in two weeks to the grocery store to get  my fat free gravy.

The first bite of turkey was great. The second was equally great.  Then came the third and the fourth and they were not so great.  I felt nauseous for the first time since surgery.  I had to get to the bathroom and while I did not vomit, it was half and hour before I felt like rejoining the party.

Also I was exhausted by the party itself.  For your information I probably ate about an ounce or ounce and half of turkey before I had to give up.  Nothing seemed very appealing after that.

I know that the lack of hunger is one of the good results of the surgery, but to me it was a very dark result of the surgery.  Here I was surrounded by lots of food that just a few weeks ago I would have been dying to eat and now I couldn’t even look at the food without feeling sick.  I felt like I had lost a old friend.

The next day I tried some fat free chilli and that worked ok.  I have found that since i have to chew and chew until food is well chewed it doesn’t taste the same as when I could chew it a couple of times and then swallow it.  Tempeh has turned out to be one of the few foods I can tolerate.  Ground checken tastes horrible after chewing it for 20 times.

Also I am still tired.  I really almost had a breakdown on Friday morning when I had to get a memo done for work and had to deal with an agreement for another client in distress.  I realize that having now lost over 25  lbs in two weeks and living on 500-700 calories a day does not provide you with a lot of energy for work and other things.

Tomorrow is going to hard.  I have a 3pm conference call and I am not sure that I will be able to last that long.  I am going to go in late and leave after the call to preserve myself.  Also planning meals at work is still tough.  I will eat breakfast at home, but lunch will probably be tempeh with chicken bullion.

Also I wake up each day with the irrational fear that I will not lose any more weight or that even the 50 pounds that I have lost since July really has not made any difference in my looks.  All irrational fears, but I am a long term fat man.  Weight loss has always been temporary for me and every diet has failed at some point even after I had lost 100 pounds.

I will blog on my first day tomorrow.  It should be interesting.