The Week After Surgery...

In my consultation with the doctor's office before the surgery I was instructed that for the first week after surgery I should only have liquids. This is because there is swelling and inflammation from the surgery and there can be swelling where the band is attached.

I continued living on two protein shakes a day and then having a blended up soup for dinner. I have also supplemented this by having vegetable or tomato juice. Those little cans of vegetable juice are only 30 calories and they taste good too! I also occassionally have a little pint size container of Silk chocolate soy milk.

Boy, trying to find a protein shake or powder that doesn't have milk or whey is nearly IMPOSSIBLE! I'm allergic to milk and gluten so when I was looking for a protein drink or powder I had to look through a lot of them before I finally found only one, GenSoy, which doesn't have milk or whey. Stepping on my soapbox... I don't understand why companies put whey in products. I grew up on a farm and we raised pigs and fed them whey so they would grow really fat. Whey is what you feed pigs, not Humans! Manufacturers should leave out the whey. Even SlimFast has whey in it.

One thing I've been experiencing since the surgery is like a lump in my throat, a feeling of constriction that sometimes drives me crazy. It doesn't seem to be related to anything I eat or do - it is just there. I got quite worried about it and went into the clinic and had a flouroscopy to check my band, etc. Everything was completely fine - no problems. I was reassured by the doctor that I wasn't having a complication, but that lump in the throat is still annoying. It feels like my band is wrapped around my throat instead of my stomach! I've been told by others that this should go away in a couple weeks or a month. Supposedly it happens very rarely and is something that only a few people experience after surgery. Maybe this is the way my body is "feeling" the band until it is fully healed. In any case, it's a weird feeling.

I feel like I'm losing weight, but to be honest I'm getting tired of the protein shakes and don't feel like I'm getting enough nutrients. At this point the band isn't inflated. The doctor said they don't do that for a month after surgery to give the body enough time to heal first.

I go into the doctor's office on Thursday for my post op checkup.