Coping with New Normals

Dealing with not being able to overeat again.

There are a lot of fears when it comes to surgery. For me, the fear of the surgery itself was shadowed by the fear of what was to come, and I know I'm not alone.

I can remember in my days pre-op I would over eat from time to time and I would be incredibly uncomfortable. I wanted to sleep, but the rock in my stomach was uncomfortable. I wanted to walk, but the desire to stay still was just as strong.

It's not something you think about until you know this is a sensation you won't really experience again.

For those of you who are pre-op/searching/looking for a friend. The three stages most patients go through, however the timelines are different, are:

Full Liquids: Protein shakes, yogurt, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, water, jello, pudding (1 week)
Pureed Foods: If it blends you can have it (3 weeks)
Soft Foods: Pretty much everything except nuts, raw fruits and vegetables, and the skins of fruits and vegetables (3 weeks)

During the first week, the goal was literally a tablespoon at a time of "foods" besides water. This number increases as even the week goes on. By the time I got to pureed food, I had half of a baby food container at a time.

The sensation of overeating makes what I used to go through look like a walk in the park. Every time I overate until about three months in, I would get the foamies.

There are tons of articles about the foamies. But I would describe it was a mucusy, saliva vomit. Very little food comes up, but after a few minutes with the foamies, I would be ok. Not 100%, but more comfortable.

I don't get the foamies anymore because I don't allow myself to get there. Every once in a while I'll eat something my pouch doesn't want to process, or I'll have just a little too much, and I just take a nap to deal with it.

There are times where I'm eating, and I'll literally have food in the spoon, and that's all I have, and I'll leave it there. Literally, one spoonful is the difference between being comfortable and foamies.

So, people wonder how I do it. Because I know what's coming if I eat even just a hair too much. It's as easy as that. I had several bouts with foamies and being uncomfortable, and I think of those as learning experiences. Once a patient gets a handle on that, they should be ok.

Stress Eating and Travelling: A Two for One Deal!

Just as a little bit of background before I jump into it, my husband's family with little exception all lives in a town in Southeast Texas. We've gotten out there about once a year since we started dating because we can see so much family in a single shot. Also, his grandmother (Meemaw from this point forward) had Lou Gehrig's Disease. She passed away on September 6, 2017.

If you have put a few pieces of this puzzle together, she passed away during a time of a natural disaster (Hurricane Harvey), and partially due to this the services had to take place nearly two weeks after she passed away.

When we got the sad news, we assumed things would happen quickly and the price of last-minute flights made it cost-prohibitive for both of us to go. A day later, we found out the service would be in about ten days, and we managed to find cheap airfare so both of us could go. After all, if Meemaw knew you, you were her grandchild and she loved you as such.

So today's story hits on two things, dealing with a high-stress situation, and traveling.

This was not my first post-operative trip, we went to Canada when I was eight weeks out. But, when we went to Canada, I was not cleared to eat all foods yet, so I found myself reverting to be safe as I didn't want to have an emergency so far from home.

At nearly 16 weeks out, I can eat practically anything, so the thought of what to eat for safety was no longer present which made some things easier, but also presented a danger for eating the wrong things.

I'm not going to sit here and write that I made every perfect decision and I would proudly present my food journal to my nutritionist or surgeon. The facts remain that I wrote everything down, and I did the best I could. A few key points made this possible:

1) I have a supportive husband who is willing to share plates. I'm going to start a new series of entries about my husband going through his own WLS journey (he starts in a few weeks from writing). So he understands where I'm coming from, and also that portions at restaurants are so huge, me having my three or four bites does not take anything away from his experience. Especially since the surgery, we haven't eaten out all that much. We would discuss what to order, then when it came to the table I had a small plate for my own serving. I know some hospitals give out cards to keep in your wallet that you have a medical necessity to order from the kid's menu. After this weekend, I am solid in my choice to not even ask for that card. The choices on the kids menu are generally less healthy than the main menu. They are there as usual kid crowd pleasers.

2) Planning planning planning. I have said in past posts that failing to plan is planning to fail. From the start of planning out our flights and our day of travel (we were landing at 3:30pm, getting lunch with my in-laws, who were on the same flight, and driving the 90 minutes to the destination) we planned out how we were going to get what we needed for a good trip. Before we even got on the plane, we made a list of things we would need at Walmart when we landed. This list included pre-made Premier Protein (a luxury to us), Cheerios, water flavoring, and fiber laxative. We stopped at Walmart and made our purchases, which carried us through the trip.

3) Think "protein" first. Every time I put something in my mouth, I thought "protein" first. I tried to keep my normal day for as long as possible every day, and no matter how the day ended, I restarted with the normal day the next morning. My normal day is my fiber laxative, protein shake, and a little later Cheerios (dry). At that point my days change as I mix up lunch and dinner. While the family was eating the food local organizations had so generously brought, I had my lunchbox. On the way in, I bought beef jerky from Buc-ee's. For non-Texas people, Buc-ee's is just a magical rest stop with the cleanest bathrooms you'll ever experience, along with fun food options. What caught my eye was the beef jerky bar, and we bought enough jerky to share with everyone. Also, beef jerky takes so long to chew, especially post-op that it would really keep me busy.

This wasn't the happiest of trips either. It was the first time I found myself in a situation where I would have eaten a lot from stress eating before the surgery. I was a little nervous going into it, but honestly I had no desire to overeat. I wonder how this will change in the future, but I had no issue saying no, and more importantly, no family pushing anything on me. This was the first time everyone had seen me since I lost any weight, so I was down 90 pounds since the last time I saw them.

This trip proved a lot to me about what I'm capable of and what level of planning it takes. The most important part is that as long as I am able, a Walmart should be my first stop, even before I get to a hotel. Research and preparation will allow anyone to have a successful trip.