One week post op

I have now been banded for one week. I went in for my post-op appointment today. It was a group session with everyone who had been banded last Monday. There were 6 patients, plus some spouses and the nurse. We talked about entering the next phase of eating, which I will describe, plus what is to come.

The good news is that my pain is all gone, just some discomfort due to the healing process. But the best news is that I can now eat soft/mushy foods. I am done with liquids only. I did start the day with a 50g protein shake for breakfast, knowing that I might not get a whole lot of protein the rest of the day because for lunch I had...

Christmas leftovers! Becky's dressing, mashed potatoes, spinach and broccoli casserole were perfect for lunch. They were all very moist after being microwaved and I was able to smash them just a bit, and enjoy them. I even had some apple pie. Well, at least the apples from the apple pie. Total I ate about 1/2 cup of food, but it was the best leftovers meal I've ever had. Thanks Becky! :)

I also stopped by the grocery store on the way home to get some food for the week. For this week I can have canned chicken/tuna, canned or overcooked (?) vegetables, canned fruit or overripe bananas, overcooked pasta and Cheerios! I guess the overcooking is to make sure the food is mushy enough. So for dinner tonight I am going to make roasted squash, zucchini and carrots, that after cooking long enough will be mashy. I am also going to make Chinese Chicken Salad. I also bought some potatoes to make more mashed potatoes later on this week and of course I have canned tuna.

The appointment itself was very uneventful. I scheduled my first adjustment, if you will, for 1/31/09. This is where I will start to get liquid injected into my band to begin restricting food. Right now the only restriction is due to swelling since they sort of sew part of the stomach around the band to keep it in place. The goal is to get just enough injections of saline into the band to get to the "Green Zone" which is where you are not hungry, you get to eat just the right amount of food, and are losing weight.

My bandages are now all off and I am going to work tomorrow. I am now going to wait until an hour has passed since lunch to take a sip of water. You can't drink 30 minutes before or 1 hour after eating so that the food sits in the little "pouch" and slowly funnels into the stomach - hence the feeling I have now that I just ate the biggest Christmas dinner ever!