hayley's operation diary
Read all about Hayley's gastric bypass in Belgium...
Go to the latest entry... 2nd June 2008
| May 2008 |
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| 5 |
HOW DO I FEEL BEFORE MY OPERATION WHILST ON MY PRE-OP DIET ?
...In my house the family all sit down together for the evening meal
and so not to do that will be very strange because let’s face it, I
am not going to sit at the table with the family and watch them eat
while I slurp on a Slimfast or whatever. I have even told my partner
that he will be responsible for cooking for him and the kids until I
am eating again.
...I do try to stick to this meal plan and I think largely I succeed
because I know of the benefits that are going to come my way, but
let me tell you, I sure cannot wait to be eating normal food again …
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| Hayley before surgery |
...I shall tell you some things you don’t know about me now. When I
look in the mirror I see the most obese person in the universe I may
as well weigh in at 80 stones. When I walk/ waddle down the street I
think people are staring at the freak. Its almost as if I can hear
them singing that “who ate all the pies?” song and I just want to
scream “I ATE ALL THE ” well its obvious I did eat them all isn’t it
I am after fat and Yes, I am paranoid...
| May 2008 |
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| 12 |
I am Hayley, a 29 year old mother of two. I am very unhappy about my
weighty and feel that now is the time to do something about it . My
weight started to increase when I was 20 years old. I was always a
bit overweight but very sporty both at school and college and ate
well so was never bothered about being a bit bigger as long as I was
healthy.
My weight only increased dramatically after I turned 23 with the
main gain being my back to back pregnancies with a whopping 6 stone
on in 19 months that I have never ever been able to shift. Up until
recently the GPs have never been too sympathetic. I have now been
diagnosed with PCOS and various obesity related medical problems.
I have dieted and exercised as much as I can and nothing helps my
weight. I am thirty at the end of the year and do not want to face
that time weighing almost 25 stone.
On the 5th May 2008, I flew to Belgium from Heathrow and met
Michelle from WLS Group at the airport as I have opted to have
weight loss surgery - I’m having a gastric bypass.
We went by taxi to Bruges. The weather was fine and I didn’t know
whether to be nervous or excited. None of the experience seemed real
at that point. The drive was about an hour from airport to hotel.
I have to just say the hotel was absolutely lovely. The room was
nice and big and the shower/bath just right.
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| Hayley before surgery |
The restaurants in Bruges are amazing. I had escargot (1st time
ever) curried scampi, rabbit, Flemish stew and schnitzel- all
delicious! But enough about the food I ate for my last supper…
The day I went to the hospital for the medical intake made it a bit
more real to me, but not completely. We were met by Dr. Dillemans
personal assistant Marc, who was a nice chap and took us all into
the “Global Intake” room so that we, from other countries, did not
have to sit with the Belgian patients and were treated like VIP’s. I
also had a consultation with Dr Dillemans dietician (he has three)
who went through the eating regime I was going to have to follow
immediately after surgery and in the future, She then weighed me and
took my blood pressure.
It was in the global intake room that we met Dr. Dillemans. My first
impressions were of a confident, experienced surgeon. When he spoke
it was with frankness and honesty and he oozed charisma and
knowledge from every pore. The surgeon explained all procedures in
full and answered all questions. Dr Dillemans actually listens to
his patients concerns, addresses them immediately and soon everyone
in the room was comfortable with their surgical procedures. I wish
my GP was like that.
The morning of the surgery and going into hospital was like a dream
and I started to feel a bit more nervous at this point. I was quite
comfortable with the idea of surgery and wasn’t scared in the
slightest before now. Michelle came with me and I was called early
into anaesthetics. This was it, now or never, crunch time! Eek!
All I remember after saying hello to the anaesthetist was coming
round and being told to roll onto my side so a sheet could be put
underneath me.
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| Hayley the day after surgery |
All I can really remember was that the hospital was incredibly hot
and I felt dizzy and sick most of the time. I know that was because
of the heat though and not anything else. Also the painkiller that
was given at first was pure paracetamol which knocked me for six
initially. I know that I slept a fair bit in hospital because of the
heat, boredom and painkillers.
On the other hand when I felt cool enough I was strolling around and
having a laugh with all the nurses. When I was able to drink again I
was almost straight onto peppermint tea - trapped wind is the worst!
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| Hayley two days after surgery |
I don’t know how much you know about being in hospital but you get
these anti- embolism stockings which you have to wear all the time.
They are uncomfortable and make your feet sweat (well, they do if
you are me) I now call them my Thrombo-socks because they stop deep
vein thrombosis. You have to wear them on entry to the hospital and
up to ten days after the op. I made my partner wash them as soon as
I got home.
Since I have been home I have lived on soups, cinnamon options
drinks, sugar free vimto, water and runny ready brek. I have had a
little mashed potato, very wet with cottage cheese and I think I
overdid it and had a little episode of dumping syndrome. I was all
dizzy and sweaty and wanted to vomit.
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| Hayley on day of discharge with her surgeon Dr Bruno Dillemans |
It lasted about 4 minutes though so I was very lucky, these things can last a while, I have
been told. I also went to the supermarket and weighed myself on my
trusty BMI calculating machine and to my surprise; it reckons I had
dropped from 157kg (5th May) to 151.7kg (11th May) that’s around
12lb. How good is that?!
| May 2008 |
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| 19 |
I have to tell you that I have weighed myself today and that my
trusty BMI machine at Tesco says I now weigh 149.8kg which is
23stone 8lb or something like that. What a jump in less than two
weeks- that’s almost a stone and a half off! I can hardly believe
it. I can however allow a few lbs this week because I am on my
period, and I can put on up to 5lb so I think its safe to say it’s a
definite stone and a half off give or take a lb or two.
Since I came home form hospital I have had a bag of a ten day supply
of injections, which I am glad to say is finally over with. I don’t
know why but the last few injections were a bit more uncomfortable
than the first 7 or 8 but hey ho, they are finished with now. I also
have to take Omeprazole for the next three months to stop stomach
ulcers.
I have made an appointment with my doctor for Friday morning to give
him the paperwork and discuss the bypass. I am not sure what will be
said but when I think the doctor I usually see at the surgery put me
forward for NHS funding for a bypass, I think they will be cool
about it; If the doctor is not cool about it, then that’s just too
bad because I have had the op now.
I am still supposed to be on a liquid and puree diet which is
proving a little harder than I thought. I was worried I ate too much
and so I spoke to Colleen, the WLS Group nutritionist today and
found out I was chewing my food up so much that I was able to fit a
bit more in than was really good for me. I was scared I was
stretching my pouch.
I have mostly been eating runny readybrek, soups and slimfast though
and I have dumped a couple of more times- I can tell you now that I
absolutely do not enjoy the experience of dumping. My head spins, I
get hot and sweaty and I feel sick. I find that I am stopping myself
eating well before I think I am full because I do not want to repeat
the dumping process.
It is awful this eating lark now because I don’t feel hungry and I
don’t get the full feeling from belly to brain and I don’t really
know why, could be because my insides are still settling down. I
only really remember to eat when I look at the clock and realise
hours and hours have gone past.
I keep being told I have had major surgery and that’s probably why I
am so tired after my usual activity. Let me tell you, that’s a hard
concept to get my head round. I am the type of person that has to
get up and do for the family and I am finding very hard at the
moment. I cannot go shopping without feeling knackered afterwards
and I cannot cook the kid’s tea without wearing myself out. In short
it could drive me nuts. I have to look after my family and that’s
that. My partner has been a pillar of support though and keeps
telling me to sit down and relax - What would I do without the
support of my chap eh?
| May 2008 |
|---|
| 26 |
I don’t even know where to start when I talk about this week. I
have dumped and eaten all the wrong way. In fact I feel like I am
about to dump now. I’m sweaty and feel really hot - I think I need a
lay down…
Ok, feeling a little better now ................
I have discovered that I can no longer drink apple juice (unless it
is heavily watered down) This caused a terrible dumping at the farm
on my baby’s 5th birthday. I wouldn’t have minded so much but we had
several of her school friends and a few other parents there to help
out.
I won’t be doing that again in a hurry .........
The other terrible thing that happened was that I got some egg
mayonnaise stuck half way down to my pouch. I cannot describe the
pain. I thought I would be ok with a bit off egg mayonnaise as its
soft. I thought I had chewed it as well but no, a great big lump of
egg got stuck and I could barely breathe with pain.
Anyone that has a bypass will at some point experience a similar if
not the same as me at some point, that much I am sure of.
I did weigh myself Saturday night and I am sure because I am not
exercising and eating a bit more now the weight loss has slowed down
as I have now lost a total of 9kg which is 20lb and my weight was
23s 6.5lb or something like that- I have lost the bit of paper and
it may even be slightly more in terms of weight loss.
Walking round the farm almost killed me, I was exhausted by the time
I got home at 7pm. So I can almost guarantee that doing that
activity would have dropped me another lb or two. Now its half term
break for the kids from school and who knows how I will cope this
week- its been nearly three weeks since the op but I still get very
tired after doing even the school run or a shop at the supermarket.
I shall have to see how it goes and report next week.
| Jun 2008 |
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| 2 |
I weighed myself yesterday and I am now 23st 4lb. I am so pleased. I booked myself in for a haircut tomorrow to celebrate my weight finally coming off! That’s a total loss now of 24/25lb. It can only get better from here. I am now counting the days until I start exercising again. I just want to get my boxing gloves on and go for it!
It hasn’t all been happy with the bypass this past week though. I have had terrible belly ache and I don’t think the pain is my stomach or new pouch. It’s me wanting to blow off ! It is my own fault for eating Brussels sprouts (I love them) thank heavens for those chewable wind relief tablets.
I am also still suffering the killer indigestion feeling too; although this only came on when I ate rice, however after the first couple of forkfuls and a little drop of drink the rice didn’t cause my too many more problems. It is funny now how little things I never thought would cause me a problem to eat or drink, now are.
With the children off school this week it was a bit crazy. We had lots of outings and I was so exhausted every night that I was falling asleep before the children had even gone to bed. I think it is not only the surgery that is causing this but also the increase activity.
My partner is noticing little things too; since I have dropped almost 2 stone in weight, I no longer groan when I stand up from a bending or sitting down position. I am able to stand longer without my Plantar Fasciitis giving me grief.
I want to do things instead of sitting around crying that I cannot do things because of my weight. I think it’s safe to say that there are good elements of the bypass and not so good . It’s not an easy decision to make and this is taking a fair bit of getting used to.
I am really liking the way that I am able to eat a little of what I want without putting on weight. I am eating more normal foods now whereas before the bypass I was extremely funny about what I ate; most of my diet consisting of fresh chicken/ fish and vegetables and rice. The most bizarre thing is that I don’t crave chocolate all the time.
My eating has totally changed. I mean even now I am typing this mid-morning and I am eating a child’s ready meal of spaghetti and meatballs- maybe not the most brilliant choice of food but it has hidden vegetables and about 5 tiny meatballs and its fairly juicy. Providing I chew it all properly it should go down and will fill me up for most of the day.
I also make sure that I do not eat more than 2000 calories a day now and I know with the bypass I don’t absorb them all. I have been told this week that the bypass is the cheaters way to lose weight and I tell you I absolutely had to correct that person by telling them that the operation was recommended by my GP, which it was; and that I still have to be careful about what I eat because too fatty or sugary food can cause me problems and that I will still need to exercise because otherwise I will have the most horrendous folds and rolls of loose skin- also without eating properly or exercise I won’t get maximum effect of my bypass and it will take me probably four times as long to lose all my excess weight- so how is that a cheaters way?
Needless to say they soon shut up! The only thing I will hold my hand up to is that to my mind it is the best way to keep the weight off and if that makes me a cheat on the diet front then I most certainly can live with that.
