post op so far

So I got home from the hospital on Thursday evening, Sept 29th.  Today is October 5th.   Some weight data so far:

Initial consult weight at Davis Clinic (April 29, 2011):  361 lb
pre op appointment weight (Sept 9, 2011):  367 lb
surgery weight (Sept 27, 2011):  342 lb
post op appointment weight (Oct 3): 332 lb
today weight (Oct 5): 328 lb

Relative to the post op experience, it has been better than expected.  The trip home from the hospital was tough, as we had to drive an hour and each bump in the road felt like a spear jabbing into my stomach.  I've been sleeping in a recliner.  Initially this was for several reasons...keeping chest elevated a little (30 degrees was required in the hospital) to avoid fluid in lungs, plus having all the stomach wounds and muscle injury just made it the most comfortable position.  Laid down in the bed for a few minutes last night, it was not too bad but rolling from back to front was still pretty painful.  So back to the recliner for a few more days hopefully.

Surgical incisions seem to be healing fine, no signs of infection anyway.  They started to itch some in the last day or so, which I guess is a good sign.  The internals seem fine as far as the food bath / bowels etc.  Gas has gone down, eating is fairly easy although capacity is limited (which is a good thing).  I was advanced to "pureed" at post op appt on monday 3 oct, so am eating things like hummus, pudding, refried beans (not sure that is really legal but Yum!) etc.

The only complaint / concern I have at this point is the fairly sharp pain associated with movement that I have in my lower right front abdomen.  Its curiously one of the few areas where there isn't a laprascopic incision.  It also doesn't bother when I'm stationary, either sitting or standing (if I lie directly on the right side, it does hurt some).  However, when I move, like sitting up, bending over, a little bit when I walk, it hurts.  Not super bad, and it seems to be lessening each day.  I have a fear (Started by valerie) that this is a hernia.  It does seem to be getting less severe each day, so I'm going to continue to monitor it for at least a few more days and then re-evaluate.

Did a bunch of vitamin research.  Took the Davis clinic's DS plan (basically BA's plan), pulled all the data of each nutrient into a spreadsheet, and did a comparison with Vitalady's plan.  Turns out there are some similarities.  However key differences were
1. VL has about 7x more A
2. VL has a lot more iron
3. VL has C
4. VL has a little less calcium
5. E is about the same
6. D is about 10X on VL
7. B12 is about 20X on VL

So I've decided to continue following Davis / BA, but supplementing as follows;
1. add 10-20K IU A per day (Davis/BA has 15K)
2. add a C
3. add a B complex
4. take more iron

In other supplement news, I've decided i hate the chewable calacium tabs from BA, and have ordered chewy bites to replace them.  I also decided to shift the schedule to align with VL's suggestion of iron/C first thing in the AM...then taking multi/calcium through the day.   Will go with this plan until either i decide to change or get feedback at 2 month labs.

Work wise, I've worked from home during this week of 03Oct.  Worked out great since there was a 2 day BS meeting I was able to miss.  So effectively I took 4.5 days off of work for the surgery (noon Monday 26th through Friday 30th).  I will return "fully" to work and my 60 minute each way drive on Monday 10Oct.  No concerns other than the aforementioned possible hernia.

I'll try to update this weekly to keep a record of how things go.

J