Feeling a bit unladylike

My gastric bypass surgery was a week ago.  It seems like much longer than that, but I suppose that's also because I've been trying to adjust to an entirely new way of doing things.  The weight is flying off my body and that's been insane.  In just these seven days, I've lost 23 pounds.  That's pretty mind-blowing!  I feel like a newborn in so many ways.  My little pouch is very sensitive.  I can only take tiny baby sips when drinking something.  In fact, I was drinking water yesterday with my mother and I accidentally gulped my water down.  I remember taking one swallow and then the next without a break in between.  As soon as I did it, I gasped and remembered I wasn't supposed to do that.  I told my mom and we sat there, waiting for something to happen.  Nothing did, so we eventually let it go.  That's when the very manlike burps came out of my mouth for the next hour.  Buuuuuurp.  I sometimes accompanied them with hiccups.  Have you ever had to burp and hiccup at the same time?  Not fun.  My belly felt like huge bubbles were trapped and I had pain in my chest.  Even later in the night, they kept coming as I laid on my side and tried to breathe.  Then the farting came to the surface, too.  That made me start to laugh, which didn't make things any easier.  I swear, I need to write a book someday about the things I'm experiencing!  At least I can laugh about it now.

I did see my surgeon yesterday because I was experiencing some swelling around my ankles and he wanted to see me to be on the safe side.  I was full of questions for him:  Should I be feeling this? What about that?  He was so understanding of me and reminded me that I have just been through major surgery and I'm going to need to give my body time to heal.  Oh yes, I think that was another way of saying, "Kathy, you just need to be patient."  I don't do well with that, in case you haven't figured it out yet. My steri-strips are starting to fall off the incisions and so I'm fascinated with feeling how these new cuts on my body feel under my fingers.  The thing with laparascopic surgery is that your mind is fooled into thinking nothing major really happened inside because there are just five little cuts.  

Something major did occur, though.  For the first time in a long time, I am listening to my body and doing everything I can to take care of it.  That means I have to be on a schedule in terms of when I take my medications because I can only take one pill per hour.  That means I absolutely must keep myself hydrated and make it my top priority.  Above all, that means that I have to be very aware of what I'm doing.  I can't go all day long without eating something any more and I definitely can't be lax in what I'm doing to take care of myself.  In many ways, my new pouch is like a baby.  I have to treat it as well as I would a newborn.