049 Commonly Asked Questions

Morning, everyone! It is now three weeks to the day since Jimmy had his gastric sleeve weight loss surgery. It is simply amazing how quickly time passes. We are still on the long road of changing our lifestyle so that he can continue to have success in his weight loss, but we are making it.

As time passes, more and more questions arise about weight loss surgery and what the experience is like. I know we did this massive 20 Questions post a few weeks back, but I have decided that from time to time I will post additional Q&A posts to answer a few of the current questions we have been encountering.

Q: Does gastric sleeve weight loss surgery affect your breath capacity or activities related to lung capacity such as singing/swimming/etc.?

A: No. Gastric sleeve WLS reduces the size of your stomach. It does not effect lung capacity or the function of your diaphragm. Of course, the hospital will give you breathing tests before you are released from care but this has more to do with the anesthesia and the surgical process rather than the gastric sleeve itself.

Q: Is irritability common during the pre-op liquid diet?

A: In general I would suppose that the answer to this would be yes but I am sure that it varies from person to person. If you get cranky when you are hungry now then you should expect to be irritable and cranky when you are on the pre-op liquid diet. Every program is different so the pre-op foods you are allowed may be vastly different than mine were but you can read more about my pre-op liquid diet here.

Q: How soon will I be able to go back to work after surgery?

A: You can return to work after you have been cleared to do so by your surgeon. If you have a desk job this may be as soon as two weeks. The more physical your job is the longer it is likely to take to return to work. Talking to your surgeon about your particular circumstances are very important. Also, keep in mind that you need to take some time to make mental and emotional adjustments to your new stomach and eating habits. These adjustments may be harder than you anticipate.

Q: What has been the hardest part of your first 3 weeks of post-op life?

A: The social adjustments. You need to find other ways to celebrate life, family, and friends. You also will mourn some of your favorite foods that you either can't eat right away or may never be able to eat again. Plus, you begin to realize for the first time just who big of a role food played in your pre-surgery life and it can be really hard to face those facts and changes.


Q: What is your appetite like after the surgery?

A: Jimmy hasn't had much of an appetite. In the past three weeks there has only been one or two days that I can remember him saying that he is really hungry. I believe that Jimmy's appetite reduction is due in part to the reduction of his stomach and part because he is getting tired of eating the foods he is allowed in his diet at this time.

Well, everyone, I hope that these Q&As helped answer some of your thoughts. Like I said, I will make posts like this periodically so if you have questions just message us and we will try to answer you and possibly get your question up here next time. Hope you have a great day!

048 Is This Real Life?

Here we are nearing the end of gastric sleeve post-op week three. I can't believe that it has already been three weeks since Jimmy's surgery. Most of what I am having trouble believing are the numbers. Let me explain.

At this point, Jimmy and I have noticed small physical changes, but we are seeing astronomical changes in the number on the scale! I mean come on 73 lbs! It just blows your mind. In some ways it just doesn't seem real!

I believe that part of the unbelief is that we haven't see radical changes in his physical appearance yet. Some of the changes that I am sure are happening I know that I probably have missed seeing because I see Jimmy every day. There have been other people who have said how good Jimmy looks and that he looks SO MUCH thinner but I am only seeing small changes right now.

It's funny and I am chuckling to myself even as I write this but I am probably going to wake up some day and wonder what the fairy godmother did to my husband. He will "magically" turn from one thing to another "overnight" and I will be totally amazed! I know that I am going to see some pretty amazing and radical stuff--especially over the next year--I just haven't noticed it yet.

Jimmy and I are just asking, "Is this real life?"

Hope this post made you smile.

047 A New Way to Celebrate

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JIMMY!

That's right. It's my hubby's birthday! Yes, we have back to back birthdays but he got his much earlier than I got mine ;)

Alright, I was dropping hints before but now I am going to tell you...We have to change the way we celebrate. As hard as it is to change your daily routines I was anticipating it being even harder to change our special occasions.

Special occasions invite excuses not to change like "It only happens once a year" or "But it's my birthday!" It is all to easy to rationalize your conviction away. We decided that no matter what we really had to take this serious. If we compromise just two and half weeks after surgery then we will be compromising for the rest of our lives and we will never see the full benefit of Jimmy having gastric sleeve weight loss surgery.

So here's the deal...

In the past we have combined the celebrations of our birthdays to have a two day Jimmy and Christiana Fest so that we both get twice the benefits. On one day we would usually go and DO something fun and on the other we would EAT somewhere and go all out on it. We don't normally exchange gifts or anything like that so we have more money to eat and do whatever we feel like that year.

So what to do...

We decided that we would still have two days worth of Jimmy and Christiana birthday fun but we have to do a few things differently. In the future we might still be able to go out to eat as a part of the celebration (not an option this year with Jimmy on his Stage 2 Diet) but it can no longer be the whole focus of that day of celebrating. It's time for new traditions to go with our new lifestyle! (I will probably write about how this will change our Christmas traditions when we get closer to that time too)

So here's the plan...

For one day of the celebration we are getting together with some of our friends to have a game night! It's going to be fun. We are sharing our days with people we really care about and we're going to have some good, healthy competition to go with it ;) Love it! Maybe I am too competitive...nah! Day two, we are going to go to the movies (sans popcorn) in North KC and then we are going to walk around the shopping center and see what we can see. Of course the walking may be short this year because Jimmy still wears out pretty easy but his stamina is increasing with his ability to increase his protein shake so next year we will be able to walk around and enjoy each other's company much, much longer.

That's our story and we're sticking to it!

TO JIMMY:
Happy Birthday, Baby! I love you and I am thankful for you everyday (even when you drive me crazy!). I hope you have an amazing birthday this year and for many more years to come.

046 A Day in the Life of Jimmy's Recovery

Happy Birthday! Oh wait it's not YOUR birthday. It's MY BIRTHDAY (Christiana). Yep that's right. I'm getting older. Tomorrow is Jimmy's birthday so please feel free to drop him some special lines of encouragement because we won't be eating cake, ice cream, or going out to eat--you know all those old celebration habits. So he really might be in for a hard two days. Later I will be writing about the new ways we chose to celebrate our birthdays because we need to start making new celebration traditions/habits. But more on that later...

Today I wanted to give you an idea of what it is like to be Jimmy right now. As he gets better things will change--including his routine--but some things are now a permanent part of his life like taking vitamins. So here it is, a day in the life of Jimmy's recovery.

8:00 - 9:00 a.m.      Get up and take pain medicine to help with the tenderness in the incisions and Prilosec to help with the temporarily increased heartburn and other daily medications

9:30 a.m.      Start protein intake (have to consume a minimum of 40g a day but the nutritionist would really like me to get in 60-80g) usually through protein shakes

10:00 a.m.      Take first multi-vitamin with iron

10:30 a.m.      Snack time - Possibly pudding, yogurt, or a scrambled egg with cheese

11:00 a.m.     Take first calcium pill -- must be separated from iron pill for maximum absorption and intake more protein 11:30 a.m. Get up and walk around for exercise

12:00 p.m.      Take second multi-vitamin with iron

12:30 p.m.      Christiana comes home and we have lunch together. Possibly oatmeal with peanut butter or a scrambled egg with cheese

1:30 p.m.     Christiana heads back to work. Get up and walk around for exercise

2:00 p.m.     Take second calcium pill. Plus more protein

2:30 p.m.     Snack time

3:00 p.m.     Up and walking. Take B Complex vitamin

3:30 p.m.     More protein

6:00 p.m.     Christiana comes home and fixes dinner

7:00 p.m.     Take second dose of Prilosec for heartburn and other daily medications

8:00 p.m.     Up and walking

11:00 p.m.     Trying to get to bed but having trouble sleeping

These things are all approximate and subject to change. But I wanted to give you a basic idea of what he is going through and doing every day. I will try to actually get Jimmy on here to answer any questions that you have about his routine since he knows better than I do what he does all day. :)

045 Post-Op Week Two Update!

Good Morning! Good Morning to you! As those of you who follow us on Facebook already know, Friday was the two week anniversary of Jimmy's gastric sleeve WLS! It is so unreal that it has only been two weeks because it feels like forever (and then sometimes like no time at all--go figure)!

Anyway, to celebrate this momentous occasion I took Jimmy in to the weight loss center to weigh. He lost another 21 lbs since he weighed last Wednesday! That's a total of 73 lbs lost since Nov. 2nd, 2012!

I will let him fill you in on the rest as he has recorded a Post-Op Week 2 Update VLOG for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

044 Mind Hunger

"It's all in your head." You've probably heard that about a million times! I know that I have. Usually when people say that I just roll my eyes and sigh because they just don't get it. However, there are times that I would have to agree with them.

On occasion your brain reads things in peoples words and actions that aren't there. There are also the times that it tells you to do things out of habit. Or maybe you are really bored and your brain starts telling  you that you are sleepy but as soon as you quit whatever you are doing and start something else you are suddenly wide awake.

The human brain is an interesting organ. The mind is even trickier. Today I am sharing a video with you about the struggles Jimmy has had determining whether he is actually hungry or if it's just something his brain is telling him out of habit. I hope you enjoy!

043 Learning to Cope

Yesterday, I talked about an awesome and encouraging surprise Jimmy has waiting for him in his office. Today I want to talk about coping with surprises that aren't so pleasant.

As Jimmy heals, he has several weeks off from work. For the first couple of weeks we have also chosen to have church through the simulcast at home so that Jimmy won't be exposed to sickness or have hundreds of people wanting to hug him (which would press up against his incisions which are still tender). Jimmy has been doing amazingly well in his healing but we have felt a little disconnected with what has been going on. Thankfully, Jimmy's boss and our pastor (Aaron) was sensitive to this and decided to drop by our house on Saturday night and bring us up to speed.

We didn't know that when Aaron came over he would be telling us that he and his family (who we love!) had accepted a new position in New Jersey and that they would be leaving near the end of December. We had no clue he would be announcing that the very next morning but we soon found out. We are SUPER happy for this great opportunity and new experience that God has brought to the Robb family. They are going to do amazing and hopefully love every minute of it. But what about us?

Anytime you experience something unexpected--especially job related--their is always a certain amount of fear, stress, and uncertainty that comes with it. Jimmy has had experiences similar to this before and they weren't the best. Of course that doesn't mean it is going to be that way at McCarthy. The big question is what will we do? How will we handle it?

In the past, it would have been easy to turn to food. Although Jimmy is generally a "happy eater" there are times when it is easier to justify cheating because you are upset. That really isn't an option right now unless he wants to make himself really sick. I was impressed with Aaron's sensitivity when he told us that he waited until now to tell us so that Jimmy wouldn't be tempted to cheat on his two week liquid diet (which would have been very possible). There will be a time in the future when the fear of getting sick won't be there so it's important to take the time now to learn new methods of coping.

Hands down, the hardest part of losing weight (naturally or surgically assisted) and keeping it off is changing your mindset and habits. If you don't bother to change your patterns, behaviors, or habits then it won't matter if you had surgery or not because you will eventually find a way to put the weight back on. Losing weight is about changing your mind just as much if not more than changing your body.

After the initial shock passed, it was much easier to see how amazing this whole thing could be for everyone involved. We love and will dearly miss the Robb family but we know that God is sending them to New Jersey for a reason. We are also thankful that we get to use this experience to start retraining our minds now so that when other coping situations come along later they will be much easier to handle!

Aaron, Dana, Caleb, Kelsey, & Katie, Thank you for being an amazing part of our lives! You all will always be a part of us and part of the family of our heart. May God richly bless you in all that He has called you to do!

Grace and Peace,