Hello there. My name is Jenn (you may know me from my personal blog, 
I had my abdominal exploratory laparoscopic surgery last Wednesday, during which my bariatric surgeon found two “voids” — areas where fat deposits used to reside which had disappeared, allowing my small intestines to shift around and get twisted/tangled/looped — and sewed them up. I was in a fair amount of pain when I woke up from surgery, and it was immediately worsened when I started heaving as a reaction to the morphine alternative I was given during surgery. Ironically, I was given it in place of morphine, since morphine isn’t something I can tolerate without an accompanying anti-nausea/anti-vomiting medication. But the morphine alternative, designed for patients who are sensitive to morphine, obviously didn’t work for me. I was knocked back out with two strong anti-nausea/anti-vomiting medications, along with a lovely dose of morphine. Heh. They should have just used that to begin with!
Anyway, I’m now four, almost five, days post-op, and I’m still dealing with considerable post-op pain, as well as a lot of swelling and inflammation (seriously, I look like I am six months pregnant!). I’ve got a nasty allergic reaction going on to the surgical tape that was used over my incisions. I took the tape off once I discovered it and my skin’s reaction on Friday morning, but it wasn’t soon enough. For more details and oh-so-lovely pics, check out my blog entry on Jenn.nu, Clearly, I am allergic to surgical tape.
One other “issue” I’m having, and one I’m concerned about after a somewhat painful and traumatic experience after having my gallbladder removed in October of 2010, is that I have not yet had a bowel movement. Granted, surgery was “just” on Wednesday, and I ate lightly on Tuesday and used two doses of Dulcalax to make sure I was nice and “empty” beforehand, but still… it’s been four days. I ate two ounces of applesauce, two graham crackers and half of a cup of clam chowder on Wednesday, and have been eating rather lightly since then, but still… it’s been four days.
Here’s what I’ve done to help speed up and ease the process, with no luck thus far:
- Wednesday: two stool softeners
- Thursday: two stool softeners
- Friday: Dulcalax, Miralax
- Saturday: Miralax, two stool softeners
- Sunday: three stool softeners, Miralax/prune juice cocktail
I’m more than a little nervous/apprehensive as time continues to march on. What goes in must come out, right? 
Lately I’ve been laying off the insanely colored makeup in favor of slightly more subtle tones. What can I say? It’s something about the colder weather and heavier layers that encourages me to tone things down a bit. But I’m stepping it up a notch in terms of lotions and moisturizers, because I have good skin and dammit I’d like to keep it looking and feeling that way. Since I’m usually so busy doing and buying things for everyone else in my family – my husband, my seven year old daughter, my five year old son, and my sixteen year brother, I figured it’s about time I make sure to treat and pamper myself, too. Thanks to EdenFantasys, who is now not only carrying sex toys but a very awesome collection of beauty and body products, I’ve got these goodies coming my way:
The nice thing about this order is that it didn’t cost me a single cent, thanks to EdenFantasys’ Ambassador Program. Basically, EdenFantasys gives bloggers gift cards as compensation for posts written about them. This is an ongoing program, by the way – not just a one time post and then you’re done kind of deal. Of course, you can post just once if you want; or, you can post as often as every two weeks. Interested in the Ambassador Program? Send an email containing your blog name and blog URL to ambassador@edenfantasys.com for more details.
Disclosure: EdenFantasys provided me with a gift card in exchange for this post.
Yesterday was my two year gastric bypass anniversary – or surgiversary, as I like to call it. Two years ago today, I went public about my choice to have surgery on my personal blog, Jenn.nu, as well as on Twitter (I don’t have the link to the exact tweet, seeing as how I tweet dozens of times a day and there’s no easy way to go through tweet archives).
I still have 8 lbs to lose to get to my goal weight, but I refuse to let those 8 lbs get me down, because I have some so far in the past two years. Besides, I have my suspicions that my body has decided it’s at a good weight right where it’s at, and it’s the loose skin on my upper arms and around my stomach that is adding up to that 8 lb overage I’m currently dealing with.
This coming Wednesday I’m scheduled for my exploratory laparoscopic surgery, where my bariatric surgeon will go in for the third time in as many years and search for the source of my abdominal pain – the guess is scar tissue, adhesions, or part of my small intestine twisting or looping abnormally. Hopefully four days from now around this time she’ll have found the problem(s) and fixed it/them!
Back in my heavier days, I would sometimes purchase an article of clothing — a coat, a shirt, a pair of pants — that ran a little small for its size. Or so I told myself. There are times when this was certainly true, particularly with the brands that Target carries, but for the most part brands from plus size clothing stores were pretty consistent. Rather than use the too-small clothing as motivation to lose a little weight so it would fit better, I would simply take it back and exchange if for a larger size.
I don’t do that anymore. In the summer of 2010 I purchase three size 13 jeans and put them away for when I could get into them — which I was able to do, squeezingly so, last spring; and which I now do with comfort and a little room to spare this fall. This past summer I purchased two size 11 jeans in anticipation of being able to get into them. 150/160 lbs is my goal weight, and I plan on wearing those 11s and having a size 11 as my final jeans size. Whether I am able to wear a size 11 at 160 lbs, or if I’ll have to drop another 10 lbs to 150 to get into them, remains to be seen, since I am currently stalled in the 165-167 range.
Over these past two years I have occasionally purchased clothing that truly ran small. Two sweater hoodies and two plain sweaters come to mind. But rather than take them back for a larger size, as I would have done in the past, I held onto them and used my desire to wear them as motivation to keep up with the weight loss. And it paid off — those items now fit. Only in the case of the two plain sweaters, they’re too loose. Go figure. *eyeroll*
Recently my awesome husband purchased a fuzzy hot pink hoodie for me from Old Navy. I had added it to Pinterest (my wishlist, heh), and indicated a size large — I based this size off the fact that I own three Victoria’s Secret hoodies which are all a size large, and two of the three are quite roomy (the third is designed to fit a little shorter/snugger, and that’s okay); and the fact that ALL of my tops, with the exception of two cape-hoodie thingies (which are a size MEDIUM, whoo!), are a size large.
Go figure, the hoodie runs on the small side. My concerned husband immediately suggested that he send it back for a smaller size. I gasped and immediately dismissed the notion. As I told him, I won’t give myself permission to stay at my current weight (165-167) or, worse yet, GAIN A FEW POUNDS, by going up a size. I’ll hold onto that awesome hot pink hoodie, wear it as it is, and enjoy it when it fits a little better when I reach my final weight of 160 or even 150.
Here’s that hoodie, FYI:
As I’ve blogged about on numerous occasions on my personal blog, Jenn.nu, I have been experiencing random bouts of severe, long-lasting (anywhere from 1 to 6 hours, and on a few occasions as long as 12+ hours. Once I went to bed with pain and woke up with it the next morning!) since October 31st, 2010. I remember the date because it was Halloween, and the pain was so sudden, intense and long-lasting that my friend Jason and I were convinced my appendix was exploding. A visit to the ER ruled that out, and a very nice doctor ordered Dilaudid for pain relief (I had not one but two shots that night, eesh!), and I was sent on my way with a recommendation to follow up with my bariatric surgeon, as perhaps the pain was somehow related to my gastric bypass surgery in November of 2009, or my cholecystectomy on October 12th, 2010.
A year later and I have no answers except the one that my bariatric surgeon and a gastro specialist tried to avoid having to finger as the culprit by doing several tests: CT scans, ultrasounds, upper GI with small-bowel-follow-through, two endoscopies and even a colonoscopy: adhesions or scar tissue. Strictures, hernias, ulcers and other random oddities can be picked up on these tests and fixed non-surgically – via endoscopy or in some cases, medication. But adhesions and scar tissue are things that are rarely seen on these tests, especially if they’re around the small or large intestines, since they’re on the outside and not the inside.
The fix? Surgery. The exact term my bariatric surgeon and gastro specialist used is exploratory laparoscopic surgery. Essentially, they’ll cut me open, shove a camera or two in me, and then start rooting around my intestines to locate and then remove the adhesions or tissue that is causing the twisting/pulling/yanking/squeezing/obstruction.
I see my surgeon this Friday, and I hope to god we’ll pick a date for surgery right then and there. I’ve dealt with this pain for a year now. I have been to the ER four times, have gone through three prescriptions of painkillers, and used up a few painkillers we had laying around the house from past procedures. When the pain hits in full force it is intense, severe, and debilitating. I dread it every time it happens, and hate how it just sucks the life out of me, and the pain combined with the dizzying/drowsy effects of the painkillers completely makes me non-functional. I usually wind up crawling off to bed to sleep it all off, and I wake up hours later or the next day completely drained.
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Needless to say, I hit my “half” point last week, when I weighed in at exactly 165.2 lbs. Whoo! Sadly, I’ve packed on about three pounds since then, but it is motherfucking water weight and NOTHING MORE. Grrr.
As a former morbidly obese chick, I can tell you from experience that finding lingerie — or lingerie of any kind, really — in plus sizes that not only fits but flatters wasn’t always an easy task. So many online retailers of lingerie carried only limited plus sizes; or worse, had plus sizes that seemed to be perpetually out of stock. Do you know how frustrating it is to shop for clothing that never seems to be available in your size? Even fat chicks like to feel sexy and attractive not only for their partners, but for themselves.
Then I discovered EdenFantasys, and their extensive selection of sexy lingerie. Unlike other online retailers of adult products, EdenFantasys does indeed carry true-to-size plus size lingerie. However, I must note that all plus size lingerie tends to run on the smaller side — meaning if you traditionally wear a 1X you may want to consider the 2X, and if you traditionally wear a D cup you may want to consider the DD cup. I don’t know why this is, and again this is just with my own experiences, but it’s happened on multiple occasions with multiple manufacturers of lingerie, so it seems to be the case in at least some instances.
In addition to lingerie, EdenFantasys also carries thousands of sex toys, so if those are your cup of tea, check them out today — and use coupon code ES2 to save 15% on your order!
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