First Post-Op Visit with the Internist

I had my first visit with my Internist since surgery yesterday. It was so exciting for his scale to NOT be the instrument of torture it normally is. :-) In fact, the nurse had to move the "big block". If your weight has never fluctuated more than 50 pounds, you may not have experienced this. But, most doctors' scales (unless they are digital) weigh with two blocks. One that measures in finer amounts of about a pound, and one that measures in 50-pound increments. Before surgery, she looked at my chart, saw what my weight was last time, and set it up accordingly. It's been consistently above 250 for several years, so that's where we'd always start. This time, she had to set the big block on 200!!!!! Being under 250 on his scale (with which I have a hate-hate relationship because it usually weighs me about 3 pounds+ higher than mine at home does) was my goal for my first post-op visit, and I made it! I weighed 244 on his scale, which is just slightly over what my scale said before I left, but I weighed without shoes at home, so that probably accounts for it. Being at 244 means I'm down 40 pounds!!! since my last visit with him in November, before I started my liquid diet. Needless to say, we are both very happy with that!

I brought him a copy of the lab work I'd had done in January for my surgeon so he could see how I was doing. He ordered lab work yesterday just to see what another month had done to my cholesterol. Based on last month's lab work, however, he's OK for me to stay off the Metformin! We're waiting on the results from this month's lab work to see if I get to stay off the Pravastatin (a cholesterol drug). My LDL went up a smidge between November and January, so he wants to see if it's gone back down. It's not in the danger zone, so he's considering taking a wait-and-see on that, too, unless it's gone way up. He also said that my potassium is fine, so he's OK with my staying on both diuretics for now and that more weight loss will probably take care of the swelling issue, and he checked my thyroid again to see if I'm on the correct dosage. He said that, if I felt like I didn't need the Wellbutrin anymore, to come talk to him and we'd start trying to get me off of it. So, for the moment, I'm still on the vitamin regimine set up by my surgeon's office, Wellbutrin (depression), Levoxyl (thyroid), Spironolactone (a diuretic, but used to treat symptoms of PCOS) and Lasix (a diuretic for the swelling in my ankles and calves). My BP was up a little and I'm not sure why. I've not been going overboard on caffiene and I hadn't had any prior to the appointment. I am still retaining some fluid, so that may be why. I'll keep checking it and we'll discuss it at my next appointment as necessary.

I also talked with him about the issues I'm having with my hands/wrists. Yes, they've been puffy from fluid retention. But I'm also having pain in both wrists that's NOT carpal tunnel (I have that, too, so I know what it feels like) and I have two joints that have been swelling/red/tender/hot. He poked around on them to see if he felt any joint changes. Since he was ordering lab work anyway, he decided to check my arthritis markers (ANA, sed rate, &c). I'm hoping that, if it -is- arthritis, it's osteo rather than rheumatoid. Rheumatoid is progressive; osteo, mostly just annoying. I told him my right knee is bugging me again, but we both agreed that my losing weight was just about the best thing I could be doing for it. I also said that I was going to be getting new running/walking shoes soon, which couldn't hurt. :-)

My next appointment with my surgeon (for my 3-month follow-up) is on March 17th. Which is about three weeks. I was at 254.5 at my 1-month. Is a 20-25# loss too much to ask? I'm already down 10-ish. Heck, at this point, I'll take what I can get - especially if it means that my stall has broken/hasn't gotten well-rooted. I'm getting that PMS-y kind of feeling so I expect I'll be getting a visit from TOM relatively soon. I'm having to kind of play that by ear because, without being on the Pill, I've no idea when to expect it. *shrug* I'm much happier off the Pill, so I'll put up with a little irregularity. :-)

Have a great weekend, gang!