Bailey - DAY: 6 Beyond the 5 Day Pouch Test: Celebrating 10 Years of LivingAfterWLS

DAY: 6
Beyond the
5 Day Pouch Test

Celebrating 10 Years of
LivingAfterWLS

Kaye Bailey

Day 6:
Beyond the 5 Day Pouch Test

Celebrating 10 Years of LivingAfterWLS

First Edition Copyright 2009, 2012 by Kaye Bailey and LivingAfterWLS, LLC. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address LivingAfterWLS, LLC, PO Box 311, Evanston, Wyoming 82931.

The health content in Day 6: Beyond the 5 Day Pouch Test is intended to inform, not prescribe, and is not meant to be a substitute for the advice and care of a qualified health-care professional. The author and publisher disclaim any liability arising directly or indirectly from the use of this book.

Nutritional Analysis: Every effort has been made to check the accuracy of the nutritional information that appears with each recipe. However, because numerous variables account for a wide range of values for certain foods, nutritive analyses in this book should be considered approximate. Different results may be obtained by using different nutrient databases and different brand-name products.

Second Printing: This LivingAfterWLS, LLC publication July 2012.

Ebook Copyright 2013 by Kaye Bailey and LivingAfterWLS, LLC.

Proudly written, produced and manufactured in the United States of America.

COPYRIGHT 2012 ~ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published by
LivingAfterWLS, LLC
Post Office Box 311
Evanston, WY 82931
307-787-3638

Dedication to my Neighbors

As you will read in Part II of this book, we who undergo weight loss surgery are the elite of the millions of people suffering from obesity. Yet that elite status does not make our road an easy one to travel: far from it. For the rest of our lives, even with surgical intervention, we will strive daily to keep our obesity in remission so that we may be healthy, increase our longevity, and improve our quality of life. We will struggle; we will thrive; and we will do it together. To you, my dear Neighbors, I dedicate this book and this journey so that we never need travel the path alone.

Whatever else you have on your mind,

Wherever else you think you are going,

Stop for a moment.

Look where you are.

You Have Arrived!

Acknowledgments:

It is with humble gratitude that I express my profound appreciation to the beautiful people who populate the LivingAfterWLS Neighborhood. We have our steady regulars who can be counted upon for fast and ready responses when a Neighbor is in need, and we have our quiet lurkers who softly move about the community listening and learning. Whatever your personal style one thing is certain: we are all Neighbors enjoying a lasting bond and a spirit of respect: for ourselves and for one another. Thank you for embodying a spirit of compassion, persistence, and triumph as you share your own victories and celebrate those of your Neighbors. We are community, we are the safe haven: we are The Neighborhood.

To my beloved husband, Jim, I offer abiding thanks and sparkling adoration. Thank you for believing in me enough to drive far away ten years ago for a surgery you knew little about; for nursing me in the days and weeks following surgery; for celebrating the victories in grand fashion; and for always helping me clean up broken eggs. My heart would not beat were it not for you. I am your little princess, always.

To our sons: Slade and Morgan, and their families for supporting the LivingAfterWLS project and being receptive taste testers for numerous recipe trials. We may not be a textbook family, but a family that eats together and laughs together is a family that is living. Thank you. To Sue and Reed: Thanks for being part of the You Have Arrived seasoning blend testers. Ill keep your jars filled!

To my family, I offer thanks. Mom and Dad, you believed in my words from the day I won my first writing contest in the second grade and brought home that fabulous yellow dictionary for my prize. Thank you. To Jeff, a big brother always to me first and to the Neighborhood second. Thank you. To Julie, my sweet steady sister of constant imagination and sunny inspiration: and little brother Gary, a perpetual source of what it means to do the right thing and do it with a wicked sense of humor. I love you all.

I offer special thanks to Cheryl who always has a laugh and a treat for puppy Charvie. Thank you for being a treasured friend and recipe reader and a great sounding board.

To puppy Charvie: thanks for giving me reason to walk when Im too tired. To Keep-Her-Kitty (KHK): thanks for giving me reason to laugh when life is too serious.

And last, but never least, my tireless agent John who is creative and excited about the work we do to make the LivingAfterWLS project a better product for our Neighbors. Thank you for your steady encouragement and interminable faith in our work here. Thank you for believing in me. And yes, dear friend, I will write for flowers.

"Honoring your deservedness is the beginning of living."
--Pete Siegel

I Arrived on September 13, 1999 in San Diego California exactly one month to the day after Carnie Wilson put weight loss surgery (WLS) on the map. It was at once one of the most exciting and frightening things I have ever done. Back in the day the Internet was just taking hold and my research was sketchy at best. I knew I wanted WLS because I grew up in a culture of obesity and felt it was my only solution. As I learned about surgery there was a procedure called laparoscopic gastric bypass that was being done by very few surgeons, but with great success. The surgeon nearest me was 1,500 miles away in San Diego.

All of my pre-op consultation was done by telephone, and would you believe, snail mail? Even the pre-op psychiatric examine was pre-historic. I sat with a counselor at a local do-it-yourself "mental health" office and he knew nothing about weight management or bariatric counseling. However, he did confirm that I did not have the tendency to maim small children and it was unlikely I would become an ax murderer. What a relief to learn that. I was approved for surgery.

We went to San Diego and met the surgeon and staff on Friday and I had surgery on Monday. I dont recall much about that day. I remember feeling embarrassed lying on the preparation table, my enormous belly exposed for cleansing by a stranger. I remember feeling frightened, but calm with a total acceptance that gastric bypass surgery was the best decision for me. I remember the anesthesiologist, a beautiful woman, not very old and not very big.

Then I went to sleep.

I woke up puking violently, an unpleasant reaction to anesthesia. I didnt have my glasses so things were blurry, particularly the flowers from my husband. And I can remember a push-button device that helped me sleep. Later that night I realized I was not yet smaller. In fact my stomach was bloated and sore. In my drug induced confusion I was convinced the surgeon had mistakenly done the wrong operation because I was getting bigger, not smaller.

The day after surgery my surgeon visited me, taught me to drink tiny sips of water from a paper cup much like a sacrament cup. He patted my hand and told me I was going to do just fine. I remember walking around the hospital hallway. I remember a female nurse bathing me. I remember a very good-looking male nurse: he didnt bathe me. I remember drinking some nasty liquid chalk and getting an X-ray to confirm my stomach had been whacked, stapled and bypassed. I remember the super-sized wheel chair and being embarrassed that I fit in it snugly.

I remember being discharged from the hospital to spend the next several days in a motel room because we had traveled a great distance for my last resort surgery. I watched Mame on TV several times. The sofa at the motor lodge was scratchy. My husband and I went on outings each day, little drives around a strange town. He emptied my surgical drain for me. I thought it was disgusting.