I have nothing but great things to note.

I am down 66 pounds so far and feeling the best I have felt in many years!!!  I am spending a hour a day exercising at the gym and then straight into the 1 hour water aerobics class.  It is amazing how much I'm enjoying exercising...ME, actually enjoying exercising.... somehow that just does not seem right!  I am not having to use oxygen either!  Praise The Good Lord!!! 

Food does not make me sick or dump.  Eating too fast will make me throw-up.  I am very careful eating sweets, but so far no particular food bothers me.  It is unreal how I can now leave food on my plate.

My only battle is boredom eating, snacking too often.  When I catch myself doing that, I must get out of the house and get away from the food.  An addiction is an addiction...and for me, food is still an addiction.  I never say or think I've 'cheated on my diet' because I am not on a 'diet' I'm finished forever with guilt feelings about my food. 

It is amazing to have the power to stop with that one or two bites!  Its feels sooo good to have control over my eating again!!  Thank you Lord! 

So far, nothing I've ate has made me sick.  I have ate too fast a couple times and thrown-up, but it was not the food that did it, it was that I ate it too fast.  I have now tried milk, bread, and sweets.  Nothing has made me sick.  However, I am so careful not to eat more than a bite or two of anything  I know I should not.  This way, I do not feel deprived of anything.  I am getting to the phase that nothing sounds good to eat.  I've ate so much chicken and fish and soup.....  Now I understand what the others were saying at the support group meetings when they talked about being in this phase.  I wish I could think of something that sounded really good to eat...other than ice cream!

Physically - I've gone to Silver Dollar City and walked the park, and rode the rides (major wow moment) and worked staining the deck with Randy.  Plus being able to exercise for 2 hours straight is huge.  These things make me feel like I'm making progress in a bigger way than the weight loss.  I want to be physically fit...lots of skinny people can't hold out to do those things...so it's the physical things I crave more than the to be a size 2 someday...

My goal right now is to lhave lost a total of 100 pounds by the time I go back to NIH in November.  To do this, I need to looe 15 pounds per month to attain this goal.  I am not counting anything in my food, but I am depending on exercise to pull this weight off me.

Oh man!  I thought I'd better post on here that I'd lost my first 50 lbs!  Seems life is moving so fast.  I do Physical Therapy 3 days a week, and then go right into Water Aerobics class 5 days a week.  So I'm working my fat off, it's not just 'falling off' like others seem to think sometimes.  Life is good, a lot of work, but none-the-less, good.  I've gone from a size 26-28 to a 18-20.  If it were not for my big belly,  I could wear 16's.  I can't wait to get that belly fat gone!

OK- If I'm posting on my blog...I MADE IT! hahahaha

God has been soo good to me, the surgery went text book perfect and  I have made it just perfect.  My only pain was a gas bubble from that stuff they blow your belly up with during surgery.  A heating pad  took care of that for me.  The most annoying thing was not getting anything to drink the day of surgery, my mouth got soooo dry-even my teeth were dry!  It was hard to talk going through that, but after that passed and  I got to sip on things I was just fine as frogs hair!  No worries!   I am able to get up and down good and everything.  I am walking  the hallsand just getting along fine.

The last thing the Doctor did was take me off ALL my medicines!  I am on several vitamins now, but the diabetes meds are gone, the other medicines are gone too.  He did say I might have to use Lasix some maybe, but to crush it if I do.  No swallowing whole pills for a solid month.   I use lasix for swelling, hopefully the new diet will stop that, but if it does not completely do the job, then I may have to take it occasionally.  I won't miss taking 160 mg per day - every day! 

I am drinking 1 ounce of fluid every 15 minutes, in a week I'll do 2 ounces every 30 minutes.  After a few weeks I will progress on to foods in the blender, then start things like soft eggs etc.  Right now it is important that I only do liquids because all the staple lines need to heal.   I have 7 scope wounds - each about a inch long on my upper abdomen.  There's some brusing naturally.  But it will all heald over relatively fast.

We are staying in the Comfort Inn in Sedalia, MO until about Fri. or Sat. Just to be sure I'm ok before driving the 3.5 hours home back to Harrison. 

Now, the next step is learning to take care of my new self.  I've heard it's like having a part time job, that it takes a lot of care and attention to learn the new lifestyle and get things to feel normal and natural to you again.  Never in a million years would  I have ever dreamed I'd have to re-learn how to eat... (I thought I pretty much had that covered pretty good!) ha!

I have had more prayers said for me lately, no way could  I ever express how much that has meant to me.  I will do my best to return the prayers for my friends and family and extended family, particulary the LAM listserv and the OH site that I'm new too, &  the Windstream folks where Randy works.  This has  truly been an adventure of a life-time.

I will blog more when I get home and start testing the waters!

Well- the liquid diet is hard. I have survived 5 days of it now...9 more to go. I could eat the house down! But, I'm keeping my eye on the prize as my friend tells me.

I had to call Margie today. Bothwell pre-op visit took me off my diabetes meds, and my blood sugar readings are not going down at all. I just can not drink another slimy Boost shake. Slim Fast is OK. So Margie said I could move over to the 100% Gold Standard Whey as long as it was lower in sugar. It is a much better reading label than anything else I've taken and not bad tasting. So maybe I can make it now. It had got to the point I would rather not eat than drink the Boost Glucose Control shake.

Randy has been taking me walking for 2 days now. I do just great walking with my oxygen on 6L. But my lungs still can not keep up a steady pace. If I could breathe I could walk at a good pace. But I know I should be able to walk and talk at the same time, so I just make myself slow down. We walk at Maplewood Cemetery, so I tell Randy I'm walking with the dead so I can keep up! ha!

It is sooo hard not to plant plants. But if I start them now, someone will have to water them while I'm in the hospital, so it's best to just lay low and let all the cool nights pass by. It is so tempting though.....

I just want this over with. Time is moving sooo slow for me and so fast for everyone else. Wish I could just wake up and be about 6 weeks post-op and skip the hard part.