9 month surgiversary, Low Iron and a trip to Italy

Feb 24, 2009

I know that I don't blog enough these days but honestly I don't know what to talk about.  My weight loss seems so slow. I didn't lose a thing for 6 weeks.  I know I weigh myself too often (every few days) but I like to keep a close eye on it. I don't EVER want to lose track of myself again.  I lose a few pounds then gain them back, it seems like I am just hovering these days.  I don't want my body to think it's okay to stay at this weight.  I have been reading that others have had these same problems and there are several options to kick starting weight loss again. One is to up the working out, change what I am doing at the gym, up the intensity, try a new workout or just work out longer.  Another option is to do a 5 day liquid diet and another option is to change my diet.  I have to say that I don't pay enough attention to what I eat.  I still strive to get as much protein as possible. I eat fish and veggies. I drink a protein shake every morning. I just don't watch my carbs the way I should.  So I definitely know where I can improve.  I know that it is typical to only lose 80% of your overweight amount but I want to lose it all so I will just keep on trying.
I go to the gym around 4-5 times a week depending on if the kids are out of school. It's very hard for me when my 7 year old is home because he is too old to go the family room at the gym on base. Sometimes I work out at home on these days and sometimes I don't.  I find it VERY hard to get a good workout at home.  I really love the industrial treadmill's at the gym.  I work out for over an hour sometimes more.  Mon, Wed, Fri I take my 4 year old and go to the family room at the gym.  I run on the treadmill for about 40 min.  This is jogging, sprinting, walking and hills too.  I always keep the treadmill changing. I keep my heart rate up then cool it down a little then keep it up again.  I actually LOVE running. It feels so good...except when I get shin splints, those hurt.  The other time in the family room is spent usually on the elliptical. I increase the levels on the elliptical and try keeping my heart rate up.  After I'm done I do a quick stretch and get outta there.  My son is so ready to go after an hour plus there.  It has been so busy at the family room lately. I think it's great that so many mom's are getting out there and trying to be fit but this room is so small and definitely doesn't have enough machines.  On tues/thurs my 4 year old goes to the CDC pre-school for 3 hours.  I go to a body sculpting class for an hour where we do lots of weights and abs. On Thursdays I do the body sculpting class and a yoga class. I really enjoy these classes. The body sculpting has helped me with upper body strength and stronger abs and the yoga class is so relaxing.  I love yoga. I had never tried before and I love how much I stretch and I was really surprised at how flexible I am.  I know working out has helped me a lot. My cholesterol has gone from a total score of 225 to 147 and this has a lot to do with working out. 

So my 9 month surgiversary was 5 days ago.  I am weighing about 154. This is 96 pounds down from my highest weight and 71 pounds down from the day of surgery. I went to my pcm and asked for my labs to be put in. I went about 2 weeks before my appt with my surgeon and gave my blood to the vampires.  About a week later I got a call from a person on behalf of my military PCM asking me to make an appointment because my iron was low. I told the tech that my PCM doesn't want to see me for any gastric bypass related issues and iron is a related issue. I know that PCM will just refer me to my surgeon. The tech was just doing his job though so I made an appt for the day after I saw my surgeon.  I went by and picked up the labs and they didn't make sense.  3 months ago my iron was 93 and now it was less then 4. That doesn't sound possible.  So Monday I went ahead and drove 2 hours to Frankfurt to see Prof Weiner.  He told me that my iron was an error, that it couldn't possibly be less then 4. He also said that my Hemoglobin was missing so he couldn't see if I was anemic. He told my lab to re-do the test. I wish he would have just re-done them there and then.  He didn't say anything about my weight loss, just asked the usual questions. He did the ultrasound, made me an appt then sent me to the nurse for my b12 shot. Wow did the b12 shot hurt this time. I don't know why? It has never hurt before. The only thing I can think of is I am getting more muscular in the shoulders so maybe this is why it hurt more.  The next day I went to see my PCM and I was right, she didn't want to see me for any gastric related issues.  I told her that I needed the labs re-done and this made her mad. She said that our clinic shouldn't even be doing lab work for the surgeon, he should be doing everything.  I explained that he is over 2 hours away ...anyways long lecture later...that I didn't need. She put the labs in for me. I assured her that if they come back low again I won't be coming back to see her. I will go straight to Weiner with the results.  It is so crazy how caught in the middle I feel.  She said that they are NOT even approving patients anymore for gastric because of the issues they are having with the surgeon not doing all the work. I defended my surgeon. He gives me my shots, he writes me my prescriptions for vitamins and biotin. He does do everything. The only thing the clinic is doing is the lab work and then I get a copy and take them to him.  She then said that when she puts the labs in then the results go to her and force her to make sure that I am following up on them. It's so annoying. I just can't believe that they are actually stopping people who REALLY need this surgery from having it for a stupid reason like they are not happy with how the surgeon is handling the followup.  Anyways, I went and gave blood again and have to wait another week for the results of the Iron. If they are low then I have to e-mail Weiner and drive up to Frankfurt again for an infusion. This infusion thing sounds cool though. I guess if you take an iron pill then you have the problems with constipation but if they infuse you then you just get iron straight to your blood. Sounds great to me! I actually hope that it was just a mistake though and my iron is okay. I have gone this long without complications and don't want to start with any now. 

For Valentines day weekend 2 friends and I went to Pisa/Florence for the weekend. I had a great time. The food was so good in Italy. I think I'm glad I don't live there because I would eat WAY too much Gelato.  It was really relaxing weekend and Italy was beautiful.  I actually drove the rental car and did okay. I guess since I have driven in England on the other side of the road and here in Germany I can drive anywhere.  We stayed on Camp Darby an Army base. The rooms were cheap and decent.  Florence was beautiful and I loved seeing the leaning tower in Pisa. It was a nice trip. 
We should find out in the next couple of weeks if we are getting orders to stay overseas. We really want to stay overseas so we are hoping and praying every day for something good.  I can't wait for these next couple of weeks to pass. 

So this has been a long post. I guess I have more to blog about then I thought.

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