JanM

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My friend and co-worker, Deb, had her surgery today.  Her daughter called me about 10:00 a.m. to tell me that her surgery was over.  She did have a complication - they said her abdominal fat had adhered to her spleen and she had some bleeding when they cut it away.  They think they have it under control now.  I posted to the main board to update and request prayers for her and her family.  Her daughter is suppose to call me later.

Today is 15 weeks (I think - I am losing track!).  I only lost 1 lb. this week but hey, that is better than none!  After all - I lost 5 lbs. the week before.  It has been too humid to walk.  I cannot stand to sweat, remember!  I hope this humidity breaks soon as I do enjoy my walks.  Last week I added a little more distance and took my route backwards so I was walking UP the little hill instead of down.  It was easier than I thought and I felt so proud of myself.  Last week I went to lunch with my sister and father.  My sister was remarking on how I was "melting away" and asked how much I had lost and when I said "67 lbs", my dad did a double-take and said "how much?"  Men - they just don't see it like other women do.  My dad would always notice if anyone gains, though!

We are having a quiet holiday.  My 3rd son, Mike, is gone for the week so it is just Jim, Jacob and I.  We are doing our best to keep Jacob safe with his seizures.  He hit his head pretty bad about 3 times last week.  On Friday morning he crashed into his bedroom floor and the right side of his head over his ear and into his forehead and eye are all swolen.  He looks like an alien - poor guy.  His new anti-seizure medication got bumped up to 2 times a day yesterday so hopefully that will help.  This will be a short week since I am not working today or tomorrow.  Lots to cram into the week when I get back to work Wednesday, especially with Deb off for at least a month!  The month will sail by before we know it.

Tomorrow I will be 14 weeks post-op. I was discouraged earlier in the week as I only dropped two pounds last week and it seemed like this week was going to be about the same but I started dropping on Friday and today I am down 5 lbs. for this week! I LOVE 5 lb. weeks. Even more exciting, I am under 260! I haven't seen 250s for years, I cannot even remember the last time. FitDay estimates I will be in the 240s by the end of next month and probably under 200 in October! I am only .6 away from be Obese instead of Extremely Obese. Who'd ever think you would be happy with being obese! I probably walked at least 4 days this week. It was so hot and humid some days that I was battling migraines and I knew the walking in the heat would make it worse. Yesterday was a fun day. Our boys took my husband golfing for his birthday and Fathers' Day and I took the girls for pedicures and manicures along with my sister as her birthday gift. The place we went gives marvelous pedicures with scrubs with sea salts and hot towels on your legs before they massage. The pedicure alone took over 90 minutes. I got my toes painted red for the Fourth of July. The four of us were all in a row so we had a great time visiting and relaxing. We were going to go to a movie afterwards but by the time the two getting manicures were done it was too late. Eric's girlfriend and I came back and watched a movie. I am so lucky my boys have picked nice girls that seem to like me. The guys got rained on but still managed to get in their 18 holes of golf. We had supper together afterwards and it was a great day. Just missed our son and his wife from Chicago but he is helping to move his business this weekend. Today is much cooler thanks to the rains that came through yesterday. We are getting rain again now as I write. The grass is still yellow so we need much more rain! My husband wants to open the windows today but I am leary. I hate humidity in the house and when I walk my nose drips continuously so I know my allergies are active right now. I got my sheets washed today so I can sleep in a fresh bed tonight. Just 90 minutes until we have to go pick up my youngest son from his respite weekend. I hope he had a good time. His nose was a bit runny when he left Friday. A week from tomorrow my co-worker has her gastric bypass. I cannot wait for her to be a loser as well. I know she will feel so much better and be happier. I will miss her at work while she recovers but the time will go fast because we will be very busy without her. She did it for me so now it is my turn to carry the load! I still feel great and I am so happy that I made this decision. My only real problem is when I take my medication for my migraines I get soooo constipated. If that is the worst, I can handle that. Beef is starting to bother me a bit but if I take my papaya enzymes it passes quickly. We had crock pot roast last night and I felt slightly nauseous and a bit gassy afterwards so I took the papaya enzymes right away and it resolved in about 45-60 minutes. Crazy pouch! I ate chicken Friday. It was prepared in olive oil and very moist and tender and I had no trouble whatsoever with that. I still miss my diet coke and when a coworker came into work with a Dairy Queen shake last week I was envious but then I thought about what I was gaining by doing without it and it left my mind! Here' s hoping for another good week!

Today I am 13 weeks post-op.  Tomorrow is my 3 month surgiversary.  Here are my pictures for 3 months.

I only lost 2 pounds last week but I will take it!  I only walked 4 days so that probably has something to do with it.  It has been so hot and humid.  We need rain badly.

What a great week!  I lost 5 lbs. and hit a total of 60 lbs. lost!  My son came from Chicago and I finally got to tell him about my weight loss surgery.  He noticed my weight loss right away but was speechless when I showed him my incision and told him I had surgery in March.  I could see him trying to figure out what clues he might have missed.  He admitted he would have been extremely worried had he known about the surgery ahead of time so I was glad I waited to tell him.  He told me numerous times how proud he was of me. 

My husband's family were here on Saturday.  None of them noticed my weight loss but that isn't surprising.  My mother-in-law cannot see well but supposedly she noticed that my son had lost 15 lbs.!  My second son and his girlfriend have continued on their Monday-Friday Weight Watchers diet and he has lost 28 lbs. since April.  I am so proud of them for their efforts and success.  They asked my husband if he was going to start losing weight now as well and looked at them puzzled.  It is funny, men are less likely to see themselves as overweight.  My husband is probably about 80 lbs. over weight.  He has high blood pressure (and doesn't take his medication like he should) and high cholesterol.  I try to get him to walk with me but he will only do it once in a while. 

I am fighting a viral sinus bug that is going around.  I have sinus drainage down the back of my throat and a sore throat.  It prompts me to drink more water to soothe my throat so I have probably been drinking an additional liter of water a day so that can't hurt me.  I walked 7 days straight and then skipped my walk today as I was gone all day for my uncle's funeral and then my second son and his girlfriend invited me to go with them to a movie and that is such a rare invitation that I couldn't pass it up.  We went to see "The Break Up".  I took along my bottle of water and some almonds. 

It was so exciting to have a bigger weight loss again last week.  I notice people on the March Surgery Board who had surgery my same day or later losing so much more than me and feel envious at times but 60 lbs. is nothing to sneeze at.  I am so impatient to be at goal, especially after seeing so much of my cousin who lost 112 lbs. and is now thin for the first time ever. 

My knees don't bother me at all anymore.  It is amazing how that discomfort has just disappeared with the additional pounds.  I am only 11 pounds away from being only "obese" instead of "extremely obese".  I think I am going to have to break down this payday and at least get some new tops as all my old tops are way too big for me.  I packed away a huge box of outgrown clothes on Friday.  That felt great!  I still have more to get rid of but that was all the time I had to spend in my closet that day.  My pants are really baggy but are still able to stay on me thanks to my abdomen.  I think I am going to need at least one size bigger pants than my legs by themselves would need, thanks to my stomach skin.  The bat wings are already noticeable.  I never thought I would be interested in the plastic surgery on the arms but I am starting to think differently.  Of course, it would make a difference whether or not my insurance would cover it. 

On the 19th it will be 13 weeks or 3 months minus a day since my surgery.  How amazing is that!  By the time 6 months has arrived, I should have made the Century Club!  So far my weight loss graph shows me slightly ahead of schedule to make goal by 1 year post-op.

I am so thankful and happy that I made this decision and had this surgery with a great surgeon.

My prayers were answered and my son was discharged after 4 days in the hospital.  We got home Friday afternoon.  They were able to confidently diagnose his type of seizure and develop a new medication plan.  The bad news is he has one of the most difficult type of seizures to treat with medication.  It will take 8 weeks for the new medication to be at a therapeutic level.  They feel the best option for him would be surgery to separate the connections between the two hemisphere's of the brain.  It would be the first of a possible 3 brain surgeries he may have to face.  The surgery will not stop the seizures but it will prevent him from "dropping" or falling.  My son Michael went along for the hospitalization and he was great with Jacob and so patient.  Twelve hours a day trying to keep him occupied in a little hospital room while he had EEG wires on continuous was a challenge as was keeping close enough to him when he was up to prevent injuries when he fell.  I am so thankful for him.  My husband didn't have to come up and swap places with him since we came home early.  That is a good thing as he is not as patient and I think it would have been difficult for him.

It was hard to find the right foods to eat at the hospital.  The cafeteria food was terrible.  I took my own shakes, beef jerkey, cheese, yogurt and strawberries.  I was able to buy more lite yogurt and fruit.  I bought things with meat in them and just ate the meat.  I didn't get out and take long walks while I was there but it was probably a mile walk to the guest apartments and back everyday.  I felt the first temptations to eat a brownie or M & M's amd I REALLY wanted Diet Coke but I am sure that was the stress and the decrease in my control over my food resources.  I did manage to remain compliant with my vitamins, protein and water requirements so I really thought I would lose more but I only lost a pound over the last week.  I guess that is better than nothing.

My son from Chicago called today to say it looked like we wouldn't be able to get together on June 23rd as we had planned.  That was upsetting as I am so eager to share my weight loss news and tell him about the surgery.  He later called back and said they would come this weekend instead.  It is better than nothing but my husband's family is coming this weekend so we won't be able to spend a lot of quality time with them.  I guess you take what you can get.  On a happier note, my second son told my husband that he and his girlfriend have been looking for houses near us so when they have kids they can bring them over to us to have us babysit!  It is nice that spending time with us and having us be a part of their family's life is important to them.

I have been lax in getting my outdoor walks in as it has been so hot and I hate to sweat!  I am sure that is part of the reason my weight loss slowed.  Tonight when I got home from work I went straight up and changed into walking clothes and my husband and I took a nice long walk.  I guess I am going to have to choose between sweating and better weight loss.  That should be a no-brainer!

I am so close to being just "obese" instead of "extremely obese".  It will be nice to get to that BMI range.  I will update next Monday if not before.  I will be 12 weeks post-op on the 12th.  Almost 3 months out!  No hair loss yet but I don't think I am out of the woods yet.

Today is my 10 week anniversary.  I have lost 54 lbs. and I am getting close to being "obese" instead of "extremely obese"!  I have slowed down to about 3 lbs. a week the past two weeks but I haven't been walking regularly like I should.  It has been in the upper 80s low 90s and I cannot stand to sweat, especially in this heat and humidity.  You would think it was July 4th instead of Memorial Day!

Tomorrow I leave early for St. Paul, Minnesota, to have my youngest son hospitalized for an evaluation of his seizure disorder.  I don't know if I will have internet access so I may not update for a couple of weeks.  I will have withdrawal from the OH forums!  I also will have withdrawal from my scale.  I am a daily weigher and it will drive me nuts.  Perhaps I can find a scale on the hospital floor and do a baseline weight (with clothes, of course) and at least monitor for loss.  I have been trying to pack all day.  I don't want to forget anything I might need to stay compliant with my diet and vitamins.  I had some little zip lock bags and I packed a days worth of vitamins and calcium in each one - a 12 day supply to be safe.  I decided it is easier to take the cannisters for my protein shakes than to measure out 20+ shake fixings!  If anyone reads this I could sure use prayers that my son will be able to cooperate with the testings and leave his EEG wired and helmet on.  I am really worried about that.  I don't want them to have to discharge us without a full evaluation!  Still feel great.  Now that I am leaving chicken and eggs alone I haven't vomitted for over 2 weeks, yeah!  I chew my papaya enzymes to be safe whenever I eat steak or some pork.  Better go finish packing!  Will update when I can.

Today is my 9 week anniversary and I have lost 51 lbs!  I started walking again yesterday.  It is so much nicer walking after I wake up refreshed than at the end of the day when I am tired.  It is suppose to get hot this week so I may have to walk later in the evening.  My husband says we should start getting up at 6:00 a.m. and walk before work.  Maybe after we get back from St. Paul.

I thought Jacob's seizures were decreasing but he is still having 5 or 6 a day.  At least he is more alert.  I reserved a "guest apartment" at the hospital.  It is a bit cheaper than a motel and right across the street.  I also found out the state may reimburse us for our mileage and lodging costs.  That would sure be nice. 

I cannot believe it has been 2 month since surgery and May is almost over.  I am tracking my weight, food intake and exercise in FitDay and I am right on target for making goal by next March. 

It turns out my oldest son in Chicago cannot come home this weekend so we won't see him until June 23rd.  My weight loss should really be noticeable then.  I can't believe it will have taken so long to give him the news about my surgery but I really don't want to tell him over the phone.  I am so thankful that I was able to have this surgery and come through it with no complications!  I just wish I did it 10 years ago!

Today is my 2 month anniversary and I have lost 50 lbs.!  I have not been doing well with my walking this week as the weather and my schedule has not been cooperative.  I need to get back in the swing.  This is our first weekend without our autistic son, Jacob, in over 2 months.  It has been nice and relaxing except for a headache.  We went out to eat at Lonestar tonight and I tried my first lettuce salad and it seemed to go okay.  Had a delicious steak, well not a whole steak but several bites!  This has been a slower week for losing but that is probably because I didn't do well at exercising.  I am going to take new pictures Monday and I will add them to my profile. 

We finally got the neurologist to add a new seizure medication to Jacob's regime and to taper off the one making him so sleepy.  His seizures have already been cut by 50%.  I was also successful in getting Jacob scheduled for an evaluation by the Minnesota Epilepsy Clinic on May 30th.  We have to be in St. Paul Minnesota by noon and expect a 7-10 day hospital stay to have his seizures monitored and get him on the best regime.  I don't have enough vacation time left but they may advance me some.  I cannot imagine spending 24/7 with Jacob in a hospital for that long.  I cannot use my computer in there.  Maybe if he sleeps well I can go to a different room at night.  I will have to check into that. 

I am hoping to get my closets cleaned out tomorrow.  I found smaller like-new bra's in my drawers - one cup size and width size smaller!  I also tried on a 22 today that was baggy!  My co-worker who has been trying to get approved for this surgery called me today to say she got her insurance approval letter in the mail so she is hoping to get a surgery date the second half of June.  I am so excited for her.

I haven't been good about updating lately.  I am still doing great.  I have lost 47.5 lbs!  Last week was a good week for weight loss.  It was a difficult week personally.  My 18 year old son, Jacob, who is autistic and mentally disabled started having seizures in December of 2005.  They have become increasingly worse to where he has 5-8 a day.  The neurologist keeps increasing the medication that never has helped.  He got quite testy with me when I pointed it out to him so I gave him one more try increasing it as he said it "was working" because of the second medication interacting with it where I say it was the second medication that did all the work.  So.. over the last week we have increased the first medication with absolutely no improvement, in fact, it has sedated him so much that between the recovery time after a seizure and the sedation he is sleeping 20 out of 24 hours a day.  Wednesday, he fell with a seizure at school and had a large bump on his head.  He did not recover from the seizure as fast as usual so we took him to the hospital for a CAT scan.  Because of his autism, he had to be sedated with Chloral hydrate.  The CAT Scan was negative, thank goodness but he was still so sleepy on Thursday that he couldn't go to school and we had to each take a half day off from work to stay home with him.  On top of that he was without an afternoon caregiver 3 days so I ended up taking about 12 hours of vacation last week.  Tomorrow I am calling the doctor and insisting that the depakote be tapered off and he be started on the new medication we discussed, Keppra.  I am also making an appointment with our family doctor to get a referral to the Minnesota Epilepsy Clinic in Minneapolis.  He may have to have a vagal nerve stimulated implanted to suppress the seizures.  I started giving him chocolate protein shakes this weekend to try and get some nutrition in him as he sleeps so much he is not eating as well and he has lost 20 lbs. over the past few months and definitely doesn't need to lose any more!  Everyone in the family is so sad and concerned about him.  What really makes me angry is that if he was a "normal" 18 year old - no doctor would be allowing this to happen. 

I haven't walked the past 4 days because the weather has been cold and rainy.  I will have to start again tomorrow whether it warms up or not.  I was doing so well, I don't want to slip back. 
I have been getting braver and braver with eating.  Friday night I paid for it!  I had been craving Mexican and ate the chicken only (and some cheese sauce) from inside a burrito.  It tasted great going down but about 30 minutes later the discomfort started.  We had gone to pick up my 3rd son from college and then took him out to eat.  It was very slow getting seated and served and Jacob couldn't take it so my husband ended up leaving with him before our food even came.  Mike and I drove home together and I got more and more miserable!  Why didn't I take my papaya enzymes!  I was one exit from home and I really thought I was going to throw up.  I made it home and chewed my papaya enzymes and walked and burped and walked and burped and finally gave in and threw up.  All the finely chewed chicken came up and then I felt much better.  My stomach was still touchy for about 24 hours.  I felt bad as Mike has only been with me one other time since surgery and I didn't want him thinking it was always this way for me!

We had talked about having beef tenderloin on Sunday but as I hadn't tried steak yet we switched to pork which I knew I could tolerate.  Saturday night we cooked a beef tenderloin steak and I ate about a 1 inch cube of it and I was very pleased that I had no ill effects whatsover and it tasted heavenly.  I made Jim give me the center so it would be the most tender.  Now I know I can go out and eat steak!  (I chewed papaya enzyme just to be safe but I didn't need it!)

I had a wonderful Mothers' Day.  My oldest son, Dan and his wife sent me a beautiful flower boquet.  My second son, Eric and his girlfriend treated me to a pedicure and my college son Michael spent the day with me instead of his girlfriend (he has no money so that was a great gift!).  My father came over for dinner and sat right by me and he is still totally clueless that I am eating anything but normal.  He is in his own world and pays no attention!

My "WOW" moment for the day was I put on some capri pants and a top that I bought 2 years ago.  I wore them for my son's shower and wedding festivities.  Last year it was too tight.  It fit me very loose (but not too loose) and all of the buttons on the top were buttoned!  Before I had to open the bottom one or two because it was more snug.  Even though I still have over a hundred pounds to lose I felt great in that outfit!  I also dipped into the 270's this week for the first time in 5 years.  I only have 2.5 lbs. to go to total 50 lbs. lost in less than 2 months time!  My oldest son should be so surprised when he finally sees me - he knows I have been trying to lose weight but does not know about the surgery or how much I have lost.

Over the last week, one of the men I work with asked if I would mind speaking with his sister about weight loss surgery and my experience.  He said he was very concerned about her as she is overweight and doesn't seem to be able to lose successfully.  I told him I would be happy to and finally spoke with her on Friday.  She was very interested and grateful that I called and shared with her.  She is going to pursue approval through her primary care physician.  I would encourage anyone in my position to look into it.  I have not regretted one day (except for that first 24 hours!) since surgery.  I have so much hope for the future.  My second son and his girlfriend have been doing Weight Watchers together and have each lost weight.  He has lost 18 lbs.  We were talking about how crowded the kitchen was with all of our large bodies and I said that soon I was going to be the second smallest of our immediate family (not counting the girlfriends and daughter-in-law) and he got a funny look on his face.  I have been the largest for so long I think it is intimidating to think someone else might be stepping into that spot.  His girlfriend makes their lunches every day and he cooks supper.  It is so cute!  I am proud of them.

I will try to do better at updating.  I think the thought of the challenge of uploading pictures kept me from posting.  It probably took me 2 hours tonight to figure out how to get them reduced in size and on my profile.  The first time each one took up a whole screen and more so I must have entered and deleted them four times before I finally got them small enough to post.  Hopefully I will remember how to do it as I will be taking 2 month pictures next weekend and posting them. 

I took some one month post-op pictures today.  The close up frontal picture shows my beautiful jewelry my friend Brenda made for me.