Jim Parker

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I'm stuck at home - iced in by the "Stormzilla" that's sweeping the entire country this week.  As a result, I'm catching up on several of the OH forums that I don't visit as frequently as I do the "Men's Forum"...  While responding to a question, I suddenly realized that today is my 3-month surgiversary.  Three months ago, my life changed completely, and for the better.  I'm so very thankful that I was able to have this procedure, and so very grateful for the chance to re-make my life into a healthier, happier version of what was already a pretty darn good life! 

Before I go any farther, I want to publicly thank Dr. Nick Nicholson (my surgeon), Brittany Burns (his PA), Dr. Woo (the anesthesiologist), and all the members of Dr Nick's staff for their excellent, compassionate care before, during, and after the surgery.  With their help, the insurance approval process was straightforward and all of the pre-surgery steps were completed without a hitch.  Dr. Woo made me completely comfortable the night before the surgery, and took excellent care of me during the procedure.  Dr. Nick's surgical skills enabled him to complete the RNY surgery laparascopically, despite some complications encountered during the process.  Brittany has patiently answered all my questions, provided encouragement when I needed it, and just in general has provided excellent follow-up care.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Next, to all the nurses, techs, and other folks at Forest Park Medical Center, a heartfelt thanks for the excellent care you provided during my stay.  Without exception, you were professional, kind, considerate, and extremely encouraging while I was there.  You made what could have been a thoroughly unpleasant hospital stay into an overall positive experience.  I could not have asked for any better care.  Thank you all.

So here's some random thoughts and observations about the journey thus far.

Complications, side-effects, etc.: 
I've had no adverse effects.  Zero.  Nada.  No strictures, no vomiting, no "foamies" - nothing.  Unless you count "super sense of smell, that is...  LOL  I've been careful about eating new foods only at home, and in small quantities until I know how they settle, but thus far nothing has really upset my pouch.  Some things I thought sounded really good turned out to be pretty "blah", and some things I thought would be a bit yucky turned out to be pretty good. 

NSVs: 
I am constantly amazed at all the "little things" that happen as a result of the weight loss.  It started with the simple surprise of actually being able to see my feet while walking.  A small thing, but it was my first NSV (non-scale victory) and thus has a special place in my heart...  The other day I was able to tie my shoes while sitting with my feet flat on the floor.  It was after my workout at the gym, and I barely noticed at the time, but realized later.  First time I'd been able to do that in many years.  Then came the day I went upstairs for something, and noticed I was not completely out of breath when I got there.  Not long ago, I was carrying two 40-lb bags of salt from the garage out to the water softener in the well house, and griping to myself about how heavy they were, when it occurred to me that 80 lbs was exactly how much weight I had lost at that time.  I used to carry that 80 lbs with me everywhere I went.  No wonder I was exhausted all the time...

Clothes:   
I've dropped my pants size by 10 inches, from a 52 (loose fit, with elastic waist band) to a 42 (regular fit, regular men's size).  My shirt size has gone from a "stretched out" 5XL to a 3XL that fits well.  My belly is 10 inches smaller than before, which helps with that.  Last time I bought clothes, I was actually excited, because I got to choose the shirts I wanted, instead of having to settle for one or two that were available in my size.  I've hated shopping for clothes for years, but now I actually look forward to it!

Exercise: 
I used to dread going to the grocery store with my wife on weekends.  By the time we made it halfway through WalMart, I would be very tired, and my back would hurt like crazy.  Not to mention my knees and feet swelled up and hurt for a day afterward.  I tried to go walking, but at 411 lbs, I couldn't walk very fast, or very far without hurting.  Now I'm at the gym about 5 times a week, doing 35 minutes on the treadmill, followed by about 55 minutes of weightlifting, and then 30 minutes of water aerobics / swimming. 

As for the treadmill, when I first started out I had to limit my walking speed to 3.0 mph in order to keep my heart rate within the "safe zone"...  Now I'm up to 3.6 mph without having to slow down for the "uphill" intervals, and keeping my heart rate right in the middle of the "aerobic zone". 

On days when I can't get to the gym, I'm now using a Nordic Trac cross-country ski machine at home.  A 30-minute workout at 4.5 mph (average) is really tough!  I'm amazed at how wiped out I am after a workout, considering that I do a lot more at the gym.  Usually, when I'm done with my workout at the gym, I'm pretty wiped out.  But 30 minutes later (that's how long it takes me to get home) I'm ready for pretty much anything.  But after the Nordic Trac workout, I'm pretty much a couch potato for a couple of hours...

Overall, my energy level has gone from about a "1" to about an "8" and I find it really hard to sit still for more than an hour or so.  Drives me crazy in some of the longer meetings at work! 

Co-morbidities:  For the first time in my life, I'm actually looking forward to going in for my annual physical.  My PCP wasn't very supportive of WLS initially, but came around to the idea after we talked about it for a while.  I can't wait for him to see the remarkable changes my body has gone through.  Not that I don't still have a long way to go, weight wise, but from a "health" standpoint, the changes are nothing short of amazing!
Pre-diabetes - Gone.  Will confirm when I visit my PCP next week, but I've been off the meds since surgery, and even in the hospital my tests were extremely good.  Cutting out simple carbs from the diet did wonders, and I think exercise did the rest.
Asthma - Exercise and allergies used to trigger attacks, but I've had no symptoms since surgery.  None.  Not even when the cedar pollen was at all-time high levels in Dallas, which has been awful for me in the past. 
High blood pressure - Used to be 145/95 (or even higher at times), with a resting pulse rate of 88.  Now it's down to 126/76, with a resting pulse rate between 66 and 72. 
Edema - My legs used to swell so badly that my PCP had me wearing compression socks that came up to my knees.  Now it happens only very rarely, and I'm back to wearing regular socks 80-90% of the time.

Weight:  I didn't realize until halfway through the morning that today is my 3-month surgiversary, and I didn't weigh myself before eating breakfast and getting dressed.  But as of yesterday, I've lost 92 pounds.  That's 45% of the way to my goal in three months.  I've got 8 more pounds before I'm a century club member.  That's exciting and motivational, but for me, dropping below 300 lbs will be an even bigger psychological lift.  I haven't been below 300 in about 30 years.  I'm still trying to decide what an appropriate reward might be.  Maybe a nice vacation trip with my wife.  She's always wanted to go with me to the Big Bend area, but I've hesitated because of all the hiking you have to do to really see it.  Now I have no worries about that, and it could be a lot of fun.  And the timing (early spring) would be great as well.  But there are other alternatives as well, and we haven't made up our minds...

So that's my update...  I'll post some new pictures a bit later.

I promised to let you know how the "walk in the park" went...  It went well.  In the "excitement" of getting the dogs leashed and out of the car, and keeping them away from the ducks and geese that flocked to us thinking we were going to feed them, neither my wife nor I noticed the time we got to the park and started walking, so I can't tell you how long it took us, exactly, but it felt like about a 1/2 hour.  Since it's about 1.2 miles, that's probably about right.  

I made it around without any stops, other than pausing to let little kids pet the dogs, stepping off the trail to let a really fast runner go by (3 times while we walked a single lap - sheesh that lady could run!).  And I was never out of breath, my back didn't hurt, my knees didn't hurt, and my feet didn't hurt. 

So, after dropping off the pups at home, we went to Home Depot to get some stuff, and walked around the store for a while.  (My wife and I both love that place - so many cool things, and so many ideas get generated...)  Next, we went to the new Whole Foods market that just opened up near us.  OK, so it's really 15+ miles from home, but by Texas standards, that's "pretty close" to us.  We had a blast picking out some great seafood, sampling new types of cheese (the cheddar/cranberry was amazing!), selecing the turkey(s) for Thanksgiving dinner (one will be 'traditional" and the other will be "brined"), and just "browsing" the entire store.  Afterward, we went to Yummilicious for some sugar-free, low-fat frozen yogurt and then went home and "crashed".  So, after 3+ hours of pretty steady walking (ambling might be a better word for the "shopping" part, I felt amazingly good. 

Sunday morning, we saw all our church friends, and I got a lot of positive comments - I guess other people are able to see more of a difference than I can...  I know I've lost nearly 60 lbs, and I feel a lot better, but I can't really see much difference.  I did notice that the steering wheel in the truck moved an inch or two further away, and my pant are definitely getting a bit baggy (and saggy!), but I can't really "see" much difference myself.  Doesn't matter - I can definitely "feel" the difference, and to me, that is WAY more important!  Life is great, and I'm so glad I went through with the RNY surgery.

Woke up this morning, and the scale said I've dropped another 3 lbs.  That's a total of 56 lbs thus far.  That's like putting down two 25-lb bags of dog food!  I don't really think I look much different, but I sure feel different!  Walking is a lot easier now that I'm no longer hauling all that baggage...  And to think I've still got almost 3 times that much to go! 

I can go up a flight of stairs without having to stop and catch my breath when I get there.  I'm having to wear suspenders to keep my sweat pants up.  My wife says it's a "quite unusual" look.  LOL - she's right - I look pretty silly, but I don't care, because I'm doing stuff again, and feeling good about it.

Tomorrow, we're taking the dogs to a park that has a walking/jogging trail around a lake.  Last time we went, I had to stop and rest several times, and my back, feet, and knees were killing me by the time we finished a single lap.  I don't have any particular "goal" in mind for tomorrow, but it will be interesting to see (and feel) the difference the weight loss makes.  The other big difference?  Last time we went, I dreaded it, but did it because my wife really wanted to.  This time, it was my idea (shocked the heck out of her!) and I'm really looking forward to it.  Hopefully, I'll blog again tomorrow to say how it went. 

Day 10 (11/12/10): 
My wonderful daughter is pregnant with our first grandchild.  Saturday morning her friends are having a baby shower for her.  However, she lives 4.5 hours drive from here, and my wife REALLY wanted to go.  (On some level, so do I.  But it's a "girls only" thing, and I don't really want to be cooped up in a car for that long anyway!)  I encouraged her to go - that I can take care of myself, and am really doing well.

She's been making a truly wonderful hand-crafted gift for the baby - one that will truly be an heirloom - and finished it on Thursday night.  (I'd tell you what it is, but my daughter may read this, and I will NOT be the one that steals my wife's thunder on this one - she's worked way too hard on it to have the surprise ruined by me!)  Anyway, my wife doesn't like to drive at night, and the shower is mid-morning, so she needed to leave Friday around 11:00 to get there well before dark.

Friday morning we start carrying things to her truck.  (I say "we" - I only carried the wrapped presents - everything else is over my 15-lb limit!)  Finally get everything packed and she's ready to go.  Turn the key...  The starter just "clicks" and does nothing.  No problem - grab the jumper cables - connect to my car - still nothing but a "click".  Let it "charge" for a while - still no luck.  Darn!  Now what?  She hates to drive my car (a very nice Jetta TDI, but too small and she feels intimidated by everything else on the road), but it's our only choice.  Move everything over to my car.  She discovers the CD player, and runs inside for her collection of Christmas CDs.  I show her how to load up all 6 slots in the player, and she's in heaven. 

One last goodbye kiss, and she's on her way to Austin.  And I'm stuck at home without a usable car...  Have no plans to go anywhere, didn't think I would want to go anywhere, but suddenly now that I can't, it's all I can think about...    I need to go to the store for some more soup (not really, but I WANT to).  I could take the dogs to the park for a nice walk (I can do that here, too.  We've got 10 acres of land!).  I just feel claustrophobic as heck. 

I suddenly realize that this is the first time since I was 17 years old that I haven't had a car / truck / motorcycle available to me...  Wow!  How spoiled am I?  OK - get over it, and walk... 

Wonderful neighbor (also member of my church) calls to check on me.  I tell him the story, and he offers to get me a battery, and even install it for me!  How great is that - he knows I can't lift anything heavy, so he just steps in and does it.  He goes and gets the battery, then brings it to me in the middle of huge downpour, installs the battery, and...  No luck.  The old battery was definitely on it's last legs (5+ years old), but it's the starter itself that's died... 

Get this - he starts apologising to me that he doesn't know how to replace the starter!  He's just driven 25 miles in the rain to get me a battery, installed it, and now he's feeling bad that it didn't solve the problem.  That's the kind of great neighbors you have when you're REALLY lucky!  I thanked him profusely, and told him not to worry about it.  I don't really have anywhere I NEED to be, so it's no big deal.  The dealership will send someone over next Tuesday to fix it - and my wife will be home on Monday.

OK - so what does any of this have to do with weight loss surgery?  Nothing, really.  But this isn't about weight loss exclusively, it's about living life to the fullest, and enjoying it to the max.  If this had happened before, I might have come inside and downed a bag of cookies, or had a bowl of ice cream or something.  Instead, I laughed it off and played with the dogs for a while.  Then went inside and made myself some more cream of chicken soup (3 more days on "full liquids") and read a book for a while. 

Life is good, even when it rains.  (It's absolutely POURING rain outside.)

Day 11 (11/13/10):
Woke up at 4:15 AM.  Yuck!  Way too early...  Decided to try to get up, use the restroom, and sneak back into bed without waking the dogs.  Success!  Managed to fall asleed again until 6:45 AM.  Much better!

What to have for breakfast?  I've been having Isopure Dutch Chocolate (1 scoop) mixed with 1 cup warm skim milk and 1 cup decaf coffee most mornings.  That's 34g of protein to kick-start the day.  But this morning, I just didn't want it.  So instead, I mixed 8oz of Isopure Mango Peach (the ready-to-drink kind) with 8oz of Diet V8 Splash Tropical, and it was great!  Total of 16g protein, so I'll have to make up the rest during the day. 

Getting some sweat pants on so I can go for a walk...  It's only 45 degrees out there this morning.  I know it's a lot colder elsewhere in the country, but for Texas, this is COLD!  We're used to the heat, but wimps when it comes to the cold... 
  Looking forward to a nice warm bowl of soup when I'm done walking...  Yum! 

Ahhh!  After four nights in a chair, I was able to sleep in my own bed last night.  It was wonderful!  (At least until I woke up at 5:30 on the dot.)  I was even able to get into bed last night (and up again this morning) without bothering the wife.  She's been incredibly supportive, but I'm glad to be able to do a few more things for myself.

After taking all my morning meds, I took the pups out and walked with them for a while - though it was still pretty dark.  The sky was just starting to turn from black to navy blue, but the stars were still shining bright.  On the eastern horizon, I could just barely see a lightening in the color of the sky where the sun would come up later.  I was filled once again with awe at the beauty of this earth, and how furtunate I am to have a wonderful family, friends, and a job I truly enjoy.

It was still a bit chilly, so we went back inside to warm up for a minute, then out on the back porch to sit and listen as the world came awake.  There are some bullfrogs in a pond down the hill from us, and a couple of them started exchanging morning greetings - though not nearly as enthusiastically as they do in the evening.  As the sky gradually got lighter, a few birds began to sing, and pretty soon the crows were cawing back and forth.  I know a lot of people don't like crows (or the sound of them), but somehow their constant bickering brings a smile to my face and joy to my heart.

Now the sun is just up over the horizon, the cardinals and finches are flying around the pasture, and I feel happy and blessed. 

Life is great, and I'm excited to be on this journey.