kiwicat

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I'm almost 14 months out and hardly come by the boards anymore but I'm down 200 pounds from my starting weight and I have 32 more pounds to go. I just got back from a Disney cruise last weekend and I lost five pounds on the cruise and ate what I wanted. I haven't had any problems with any particular food except cabbage. I eat what I want in small quantities and I always eat protein first. I'm amazed at what a wild ride it has been. However, with the wild ride come some issues such as looking like a mutant with all the excess skin on my thighs, arms, and my panni. I went to buy pants today at Jones New York and could have made it in to a 14 if it hadn't been for the excess skin. I need to win the Powerball so I can have some work done. I'm grateful that I had the surgery and can't imagine my life if I haven't had it - I probably would still not have a life. I wish I had done this years ago and could relive my 20's and early 30's prior to kids because I have the energy and really want to travel and party more. Oh well! Looking forward to a fun summer and our next Disney cruise next year. It was really fun to be on a cruise and wear pretty dresses and not have to worry about fitting in the bathrooms and stuff. Of course I have this problem now that when I see people that are like I was - super morbidly obese, I just want to go up to them and tell them they don't have to continue living like that but I never do. I figure it's none of my business and they have to get to that point themselves but I wish someone had really told me earlier about the DS and I had done it prior to having children and earlier in my life.

Yesterday I was six months out from surgery and the day came and went. I have been busy this week interviewing for a promotion at work. I've lost 131 pounds which is over 50% of my EWL. My goal was to hit 50% by my six month which would have been 115 pounds lost so I'm ahead at this point but I haven't lost any this week but that's OK. I'm still having trouble getting all my protein in. At times I get sick of eating so much protein but I'm looking in to new recipes and stuff to make things more interesting. I still can't do grilled chicken as it really bothers me but if I stir fry chicken I'm OK.

I actually bought me some new clothes because my pants were so big they looked like I was "Mc Hammer" as my husband mentioned. I have gone down a lot of sizes but hate to buy clothes because they won't fit in a month or so. I'm taking my first trip in a few weeks post-DS and I"m nervous. I am driving to Atlanta on a Thursday night to spend the night and then fly out to Boston to spend the weekend there with my husband who is going up for a week long conference. It will be our first weekend without kids in about three years so I'm looking forward to that. I love Boston and haven't been in over 20 years and it will be my husbands first time. I'm nervous to fly as I hate flying but I'm hoping it will be more comfortable now since I've lost weight.
After we get back from that, we have a few weeks and then we head to Orlando with the kids for a week to stay at Disney. We are members of the Disney Vacation Club so the accomodations are taken care of and it has a full kitchen so I'll hit my favorite grocery store when we get there - Publix. If only they would build a Publix here - then I'd be really happy. Kroger get's on my nerves.

I had my labs checked a few weeks ago. The only concerns were my D and my A so I'm working on improving them. All my other labs looked good except my cholesterol has shot up since surgery. My A1C is down in the normal range so my Type 2 diabetes is gone! 

I feel good except I'm still tired but that may be because I don't get a lot of sleep and we are having some issues with my daughter who we are in the process of getting evaluated to see if she has a chemical imbalance that causes her behavioral problems. It's stressful so that is one reason I haven't lost much this week as I haven't been eating good - not enough and not the right things because of all the stress with my daughter. Thank goodness the DS doesn't let me stray to far off the path because otherwise it would have been a week of Krystals and Firehouse Subs and Fuji in my pre-surgery days.

All in all, I'm happy and doing well. The loose skin though is about to drive me nuts already. I hope plastics are in my future - the skin and the fact that "the girls" have deflated and headed south are troubling. It does blow me away that I fit in the sizes that I am in now - I haven't been this small since college.

Tomorrow I will be five months out from surgery and I've lost 116 pounds as of this morning. My second goal was to loose 115 by October 7th which would be 50% of my EWL. I managed to smash that goal a month early so I feel I must be doing something right. I'm working on getting my protein consistently up to 100g a day and I bought a new blender so hopefully I can get it up there with a few dreadful shakes a day. I've been able to get up to 90 with food on some days but not everyday since I still have days when I don't feel like eating much.
The weird part is that in my head I don't think I've lost 116 pounds. I mean I know my clothes are huge on me and I can tell a difference sometimes but I don't see it when I look in the mirror. Maybe it will take awhile for my head to catch up to all this stuff. I'm still having some issues with memory since the surgery and I'm not sure what that is from. I just don't "feel" as mentally sharp. I'm having my labs done in a week so we'll see if I'm low somewhere and maybe that is causing it or if it's still lingering from the anesthesia since I had two surgeries within two months. I know the second time they gave me different anesthesia because when I came out I was shaking incredibly bad like I did the first time I had an epidural so who knows.
Today I'm spending the day without any kids around which is nice - very quiet and low stress. I'm going to head to Hobby Lobby and get some new picture frames, work on some scrapbooking and study for my classes that I'm taking - Anatomy and Physiology and for fun - an intro to early childhood education class. I'm hoping the memory issue resolves due to the huge amount of memorization needed for A&P.
Here is to another month down and getting closer to my eventual goal weight. I've set a new goal for this month so we'll see if I an hit it - I want to be at 130 lost by my six month. Of course I hope I don't jinx myself and have a month long stall - that would be a bummer.

Well, I finally hit my first milestone that I had for myself and it feels wonderful. I'm still struggling to find things that I like to eat at the moment - the heat has been zapping me and eating protein is hard right now because of the heat. I can't wait until fall. I did make some meatballs in a sauce of chilli sauce, grape jelly, and dijon mustard in the crockpot today so I'm looking forward to those for lunch and dinner. Then I'm going to freeze them in individual portions for lunches and times when dinner doesn't turn out so good. I also made a meditteranean chicken salad today to have in a low carb pita later on - we'll see how it turns out. I'm also checking out whether I want to buy a fitbit - looks like a really neat gadget that tracks your steps per day and your sleep patterns and all kinds of other stuff.

I still can't believe how much weight I've lost and in such a short amount of time. It amazes me. I never thought when I started this journey that it would work and I had complications and then my appendix out in June - it's been an interesting four months to say the least. It doesn't help that my surgeons office is aweful and I've basically decided to let my PCP follow my care and labs - he is wiling to research and learn how to take care of me. It's nice that I used to work for him in high school and I've known him for over 20 years. I knew that the surgeon I selected would not be truly supportive of the real DS guidelines prior to surgery and I almost backed out because of it -but I'm smart enough to find my own answers and get support when I need it where I know I will always find the support. I'm just sick of the surgeon's office BS and their crazy NUT.

Anyway - I'll stop ranting - I'm just really glad today to finally reach this milestone. I hope one day I can pay it forward.

In two days it will be four months since I was switched and I'm struggling the last week or so. I'm craving carbs so bad and no protein satisfies me at all. It's been a real struggle. My weight loss has slowed the last few weeks. On days when I have upped my carbs a little - I have lost. Maybe I'm not eating enough? I get about 900 calories a day and absorb about 350 to 400 of those. Or maybe it's the freaking heat! Who knows. The carb craving is aweful though. I just wish I could take a little vacation from my DS for a few days and get it out of my system and then get back on the bandwagon. My total weight loss to this point is 94 pounds. I was hoping to hit 100 by four months but I think I'll miss that one. I slowed way down in July as far as weight loss is concerned. I may need to add some additional exercise but once again - the heat lately is zapping me. When will fall be here? Not soon enough - i have my first post DS trip coming up in October. I'm actually going to get on a plane and fly to Boston to meet my husband for the weekend. He is there for a conference and I'm going to fly in on Friday and we'll stay until Sunday and see the sights. I love Boston and haven't been in so long. I'm nervous about flying though. Even though I've lost a lot of weight, I'm scared I'll still need a seat belt extender or will spill over my seat and be embarassed. I'm hoping I can just make it through the flying part - plus I hate flying since I'm a complete control freak and I have no control of a plane.

Well, here's to another month. Maybe my weight loss will pick up this month - though I do have a lot of birthdays this month and a small bite of birthday cake on Sunday really hit the spot!

I'm almost three months out from my surgery and a lot of things have happened and a lot has changed. I can say that I'm beginning to feel more "normal". I do still have problems if I eat veggies that are two undercooked with them not staying down. I also sometimes overeat without realizing until it all of a sudden comes back up. It is still a learning process. I have not noticed much difference in my restriction as far as food is concerned. I can drink water a lot better now and that is all I drink really. I get most of my protein from my food at this point. I'm down 76 pounds at this point and I'm pleased. I had a little setback the first of June. I woke up Saturday the 5th and after my morning trip to the bathroom I noticed I had some pain in my lower right part of my abdomen. I thought it odd and it almost felt like I had to go to the bathroom but I just went ahead and got ready for work and headed on in. The pain began to get worse about 10am and a few times I felt like I was going to be sick. I decided I needed to go home and lay down. I figured I had eaten something wrong. When I got home, I couldn't get comfy and then I tried sitting in the rocking chair and nothing helped. I decided to go to the ER. I thought I might have an obstruction or something related to my DS surgery. My blood work came back fine but the CAT scan showed I had early appendicitis. I was admitted to the hospital Saturday night and had my appendix out on June 6th - almost two months to the day after my DS surgery. I was so bummed. I had just started to get my strength back a little and then I had to start over a bit. I'm about recovered from that surgery and today went out and bought a Wii Fit Plus. My goal is to start exercising at least 5 days a week for 20 minutes each day. Then I'll work my way up to longer. I love the Wii Fit Plus - it is a lot of fun. My husband set up a profile too and he weights much less than me but his fitness age was much higher than mine! That made me feel great. 

Off to try another new recipe tonight - I've been trying new recipes from sparksrecipes.com where you can search by lowcarb and also trying ones from allrecipes.com where I've been searching by type of meat. Tonight is brocolli and ground beef casserole with lots of cheese. Yummy. :) 
 

Well, it will be four weeks on Wednesday since I was switched. I'm feeling a bit better. I finally got the pain to go away that I was having in my stomach around one of my incisions. The surgeon thought he had caught a nerve but the chiropractor was the one that got the pain to go away with cold laser therapy and ultrasound therapy. I'm doing well getting my protein in every day and my fluids. I am still struggling with the vitamins but I know that it will get better. I am trying to stick with the soft foods/pureed foods but it is really hard. I am about over turkey salad. I have had a few instances of having things not pureed and I had a bit of broccoli. I have never crazed fruits and veggies so much in my life. I had 1/2 of a banana tonight because I was low on carbs today and the NUT at my surgeons office wants us to have between 30 and 60 grams a day of carbs. 

I'm starting to feel like I am going to make it through this and it is going to be OK. I am nervous though about going back to work next week and not sure I'm ready but I have to get back to try and make some money this month. I get a small base and then incentive on top and the incentive is where the money is. Gotta love sales. If I only miss one week in the month I might be able to make something this month. My family is ready for me to be recovered and back to being supermom and I'm not ready for that either. I have enjoyed my break from work, cleaning, laundry, etc.  

It has been almost three weeks since my BPD/DS surgery and I'm not sure I'm "in love" with my DS yet. I've had a hard recovery. I had some pain that the surgeon was unable to help with. It was the worst pain I've ever felt and I could get no relief from it even with strong pain pills. I finally let my chiropractor work on it with a cool laser and some ultrasound therapy and finally I am getting some relief. I can move about more now and I"m not stuck in the recliner watching HGTV all day wanting to remodel every part of my house. I am still sleeping in the recliner as I'm not comfortable in the bed yet with the soreness I still have. It's not pain now, it's tightness in my stomach around my largest incision. 

Anyway, I was struggling on fluids only for two weeks and kept thinking I just wanted to be able to eat something. Now that I am on soft foods/pureed foods, I wish I didn't have to eat anything. It is uncomfortable to eat. It takes me forever to get 1.5 ounces down and then it takes so much time and then so much time to recover from the uncomfortable feeling that I'm having trouble getting my fluids in. I'm up late tonight trying to finish up my 64 oz of fluids.

I had a mini meltdown this evening because of frustration and wondering why I did this to myself. I feel like I'll never be able to eat normally again. I know I won't be able to eat what I considered normal again but what a new normal might be and I never imagined it would be like this. I hope it gets better. To make matters more frustrating, I hit the first stall in my weight loss. I knew it would occur and relatively soon but I didn't know how long it would last and how frustrating it would feel. My weight hasn't moved since I started eating the pureed/soft foods. It makes me wonder even though I know this is common, what if? What if I have gone through all of this and this surgery does not work for me? I think I would hit an all time low if that happened. 

Anyway, I am trying to keep on keeping on. I have to go back to work in two weeks which I'm a little uneasy about and I'm going to go back to yogurt and refried beans for a day or so and see if my stomach feels any better. I am hoping, really hoping, that I too can say that I love my DS and hopefully really soon.

Alecia 

Two nights prior to my surgery and I'm feeling anxious, nervous, scared, all kinds of emotions. I have waited so long to get to this point and I thought I would be as excited as a kid on Christmas - but the fear is overwhelming. I  don't like hospitals and needles so this is going to be a scary process for me. I handled child birth OK but I got to take home a beautiful baby. This procedure means me coming home sore and attempting to find my way with a new stomach and start a new life for myself. It is excited but overwhelming. I can't wait to see results and I think that will make it better for me. To get to this point has been a lot of hoop jumping and frustration - especially the pre-op diet my surgeon wanted me to do for four weeks. Nothing but shakes, bars, and their special broth. Let's just say after a week where I was trying to adhere and actually gaining weight, I sought out help from the nutrition person and got nothing. I asked at my pre-op visit for help and got none. So, I researched and found a way to shrink my liver that was doable for me - high protein and ultra low carbs. I have lost 11 pounds so far doing this for the last week and a half. So, I guess every little bit helps. 

Well, another anxious night awaits me and so does a huge pile of laundry and a few errands tomorrow. At least I finally got approval to have tomorrow off work.