Helana R

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WEIGHT LOSS CHART
DATE	WEIGHT	(+/-)	TOTAL	BMI	Sleeve Loss
12/10/2008	273.00		-152.50	40.3
12/15/2008	271.00	-2.00	-154.50	40.0
12/19/2008	266.80	-4.20	-158.70	39.4	-6.20
12/21/2008	259.00	-7.80	-166.50	38.2	-14.00
12/24/2008	256.60	-2.40	-168.90	37.9	-16.40
12/28/2008	252.60	-4.00	-172.90	37.3	-20.40
12/30/2008	251.40	-1.20	-174.10	37.1	-21.60
1/13/2009	250.80	-0.60	-174.70		-22.20
1/20/2009	246.80	-4.00	-178.70	36.4	-26.20

Hello everyone!!! Happy Holidays to all!!!! First my background real quick....I originally had LapBand surgery Nov. 20, 2006. I did VERY well with my band and at my highest loss was down 190 lbs. I then started to have some problems and had a couple slips. We tried to deflate and do some self correction but it became apparent that it wasn't going to work.  I was completely unfilled from June-December and had alot of other emotional/family problems and gained about 35 lbs back.  I was self pay for my lapband surgery due to an insurance exclusion and tried to get them to pay for revision ...did NOT happen. Tried to get them to pay for at least the removal...did NOT happen (but will still fight that fight after I get healed up)...but anyway.....with my surgeon's help and guidance decided to self pay for the sleeve.  I had my removal and revision to sleeve surgery on Monday (12/15/08).   The surgery went excellent from what I was told and I woke in recovery in a bit of pain.  They had mentioned that if everything went well and I felt up to it that I could go home that afternoon.  And things did...I was doing ok and went home that afternoon.  Was home about 4pm (had surgery about 9:30am). I went to my parent's house to be babied of course!!!!  Well it kind of went downhill from there a bit!  I was pretty uncomfortable and couldn't keep ANY fluids down. That means no water, no broth, no PAIN MEDS!!!! That sucked!!!!   I was pretty whiped out and didn't get much rest either....not to mention the HORRIBLE gas pain in my shoulder and chest that I was lucky not to have with my original surgery.  By Tuesday morning I knew we needed to do something so I went back to the surgeon's office. They put me on an IV and gave me 2 bags of fluids with some pain meds. They also gave me a pain patch instead of liquid or a pill and something for naseau.  Felt ALOT better once that happened.  They left the IV in and I went back home.  Still wasn't keeping any fluids down so I went back on Wednesday too and they gave me 2 more bags of fluids this time with some sugar (dextrose) in it and ALOT of anti-inflammatory meds to get my body to stop swelling. Well what sucked DOUBLE was that I was also on my period so my body was retaining ALOT of fluid and swelling uncontrolably.  But after Wednesday things have gotten better!!!! I can now sip my water and fluids and have been sucking on some popsicles.  I had another appt today to have them remove the IV line since I'm keeping fluids down now and they checked my incinsions and drain tube and I'm doing great!!!! I've got quite a bit of lower abdominal pain but I think that's still from gas and not having any type of bowel movement since last Sunday...so hopefully that will get better these next couple days too!!!  Overall, even with all my swelling, etc I'm THRILLED to be converted to my sleeve and can't wait to get healed up and start working it!!! Getting back to the gym, etc after the new year will be great!!!  I still have about 100 lbs to lose and am confident my NEW tool will help me get there!!! I have ZERO appetite and have NO desire for any type of food....so I'm sticking to my clear fluids and some 1% milk when I can.  That's the only type of protein I'll be getting for a few days still. I've lost 6 lbs since surgery and can't wait for more!!!! Have a great night everyone and thanks for taking the time to read my novel!!! lol

Post Date: 12/10/08 7:51 pm
I've been gone from the boards for awhile if anyone remembers me..lol  Here's what's going on.....  (X Post from VSG Board)

Hello everyone!!!  My name is Helana and I got the Lapband 11/20/06.  I started out at a VERY high BMI (62) and did extremely well with my Lapband.  LOVED IT!!!  At my highest loss I had lost 190 lbs.  Then things went wrong.  I had a couple complete unfills due to pouch dialation that has now become a full blown slip.  I was completely self pay (due to an exclusion from my employer in the insurance ryder) and they still refuse to pay for removal of lapband let alone a revision surgery....so I'm self pay again with still oweing about $5500 on my original surgery. Anyway.....in the last 7 months I've gained 40 lbs back....I almost completely stopped working out (was working out about 2-3 hours a day), had several deaths of family & friends, got on some depression medication and have gone to hell....lol  Made the decision with my family & doctor to have the sleeve done.  I'm scheduled for surgery to remove my band and convert to the sleeve this Monday (depending on outcome of my bloodwork & EKG tomorrow).  I can't wait to get back on the wagon again!!!  I still have about 75-100 lbs to lose before plastics and want to get started!!!!  I will probably be bothering you ALL with questions during the next few weeks and just wanted to introduce myself and let you know where I"m coming from.  Thanks for reading!!!!

****I am NO band basher....just didn't work out.  I am GRATEFUL for having it and gaining my life back...now it's just time to finish up my journey with a new tool***

It's been WWWWWWAAAAAAYYYYYY too long since I posted.  I really hardly think about it but know I should more often.  It's been a VERY rough few months on my weight loss journey. I've decided these last 50 lbs before plastic surgery are going to be HARD!!!!!!! Not that my journey has been super easy thus far but it hasn't been this difficult.  I figure I still haveabout 1 1/2 years before I'm done paying for surgery so if it takes me another year to lose these last 50 then it's OK...just NOT what I want..lol   Anyway..... my problems...hmmmmmm  Well it started when I got the flu. That SUCKED!!!! Luckily it wasn't the kind where I needed to throw up or anything so that was good.  But I lost like 9 lbs in one week!!!!! Now that sounds good and all but then it REALLY jacked with my body for like the next month....going up & down, up & down, trying to regulate what had happened to it.  Then I got an inner ear infection which made me feel like crap and kept me from the gym a little bit. Then to TOP IT ALL OFF I got HORRIBLE poison ivy (I had never had it before) and they put me on prednisone (steroid) which KILLED my weight loss!!!!!! I gained like 7 lbs while I was oni t for 14 days!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was SUPER SUPER SUPER depressing for me and made me just want to eat more & more & more. But I'm finally off of that and appear to be back to losing a bit again. I 've got 5 of the 7 lbs off and am close back to my all time low.  I have about 15 lbs to lose to my next goal which in the beginning of my journey was my absolute minimum goal for myself to consider this whole thing a success.  That will put me at 225 lbs. Now to alot of folks that is still ALOT but to me, who started out at 425 lbs it's AMAZING!!!!!! To lose 200 lbs????? COME ON!!!!!  Who does that?????????  But my real goal is get to 199 and maintain awhile (if Ilose more than GREAT, but if not, that's ok too) and then have plastics (lower body lift, breast reconstruction/lift/implant) upper arm tuck, and inner thigh tuck if the lower body lift doesn't fix it.   My original surgeon thinks I'll probably lose about 25-30 additional pounds with plastics so then I'll settle at about 175.  Which for me, at almost 5'10" will be PERFECT!!!!!!  Again, if I lose more, then GREAT, but if not....I'll still be estatic!!!!!!! I weigh less now then I did in like 7th or 8th grade so I'm just tickled!!!!! It's so much fun running around, doing my OWN yardwork, going to amusement parks, riding a bike, and just not being the biggest one in the room anymore.  I'm SOOOOOOOO much more enjoying life and am realizing what I missed out on my WHOLE life. I hope to update with some pics soon.  We shall see!!!!! Have a great day!!!!! 

Yesterday was my 32nd birthday. And I can honestly say I'm SOOOOOOO happy I'm still around to see it.  When I started my WLS journey I weighed 425.5 lbs (probably more at one point). I don't think I would have lived much longer at that weight and level of health.  Today i am ESSTATIC to report I have lost 175 lbs and am in AWESOME health!!!!  I workout DAILY and have no problem moving now.  I can BREATH and I can SLEEP and I can do ANYTHING I want!!!!!  I still have about 50 more lbs to lose before I maintain for awhile and hopefully have plastics...but I CAN DO IT!!!!! Here's some comparrison pics taken yesterday in my NEW size 18 shirt (started out in 30/32) and size 18 pants (started out in 38W).

I am a horrible blogger...let's just be honest, I am NOT a blogger...only a 'every once in a while posted' per say!! lol  But I did want to share that my surgeon's office called me yesterday asking if I minded if they used my photos for a commercial or advertisement!!!!!! CAN YOU IMAGINE????? I'm very proud they would ask, also a little stunned knowing I still have at LEAST 60 more lbs to lose, but HEY, they asked so I said YES!!!!

I also wanted to share that I was starting to get questioned when I had to show my Driver's License for writing a check, using my credit card or buying alcohol so I got a new Driver's License pic taken....just LOOK at the difference already!!!



Other than that, I have nothing to report.  Just living day by day and still working hard at the gym.  Lost 6 lbs last week but I think some of that will come back this week, but who knows.  I can only try and do my best!!!! 

LATER FOLKS!!!

This will be my bitch session for the day...
I work the afternoon shift from 2:15pm-10:30, well last night a bunch of folks on midnites decided to call in sick and I was forced to work an extra 4 hours until 2:30am!!!! Then I had to get up at 6:00 am to go the gym.  What I didn't mention is that there is also 3 inches of freshly fallen snow to contend with also!!!!!!! But it gets better.....I had a 9:30am appointment at my surgeon's office to get a fluro done of my band to see if everything has settled back down after my beginnings of a slip I had a couple months ago, deflating and then fill last month.  Today was the day I was supposed to see if things stayed in place and if things are back to 'normal'.  Well.....my mom, dad and I get in the truck and drive the 20 miles to the surgeon's center (IN THE SNOW, ON THE HIGHWAY, and witnessed a very bad wreck on the highway that we were almost struck in). We get to the surgeon's office and LOW AND BEHOLD the X-Ray tech couldn't make it in to work today so NO FILLS, NO FLURO, NO NOTHING!!!!!!  All this also at $2.85 a gallon of gas too. I'm PISSED!!!!!  So now I'm still COLD, TIRED, WORRIED about my band, along with everything else!!!!  Doesn't help that I gained back the 1.4 lbs I lost last week!!!! I guess I should be thankful that's all I gained with all the Christmas stuff I ate this week and missing out on the gym for 3 days...but DAMN!!! When it rains it pours or snows around here and I'm sick of it!!!!!!!  So now I have to drive all the way back out to the center on Wednesday.....HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ME!!!! This sucks

Hello to All!!! 

Today is my 1 year surgiversary.  One year ago I went in for my outpatient Lap Band Procedure and changed my life. Not only did I have surgery, but I also quit smoking (as of Nov 14, 2006). I started this journey at 425.5 lbs with a BMI of 63. As of this morning I weigh 274!!! I have lost 151.5 lbs so far and am able to live again!!!  I still have at least 80 lbs to lose but with the help of my “tool” I am so much closer today than I could have ever DREAMED I would be.  When I weighed over 400 lbs  there was no hope in my future (at least to me).  I NEVER thought I would weigh less that 350, let alone 300 lbs again.  It seemed COMPLETELY unattainable.  Today I weigh less than I did when I was 15 years old (I’m 31 yrs old).  Today I can run, I can jump, I can sit in the bathtub and actually have water go all the way around me…lol I can stand to do the dishes and have energy to do a million things afterwards. I can sit in ANY booth in ANY restaurant I go to. I can ride the rides at amusement parks (and that was one of the proudest moments during this last year). I can BREATH when I walk, I can climb stairs, I can paint my toenails with out looking like a pretzel. It goes on & on & on.  I’m just happy that I’ve been successful thus far and know that with my new lifestyle and new skills I can LIVE again and hopefully a lot longer than I would have before.  I’ve gone from a size 38W pants to a 20W or 18/20 elastic pants.  Shirts are down from 32W to 18/20 or 22/24.  I can wear 2X t-shirts instead of the 6X I was wearing before !!!! It’s just amazing to me.  Some people still don’t recognize me until I talk…which is a great compliment.  I’ve even proven to myself somewhat that I can do this on my own.  In September I went in for a possible fill and my surgeon thought my pouch was looking a tad bit big and thought maybe I was having the beginnings of a slip. She deflated me and told me that we would give it a month to rest and give the scar tissue a change to heal.  I went the entire month with ZERO, NONE, ZILCH restriction and managed to lose just over 3 lbs.  (Not A LOT but I didn’t GAIN!!!)  I went back in this past Thursday and got a pretty good size fill and next month we’ll go in to look to see if things stayed where they’re supposed to. I’m hoping things stay good, but if not, I’m not scared…I will handle it and continue to lose ( just not as fast as I prefer).  

To anyone researching or starting out your journey….follow YOUR surgeons’ program…follow YOUR doctor’s plan.  Just because my doctor or someone else’s doctor on the board here says to do things one way doesn’t mean your doctor/surgeon doesn’t have their own way that works for their patients. 

EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE!!!! You have to move if you want to be successful. People say “I don’t have the time”….well making excuses is what got us ALL in this situation in the first place.  When you made the decision to have WLS you made a commitment to yourself and you have to be somewhat selfish and take care of yourself.  You have to MAKE the time and MOVE THAT BODY!!!!!  Start out slow but keep to it and don’t give up. 

Thank you to everyone here that has EVER said a kind word to me, made me smile or simply made me think. I appreciate you and your thoughts, well wishes, and your opinions. This is an incredibly supportive place and very knowledgeable place.  I do not post as often as I used to due to my work/gym schedule but I try. I hope to continue here as I get closer & closer to goal during the NEXT year or two !!!! Thank you again.