sjanuary_28

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Well it has been more than a year since the last time that I have posted on OH and so much has happened.  I've lost about 130 lbs and still losing for the most part.  Things are going pretty good in regards to the surgery.  No issues and no complications.  At about 10 months post-op,  I found out I was pregnant.  So I am about 6 and a half months pregnant with my first child.  I am so excited, yet so ready for him to be here.  Oh yea, its a BOY!!!  I will try to keep everyone posted.

Well, today marks a week since I had surgery.  I can say that everything is still going pretty good.  I have a little pain when I am sleeping but other than that everything is going good.  I have officially lost 17.8 lbs which is pretty good I think anyway.  I am still out of work and plan on returning in a few weeks.  I'm glad that I am able to just rest and relax.  I have been trying to not stay in bed like most people think that I should.  My whole family seems amazed that I am moving around and getting out of the house.  But hey what can I say, I am super woman!! LOL! All in all my experience has been great thru this whole thing and to those people out there thinking about having surgery, I say go for it.  Follow the rules the doctor has and you will be fine.  Talk to you later.
~Shelly

Hello everyone,

I did it.  I had my surgery on 8/12 at 8;30.  It was quick and uneventful.  I was in my room within a couple of hours of having surgery and am still in the hospital.  My doctor said I should be able to go home tomorrow, but you know I am pushing to get out today.  But that may not happen.  I am in little to no pain which I think is weird but hey I am not complaining.  I had my first meal post-op.  It was GREAT!!! OK maybe I am exaggerating a bit. I didn't have anything to eat on Wednesday and was just glad to be able to taste anything.  I had chicken broth, lemon jello, and a cranberry juice/water mix.  I only had about 2 ounces of it all but it was still the best meal in the whole wide world.  What is funny is that I am not even hungry.  Doing the pre-op diet of slim fast had me hungry all the time, but now I am not even hungry.  I am glad to finally be on the other side.  Well that is all for now.  Thanks my OH family.

Shelly

Hello OH,

One more day until I have surgery.  I am excited, scared, nervous, and happy all in one.  I kind of know what to expect, but still am nervous.  I will try to keep everyone informed as much as I can will I am in the hospital and when I get out.  I want to thank everyone that has guided me through this process.  Please keep me in your prayers!!!

Shelly

I just wanted to let everyone know that I wasn't able to have surgery on 06/03, although I so wanted to get it done and over with.  My primary doctor would not give his approval for my surgery due to my thyroid problem.  I seriously think my PCP is a little slow...FOR REAL.  I refer to him as Dude...Dude is CRAZY.   But anyway I go back to a specialist that I had seen a few times to have my thyroid levels rechecked on 06/15/09.  And if all is well on that day (please cross your fingers) I will have surgery on 07/01/09.  Yes, my surgeon has already put me on the schedule for surgery on 07/01/09.  Please keep your fingers crossed for me my OH family.  Talk to you later.

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I have a surgery date scheduled for June 3 at 7:30.  Please keep me in your prayers!

Thanks
Shelly

I found out this morning that I have been APPROVED for surgery!!! When the nurse told me that I had been approved, it felt like my heart stopped for a moment and I was just speechless.  The nurse had to ask me if I was O.K and if I was happy.  Well of course I am happy.  I have been working my A** off.  I will keep you updated with when my surgery date will be.

There is 22 days until the New Year.  Can you believe how fast 2008 has gone?  I started my WLS journey this year and also celebrated a 2 year anniversary with my boyfriend.  I know if any of you are like me, you are starting to think about the up and coming year and how you will make the new year greater than the year that is passing.  I know that I will be 29 next year (1 year from 30!!) I am so excited about the prospect of becoming a healthier me, I have begun to dream about it constantly.  I make crazy comments to my boyfriend like, " I can't wait to wear a pair of booty shorts and a halter top while riding a motorcycle."  Oh yes, I am getting a motorcycle.  I know that my time will come, I just have to be patient and allow God to work his magic.  I went to the gym yesterday and did a pretty good work out.  I worked some muscles that I normally don't work and it felt good.  I got on the scale yesterday for the first time since my doctors visit on 11/24/08.  The scale said that I lost 5 pounds but I've come to realize that all scales are not the same.  I almost have to come up with different weights for different doctors.  One doctor says I weigh one thing and I got to another doctor 2-3 days later and that scale says I lost 5 more pounds, so who knows how much I have actually lost.  I just say that I've lost 25 pounds and hopefully I can lose a few more before the end of the year.  The goal I had of losing 40 pounds before my surgery will be blown out the water.  I am looking at losing about 60-65 pounds prior to surgery.  To be honest with you, I hardly go to the gym.  Like yesterday was the first time I had been to the gym since the middle of November.  I have realized that, for me, its all about the food.  I have noticed that I think more and more about what I put in my mouth.  I believe that if I think ahead about what I am going to eat, I will continue to loss weight and make my goal of losing 60-65 pounds prior.  Right now, I am just trying to make it through the holiday's.  I will keep you posted, gotta get back to work.
Shelly

Well, a lot has happened since the last time I was on OH. First, I found out that my primary doctor that I was seeing is not good enough for my insurance company, so I have to see this other guy.  I actually had my first visit with him 11/19/08 which went pretty well.  The good thing with this new doctor is that he is a psychologist and I can see him for six months and he can testify as to what mental state I am in.  Another good thing during that visit was that I lost another 7 lbs which puts me at a total weight loss of 17lbs (keep in mind that was before Thanksgiving).  A bad side to seeing this doctor was that I have to pay out of pocket $160.  So lets do the math $160 X 6 visits is $960.  I guess its not so bad considering he is really helpful in regards to what I need to do to loss weight.  I would say that of all the doctors that I have been to, he was the BEST!  Although he blew me when he said that I could come and see him every week or every other week if I wanted.  You know I had to look at him crazy for that, it made me think all he wanted to do was get rich off of my $160 per visit. So you know I will only be seeing him once a month.  I just pray that I am able to continue to lose weight every one of my visits with him.  I will also still be seeing my PCP as well.  I figure that it won't hurt to have two doctors write letters to my insurance company.  I've got another visit with both of my doctors scheduled for 12/17/08 and 12/23/08.  My goal is to have lost 8 more lbs which will put me at a total weight loss of 25 lbs in three months!!  So the way I see this  WLS journey playing out is that I will have my last of the 6 month visits with Dr. Saks (psychologist) in April and be able to submit to my insurance then.  I am hoping that I have surgery in May or no later than the middle of June and I will then be on my way to being a big loser.  I definitely have to give a plug for Phentermine.  I've used a few other prescription diet pills(Xenical which is Alli, Meridia) and Phentermine works the best.  Initially I would get a little nausea, but once you get used to taking it it does actually work.  It helps you to eat less and feel full faster.  The only thing you really need is motivation to go to the gym.

On a personal note, my Thanksgiving was great, hopefully everyone also had a great Thanksgiving.  I can honestly say that I didn't over do it, although I didn't take my diet pill that day.  So I will be hitting the gym pretty hard until Christmas and hope I can make my goal of 8 lbs this month.  I will definitely keep you posted.

Happy Holidays!!

I have lost 10 lbs this month!!!  I went to my PCP today and she confirmed that I am down 10 lbs.  What is so funny is that I was thinking that I didn't lose any weight at all.  I had high hopes of going to the gym at least 3 times a week this past month and I honestly only went about six time the entire month.  I am happy that I have been able to lose 10 pounds but I am kind of disappointed that I didn't stick to going to the gym.  I am putting a new goal on my self to lose at least 10 more pounds this next month.  I will keep everyone posted on how it goes.
This month has been a pretty busy month for me.  I went to see my surgeon Dr. Denham for the second time.  He was pleased that I had actually lost a few pounds since that last time I saw him in March 07.  He still feels that I am a good candidate for WLS and he even said that I could have is laproscopically.  I had been told by another doctor a few years back that I weighed to much to have my surgery done lap. but Dr. Denham said that he does all his surgeries the lap way and he doesn't see any problem with me getting my surgery done the lap way.  He asked me what my ideal weight was and I really didn't have an answer for him.  I have been so big for so long that I can't really picture myself small.  I started thinking like, I would love to be 200, but then I'm like that would still be considered overweight.  So we came up with 160 as my goal weight and the doctor said that we can modify it as I get closer to my goal.  I know that I want to be smaller than I am, but I don't want to be stick thin.  (Just think one day people will think that I am actually skinny, I can't wait!!)  I told Dr. Denham that I wanted to have my surgery in early 2009 and he said that shouldn't be a problem.  I was so excited when he said that.  I was thinking in February or March, I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.  I've set a personal goal of being in the low 300's before I do have surgery and hopefully I can attain that goal.  The doctor said the more weight I can lose before surgery the better off I will be after surgery.  I didn't tell my doctor of my personal goal to be close to 300 for fear that I might disappoint him and his staff.  I was just thinking that I would surprise them with how much weight I lost.
As I said earlier, I saw my PCP today.  A little background, I have only seen this lady about three times.  I had another PCP that I had saw for a few years but it was so difficult to get an appointment with her.  And when I did try to submit to my insurance company the first time, I was denied due to not enough information in my file all of the times that I saw her and not having continuous office visits.  Hey, I could only make an appointment when she had one available and it seemed like it would take two months before I could get in to see her.  So I stopped going to her.  This new doctor, at first kind of pissed me off.  I had saw her once over a year ago and just started seeing her again.  My first visit back with her she stated that she would not write a letter to my insurance company until I became an established patient with her.  I was like OK whatever lady, I can keep coming here for a few months, but in the end she is going to write a letter of recommendation to my insurance company.  I even had my surgeon write her a letter.  So when I went in today her whole attitude changed.  She got the letter from my surgeon and she was actually all for the surgery.  I was told that I have to see her once a month for 6 months and then I would be able to submit the information to my insurance company. Today was my second visit with her and I only have 4 more.  That would put me at February as my last visit with her before I can submit to my insurance company.  So I am counting done.  I have another appointment scheduled with her for 11/25/08.  The count down continues.
So for the next month I will be trying to get appointments for all the of stuff that my insurance company says I have to do.  Th main thing would be this psychological evaluation.  Wish me luck with getting that done before the new year.  The eval I had done in 2007 will not work, I was told it needs to be something done within the last year which sucks.
I will try to keep you posted.  Thats all for now!