Urioste06

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It's been an amazing journey! I love this feeling. I fit into size 8-10 wear medium size shirts and can shop whereever I want to now. NO REGRETS at all! I eat my tiny servings and feel completely full. I rarely crave foods especially unhealthy ones...like fast food just tears my stomach up! Now I want to start looking into reconstructive surgery because of the excess skin which really isn't too bad it just bothers me. Here are a couple of before and after pics.

So things have been going great!! I recently went and got my labs done and bloodwork came back excellent! No more high cholestoral, high triglicerides (sorry about the spelling), and other bad numbers, instead everything was where it should be. It is such a good feeling, and hearing friends tell me how nice I look is a plus! Only negatives have been trying to have clothes fit....I dont have alot of extra money to buy more clothes and my old clothes are looking pretty saggy. Hopefully with christmas rolling around there will be some gifts of attire! :)
Here's some updated pics of me on Halloween- I'm about 195lb (As of today I am 190lb)

     This was a recent picture that we had taken for picture day at school. I definitely am noticing that my face is starting to get smaller. So far I have lost a little over 50 pounds! It has been really nice. I went and saw a friend I hadn't seen in a while the other day and she had to look at me twice. Pretty cool. 

    Besides that, as far as eating is concerned I've been eating pretty much what I want but my body definitely puts a halt to things it doesn't like: fried foods, fast food (ugh- and I've gotten to where I really don't like it anymore- kinda crazy cause I was a fast food junkie big time!), and carbonated beverages (I used to be a dr. pepper freak), large sandwhiches like burgers, po-boys, etc.- too hard to eat and go down, anything with lots of carbs or lots of rice. 

     Some things that I have really started to love: fresh fruit, salads, loooooove sushi (I take the insides out and don't eat the rice), ice tea and really cold water, fresh things!

Hey everyone, so after all the bumps at the start I am finally sailing and feeling back to normal. I am going on my 5th week and I'm feeling really good. Most food seems to go down pretty good and I take my sweet time eating. It feels so nice fitting back into all my clothes that I had grown out of and seeing them actually hanging loose. I wasn't sure how I felt about the surgery initially afterwards and thought I had made a bad decision but I feel like myself again and it's a great feeling. I don't regret it at all and I really feel like my life is turning around and is going to be so much better! So far I have lost about 25lbs or so. I don't fret over the weight too much, I figure it will come off eventually!

Well I posted about how I made it through surgery, how I felt, etc. When I got home I was so happy to be home and see my pups. I noticed though that it had been really hard to drink water or swallow things without a pretty bad stomach ache afterwards. I thought it had to deal with me being so close out of surgery. I laid in bed with water bottles by my side dreading every sip and just hoping it would get better. I had a bottle of Loratab for the pain and would take the dosage every four hours, with relief slipping away after only an hour and me praying for the time to go by so that I could take my next share to make the pain go away. Two days after being home I felt so sick (this was the day before July 4th) I asked my BF to call the hospital to see what to do. They called my doctor who asked me a couple of question and I told him about how I was in pain just in general and it was directly where my new pouch was. This concerned him so he told me to drive back to the hospital (which was an hour and a half). We left almost immediately and when I got there, I was so weak they put me in a wheelchair and brought me straight to a bed to get me hooked up to an IV. They said I was so dehydrated from barely drinking (even though I really did try it just hurt) that they could hardly find a vein. Doctor French arrived a little while later and was concerned, he feared there may have been a leak and told me he was calling in the team to go back in. So they rolled me back to the surgery room, put me under and when I came to I was already feeling better. Dr. French came and told me that he had re-sutured everything even though there had been no evidence of a leak, but what looked like had happened was that my old stomach was resisting and was retaining fluids, so I now had a drainage tube coming from my stomach. I stayed at the hospital for almost 4 days for them to watch me and make sure everything was okay. I felt much better and drain my tube twice a day to remove the fluids from the stomach. At the time I was so miserable and questioned what I had gotten myself into but typing this today I feel much better and am beginning to regain the energy I had lost. The plus side of everything was that I had lost 20lbs which was nice, without even realizing it. My breath smells like the turds my dogs release but hopefully that will go away in time (since they say that is caused by rapid fat burning). So that's my most up to the date story, I am struggling with the protein (yuk) and finding things that I like and can tolerate without feeling like starvation is the better solution (I know it's not, duh, but that's the little devil on my shoulder talking.) I look forward to seeing what the future holds and will do my best to keep things updated, as I know it helped me when others would share their journey....

Well I had my surgery yesterday. When I woke up I was in alot of pain and then I fell back asleep. Then I woke up again yesterday on and off and yesterday was probably the most painful. I didn't sleep very well last  night and would wake up every 2 hours or so. The staff has been very nice and the rooms are very accomadating. I walked once yesterday but I was so nauseas I almost threw up. I didn't thankfully but I was not feeling good. Going into today I was stll having alot of pressure and feeling stomach pains this morning. They have since given me a Loratab in liquid form and that helped ALOT! I'm feeling pretty good right now and have been walking more without feeling sick. It has helped with the gas pains. The nurses have been in and out checking my vitals and everything has looked good. The only thing they noticed this morning was I had a higher white cell count but that was  pretty normal and I would probably be getting discharged tomorrow.

Well I don't have quite the most upbeat report....I have given into temptation. I am supposed to be on the 2 week pre-op diet and I can't seem to stick to it. For some reason it is really hard for me. Everyday I wake up and say I will stick to it today and then somehow give in...now what do you ask do I give in to? Well usually after the second protein shake I drink I want something to eat. So I will stick in a 100 calories pack of popcorn. Then I get a call from my friend asking if I want lunch and I say ok thinking I will get something lean. But do I get something lean- no! I get a side salad and a hamburger. I can't explain  why I do it- I just sabotage myself and it's so dissapointing! I write it like duh! I should know better, but in the moment I just ignore myself and so what my gut wants is what my gut gets.....if this is my future with wls I am doomed. I see people on here that lose 20+ pounds pre-op and I will be lucky if I loose 1!! You never realize how many food commercials there are when you are trying to lose weight. If any of you have gone through this will you please share- it just seems like everyone does such a great job sticking to their pre-op and I'm the only one who can't look the other way......AHHHHH!!!

Hey everyone- first off I had several very sweet ladies wish me luck on my journey and I wanted to sincerely thank you because there is nothing more encouraging to me than that. So again thank you!! I recently got back from a week and a half vacation in New York City, I'm from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and don't get impressed by too much but the Big Apple definitely swept me off of my feet. And boy did they have some FOOD!!!! Lots and lots and lots of FOOOOOODD!!! Ahh!! Luckily for me my mom is doing weight watchers and I know I have my surgery coming up so the 2 of us made a EXTREMELY conscious effort to ward off the evil spirits of fattening food....Hissss. I survived and while not all of my choices were the best at least they were not in a high quantity and I avoided gaining weight.

Now to the important matter at hand- I had the Pre-op seminar. I relearned many things and learned some new things...it was very informative and covered lots of information with as much detail as they possibly could. After the seminar I drove 20 minutes down the road to Southern Surgical Hospital where I will have my surgery. Everyone was very nice! I also noticed that the chairs were all larger which was very considerate and aware of the hospital. They went over my paperwork, asked me about my medical history, and had me meet with the anesthesiologist (who was not too bad on the eyes I might add!)

So I have a huge folder of all the information for the surgery. Looks like it will fall on a Tuesday morning and they said I would probably be leaving the hospital (as long as there are not any complications) on Thursday morning. My sweet future DH will be staying with me because my mom can't come down (she lives in Georgia and is starting her Doctorate program, I assured her it would be ok) and luckily they told me there is an extra bed in the room- which is really awesome!! Plus since it is more than a couple of days Bryan (the future DH) asked if he could work from the hospital and his boss told him that would be fine. Now he won't have to tap into his vacation time. He is a computer programmer (for BCBS) and can work off the laptop. This of course made me VERY happy!!  

I bought alot of things at the grocery store today and also started the 2 week pre-op diet......I had my "last supper" last night at P.F. Changs finishing off some delicious Kung Pao Chicken. Yumm..........but I'm moving on from that and I am ready for what the future holds. Until next time.......

So I went in on Wednesday June 26th for my pre-op visit with Doctor French. I got there and they saw me almost immediately. The nurse was really nice and we went and had the weigh in.....259!!! OUCH! This is definitely the highest I have ever been and on top of that I have GAINED 8 pounds since March 10th. I sure can load it on fast! Blood pressure checked out fine. Once the doc came in he told me that he noticed I was indecisive about the lapband and the RNY and wanted to know where I stood and what I wanted. I told him that I had originally wanted to go with the lapband because of it being less invasive and the weight loss being slower...but then when I got onto this wonderful forum I started reading and seeing lots of complications and revisions not to mention the SLOW weightloss! I give up very easily and conform to old habits and I need something that would be a stronger tool for me. He agreed and after some discusion we decided upon the RNY which he told me he felt was a good decision. Then he pulled out the consent forms which I signed.  I told him that I was having some trouble with what felt like food not digesting properly after 5-6 hours after a meal so he set me up with a GI (gasteronolgiclaphiolsou....I have no idea!) to look into that.
After he left the nurse came back, told me she thought I had made a really smart decision and sent me on my way. I paid the insurance co-payment for surgery and left.
Today June 28th, I got "the" call- we set up the surgery date. Looks like I'm all set for June 30th at 10am!! Ahh. I have a pre-op seminar on June 15th I guess where they will go over the nutrition and whatever else I will need to know.
Crazy how all this is lining up! I'm very excited and ready to be a normal 26 year old and LIVE MY LIFE!!!

April 26, 2008- went to WLS seminar (wanted the lap band) *insurance at current time would not cover*
February 18, 2009- new job, new insurance- called Surgical Specialists of Louisiana day I got insurance card to set up appointment
March 10, 2009- First meeting with Registered Nurse who discussed options and what we needed to do. Had a checklist of medical things I had to complete. (Bloodwork, Sleep Study, and Barium swallow)
May 27, 2009- Pre-op appointment with Dr. French, signed consent forms
June 15, 2009- Pre-op seminar
June 30, 2009- RNY surgery!!