ObesityHelp

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The Newly Post-op Song

Some people look at me,
see the same they use to see.
Stereotypes in their mind abound,
that I eat chocolate by the pound.

But what they don't know,
That within things have changed so.

And it is not just my stomach size,
I see the world though new eyes.

I used to look at things,
"Not for you!" a nasty voice in my head would sing.
Now I look at everything,
And I know soon I will be able to do anything.

My heart has ached
My body has cried
My soul been thirsty
My dreams confide

Under this heavy load,
but now I am going to travel a new road.

I have never been so ready for a journey!
To embrace all the future has for me.

Jennifer's Weight Loss Progress Chart

Starting 5' 9" 433 pounds on 12 - 9

July 2003

7/5 I have been thinking of doing this for sometime. My little girl is changing so much in her first year and aproaching her first birthday. The way the last chunk of weight I added to my body stopped me from doing so many things. Knowing the reason so many of my family and friends stopped inviting me out as they hated to see people make fun of me and it was easy to just visit me at home. My legs - becoming so painful in the knee. The list goes on and on.

I decided to do this and changed my insurance when the chance came up(it was HAP before). Went in to BTC on 7/1 and have started this ball rolling. I am working on setting up all the pre-tests. Sleep, stress and phyc. I hope all goes well. I WANT THIS!!

August 2003

8/7 I called BTC insurance today but my request did not go out until the 10th of July. I thought it would go out within the week. A little longer--guess not that bad though.

8/25 Guess what I got in the mail today? Happy Dance - I will be covered! I still have the sleep study to do and the mental part - but I am not stressed about that at all. All of the heart tests came back fine. Better than fine - the doc said during the stress test that based on my results he would have guessed I was a healthy, active person of average weight. - still happy dancing -

September 2003

9/9 Ugh, I am getting tired of messing around with this stuff. I know, I know how lucky I am approved after the first letter in all, but you have to understand that I was in a VERY BAD car accident in 2000 and have lots of other helth problems with that. I deal with them and the insurance companies every day. I am involved in a lawsuit with that too. Lawyers are a pain. I have all thease medical people that I talk to almost everyday. When I went in for my sleep study the doctor asked me if I was in medical school. I was puzzled and said no, why do you ask? You talk like you are a doctor but I noticed that your title was Mrs. not Doctor so I figured you were in school. How sad is that. I can not wait to get to the other side of this.

9/17 Hmmmmm . . . I think I might change to the Cori Centers. I like everything that I have read on the micro pouch as compaired to what BTC has to offer. Also BTC has not been as much help as I would have liked. They have not called me "about every 2 weeks" as they told me they would. They have in fact not called me once, and the only contact I have had with them has been when I have called. I was hoping for more with them. I may still go with BTC at this point I am just going to meet with a Cori Doctor to see what they have to say. I have been in general happy with them but I think it would not hurt to see what else is out there.

9/23 I talked to Cori and no dice. They want me to drop a 100 pounds before surgery and I know that there is no way for me to do that. Also they wanted me to drop the weight by using their products - felt like I was at Jenny Craig! ---- LOL I did my sleep study and have been fitted for my mask. I have to wear it for 6 weeks before the surgrey so I can't wait to get it and start wearing it so I can get to the other side. I am off the Birth Control as it causes blood clots and I want to be careful so I don't get preggers before the surgery - doc said I would be able to go back on it as soon as surgry is over so I can wait the 2 years to have our next one. I am wearing a heart event monitor for 30 days just to be on the safe side. I really like my Heart Doc. he told me the skipping I was feeling was most likley caused by sleep apnea. I got my Phyc. Eval. done and she thinks I would be an excellent candiate. Yes!!
Heart - waiting until Oct. 22 then done.
Sleep Apnea - need Cpap then 6 weeks on it then done
Phyc. Eval. - Done
Pap test - Done
Aproval Letter - Got it!
2004 will be a great new year for me!!

9/30 My Dad had a stroke a few days ago. I have not stress ate -- very good for me. I have been out of my head with worry for him. He has had 2 very small ones and 1 medium size one. It is almost 2 years to the day since his heart attack and stroke. I think he will not be able to go back to work now as his hands are no longer working together. We have been visiting him all the time and we hope he will be home soon. My poor Mom is not eating at all and making herself sick with worry.

October 2003

[ No entries ]

November 2003

11/14 Dad is back home and doing Ok. He has aged so much in the last few weeks. We had no power for 2 days and the wind storm knocked a tree down on our car. *cry* But if that is the worst thing that ever happens to us - so what. I am working on getting my results to BTC. I know most people on this site are BIG on Cori but I talked to my Regular Doctor about it and he looked into both options for me. He thinks getting a pouch that will not strech over time is not a good idea. He told me that with out some streching of the pouch that when you get older it will be hard to get the things you need. That it is hard with a "normal" stomach to get the foods you need into your system and with the very small no strech pouch I would not get what I need with out help. I really believe that once I get the weight off I will be able to keep it off on my own. Some people will think this is a pipe dream, but they do not know me. My hubby also feels like I do. I pray that we are doing the right thing for me, us and our little Bella.

11/22 I got my date, I got my date - - -Happy dance time. I got a date. Not too long now. January 5th is not so far away!

11/23 I got a new date - December 9th! That is so soon!! I go in for my pre-blood work on the 2nd. My goodness!

December 2003

12/4 Man oh man they want to make sure you are in GOOD health at BTC. Pre op testing today was 3 hours long! With all the pre-tests they had me do before I would have thought it was just going to be a blood draw - WRONG. Blood gases, chest x-ray, breathing exercises, EKG - wow I could not belive it. But come Tuesday at 7:30 I have to be there to have this done. I believe I am doing the right thing and I have faith that God would not have made this so easy for me if it was not his will.

12/7 Wow - time is going so fast! So much is going on for me too. We are buying a house and we have our home inspection Monday at 3, a tree had fell on our car in that wind storm from 3 weeks back and I will get my car back tomrrow (This makes me SO happy) and then Tuesday morning at 7:30 it is on! I am now getting really excited. I think the main reason I was freaked out was I almost died in a car crash about 3 years ago and I have been seeing a doc for Post Tramatic Stress from that so I think much of my WLS stress was that. I hope I am ready. I think I have all the foods I will need, and all my support is lined up for it. Family and friends ready to help out. You know with getting that car back I wonder what it will be like after 2 weeks when I can drive again. Will I be able to tell I have had weight loss? Right now I am a TIGHT fit behind the wheel. I can't wait till I can get into any car and not wonder "will I be able to snap this seat belt close?" I also read on the message boards about getting the medical alert so I have mine all ready.HERE is the link to my little ones photo page. I hate the way I look so no pic of me. Just one of the hubby and lots of Bella.

12-13 Hi, I just got back home from BTC. I am now a post-op -- YES! I got there at 7:30 and they took me right back to get me ready. Everything was moving so fast that I did not really have much time to think about it then, but Matt and I were both very emotional. I am really hard to draw blood from so I got stuck about 5 times and 3 more working on getting the IV in place. They gave me something in my IV and told me that I was not going to be asleep until I was in the OR. That when I woke up though I will not be able to remember anthing that happens from right about now. That was kind of a strange thought. My surgery took about 4 hours due to my size (433 pounds) so it took quite some time before I could really come out of it. All day Tuesday it felt like I was in a thick fog that I was fighting to break thru. I was in so much pain I was like "what did I do?". I said it out loud I guess because I recall someone saying "that is what they all say until the weight starts dropping off". I Hated to see the respitory theripist. They had some stuff they added to it that had me breathing this mist in. I would feel so sick after they did that. Like I wanted to puke - it was just so yucky. I kept voicing how it was making me feel and the nurse promised to tell the doctor in the morning when he came in. That night they got me up and walking. My Hubby Matt was there with my parents and my little girl Isabella. I could see in her eyes that she was worried about me so when I got up to walk I really pushed myself and kept a smile on my face. I was on the pain pump when I woke up and was using it as much as I could.
The second day when I woke up my doctor was already in and checking on me. He took me off the breathin mist and they were going to change me off the Morphine. I was changed over to Demerol and that helped me feel much better. The pukey feeling went away and my head stopped feeling 3 feet thick. They took my cathder out -- Yeah! I keep up my walking and was able to go to the bathroom on my own. I started noticing that my face was getting red. I thought it was because the air was dry and I have very pale senstive skin. When I would go walk even the nurses asked about my face. I think they were worried about me because they kept checking my BP. Then all of a sudden I felt really sick. My back started huring so bad and I felt really weak. I told my hubby and he said "Jen, your face is purple!" He ran out and got a nurse in about 2 min. I had about 10 people in my room. I was feeling kind of out of it. and they took me off the Demerol and sent me down to have my leak test done and the cranked up the IV liquid. They had me drink this real bitter sour liquid real quick and took some X-rays. When I got back up to my room and my surgen told me that I had an alegric reaction to the Demerol called "Red Man" but in my case it was Red woman. In about an hour and a half I looked normal agin and was feeling good. My leak test came back good. They do 2 I guess one in the OR and then another one. They did mine sooner as back pain across my entire back is a sign that your pouch is leaking.
So with the purple scare behind us the next day rolled around and I was told that they were going to give me a Milk and molassas ennma to get my bowels moving. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Needless to say I was really excited! 8-p I will spare you the details other than to say it was not pretty.They got my bowels working and that was that day. Ugh....
The next day was when I got to go home! Yes. I had to eat breakfast and lunch before they would let me go so by the time lunch came I was dressed and ready to go. They were so WONDERFUL everyone that I met from housekeeping to the woman who took my blood.
I want to add a special thank you to my hubby, Matt who stayed with me the entire time and helped me in everyway. He is so loving and kind to me. I could not have asked God for a better man to come into my life than him. --- Matthew I LOVE YOU ---

12/28 Well, when I went in for my 2 week check up I was down 28 pounds. Yeah baby!!! Much better than I have ever lost total on any diet. I am going to keep my track of my loss above. It is so hard to get that water in!! I feel like all I do is drink, drink, drink and drink, but I know I need to get more in. I think the protien from GNC is not bad but I need to start drinking 2 of them a day. *sigh* it is not bad but it ain't that good. lol

January 2004

1-2-04 FOOD - my kingdom for some food that dose not drip though a strainer!!!

I am still on what I like to call drippy food. First week it was cear liquid then for 2 weeks it was full liquid now I am on to pureed food. Yummy!! I am sticking to the diet but it is getting really hard.
I still don't really have any engery. After about 20 min of doing anything I am so pooped that I feel weak all over and just have to stop. Walking 30 min total for the day I can do but all at once I am just failing. I just feel like I would rather "cruise" on just feeling slow all day than walk for 30 min at once and feel really weak all day. I checked and it is normal to feel that way. My surgen told me to keep at it though.
I have also been to the ER twice. Once I had a pain in my leg and they wanted me to make sure it was not a blood clot - it was not and the other I had a pain in my side and when I took a deep breath it hurt - turned out to be the lineing of my lungs were inflamed.

1-3-04 Ok, this is the deal. I am too fat to weigh myself on a reuglar house scale so it is driving me crazy wondering if or what I have lost since I was in last. It is Saturday right now and in 3 more days I will be a month post op and 2 weeks since I have been able to weigh myself. Some on this board gave me a link to a digital scale that weighs up to 440 pounds. I can't wait to see what is going on. One place that has this scale is at this link: http://tanitascale.com/home_scales/hd351.html It is a Tanita HD351. Other places on the web have them so do check around.


10th Well, I got a scale that I can check my weight on and I am down 40 pounds in one month! Yeah - I am pretty excited. I have never, ever, ever, ever, ever lost even close to that on any diet. I don't really see it but I was sitting on the floor today and when I went to get up it was more easy than it has been in a long time. Very nice. If WLS makes life more full and I can do more that it has done what I wanted.

February 2004

Weight loss has been very slow for me so far. Just feel kind of mad - but do still feel good about the numbers going the right way for once on a scale. I must admit though when I read about someone doing better than me I read their profile looking for what they are doing right and I am doing wrong. I just might have to deal with the fact that any weight loss is a great thing and that because the average loss is 70% of your excess weight ---- so that means for every person that drops to the 100% mark and make their ideal weight there is someone wo only drops 40% of the excess weight. **Sigh** I should rethink that "mad not bummed" idea -- sounds to me like I am a bit bummed too. ;-)

March2004

The weight is still dropping off but I am once agin not cleared to work out pre my heart doc. Ugh - I never thought I would be so bummed I could not go to the gym --- LOL

April 2004

I am now down 82 pounds! I can not wait for summer to arrive!! I am going to go biking, swimming, camping, walking, snorkling, and lots of other things to that I have been passing on for a few years now. How fun is this surgery! I like this better than when I had my eyes ZAPED so I did not gave to wear glasses.

May 2004
Well, I really started tracking everything I eat. I don't think I was ever eating more than 1200 a day but I don't believe I was getting all the protien in - now I am. I try and stay under 1000 and get 80 grams of protein in. My heart is still giving me problems so I am back to "no exercise" --- he said that anything that gets my heart pounding is off limits. I have been able to work out so little with this heart thing going on. I wish they could figure out what is going on with me. I know I would be much further along if not for this.
Hey - but if that is the worst thing that happens to me?
My weight is still moving in the right direction = very good thing. I am fitting into clothing that I wore before my car accident. I was in a size 40 42 or 6x the day I went in for surgery but now I am in 30 32 and some size 28's. I know most people are glad to stop shopping at Lane Bryant -- I am thrilled to get too!

June 2004

6 Months Post Op

Well, I sit here healthy and thinner 6 months from my surgery date. I am down 106 from my surgery and 118 total and have never done so well with my weight loss ever before in my life. I have 94 pounds to get to my surgery goal and 127 to get my goal weight or 157 to get to my PCP goal weight for my life.
I am human and have really struggled at times with getting my water, protein and pills in but for the most part I have done really well in my commitment to this new life. Using Fitday had made all the difference for me and I would recommend it to everyone.
Exercise has been my biggest frustration and stumbling block. Frustration because of heart problems I am very restricted at times on what I am allowed to do. My doc was so concerned at one point that he wanted me to avoid all stress and anything that would raise my heart rate. It is also my stumbling block because at times when my heart is doing well and I have been told I can walk and exercise I have not done so good. Their are 2 reasons for that -- 1. Bad habits die hard 2. A real fear that I might drop over dead if I did too much. (I gave myself a panic attack at Curves one day)
There has been my supporters: my AMOS family, friends, family members and my WONDERFUL husband Matt. There has also been my detractors; we all have them, the ones that are waiting for us to fail or put the wrong thing into our mouths.
I am in a much better place than I was in December just before surgery. This has been one of the hardest, best and most rewarding things I have ever done for myself.
Thanks to all of you --- Jen

July 2004
My weight is on it's way down still and I am amazed at how diffent my body is on the way back down now from how it looked on the way up. Mind you I am older and have had a baby since I last weiged what I am now. Last time I was at this weight was in high school (yeah, I was really fat back then too).

I have rolls now where I did not have them then and fat in places that did not look too bad when I was this size before. I am not the size I was then either -- one size bigger?

I am not discouraged - just noticing the change. DH said that some of it is loose skin that if I did not have that I would be much smaller -- he always makes me feel better.

I am wondering now if this is common for most of us -- my guess would be that it is.

Thanks to everyone for the support and I love you guys
update here

August 2004

update here

September 2004

update here

October 2004

update here

November 2004

update here

December 2004

update here

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433 Pre-Op size 38/40 or 7X - if I could find it

300 133# down in a size 24 or 3X