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Protein Supplements over!!!!!  Hip Hip Hooray!!!!!!!!!!  I have now last a total of  72 pounds!  That is just amazing.  The comments are just pouring in and although I never thought that I would be uncomfortable with someone telling me that I look good it sometimes gets to me just a little.  I still have a week to go before my friends party.  My goal was to loose 20 lbs by then and I still have another 6 pounds to go.  Not sure that I am going to make the goal but either way I am now at least back to the same size that I was at graduation.  I can live with that for now.  No really had any food issues but then again I know better to stay away from things that I am not supposed to have.  So many temptations!!!  It always seems like someone is bringing in doughnuts to share and will even come right to my desk and stick the box in my face.  I just look at them like their are stupid and then they remember, tell me they are sorry and walk off.  Doughnuts were always my weakness.  I just make sure to stay busy and that seems to help.  It is time for me to go shopping for some new clothes.  I received a few hand-me-downs from a clothing exchange and that has helped but as of today I do not have a pair of jeans that I can wear.  So as luck would have it on the way into work this morning I hear  a commercial on the radio that Goodwill is having there 50% off store wide sale on Saturday.  Guess you know where I will be on Saturday!  Hope everyone is doing well and hopefully will update before another 3 weeks has gone by.

Things have been going slow and steady.  I am down 58 pounds as of today.  Which is only 21 pounds difference from my 4 weeks weight.  I am not complaining though.  My body is shifting around so much that the same pair of pants rarley fit the same twice.   I have gone from a 26/28 to a 18/20.  18 if it has the 1% spandex in it.  My co-workers call me skinny minny.  The funny thing about that is that I know that I have lost a large amount of weight in a short period of time but I am not blind to the fact that I weigh 245 lbs and even though I am almost 5'8, that still does not make me skinny.  I wonder what they will call me when I really am skinny?  I have still shyed away from buying too many new clothes because like I said, things do not fit for very long.  And I still can not get myself to buy sizes that are too much smaller than the ones I am in now because I feel like I will jinx it.  As far as food goes, I am doing pretty good.  My doc let me skip a couple of steps in my. "food recovery" process but I still have issues with lots of food.  I can not nor do I think that I will every be able to eat a scrambled egg!  My pouch seems to be very texture sensitive.  It seems it would like all my food to be runny.  UGH!  But little by little I have been able to get more meats in my diet.  I still have another 3 weeks left of protein supplements and those 3 weeks just can not go fast enough.  I have tried just about every protein supp there is and still can not tolerate the taste of any of them.  Bottom line is I have had 5 kids and all the supplements smell like baby formula no matter how many other flavors are in there and basically that is what a protien supp is.  GAG!!!!!!! 

Well I must go for now.  My best friend has decided to have a small reunion party for a bunch of us from high school.  People that I have not seen since about a year before my surgery.  I have a mini goal to be down another 20 lbs by then and it is 30 days away.  I will keep my fingers crossed.

Just wanted to update that the stall is finally over!!!!!!!!!!  Lost 3 pounds on Saturday and another 3 on Sunday.  yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I guess you can say things are really speeding up a whole lot.  I have lost 37lbs in weeks and that sounds like a lot and it is a lot but considering I lost almost 30 of that in the first 2 weeks that means that I have lost only 7 in the last 2 weeks.  My supports all say, "That is an average of 3.5 lbs a week.  Most people only loose between 1-2 pounds per weeks."  I agree but part of the reason that I had this surgery is because I am not nor have ever been like most people.  I knew that the weight loss would slow, it had too.  I just hope that it speeds up a little.  I would like to loose more that 14 pounds a month.  Ok, so enough of the negative.   My husband has been acting all goofy with me, almost like a teenager in love.  I finally asked him what is going on.  He said that my weight has never bothered him, that he has always loved me for me but that seeing me change is exciting.  He said it felt like he had a new girlfriend.  I just laughed. 

So far not so bad.  I am 3 weeks out today and I have dropped an amazing 34 lbs.  My weight loss was so rapid at first that it was a little scary.  I have lost an average of about 11.3 pounds per week although in the past week and a half it as slowed to really only about 4-6 pounds a week.  I am still ok with this.  My incisions are almost all healed completely and only one of them still bothers me a little.  Most of the time it only bothers me when my 3yr old daughter climbs up on my lap.  She knows that mommy's tummy hurts and is always super careful when getting on my lap.  But then she seems to forget and when she goes to get down she leans back and presses either her elbows or her hands onto my stomach and then launches herself off.  OUCH!  But even that is getting better.  I have to say that I was so proud of my 12 year old daughter, Ellie.  She was my rock for the first few days home from the hospital.  She even decided to sleep in my room one night and when I woke up to go to the restroom I got scared when all of a sudden there was someone holding my arm.  She said she heard me move and woke up and saw that I was trying to get up so she thought I could use some help. She even held my, as she called it, "puke bowl" as I vomitted the first couple of days.  I don't know to many 12 year olds that could do that.   She will make a great mother one of these days........(way in the future!!!!!).  I would have to say that the only issue that I am having is getting in all of my protein.  I have really stuggled with the potein supplements.  I have tried several kinds and have wasted too much money.  I have been told it will get better and I am just waiting on that day.  Out of all of the more expensive protein drinks that I have tried I have finally found one that I can tolerate for now and beleive it or not it is sold at the Grocery store and is under $20 for 2.5 lbs of it.    I hope to update again soon.  I am really hoping that by 4 weeks out I will have lost 40 lbs.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

So according to my doc she says I should be the poster child for the surgery.  My surgery started at exactly 8am on the 25th and lasted approx 40 minutes.  I was in my room around noon.  24 hours later I went home.  I walked 2 1/2 miles while in the hospital and felt really great.  Felt good until the car ride home.  Started getting sick to my stomach and started vomiting once I got home and have finally been throw up free for almost 48 hours.  Most of it was just dry heaves and sometimes I felt better after heaving.  I still have not had a real good BM and I am sure that I will feel much better when I do, not that I feel real bad now.  My one disappointment has been the change in my tastes or I should say lack of change.  I have been told over and over again that things will taste too sweet or smell too sweet and that the sweet smell or the smell of fast food would make me sick to my stomach.  All I know is that as a drove to my doc appointment and passed about 1/2 dozen fast food joints all I could think was how good it all smelled.  Oh well, maybe  it will change later.  On a more positive note, I weighed 303 lbs the day I left the hospital and I weighed in at 283lbs at the docs office today.  20lbs down in 5 days isn't too bad.  LOL

I never realized how emotional this ordeal would be.  I started crying last night and didn't stop until I fell asleep.  My 12 year old daughter kept asking what was wrong and I really couldn't give her an answer.  I just simply felt like crying.  My wonderful husband then told her that it was because yesterday was the last time that I would ever be able to eat anything without checking to make sure that it was OK for me to have or worry about it making me sick.  He was right.  It sounds way to simple but in reality how many of us go to a restaurant and ask to see the ingredient list or the nutritional value of the meal?  I know I never have.  How many of us check out the size of a pill before we take it?  This is a decision that I have made for me to be able to live a healthier life, but there is a bit of regret that says why couldn't I have lost the weight myself?  Why do I have to have a major surgery in order to be thinner?  Deep down I know that my doc had told me that it didn't matter what I tried at this point, that due to my metabolic disorder I would never be able to loose a mass amount of weight on my own.  Please don't get me wrong, I have eaten my fair share of McDonald's and donuts but for the most part I do not eat a lot of Junk Food.    But when my husband made that comment it really dawned on me how right he was.  In the past I have just not given that much thought into my food.  If we went on vacation I did not worry if I could find foods that I could eat.  I only worried if they would have foods that I like.  So moving on...............I am looking forward to my pudding filled lunch as pudding is a food in the past I have gone years without eating so it will be a treat.  I am not looking forward to my Jello dinner.  I have rented a movie to watch with my son.  I figure I will go home, take a sleeping pill, take my anti-bacterial shower and eat my Jello while I watch the movie.  I should be asleep as soon as it is over.  I hope I sleep!  I will really need it.  Kind of funny how the last time I was in the hospital I didn't get any rest because I had just given birth.  Now going into the hospital I was informed that I will be woke up every 2 hours to walk.  I at leat got 3 hours sleep when I had my baby!
 I will need to be up around 4 am to take another anti-bacterial shower and then off to the hospital to be there by 6 am.  Next time I get on here I will be out of surgery and on my way down the WLS road! 

So I am starting to really freak out.  My surgery is scheduled for June 25th 2009 at 8am.  I did pre-op testing last Friday and I will be attending my nutrition class in 2 days.  At this point I am being impatient and anxious at the same time.   On one hand I wish that my surgery was NOW!  On the other hand I keep thinking I only have 8 days, that is too soon.  I guess I feel blessed because my doc does not require the pre-op diet that I have seen a lot of other people go through.  Not that I dont think that I will have very strict guidlines to follow afterward, I just would like to have some last good byes with some good friends.  Like a nice roll with real butter, a piece of fruit pie (not the whole thing) and a good NY strip steak. 

I went with my husband this past weekend to visit my in laws and pick up my step-daughter.  I had told my mother-in-law when I had decided to have the surgery and she informed me that she was having it as well.  So this weekend we were comparing food stories and I was able to share with her her "last supper" as her surgery is scheduled for June 17th.  Yes, tomorrow.  I now feel like I am in some sort of competition.  That may not really be a bad thing.  Please understand that my mother-in-law is not old enough to be my mother so it should be a good competition.  I do wish her luck.  TTFN

Ok, so I am a little closer in the process.  I received a call yesterday from my surgeons office letting me know that they are scheduling my surgery for June 25, 2009.  My first thought was, "That is so far away!".  Then I realized that is only 4 weeks and 2 days away.  During that time I still have to go through my pre-op tests and my 6 hour nutrition class.  So now it does not feel so far away.  Not that I will back out of this surgery as I am more than ready.  My concern is my feeling about it.  I rarely do anything for my self.  I always make sure that my kids are taken care of first and then my husband and if there is anything left than I do for me.  So lets say I need new clothes, I will start out with 4 new outfits in my hand and by the time I reach the check-out I will have put all but maybe 1 back and sometimes I will put them all back.  I am trying to work really hard at changing this way of thinking.  What I have to keep telling myself is that if I am not happy with me then I will be no good for my kids or my husband.  So the sooner I get to my surgery date the better I will feel.

I am a little frustrated at the moment.  I was called personally by my insurance company a week ago yesterday to tell me that they had approved me for WLS.  I immediately called my surgeons office and left a message for the insurance coordinator to let her know that I had been approved and that as soon as I received the letter I would fax it to them.  Well being the impatient person that I am, decided to call my insurance on Monday to ask them if they could email or fax the letter to me.  The lady I spoke to at the insurance company informed me that it looked like the insurance coordinator from my surgeons office had called them on Friday and asked them if they could fax the letter to her and that they had already faxed the letter to surgeons office on May 15th.  So I waited.  I figured that even though the voice mail message I received when I called the surgeons office said that it could take up to 2 weeks after receiving my approval to schedule my surgery could not really take that long.  I though that it was just a deterent from having people call them and bother them all of the time.  But when I had still not heard anything a week later I thought I should at least call and make sure that they did indeed receive thet approval letter.  I left a message that said that they would contact me back within 24 hours.  Well, no call.   Now we are in the Holiday weekend and I am sure not to hear from anyone until at least Tuesday.  SOOOO, I guess they really did mean 2 weeks.  I just think that it is pretty crappy that they make you wait again.  You sit on enough pins and needles waiting to find out if the insurance is going to pay and then when you find out you have been approved it is like this huge weight has been lifted and you can finally breathe again.  It feels like the end true start of your journey is about to begin and then you are back to waiting again.  Well hopefully by this time next week I will have a date set for surgery.