AnnaDavis

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Wow, what a year it has been.  It has been a wonderful year for me.   My life has changed in so many ways for the better.   Thank you god, thank you Dr. Bruce and thanx to all of my family here at OH and my personal family and friends.   I have been able to accomplish my primary goal of living a healthier happier life and this means everything to me.   Road blocks along the way....... YEP,  I definately had a big one in February and had my wing and tail feathers clipped, but they have healed now and I am back to the business at hand of continuing on the road to a healthier and happier life for myself.   I was able to achieve my weight loss goal of 150 about a week ago but have been very busy with family for the past couple of months so have had very little time to post.   That with the fact that I am sharing computer time temporarily with more than one people.    I am doing things now that in my wildest dreams I would never have thought i would have been doing a year ago but was going to give it my best shot and I think I have done a pretty good job of it.   I work out at curves three to four, sometimes 5 times a week for 2 hours and try to get 2 or three one hour walks in a week.   This year I am actually able to do outside work which I have not been able to do for well over ten years which is like a miracle to me, I enjoy it so much.   Actually spend a good part of my day outside.    I am contributing to maintaining my yard by mowing and planting flowers and will soon be planting vegetables.  Yayyyyyy!     I am absolutely thrilled that I am now able to do more with my family, especially my 11 grandchildren.   Even with the bumps in the road that I have had to endure and it was a huge bump in Feb. 2010 I would do it over and have my wls again tomorrow if necessary.   Thanks again to all for the support you have given me and I plan to try and be more available on the boards in the near future as my life slows down just a bit.

Just wanted to document both my success in finally hitting the 100lb loss mark which was actually hit about a week and a half ago but wanted to wait to make sure the scales were not playing games with me.  I also have had some difficulties and hit a bump in the road and have had my tail and wing feathers clipped due to emergency surgery last week tuesday.   Apparently I am just a lucky person that if anything is going to happen to that is a unusual thing it would happen to me.   My lapband tubing from my port to the band had wrapped itself around my colon which caused a onset of excrusiating pain on Tuesday about noon.   I had been feeling great and very proud of my accomplishments till this point.   Which don't get me wrong I still am and I still feel that I was given a gift and a very special blessing when I was given my lap band.   I am one of very few lapbanders nationally that this has happened to but hey I am on the road to recovery now and will be back to the business at hand in hopefully about 8 weeks.   I having problems now not being able to do much other than walk, walk, walk and drink, drink , and drink.   It is really hard as I have been really enjoying my new found independence and lifestyle change.  

Well I figured it was time for me to journalize some more of my journey.     Things have been going very good for me up till this point.   My wls has been such a blessing for me in so many ways.   I have been able to take over my household duties and have actually been working on home maintence and painting the interior of my home which makes me feel very good.   I did add a hour of walking time to my exercise schedule this past fall which has been wonderful.   It kind of upsets me now with the bad cold wintery weather that I am unable to walk but you better believe as soon as it warms up a bit I will be back out there pounding the pavement daily.   It actually seems the more exercise I get the more I thrive and crave.   I did run into a few problems with my potassium levels dropping dangerously low which was noticed back in October when I went for my routine blood labs so they have raised my doseage considerably, actually from 8meqs daily to 60meqs daily at this point.   I will be going for more labs again this month at some point to make sure the potassium is still stabilized and to  check my cholesterol since I was taken off from my meds for that after the blood labs in october and it was found that my cholesterol levels were excellent.    Hopefully, it will all turn out fine so I don't have to have anymore adjustments for a while.   The last time I see Dr. Bruce in October he did not schedule a recheck appt.   as everything seems to be going fine with the weight loss and he see no need for a fill yet as long as I can continue to lose at least a pound or two a week.   Which at this point I am really working for those pounds to come off but I have been this is kind of the norm at this point of my weight loss journey.   I am hoping to be a bit closer to my goal of 150lbs by my surgery anniversary this year.   I have started to beef up my protein even more and like I said gonna push the workout schedule as far as I can.   Of course, drink plenty of water too as I know that is key with weight loss.   Oh I have added biotin vitamins to my daily meds as it seemed that my hair was coming out a bit and that is normal I have been told.  I figured it couldn't hurt anything anyway since my hair was always thin.   It does seem to be a bit healthier now and I think I have stopped losing it too.   Have been thinking of things that I may consider doing as far as the hair.   I would like a new look for the new me, just don't know exactly what we are going to do yet.   Well guess that is about it for now, will be back in another 4 months which will put me at about my new birthday date.  

Well it has been four months now since i had my surgery and everything is going wonderfully for me so far.    to date I have lost 64 lbs since I started this journey which makes me really happy.   I have had a lot of support from my husband and our family which is very much appreciated.   I have been able to increase my exercise regimine to 3-4 90minute workouts a week at curves which has taken a lot of self discipline and determination on my part.   It would have been very easy to stick with my thirty minute workouts 2-3 times a week but I knew that I really needed to step it up a bit.    I have several very supportive workout buddies when I go to the early morning session.   They are very inspiring to me.    As for the diet itself.  That has been going very well also.   I haven't really found any problem foods to date and have been telling everyone I truly believe I was deprogramed and reprogramed also when I went for surgery as I really have not had cravings or head hunger for any of the pre op foods I used to eat that were not healthy for me.    To date I have not had to have a band adjustment which i am told is very good.   I will be going to the see my surgeon again on Sept 22,  so we will see what the good word (I hope)  is going to be at that point.   I am so close to the 200 mark now that I can almost taste it.  lol.   I know the nex 75 lbs will be a lot harder but plan to continue the exercising and have recently added in some walking to my routine.   Well I guess that's all for now.

I became disabled back in 1990 due to depression caused by working too much.   I was working into retail management and managed a gift shop for a major truck stop chain.    When becoming disabled I was put on to several medications for the depression which came with side effects.   You guessed it weight gain.   I was able to fight it off for years by exercising.   I walked everyday 7 miles and did other kinds of exercise to keep my weight under control, however in 1999 I started having some major back problems and had to have my first back surgery in February of 2000 and had a titanium cage put into my lumbar spine.   This whole process slowed me down almost completely, and yep I started gaining weight as I was unable to walk to burn the calories.   I did however try to walk daily but never was able to work myself up to walking as much as I did previously.   Then I met my husband in Sept. 2000 and moved to Ohio from New York in May of 2001 to be with him.   We married and the following June I was back into surgery again for another lumbar spine surgery.   Yep the pounds kept on coming on and once again I tried to lose them but to no avail.   The inactivity combined with medications for pain, depression etc were a constant and I worked my way up to my pre surgery weight of 267 This past march of 2009.     I also have other medical conditions, such as Hbp and high cholesterol, osteoarthritis, and spinal stenosis that were just magnified by the extra weight.   When I went to see my primary care doctor In March 2009 very depressed about the weight and the pain I was in, she suggested the possibility of lap band surgery and wanted to know if I would be interested.   Of course, I said anything that could help me lose the weight to make my life a more healthy and happy one.  So we started the process of being approved thru my insurance co. etc.   This all went by quite quickly and I was scheduled for surgery on May 4, 2009.    I am so thankful that I had the strength and the grace of god to go ahead with my surgery.    I have had nothing but sucess and am no less than happy with my surgery.   Like I said at my highest I weighed 267 and now almost four months out I have lost 58 lbs and am leading a much better quality of life.   I am on a mission to lose another 84lbs by August of next year.   With the weight loss I have become much more active and have been able to stop taking some of my many medications.   I will always have  orthopedic problems but am much better able to cope with them with my new lifestyle.   I would recommed the lap band.   I originally had thought about the rny, however, my family did not support the idea of my having another very invasive surgery as I had had several surgeries in the past and they didn't think I was up for it so we started researching the lap band procedure.   Hope to get back to you all again soon with a positive update.