ariadne1969

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So this winter I gained another 10 lbs for a total of 20 lbs regain.  As it turns out, before my DS I turned to sugar for comfort and post surgery I still can turn to sugar for comfort during tough times.  So here I am almost 4 years out and once I cut my sugar back out and excercise I can still drop 5 lbs in a week.  I love my DS!!!

I have been watching others lately struggling with regain.  I have have gained about 10 pounds back from my lowest weight, but I am attributing this to my excercise levels - NOT necessarily bounce back or regain.  The reason why is because before I started running last year I was "stuck" at 172 lbs for weeks.  I began running and then got down to 162 lbs.  I have tappered off my running again and now I am back up to 172 and am ok with that as long as I stay within that 10 lbs range.  I also found that alcohol (especially wine) can pack these pounds on faster than I can blink.  So I keep that in check and know that if I am running or excerising on a regular basis I can have that glass of wine without thinking twice about it.  However when I am not as active, a drink shows up on the scale almost instantly.

My 2 year surgiversary is almost here and I am now 3 #s away from being "normal".  I started the C25K program back in July and NEVER thought that I would have run 8, yes EIGHT 5K races before my 2 year mark -- let alone run PERIOD!  Looking back at all this it is truly an amazing journey.  I won't kid anyone -- it was tough for the first 6 months or so but once I turned the corner, I never looked back and feel like I have control of my life again. 

I've lost 122 #'s, would like to loose another 10-15 but if I don't I am ok with that. I am now able to wear regular sized clothes, high heeled shoes, bathing suits, and spandex (i.e. running tights) in public!  Even have photos to prove it.  I don't know if I will have plastic surgery as I do have loose skin in my arms, legs, buttocks, and stomach area and I don't know if I could take more than 1 surgery as it just sounds so painful.  I use compression gear when I run and that seems to give me adequate support for now and I even wore a bikini this summer and while I resemble a charpai, I wore that bikini with pride as I never would have done that 122#s ago!

As for my routines.  I use a pill organizer for all my supplements and do pretty well with that.  When I do miss (and it does happen occasionally) it is usually the evening doses and it's really because I am just too busy to remember to get the pill box outta my purse.  My labs are good though so it's something I just have to keep working on.  I typically get 60% of my protien intake in by noon.  I start off my day with 2 servings of greek yogurt or total cereal with soy milk and bananas.  Have a protein drink mid morning, and 25-28 oz of meat with a salad or something by lunch.  Given that I get another protien snack and 3-4 oz more meat by dinner -- I am good to go.

I am looking forward to the winter as I have started snow skiing again.  Once of the most depressing thoughts I had when I was heavy was that I would never be able to go snow skiing again due to the stress on my joints.  It's is wonderful to live without those constraints and I feel very lucky and blessed to have been granted this 2nd chance at an active lifestyle.

Today finally came, today the scale says I have lost 100 pounds -- WOW!  One year ago today I was skeptical whether I would ever get into a size 20 again, but last night I was trying on size 14 cords and thinking about size 12's.  I can't believe 100 pounds are gone!  I have returned to the size I was 10 years ago -- what a miracle.  Today is a WOW day.

So here is week 4 and I have lost 28 lbs!  That is like a pound a day -- WOW!  I went back to work yesterday and while it was tiring getting back in the swing of things it was good to see all the great folks I work with.  I am not sure I was really ready to go back full time so this week may be a little shy of the full 40 hours.

It is truely amazing to me how each day gets a little better and now I am noticing the progress from week to week.  Last week I started my full vitamin program and tried to get at least 80 g of protien each day.  I was sucessful for the most part but had trouble getting all the liquids in (I did but it wasn't easy) with that much protien.  This week my strategy was a little different as I am trying to get 2 protien shakes in per day and a protien bar.  That gives me 77 g protien as a baseline before I have my soups with the unflavored protien or other foods such as my beloved fish.

Last week I also purchased a pedometer.  Nothing fancy just one that tracks steps, distance, and calories burned.  I am up to about 6K steps per day which radically declined yesterday when I went back to work.  Yesterday I only had 3K steps by the time I came home which compared to last week is about 1500 less that when I am home.  Interesting.

Well it has been a little over 3 weeks since my surgery and I am finally feeling more like myself.  I feel about 85% recovered from surgery excluding issues with my new stomach. I spent about 4 days in the hospital and it is not pleasant to think about.  This is because at first I was sore, I couldn't get comfortable in the bed, and because of my diabetes I was on a "watch" for 24 hours as my sugars were too high.  They put me on insulin and got my BG down into the 110 range and then the testing relaxed to every 4 hours.  My poor fingers!  There was just so much room for them to prick after that "assault" -- but I survived.  I went home and things were good through Thanksgiving for the most part.  I was tired and sore and pretty much slept all the time.  Week two came and brought nausea and dehydration.  Ended up back at the hospital to get an IV and 3 bags of fluids which made me feel much better but I still was very sensitive to foods until this week.  I am sticking to soups, purees, and simple "kind" foods and haven't thrown up in 3 whole days so perhaps I am now in the clear.  I go back to Dr. Teel the 1st week in January so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

So Monday went as planned, some lab work, met with the dietitian, Dr. Teel, etc.  Yesterday I began the 14 day pre-op diet which consists of 3 carnation complete instant breakfasts (SF of course), 2 "lite" meals such as lean cuisine, and 2 cups of lite veggies.  I was sort of suprized as to how full I would be with those instant breakfast shakes and how good they are.  So that is going to be managable. I was kinda of nervous as I am also on youtube and I hear about all these other folks having a liquid or clear liquid diet before their surgeries and how frustrated they are missing food.  I am lucky in that I get these foods for 14 days.  Yay.

I am having a few pre-op jitters and not necessarily because of the surgery or recovery but because of work.  My boss is supportive and I know things will get taken care of, but I worry about trying to catch up with emails and such when I get back.  I know that sounds ridiculous and is pretty silly, but I have a stressful job and get anxiety over the things I can't keep up on.  So my resulting thoughts are that this surgery will help me focus on me and put things back in perspective.  That may actually be the hardest part of this whole recovery thing. 

Anywhoots, things are going well here and I have my EGD a week from Thursday and then after that the PICC line and surgery -- wow I can't believe it is all coming together so quickly! 

So here it is the 1st of November and I have 17 days to go before surgery.  I am going to Miami Valley Hospital on Monday to get my pre-admission testing done, talk to the dietitian, and Dr. Teel.  I feel like this whole summer has been in the "waiting" place as I have been focused on living the next chapter of my life after being switched. 

Last week I had lunch with a girlfriend who knew I was thinking about getting the surgery but we hadn't talked almost all summer so she didn't know that I had scheduled my surgery.  When we had lunch she told me that she had met with Dr. McGuire the day before and is in the process of getting her insurance approval for a DS as well.  Now I have to say that this was actually exciting for me as she and I will be able to go through something together and strengthen our friendship in a way that most people do not have the opportunity to do.  Very kewl.

Well it looks as if it is going to be a beautiful indian summer kinda day today so the hubby-to-be and I are going to take our jetskiis out for one last run before the snow.  I can't help but think what it will be like the next time I go out on these things as I intend to be 1/2 the girl I am right now.