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Wow, this feels great.  I am no longer at an all-time high weight.  YIPPEE!!  I am so glad. 

My surgery is 18 days away.  I am so excited I cannot stand it.  I feel like a kid at Christmas.  I have been exercising 5x per week and working all the post-op principles for the past 5 weeks.  I am also moving this week which I am really excited about.  I even opted to pack my own stuff so I could burn a few extra calories :)

I went to the doctor today and I smiled when he told me my stats...Blood pressure 118/78 and my pulse was 60.  :)  I officially have something to be proud of today!

Yeah!!!  I am down to 258.4.  I have lost 16.2 lbs so far, and this is merely pre, pre surgery prep.  I am "training" for my upcoming surgery.  I have been working out 5 days a week and following a 1,200 calorie diet.  Plus, I've been practicing all the success habits of eating protein first, making meals last 20 minutes, and not drinking with meals.  I am doing this because I want my transition out of surgery to be a smooth one.  The doctor didn't say anything about a 2-week liquid diet before surgery but I'm going to do it anyway to shrink my liver.  Plus, I'm on a weight loss roll!!  I did a week-long of liquids about a month ago and did really well.  Hooray!!

So it turns out I have a normal liver.  WHEW!  What a relief.  And I tested negative for all types of hepatitis.  I'm not out of the woods yet, though, because I'm still waiting for my genetic marker test for hemachromatosis to come back.  If I have it, I'll have to visit a phlebotomist multiple times per week to have blood removed from my system.  Hey, if that's what it takes, I can deal with that!  That means I'll have a whole collection of Snoopy and Bugs Bunny band-aids since the techs want to put them on my arms after all blood draws!

I am so excited--March 11, 2010 marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life.  I cannot wait.  Dr. Cirangle will be my hero.

I have officially selected Dr. Cirangle in San Francisco to do my VSG.  After spending 35 minutes with him on the phone today, I have all the confidence in the world with him.  He's personally performed over 1,100 VSG--I think he's performed the surgery more times than anyone else in the U.S.  Regardless, he has a terrific personality and he's very knowledgeable.  I am very, very excited about my surgery!  Now all I have to do is schedule the date.  It will be great for me to be back in California.  I previously lived there for 7 years and I dearly miss it.  It's happily ironic to me that I will be having surgery there--it's the beginning of a new life for me, and one that I am very excited to kickoff! 

I had a little bit of a setback yesterday at my primary care doctor's office.  I received some startling news about my liver.  He said my liver enzymes are EXTREMELY elevated (on a scale of 0-50 my value was 300).  On top of that, the level of iron in my blood is EXTREMELY high, too.  Next week I do another battery of blood tests and a liver biopsy.  The doctor mentioned hemochromatosis but he didn't say much beyond that further testing.  He also wants to biopsy my liver because of heredity liver disease/cancer.  I have taken so many pain killers, aspirin, and anti-inflammatories in large proportion over the years because of chronic headaches.  Plus, I've spent the last 8 years working in the alcoholic beverage industry.  I just hope and pray I haven't done irreversible damage to my liver, thus precluding me from or at least severely delaying my WLS.  Fingers crossed!

Hooray--I've been following a liquid diet the last 6 days and have lost 9.7 lbs.  Yippee!  My BMI has dropped from 43 to 41.  Wow, I can't wait to get my BMI to a number that starts with 3...

While taking my meditative walk today, I learned something about myself.  I really do like exercise.  It's the self-consciousness I feel when I'm exercising that I dislike.  I never seperated out these thoughts in my head until today.  I've attached negative emotions toward exercise all these years.  But now I don't have to worry about people judging me because I know I'm doing something about!