Former Elizabeth
February, 2010 - One year post DS
Feb 11, 2010
Wow, a year has gone by. I was looking at my 6-month update and really not a lot has changed except my weight. I've lost over 120 pounds since the DS now. I had the expected six-week stall at 3 months, and didn't freak. More recently, I've had another 6-weeks long stall and I've sort of not freaked. I lost 7# last week but gained one of them back this week. I don't understand that at all.
My weight loss has been kind of weird looking! My shoulders, arms and legs, my midriff and pretty much everything except my belly have gotten fairly thin. Slender, even. But my poor belly! I look like a very old, very wrinkly pregnant person! I had two babies over 10# and the abdominus rectus muscles never went back where they belonged. Well, I have a lot of the hard, visceral fat that's probably made that impossible. I can tell that it's going away, but it just seems to be much more stubborn than the subcutaneous fat. So the Sub-Q fat is gone, so I have a big, round belly but with wrinkly, loose skin on top of it! OMG if you think that's a bad mental image, you should actually SEE it. I actually do wear my daughter's maternity jeans! The legs and hips and everything fit - a size "L" in regular junior sizes. But I definitely need that maternity room at the top. They're regular looking jeans with a button and zipper and all - they just have a series of buttons and tabs that open or close the waist as the preggo lady needs. It's cool because I've always had to get such big legs to have the belly big enough. I guess the clothing companies can't believe that someone would have such a lot of belly and such a relatively small amount of thigh and hip.
Hubby says he thinks I'm not going to get rid of the belly unless I have things taken up, tightened and tucked. I do NOT plan on doing that!!!! I lived with endometriosis pain for 20 years because I was afraid to have a hysterectomy; I am not going to sign up for tummy tuck pain! I'm doing pretty well with controlling problems with the redundant skin, and if I don't have breakdowns and things that might actually threaten my health down the road, I'm standing pat. I'm in my mid-late 50s. I'm a grandma. Pardon my pot belly.
Still have kidney disease, still have Type II diabetes, still taking insulin, still blind-ish. I can deal with those things.
I'll have my one-year checkup next week, and I'm interested to see how my labs are going to be. I feel like I've really gotten used to and understand my vitamin and supplement schedule now. It's very very rare that I'd forget to take a batch. Or at least it's rare that I forget long enough to mess up the day's intake, anyway.
I feel quite a bit better than I did at the six month point, I think. I have quite a bit more stamina. Which, I know, wasn't saying much to begin with. But now I can stand at the kitchen counter to do things that I would have had to schlepp to the kitchen table and sit to do in the past.
I've never had any problems getting the protein or water in that I need. Thanks to having my DS in two steps for that, I think. If I didn't have the kidney failure and need to restrict my water intake, I'd probably drink even more. I actually enjoy drinking more than I enjoy eating, which surprises me a bit.
The other thing that has surprised me is the happiness. A friend had her surgery about a year before I did, and has had a wonderful improvement in her health. I remember the sound of her voice when she said "The freedom, Dennie. The freedom!" I don't have the amount of freedom that she has, but I have a great deal more than I did before the surgery. It changed my metabolism somehow in a way that seems to have changed my outlook. Or my mood or something. I know I've said several times that I woke up from that surgery feeling better. Even when I was stopped up for two weeks, I felt better! I felt like I'd turned a page in my life and I knew it was going to be better.
I do like to come to OH as often as I can and try to tell my story. Because I started out so late in life and I was already so old and so sick, a lot of doctors didn't think I'd make it through the surgery. But - ta-daaaaaa! I did! I like to let people know that if you have to have a two-stage DS you can still make it work and still have a lot of success. Yeah, I've still got a big belly, but at 12 months, I've lost over 120 pounds, so that's very wonderful, to my mind.
Yeah, I wish I'd done it sooner. But it's too late to do it sooner. So I'm making the best of what's here and now. Which is pretty durn good.
Dennie
1 comment
My weight loss has been kind of weird looking! My shoulders, arms and legs, my midriff and pretty much everything except my belly have gotten fairly thin. Slender, even. But my poor belly! I look like a very old, very wrinkly pregnant person! I had two babies over 10# and the abdominus rectus muscles never went back where they belonged. Well, I have a lot of the hard, visceral fat that's probably made that impossible. I can tell that it's going away, but it just seems to be much more stubborn than the subcutaneous fat. So the Sub-Q fat is gone, so I have a big, round belly but with wrinkly, loose skin on top of it! OMG if you think that's a bad mental image, you should actually SEE it. I actually do wear my daughter's maternity jeans! The legs and hips and everything fit - a size "L" in regular junior sizes. But I definitely need that maternity room at the top. They're regular looking jeans with a button and zipper and all - they just have a series of buttons and tabs that open or close the waist as the preggo lady needs. It's cool because I've always had to get such big legs to have the belly big enough. I guess the clothing companies can't believe that someone would have such a lot of belly and such a relatively small amount of thigh and hip.
Hubby says he thinks I'm not going to get rid of the belly unless I have things taken up, tightened and tucked. I do NOT plan on doing that!!!! I lived with endometriosis pain for 20 years because I was afraid to have a hysterectomy; I am not going to sign up for tummy tuck pain! I'm doing pretty well with controlling problems with the redundant skin, and if I don't have breakdowns and things that might actually threaten my health down the road, I'm standing pat. I'm in my mid-late 50s. I'm a grandma. Pardon my pot belly.
Still have kidney disease, still have Type II diabetes, still taking insulin, still blind-ish. I can deal with those things.
I'll have my one-year checkup next week, and I'm interested to see how my labs are going to be. I feel like I've really gotten used to and understand my vitamin and supplement schedule now. It's very very rare that I'd forget to take a batch. Or at least it's rare that I forget long enough to mess up the day's intake, anyway.
I feel quite a bit better than I did at the six month point, I think. I have quite a bit more stamina. Which, I know, wasn't saying much to begin with. But now I can stand at the kitchen counter to do things that I would have had to schlepp to the kitchen table and sit to do in the past.
I've never had any problems getting the protein or water in that I need. Thanks to having my DS in two steps for that, I think. If I didn't have the kidney failure and need to restrict my water intake, I'd probably drink even more. I actually enjoy drinking more than I enjoy eating, which surprises me a bit.
The other thing that has surprised me is the happiness. A friend had her surgery about a year before I did, and has had a wonderful improvement in her health. I remember the sound of her voice when she said "The freedom, Dennie. The freedom!" I don't have the amount of freedom that she has, but I have a great deal more than I did before the surgery. It changed my metabolism somehow in a way that seems to have changed my outlook. Or my mood or something. I know I've said several times that I woke up from that surgery feeling better. Even when I was stopped up for two weeks, I felt better! I felt like I'd turned a page in my life and I knew it was going to be better.
I do like to come to OH as often as I can and try to tell my story. Because I started out so late in life and I was already so old and so sick, a lot of doctors didn't think I'd make it through the surgery. But - ta-daaaaaa! I did! I like to let people know that if you have to have a two-stage DS you can still make it work and still have a lot of success. Yeah, I've still got a big belly, but at 12 months, I've lost over 120 pounds, so that's very wonderful, to my mind.
Yeah, I wish I'd done it sooner. But it's too late to do it sooner. So I'm making the best of what's here and now. Which is pretty durn good.
Dennie
August, 2009. Six months since surgery
Aug 11, 2009
My DS surgery was 6 months ago this week. I've lost just over 70 pounds and I feel better than I have done in years. There hasn't been a magic remission of the kidney disease, I still need the ProCrit to force my body to make enough red blood cells to live on, and I am still taking insulin for my Type II diabetes. I think realistically, I may never not be diabetic. My father was Type II diabetic, and he never was overweight in his life. So there might be some inherited weakness there. Two of my brothers have died already. One basically was killed by his doctors and nurses in hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But he wouldn't have been in hospital if he weren't diabetic. The other brother wasn't diabetic (that I know of - he wasn't great for seeking medical help) but he died of pancreatic cancer. So there might be something other than obesity that leads to my diabetes.
But still, as to the diabetes, it's much better! I was taking 90 Units of Lantus (long acting) insulin every night before bed. Now I'm taking 16. I was taking Humalog (quick acting) before each meal, even meals without any countable carbs, plus a sliding scale for readings that were out of line even if I hadn't eaten. Now I usually check my blood sugar twice a day, and I don't use the sliding scale at all. No Humalog with meals, either. Today I checked my blood sugar before supper and it was 89. Perfect. My last A1C was below 5. Anything below 6 is considered to be excellent control. My A1C has always been below 6 since I've been treated for diabetes. Whenever my glucose got out of control, I'd show up at my doctor's office and get something bigger, stronger, more-better and keep the A1C down. Of course, my red blood cells die early so who knows how long a period of time the A1C actually averages?
We still haven't replaced our lovely dogs that we lost so close together. There was an episode where a bad guy chose our parking area behind our house to hide his car from the police. I saw the car and made sure everything was locked up, got my granddaughter and called 911. She never woke up! Well, until the police officers were in my house, whilst I was printing pictures of the car and the license plate, and one of the officers saw my beautiful ginger tabby cat and started calling him and woke the baby! Anyway, the sleeping baby (4 months old) and I sat in the dining area of my family room or kitchen or whatever area it is where I can have access to all three doors of our house. If I heard a commotion at one of them, I planned to run out the other one. That never happened. He got into his car and drove off before the officers arrived. They recognized his license number - they'd been chasing him when he ran into another car. After that accident, he started driving even faster and more aggressively, they told me. So I don't know if they backed off to keep someone from being hurt, or if they just lost him.
But anyway, I'd have felt a lot less scared and unprotected if I'd had a nice, big, jug-headed rottweiler at my feet! Yeah, I know. It's not the dogs' job to protect me, it's my job to protect them. But just having one is reassuring and I think is a bit of a deterrent. I think bad guys are more likely to be afraid of rotties than are non-bad guys. Plus, I live at the top of a very steep driveway and front garden. If I had a rottweiler, I could put a pulling harness on him or her, and if we went for a walk, and I was tired or having problems getting up the hill, I could hang on to the harness and ask the dog to pull me up the hill. Hey, that's not cruel! Dogs LOVE to have a job, and rottweilers pull like anything. I have friends who cart with theirs; two or three passengers per cart! And I've seen them pull cars out of muddy ditches before. One rottie can pull like a half a ton - I don't weigh anything like that any more.
So, I'm going to see what's available. Wish me luck!
So, like my three-month update, I'm very happy. It would be nice still to be losing 5-9 pounds a week like I did for a short while after my 3-month stall broke. But as long as I average 10# a month, then I'm right in there in the curve and I like that!
Dennie
0 comments
But still, as to the diabetes, it's much better! I was taking 90 Units of Lantus (long acting) insulin every night before bed. Now I'm taking 16. I was taking Humalog (quick acting) before each meal, even meals without any countable carbs, plus a sliding scale for readings that were out of line even if I hadn't eaten. Now I usually check my blood sugar twice a day, and I don't use the sliding scale at all. No Humalog with meals, either. Today I checked my blood sugar before supper and it was 89. Perfect. My last A1C was below 5. Anything below 6 is considered to be excellent control. My A1C has always been below 6 since I've been treated for diabetes. Whenever my glucose got out of control, I'd show up at my doctor's office and get something bigger, stronger, more-better and keep the A1C down. Of course, my red blood cells die early so who knows how long a period of time the A1C actually averages?
We still haven't replaced our lovely dogs that we lost so close together. There was an episode where a bad guy chose our parking area behind our house to hide his car from the police. I saw the car and made sure everything was locked up, got my granddaughter and called 911. She never woke up! Well, until the police officers were in my house, whilst I was printing pictures of the car and the license plate, and one of the officers saw my beautiful ginger tabby cat and started calling him and woke the baby! Anyway, the sleeping baby (4 months old) and I sat in the dining area of my family room or kitchen or whatever area it is where I can have access to all three doors of our house. If I heard a commotion at one of them, I planned to run out the other one. That never happened. He got into his car and drove off before the officers arrived. They recognized his license number - they'd been chasing him when he ran into another car. After that accident, he started driving even faster and more aggressively, they told me. So I don't know if they backed off to keep someone from being hurt, or if they just lost him.
But anyway, I'd have felt a lot less scared and unprotected if I'd had a nice, big, jug-headed rottweiler at my feet! Yeah, I know. It's not the dogs' job to protect me, it's my job to protect them. But just having one is reassuring and I think is a bit of a deterrent. I think bad guys are more likely to be afraid of rotties than are non-bad guys. Plus, I live at the top of a very steep driveway and front garden. If I had a rottweiler, I could put a pulling harness on him or her, and if we went for a walk, and I was tired or having problems getting up the hill, I could hang on to the harness and ask the dog to pull me up the hill. Hey, that's not cruel! Dogs LOVE to have a job, and rottweilers pull like anything. I have friends who cart with theirs; two or three passengers per cart! And I've seen them pull cars out of muddy ditches before. One rottie can pull like a half a ton - I don't weigh anything like that any more.
So, I'm going to see what's available. Wish me luck!
So, like my three-month update, I'm very happy. It would be nice still to be losing 5-9 pounds a week like I did for a short while after my 3-month stall broke. But as long as I average 10# a month, then I'm right in there in the curve and I like that!
Dennie
May, 2009. Three months post DS
May 09, 2009
How I'm doing: GREAT!
I've lost weight after the first two weeks after the surgery, when I had a blockage and didn't poo at all, and didn't lose a pound. As soon as that cleared up, I started losing weight.
I'm having a three month stall right now, but I'm not too concerned about it. I've been reading the DS board long enough to kind of have expected it to happen. I also read enough to know that I should take measurements, especially during the stall. People say that during a stall, the measurements still decrease, and that's true too! I've always been the one that doesn't react to things the way other people do. So this is great to be following along the path of so many others who have had such spectacular success. I dare to hope for a (largish) fraction of that.
I am pretty much doing an Atkins like diet. I've been avoiding pretty much all processed carbohydrates. The only carbs I've been getting have been in the veg I eat. I even have stayed away from fruit to avoid the carbs. I have the occasional grape or bite of banana - I had three large grapes this afternoon. Yumm In the period between having the sleeve and the DS, I started craving sweets. That was weird. I'm very thankful that those cravings stopped after having the DS. From time to time, I wish I could have a regular sandwich. Or fantasize about a bit of ciabatta bread, or noodles. But I'm certainly not suffering for lack of those things.
My entire life, I've hated bacon. HATED it. My daughter once told a friend when we were out to lunch and I was picking the bacon off my side salad (I would have ordered it without bacon if it had occurred to me that they'd put bacon on a SIDE SALAD) that I'm afraid of bacon. Not afraid, just disgusted by it. After I got over the whole process of working my way back up to solid foods, I slowly became..... Bacon Curious! I thought about bacon for a couple of weeks, and finally we got a pound of bacon. I've griped about bacon and the horrible smell in the house for so many years that it's rubbed off on my husband, who used to LOVE bacon. So I'm not supposed to cook it when he's around. Well, we got a brand that's not super-smoky tasting. I don't like that smoky taste, still. But it took me less than two weeks to go through an entire pound of bacon! Nobody who ever knew me would have believed that!
So - to sum up (because it's too late to say "to make a long story short") I feel great. I have more energy than I've had, and I've been able to tolerate more and more activity. I can do individual things easier and with less huffing and puffing and making a schmagilla out of it. I'm still huge. I still have the size of a normal adult human being to lose. But I'm happy and upbeat, and optimistic. It hasn't solved all my problems. I still have kidney disease. I still have to take ProCrit to force my body to make red blood cells. I still have to take insulin for diabetes. But I truly think that, as I lose weight, even if all those things fail to disappear or even get appreciably better, everything else will be so much easier and better for me that it'll still be 100% worth it!
Dennie
0 comments
I've lost weight after the first two weeks after the surgery, when I had a blockage and didn't poo at all, and didn't lose a pound. As soon as that cleared up, I started losing weight.
I'm having a three month stall right now, but I'm not too concerned about it. I've been reading the DS board long enough to kind of have expected it to happen. I also read enough to know that I should take measurements, especially during the stall. People say that during a stall, the measurements still decrease, and that's true too! I've always been the one that doesn't react to things the way other people do. So this is great to be following along the path of so many others who have had such spectacular success. I dare to hope for a (largish) fraction of that.
I am pretty much doing an Atkins like diet. I've been avoiding pretty much all processed carbohydrates. The only carbs I've been getting have been in the veg I eat. I even have stayed away from fruit to avoid the carbs. I have the occasional grape or bite of banana - I had three large grapes this afternoon. Yumm In the period between having the sleeve and the DS, I started craving sweets. That was weird. I'm very thankful that those cravings stopped after having the DS. From time to time, I wish I could have a regular sandwich. Or fantasize about a bit of ciabatta bread, or noodles. But I'm certainly not suffering for lack of those things.
My entire life, I've hated bacon. HATED it. My daughter once told a friend when we were out to lunch and I was picking the bacon off my side salad (I would have ordered it without bacon if it had occurred to me that they'd put bacon on a SIDE SALAD) that I'm afraid of bacon. Not afraid, just disgusted by it. After I got over the whole process of working my way back up to solid foods, I slowly became..... Bacon Curious! I thought about bacon for a couple of weeks, and finally we got a pound of bacon. I've griped about bacon and the horrible smell in the house for so many years that it's rubbed off on my husband, who used to LOVE bacon. So I'm not supposed to cook it when he's around. Well, we got a brand that's not super-smoky tasting. I don't like that smoky taste, still. But it took me less than two weeks to go through an entire pound of bacon! Nobody who ever knew me would have believed that!
So - to sum up (because it's too late to say "to make a long story short") I feel great. I have more energy than I've had, and I've been able to tolerate more and more activity. I can do individual things easier and with less huffing and puffing and making a schmagilla out of it. I'm still huge. I still have the size of a normal adult human being to lose. But I'm happy and upbeat, and optimistic. It hasn't solved all my problems. I still have kidney disease. I still have to take ProCrit to force my body to make red blood cells. I still have to take insulin for diabetes. But I truly think that, as I lose weight, even if all those things fail to disappear or even get appreciably better, everything else will be so much easier and better for me that it'll still be 100% worth it!
Dennie
Backstory to getting the DS
May 09, 2009
What a great thing this has been. I don't remember ever being so happy. I don't know if I was depressed before, or if this surgery has just improved my metabolism to the point where I just feel happy or what.
The sleeve was done 29 January, 2008. I lost a nice amount of weight for the first two months. Then I hit what I thought was a stall. But it just went on and on. I teamed up with a sleeve sister and we would do things like the "pouch test." It's not really a pouch test at all, but a five-day program where you start out with liquid protein, then move to soft protein and then solid protein. I never lost weight the week of the "test," but generally lost 1-2 pounds the next week. Go figure.
Well, when I was at appreciably the same weight in July that I had been in April, I contacted Dr. Spaw about doing the DS portion of the surgery. He was surprised that I hadn't been able to lose the weight with the sleeve, becuase I'd started out so well, and I obviously was working it the way it was supposed to be worked. That started the insurance company run-around. I'd had the DS approved in December of 08, but Dr. Spaw didn't think I was a good candidate for the surgery in its entirety, so he did the sleeve. My insurance company does not pay for the sleeve, but it paid for the surgery that was done in January 08. I really did not expect any problem, since the surgery had been approved in the first place, but SURPRISE! The insurance company used a State of TN insurance paper that I'd used on them (they didn't cover the DS at the time, and the paper said that the DS was covered, but only for people with a HUGE BMI. Which I had, unfortunately). In the time since I'd had the sleeve, my BMI had gotten below 60. Not a huge amount but still below. So they said they wouldn't cover the DS part of it.
My position was that it was the same surgery, it had already been approved, and if they weren't going to approve the DS portion of it, they certainly shouldn't have paid for the sleeve part of it. I did my own first appeal and really was again SURPRISED when I was disallowed again.
I got in touch with Kelley and Walter Lindstrom at Obesity Lawyers. Kelley gave me a LOT of good advice and Walter wrote the letter for my 2nd appeal. We prepared for my conference call "hearing." The day before the hearing, the insurance company rep called me and told me that it had been approved. I asked her to fax me a letter to that effect, and called my surgeon's office. YAYYYY But they wouldn't schedule me until Dr. Spaw could see me. By that time, it was almost Christmas, and I coudln't get in to see Dr. Spaw for a while.
It all worked out, finally. DS surgery was scheduled for 9 February 2009. What a long a weird journey (heh heh) this has been.
Preop testing went well. The time came for the surgery more quickly than I'd anticipated. I went through my own preop preparation - I like to take a few extra steps to try to stave off any kind of skin born infection before any kind of surgery. I was so scared when I got to the holding area preop, my legs were shaking so hard I was having back spasms. I asked for the propofol, and that helped a lot.
Surgery went well, I don't really remember PACU at all. Up in the hospital room, I had a PCA with dilaudid and I felt like I used it a LOT. I was uncomfortable, but not nearly as painful as my c-sections. I was up in the room that day and I didn't have any of the problems with nausea and vomiting that I'd had when I'd had the sleeve gastrectomy.
The next morning, I sat at the sink to bathe and the tech offered to wash my back. I'll never turn down a back-wash, but I really didn't need any help with my bath. Dr. Spaw came by that afternoon and told me I could remove the dressing and shower if I wanted to. HECK YES. He was very happy with my progress (so was I!) and let me go home on Thursday afternoon.
I didn't need to take most of the pain pills he'd prescribed. I ended up taking a half of one when first waking up to make it easier to get up out of bed and move around, and the other half when I went to bed, to make it easier to relax and get to sleep. No pain pills at all by the end of the weekend. But no BMs either. That took a good two weeks, and two bottles of Mag citrate.
I took the first one the day that Sarah went to her 37 week OB checkup and then came to my house and had pretty consistent contractions. She is a fast baby-haver, so we went to the hospital to have her checked out, and were there the rest of the afternoon, so I was pretty happy that the first bottle didn't work!
When the blockage finally passed, and the DS poops kicked in, that's when my weight started moving down. But even before that happened, even before I'd lost the first pound after my DS, I felt happier than I had been feeling. I just felt like I'd turned over a new leaf in my life, and I was happy about it.
I still am.
Love
Dennie
2 comments
The sleeve was done 29 January, 2008. I lost a nice amount of weight for the first two months. Then I hit what I thought was a stall. But it just went on and on. I teamed up with a sleeve sister and we would do things like the "pouch test." It's not really a pouch test at all, but a five-day program where you start out with liquid protein, then move to soft protein and then solid protein. I never lost weight the week of the "test," but generally lost 1-2 pounds the next week. Go figure.
Well, when I was at appreciably the same weight in July that I had been in April, I contacted Dr. Spaw about doing the DS portion of the surgery. He was surprised that I hadn't been able to lose the weight with the sleeve, becuase I'd started out so well, and I obviously was working it the way it was supposed to be worked. That started the insurance company run-around. I'd had the DS approved in December of 08, but Dr. Spaw didn't think I was a good candidate for the surgery in its entirety, so he did the sleeve. My insurance company does not pay for the sleeve, but it paid for the surgery that was done in January 08. I really did not expect any problem, since the surgery had been approved in the first place, but SURPRISE! The insurance company used a State of TN insurance paper that I'd used on them (they didn't cover the DS at the time, and the paper said that the DS was covered, but only for people with a HUGE BMI. Which I had, unfortunately). In the time since I'd had the sleeve, my BMI had gotten below 60. Not a huge amount but still below. So they said they wouldn't cover the DS part of it.
My position was that it was the same surgery, it had already been approved, and if they weren't going to approve the DS portion of it, they certainly shouldn't have paid for the sleeve part of it. I did my own first appeal and really was again SURPRISED when I was disallowed again.
I got in touch with Kelley and Walter Lindstrom at Obesity Lawyers. Kelley gave me a LOT of good advice and Walter wrote the letter for my 2nd appeal. We prepared for my conference call "hearing." The day before the hearing, the insurance company rep called me and told me that it had been approved. I asked her to fax me a letter to that effect, and called my surgeon's office. YAYYYY But they wouldn't schedule me until Dr. Spaw could see me. By that time, it was almost Christmas, and I coudln't get in to see Dr. Spaw for a while.
It all worked out, finally. DS surgery was scheduled for 9 February 2009. What a long a weird journey (heh heh) this has been.
Preop testing went well. The time came for the surgery more quickly than I'd anticipated. I went through my own preop preparation - I like to take a few extra steps to try to stave off any kind of skin born infection before any kind of surgery. I was so scared when I got to the holding area preop, my legs were shaking so hard I was having back spasms. I asked for the propofol, and that helped a lot.
Surgery went well, I don't really remember PACU at all. Up in the hospital room, I had a PCA with dilaudid and I felt like I used it a LOT. I was uncomfortable, but not nearly as painful as my c-sections. I was up in the room that day and I didn't have any of the problems with nausea and vomiting that I'd had when I'd had the sleeve gastrectomy.
The next morning, I sat at the sink to bathe and the tech offered to wash my back. I'll never turn down a back-wash, but I really didn't need any help with my bath. Dr. Spaw came by that afternoon and told me I could remove the dressing and shower if I wanted to. HECK YES. He was very happy with my progress (so was I!) and let me go home on Thursday afternoon.
I didn't need to take most of the pain pills he'd prescribed. I ended up taking a half of one when first waking up to make it easier to get up out of bed and move around, and the other half when I went to bed, to make it easier to relax and get to sleep. No pain pills at all by the end of the weekend. But no BMs either. That took a good two weeks, and two bottles of Mag citrate.
I took the first one the day that Sarah went to her 37 week OB checkup and then came to my house and had pretty consistent contractions. She is a fast baby-haver, so we went to the hospital to have her checked out, and were there the rest of the afternoon, so I was pretty happy that the first bottle didn't work!
When the blockage finally passed, and the DS poops kicked in, that's when my weight started moving down. But even before that happened, even before I'd lost the first pound after my DS, I felt happier than I had been feeling. I just felt like I'd turned over a new leaf in my life, and I was happy about it.
I still am.
Love
Dennie
2-5-07
Feb 04, 2007
I think i want to vent a bit. I've been reading all the problems on the DS problem liseserv. Wow - there's a lot of stinky people out there! A lot of C-diff, too. I'd like to avoid that if at ALL possible.
I've had a horrid cold, lots of coughing and sneezing and all that. I carried on doing all the things Inormally do and ended up exhausted, falling in my grandson's room. Took the lamp down with me and landed briefly but forcefully on one of those 1' cubes of wood with the steel wires on top with the little toys that hang on the wires and travel along them.
I'm surprised I didn't collapse that - and thank God it didn't! I'd have been on the floor for sure. I'll bet I'd have had to call the rescue squad. Oh the embarassment.
My grandson, who had obviously harbored the opinion that lurching around the room or having Nonna do it and crashing pieces of furniture down was going to be fun; decided that it was NOT. Poor kid - he's had one fond dream after another shattered. He really thought that pitching off of a bed head-first would be a barrel of laughs. He was horribly frustrated with all of us who kept him from his dream of going "bonk" on the floor.
He's done it a few times since he's been mobile, of course - even jumping out of his crib. Old dreams die hard.
I've had a horrid cold, lots of coughing and sneezing and all that. I carried on doing all the things Inormally do and ended up exhausted, falling in my grandson's room. Took the lamp down with me and landed briefly but forcefully on one of those 1' cubes of wood with the steel wires on top with the little toys that hang on the wires and travel along them.
I'm surprised I didn't collapse that - and thank God it didn't! I'd have been on the floor for sure. I'll bet I'd have had to call the rescue squad. Oh the embarassment.
My grandson, who had obviously harbored the opinion that lurching around the room or having Nonna do it and crashing pieces of furniture down was going to be fun; decided that it was NOT. Poor kid - he's had one fond dream after another shattered. He really thought that pitching off of a bed head-first would be a barrel of laughs. He was horribly frustrated with all of us who kept him from his dream of going "bonk" on the floor.
He's done it a few times since he's been mobile, of course - even jumping out of his crib. Old dreams die hard.
1-14-07
Jan 14, 2007
OH my goodness. I've just finished reading a thread by the most incredibly courageous and resourceful and resiliant women in the world. It's hard to imagine that such horrible things have been forced on good people like this. Some of them children! I know, I've know that bad stuff happens to good people all along, but wow. So much!!
We're all coming to terms with the loss of our lovely dog Lulu. She leaves quite a void in our lives, even though she'd spent quite a bit of her time just resting here recently. At least my husband has come to see how difficult and wrong it is not to have a nice dog in the house. I don't want to get a nother dog anytime soon, but I'm glad we're past the point of saying NO.
This is Sunday. We've had a lot of Sunday dinners in the past where quite a few friends and family came and had dinner with us. Which is lovely, but some of them quite outstayed my stamina. Not because they're clueless,but because my daughter's friends were having to do laundry and even with our spiffy new front-loader washer and lovely dryer, that still takes a bit of time.
Today, nobody's coming but the boyfriends of my daughters. The older one's boyfriend is having a birthday, so we're having a bit of a teeny party for him. I like him, and you don't have to worry about him staying too long and even if he did *I* wouldn't have to entertain him! It's a win:win situation, as far as I"m concerned!
Love
Dennie
We're all coming to terms with the loss of our lovely dog Lulu. She leaves quite a void in our lives, even though she'd spent quite a bit of her time just resting here recently. At least my husband has come to see how difficult and wrong it is not to have a nice dog in the house. I don't want to get a nother dog anytime soon, but I'm glad we're past the point of saying NO.
This is Sunday. We've had a lot of Sunday dinners in the past where quite a few friends and family came and had dinner with us. Which is lovely, but some of them quite outstayed my stamina. Not because they're clueless,but because my daughter's friends were having to do laundry and even with our spiffy new front-loader washer and lovely dryer, that still takes a bit of time.
Today, nobody's coming but the boyfriends of my daughters. The older one's boyfriend is having a birthday, so we're having a bit of a teeny party for him. I like him, and you don't have to worry about him staying too long and even if he did *I* wouldn't have to entertain him! It's a win:win situation, as far as I"m concerned!
Love
Dennie
Worried about Lulu
Jan 05, 2007
I know she's old, and I know dogs don't live very long. She's really been past her sell-by date. She actually had Parvo when we got her. We nursed her through that, and she's been a pretty low-maintenance dog ever since.
My daughter said "I hope she's okay." and I told her I hope so, too. But realistically, at 15 or however old she is - even if she is okay, she's only okay **theis week.**
We lost the big brown dog two months ago. And Lulu's been slowly going downhill ever since. I hope this is just an upset tummy from getting into the pork. But I have to keep the other in my mind.
My daughter said "I hope she's okay." and I told her I hope so, too. But realistically, at 15 or however old she is - even if she is okay, she's only okay **theis week.**
We lost the big brown dog two months ago. And Lulu's been slowly going downhill ever since. I hope this is just an upset tummy from getting into the pork. But I have to keep the other in my mind.
My first blog entry
Dec 19, 2006
12-18-06
This is the first time I've evr blogged anywhere. I've lived this long and I've never really felt like I had THAT much to say. Well, I said a lot when I finally got going on my web page all those years ago, so maybe this will be like that.
I was on thyroid pills when I was a kid. They were very bitter but they really work. I had a lot of energy and a sort of zest for life that really doesn't come back when the thyroid pills are not onboard. Somehow my thyroid level bec ame normal, and no more thryoid pills. Well, one of my quack diet doctors gave me thyroid pills when I was working ath the Country Music Association, but my thyroid levels were okay at the time.
This is the first time I've evr blogged anywhere. I've lived this long and I've never really felt like I had THAT much to say. Well, I said a lot when I finally got going on my web page all those years ago, so maybe this will be like that.
I was on thyroid pills when I was a kid. They were very bitter but they really work. I had a lot of energy and a sort of zest for life that really doesn't come back when the thyroid pills are not onboard. Somehow my thyroid level bec ame normal, and no more thryoid pills. Well, one of my quack diet doctors gave me thyroid pills when I was working ath the Country Music Association, but my thyroid levels were okay at the time.
About Me
30.2
BMI
Surgery
02/09/2009
Surgery Date
Nov 18, 2006
Member Since
