Heather L.

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03/18/06 - I heard wedding bells today and guess what.....they were mine!  Yep, I'm now married to the most wonderful man in the world and I'm the mom to four of the best children in the world (two step-kids came as a bonus :) and I already feel like they are my own.

Weight wise, I'm at 161 and can't seem to get into the 150's to save my life.  I'm trying very hard.  I originally set 160 as my goal, but now I think that I would like to hit 150.

01/27/06 - It's official!  I'm a member of the century club!  Wow what a feeling.  One hundred pounds gone.  I would have never dreamed that I could have gotten this far.  I'm actually beyond words right now.  I'm still trying to get my mind to wrap around that number...100.  It's so unreal!  I'm so happy and getting healthier everyday!  This surgery has been so worth it!

01/24/06 - OMG I'm dumping for the first time. I mean true blue, full out dumping. I ate a power protein bar. It must be the sugar alcohols in it (27 grams to be exact). Within 5 minutes of me taking that last bite I have now broke out in a sweat, my head is spinning, and I generally would like to be shot right now.

01/23/06 - Well, my myelogram has been rescheduled (several times as a matter of fact due to scheduling problems at the doctor's office).  It will now take place on 01/30/06 barring no more major catastrophes.  I will then return the next day to discuss the results.  The neurontin seems to be taking the edge off right now, but I'm still far from comfortable.

My weight right now is fluctuating badly.  I jump anywhere from 168 to 174.  Of course, Aunt Flo is just around the bend so I'm sure that has something to do with it.  Plus, if I am truly honest, I've not been eating correctly.  I quit focusing on protein and water and simply eat whatever is available.  I've resolved over the past couple of days to really get myself in check and focus on the important things like protein and water in order to get myself back on track.  On a positive WLS note, I have been asked by our local support group leader to share my story on 02/10/06.  I'm really excited about that.  She wants me to focus my talk on the emotions that I experienced during the approval process and immediately pre-op.  It should prove to be quite an emotional ride as I revisit those roller coaster ride of feelings that I went through.  She usually doesn't ask people who are less than one year postop to speak, however she said that since I was so pumped about the surgery, she thought it would be a good time to give me a shot.

In other news, my ex-boyfriend and I are back together.  This has actually already been a couple of months in the making, however I wasn't really ready to share this with anyone until I made sure that this time it was for real.  We went and told my parents on 01/15/06 and he even went with me.  He told them that he was very sorry for all of the pain that he had caused not only me, but my entire family and that he couldn't change yesterday, but he could change today and tomorrow.  He asked them for a chance to prove this to them and to show them that he is now the man that he should have been all along.  He's actually been trying to get back with me since around April of 2005, but I really wanted to watch and see that his bad habits were truly gone.  I honestly believe that they are and that he is the man that he should have been all along.  This past weekend, we had a family "sleepover".  He had to be at work at 4:30 in the morning so I was going to watch his two boys for him.  Rather than drag them out at that time of the morning, he brought them over to my house.  It went really well.  Hopefully, this will be the start of something beautiful.

01/06/06 - I had my appointment with my neurosurgeon, Dr. Matthew Wood in Bristol, TN.   He is going to perform a myelogram on 01/19/06 and will then see me back in the office on 01/23/06 to discuss our course of action.  The myelogram is a small surgical procedure where the doctor will insert a needle into the base of my spine and inject a contrast liquid.  They will then tilt me on a table to make this dye run the length of my spine and take a continuous series of x-rays or a CT scan.  This will give them a clearer picture of where any ruptures are pushing onto the nerves branching out of my spine.  I will be down for two days after the procedure because if I become too active, a small amount of spinal fluid could leak out of the puncture sight causing a change in spine fluid pressure leading to a severe headache.  From what I understand, this headache could rival a migraine.  In the meantime, Dr. Wood put me on neurontin, 900mg per day, to see if this will help with the pain.  Dr. Wood is a very conservative doctor and will not operate unless it is absolutely necessary.  I really like this about him.  Hopefully, this can be treated with less evasive techniques.

As far as the weight goes, I seem to be stuck at 170-172lbs right now.  I know that part of this is because I'm not eating right coupled with the fact that I really don't feel like exercising due to all of the pain.  I really need to get back to basics and begin paying more attention to my protein and water intake.  I'm have 9 more days until my 8 month re-birthday and I'm hoping to lose at least 3 more pounds so that I can hit the century mark.  I really want to lose 6 more pounds so that I can finally have a BMI that is in the healthy instead of overweight range, but I'll settle for the century club mark.

I have been reflecting on my journey thus far.  This hasn't been an easy journey and anyone that says WLS is the easy way out has no clue.  I would do this all over again in a minute.  Before surgery, I weighed 267lbs and had absolutely zero energy.  I was on medication for high blood pressure (two different kinds), diabetes (one pill), depression (one pill), migraines (one pill), and vitamins (two different kinds).  Basically, I was only 27 years old, but I had to carry a medicine reminder (the holder that you put your pills in for every day of the week so that you can remember to take them all) just so that I could remember to take all of my medication.  Now, I'm almost eight months out from surgery and I'm feeling much better.  I no longer take high blood pressure or diabetic medication.  In fact, my PCP is very impressed with my blood pressure now.  It runs around 100 over 68.  My sugar is rarely a problem anymore and is controlled by diet and exercise alone.  I've lost 97lbs in only eight months.  What a ride this has been, but it's a ride that I would do again in a heartbeat!

12/19/05 - Fortunately, this post is a little more upbeat than the last one.  I decided to go shopping on my lunch break (I'm exactly 7 months out today so happy re-birthday to me).  The engineers in my department gave me 70 dollars for Christmas which I used to mainly pay on bills and get the rest of the kiddo's Christmas.  However, the last 15 bucks I decided should go to treat myself since everything else is paid up (for now).  I haven't bought pants in quite a while and have just been tightening the belt on my size 16-18 jeans (which of course, makes everything gap and wad up causing me to look bigger than I am thus leading to some of that good ol' body dysmorphia). 

Well, I first picked up a sixteen and then shook my head and said to myself, "just try the 14".  I went to the dressing room and low and behold, they were a little big.  I thought to myself, "no way" and immediately went back and picked up a size 12 thinking that there had to be some mistake.  I slipped them on and OMG, I'm a size 12 y'all!  I haven't been this small since I was in 6th or 7th grade!  What a wonderful Christmas present for me!

I'm back at work now and the engineers are laughing their butts off at me.  They all have been so supportive of me through this whole process and say that I am the only female they know that would come back to work and announce that I'm a size 12 and I weigh 174lbs!  I love these guys to death!

12/14/05 - I've had some back pain issues for a while now. In August, I finally went to the doctor over it. We did x-rays, medicine treatments, physical therapy, etc to no avail. At this point, both of us were thinking that this could be the ticket to my plastic surgery (the whole excess skin pulling on my back causing pain deal). As a last ditch effort to make sure that we had covered all bases before going to the plastic surgeon, my PCP ordered an MRI. This was on Wednesday. My daddy went with me for support (I have claustrophobia issues). He said that the nurse immediately came out of the exam and called my doctor, but when she saw my father sitting there, she turned her back and dropped her voice. He knew right then that something wasn't looking good. On Thursday, I received a call from my PCP's nurse. She said that he wanted me back in there ASAP. I asked her why and she said that the MRI showed a herniated disk at T7, T8. An appointment was made for Monday. I went, and it was worse than I thought. I have a herniated disk at T7, T8 that is bulging to the right on my spine, a herniated disk at T8, T9 that is bulging to the left on my spine, collapsed and dried out disk from T9 to T12, and another herniated disk at T12, L1. This would explain why I am in constant pain that wraps around my rib cage on both sides and prevents me from sleeping for more that a couple of hours at a stretch. I literally am in tears by the end of the day from sitting here at my desk at work. Needless to say, an appointment has been made with a neurosurgeon to discuss treatment. In the meantime, I have been put on a high dose of prednisone for the next month which of course as we all know, can lead to weight gain.

What really scares me about all of this is that I have watched several members of my family battle back issues (two uncles, one aunt, one cousin, and my father). In fact, my father is now on disability due to seven ruptured disks in his back. I've watched him go from the strongest guy I knew to having arms smaller than mine now and who has to walk with a cane.

Why me? So far since I had gastric bypass to get healthy, I've been hospitalized with pneumonia and a blood clot in my lung and now I find out that my back is blown all to hell and I'm facing surgery with it. My finances are in a shambles as a single mom of two small kids. I'm struggling to keep a roof over our head and food on the table. Needless to say, Christmas will be very slim around my house this year. People at work are constantly harassing me about my "baggy clothes", but honestly, I can't even afford one dollar at the local goodwill store right now to buy me a used pair of pants that fits. I'm trying to be strong, but really something has to give soon. I feel like just giving up.

12/06/05 - I used to be able to walk out in the winter time with no coat on and be just fine. Now, I don't walk out the door without long sleeves, a coat, and gloves.  I used to turn my air on in the winter just to cool my room off so that I could sleep. Now, I wear a long sleeve shirt, long pants, and I run a little floor heater in addition to my regular heat at night. In fact, I just bought me my first pair of really cute long sleeve, long pant PJs(when I was big, all PJs looked like granny PJs). They have eeyore and piglet on them with best friends written all over them.  They were a size 12/14 I might add!  I still can't get my butt into a size 14 jeans yet (almost though), but these are made of stretchy material, so they did work well!

Even though I freeze quite often now, there's a plus side for me. I used to go to the store and see all of these beautiful sweaters and long sleeve shirts, but I could never buy them because I knew that I would burn up in them. Now, I've told everybody that I want sweaters and long sleeve shirts for Christmas because I am freezing.

12/02/05 - It's been a while since I updated.  I'm finally recovered from my hospital stay last month.  The weight loss has definitely slowed down, but the scale is moving.  I know that part of it is because of the recovery from the pneumonia.  I'm still having back pain and my PCP is sending me for a MRI next Wednesday.  If that shows nothing, then he will send me to a plastic surgeon.  I think that he is going to really be supportive in my quest for reconstructive surgery.

Here's a little food for thought for today.  I'm 10 pounds away from the century club.  I'm 13 pounds away from having a normal BMI.  I'm 17 pounds away from my initial goal weight of 160.  I'm 100% happier and healthier than I was 6 month ago!

11/14/05 - Well, I must say it has been a couple of rough weeks for me.  Fortunately, it had nothing to do with my WLS, but I had some health issues come up.  I began feeling bad on 10/25/05 (coughing my head off) so I went to my doctor who put me on antibiotics and said it was walking pneumonia.  On 10/28/05, I was making my little girl breakfast and felt nauseated.  I figured that I could make it to get her cream of wheat in the microwave then I would go sit down while it was cooking.  The last thing I remember is hearing the bowl hit the glass in the microwave.  The next thing I remember, I was on the floor with cream of wheat everywhere and my little girl (who is only 2 years old) was backed up against the stove crying.  I told her to go get the phone for mommy and she immediately did and then laid down on my chest.  I called my mom and told her that I needed help.  She came and got me and I spent the night at my mom and dad's.  On Saturday, I decided to go back home.  By this time, I was really beginning to have difficulty breathing and was taking a breathing treatment every four hours.  On Sunday, I realized that my kids hadn't carved their pumpkin yet so I went to the kitchen to help them carve their pumpkin.  I started feeling funny again and my son (who is 8) looked at me and said, "Mom, are you alright?"  He tried to get me back to the living room, but we didn't make it.  I slumped down onto the kitchen floor.  He called my mom who immediately came over and took me to the hospital.  When I got there, I could barely write my name on the paperwork.  They began a battery of test.  My oxygen was down to 57 (normal is 98 or higher).  They admitted me for pneumonia and a blood clot in my right lung.  I was also dehydrated.  I was in the hospital for four days.  My discharge blood work showed that my white blood cell count was back down, however my liver panel is showing abnormal and my blood count was down (but not low enough to transfuse).  I'm still feeling very lightheaded if I move to quickly or when I rise from a sitting to a standing position.  I'm hoping that it is just my blood count being low (possible from the blood thinners that they gave me in the hospital to break up the clot).  I was supposed to go back to Dr. Hodge today, but I just don't think that I can drive that far right now.  I will be following up with my PCP later this week to recheck the blood count and the liver problem.  I really hope that everything comes back OK.

As far as weight loss, I'm only down to 180lbs because of all of the fluids that they gave me in the hospital.  I went into the hospital weighing 182, but shot up to 187 because of the IV fluids.  Today is my first day back at work and I'm really hoping that I can make it a full eight hours.