julieinwa
6/2/06
I'm on the practice diet that the Wish Center requires, and I'm having surgery on July 17th if all goes well.
On July 3rd I start the liquid diet.
I weighed 434 at my last doctor visit, I'm unable to weigh at home.
I have a lot of mobility issues but I'm able to work out pretty well at Curves. I have lower back problems so it is hard for me to walk very far. I work at home as an artist and my life keeps getting more and more closed off.
About 18 months ago, My Dr said she thinks I need to have WLS, but she wanted me to have lap band. It's an exclusion on my husbands insurance, so no chance there. My youngest daughter (24) has been wanting me to have WLS for several years since her friends mother had it, but I was so scared. And honestly, I had a hard time imagining eating like you have to after WLS.
I decided to try again to diet, so joined Jenny Craig again and VERY SLOWLY was able to lose 23 lbs. It took 8 months. I felt so discouraged because I lost so slowly. It's such a trap to be so fat, you know you need to lose and exercise, but it's so hard and 20 minutes of relaxing my vigilence would result in no weight loss for that week.
Over the next 8 months, I went off Jenny Craig and gained the 23 lbs back. 2 months ago I went for my regular physical and I was up 10 more lbs, to my highest weight. So incredibly depressing....
My doctor says even though I am realtively healthy for my weight, my future is very bleak. I have watched 4 family members die of congestive heart failure. It is a terrible way to die. I have finally reached the point where I am more afraid of my health future than I am of having surgery.
My husband is willing to take the money out of his 401K to save my future. I love him so much for doing it.
I've decided to have lap RNY, as I think I have the best chance of success and having a healthy future. I might never be really thin, but I know I can move more and exercise and be healthier if I can lose a lot of it. I'm sure I will be a slow loser, but I will deal with it, and I actually look forward to not being a slave to food and my belly.
Thanks to everyone here who has been so helpful in making my decision.
7/25/06
I am feeling so much better today. I am 8 days out from my lap surgery. I weighed 411 at the hospital that morning, so I lost 23 lbs pre op. I am so grateful to my surgeon Dr. Strain, Valley Medical Center staff, friends and family and O.H.! All have been so supportive.
The Dr. said that my surgery was textbook. I woke up in recovery, really feeling bad, but then the next thing I knew I was in my room, with my husband first and then my family and friends, there were 13 people there if I remember correctly. That meant so much to me.
My best friends, Verna and Sharon, spent the night in the room with me and helped me so much with the compression things on my legs and everything else. We kept saying it was like a slumber party. We laughed a lot. People kept coming in our room and making comments about how much fun we were having.
I woke up at 5AM the next morning, feeling awful. The bad thing about pain pumps is that if you sleep or are groggy, you are not pushing the button. I really don't think I slept much. I walked that first afternoon, and kept walking as much as I could the whole time. ONce at 5:30 in the morning, I got locked out of the hospital, but luckily a janitor saw me and let me in. Scary.
Verna and Sharon stayed until my oldest daughter, Megan got there, and they went to their motel room to sleep. I got really weepy and full of anxiety that night. I was still just having ice chips but they made me go off them, nothing by mouth until my leak test 12 hours later. That was hard, because my throat was so sore from the breathing tube. Meg took really good care of me, I don't think she slept a wink. Thank you, my darling girl.
At some point, we realized that I had not peed since they took the catheter out, so after trying to pee like crazy for hours they put another catheter in, ouch.
Meg left when Sharon and Vern got there, and they stayed all day until Dave (my husband) got there that night. He has a pretty high pressure job, so he could only come at night.
I would have been able to go home on Wednesday except for the pee thing. Finally, after not going the next day, they gave me a diuretic, and then I was like a racehorse, but it was too late to go home. In retrospect, I'm glad I stayed the extra night.
Since I've been home, I've had some ups and downs. I had terrible nausea on friday and saturday, that was awful. I think I might have been dehydrated, I had misunderstood what to do with my meds. My pain has been pretty minimal, except for getting up or turning in bed or sneezing. Ouch!
Today I was able to get in all my vitamins (Isotonix) and I drank 4 ounces of cappucino NECTAR. I'm loving broth from real soup, I just strain it. I got 60 oz of water yesterday and I'm trying for 70 today.
I just made my post op appt, it will be on August 3rd, I'm looking forward to pureed foods.
10/05/06 I'm doing great, have lost 61 lbs, BMI down to 58.4 from a high of 67. We went on a train trip to North Dakota. The train was hard, but not nearly as hard as it would have been before I lost 61 lbs. I haven't really had any problems. I try really hard to eat 6 times a day, always have protein and exercise daily. I can walk 2 miles! When I started in May I could barely walk 3 blocks!
