michv

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Where do I even start? This time last year I never would've though having WLS would change my life this much. I still have a ways to go but its been an amazing ride so far! I have lost 141 lbs so far (about 40-50 more to go, depending how much skin will need taken off). Went from a size 4-5x in tops and 32 in pants to an Large-X Large top to 14-16 pants. Would love to see a single digit pants before I am done with this. All except for a couple of the 20+ pills a day before I had surgery, the rest are all gone!! No more diabetes (they say you will always have it once you are diagnosed, but my bloods sugars are completely normal and even run low sometimes). My back doesn't hurt as much, my legs feel better, well heck EVERYTHING feels better. Now If I could get rid of all this nasty extra skin and maybe get some boobs I would be sooooooo happy lol. 

My family has been amazing through all of this. They have been by myside through all of this (as much as they can be with most of them not being in the same state) and I know it hasn't been easy. Especially in the beginning with my moods going way crazy and then the complication I had with so much internal bleeding. I swear the first month or two I felt like I was a physcho or something, so many little things set me off. Thank goodness that went away lol..

I only wish that I could go see my family down in California so they can see me in real life in front of them and see all the progress I have made and oh I wish soooooo much that my mom and my finances mom was here to see me. They never knew I was going to have this surgery but I know they would be so proud!! And the most important thing I wish they were here for is we are officially engaged!! We have been together for over 6 years and on Christmas Eve he proposed to me, down on 1 knee and everything! I am so happy its unbelievable!

For those that are reading this I wish you the very best 2009 and that all your dreams come true and that your health is #1 priority.

Happy New Year!!!!!!

Life has been extremely busy with kids soccer, working and just all of things going on.
Big News though

I FINALLY MADE IT ONDERLAND. I just can't believe it. It has been at least 20 plus years since I have seen that. I hit it a couple weeks ago and was going to write about it but then the next day it went back up to 201 so I was so upset. Have been bouncing back and forth between 201 and 198 but this morning it says 195.8 So I think its finally time to claim it lol

I love my RNY!! Gotta go will update more very soon..

This is from a post I did a few days ago. Wanted to add it to my page to just to keep updated. I need to be better about updating this page lol.


"I am five months out. I started this journey wearing a size 4-5x tops 26-28 pants. I found a pair of jean shorts in my closet a few months ago that were a size XL, no idea where they came from since I haven't worn that size since High School, but anyway.. I tried them on when I found them and couldn't get them up past my knees and today I found them again and figured I would just see if they fit for fun. They fit and are a little big!! Oh my gosh!! I have been on cloud nine all day long. When I look in the mirror I don't see a weight change but finally today I started to really feel proud of myself and see that I AM really loosing weight and its not just a dream."

Another update is I still have this dang drain tube in. Ugg its driving me nuts and hurts all the time. I am hopefully going to get it out next Monday. Geesh I really hope so anyway!

I had gallbladder and blocked bile duct surgery on Wednesday (7/16) The plan was to take out gallbladder and do some dye with xray to find out why my bile duct was enlarged and go from there. Surgery turned out to be 2 1/2 hours long so instead of going home that day I just got home last night. Woke up with 2 drains in me. Can we say yuckkkk

Was told there shouldn't be much pain but I guess I'm just not one of the lucky ones because I have had alot of pain with this. Mostly from where the bile tube drain is. They pulled my other drain out yesterday, which hurt like a bi**h but I quickly recovered from that. They also put a plug in the bile tube so my body can start draining it like it is suppose to but as more time goes by the more it hurts. We have drained it 2 times since I have been home. I think that has helped a little bit. It rushes out as soon as its open so it must not be going where its suppose to be going yet. Still feeling alot of nausea to which is driving me nuts.
I am going to try and see my surgeon tomorrow and make sure all is going ok. I really thought I would be feeling better by now. The site where the tube is coming out is just so damn sore and getting worse. I know I probably sound like a baby but I don't go good with pain. :-(

Its 2am so I better try and get some rest, but wanted to update my profile. Hope anyone that reads this is doing well.

Woke up hurting in my head and neck again. This is getting old. Every single day for at least the past couple of weeks I am hurting. With being limited what I can take its starting to drain me out. Ugg

So after I woke up a little bit and drink my walmart brand crystal light, like I do every morning, I started feeling pretty yucky. I hadn't eaten or anything just drank and took a couple of my normal medications. Pretty soon after it was a race to the bathroom and many other trips there within a short amount of time. Ok here comes the TMI part so beware.... I was pooping the drink I just drank. It was light red. No it wasn't blood but I thought how weird is this. Never had this happen before. I called my Surgeons office and Susan said that I for whatever reason must of dumped from it and it went straight to my intestines. Pretty weird though and has made me feel really crappy all day long. I even took a 4 hour nap because I was so tired and wiped out.

Surgeons office did schedule me for ultrasound for this Thursday do to my stomach pain and feeling sick all the time. They want to check out my gallbladder and make sure its doing ok. Hopefully it is because I really do not want another surgery.

Will update when I know results from ultrasound. I hope all who reads this is doing ok with their journey.

Tonight my nephew was born. They named him Michael. I think thats pretty cool considering my name is Michelle... hehe
 I am so excited for my brother. Now he has both a daughter and a son. He and his wife are so happy. I can't wait till I can see them. Its so sad that my mom isn't here to share in all this happiness. She would be such a proud granny.

My journey is going pretty good. I feel good most the time but having terrible headaches and alot of upset tummy but hopefully soon will figure it out and get to feeling better. I am down 72lbs since surgery and 84 from my highest. I cannot believe I have almost lost 100lbs. Its just incredible. I never thought in a million years I could loose this much weight this fast. I am so grateful for my surgeon and all that this surgery is doing for me. Its just amazing.

Its been 3 months today! My birthday was yesterday and I had set a goal of 75 lbs but I didn't make it. I was on a 2 week stall ( it figures huh) so I only made it to 66 lbs gone since surgery. I know I shouldn't complain, never in a million years could I have lost this much in 3 months before... Its an amazing ride!

 50 lbs gone forever as of yesterday!  My goal was 50 lbs by my 2 month surgiversary but I only missed it by one day so I won't complain. I can't wait to be saying 100lb gone forever!! Which I am hoping to be able to say in a couple more months, my goal for that will be July. I know the weight will slow down the longer I am post-op but I think by July is a realistic goal for myself. Cross your fingers I make that goal.

I can tell my energy is getting better. I am alot more active then I was before. Especially out in our yard. Last year at this time when its time to start getting the garden ready I would hardly go out there to help. It was just to hard for me but I have been out there ALOT already and doing physical work like shovel all the new dirt for our garden boxes. With us living here at the new house we have to start from scratch and make all the garden boxes and everything and shoveling dirt is hard work. I actually did quite a bit of that and it felt good. I still have a long way to go but its getting better all the time!!!

My sister had to leave yesterday . First time she has ever been up here and met Scott and first time in over 5 years to come up to see me. Its so hard living in different states, it drives us both crazy. We had a really good time though. Its so sad because she has a serious back issue and needs surgery so she was in alot of pain during her visit. Saying bye to her yesterday so so sad, we both just cried.

So a couple of days ago, well Sunday mostly, I kept feeling like something was stuck in my chest when I would eat. UH OH is what I kept thinking but brushed it off at first. But pretty soon whatever it is I ate was giving me this same feeling and later that night when I started taking all my medications, ugg that was the worst. A pill got stuck and omg it hurt sooooo bad!! It was a larger pill and it felt like it was just tearing me up inside. After drinking some warm water and waiting a few hours it finally got better. I then called my surgeons office as soon as they opened and got an 11am appt to be checked out. He says I need to be scoped and could have a stricture or possibly a ulcer. So finally today at 10am I go in and get that done. I am scheduled for noon but tons of paperwork I guess so need to be there a little after 10. I am a little scared but not as bad as I thought I would be. Will blog about it probably tomorrow.
So to add to the subject line "April isn't starting off to good", my only family here in the state of Oregon, besides my man and his family, is moving to Arkansas tomorrow and will be lucky to see them for years and its just really sad to me. Ugg actually it really just plain sucks so the rest of April needs to be better right? I really hope so!

Ok so to continue with my nightmare I was telling about yesterday..

Scottie called my surgeons office Sunday night close to midnight. Told him what was going on and then I got on the phone with him. He said to go to the hospital and do a direct admit. He said he would call the hospital now and let them know I was coming.

So we get there, by chance I got the same room as I did for surgery which was nice because it was a single room ( I hate sharing a room when in the hospital)
So they get me all settled in, start iv, take blood for tests and get me relaxed as best they could. I have to rush in bathroom for more bm's and this time they put one of those things on the toilet to measure output and after I was done I heard the nurse say "oh no oh my" or something like that. That put up red flags for sure. It was alot is all I know. So as time goes by I have many more of these and am really getting weak and scared. I was in alot of pain to, I think from my incisions not really sure but I would just start crying like a baby. Scott would come over and try and comfort me and I know he was scared to.
I was getting blood drawn every few hours, that was getting old because its so hard to get blood from me.
I finally saw Dr Read and he didn't say much except he was going to find out what is going on and wanted to know how I was feeling and all that. He then ordered some more tests one of which was in nuclear medicine part of the hospital. Soon after he left the nurse came in and said I would be needing some blood transfusions. Ugg that was scary, I have never had to have someone else's blood before so I knew it was serious. Dr Read ordered 4 units of blood. ( my father n law recently had internal bleeding and from that experience I learned that your body holds approximately 7 units of blood) So I had lost over half my blood? Now getting really scared. So they start the blood then say I have to go down to nuclear medicine and have some more testing done. I can't remember the name of the test but they took some of my blood and added radioactive something to it then after a little while put it back in me and had me on a MRI table ( I think thats what it was I was so weak and out of it) and I had to be still for a full hour while they took hundreds of pictures. The whole point being they were watching the blood they put back in me to see if it would show were I was bleeding from.

I didn't find out till the next day that that test didn't show anything. So I was getting a little disappointed in not knowing what was going on. So more blood work they did. Ugg I am so tired of getting my blood taken. The night before it took 2 nurses over 1 1/2 hours of trying to finally get blood and it wasn't enough for all the tests so they could only run a couple of them.

So finally the next day my Dr comes in and says he knows what is wrong with me. Thank god is all I can think! He said that my platelets aren't working and that platelets are what makes your blood clot. Apparently I had been bleeding since surgery and is why I lost so much blood. Wow ok that shocked me. I was soooo happy though for a couple reasons.. 1) the meant no extra surgery to fix it 2) he finally figured it out. The not knowing was killing me. So he said I needed 2 more units of blood and 1 more bag of platelets and if my levels stablized till the next day I could finally go home. Heres the interesting part.. He said that years of taking Ibuphrofens and aspirins and things like that is the whole reason for this. I knew taking to much over time would hurt your stomach but never knew it could almost make me bleed to death!! I have been on a lot of ibuphrofen for my carpel tunnel and legs and just alot of things, plus a ton of meds for headaches over the years. Well Dr Read said that has to absolutely stop no doubt about it. Which I had to stop that because of the surgery anyway so it is ok. But I guess I am banned from that stuff for life.

Ok tired of typing for now but there it is.