Naomi236

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So, I'm celebrating, mostly in my head.

Starting weight before surgery and my highest weight was 248 lbs. With a trainer and following doctor's orders prior to surgery, I lost 10 lbs. Had surgery on July 1, 2010 weighing about 238. I weighed myself this morning, the day after Christmas and I am now at about 168! Yipppeeeeee!

It has been a long hard road so far; a path on which I really struggled initially. I had minor complications with my incision after 3-4 weeks. Was still frustrated about what I could and couldn't eat 2 months in. A wrong turn at a burger joint put me in the hospital emergency room. I had another surgery to remove an incisional hernia at around 3 months. Then I began to suffer from unexplainable, extremely horrid digestive pain until I finally discovered around 4 months out that I am lactose intolerant.

I am experiencing ketosis most days, which is a good thing, as I try to work out at least twice a week and focus on eating a diet high in proteins. My body looks amazing and I'm very proud of myself.

The shopping has been a little difficult as I transition into newer sized clothes every 3-4 weeks. Down to a 14-16, but even those are getting too big now.

I don't know where I will land, but my closest friends are estimating that I will drop another 30 lbs by my 1-year anniversary. We'll see. Excited. A little scared. But mostly optimistic about the new lease on life this surgery has given me. Hoping I can stick with my nutrition requirements, which have become harder lately. Keeping my head up as I look towards the new year with fresh ideas about what I want to do with my life.

Signing out...

Naomi

So, I'm at a professional development conference this week in Virginia. It began this afternoon (Sunday) and goes until Saturday.

I'm still on a soft diet a little over 3 weeks out from surgery. I e-mailed the coordinators to inform them of my dietary restrictions way ahead of time. Tonight at dinner they served stuffed chicken with some rich sauce on the side along with tiny red potatoes and asparagus. After discussing it with one of the coordinators, they brought me a vegetarian dish instead, but it included the same potatoes and asparagus with a pastry stuffed with pepperjack cheese and sauteed zuchini, mushrooms and tomatoes. And the same rich sauce was on the bottom of the pastry.

Now in my old life, either of these meals would have been worthy of my attention, but my sensitive stomach just couldn't handle it. I tried to pick at the pastry and eat just the veggies. I ate three of the tiny red potatoes. Before that, I got the kitchen staff to bring me a fat free poppyseed dressing for the side salad, of which I only ate 3 tiny green lettuce pieces and one roma tomato. I don't know which part of the meal was responsible, but at the Dessert reception following dinner (at the university president's home) I was suddenly ill. I was schmoozing with a fellow participant when I broke out into a nausea spell/hot flash. I told her... "I have to sit down." She led me quickly to a chair in the other room of the president's home and she was nice enough to call the coordinator. Unfortunately, I did not have my nausea pills in my purse (I could kick myself). But this is still trial and error for me. I knew coming to the South for a week-long conference where someone else was responsible for my food would be a challenge. I almost felt already defeated and started to cry as the coordinator went to bring a car around to take me back to my room. But I got some tissue to dry my tears and got back to the room feeling much better 20 minutes later.

Oh well. Just another day after g-byp I guess. I'm somewhat embarrassed. Especially when people start asking questions: "Are you alright?" Will I have to keep explaining why I can't eat the same food as others? (At least until I graduate to regular foods). If I dump again, how many others will ask, "What's wrong?"

Anyway. The hosts of the conference seem to be more informed after tonight about what will happen if I don't get the right kind of food in my system.

Here's hoping for a better tomorrow.

-Naomi

I'm 2 week post-op. The surgery went well, but I’ve been chastised by my doctors for not keeping with the prescribed, daily regimented nutrition and hydration. I’ve had to go to the hospital twice already to be hydrated and had to call 911 once last week when my incision began to drain. I didn't let them take me to the local hospital though. I called the doctor from the surgeon's office who was on-call and was told that some drainage was normal for my open RNY. So I sucked it up until I was able to go in for my 2-week post-op appointment three days later. The P.A. put me on an anti-biotic.

One major issue that has emerged is about Omeprazole, a prescribed antacid. I realized after I got home that the pharmacy gave me a delayed release version of Omerprazole with enteric coating. I've been arguing with the surgeon's office staff about the fact that I shouldn't be taking anything delayed release or with enteric coating. Apparently they have been prescribing this for a long time, without checking to see that they were prescribing the correct version of the pills. There are not too many options it seems for an immediate release antacid for RNY patients. So, I've been told to keep taking it until they can figure out a better option. The delayed release will only be partially effective in preventing ulcers, but some protection is better than none.

So, anyway, if I don’t get on top of things, the surgeon may not allow me to return to work at all in August. I've been told that not hydrating well will cause me to eventually become lethargic. So as long as I don't meet the 64 oz fluid requirement, I will continue to be sent to the hospital for hydration.

So...... today, I did well. For the first time I made my protein quota today and I think I may make the fluid quota too. Yeah! Let's see if I can do it again tomorrow.

Here's hoping on better tomorrows.

Naomi

Well, surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. This is it. I'm going in.

Nerves have settled now. The decision is final. We'll see.

Finally!

It took me being patient to wait until the new year. Then the insurance folks inaccurately entered our group plan info in their computers. So, they claimed at first that bariatric surgery was a direct exclusion. But we got it all worked out and I got word that I was approved today. Sweet!

Now, I have to be patient some more. I probably can't have surgery until the end of June. I need to give myself 4-6 weeks to recover and that's the only time at which I might be able to do that.

Praying that this all works out in the end.

My goal: by Christmas 2010, I will have lost 70 pounds after surgery.

Yesterday afternoon, I talked with 2 different co-workers about each of their weight loss surgery experiences. One had lap band done and the other did DS. They were both advocates for their unique surgeries, but I wasn't convinced I wanted to switch out of my plan to have RNY. Nevertheless, I got an idea from one of these fine ladies to join this website.

Later that night after sitting at the computer, mulling through this site and thinking about the surgery for a few hours, I thought: "What would I even look like smaller?" The thought was mostly sparked by a brief conversation I had in live chat on obesityhelp.com. When I informed the chat room that I planned to have RNY and that I sought to lose about 70 pounds, one of the women responded by saying that she thought I would be a better candidate for lap band and that RNY was really for people who wanted or needed to lose 100+ lbs.

I haven't actually been scheduled for surgery yet. I'm waiting til Jan 1 on my new insurance card and new insurance options to kick in with a zero deductable and lower out-of-pocket for in-patient procedures. So I have 3 weeks left to just sit and wait :-(. I'm not sure what I will do in this time frame to keep from going crazy.

Anyway, the point of my writing today is to say that the chat session response I got from a fellow member, made me think perhaps, I've been in denial about how my weight has affected me. When I look in the mirror, I don't really see an extremely obese person. However, over the last 2 years I noticed shopping for clothes became more and more difficult. I finally gave in sometime last year and starting shopping seriously at Lane Bryant. But still, most of their stuff doesn't work for me in terms of style and cut. But I did find a few good pairs of jeans.

So, I always thought of myself as curvy and sexy, not obese. So I did an internet search last night to see if I could find a website that could help me figure out what I would look like thinner. And I did find a couple. The one I chose was weightview.com. I took a picture of myself with my webcam, wearing long black tights and a singlet and submitted it to the site. A few hours later, I got my photoshopped picture back and I declare, it was pretty shocking. I printed out both the before photo and after photo and taped them up in my home office. Even now, I keep staring at them.

I am curvy. I wear a 40G bra and a 22W in jeans. Still, it never really sunk in that I was extremely obese. Even after my sisters looked horrified to see me after 7 years, when I went to visit them in 2008. I don't know. The before picture... I know it's me... it's how I look, but it's not that bad. But I also know I haven't had a date in a while... I don't seem to be catching anything with my current fish hooks ;-). However, the after picture, which makes me look about 25-40 lbs. lighter, still looks weird. I mean, it looks great, but I can tell this new image of myself might take some getting used to. Whatever happens with the surgery next year, I'm glad I'm doing this now. Perhaps if I keep looking at it I might get more accustomed to the idea of this new self.