Nicole998

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Wow I can hardly believe 2 years have passed since my RNY.  I have lost 118 lbs.  I weighed 291 when I went in for surgery and 173 now.  My goal is 170 and the closest I have come to that is 170.8 LOL so, I can't count it.  So much has changed.  I live in Florida now with my husband and daughter.  Randy built me a beautiful pool with a gorgeous deck that I try to use at least once a day.  I love the sunshine and I love my new body.  I have 2 bikinis now....and I wear them LOL!  I am a size 12 and very very happy with that.  I am going to post some pictures for those just starting out.  My befores are already on here.  There are some down sides, I have to get iron transfusions twice a year now and my blood pressure is always very low.  I have to take prevacid everyday because I am prone to ulcers now.  People ask me if I would do it again....my answer is yes, in a heartbeat!  I don't regret my decision one bit.
Thanks to everyone for sticking by me and following my progress
Take care,

 I just got my century card!!  Kathleen Screen was so sweet to make this for me, thank you so much!!
Now let me see if I can add it in here

What a difference a year makes!!  On 7/31/08 I celebrated my one year surgiversary.  I am down 105lbs.  I feel great.  It is late right now so I am going to try to post some pics and then come back and post some more information. 

     Hey everyone!  As of 10/12/2007 I am down 50 pounds!!  I feel a little more energetic.  I am working out 5-6 times a week.  A lot has happened this month.  We sold our house, we're now in a rental,  My dh decided to retire so his last day is the end of this month and we have paid off our car and truck.  Looks like we are Florida bound at the end of Bree's school year (June).
     I have been feeling tired and cold so I had my family doc run some tests...my hemoglobin was 'slightly low' and my iron is low.  I am going to buy an iron supplement today and hopefully that will help.
I am comfortably wearing an 18/20 pants.  When I went in I was wearing a 24 but I was in serious denial!!  Those 24's were tight
     That's my update for now, work has been crazy busy and about to get a lot busier sooooooooooo off I go.  Take care

As of September 30, 2007 I have lost 41 lbs.    In early September I pulled a muscle around the 'large' incision site and had to stay off 2 more weeks so I returned to work on 9/24. The first day was AWFUL!!  I was so tired.  The whole week was really hard.  I was going to bed between 6:30 and 8 all week long.  
My incision sites are healing nicely, they are pretty small.  I have a lot more energy now, my first week back to work I worked out 4 out of the 5 days.
OMG, right before I went back to work we sold our house and moved!!  Well (Randy pretty much moved everything) but I did enough to drain me.  It was quite a month.
I just remembered that I forgot to take my measurements, I will do that tonight.

Well, as of today 8/31/07 I have lost 31 lbs.!!  Wow, 31 pounds in a month.  Pretty amazing.  Of course, I gained 30 pounds when I quit smoking in October so, I am back to my October size
More to come..................................

Friday August 10th is my first follow up appointment.  I am sooooooooooooo sick of broth at this point I swear if someone offers me some I will kick their teeth in.
We do a lot of talking about nutrition and water.  At this point I am not able to get in 64 oz. of water a day.  I am averaging about 40-45oz.  my urine is a good color though;so I am happy.
I get on the scale and lo and behold...I have lost 21lbs.  WHAT???  Yup, seriously, 21 pounds down in 10 days.  Absolutely incredible.  4 more days until I start pureed food I am getting sick of pudding and soft foods. I can eat 1/2 Cup of broth but only 1/3 cup of soft foods like pudding and yogurt. I am still wearing the binder and this was my first time in a car since the surgery.

We arrived at Harper Hospital at 10:00am Tuesday July, 31st. I had been told that my surgery would be between 10:30 and noon.  Quite a spread in time but better than the cable company's right??
My loving husband and daughter were right by my side.  They took me back for prep about 10:45am.  I laid there for quite some time.  They brought Randy and Bree back about 11:30 or so...Bree was a little taken aback by all the tubes and stuff so she started crying . (I found out later that these poor babies had been sitting in the waiting room listening to horror stories from 2 former gastric bypass patients) I showed her that I was still okay and she left feeling better.  Then, they told me that my surgery had been pushed back due to someone having complications...after about an hour and a half I started having real anxiety and thinking 'omg is this a sign?' So, the nice people in pre-op gave me something to relax and I don't remember anything else until I was wheeled to my room and the nightmare of my care at the hospital began.

*Day 1- I was wheeled into my room at about 7:45pm.  My blood sugar was 450 and I was sooooooo thirsty and weak.  Remember;I had not had anything by mouth for almost 24 hours now.  When we arrived in my room the gentlemen asked me if I could scoot from the bed I was on onto the bed in the room.  I tried but fell back.  He paged the nurse who arrived about 5/6 minutes later and he says "she says she can't move herself"  the nurse replies "why can't she?" with a very nasty tone.  Now, I am laying here in nothing but their big surgery robe and she says "go on, scoot your butt, now scoot your shoulders......................."and she stood there and did this while I slowly moved myself onto the bed.  My nightgown was up the poor older gentleman who transported me turned his head (thank you).  It didn't end there though, I asked her about some insulin because when your sugar is high you are very, incredibly thirsty and I was still going another day with nothing by mouth.  She tells me there is not even an order for insulin..........we go back and forth and she finally calls the doctor.  After the injection I ask her if she's going to come back to ensure that it worked.  She says "No, we only do blood sugar tests before breakfast lunch and dinner unless there is a specific order."  OMG, people it gets much worse from here....................I am not going to put it all in here.
It ended up the next day Randy and I got out my insulin pump and started regulating my blood sugars ourselves.  They left me in a binder that left cuts in my skin (even though someone had dropped off a larger one and just set it in the room).  I waited way past the acceptable times for pain medication...really it just went on and on.
I had to stay an extra day and by Thursday night these people had me a simpering, crying mess.  I was not myself at all.  However, by Friday, I had found myself again and I was P!ssed!  I called my surgeon and started giving him all kinds of grief about my care, he in turn called the Bariatric Program Coordinator who was in my room within 10 minutes of my surgeons phone call.  I spoke with him and he took everything I said down and said he would make a concerted effort to ensure that this does not happen again.  They also gave us free water bottles and gift cards to Target.

**I don't want pre-ops to be scared off by this post.  I want you to be informed.  At the time of this post the Program Coordinators name is Don Gulish, if you receive bad treatment you should call him at 313-966-5213.  I should have told my surgeon sooner about the treatment I was receiving and it would have been dealt with.  Dr. Wood was phenomenal; my incisions are tiny and healing up very nicely.
** Also, I personally know 4 other women who have had the surgery at Harper Hospital and their experiences were wonderful.  Harper Hospital has a center of excellence status.

I began making my appointments and they went like this;

*May 23rd-  Psych evaluation.  This was funny because I had to take the MMPI which is what patients where I work have to take.  Then when I finished with that I sat down with the psych. for about an hour chatting.

*May 31st- I needed a letter of support from my family doctor.  I was very nervous because he is a little old fashioned and I was afraid he would not support my decision.  I worried for no reason he supported me 100% and dictated the letter with me sitting right there.  He confirmed my 'failed attempts' at weight loss and provided the necessary weights for the past 2 years.

*June 6th- My consult with Dr. Wood, it went really well.  I went in with a list of about 25 questions and he answered most of them during his presentation.  My weight at this consultation was 295lbs.

*June 8th- I get a call from Dr. Wood's office to tell me that I have H-Pylori and need to go on antibiotics for 2 weeks and then I will need a scope to make sure it's gone.

*June 25th-  Happy Birthday to me!!  We are camping right now but I have to go to Harper Hospital today and get the scope done to make sure the H-Pylori is gone.

*July 2nd- NO H-Pylori....yeah  I have a surgery date of July 24th.

*July 11th- starting to feel really bad.  I have a sore throat, super bad cough and it seems to be getting worse.  I go to the doctor and I have bronchitis! Great right???  I go on a bunch of different meds...I end up moving my surgery date back a week.

*July 29th- I begin the liquid diet today, it isn't too bad.
*July 30th- I am a crazy whiner!!  I am so hungry by the end of this day I feel like throwing something.  I don't know how people do this for weeks!!  Today I also did the bowel prep...OMG that stuff was seriously nasty.

*July 31st- Day of Surgery is finally here and I am scared to death

Oh, this was going to be tough.  How am I going to convince my husband that this is the answer for me??  Well, I researched and researched and had documents and others stories from this site.  
I sat down and said something like; I love you and I know you don't agree with this but, this is the decision I have made and I would love for you to support me.  I told him things that up until that moment had only been in my head...for example; I said every morning when I wake up I feel like I put on a fat suit.  It hurts my heart that I cannot shop in a regular store, I have to shop at the 'Big Girls' store.  There was much more that I should have written down but didn't.  By the time I was done I was bawling and he said okay honey.