Pankakes25

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Hello everyone,  Hope that all are doing fine.  I am doing pretty good.  I have had some ups and downs over the past few months.  my thyroid meds have been going up and down depending on the bloodwork and now I have been told to not take any.  I am still losing weight.  I have gotten down to 256.5 as of this morning.  I know that my exercise program isnt doing much, since there isnt a program right now.  I have stopped exercising over the past few weeks due to lack of interest.  I dont know what is going on, but I am going to really try to get back into it.  I am feeling great though.  I have gotten down to an large or x-large shirt depending on the maker and a in 40 waist pants.  I work at a bank, so it is nice when people come in to renew a cd or something like that and haven't seen me since about 150lbs ago.  I get a little red in the face, but it is nice to hear.  things at home are going great, my daughter is 2yrs and 4mths old now.  She is a big handful.  She keeps me going with running around and playing outside.  My wife is going this month to talk to her doctor about wls.  i hope that he gives her a good review.  I will post more again later, but for now that is it.  Happy losing and good luck to everyone.

Ed

Hey everyone,

Hope you all are doing well.  I am feeling great and doing great.  I went to the NUT and the surgeon yesterday, both said that I was doing wonderful and to keep up the good work.  I am now down to 297.2 lbs.  That is a total of about 108lbs for the year, and about 49 lbs. since surgery.  I am in serious need of new clothes.  I am planning on going to a Goodwill store this weekend to see what they have.  My mother in law has been asking me what size I wear, but the truth is I don't know.  I think I am in a 46-48 waist and in a 2-3x shirt depending on the maker.  She said that she would just give me money, which would just work just fine.  My NUT said that I can add some non-starchy veggies to my diet now.  I went to Wendy's today and got a small chili.  I know that it has protein and fiber.  I was able to eat about 1/2 of it.  I drained some of the liquid out of it so that it would have more consistancy.  I have to try to do a little Christmas shopping this weekend.  I haven't had the funds to really do much.  We usually depend on my wife's bonus check, but her employer has said that they have a figure to work with, but with the economy, they don't know if they should use the whole amount or put some back for a rainy day fund.  I don't know what it will be.  Anyway, it has taken me like an hour to type this up, with customer interuptions and all. 

Have a great weekend.

Ed

Well, it's been a couple of weeks.  I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I did.  I am now 6 weeks out from surgery.  Things have been going very well.  I am still trying to get my exercise in during the week.  It has been difficult, but other than that, it's great.  I have been feeling good and not as tired and run down as I was.  Year to date, I have lost 105lbs.  That's 45 or so since surgery.  My wife and I are having our daughter's 2nd birthday party this Saturday.  It is hard to believe that she is 2 already.  We are looking to have 50 or so people.  That includes kids too.  I am excited.  As far as the bypass goes, things are going well.  I have not had any complications yet.  I did try some new mix ins with my water.  Ocean spray has a cran grape that I love.  I think that it may be giving me diarreah.  I don't know.  I will keep trying it.  It is sugar free.  Maybe it has sugar alcohols in it.  I will check the label when I get home today.  For those of you that don't like to cook too much, Hormel makes a Pork roast and a Beef roast that are pretty good.  For a small serving it has low low fat and low low carbs and somewhere around 20-23grams of protein.  It is already cooked and you just pop it in the oven for about 30mins.  It is very tender and moist.  It is great for a couple of meals.  I have tried some veggies and a bite or 2 of fruit.  I haven't had any pain or dumping that I know of.  I am eating pretty much any meat now, still eating my egg for breakfast and yogurt and cottage cheese for the protein.  I am ready to eat some small meals though.  Well, anyway, I am going for now.  Hope that everything is going fine with all of you.  Talk to you later.

Ed

Hello everyone,

Things are going good.  I have been doing great with my surgery.  I so far have lost 32lbs.  That is a total of 82lbs this year.  I feel great.  I have been trying new things daily and have not had any complications with any food.  I have not vomited or had any diarrea yet.  I hope that I don't.  The only thing is that chicken and turkey are getting a little mundane.  I can't have any fruits, veggies or starches, so that makes for limited menu.  I have been trying to just prepare things a little different at times.  I am drinking my first cup of decaf coffee since surgery today and it is delicious.  I am not a big coffee drinker, but it is nice to change it up to a little something warm.  I don't know about where you guys live, but here in NC it is COLD.  Right now it is about 30 degrees.  The wind chill brings it down to about 24 degrees.  The sun is out though and makes for a pretty day.  Here at the bank we have no walls, or cubicles so we just have sunshine pouring in from the floor the ceiling windows in our lobby.  It is very nice.  I am still trying to get my protein in daily.  I am still getting in about 60 to 70 grams.  I am having to eat high protein 4 times daily to do that, but it works.  I am having some cramps at night that are killer on the outside of my legs.  I have tried the teaspoon of mustard before I go to bed and that seems to do the trick.  Well, I hope that you all are doing well.

Have a great day.

Ed

Hey everyone, 

Hope that you are all doing well.  I am feeling really good.  I have really been working on getting in my fluids, right now I am almost getting in the required 64oz. a day.  I had to stop drinking the protein shakes.  I just could not stand them anymore.  Just the mere thought of one makes me a little nausious.  I have been able to eat 4-5 meals a day and get in the required 80grams of protein.  I have just about tried every meat except pork and beef.  I did buy some turkey tenderloins, which were already marinated in something and all I had to do was bake, broil or grill it.  I just grilled it.  It was quite delectable.  I also crumbled some turkey sausage with an egg and some skim milk for fluff, put some taco cheese on it and made a litte omelet in my xpress 101.  The little wells in the xpress101 work great for me.  I dip it in a little taco bell sauce.  The sauce is good cause of the flavor and it pretty much has nothing in it.  I haven't had any nauseau or vomiting still.  Don't know if  that will come or not, but I hope that is a phase that I will not get to.  I have my daughter's birthday coming up in December.   She will be 2.  We are going this weekend to get all the party supplies and decide what the menu will be. 

If anyone likes going to Red Lobster.  I have found that their roasted Tilapia in a bag is really good.  It comes with veggies and potatoes, but I asked the waitress to leave out everything but the fish and she did and didn't charge me full price.  I am planning on trying some shellfish, like shrimp or crab this weekend, to see how I handle it.  I feel that I am getting a pretty good feel of when I am getting full.  I have had times when I feel that maybe I have eaten too much cause I get a weird feeling in my esophogus like I need to burp, but when I try I just get a weird tight feeling.  I think it is either that I ate too much, or it is reflux.  A lady who goes to my church had her surgery on Tuesday of this week.  I think that she is coming home today.  I spoke with her yesterday and she said that she was doing really well.  She was so excited about getting to drink water.  I told her that things would be awesome after the first week.  Just to make it through and to call with any questions. 

I have been a littel peeved over the last couple of days, I weighed in this morning and have only lost 1lb this week.  I really thought that the whole a pound a day thing would still be going on.  I did talk to my NUT and she said that was completely normal and that I would probably start losing inches before I showed significant weight loss.  I think that my caloric intake right now is like 600-700 a day.  Is that normal.  I think that may actually be a high number.  Well, things are going well.  I hope that you all are having a blast and enjoying your lives.  I know I am.

Thanks for reading

Ed 

Well, things have been going pretty good.  I have had a few ups and downs emotionally.  I haven't had any nausea or vomiting.  My goal for the first week as ordered by my NUT was to get town 2 oz. of protein 5-6 times a day with trying to get down1 cup of water or fluid throughout the day.  Well, by Monday when I seen my NUT, I have been able to get down about 3-4 cups of water with the protein.  She said that was great.  She started me on my protein foods for the next 12 weeks.  I was so excited.  She didn't say anything about using a food processor.  I asked about it and she said that as long as I used a dipping sauce and if I made sure that I chewed the food very well, that I should be fine.  I started with an egg scrambled with cheese.  It went down just fine, and stayed down.  I have not had any pain.  I haven't had to take any pain meds since the day I came home from the hospital.  I go to see the surgeon today to get my staples out.  He will tell me when I get to go back to work.  So far since surgery I have lost 21lbs.  I am now on the meal plan of 4-5 meals a day.  I do either 2 shakes and 2 meals or whatever combination I want.  I am going to www.unjury.com to see what kind of shakes they have.  You can buy samples.  My NUT said that they have great shakes.  I am a little concerned that I am getting down my liquids and shakes so well.  I am scared that I have stretched out my pouch.  I was able to sit down and drink 11oz. of a protein shake in about 35 minutes.  The NUT seemed to think that would take me about 6 weeks to get to.  Am I doing too much?  Or does that seem right?  Hell, I don't know.  I just know that I was so excited to be able to eat.  I have tried deli turkery and it seems to go fine also.  Well, just thought I would send an update.  Hope that everyone is doing fine.  Talk to you later.

Ed

Hey guys,  it's been a long couple of days.  Everything went fine on Monday.  I came home today.  I am not in any pain, except for the gas.  I have never felt gas pain like this before. Warning, To much info coming up.  I have started to pass a little here and there.  Whenever I go to use the bathroom, I try to sit there for a minute and let some work it's way out.  I am getting my water and protein in pretty good.  I have to drink 2oz. of protein every 3 hours and as much water as I can get in between that.  My wounds are healing pretty good.  They aren't sore.  They get sore in the future, but for now they aren't even bothering me.  I stopped taking pain meds last night.  I haven't need to take any.  I don't know if I have lost any weight yet, my scale is at work.  I won't be going there for a couple of weeks.  I have felt pretty good.  I am a little worried about sleeping tonight in my bed.  I think that I have a wedge pillow that I can lay on.  Did anyone have any trouble sleeping flat.  I was able to stay on my back while in the hospital.  Which for one thing, the bed was so uncomfortable.  I couldn't get any grip to push myself up in the bed, and the thing had an auto adjust thing on it so if I moved around, it would deflate or inflate on pressure points.  I didn't like it.  I am glad that our couch and love seat are the reclining kind.  I have just been watching tv and trying to get up and walk around the house, here and there.  Well, I think that I will get back to resting now.  I will post later.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Ed

Hey everyone,

I finally had my last appointments before surgery today.  Man to they put you through the ringer.  I had to go the the hospital, which has been probably the best experience yet.   The anesthesia department was so nice.  They were very happy to answer any questions and gave great details.  I only had to give a little blood.  No xrays or EKGs for me today.  I have to be at the hospital at 5:15am on Monday.  I am pretty much at peace with all of this.  I haven't felt any doubt or any 2nd thoughts in a long time.  I have come this far, I am going all the way.  I hope that everyone is doing good.  I will try to post again before surgery, but if I don't, pray for me and hope for a speedy recovery. 

Thank you all for your support and answers to my many questions. 

Ed

Hey everyone,

Hope that you all are doing well.  I had my preop consult with Dr. Newman on Friday the 3rd.  He said that things were looking good.  My wife went with me and I think that she asked more questions than I did.  Which is good, cause I tend to forget them.  I had changed my insurance back in June to a PPO 100.  I knew that by doing that I wouldn't have anywhere near as much out of pocket expense with the surgery.  I had to pay my copay and deductible to Central Carolina surgery and I thought that was all I would have to pay.  I got a phone call earlier today and found out that I have to pay $300.00 to the hospital for their copay.  They also told me that they have to have all currently due bills paid before they can admit me in the hospital.  I had some labs and other tests done a couple of months ago, and I have a bill with them for 221.41.  So that means that I have to pay them both by tomorrow in order for them to admit me into the hospital on the 20th.  I have to come up with 521.41 by tomorrow, that sucks.  I think that I can get it scrounged up though.  Borrow from Peter to pay Paul, you know! 

I have been doing my preop diet since Monday.  It hasn't been to bad.  I tried to start with the premade Atkins shakes from Walmart, but you only get 4 for like 5.50 or so.  I decided that I would buy the big container of the powder and just mix.  I found one with 26g of Protein per scoop with 3g of carbs.  I think that is just awesome.  I tried to fix it with water, but it was really nasty.  It made me gag when drinking.  I then tried it with skim milk, that was a great improvement.  I add a little ice to make it frothy.  After surgery, can you have skim or soy milk with the protein shakes, or does that depend on if your lactose intolerant after or not?  I don't know.  I will write that down for the NUT.  I might just go back to the prepared shakes by Atkins after surgery, since one will last me all day.  Let me know what you all done.  I have just been doing 2 cups of lettuce and 1/2 cups of veggies, like cucumber or tomatoes.  I bought some Balsamic Vineagrette dressing.  I had never tried it before, but I actually like it.  That is what I have been doing for my meals everyday.  I know that it will probably get a little mundane by the 19th, but that is when I do my bowel prep, so I won't be eating that day.   Well, I am going for now.  I hope that everyone is doing well.  Good luck and have a blessed day!!!!

Ed

Hello all,

I met with the nutritionist this morning, she said that she was proud of my weight loss so far.  She gave me my preop diet schedule.  It pretty much consists of 3 protein shakes and a salad with veggies and lean protein.  She gave me a warning about it putting me Ketosis.   She told me to expect to have severely bad breath.  It seems simple enough.  She also mentioned to me that she wanted me to get my self to drink up to an 8oz glass of water once a day with my 2 oz of protein shakes(5-6) during the first week after surgery.  I start my preop diet on Monday the 6th.  She said that the first 3 days will be the worst, but that I will make it through.  Not much else is going on, I hope you all are doing fine.  Good luck with everyone's surgeries.