robinespeland
I have been overweight for as long as I can remember. I can remember getting very overweight after my Dad died, I was 7 then, I don't think my Mom knew how to deal with me while she was going through her grief, I remember going to school that year with 2 sandwiches, cookies, chips and enough money for 2 milks (of course I alway bought chocolate milk) by the time I was 10 I weighed 150 pounds. I have been up and down my whole life, My highest weight was 225 when I started this journey, I am at 217 now, with a few changes to go through this program.
I started my journey about 8 months ago, when my friend told me about the lap band surgery her sister had. It sounded too good to be true. I had looked into gastric by pass, and my husband said no way, he was afraid of comlications it was too serious, he loved me the way I am and wasn't ready to risk my life for me to be thin. (He is very sweet). Now however, I have other issues, I have high blood pressures, high tryglicerides, and diabetes. I have also taken guardianship of my 5 year old grandson. I need to be healthy, and this new less envasive surgery seems to be the tool that I need.
I went to my pcp and discussed the surgery with him and he was very supportive. He wrote a letter to the surgeon. I have had all of my tests done except for one, it is a test that is to check for the amount of stomach acid I have, I have acid reflux and they want to make sure it won't get worse by the surgery. Apparently they put a little capsule into your asophogus (spelling??) to measure the acid for 48 hours. The hospital is out of the capsules, we are just waiting for them to get them in.
Feb 23, 2007
So a bit has happened since my original post. I called OHSU several times about the little capsule thing. They didn't call me back, so finally I called and had to get a bit firm with my Drs. office I finally got a call back from someone. NOW, they have another problem. Someone dropped one of the monitors in the toilet and they have to wait to get another one. The soonest they could get me in was March 3, this was probably around Feb 1st. Now remember after I have that test done I will probably have to wait another 6 weeks to get the next appt with the np. Well to make a long story short durring this process I lost my job (which had the insurance coverage), I now have a new job, with new insurance but guess what? They don't cover WLS. I would have to have the surgery done by the end of February. So I called back OHSU to see if they would at least pre-approve me so that I knew if I would be willing to pay $600/mo for coverage to be covered. I was told OHSU does not preapprove anybody until all the tests are done. So after much begging and some tears, I decided to do it on my own. But OHSU wasn't going to get MY money.
I checked around and found an office in Coos Bay, the Dr. there is Dr Tersigni, he is awesome. I met with him last Monday and I now have a surgery date of 3-8-07!!!!!
My son is looking at getting the time off work to go down there with me (Coos Bay is 4 hours from home. My husband can't go (that is a whole other story). Anyway I am just working out the details now and waiting......13 more days.
March 6,2007
Well my son was able to take the time off work. We will be heading to Coos Bay in the morning!!!I am so excited.
June 16, 2007
I haven't been very good at keeping this updated, so I will try to do the abbreviated version now and then do better at keeping things updated.
Eric and I drove to Coos Bay on Wednesday for my preop. appt. Had surgery Thursday, left the surgi-center about noon and went back to the motel, I slept and walked and drank water Went to the Hospital on Thursday to have a gi to make sure everything was good. It was pretty cool I could see the barium going through my system, everything looked good, I was cleared for my 4 hour drive home.
My post surgery was pretty uneventul, I had normal post op pain, went back to work on the following Monday. my only complication so far, was that I got an infection in one of my incessions, had to go on antibotics, but it cleared just fine.
6 weeks post op I went for my first followup Dr appt. I had lost 31 pounds, the dr was very happy I got my first fill of 3 cc.
Second post op visit was 7 weeks later, Gary was able to take his first day off from work in a year, e took a long weekend left Mikey with Eric and Kayley and had some long needed quiet time. This time I lost 20 pounds. Dr T didn't want to give me a fill this time because he said I was doing so well, I worked hard to change his mind, I agee that I have done well, but I am working very hard at it, I was still always hungry. I finally convinced him to give me one. this time it was 1 cc, which was perfect. It's now been about 2 weeks since my fill and it seems to be perfect. The weight loss has slowed a bit I have only lost 5 more pounds, in the 2 weeks, but that is still on track and I am totally stoked about it all. I love my band!!!!!!
Oh I forgot to mention, I haven't taken my acid reflux meds since the day of surgery, no problems since, my blood sugar is now normal, My PCP took me off my trigliceride meds and lowered my blood presure meds....Did I say I love my bank???
July 18, 2007
It's been about a month since I posted. Things have been going very smooth. I had a appt with my surgeon on Monday I have lost a total of 68 pounds as of this morning. We decided that I didn't need a fill as I am still losing consistantly and am not hungry. I feel good, and have much more energy. I went shopping last Sunday and bought a pair of size 4 jeans and they fit!!!!! and a size 6 dress, I have alway been smaller on the bottom, I have fairly large you know what, and I will probably never get smaller there than I am now. But I am happy with that! I have 12 pounds to reach my goal of 135, I am still toying with trying to get to 120, just so that I can say I've lost 100 pounds, but we'll see. I'm looking into joining a gym now so that I can tone up better, I've been walking on the treadmill and have an ablounger, just need a bit more.
On an off note work is still the pits, but I am working on options, just have to see what pans out. I am trying to keep my chin up and work my 8 hours and go home. Again I want to say I LOVE my band!,
7/26
As of today I finally made it to the 140's yahoo, I'm so excited. I am now wearing size 4 pants! I still want to get to my 135 pound range, even contemplating 120, but I don't want really want to get smaller than a 4, just want to fill em out better. I joined a gym last week and tonight I have an appt with a personal trainer to work on that filling em out better part.
Laura Nicole is making badges for us as we hit certain goals she sent me this badge today. Thank you Laura Nicole!
September 15, 2007
Oh, how I wish I was better at posting here. I have been on vacation for the last week, we decided to just get in the car and drive North into Washington without any kind of agenda....The first day we spent in Eatonville at a Wildlife park, had a great time, seeing all the animals, the 2nd day we went to the Puallyup fair, we had been told that it was the best fair around, I don't know if I say that, as a matter of fact, I kind of wish that we'd had skipped it and spent the day doing something else. Then we drove up to Seatlle had dinner on the pier (one of my favorite places, but Gary gets really stressed out in Seatlle for some reason....drove to Bellingham and took a ferry across to Victoria, had a wonderful time, spent my birthday there going through Buchart gardens, what a wonderful way to spend your birthday, took the ferry back and had a great display from mother nature, got to see killer wales, about 5 in all, it was the most beautiful experience I've ever had in my life!!!!! I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present.....spent the evening tonight looking through pictures of the trip and decided to print out pictures to start my scrapbook of my weight loss.....It truely has been an awesome journey! posted the following on the board toninght....
I just got back from vacation and was going through some of the pictures and decided that since I am only 2 pounds away from goal, I should start that scrap book that I have been planning......So, I have spent the last couuple of hours looking at the pictures that I have made myself sit through to document the journey....It is very interesting the changes, not only physically but emotionally....I can see the emotional changes in the expressions on my face, some of the early pictures I look like I am not a very happy camper, but the later ones are truely amazing.....for those of you that are just starting this journey....YES, it is worth every minute, I have said from the beginning that I love my band.....but......that doesn't even come close to my feeling.... If you had told me that I would have lost 83 pounds and wear a size 4 pants I would have told you that you were crazy.....but here I am..... WHAT A JOURNEY 
August 21,2009
So again I have to admit I am terrible at blogging, it has been 2 years sine I hve written anything here and alot has happened, I have not been the best since the last time I have written to date I am up about 18 pounds since the last post here.
On August 2 I began to have chest pains and was rushed to the hosptal with a suspected heart attack, I was hosptapitalized and ended up with an angiogram, I kept telling them that I had a lap band and thought I should see a stomach doctor, (the hospital I was at knew nothing about lap bands and my surgeon is 4 hours away) when my angiogram came out fine (trust me I'm not complaining) they just kicked me out of the hospital not even trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I made a call to my PCP as I was leaving and he refered me to a stomach specialist who got me in right away to do an upper endocopy (which probably shouldn't have been done with a filled band) I was told my band was slipped and was probably the source of the extream aneima that I had been suffering for the last month (oh, ya I forgot to mention that,my red blood count was so low that my pcp had mentioned a blood transfusion earlier) anyway I called my surgeon right away and he instructed me to get an unfill (I have another dr. who can do fills and unfills who has an office in Eugene and she comes to Portland once a month so that save me a trip to Coos Bay) So I called Dr. Kelly and she was coming to Portland, she unfilled me the same day. I now have an appointment with Dr. T in Coos Bay on Monday the 24th. for him to take a look and see if there was any damage from the slip and to see if the band has gone into place. I saw my PCP this week and he explained that when the stomach dr did the endoscopy he said that all he had to do was touch the area with the scope and it would bleed, I'm not sure if that means it is.....what do you call it....erroded......I am praying that isn't the case......for 2 reasons.....1 the band has done such good things for me. It has made me healthy. again. My heart was perfectly when they did that test, everyone in my family has had heart problems in their 40's I will be 49 next month, the cardiologist told me if I keep things up I am good for at least 5 to 7 more years! and 2. I can't afford to have it removed. I am unemployed now and I don't have insurance that will cover it. So I have been on liquids since the 2nd of August and sitting on pins and needles since the 4th, we'l see what Dr T says on Monday.......
August 26, 2009
I get to keep my band!!!! Dr. T says it looks o.k. The problem lies in the fact that I have a small band, it should hold 4 to 5 cc's and when it was unfilled 9 cc were taken out!!! omg no wonder I thought I was having a heart attack. Dr. T thinks the blood was from the scope going through a too tight band. He thinks the reason I gained weight was because I was eating food that was easy to go thorough my band (which are higher calorie) so now he wants to leave me unfilled for 4 more weeks to practice band eating (and starve lol) but the important part is the band gets to stay! So the last 3 days I've been eating good and exercising. It does help that while I was sick I lost a bit of weight it got me motivated again, I can see light at the end of the tunnel again and I know how lucky I am to have not lost my band I will be taking good care o this baby now!
