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Wow, I've now lost 51 pounds.  It is such an incredible feeling. I knew this would happen, but somehow I never expected to experience how great it feels.  Strange, but true.

Yippee!!  Today, I'm now at 49 pounds lost.  That's 49 pounds!  How incredible.  I didn't expect to get here this fast!  Now that 50 pounds is right around the corner, I'm really psyched!  I could never imagine losing this kind of weight, and I'm still really at the beginning of my whole losing period.  I'm 2 1/2 months out from surgery, and already a little more than halfway to my goal weight of 115.  Oh Happy Day!

Well, what do you know?  Things are looking better all the time.  I'm officially at 46 pounds lost, and I feel incredible!  

At work today, I was talking to a good friend, and in the middle of my sentence, she got this funny look on her face.  She said "I hate to interrupt you like that, but I just got this glimpse of what you are going to look like skinny, and you aren't far off".   It was a nice moment.  I don't think I mind interruptions like that at all!  

Things have been a bit frosty around here lately.  We got a huge ice storm in Oklahoma last Friday, and there is STILL ice everywhere.  My daughter's school has been closed ALL WEEK, and will be closed tomorrow as well.  More good news, we are expecting a big snow storm the day after tomorrow.  I'm beginning to wonder if my child will ever return to school.  I know it's only first grade, but I thought it was important all the same.  Her daycare has only been opened for limited hours, and that means my husband and I both have to leave work early to pick the kids up.  I hope this ends soon!

I went through my closet last week, and I pulled out 3 1/2 garbage bags full of clothes that no longer fit.  It's the first time ever I've gotten rid of clothes for being too big!  I hauled it all to my support group meeting, and everything went like hot cakes.  I don't miss the clothes at all!  I now have a lot more room in my closet, which is great.  I've been able to organize my closet so my sweaters, dresses, skirts, office attire, jeans, pants, and casual wear are all together.  It sure makes getting dressed each morning a lot easier.  I'm now wearing things I haven't worn in 2 years and more!  It is such an awesome feeling.  My co-workers continue to be super-supportive.  They are always telling me how great I look, how I am just melting away.  Can a person ever get tired of hearing this?  I'm not sure I ever could!

I have now officially lost more weight than ever before.  At 46 pounds, that is 3 pounds more than I lost on Weight Watchers a couple of years ago.  It took me 9 months to lose it then, and only 2 1/2 to do it with WLS.  I am so thankful for the opportunity to have had this done.  

Well, that's all for now, I hope you all are safe and warm wherever you are, and your children are being well educated!  

:) Staci

Wow, I have now officially lost 40 pounds, in just two months!  Tomorrow is my official 2 month surgiversary, and I'm pretty darn happy about it. I bought a new pair of jeans recently in a size 16 (Levi's, and they run small), and a pair of slacks in a size 14.  It's really exciting to have people tell you how slim you are getting.  I had a co-worker tell me that the other day, then she said "I'm sorry, are you getting sick of hearing that?".  NO WAY, how can you get sick of hearing about how great you look?  I am just really looking forward to what the future months will bring.  I'm really excited about summertime and what I may be potentially wearing by then. I'm hoping to be wearing cute tank tops and/or sleeveless shirts.  I'm not expecting shorts just yet, but you never know!  I haven't worn shorts in years and don't even think I currently own any!  I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.

I got the lab results back on my kidney stone, and it was a calcium oxolate stone.  My doctor and I came to the conclusion it was actually result of my being dehydrated.  I'm just having a difficult time getting much water down.  My stomach just doesn't tolerate it very well.  I can't drink it cold, and don't like it warm, so I have to get it when it has just lost it's cool and is on it's way to warm.  It's a weird thing to try to achieve that kind of balance, but it's SO important that I do.  I've been getting in a little bit more water during the course of the day--I have to force myself to drink it.  I convince myself I'll drink a certain amount out of the bottle before a certain time passes on the clock!

Happy New Year!

So, after a good heavy dose of morphine, I was beginning to feel human again, and they came and took me for x-rays, then I got to hang out in the hall for a while on my gurney (always nice to be exposed to the world).  After a little while, they put me in my own "ER room".  I got more morphine, checked out by the nurse, given some more anti-nausea medication and some kind of IV anti-inflammatory, then off I went for a CT scan.

After a couple of hours it was determined that I had a kidney stone.  I got up to go to the bathroom, and my urine looked like coffee, it was SO dark!  Apparently this was blood in my urine from passing the kidney stone.  I was given another dose of morphine and then sent home for the night.  I was there for a total of six hours.  For the next two days I had to strain my urine through a small funnel shaped strainer the hospital gave me.  

I will say, without a doubt, it is the worst thing I have EVER experienced!  I pray no-one reading this will ever go through what I did.  I pray none of you ever have to experience that kind of pain.  I've had gall bladder attacks (eventually had it removed at age 29), given birth to two children, and I've never experienced pain this bad!  My doctor's office took the naughty little stones and sent them off to a lab in California to be analyzed.  I was told they were probably caused by either excess calcium or excess uric acid.  I love to drink milk, so I just know they are going to say it's the calcium.  Darn it all!

Well, I'll add more later when I know what it is!

OH, almost forgot, I've lost 33 pounds to date (since 10/25/06, which is when I started my pre-op liquid diet!).

Well, the last few days have certainly been eventful!  I've been busy as a bee trying to get organized for Christmas and get all my shopping done, while at the same time keeping track of all of the dates for activities and events for my family.  

Last week was a bit rough.  My two year old came home from daycare with pink eye.  We took her to after hours care so we could go ahead and get her started on eye drops, thus shortening the time we would have to take off work to stay home with her until she was no longer contagious.  My husband stayed home with her the first day, and I stayed with her the second day.  I laid her down for a nap, and since I hadn't been feeling all that great myself, I decided to take a nap too.  I woke up a couple of hours later in the worst pain imaginable!  I tried changing positions to see if it would go away or feel a little less painful, but nothing helped.  I got out of bed and immediately began to feel nauseous and ran to the bathroom to throw up.  Interestingly, throwing up is nothing like it used to be--it's not the big production it once was....instead of a big yucky mess, it's mostly just saliva, and some of it was "foamy".  

I called my husband to come home and had a friend come and get the children, and off we went to the Emergency Room.  The first mistake we made was in our choice of hospitals.  We went to St Francis Hospital, and they had the longest wait in their ER.  None of the staff there seemed to give a care at all and they just kept turfing me to one desk or another for my insurance card, or info about my history.  

At this point, I didn't have any idea what was going on, and I was afraid it may have something to do with my recent RNY surgery.  I mentioned to them more than once that I was a recent post-surgical WLS patient, thinking it might help to spur them along, but it didn't help.  After throwing up multiple times more, I finally went to the front desk and stood there and just cried and sobbed out loud.  I felt like the world's biggest baby, but I could not help myself.  I was shaking uncontrollably, and in the worst pain I have ever felt.  FINALLY, they told me to go on inside.  If it hadn't been for my bawling outburst, I don't think they would have ever gotten to me. 

After a good heavy dose of morphine, the pain began to subside, and I was SO thanfkul.

Well, I realize it's been a couple of weeks since I posted last, so here I am again.  I've had some small "wow" moments lately.  I've noticed I am now able to wear some rings I have not been able to wear for the past couple of years.  I have one beautiful silver band ring in particular that I am especially happy to be wearing again.

I pulled a pair of jeans out of my closet a couple of days ago, and after I had them on, I wondered if they had shrunk a little because they were a tiny bit snug.  Come to find out, they were 2 sizes smaller than what I've been wearing.  I had been in a size 20 jeans, and these are a size 16!  I wore them all day and they were extremely comfortable!  Today I tried on some slacks that are a 16p and they fit great too!  I was concerned I wouldn't have much to wear on my way down, and now I'm finding gold in my closet!  

I was doing some shopping the other day at Target, and as I was walking to the checkout, my underwear began to fall down.  By the time it was my turn to check out, they were completely down around my knees.  I'm thankful I was wearing slacks, or they would have been down around my ankles.  The crotch of the pants is the only thing that kept them from going any further down!  I'd heard about things like this happening to people in the past, and I really laughed about it then.  It's all different when it's happening to you!  So far I have lost 26 pounds.  I'm really happy with that loss up to this point.  I can see a difference in my face, hands, shoulders, and belly.  

I haven't really been able to eat much lately.  I really never feel hungry, but I feel thirsty all the time.  I particularly prefer drinking milk, and the colder the better.  I like to put it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes beforehand, and it is perfect when I'm ready for it.  Water doesn't go down as well as milk, so I'm not drinking enough of it.  I've tried the Crystal Light sugar free drink mixes, as well as some of the generic brands and at this point they still just seem too sweet to me.  I will post some new pictures soon.

So much has happened since my last post.  It's not that I've actually done or experienced much since then other than being a hermit at home!  I've gotten out and about a couple of times, but seem to overdo it and spend too much time away from home.

I have been feeling pain in my left side, kind of in the side and back.  I was really worrying about it last night, because I had been out running errands for hours and then went to my daughter's girl scout meeting last night.  

I had my first post-op appt with my surgeon today, and he told me that one of the incisions on the left of my abdomen, where they actually put the camera and stapler in, runs right on a nerve, and when the incision is irritated, it can cause pain in the left side.  I was so relieved to hear that I hadn't damaged myself somehow! 

I've lost 20 pounds so far.  I count from when I started my pre-op liquid diet on 10/25.  I'm happy with this number!  I haven't really noticed many changes in my clothing just yet.  My waist doesn't seem any smaller than it did, and the waistband of my pants still seems exactly the same.  However, I have noticed that my face is thinner, which is really wonderful.  I really noticed it strongly this morning when I was putting on my makeup.  I am beginning to see big changes there.  

I also noticed my fingers seem a bit smaller.  I am now able to wear a silver ring that I haven't worn in years.  It was too tight before, which caused my fingers and hand to hurt, but now, it fits nicely and doesn't bother me at all.  

I also slipped on a pair of shoes I wear constantly, but hadn't really worn since my surgery on 10/30.  They were pretty loose, and I was taken aback by that!  They are slip-on sandals, brown leather, and I noticed they weren't as snug as before.  I may  need to tighten the strap on them! 

What else....let's see, I've also noticed a slight change in the way my shirts fit.  I think my boobs have gotten a little bit smaller, and on the side of my chest, kind of under my arms seems smaller.  My shirts are definitely fitting better!  I don't know why I equate weight loss to a bigger waistband, but it will be nice when that does change.  When I look in the mirror and stand sideways, I can see a change in the size of my stomach that way!  

I'm really excited to see what the next couple of weeks will bring in the way of these changes! 

November 2, 2006

Well, I'm home.  I had my surgery on Monday, October 30th at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa OK.  Everything went off without a hitch.  I was going to be released the next day on Tuesday, but I asked my surgeon to let me stay an extra day, because I just wasn't feeling very steady yet.  I have about 6 new holes in me.  There are about 5 incision, and a hole from the drain.  I can hardly allow myself to look at it, since I am easily grossed out when it comes to looking at myself!  My surgeon Dr. Kevin Fisher was very nice.  When my surgery was over, he went to the waiting room to speak to my family and tell them everything had gone well, and he had tested for leaks and found none. 

He did say that he biopsied my liver and will want to remove part of it in 4-5 months when I have healed completely and lost 40-50 pounds.  I'm so upset about this.  I was really hoping that having the RNY would ultimately prevent me from needing any type of surgery on my liver.  After having just spent two days in the hospital and then coming home to a rowdy, post Halloween household, I don't have a lot of pain except for gas pains.  My stomach and chest are still so full of gas that it really hurts.  I especially feel it when I get up from having been sitting or laying down.   While I was in the hospital, there were nurses and nurse techs in and out of my room on a constant basis.  They routinely checked my blood sugar levels, gave me breathing treatments, checked my blood pressure and even drew blood gasses.  I wasn't too keen on that when the unfamiliar nurse stepped into my room to tell me she would be doing that.  She said it was going to hurt and would likely leave a bruise.  Amazingly enough, it was a real cinch.  She got in there on the first try (Thank God for IV fluids), and it didn't even hurt.  I also do not have a bruise as a result.  I have to say the morphine pump I was on probably didn't hurt anything.  I just talked to my husband about that experience, and he said she didn't get it on the first try and had to dig around a little.  Thankfully, my memory of it is very different from his first-hand account! 

I had shots in my stomach routinely of a blood thinner, and Pepcid shots.  I was put on oxygen for my entire stay because my blood oxygen levels were low.  I had a heart monitor that was kept in the front pocket of my hospital gown with 10 different wires running all over, attached to electrodes in different spots on my body.  They were really careful and took such good care of me.  My nurses were Janna and Teresa, and my techs were Jo and Cheryl.  When I was getting ready to check out of the hospital, my tech Cheryl told me she was sorry to see me go since I was such a great patient.  She was certain the next patient wouldn't be as great as me.  That was awfully sweet of her to say.  I noticed at different times during my stay I could hear a man yelling in the room next to me.  I couldn't always make out what he was saying, but at one point I heard him yell "Get out, just get out of here!".  I wonder what the heck was going on with him!

Since I've been home, things have been rather surreal.  The pain medication prescribed by my surgeon came in the form of some really big horse pills! My good friend Trish rushed right out and got me a pill splitter so I could take one.  So far, I've only taken the one, and don't really feel a need for another.  I've had difficulty getting them down, even in small pieces.  I know that I will feel stronger in the next few days.  I nap a lot during the day.  I get up and around and visit with my family, even sit up for hours at a time, then go back and rest for 3-4 hours.  Last night I could not get comfortable in the bed.  I am a side sleeper, and the surgery pretty much demands that you sleep on your back for a while.  I finally got up around 4:00 am and went and slept on our recliner.  It felt a lot better on my back and stomach to be sitting up to a degree.  Well, I'm ready to turn in again, this time for the night, but I'll add more soon.

 

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