The Incredible Shrinking Pooh
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2003

August 31, 2003

Wow, I meant to update this thing better but I guess I have done a poor job! LOL! Lets see.....I had my seminar appointment with Dr. Freeman on July 17th. I was very impressed with him and his staff. I was weighed and my sugar check and a sonogram of my gallbladder and liver was taken. We learned all about the surgery and met Dr. Freeman and were told what to expect. After, they sent a 4 page letter to my insurance company for pre-approval. My insurance company is BC/BS and I was approved after 2 weeks. I had to have a psych evaluation but that is all and it wasn't too bad. We mostly talked about her decorations in her office! LOL! My pre-admittance testing and pre-op doctors visit were scheduled for August 20th. The tests were not bad, but I had difficulty giving a urine sample. What do they expect when they tell you not to eat or drink for two hours before hand???!!! They pre-op visit with Dr. Freeman was great, it was done as a group setting so I got to meet a lot of people who were also having the surgery the same week I was. We all took down each others phone numbers so we could keep in touch. My surgery was scheduled for August 26th. I had to be there at 5 am!! Whew, that was a tuffy when you live an hour away!! I went in and everything went very smoothly. I was only in the OR about 45 minutes and then off to recovery. As soon as I started waking up I was whisked to my private room on the 8th floor. They had a very unique bed called a Baricare that allowed you to bring the bed up to a sitting position so as to not cause you too much pain getting in and out. Thanks heavens for that! I stayed hooked to a monitor for the first 24 hours and was not allowed anything to drink. The next morning I was taking for a leak test (that is some more nasty tasting stuff you have to swallow!) and checked out AOK! They then gave me a purple popsicle which was the best thing I have ever had! LOL! I only used my pain meds three times while I was in the hospital. All the nurses were shocked. I got to come home August 28th. I have very little pain now, just more of a discomfort. I am drinking my water and getting it all in but am just not interested in any broth or jello or anything. I do force myself to drink some broth in the mornings so I can take my medication. I came home with a drain tube on each side and am scheduled to go to the doctor on 9-2-03 to have those removed along with the staples. I am really not looking forward to this! Oh yea, I weighed while I was in the hospital and I was already down to 358 yeah!!! I will update after my drain removal to see what my official weight loss is. I am feeling great and very satisfied with the outcome so far. Haven't had a single problem. Thank you Jesus!!

9-26-03
Went Tuesday (9-23-03) for my one month check up. Guess how much I lost......37 pounds in one month! Well, acutally 42 all together if you count from my first consultation visit. Dr. Freeman was tickled to death. He said I lost more than he did his first month! Got a big hug and a kiss on the cheek from him. He is just the sweetest man! I don't go back to see him again until November for my three months check up. I have no scales so no way to weigh between now and then! I am going to go crazy! I still have had no problems. I did froth twice, once on a calcium pill and once on some ham. I have discovered that pork is no longer my friend. My pouch doesn't seem to like it. Tried some ham and tried some sausage and neither one were well tolerated. Think I will stay away from pork for a while longer. Chicken and fish go down fine with no problems. I was a sunflower seed addict before surgery but hadn't touched them since because I figured they were a no-no. I asked Dr. Freeman and he said go ahead and eat them, they have protein! I was tickled to death! I can have my favorite again! Also said I could drink coffee now. Thank goodness!! Was missing my morning cup! LOL! I'll update more when I have more news!

10-11-03
Meant to post this before now, but completely got swamped and forgot. My surgeon, Dr. Bryan Freeman, hosted a Bariatric Ball for all of his patients on October 4th. It was formal to semi-formal and held in the poshest hotel in the area. It was absolutely beautiful! Dr. Freeman opened up the evening by praying with everyone and saying that God does the work that he is just the tool that he chose to use. That is so true! The had a wonderful band called the Nyw Tymes band so there was plenty of dancing. And who would have thunk there would be food at a party for a bunch of post ops!? There was food for days! He even had it stationed off in different areas with signs on the tables indicating what month out it would be appropriate for such as 0-3, 3-7, 7-12....I had some heavenly shrimp kabobs and some salmon croquet that was to die for!! Of course there was nothing to drink but water, water and more water! LOL! They were taking pictures just like at the prom and my husband and I got our pictures taken under the archway. I can't wait to get them in the mail! The surprise of the evening was when Dr. Freeman gave away a trip to Hawaii for two! I wanted that trip so bad, but we just weren't lucky enough. Darn it! Maybe next year! I can't wait till next years ball! I should be styling and profiling by then! I already told my husband he will have a tux next year and I am gonna have a slinky gown and we are gonna have F U N!! LOL! I think he is scarred for next year to get here now! hehehehehe Well, just wanted to let everyone know what a wonderful thing my surgeon did for all his patients and what a great time I had. I don't now how much more I have lost since my one month check up, I haven't been on any scales. I am waiting till I go back on November 17th for my three month check up. Everybody wants to know how I can stand it......I just rather have the big surprise after that amount of time and to only use the "official" weight from the doctors office. I will let you know when I know something!! Take care and skinny wishes to all! Oh yeah, pork is not my friend. I can not eat anything that comes from pork. It has made me sick every time I have tried something. Everything else works fine.

2004

January 7, 2004

Boy, has it been a while since I updated!! Shame on me! My 4 month anniversary was December 26th and I was officialy down 98 pounds. I wanted to make it to 100 pounds by four months but didn't quite make it. The funny thing is the next week I made to being down 102.5! Silly scales! Guess it is ok to be a week off schedule :-) Everything is goind wonderfully and I still have had no problems with my surgery. Well, nothing I call a problerm. Back in November I had a sernoma(sp?) to develop. Lucky for me it started draining out of my belly button so they didn't have to open any incisions or drain it with a needle. They put me on anti-biotics and told me to clean with peroxide and it soon went away. Well, this past weekend it came back and I had to go back to the doctor. He said it was more than likely something that was going to just keep flaring up until it got all of itself worked out and for me to just keep it clean and take some anti-biotics every time it flared up. Simple enough! I can deal with a few antibiotics since it is the only problem I have had! I have never even thrown up! Knock on wood!! There are only two things that I have tried at this point that I just can not eat and that is ham and steak. It must be the stringy texture of each of those because no matter how much I chew it to a pulp, if I swallow a bite of it it just feels like a rock going down. Trust me, I only took the one bite when it didn't feel rite I stopped. I do not want to throw up. I feel so much better now than I did four short months ago. Everyone says I am like a new person. They say even my voice has changed! LOL! I know I can do things now I couldn't do then. My husband and I went out to eat the other weekend and I could actually fit in a booth with room to spare! I could even put my legs up in the booth with me and sit Indian style! That was a proud moment! hehehe I make sure I take all my vitamins every day, I get in around 125 ounces of water a day and walk on the tread mill for 1 hour. I have been on an orange binge here lately. I hope it does not cause any problems. It seems like I can eat more of the oranges than I should be able to. My rational on the subject is that I do not eat the white part that holds all the pulp together, I pull it off and dispose of it so when you chew up the pulp you basically just have juice. Right? I don't know. Some times it seems like I am eating too much now but then I stop and examine it and it doesn't seem like that much. It also seems like I am taking in more calories than I should......my doctor never gave us a calorie, carb, protein, etc. set that we are suppose to go by but I think I am taking in between 800-1000 calories a day. I hope that isn't too many. I don't want this weight loss to slow down yet or stop completely! I have 122 more pounds to lose to get to goal! My goal is 150 pounds. My surgeon never set a goal, that is just my own personal goal. I hope it is not an unrealistic one. It is more than the charts say my ideal weight should be at 5'5" tall. I hope to be down at least 130 pounds by my six month chec up on 2-23-04. I will let you all know if I make it!!

March 17, 2004 Happy St. Patty's Day to all!!! Well, I didn't make it down 130 pounds by my six month check up, but I did make it down 124. My doctor said everything was fine, that I was a model patient and you couldn't ask for any better labs. I was glad of that. I weighed this past Sunday (3-13-04)and I am now officially down 132.5 pounds. I have gone from 375 pre-op to 242.5 in a little less than seven months. I am simply thrilled! My ultimate goal is 150 but I don't know if I will make it or not. Things have really slowed down since I hit that six month mark even though I am not eating any differently. I guess it is just some sort of time line in your body that makes it slow down after six months. As long as I can get below 200 pounds I will be happy. It has been 15 years since I weighed under 200. I will be tickled to death. Heack, it has been almost that long since I weighed under 250! I am well pleased with my progress so far and would do it again in a heart beat. I have no problems with eating. The only thing I still can't eat is ham and barbacue ribs. Other than that I can eat anything I want in small quantaties. If I have sugar it doesn't make me sick, but it acts like I have taken a drug or something and makes me high because I never indulge in it! LOL! My husband just laughs at me. My one indulgance I know I shouldn't have but I absolutely love and have to have every once in a while, is a coke icey. I have always loved iceys. If they would just make them in diet coke we would be ok! Well, guess that is all for now. Skinny wishes to every one. I will update again when I have more news.

June 7, 2004
Well, it has been a while since I updated. I have just passed my nine month mark. According to my scales yesterday morning I now weigh 210 pounds. That is a loss of 165 pounds. That is pretty amazing if you ask me! I still have 60 pounds to go to make it to my personal goal of 150 and 28 pounds to go to make it to where my doctor says we should be able to make it to which is a loss of 80% of your excess weight in the first year. That will be fine with me! If I can get that next 28 pounds off by August 26th then I know I can get the other 32 off in the next six months which is the general goal we are giving, from 12 to 18 months. It is so cool to buy clothes now!! I just went through my closet, AGAIN, and took out five bags of clothes that were too big! My husband says we are going to go broke buying clothes! LOL! The ones I am getting rid of now have barely been worn. Think I am gonna have to put them for sale on ebay so I can recoop some of my money to buy some more! LOL! Nothing really much to tell. My nine month labs were right on the money. I feel wonderful. I have no problems. I can eat just about anything (still can't eat ham or ribs though)just have to monitor how much. I have been getting a little off track lately so I am gonna have to put myself back on the straight and narrow. I use to wouldn't touch anything sweet except the occasional icey, but now I have gotten where I will eat a cookie or a small piece of cake for a birthday. I haven't gained any but I know my loss has slowed down drasticly. I am going to have to cut that out. I still stay mostly with protein except now that summer has gotten here I am addicted to fresh vegetables. I absolutely love tomatoes and fresh squash. I don't figure they are going to hurt me because they have very few calories and are full of vitamins! Well, that is about it for now. Will update again when I have more to tell. It is hard to believe it has been almost a year since I had surgery. It only seems like yesterday. I will say this surgery has been a life saver for me and I would do it again tomorrow if I had too. The prospect of possibly regaining some of my weight scares me but I intend to be very very careful. Skinny wishes to everyone!!

August 2, 2004
Time for another update! Well, as of yesterday morning the scales say I weight 196 pounds. That is 179 pounds gone bye bye! That is not only another person gone, that is the size of a normal man gone from ME!! It is simply amazing to believe. As I was borrowing a dress from my mom to wear to church this past Sunday (she weights 175 but for some reason we can wear the same clothes!) I asked her if she ever thought she would see the day when we could share clothes....she said not since I was 12 years old! My one year anniversary is coming up on the 26th of this month. It definitely does not seem like it has been a year since I had this life altering opportunity to help myself performed. All I can say is thank God for Dr. Freeman and his staff and the abilities that the good Lord has bestowed upon them. Without Dr. Freeman, I honestly don't know where I would be right now. Probably up over 400 pounds by now and no longer able to continue working and taking care of my family every day. Strange to go from the blown up toad frog sitting around watching everyone else do things to my niece begging me to jump on the trampoline with her! What acomplete 180 degree turn around! Well, I have 11 more pounds to get to my doctors projected weight for me of 185 pounds and 46 pounds to get to my personal goal. They say it should take you roughly 18 months to lose the weight which means I only have to lose 1.5 pounds a week between now and February to reach my goal of 150! Surely I can do that! I would love to weight 150 once in my life but if I didn't lose another pound the surgery has been well worth is it and I would do it again in a heart beat. To anyone considering weight loss surgery, it is the best decision you will ever make for yourself and believe me it is a decision that only YOU can make. You can't let family and loved ones influence the deicsion you make whether to have the surgery or not because they aren't living in your skin and don't know what you go through on a daily basis. For all my weight loss surgery sisters and brothers, isn't it an awesome family to belong too??!!! Skinny wishes to each and all!!

September 29, 2004
Just a quick update to let everyone know how things are. Everything is still chugging right along. I haven't lost that much since my last post, I am down to 185 as of this morning. That is 190 pounds gone. Only six more pounds and I will no longer be obese, I will only be "slightly" over weight! LOL! Never thought I would get to say that! I have an appointment for a consultation with a plastic surgeion, Dr. Rumley, on October 25th. That is the day after my birthday so I guess that is my birthday present to myself. I can't wait to see what he says he thinks can be done about the excess baggage I am now carrying around. It is time for it to GO! I am also getting ready for this years ball. Dr. Freeman has one every year for his surgery patients to come show off their progress. It is only two weeks away and I have not decided on a dress yet! I have it narrowed down to four! LOL! I promise to post a ball picture when I get them taken and back. The first picture on here is from last years ball when I was only a month out from surgery. There should be a big difference in pictures! Till next time, skinny wishes to everyone!

I have a confession and a question to ask and don't want to get flogged or yelled at for asking it....PLEASE!! Do any of you ever go on a binge and if so what do you do after???? Ok, let me try to explain what I mean. I am 15 months out and have lost 200 pounds. I try to constantly watch what I eat and how much I eat to the point that people fuss at me for not eating and tell me that is why I am not losing any more weight (want to lose 25 more pounds). Then one day it will be like something clicks in my brain and I just keep eating all day long! I don't mean just a little bit either. For example, over the course of the morning I bet I have eaten a dozen apple crunch cookies today. Now I know I didn't need those cookies and know that it is behavior like that that got me to 375 the first go around but yet I still did it beating myself up every time I took a bite of one. I also know for a fact and from experience this won't be the only thing I eat today. (Am suppose to have Thanksgiving with Mom when I get off work). So my question is (1) does anyone else go on binges (2) after you binge what do you do, go back to trying to eat normally the next day or try to limit yourself even more the next day or starve the next day (I tend to lean toward cosuming nothing but liquids for a couple of days after a binge) (3) also is there anybody else who if they eat something they know they don't need or too much of something that their brain tries to tell them they are going to gain all the weight back over night? I know it is impossible to gain 200 pounds over night but my brain tells me I am going to wake up to the way I was before surgery tomorrow morning. I feel like a toad frog right now and that I am as big as I was (hence the fact that it is a holiday and I am dressed in sweat pants and a T-shirt). Am I the only one who does this/feels this way?? What do I need to do?? I DO NOT WANT TO WEIGHT 375 POUNDS AGAIN! I DID NOT GO THROUGH THIS SURGERY TO GAIN IT ALL BACK!! I WANT TO WEIGH 150 FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE SO NEED TO LOSE THAT 25 MORE POUNDS!!! SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP!!! Please pray for me that I get this under control!! I am so scared!!!

May 3, 2005

Been quite a while since I updated. My last post was a whine and a complain and that is why I haven't updated since. My last post was on Thanksgiving and I weighed 175. I haven't lost a whole lot since then but I have lost more. It has taken me five months to lose roughtly 20 more pounds. Boy, these last pounds are a killer to come off!! Everybody tells me that I look great now and don't need to lose any more weight but you know how it is when you get a certain number in your head. You are determined to reach that number no matter what!! I am still having problems making myself eat. I can't seem to find a happy medium even though I went to see my nutritionist. She wants me eating between 1200 and 1500 calories a day and swears if I do I will get that last few pounds off. My MO brain can not wrap itself around that! Eating more does not equal to losing weight in my mind. I have been fat so many years that the only thing my brain can relate to is less equals more weight loss, ya know? It seems like if I eat some what "normal" then my scales go up. It also seems if I try to eat the amount of calories that she wants me to then I spiral out of control. If I let myself have that few more calories to get it up to 1200 or 1300 then I don't make good food choices and the next thing I know I am grazing. I don't mean to whine or sound like I am ungreatful for where I am. God knows I would have never lost 220 pounds without this surgery and I am a LONG way from where I was before. I would gladly have the surgery again if I needed to. It has been a life saver for me. I guess you just get in the mind set that if you are gonna do something your not gonna do it half way and are determined to see it to the end. The end being that scale saying 150/149 and the charts showing that I am "normal" or of normal weight, not over weight at all. I am still having a love/hate relationship with my scale. I was so happy because I had gotten my scales to move down to 154.6 on last Friday. I was jumping up and down for joy. Then I let myself eat semi-normal over the weekend (translation more than one meal a day) and they were back up to 157 on Monday morning. Of course since it was up I beat myself up all day yesterday and ended up eating too much/too many calories and feel even worse today. I am my own worst critic!!! Anyway, I guess I will all come out in the wash so to say. I plan to be a good girl and stick to liquids today to flush out what I over did yesterday. Gotta balance out those calories ya know. I know that is probably not the best thing to do but that is how things work for me. Then I will get back on the straight and narrow the rest of the week and promise not to over do it this coming weekend and hopefully get my scales down to where I want it. We shall see how things work out. I guess as long as I don't gain about 160 I should be happy...........but that's just not me!!! I promise to update more frequently and will definitely update when/if those scales move down to 150/149!!! Till later!! Skinny wishes to all!!

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