angyf71

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I wanted to post at 6 month point, but there was something wrong with the website that wouldn’t let me.  So hopefully this one will work.  At my 6 month mark (February 12)  I weighed 167,  a loss of 93 lbs.  I was really hoping to have reached the 100 lb mark, but I was really close.  I have to admit once again that I am still not exercising.  In February I was walking A LOT, trying to get those 7 lbs off, but seems like when I exercise, I gain a few lbs, so that makes it very discouraging so I quit again.  I had Skyler take some pictures of me last night in a swimsuit and Oh my God!!!  I HAVE to start walking NO MATTER WHAT!!!  My legs look sssoooooo terrible.  I grossed myself out!  I do look better than I did before at 260 lbs, but my legs are still lumpy, bumpy & so gross!  My knees & hips hurt when I walk or do lunges, so I guess I’ll just have to bear with it.  Maybe after I get in shape it’ll get better.  I hope.  So anyways, today at 8 months post op I have lost 102 lbs, only 28 to go.  I really want to meet my goal by my 1 year mark.  Hopefully I can do that.  Weight loss has really slowed.  I’m only losing a few lbs a month now and on those days that I am losing weight I get extremely tired.  I pretty much sleep all day on those days.  This past week I had actually gained 4 lbs, which was a huge kick in the pants to get back on track as far as food journaling & watching what I eat.

The past couple of months have been soooo crazy.  I have been so busy, I haven't been able to get on & update any info, except for my weight occasionally, so, here I am.  2 days ago (Jan 12, 08) was my 5 month surgiversary & I have lost 86 lbs.  I am so proud of myself!  I wish the weight would come off a little faster, but the dr says I'm doing great so I guess I can't complain.  I have been doing pretty well.  Right before Christmas, I started having tummy trouble (pain, trouble eating, etc. . .)  I kinda thaught maybe my ulcer was trying to sneek back in, so I started those meds back up & it helped.  Then during the holidays I really splurged with eating.  By what all I ate, I guess I am one of those people that don't dump.  I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.  I also thaught that maybe I stretched out my pouch.  Sometimes it seems like I am able to eat more.  But I think I'm ok.  This past weekend we went to Nashville to help my sister & I was only able to eat a tiny bit & it's been like that every since, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I haven't screwed anything up.  I haven't really overindulged except for a few days between Christmas & New years and I don't really think that's enough time to stretch things out too bad.  My weight loss has been kinda strange for the past several months.  I will go for 2-3 weeks & lose nothing then all of a sudden I will lose maybe a pound a day for several days to a week.  The stall is just long enough to really make me wonder if I've lost all I'm gonna lose easily, but then it starts back up.  I love it!  I am so happy that I had this surgery!!!  It's the best thing I could have ever done for myself.  My treadmill has broke, so I need to buy a new one, not that I walk all the time, but it was nice to be able to walk inside if I wanted to.  I can't wait until it starts to get warm so I can walk outside, that's always refreshing!  I am still terrible at taking my vitimins.  I'm doing ok with the protein tho.  My New Years resolution is to take better care of MYSELF! (something I'm not so good at)  My hair is coming out sooooo bad.  It has thinned out to about half of what I had before.  I am really starting to get scared.  I brush my hair several times a day & get a huge amount left in the bristles & I run my fingers through my hair & get big clumps out also.  I know hair's not that big of a thing (at least I am alive & healthy), but dang I don't want to go bald.  I will try to be better at posting more often in the future.

It's been a while since I posted & I need to catch up.  The last time I posted I was passing blood in my stools & had been to the local ER.  Well they said that it was my gallbladder.  On Thursday, Aug 28, I started throwing up blood and again on Friday.  I called the Bariatric Fellow on call at Columbia.  He said that he didn't think it was an emergency unless I threw up again or started getting dizzy, lightheadded or had a pulse of over 100 bpm.   I didn't have any of these, but Saturday I just didn't feel good.  I called the fellow again & he said that I should come up to the ER at Columbia.  My dad took me up.  The whole ride up there I felt ok, but we got out of the truck & walked accross the hospital to the ER & I started feeling kinda sick.  Got checked in & started feeling worse.  I ended up throwing up more blood.  The nurse called me back & he took me to an exam room & told me to undress from my waist up & put on a gown. I took off my shirt & bra & everything started getting dark, i was getting hot and dizzy.  I knew I was going to pass out, so I layed on the bed.  I woke up, was able to get my gown on then shortly the Dr. came in.  He could tell by looking at me that something had happened.  I told him that I had passed out.  He hurried & hooked me to monitors & had the nurse start an IV.  I was so hot & sweaty and seemed like I was out of breath.   I started to feel better after a little while.  They ended up doing a CT with oral & IV contrast,  yuck!!  That really didn't show anything.   They admitted me to the hospital & I finally got to my room probably about 1:30 am or so.  The nurse was very busy, but finally got me hooked to my IV's & stuff around 3am.  She came in with 2 little bags of fluids & said with a bad look on her face that they said I needed potassium.  I didn't think it was a big deal, she said that sometimes it could burn pretty bad.  She started it & I didn't have any problem.  30 min later, total different story.  It started to burn like fire in my veins.  She called another nurse in to look at me because my iv had gotten so sore, she couldn't touch it.  She ended up calling a stat nurse in & she changed my iv to the other arm & told my regular nurse to ask if they could dilute the potassium.  By this time I was bawling like a baby.  I think partially from the pain & partly from not knowing what was wrong with me.   Sunday morning  a doctor came in and said that my if hematocrit levels kept dropping  then they would have to do a scope & see where the bleeding was coming from.  He said I should expect to be in there until Tuesday or so.  My hematocrit did continue to drop, so later Sunday they gave me a blood transfusion & Monday morning they came & got me for the scope.  That wasn't nearly as bad as I thaught it would be, although my throat was really sore afterwards.   I had an ulcer along my stapple line & they said that my stoma was narrowed & I might have to get it stretched out.  They  also said that I had a UTI & was dehydrated.  What Else!!???  Geesh!!  Tuesday morning, the nurse told me that my hematocrit levels were not dropping anymore & that I really had to work on getting in my fluids, that if I could get in most of my fluids they would let me go home.  So I REALLY tried hard & got most of it.  So the Dr. came in & said that I could go home.   WOOHOOO!!!!  I was dismissed around 3:30 or so, we stopped & got my meds filled & got home around 7:30 or 8pm.  Wednesday morning I was taking all of my meds & realized that they forgot to give me a rx for one of the meds on my sheet. So they called that into my pharmacy.  Everything has gone pretty good since then, I can have different foods now, but seems like most everything gets stuck so I've been sticking with soups & really soft stuff.  Last Thursday at our class, they said that the stuck feeling was normal & unless we're unable to keep anything down, not to worry about it.  At that visit, I asked for the prenatal vitamins which are only 1x aday, plus have my iron & stool softener in it.  I have been having trouble with the vit's making me sick, so the past couple of days, I've been just taking 1/2 at a time & it's been staying down.

OH, I almost forgot the best news.  My weight loss has picked up.  I have lost about a lb a day for the past week or so, I am soooo excited!!!!!  I am now down 53 lbs.   I had set a mini goal to get to 199lbs by Halloween.  I am only 8 lbs from that!!!!  I may have to up my goal.  lol  For the first time in a long time, I am really proud of myself!!!  That feels good!

Last Thursday I was able to add the Protein Shakes back in my diet.  They seemed to make my belly really bloated & gassy.  Then they started making me really nauseous.  Almost everytime I drank one, I would have to go lay in bed an hour later because I felt so sick.  Yesterday was exactly 2 wks since surgery.  I woke up, got Skyler off to school.  Took my Vitamin and my regular med. Sat down in Lynns chair & had the worst pain in my stomach.  Kinda felt like gas, but not really.  I took 2 gas x strips and the pain seemed to subside.  Then I had to go to the bathroom & it was all bloody.  I called the nurse at Missouri Bariatrics.  She said that I shouldn't have bleeding like that this far out & for me to go to the ER.  I went.  The Dr. stuck his finger up my bum to check for blood.  Then got me started on IV fluids because I was dehydrated.  The nurse came in & tryed to take blood.  He said that I had the worst veins that he's seen.  He stuck me 4 times & was ready to call for an arterial draw.  I talked him into trying in my wrist.  He got it!  Thank God!  Then they sent me for x-rays and then an ultrasound of my entire abdomen.  The Doc came in & said that it was my gallbladder.  He said that when I had such intense pain I was actually passing a gallstone, it went through the common bile duct, scrapping its way through, thus causing all the bleeding.  He said that it wasn't an emergency, so they wouldn't be taking it out right then, but he gave me the name of a surgeon & said that I can do whatever I want.  If I want to go ahead & get it out or if I want to wait & see if it flairs up again, then get it out.  I called Natalie at MoBar & left a message telling her what they said.  This morning I got a call from her.  She said that it's gonna have to come out, but would like to wait about a month.  So I am calling her this afternoon to try to get things set up.

Surgery was a week ago today.  Everything went pretty smooth.  I was to be at Columbia at the Hospital at 11 and surgery at 1 pm.  We got up there around 9.  I got checked in & got Deb & Jen's room #'s. (they had surgery the day before).  I went in to see Jen, she said that she felt like hell.  lol  I talked to her & her husband a bit, she said that they had problems with Deb in surgery, but she came out ok.  We went down to see Deb, just down the hall, but there was a nurse in with her, we waited a little, then had to go get myself checked in for surgery @ DOSA.  We got down there & was told that they were running about an hour behind so we waited.  I was taken back around 12 noon, to get everything started, changed into the lovely gown, IV started & such.  They weighed me & I was 235 lbs.  I also got a shot of Heparin in my belly,  that was scary,  because I've never had a shot in my belly before, but I couldn't even feel it.  Then they let mom & Lynn come back & set with me.  We waited 'till probably 2:30 or so I believe, then they took me back for surgery.  I remember breathing into the mask, then next thing I know I am waking up in recovery.  All of the nurses were very nice from what I remember.  The medicine they gave me or the anethesia one of the two drugged me out of my head!!!  lol  I couldn't wake up & talk to anyone for any amount of time.  I remember I had one eye trying to roll back & just couldn't stay awake.  The nurse was laughing at me, but it sucked.  I have NEVER been like this after a surgery, I always wake up really good.  Mom & Lynn said that Dr. de la Torre said that when they got in there that I had spots on my liver & they took biopsies.  Luckily they were only fatty spots & he gave us a picture of it to keep in my file.  I was in quite a bit of pain when I woke up, but it wasn't unbearable.  I did use my little button for the pain medicine quite a bit that first night, but that next day I didn't use it.  The nurses & techs came in every 1/2 hour to check on me, so I didn't get any sleep.  Wedneday morning they gave us the Methylene Blue test, which is a little medicine cup with a dark blue liquid and some Ice pellets.  Now, this wouldn't have been so bad if the Ice wasn't so big, but you had to chew the ice before you could down the blue liquid.  This was the most horrendous crap I have ever tasted in my lifetime.  OMG!!!!  The best way to discribe it is, it was like the ink from 10 ink pens with 4-5 big ice pellets.   EEEWWWW!!!!  YUCK!!!!!!  My roommate had surgery right before me so we were lucky enough to enjoy this fine drink together.  lol  I thaught my mom was gonna get sick from watching us drink it.  lol  We got that down, then 10-15 mins later they came in to check whether there was any dye in our drains.  There wasn't so we were allowed to have clear liquids.  Chicken broth, decafe tea w/equal & Strawberry jello have never tasted so good!!!  I could only take teeny tiny bites or sips, but at least it was something.  By this time I was just about parched.   Wednesday went ok.  I had ALOT of gas in my belly & up under my ribs & collar bone.  The nurse said the best thing to do would be walk.  So I did.  I walked & walked & walked some more, but I was so weak & it wasn't really feeling like it was doing any good.  Wednesday night they gave me oral pain med.  & they weren't in nearly as much as the night before.  My tech did come in to check vitals & sugars.  My temp was up a little & my sugars were 247 or somewhere in the 240's, she went to check if they needed to give me insulin, but the doc said not unless it got above 250.  I couldn't believe my sugars were that high.  They have NEVER been that high before.  The nurse said that sometimes people react to the IV fluids like that.  Thursday morning they came & took me for the gastrograph??  Not sure this is what it was called but it was something like that.  Anyway, they took me down to x-ray, had me stand on this platform that was attatched to an x-ray machine, I drank a little medicine cup of liquids & they watched it go down, I had to do this in 3 different positions then was taken back to my room.  My stomach started feeling rumbly, then I got terrible diarrhea.  When the doctor received my results showing no leakage, I was able to be dismissed.  I guess we got out of there around 2-2:30pm, then had to stop at the pharmacy & get my meds.  I was able to sleep most of the drive home except when we had to stop for me to walk.  We got home about 8 or 8:30 pm.  I stayed at mom & dad's house because it was just easier.  They stayed with me until Sunday then left out for camping.  I will probably stay here until Thursday when I get my drain & staples out.  Emma (my dog) likes to jump & get's really excited, & I don't want her to jump on me or pull on this drain.  It hurts enough as it is.    So it is Tuesday now,  I can't wait until Thursday.  We have to go back to Columbia to MO Bariatrics for a 2 hr class & to get these staples & drain out.   I also get to see Jen, Deb, and Bev will be there.  I can't wait to see everyone agian & meet Bev. 

OH, I almost forgot.  I have lost 9 lbs in 7 days!!!!!     YAY for me!!!!

Only 6 Days until surgery!!!  I thaught I would be nervous by now, but I'm not.  The liquid diet is going well.  I'm not hungry, or having the cravings anymore.  I think that my head has finally accepted that it's not gettin any food.  I have lost 9 lbs so far on the liquid diet.  When I went to the seminar I weighed in at 260, this morning I weighed 239.  I'm so happy.  I wanted to lose some weight before surgery.  So that is good news.  I can't wait to have surgery & lose even more weight.  Hopefully my nerves & anxiety don't get the best of me in the upcoming days of pre-op.

So far so good.  This has been so hard!   Not that I have been hungry, just having cravings!   I want some FOOD!!!!!!!!!  Just a bite of anything, a burger, tuna salad, pasta, Some of mom's home-made salsa.     UUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!   We are supposed to get in 100 gm of protein, or 5 SlimFast or Atkin shakes, but I have only been able to get in 3-4 a day.  Usually 3 and 2 cans of broth of Chicken Noodle or Vegetable Soup. Tomarrow will be the one week mark.  I wont get to have food for several more weeks.  That scares me, because this has really been hard.  I can't say that I havent cheeted.  I would be lieing.  But I havent cheeted with anything terrible, just like a slice of tomato or cucumber for the first couple of days.  I felt so guilty after eating them, but I want 'em so bad.  I will just be so glad when all of this is over.  Hopefully the farther out I get, the easier it will be.

Today was the Pre-op class.  We left home about 2:30 a.m. and got to Columbia about 6:30.  It stormed the whole way there.  We got there an hour before class started so we took a nap in the car.

The class was full.  I don't think there was an empty chair in the place.  The nutritionist Abby talked to us alot.  Then the nurse Pasha, and then Dr. de la Torre.  I am so glad we got to meet him.  I feel totally confident with him as my surgeon.

They explained everything very well & answered all of my questions.  They said that we won't be allowed anything to drink untill the day after surgery.  We'll be given those little spongey thingies.  Then we'll have the Mythelene Blue test, where we eat some blue ice chips & they check our drain for the blue dye to make sure we don't have a leak.  Then later we'll have to do an upper GI.  Then we are allowed to have a little water.  I am excited to get it done & over with, but not scared anymore.  Anyway, after the class & meeting with one of the Dr.'s. we had an hour before we had to be at the hospital for my testing.  So we went to the Waffle House.    YUMMY!!  Had my last ham & cheese omlett for a while & the hashbrowns. . .  YUM!  I love hashbrowns!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We left there way too full, & went to the hospital, everyone from class was there getting their testing too.  Got all of that done & preregistered & we left.  We drove around town a while, looking for the GNC that they talked about in class that sold the Bariatric Advantage Vitamins.  The door was locked, but supposedly they were still open.  (that's a whole other story)  Anyways, I called them & asked how much the BA Vit's were.  Get this, they mark the vitamins up $33.  you can get a 3 mo supply (180) online for $36.00, they are selling them in the store for $69.99.  Are the freakin CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!  OMG!!!  We went to Bass Pro, Lynn wanted to get a Hammock swing, since our old one broke.  Last time we were there they were $20.00, today they  were $39.00.  Needless to say, we didn't get one.  We did get Skyler a cute shirt and hat.  We left there & 3 hrs later got to Festus, we stopped at one of my favorite places to eat.  Captain D's.  I wasn't hungry, but I knew this would be the last time I would be able to have it.  We left there, got on the interstate & had to get off the next exit.  There were ALOT of cops there & traffic was insane.  we had to take hwy 61 to the next exit (which took us forever) plus I got sick from Captain D's.  I had the worst belly ache in forever!  & no place to stop!  We finally got to a gas station, then had to stop at the rest area, then another gas station.  Thaught I was gonna die!!!  We finally made it home.  I checked my email & went to bed.  Ended up it was some psyco in Festus threatening to shoot someone next to the interstate.   How Crazy!!!