Borghunter1

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It has been a month since I have made a log entry. No excuse, have thought about it, but it just hasn't happened....

So it has been eight weeks and four days since surgery and I am weighing in at 248.6 pounds....that is a grand total of 64 pounds down. I am taking my vitimins and B12 on schedule and feel great. I tried on a dress coat this weekend that was a size 46...down from a 52. And my size 36 jeans are getting loose and baggy. I am going to have to break down and get some new clothes around the 235-240 mark. I am really starting to look baggy at work.

I have still had an issue with coughing up the jelly fish and I am looking into having this checked further for possible obstruction or the hole to my pouch is to small. It hurts and makes me not want to eat anything much afterwards.  Blah....

I had a goal of 250 by June 11th, so I have blown it out of the water and am now focusing on my max military weight of 225. Sp 23 pounds to go for that. In the past that number would seem so far away, but now it feels like it is just a couple of months away.  If you ever question what you can do, just know you can. It may be hard, it may take time, but it can happen.

I know it seems cliche, but it is true. How many fad diets and pills do most of us go through on our way to finally undertaking WLS. How much money did we waste on quick fixes that still had to be fixed?

Today I am one month post op and doing and feeling good. I am down 46 pounds and I can really start to feel the energy and the want returning to my life. To exist day by day is nothing compared to waking up and beginning to live after going through the motions (and emotions) for so long. To say that I have fully embraced eevrything would be a lie...I have urges and wants and desires of the pizza and steak kinds but I work through them. No one is going to do it for me, and I know and feel the one thing that I never took responsibility for in the past, and that is simply, I am responsible for what I put in my mouth (insert any comment you want). It was the pizza, Mexican, Italian, and pies that made me what I was. I became defined by my fork, not who I really was.

As I move into my next month of post WLS, I have one goal on my mind, and that is reaching a goal of 250 by June 11th (when my vacation begins).

Tonight I will raise my glass of Crystal Light to all of you, the ones who have reached your goals, ones  who have maintaned your goals, and those who struggle still to reach your goals. We are only human, we have limits and needs, and we have desires and wants. I decided that I wanted my life back more than anything else......and so I shall.

It has been 26 days since surgery and the scales have gone from 311 down to 269. Not to shabby. I  am on regular foods and have very little issue with gas, constipation, dumping, or anything.......until today...and boy did it scare the crap out of me. I have been eatting eggs since Phase III with no issues at all. No tightness, no ill affects, no nothing. This morning, which was also day 2 of going back to work, I ate one scrambled egg. That is when the monster showed up. Now before I go into detail about what decided to show up, I also went to the Dr. today and what came out is very doubtfully connected to the egg, or dumping, or anything like that. What came up was a series of creamy, snow white hocks of mucas and spit. No food, no other colors, just snowy White. Thick like cream. Nothing calmed it, no water would help it go down, it only wanted to come up. I have not had a moment of puking or severe belching or anything other than a sneeze to test my innards until today. I have been drunk off my butt and threw up stuff from three years prior that would not have prepared me for the feeling of the Ghostbusters type of ectoplasm that left my body today. So by now you are probably disgusted by the whole incident, so long story short it has been narrowed down to over production of salva to help with lubricating and easing food or my Gall bladder may be on the fritz.....so I am on a wait and see to if it happens again and what causes it.

Now to the plesant stuff....can you say size 36 jeans??  I can. They have been in my closet waiting to grace me yet again, and I have to say they look mighty fine with my black t-shirt today. I have to step up my walking and I have been given the green light for full exercise (minus the hardcore stomach crunches), so I am going to adopt the sculpting and burning of the new me.

Sooooo....it is not PX90 time yet, but I  already feeling more like human than the blob I was feeling like. My BP was also down to 100/80 today, and that is without BP meds.

and they roll on.....

6 days post-op, 1 day past my 41st birthday, and I am hanging in there. Other than one really bad night, I am doing pretty good, Last night was so much better. Sunday night though was pretty crappy for everyone in the bed, the cat included.

Well here are how the numbers stack up so far.

Pre-Op appointment weight in 311.5
liquid diet starting number    309.3
Operation Day weight   298.4
Six Days Post Op     285.3

All in all very impressive numbers, and a good track to get my belly to accepting food soon and get a new path for the new me aimed in on. I can see the 210 mark now getting closer.

I want to say thank you so much to the friends and family that have been there holding my hand and fetching me water the whole time and a special thank you to my own nurse Rae Rae (minus the cute hat) that has stayed on me to make sure I was staying hydrated and I take something for my pain. I don't do needles very well at all and for the most part everyone has been really cool and supportive towards it. But there are a few, and you know who you slackers are, that have been a pain in my....let's just say, my hip.

Chris: Out-For-Now

no, not a real airport, but my wife gave me a good analogy this afternoon. Everyone talks about the WLS being a journey. She told me to think about it this way (to make me laugh), The time from the first office vist until tonight has been the prep, the paperwork, buying the ticket, getting the passport ready, and the drive to the airport.

Tonight is my last full meal as the old me. 16 oz steak, baked potato with butter and sour cream. This is the arrival to the airport. Tomorrow begins my liquid diet for the next seven days. This is going to be the seven days of sitting in the office of Homeland security, waiting to takeoff. The misery that we all know will be the liquid nutrition that just isn't the cheeseburger that we have all learned to love and felt that we NEEDED it.

And on March 1st, the plane lifts off.....at 9:45 am is my surgery with Dr.. Moran. He says that his part will be about an hour and fifteen minutes. So I should be in recovery and awake around 1-2 in the afternoon.  I think this will be the hardest part of the whole process.  The wait for the Barium the next morning. Nothing to drink, nothing in the mouth...

But once I have that first sip of clear liquid gold....water...I might as well be in Europe, taking in the sites, snapping pictures, living the journey. For nothing will ever be the same. It will all have a new twist, from food, to friends, to family. The looks, the awe, and the accomplishment as what happens as I use my WLS to fix what I have worked so hard to destory in the last 40 years.

So with this my pre-Op weight is 306.6 (before the steak). I am going to wait a few days before I step on the new black shiney scale I bought to see how the liquid diet is going. I have all the protein powder, drinks, pops, jello, and skim milk to last me for the week. 

So it is with a smile and sigh, that I sign off for now. Smelling the potatoes in the kitchen, and getting ready to light the grill. It is with much love and adoration that we close the book on the first volume of my life and prepare the title page for volume two.....and the best parts have yet to be written.

 

If I was on death row, I would have had the dinner to send me to the gallows. Special thanks to the entire Shefte Clan that came to celebrate my final "HUGE" German meal with me, LeRae, Alex, and Fletcher. The food at the Bavarian Brathaus in Durham, NC was just what I wanted.....and in my head, I needed.

To sit and drink a $23 beer may sound like a foolish waste of money....but oh how I will argue the fact with you. Yes I could have bought 2 cases of Budweiser and been slam ass wasted, and had a headache for two days, been dehydrated afterwards, and ill. But, to drink one Adventius Eisen-Bock, coming in at 12.5% alcohol, my beer was the same as drinking 6 of your puny beers, and then to throw another Spaten Lager, also straight from the tap was just what I wanted.  The four Brat palter with German Potato Salad, Sauerkraut, and Spatzle was perfect.

So today is house cleaning time. Get the abode prepared for the down time and make it easier on everyone while I am out of commission for a bit. My mom is coming for a few days to help with the boys and getting them to school and help me and LeRae with getting me and the family to and fro.

Going to the store later to get some of the items to start the liquid diet on Thursday Feb. 23rd.  Only 3 1/2 days of solid food for awhile. I am going to try and make every bite worthwhile and flavorful.

Well Bat fans, this time in two weeks I will be one day on the road to recovery. I am sure I will be hurting, ill, wanting more meds, and praying to pass gas. And I have been asked if it is worth it.  

Is it worth it? I have perspective into why I won't back down.  I have had 40 years of trashing my body. Food, food, and more food, little exercise, and being fine with it.  40 years of living life my way, and now I am paying for it. I have really been paying for it for awhile but it took me getting to where I am now to do something.  

SOOOOOOO, is it worth it?  Hell yes!....I will hopefully have at least another 40 years to live a better, healthier, more focused life. To enjoy those around me and to learn to enjoy myself again. To want to be in the world, not just living in it.

This is my last hoorah of a weekend, and it will consist of a good German Beer, and a good Braut.

My surgery is March 1st, My birthday is March 5th......but I am going to have to say that somewhere in between will now be my re-birth day.

 

Nope not the pain of healing, or dumping, or stuck chicken.....the pain of waiting.

Some would say I have the patience of a saint, and then the people that really know me, know how I hate to wait.   It has only been a week, and I know I should be grateful that all of the tests and appointments are done.  However, the wait to schedule a date and get the insurance approval for the hospital is draining.  I know everything is processing, results are coming back, memos being created, and the office is just doing its business.  This I know in my head..it is the rest of me that is chomping at the bit.

So, I will suck it up and continue to wait like a good boy....lol

Just got home after a very long day of running, but what a fulfilling one. In one great swoosh I have had all my bloodwork, gallbladder ultra sound, chest x-ray, nutrisionist visit, mental health visit, EKG, and Cardio Clearence all in one day....whew

The day started out like it was going to be a wreck. I got to the hospital and they informed me that my insurance had been cancelled on Dec. 31st......Ahhhhh, excuse me?  I was still employed yesterday....I didn't get the memo.....after a couple of phone calls and some clarification, found out that there was a new Policy number and Group number, but I had not gotten new cards yet....OK, fire is out and I am moving on.....

The rest of the day was a series of in and out of waiting rooms and labs, but it has been so worth it. My wife had the same tests done with her surgery and it was not spread over a day or two, but over six months of schedules and rescheduling, and everything else that can pop-up. The best part of the day was getting my clearence letter from the Cardiologist....the worst part of the day was the prior service Army/Air Force/Army reserve tech that thought since I was prior service I just needed the needle shoved in......well....it is over now too thank goodness.

Now the wait for the call from Dr. Moran's office to schedule the date (of course once they get all the results)................

I started my journey a few months ago with the realization that happens upon most of the individuals I have read about on these blogs. Something happens or you are put in a situation that you become aware of what you have known but ignored the entire time. My realization happened upon me in the middle of the night. Taking off my C-PAP and making my way to the bathroom, I woke just enough that when I laid back down and was strapping the mask back in place that I remembered a movie that I had seen two dozen times in my life. The Elephant Man is the story of John Merrick, the disfigured man from the Victorian age who wanted nothing but to sleep like a normal person. Instead he slept at almost a sitting position so the deformed body would not cause his death. Ultimately, he lays flat and is killed by his own body, but getting what he so much desired. I know this sounds like a morbid thought to have in the middle of the night, but that is how I felt at the moment. 

I am by no means the largest person, and know there are huge success stories from people almost twice my size. What I do have going against me is a handful of meds, 120 pounds overweight, joint issues, sleep apnea, insomnia, and have issues fitting into places, clothes, and all around feel bad. Have no energy or desire to do anything.  See nothing to special, just another victim of body type, genetics, and society.

I have tried pills, exercise, Weight Watchers, starving myself, and nothing sticks.  In 2009 I was able to lose the only substantial amount of weight from the last 20 years, but it was short lived and back on plus another ten pounds to boot. 

After being by my wife's side in Sept. 2009 for her weight loss surgery and ever since, helping to keep her on track and remembering the surgery is a tool, I am now beginning my next chapter. In Dec 2011 I met with my surgeon, Dr. Moran in Raleigh NC, and with my BMI of 40 alone I qualified. But when added to my other issues, it was an open and shut case.  I go January 4th (2 days from now) and will have all my blood work, ultrasound, meeting with the nutritionist, mental health, and cardiologist.  One day stop and shop at Rex Hospital. 

So I ask for everyone's thoughts, prayers, best wishes, whatever your religion allows, or your personality wants to share.  I am usually a very private person, but I can not do this alone, and I can't think of no better group of people to help and stand behind me than all of you.

Chris