LeeshaS

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I am moving along very well....life has been on warp speed since my surgery....between work, school, church, and my kids...boy I tell ya....busy is an understatement.....but I have been in the gym constantly....I work out 2x a day...and I feel great...

I am down to 238.5 pounds now!!!! 57.5 pounds down!!!! and a total of 37.60 inches lost!!!
I am pleased beyond measure....

I posted some pics that tell the story better than words!

All I can say is thank God for my tool!!! And I would do it all over again, without hesitation!

I will check back in real soon!

Wow....the time is really going by quite fast! Already the last day of March and I have reached my 1 month post op mark on May 13th! I know last time I wrote the scale hadn't moved for a few weeks...glad to say it is moving again.

My weight is now 249!!!! So far 47 pounds!!!! It seems slow to me, but  i  will take it!!!! I feel great!!!! Look great!!!! just all around having a great time in my new body!!!! I am excited about what the future holds!!!

Since measuring myself last month, I have lost 13.70 inches throughout my body, which gives me a total of 29.05  inches lost overall to date!!!!! EXCITED is not even the word!!!! I'm just happy to be shrinking!!!

Its funny because I went to grab a pair of black slacks to wear to church today and they were a size 24...now I knew I was out of that size but I thought i could get away with wearing them...NOT! They were entirely too big!!! I am in 18/20 now so that was not gonna work....

I know many of you know EXACTLY how I feel...so much more energy! Just generally happy!!! Although I did run into some hateration this weekend...saw some of my "girls" that I hadn't seen since November....see I was always the biggest one in the bunch....and now that is not the case....so I was getting some sour looks....all good though....  cuz my haters are my motivators!!!! FOR REAL!!!!

 I'm looking forward to seeing what the month of June is going to bring!!! Hitting the gym BIG TIME!!!

I'll holla! Y'all take care!

Hello OH fam....

Its been taking some mental focus to get accustomed to this new lifestyle....my pouch, whos name is Anastasia.....truly lets me know when I'm eating too fast, etc....she really don't play!!!!

'I am so glad that I did this...although there have been mornings that I have woke up and said why the heck did I do this!!! ummm....but I get over it very quickly. I am enjoying this journey thus far....I did have a real bad dumping experience this past week...my fault totally....I'm still in the mushy food stage, but got beside myself and figured if I just chewed the little piece of shrimp really good, then I would be okay....WRONG....I clearly was not ready to be chewing anything cuz I messed around and swallowed to big of a piece and when I tell you that thing was stuck in my chest for what seemed like eternity and had  me rocking  back and forth, til finally it came back up and I was so relieved....never again...I am not a "chucker", never have been, don't like the feeling....so I will not do that anymore...

But other than that, things are going quite well....I was disappointed that the scale hasn't moved in like 2 weeks....but I know that my body had to adjust and catch up....

Just wanted to update....will check back in with more photos as I take them

Be good y'all....I'll holla

Hey y'all!!! To God be the Glory!!! Finally the surgery is complete. I am now 1 week post-op. Glad to say that everything went smoothly, no incidents, no complications...praise God.

So now I am on my 2nd week of my liquid diet and next week I get to move to pureed foods for 2 weeks....yeah!!!!!! Then after that, I will slowly work my way into solid food....

I thank God for the team at my doc's office. I'm appreciative that they watch us so closely even as far as when to begin the next stage of eating...after all of the reading I've done and horror stories I've heard about people eating too soon, stretching their pouches and even sometimes causing the pouches to develop a leak....nah man.....I'm not trying to be laying on the hospital table again, not after what I have just been through. So on that note, I am going to do EVERYTHING I am told to do!

I went for my 1- week post-op appointment on yesterday and I am down 16 pounds since the surgery on 4/13/09. Total weight loss so far since my FIRST surgery is 33 pounds....so to be one week out and have these kinds of results already I am so amped right now!

Even through all of the pains that I have experienced, the headaches, the head hunger , I would do this all over again because as I get stronger everyday, I thank God for the second chance to live a healthier life and be a better example to my kids. They are so excited about this journey. They are part of it because their lives will be impacted by my changes because the last thing I ever want for them is for them to struggle their whole lives with weight the way I did and then have to get wls....nah, I'm gonna teach them what I have learned so they dont have to experience what I had to go through!

Keep me in y'all prayers! I will keep you posted!

I pray that everyone is well and enjoying your journey.

Well I am gearing up to go back into the hospital again on this coming Monday the 13th...Im just ready to get this surgery done so that I can feel like I am out of limbo!

I am very excited...yet very prayerful at the same time...due to the complication I had last time, of course its only natural for me to be thinking about that and praying earnestly that nothing goes wrong this time. My surgeon only has about an hour
and some change left to finish the procedure so my prayer is to get in and get out! Besides after that last hospital stay and the 4 days in ICU I'm sure my insurance will be kicking my butt out of that hospital ASAP....they will end up paying WAAYYY more than they thought!

Anyway I totally trust and believe that my God has everything in control.

Please continue to pray for me...
My angel who is my sister Rae-Rae will definitely keep everyone informed.

Love y'all!
(gettin' my mind right for this pre-op liquid diet......again
 

Hello there....
I have had some kind of journey this last month!
Thank you to all who have said a word of prayer for me. It is by the grace and mercy of God that I am able to sit here and type or even be here period after all that I have just gone through!!!

Thanks to my sis RaeRae for keeping you all posted as to my condition. It was a very scary ordeal for my family and friends.

I arrived at the hospital as planned by 6:00 am on Thurs. Feb 19th. Got prepped for surgery, had prayer with my parents and my friend who had brought me to the hospital and I was off...I don't even remember being wheeled off from them. I guess the drugs took effect quick cuz  I was OUT!

Next thing I remember, I was gasping for air, kind of choking and seemed to be drowining in my own saliva...I heard all of these voices around me, so much flurry going on in the room...I heard my mother telling someone not to tell me what had happened because she didn't know how I would react....I heard a nurse in my ear telling me that if she were me she wouldn't have the surgery and that this was God's way of telling me not to do it....I heard all kinds of stuff but couldnt figure out what had happened and what the heck was this thing in my throat obstructing my breathing!!!! Later to find out that I was now in ICU some 6-7 hours later. 

Since I felt like I was drowning, I began to panic and everytime I panicked i would lose the cadence of my breathing which would in turn cause me to choke....I kept hearing people tell me not to try to talk and I was screaming in my mind "I'm trying to breathe, not talk!" So I began to wiggle my feet and fingers as much as I could to signal to someone that I was awake. I even heard my sister tell the nurse that I was waking up and she said that I was too heavily sedated and my body was reacting to all of the tubes and medication...I started twitching like crazy cuz they needed to know I was awake....FINALLY they figured out that I was not sedated and heard and felt everything....

They told me that my blood pressure had dropped to almost nothing during the final stages of my surgery and that unfortunately my surgery was not completed. WHAT????? Although I was very disappointed, I was and still remain very greatful that I am alive and that I had a doctor who cared more about my life rather than finishing the procedure....The way I see it....what good is a gastric bypass if I'm dead?????

Anyway, I was in ICU for 4 days and they had pumped me with lots of medication to get my blood pressure back up. This medication and all the fluids bloated me beyond recognition....so when Sunday rolled around, the doc was going to try to go ahead and finish the procedure....unfortunately once he got back inside he discovered that my bowels and some other organs were too bloated for him to finish the procedure without causing me more harm. 

I was moved to a regular room on the bariatric floor and was monitored, blood pressure was back to normal and now we were waiting for my swelling to go down....I was finally released on Wednesday the 24th and was supposed to return in 4 weeks to have surgery....due to my surgeon's schedule though....I can't even get my surgery completed until April 13th!

Not very happy about that date, but at this point, it is what it is....I am doing well....following my regimen as if I had a complete bypass...I have lost about 22 pounds which is pretty good considering that my intestines have not been bypassed to my pouch...that was the last step....

So I ask for your continued prayers. I don't know why I had to go through this, the docs can not even explain what happened, but I do know that God is in control and that he saved my life for a purpose!
Thanks again and I will keep y'all posted!!!
  

I know it has been a while since I posted a blog, not even sure if anybody out there is even reading them, but I have a new surgery date! I receivd a call from my doc office on last Tuesday telling me that there was a problem with my date and that they could move me to the end of March...I was like NO! Are you serious (originally surgery date was Feb 26th) so I was not happy....then she kept talking and was like unless you want to go sooner and I was like, whats sooner....when she said Feb 19th, I jumped at it!!!! Right away i rescheduled all of my pre op appointments. Luckily I already had the ball rolling at work with my FMLA...so it is coming up so fast and I am So excited!

Alicia

I am so ecstatic right now!!!! I received the call today from my Dr's office that they received my insurance approval today!!!!! When I really think about it, the process really was not that long from when I started! I am so grateful to God right now. I am very excited about the new lease on life that I will be getting soon. I am so anxious...I can hardly contain myself! This website has been such an encouragement and inspriation to me! Reading everyones stories and experiences has helped tremendously, I will join the loser's bench soon!!!!. My surgery date is February 26th. I know that it will be here quickly!!!
Officially counting down......

okay...so its been a minute since I posted anything....making progress....yayyyyyyyyy!!!! I am very excited....I went to see the nutritionist on Oct 30th. It was an excellent meeting and an eye opener too...I know that I am not alone when I say that I have been on just about every diet there is...even on some a couple of times....once I sat down with the NUT and she began to write down what I was eating... along with the amount of excercise I do..it made so much sense to me why for YEARS i have been losing the same 35 pounds!!!! I don't eat enough....now wait a minute...I know you're saying what? then how did you get so big then...well I will tell you...I am an active big girl...my heart is strong I do the elliptical for an hour and treadmill for 45 minutes to an hour....once the nut explained that I only burned what I ate never tapping into the stored fat because   i wasn't eating enough to keep the metab going....so my body knew I would burn the energy so it would snatch as much of it to store as possible, thus...FAT, FAT, FAT....lose a little, gain a lot....crazy! So anyway the RNY is the way to go for me since the purpose of the Lap Band is to have restriction....apparently I'm great at restricting myself so it wouldn't help me at all...so forget all that...my mind is definitely made up!

So TODAY I had my ultrasound, upper GI and EKG done!!!! And I have my sleep test tonight. I am on a mission.... on this coming Friday...which is also my 40th birthday, I will be taking my psych eval. Yes indeed, I am trying to  get all of my requirements handled ASAP. Once the psych eval is done, I can have the office submit all of my insurance docs for preapproval. I was hoping for a date in December, but it will be more like January sometime, I think, unless someone cancels surgery for some reason....but I'm greatful that all is well so far....keep me lifted!

Well I had my much anticipated consult with the surgeon today and I must say that I was all worked up over nothing! It was great and I am very excited. I have an appointment with the nutrisionist set for next Thursday and an appt with the psychologist the following Thursday....I feel like the process is going to happen quickly....we'll see!!! I know a lot will depend on when I can PAY my nut and pschologist since insurance doesn't cover it! But I don't believe God has brought me this far to leave me! I AM ON MY WAY ! oh yeah....I was leaning towards the lap band but in speaking with Dr. Richi today, he wants me to think about the gastric bypass....we shall see....any thoughts out there????