stacyeparker

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Well here I am, practically a totally new person. This entails good and bad things. I got all the way down to right around 250, maybe a bit under i can't remember. Got approved to get some excess skin removed because it was hindering me being able to exercise properly. However my insurance didnt like the surgeon because he didnt preform the sirgeries in their hospital (had insurance through my husband's job at a hospital) so they wanted me to go with one of their surgeons. This new surgeon refused to work on me even with the other surgeon having been willing to, said I was still too big to go througha surgery. This rejection threw me into a deep depression and actually a drinking problem developed. 

Happy to say As of This jan 1'st I am sober, I know not very long but for me thats a good start. With the drinking I got back up to about 325 I think, didnt really check that often. 

I have a fitbit now, and monitor my eating on Sparkpeople. I have even found local friends who have had WLS so their support is very helpful. One really bad thing is I believe I developed reactive hypoglycemia from my surgery. I haven't been able to see a doctor about it that will believe me, my one doctor I had said I was making it up that I would get really ill if I ate sugar. Hopefully I can find a doctor who believes me enough to check. 

Big changes in my life coming up, going to be moving an hour away so I can get a new start for me and my family. 

But anyway, I'm back and trying to gather what info I can to make sure I remember things right and maybe I can help some others too. 

btw as of today I am down to 280, short term goal 250, then the big goal of 200. 

Well I went back and read my previous post. I feel like a totally different person wrote it. Life still kind of sucks. Though my surgery has nothing to do with any of it. My weightloss is still slow but it's continueing. As of this post I am at 322. Just last night my buddy and I got our gym passes back and we walked on the treadmills there. I like their treadmills better, they seem sturdier. We will also be swimming once we both find our suites.
I am getting my vitamins in, though I am having to experiment with how many I can take at a time as my pouch is very tempermental. My Effexor is very hard on me as well. I didn't take it for nearly a month and now I'ts making me super sick when I take it. It sucks to have to take it twice a day. Though I did try to coat my pouch before taking it this morning and it seemed a lot more gentle. I didn't have any yogurt which was my first choice but apple sauce seemed to work.
I seriously don't like the chewable vitamins, they are very yucky.
I've been getting my vit K shots for 2 months now. Those are simple, I just always complain to my husband that it's pink. I for some reason don;t like the idea of a colored substance going into me. This coming from a woman who loves the idea of tattoos. Which btw I am 22 pounds away from getting my first one colored. I got a tattoo of my own design put on my left forearm around May of last year. I only did the line art (black lines). I told myself once I was below 300 I would get it colored. I am almost there.
I went back to sparkpeople.com and saw they still have my old measurements. I want to get my measurments tonight to see just how much has changed. In my mind I am still just as big. Though there are some clues I have gotten smaller. Seatbelts are easier to put on. Clothes fit better, or just plain fit, such as a brown suede coat Kevin bought for me a couple years ago. When he got it it absolutly would not close around me. Now I have some space even when it is buttoned. I feel like I got a brand new coat. Unfortuantly this means the coat I bought that fit me now is huge on me. ohwell, unless it completly falls off, it's still my winter coat.
One thing that doesnt make much sense is that I feel more boney. I obviously don't look boney but I can feel them much easier.
I am slowly getting my life back in order. IN a very big way I feel like the surgery "broke" me. I haven't really been myself since. But now I am getting back into doing art and becoming a much more involved person in my family.

Well here I am a month out. I have lost 40 pounds and have been sitting right at 352-348 for the past 2 weeks. My depression is seriously kicking my butt. I spend most my time sleeping. Well the time I'm not watching kids. I hate eating. I hate drinking. With eating I always get a burning hurt (same with drinking) and then I have to fight to see if it's gonna stay down. I'm afraid I'm eating the wrong things since my weight is stuck. So far what is available to me is beans and cheese. I'm pretty sure the cottage cheese has gone bad by now but since I didnt finish it I feel bad asking for more. We normally recieve food stamps but due to us not getting paperwrk in on time those got cut off. So we have limited funds for food, bills and other things like gas. we have 7 people in our house it's not easy feeding them. It's easier to just not eat for me. My weight loss efforts were always stalled because all we could buy was ramen and mac and cheese. Now here I am having had a surgery that cost more than my house and I'm still stuck. I'm failing. I can't get out and exercise because I don't drive and never know when my friend who exercises with me is free. plus I get a lot of flack for going anywhere from my ex who lives with me because he is always afraid my mom is going to come over and fuss. PLus he can't sleep if I'm gone. Also my husband doesnt do anything if I'm gone. So i'm stuck in the house on a very steep hill (i've tried walking it before, it kills me) watching kids. I have a treadmil but it's in my "art studio" which is right now a glorified storage room. I can't  get to my art desk or my treadmil.
As of right now I hate my RNY. All I have is pain when I eat or drink. I feel liike my life is out of control. That has little to do with the actual surgery. Mostly it's because I'm so out of it and my mom is tryingto take over my family. She has threatened to take custody of my 4 kids away from me. I proboly really should see a counselor but have no way to get to one.

Well here I am. 4 days post op. I am sore. I can't get up wthout help. I have a drain till the 16th. My left side is the worst for pain, they said that is the biggest incision so it will hurt the most.
CAMC General Hospital really knows how to care for their bariatric patients. I felt like the nurses genuinly cared about me. They seem to really know their stuff too.
I have only just begun stage 2 of my diet. I have a meal plan I am following so I get the right amounts of things. I look forward to the creamy peanut butter shake they gave me the recipie for.
I wish I would goahead and pass gass because I know thats whats making me really sore. I've burped planty of times but the other end is a different matter.
well it's really early, I just got up for a pain pill and to get a few ozs of water in me. I have to say I love the head nurse's analogy of my pouch being a little frog that likes to stay wet and cozy.
I will go into more detail on my surgery experience later.

I had my pre-op testing yesterday. Things went ok. They drew blood and did and EKG. the EKG was quick and simple. they stuck a bunch of stickers on me and hooked me to a machine. a moment passed and then they said they were done. The blood drawing went ok as well. the last tube seemed to take forever to fill up. I'm now bruised and have a rash where they taped my piece of gauze down. This was with paper tape, so I guess any kind of tape does it to me. 
I have to admit I cheated today on my liquids. I ate a cheese roll up. this was after I saw we had very little milk. My oldest daughter finished up the milk after I made myself a protein shake. She saw my special k protein and told me I could just drink that.  I still have sugar free popscicles, though my youngest son keeps taking them from me when I go to eat them.
I am thiking of taking back some clothes mom bought for the vacation so we can have some food money. Our vacation is postponed because mom broke her ankle. The pants hopefully wont be fitting for very long anyway so may as well get something more useful out of them.
In the taking better care of myself front I went and had some acrylic nails put on and a pedicure (courtesy of mom before said ankle incident). I even got a very pretty design on my big toes. I have never done anyhting "girly" like that before. The nails already feel natural to me. They are a nice short  (just past my fingers) length.
I feel bad about mom getting hurt. I know she and everyone else were looking forward to this trip. Looking at it another way, at least now I wont have to be on vacation and on a liquid diet.

I cried today watching my husband make himself a couple sandwich wrap type things. I would love to eat a nice tomatoe. The hardest part is I could eat if I really wanted to. This is still me pre-op diet. But I know this is for my health. So I drink my whey protein. I really wish we could afford some SF jello or something. Being poor sucks. This is only day 4. I am still dreading vacation on a liquid diet even though I tell myself food isnt the only way to have fun. It's going to be hard being at resturants and not being able to join in the eating.

Well this was a confusing past half hour. First I get called by the pre-certification lady from the office. She says they have not recieved my approval letter so she got the ref # from me. She mentions I'm scheduled for something on the 8th. She then says one of the nurses will call me to schedule my surgery. I decide to call central scheduleing to see what I'm scheduled for. Turns out that's my surgery. My pre-admission testing is scheduled for the 1st which is the day we leave for vacation. I have called to see if they can move it so I can actually be there for it.
This is sort of a problem because my mom is having surgery the 15th, she's getting some plastic work done. She doesn't want me to get mine close to hers. I say I don't really need her since i have 2 guys here to help me with the kids. Mom is the type that wanted me to postpone having one of my babies so she could have her weekend. I was sick and needed to get induced, the baby was past due. So I shall be getting my surgery on the day they say.

I really wish my Surgeon hadn't been scheduled to move offices during this time. I called them today and turns out they were closed all last week. I am looking at a 2 week timeframe in finding out about my surgery date. Well that gives me more time to get prepared.
Due to a lack of healthy foods I am more or less on a liquid diet. My financial situation is pretty bad right now. and our foodstamps were cut off cause of an error on the state's part. So I save the food for the kids. I've lost 6 pounds, which makes me hopeful for how much I can lose before my surgery.

Gotta love the confidence my mom has in me. She has already told me I'm most likely going to fail at losing weight.
Forget her.

I am preparing for my liquid diet I have to do 2 weeks before surgery. Trying to find a protien source that I can tolerate maybe even one I like.
I got a Blender Bottle with a little ball that helps mix the powders. So far it works great.

Well I went through the 6 months of Dr. supervision. And have just received my approval letter. My Surgeon Dr. Rossi just moved offices so I understand why it's taking a little bit to get me scheduled.
I have been reading all I can find about the surgery and people's experiences with it. I am excited and scared.
I know I am ready to change my life. I have no problem with the changes I need to make. I have begun following some of the rules such as not drinking while I eat.

To tell people a little bit more about me... I am turning 30 this September. I have 4 children ages 9,8, 4 and 2. I stay at home with them and am a freeelance artist though I don't get much work. I tried working outside te home but was too big and had a stress fracture in my foot. My husband and ex-husband both live with us so they support us. We are a big happy family.

I have been big all my life. Even in kindergarten I was chubby. I hope with hard work and my surgery I will finally know what it's like to be normal.