Finally after 7 days of post-op liquids I went to the doctor yesterday and they cleared me for mushy food. Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!! I'm so excited. What this means is that I'm now able to eat oatmeal, grits, chilli, tuna fish...OMG it feels so good to actually eat real food. I still can only eat 4 table spoons per meal but still it's great news. I also can't eat any breads, rice, or pasta and that won't change for a while but I can at least eat real food. I'm also not allowed to have any raw fruit or veggies because they will be too hard on my stomach. And of course I gotta stay away from greasy and fried foods. And I still gotta try to get the 64 ounces of water, the 50g of protein, and all the vitamins in each day but even with all that-I GET TO EAT FOOD. Can you tell I'm excited? just a little bit?
The doctor cleared me yesterday and last night I had my first meal-CHILLI! And it banged! I'm learning that since I can only eat 4 Tablespoons I'm gonna have a lot of leftovers. I've never really been a leftover person but I will now-okay, k, k??? lol
So this mushy diet will last for 6 weeks. On Feb 1st I'll go visit my nutritionist for a follow up and as long as everything is looking good I'll be on to eating even more normal foods. In the meantime I have another follow up with the doc on Jan 17th to make sure I'm looking good. I'm pretty much out of the clear for their being any leakages as far as a complication are concerned but I still have to follow up to make sure I'm not developing an ulcer or anything. The poor doctor was overwhelmed yesterday by me and all my questions. I wasn't playing. I came to the visit with a page full of questions for the doc and for the nutritionist.
Guess what else happened at the follow up??? I weighed in-I'm down to 357-that's 27 lbs lost since my last pre-op visit. I'm well on my way. I'm not sure how much weight loss can be expected and at which rate but I'm hoping to be below 300 by March 1st. I'll keep you guys posted as I weigh in each week. During one of this week's outings I ventured off to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and bought a scale so I can keep track from home too.
So that's all my good news for now. I have 3 more days left of the Lovenex shots and that will be over with so now I'm looking forward to a great 2011!
As always,
**Thanks for taking this journey with me!**
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
1 week post up-Liquids, Protein, Vitamins, and Pain
It's been exactly a week since I was released from the hospital and 9 days since my gastric bypass surgery. I want to fill you in on how my week has been going.
At first the week was rough. I was in a lot of pain. I have 5 incision marks including one that is really deep and hurts (pic below of the incision that hurt likes hell-don't look if you don't like gross stuff). These marks just hurt and suck! I was giving some prescription pain killers so I would take that up until about this past weekend. After the weekend I wasn't in too much pain. The exception to that was if I was getting up or down from a sitting or laying position. The worst was getting in and out of bed and actually going to the restroom. I now have a new appreciation for being able to wipe and that's all I'm going to say about that. You really never realize just how much you use your abdominal muscles until you can't use them anymore.
Part of the reason I was in sooo much pain, and I say sooo much pain is because most people I talk to who had the surgery say they didn't experience as much pain as I was feeling. I don't know if they were trying to down play it or maybe they had forgotten but I was in pain. In addition to having gastric bypass I also had a hiatal hernia I had fixed. Hiatel hernia is where your stomach comes through your diaphragm and into your esophagus. This causes really bad acid reflux. Because my hiatel hernia was so large they decided to repair it while I was having surgery. Some patients have only a small hernia and never have to have it surgically fixed. Now I knew about the hiatel hernia from my pre op testing, specifically the endoscopy I had (long camera put down your throat to view your insides). What I didn't know about was that I had Diverticulitis. What the heck is that right??? After the doctor told me he found out I had this while doing the surgery I had to google it. lol If you know me, you know I google/wikipedia everything. Well what Diverticulitis means is that you have inflammation in your bowel. This can cause irritable bowel syndrome. My next question was, how did I get this? From not getting enough fiber in my diet and from eating alot of sunflower seeds. Again if you know me, you know I eat sunflower seeds all the time. I mean ALL THE TIME!!! Who knew this could cause a problem. Luckily the doctor was able to remove the inflamed portion of my lower bowel (about a foot). And from what the doctor tells me and the literature suggests, there are no long term implications for this and it shouldn't be a problem moving forward. I just need to cut down on the seeds and eat some green veggies.
Now back to my week. Well luckily each day I started to feel better. The pain decreased but I still felt very uncomfortable. I can't really describe it but if I tried to I would say it's a cross between indigestion/gas and just over eating when your stomach just doesn't feel good. And luckily each day that got better too. The largest part of my days have been following my doctors orders. For the last week I have been on an all liquid diet. Yes, I did say ALL LIQUID DIET. Let me tell you what my meals have consisted of.
Breakfast-2 tablespoons of Jell-O
Lunch- 4 tablespoons of chicken soup broth-NOT CHICKEN SOUP-ONLY BROTH
Dinner- THE SAME EXACT THING AS LUNCH
Yes, no food. Nothing that even resembles food. Luckily my new stomach is the size of a thumb and with all the surgery my stomach is too swollen to even want more food. I haven't been technically "hungry" but I've wanted to eat. Every commercial on TV had me wanting whatever food they were showcasing. Even though I had cravings I stuck to it and just had the liquids all week. GO ME-can't you tell I'm proud?
In addition to the liquid diet I am supposed to be drinking 64 ounces of water a day. This has not been happening. I just have no desire to eat or drink. I have to force myself to drink and when I do I can't sip out of a stray (cause that causes gas) and I can't take large sips. However, hydration is the single most important thing following surgery so I'm really trying to do better at this.
Next in the level of importance is protein. I'm not eating but my body needs protein so I'm supposed to be drinking protein drinks to get me to 50g of protein a day. This is really, really hard. Harder than the 64 ounces. I bought 2 types of protein drinks (Nectar Fuzy Navel and Protein Blitz Fruit Punch) and I hate to drink both of them. I need to drink 2 of the drinks a day to get in the protein and I can barely drink 1 of them. I'm thinking I'm going to have to find a new type. But I spent $70 on the stuff I've already bought so that kind of pisses me off. Argh, can you sense my frustration??? Hopefully I'll find a different drink and I'll be able to report back good news.
Number 3 in importance is something else I'm not doing the best at and that's my vitamins. Since I'm not eating and since I won't be eating much forever I have a whole long list of vitamins I need to take because I won't be getting them from food anymore. Here is the laundry list of what I need to take
1. B-12
2. Multivitamin-2 times a day
3. Calcium citrate-3 times a day
4. B50 complex
5. Iron
6. Vitamin D
And to complicate matters even more I can't take these all at the same time because certain vitamins won't get absorbed if taking with certain other vitamins. For example, Calcium and Iron can't be taken together because the iron won't absorb. This is some complicated stuff. And to make matters worse I am not allowed to swallow pills yet so the pills are either crushed or chewable and taste rather yucky. I need to get down a better system to keep track of all these vitamins and when to take what. Just like the protein I hope to report back with good news soon.
Lastly I've had to get a shot of Lovenex each day. This is an anti-coagulant that works to prevent blot clots. I have to take this for 10 days. I'm 7 days in so I only have 3 more shots left. Michelle has been the one administering these shots and even though it's not the best part of my day she's done a good job. The shot doesn't hurt anymore than a normal shot but the medicine in the shot does burn and guess where the shot is injected-my stomach-as if that area needed anymore torture. Michelle was also responsible for removing my On Q pump. For those of you who may not remember, the hospital inserted a small catheter into my stomach to deliver pain medicine straight to the incision areas (pic of the catheter below). I had to carry this little ball with me where ever I went. Every time I stood up the ball came since it was attached to me-literally. Saturday we took the catheter out. Even though taking it out was pretty gross it didn't hurt. THANK GOD!!
So other than all that I've been a complete bum this last week. I've been either in my bed or on my couch watching TV or movies. The only down part has been that my body has grown quite tired of the laying. I can't seem to sleep in because my body will wake me up and say "hey get up". With the incisions on my stomach I can only sleep on my back, which I didn't think would be an issue since I always sleep on my back, but I guess the difference has been that I can't roll over and sleep on my side or stomach from time to time when I grow uncomfortable.
On a brighter note, I did leave the house twice this week-oooh make that three times. One of those times I did venture out to the movies to see Little Fockers.
So that has been my week 1 post op!!! Tomorrow I will fill you in on my 1st doctor follow up and weight in!!!!
**Thank you for taking this journey with me!**
At first the week was rough. I was in a lot of pain. I have 5 incision marks including one that is really deep and hurts (pic below of the incision that hurt likes hell-don't look if you don't like gross stuff). These marks just hurt and suck! I was giving some prescription pain killers so I would take that up until about this past weekend. After the weekend I wasn't in too much pain. The exception to that was if I was getting up or down from a sitting or laying position. The worst was getting in and out of bed and actually going to the restroom. I now have a new appreciation for being able to wipe and that's all I'm going to say about that. You really never realize just how much you use your abdominal muscles until you can't use them anymore.
Part of the reason I was in sooo much pain, and I say sooo much pain is because most people I talk to who had the surgery say they didn't experience as much pain as I was feeling. I don't know if they were trying to down play it or maybe they had forgotten but I was in pain. In addition to having gastric bypass I also had a hiatal hernia I had fixed. Hiatel hernia is where your stomach comes through your diaphragm and into your esophagus. This causes really bad acid reflux. Because my hiatel hernia was so large they decided to repair it while I was having surgery. Some patients have only a small hernia and never have to have it surgically fixed. Now I knew about the hiatel hernia from my pre op testing, specifically the endoscopy I had (long camera put down your throat to view your insides). What I didn't know about was that I had Diverticulitis. What the heck is that right??? After the doctor told me he found out I had this while doing the surgery I had to google it. lol If you know me, you know I google/wikipedia everything. Well what Diverticulitis means is that you have inflammation in your bowel. This can cause irritable bowel syndrome. My next question was, how did I get this? From not getting enough fiber in my diet and from eating alot of sunflower seeds. Again if you know me, you know I eat sunflower seeds all the time. I mean ALL THE TIME!!! Who knew this could cause a problem. Luckily the doctor was able to remove the inflamed portion of my lower bowel (about a foot). And from what the doctor tells me and the literature suggests, there are no long term implications for this and it shouldn't be a problem moving forward. I just need to cut down on the seeds and eat some green veggies.
Now back to my week. Well luckily each day I started to feel better. The pain decreased but I still felt very uncomfortable. I can't really describe it but if I tried to I would say it's a cross between indigestion/gas and just over eating when your stomach just doesn't feel good. And luckily each day that got better too. The largest part of my days have been following my doctors orders. For the last week I have been on an all liquid diet. Yes, I did say ALL LIQUID DIET. Let me tell you what my meals have consisted of.
Breakfast-2 tablespoons of Jell-O
Lunch- 4 tablespoons of chicken soup broth-NOT CHICKEN SOUP-ONLY BROTH
Dinner- THE SAME EXACT THING AS LUNCH
Yes, no food. Nothing that even resembles food. Luckily my new stomach is the size of a thumb and with all the surgery my stomach is too swollen to even want more food. I haven't been technically "hungry" but I've wanted to eat. Every commercial on TV had me wanting whatever food they were showcasing. Even though I had cravings I stuck to it and just had the liquids all week. GO ME-can't you tell I'm proud?
In addition to the liquid diet I am supposed to be drinking 64 ounces of water a day. This has not been happening. I just have no desire to eat or drink. I have to force myself to drink and when I do I can't sip out of a stray (cause that causes gas) and I can't take large sips. However, hydration is the single most important thing following surgery so I'm really trying to do better at this.
Next in the level of importance is protein. I'm not eating but my body needs protein so I'm supposed to be drinking protein drinks to get me to 50g of protein a day. This is really, really hard. Harder than the 64 ounces. I bought 2 types of protein drinks (Nectar Fuzy Navel and Protein Blitz Fruit Punch) and I hate to drink both of them. I need to drink 2 of the drinks a day to get in the protein and I can barely drink 1 of them. I'm thinking I'm going to have to find a new type. But I spent $70 on the stuff I've already bought so that kind of pisses me off. Argh, can you sense my frustration??? Hopefully I'll find a different drink and I'll be able to report back good news.
Number 3 in importance is something else I'm not doing the best at and that's my vitamins. Since I'm not eating and since I won't be eating much forever I have a whole long list of vitamins I need to take because I won't be getting them from food anymore. Here is the laundry list of what I need to take
1. B-12
2. Multivitamin-2 times a day
3. Calcium citrate-3 times a day
4. B50 complex
5. Iron
6. Vitamin D
And to complicate matters even more I can't take these all at the same time because certain vitamins won't get absorbed if taking with certain other vitamins. For example, Calcium and Iron can't be taken together because the iron won't absorb. This is some complicated stuff. And to make matters worse I am not allowed to swallow pills yet so the pills are either crushed or chewable and taste rather yucky. I need to get down a better system to keep track of all these vitamins and when to take what. Just like the protein I hope to report back with good news soon.
Lastly I've had to get a shot of Lovenex each day. This is an anti-coagulant that works to prevent blot clots. I have to take this for 10 days. I'm 7 days in so I only have 3 more shots left. Michelle has been the one administering these shots and even though it's not the best part of my day she's done a good job. The shot doesn't hurt anymore than a normal shot but the medicine in the shot does burn and guess where the shot is injected-my stomach-as if that area needed anymore torture. Michelle was also responsible for removing my On Q pump. For those of you who may not remember, the hospital inserted a small catheter into my stomach to deliver pain medicine straight to the incision areas (pic of the catheter below). I had to carry this little ball with me where ever I went. Every time I stood up the ball came since it was attached to me-literally. Saturday we took the catheter out. Even though taking it out was pretty gross it didn't hurt. THANK GOD!!
So other than all that I've been a complete bum this last week. I've been either in my bed or on my couch watching TV or movies. The only down part has been that my body has grown quite tired of the laying. I can't seem to sleep in because my body will wake me up and say "hey get up". With the incisions on my stomach I can only sleep on my back, which I didn't think would be an issue since I always sleep on my back, but I guess the difference has been that I can't roll over and sleep on my side or stomach from time to time when I grow uncomfortable.
On a brighter note, I did leave the house twice this week-oooh make that three times. One of those times I did venture out to the movies to see Little Fockers.
So that has been my week 1 post op!!! Tomorrow I will fill you in on my 1st doctor follow up and weight in!!!!
**Thank you for taking this journey with me!**
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
December 20, 2010- D Day
Okay so all the tests are run and the pre op liquid diet is complete. It's the morning of Monday, Dec 20th. It's the day of surgery. Up until this point I wasn't nervous. Suprisingly, I never did get nervous. I have faith in God and just knew I would be ok and you have probably realized from the fact that I'm writting this blog, I am ok-I SURVIED.
So on Monday I woke up super early. I'm talking about 4:45am early. I got in the shower so I could be so fresh and so clean for the hospital stay. Then me, my mom, and Michelle all headed to the hospital. I had the surgery at Innova Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax, VA. We got to the hospital and all checked in by 5:30am. I had to arrive by 5:30 but my surgery wasn't until 7:30. I guess they give you 2 hours of prep time but really it doesn't take that long. So I filled out all the necessary paperwork and then waited with Michelle and my mom for the nurse to call me back to start surgical prep. After only a short wait I was called back. Michelle and my Mom came along as the nurses poked and proded me. I had to have a final weigh in which I mentioned in the last blog which was cool because I found out I had lost 19lbs and was down to 365. The nurses took my blood pressure, started my IV, took blood and did various other things. I also had a very nervous research guy ask me about being willing to participate in a medical study. I agreed and then had to sign paperwork for that. So up until 7:30 me, my mom, and Michelle were all just hanging out as we waiting for the surgeon. I've attached a pic to the bottom of this email showing me in my hospital cap as I wait for the surgeon. SEXY!!! I know, I know! Girl you be killing them!
Right at 7:30 Dr. Moazzez came in and we talked briefly about the surgery and answered any questions my mom or I had. Then right after that I had to say good bye to Michelle and my mom and I was wheeled back to the operating room. Now at this point I'm still coherent. I remember being rolled into the room and the room being super cold and very bright. The nurses had me switch to a different bed and then that's the last thing I remember. I don't remember anyone telling me anything or asking me questions. I don't remember having the breathing mask put over my face or anything. I was out!!!
I guess at this point the surgery began. I obviously was knocked out so I don't know much about the surgery. I do know that it lasted about 3 hours. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in the PACU flipping out. I can't remember everything because I was in and out of consciousness but I do remember waking up flipping out about the pain. I kept saying "it hurts" "it hurts" over and over. The nurses just kept telling me they know it hurts and it will be over soon. And then I felt like I was going to throw up. I kept trying to rip off the breakthing mask and breathing tube because I just knew I was going to throw up. The nurses kept pulling my hand off and I remember one of them saying they would give me something. I started to dry heave (spelling). It was like I really had to throw up but there wasn't anything there. That's the last thing I remember.
Next thing I know I'm waking up in my room (shout out to 506), it was a corner lot-a very nice peice of property. lol So I wake up and Michelle and my Mom are there. They of course are estatic to see me. Eventhough I was never nervous I realized after surgery alot of people were nervous. Eventhough ten of thousands get this surgery every year it's still a very serious surgery and a surgery that although rare may result in death. Michelle and I actually had a co worker who passed away while getting gastric bypass. I realized that my family being nervous made sense. If I would have died it wouldn't have mattered to me much. Obviously I love my life and want to keep living it but if I went to heaven I would be in good hands and it would really affect my friends and family.
Back on point....So Michelle and my mom keep me company in room. I'm on some serious pain meds and I'm in and out of it. When I had this pain pump it was like I could never stay awake. I could be talking to you and be wanting to talk to you but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I'm not sure at what time but my Uncle Scott and my cousin Kelsey came and they visited. I'm not sure how long that lasted but I know they left and Michelle stayed. What time Michelle left I'm not sure. Like I said I was in and out of it.
From there I just layed in my bed and went to sleep. Like I said I was on some serious pain medicine and I wasn't playing with the pain pump. Pretty much everytime I could get the medicine I hit the pump. My mom even joked because even in my sleep I was holding the pain pump. lol I wish I could tell you I got tons of rest while in the hospital but that's not the case. The bed was super hard and hurt my butt and I would only sleep for so long before the techs would come in to take my blood pressure and temp. So at 5:30am I was back up and ready to start the day. I say start the day as if I had anything to do but I didn't. I basically spent the day laying in bed or the chair next to the bed because I found it to be more comfortable watching movies. The nurses would come in and out and give me meds through my IV and ask me if I was doing ok. I also spent time walking the hospital floors (see pic below). After surgery it's important that you walk which helps with gas, breathing, and with blood clots. Blood clots are the most serious complications so you gotta do everything you can to avoid getting them. I also spent alot of time breathing into my incentive spirometer. This is just a breathing excercise to work your lungs out. Michelle was there and we watched tons of TV and movies. Atleast the hospital had full cable and tons of great movies at no cost. I received lots of calls and texts while I was in the hospital but I really didn't feel like responding. So if you called or texted-I appreciate the support and I apologize. Hopefully by now I've responded to you.
Another part of my day was getting an x ray to make sure there werent any holes in my stomach. I had to drink some barium substance and take several x rays. This was all to make sure that I could start drinking liquids. I passed the test and was allowed to drink fluids and jello. On this day they also removed the catheter which I was really happy about because I had heard alot of stories about catheters causing urinary infections and I wanted no part of that.
On Tuesday I wasn't in pain because I had the pump but they later took that away. Once the pump was taking away I did feel pain. Mostly in the incision areas. The doctor made 5 incisions and one of them was very deep and it hurt like hell. Besides pain I just felt uncomfortable. It's hard to explain but I just never felt right. At this point the nurses were pumping me with a ton of liquids through my IV to get me to pee and no matter how much they gave me I didn't pee. I started to get nervous when it came Wendesday and I still hadn't peed. The nurse told me that if I didn't pee they would insert a catheter again. They did an ultra sound of my bladder to make sure it was cool and it was. Luckily eventually I peed. The next hurdle was to pass gas. And I could just not do it. lol kind of crazy that all I wanted to do was fart and I couldn't. That's never been a problem. They ended up having to give me a medicine that caused me to fart. After all that I was discharged. In total, I spent 2 nights in the hospital and was released on Wendesday.
So that's my hospital story folks. Next blog will cover my week after being released.
**Thank you for taking this journey with me**
So on Monday I woke up super early. I'm talking about 4:45am early. I got in the shower so I could be so fresh and so clean for the hospital stay. Then me, my mom, and Michelle all headed to the hospital. I had the surgery at Innova Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax, VA. We got to the hospital and all checked in by 5:30am. I had to arrive by 5:30 but my surgery wasn't until 7:30. I guess they give you 2 hours of prep time but really it doesn't take that long. So I filled out all the necessary paperwork and then waited with Michelle and my mom for the nurse to call me back to start surgical prep. After only a short wait I was called back. Michelle and my Mom came along as the nurses poked and proded me. I had to have a final weigh in which I mentioned in the last blog which was cool because I found out I had lost 19lbs and was down to 365. The nurses took my blood pressure, started my IV, took blood and did various other things. I also had a very nervous research guy ask me about being willing to participate in a medical study. I agreed and then had to sign paperwork for that. So up until 7:30 me, my mom, and Michelle were all just hanging out as we waiting for the surgeon. I've attached a pic to the bottom of this email showing me in my hospital cap as I wait for the surgeon. SEXY!!! I know, I know! Girl you be killing them!
Right at 7:30 Dr. Moazzez came in and we talked briefly about the surgery and answered any questions my mom or I had. Then right after that I had to say good bye to Michelle and my mom and I was wheeled back to the operating room. Now at this point I'm still coherent. I remember being rolled into the room and the room being super cold and very bright. The nurses had me switch to a different bed and then that's the last thing I remember. I don't remember anyone telling me anything or asking me questions. I don't remember having the breathing mask put over my face or anything. I was out!!!
I guess at this point the surgery began. I obviously was knocked out so I don't know much about the surgery. I do know that it lasted about 3 hours. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in the PACU flipping out. I can't remember everything because I was in and out of consciousness but I do remember waking up flipping out about the pain. I kept saying "it hurts" "it hurts" over and over. The nurses just kept telling me they know it hurts and it will be over soon. And then I felt like I was going to throw up. I kept trying to rip off the breakthing mask and breathing tube because I just knew I was going to throw up. The nurses kept pulling my hand off and I remember one of them saying they would give me something. I started to dry heave (spelling). It was like I really had to throw up but there wasn't anything there. That's the last thing I remember.
Next thing I know I'm waking up in my room (shout out to 506), it was a corner lot-a very nice peice of property. lol So I wake up and Michelle and my Mom are there. They of course are estatic to see me. Eventhough I was never nervous I realized after surgery alot of people were nervous. Eventhough ten of thousands get this surgery every year it's still a very serious surgery and a surgery that although rare may result in death. Michelle and I actually had a co worker who passed away while getting gastric bypass. I realized that my family being nervous made sense. If I would have died it wouldn't have mattered to me much. Obviously I love my life and want to keep living it but if I went to heaven I would be in good hands and it would really affect my friends and family.
Back on point....So Michelle and my mom keep me company in room. I'm on some serious pain meds and I'm in and out of it. When I had this pain pump it was like I could never stay awake. I could be talking to you and be wanting to talk to you but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I'm not sure at what time but my Uncle Scott and my cousin Kelsey came and they visited. I'm not sure how long that lasted but I know they left and Michelle stayed. What time Michelle left I'm not sure. Like I said I was in and out of it.
From there I just layed in my bed and went to sleep. Like I said I was on some serious pain medicine and I wasn't playing with the pain pump. Pretty much everytime I could get the medicine I hit the pump. My mom even joked because even in my sleep I was holding the pain pump. lol I wish I could tell you I got tons of rest while in the hospital but that's not the case. The bed was super hard and hurt my butt and I would only sleep for so long before the techs would come in to take my blood pressure and temp. So at 5:30am I was back up and ready to start the day. I say start the day as if I had anything to do but I didn't. I basically spent the day laying in bed or the chair next to the bed because I found it to be more comfortable watching movies. The nurses would come in and out and give me meds through my IV and ask me if I was doing ok. I also spent time walking the hospital floors (see pic below). After surgery it's important that you walk which helps with gas, breathing, and with blood clots. Blood clots are the most serious complications so you gotta do everything you can to avoid getting them. I also spent alot of time breathing into my incentive spirometer. This is just a breathing excercise to work your lungs out. Michelle was there and we watched tons of TV and movies. Atleast the hospital had full cable and tons of great movies at no cost. I received lots of calls and texts while I was in the hospital but I really didn't feel like responding. So if you called or texted-I appreciate the support and I apologize. Hopefully by now I've responded to you.
Another part of my day was getting an x ray to make sure there werent any holes in my stomach. I had to drink some barium substance and take several x rays. This was all to make sure that I could start drinking liquids. I passed the test and was allowed to drink fluids and jello. On this day they also removed the catheter which I was really happy about because I had heard alot of stories about catheters causing urinary infections and I wanted no part of that.
On Tuesday I wasn't in pain because I had the pump but they later took that away. Once the pump was taking away I did feel pain. Mostly in the incision areas. The doctor made 5 incisions and one of them was very deep and it hurt like hell. Besides pain I just felt uncomfortable. It's hard to explain but I just never felt right. At this point the nurses were pumping me with a ton of liquids through my IV to get me to pee and no matter how much they gave me I didn't pee. I started to get nervous when it came Wendesday and I still hadn't peed. The nurse told me that if I didn't pee they would insert a catheter again. They did an ultra sound of my bladder to make sure it was cool and it was. Luckily eventually I peed. The next hurdle was to pass gas. And I could just not do it. lol kind of crazy that all I wanted to do was fart and I couldn't. That's never been a problem. They ended up having to give me a medicine that caused me to fart. After all that I was discharged. In total, I spent 2 nights in the hospital and was released on Wendesday.
So that's my hospital story folks. Next blog will cover my week after being released.
**Thank you for taking this journey with me**
Monday, December 27, 2010
Let's Catch Up...it's been 2 weeks
So sorry for the delay. My sincerest apologies. It's been 2 weeks since I lost wrote and that's entirely too long. So let me fill you in on some things. The last time I blogged was Dec 13th. Since then ALOT has happened.
First let's talk about my pre-op all liquid diet. For the 2 weeks preceding my surgery my doctor had me do a modified Atkins diet which basically consisted of liquids. For 2 weeks I could only have 4 protein shakes, 1 protein bar, and 1 soup a day all from a company specializing in meal replacement food called Optifast. Boy was this hard. No real food for 2 weeks???? WTH??? are they crazy? I must admit it was really, really tough. You guys out there in blog world reading this may think you know what hunger is but YOU DON'T!!! I promise you, you have most likely never experienced true hunger. I can say I physically know what hunger feels like. What most of us call being hungry is more psychological and is us desiring food; it is not our body saying it needs fuel. And that's what food is supposed to be-fuel for the body. But we, and that we includes me, look at food as comfort, a friend, something to do, something that tastes good etc but that's not what it's supposed to be.
So for 2 weeks I was basically hungry. I did a pretty good job sticking to the diet but I did cheat a couple of times. Shoutout to Amy and Eryn and their olive garden trip and Gerri for the Red Robin. heheheh I put them on blast didn't I? lol well don't worry it wasn't their fault; it was my decision to cheat and I take responsibility for that.
So what was the purpose of this crazy liquid diet? Well in order to preform the gastric bypass the doctors have to cut away most of your stomach and create a new "pouch size" stomach (about the size of an adult thumb). Well in order to work on the stomach you have to be able to get to it (pretty simple concept right??) Well the liver sits in front of the stomach so they have to pull your liver over to operate on the stomach. And if your obese (aka me) you have a fatty liver. And if your liver is too fatty the surgeons won't be able to move it to even get to your stomach. So long story short, the doctor has patients do this liquid diet to quickly lose weight and shrink their liver size.
And guess what???? IT WORKS!!! Even with the cheating I was able to lose 19 pounds on the diet. Prior to the liquid diet I was 384 and the day of surgery I weighed in at 365!!!! I was so happy to see that although it was tough, and although I cheated I still lost pretty much damn near 20 pounds. GO ME, GO ME!!
In addition to the Optifast diet the last week leading up to surgery I had a ton of appointments. I had doctors appointments, I had nutritionist appointments and I had a 3 hour nutrition class. So you can see I was busy. On top of all that I was trying to wrap up any work I had at the job because as of Dec 17th I was on vaca for 3 weeks.
So this brings us to D day. December 20, 2010. The date of my surgery. Oh boy!!! details to come on the next blog entry. Stay tuned.
Thank you for taking this journey with me!
Jenny D
First let's talk about my pre-op all liquid diet. For the 2 weeks preceding my surgery my doctor had me do a modified Atkins diet which basically consisted of liquids. For 2 weeks I could only have 4 protein shakes, 1 protein bar, and 1 soup a day all from a company specializing in meal replacement food called Optifast. Boy was this hard. No real food for 2 weeks???? WTH??? are they crazy? I must admit it was really, really tough. You guys out there in blog world reading this may think you know what hunger is but YOU DON'T!!! I promise you, you have most likely never experienced true hunger. I can say I physically know what hunger feels like. What most of us call being hungry is more psychological and is us desiring food; it is not our body saying it needs fuel. And that's what food is supposed to be-fuel for the body. But we, and that we includes me, look at food as comfort, a friend, something to do, something that tastes good etc but that's not what it's supposed to be.
So for 2 weeks I was basically hungry. I did a pretty good job sticking to the diet but I did cheat a couple of times. Shoutout to Amy and Eryn and their olive garden trip and Gerri for the Red Robin. heheheh I put them on blast didn't I? lol well don't worry it wasn't their fault; it was my decision to cheat and I take responsibility for that.
So what was the purpose of this crazy liquid diet? Well in order to preform the gastric bypass the doctors have to cut away most of your stomach and create a new "pouch size" stomach (about the size of an adult thumb). Well in order to work on the stomach you have to be able to get to it (pretty simple concept right??) Well the liver sits in front of the stomach so they have to pull your liver over to operate on the stomach. And if your obese (aka me) you have a fatty liver. And if your liver is too fatty the surgeons won't be able to move it to even get to your stomach. So long story short, the doctor has patients do this liquid diet to quickly lose weight and shrink their liver size.
And guess what???? IT WORKS!!! Even with the cheating I was able to lose 19 pounds on the diet. Prior to the liquid diet I was 384 and the day of surgery I weighed in at 365!!!! I was so happy to see that although it was tough, and although I cheated I still lost pretty much damn near 20 pounds. GO ME, GO ME!!
In addition to the Optifast diet the last week leading up to surgery I had a ton of appointments. I had doctors appointments, I had nutritionist appointments and I had a 3 hour nutrition class. So you can see I was busy. On top of all that I was trying to wrap up any work I had at the job because as of Dec 17th I was on vaca for 3 weeks.
So this brings us to D day. December 20, 2010. The date of my surgery. Oh boy!!! details to come on the next blog entry. Stay tuned.
Thank you for taking this journey with me!
Jenny D
Monday, December 13, 2010
No Going Back Now
Okay so it's not going back now. I've had all my tests, met all my doctors, paid all the money, and have been doing my "liquid diet". My surgery is just one week away. This time next week I will be out of surgery, relaxing and resting in my hospital bed at Innova Fair Oaks in Fairfax VA (you like how I slipped that in there right? well that's just in case you want to come visit, send me flowers, a singing telegram or whatever). hopefully I won't be in too much pain and I'll be walking around the hospital. they say it's really important that you get up and get walking after surgery.
so what shall we talk about today? how about some financials...
every since I've started this blog I've gotten tons of support and I truly appreciate it. in addition to the support I've received alot of questions and several people have reached out to talk about their own personal weight loss journey. it's been really rewarding to have people share with me. it's like I started talking thru this blog and now people are opening up as well and I love it! a couple of people specifically mentioned they were interested in getting surgery as well so I'll just mention some of the financials because if you are like me...money does matter.
so as it would turn out the financials aren't as clear as I would like them to be. ever since I started this journey I have asked, how much is this surgery going to cost me? sadly I haven't really gotten a clear answer. like i mentioned in the first blog, my insurance, which is Cigna covers 80% and I have to cover 20%. so what exactly is 20%? seems like a fair question right? well I'm still not sure. I've talked to Cigna and they explained that although I'm responsible for 20%, my insurance coverage has an out of pocket max of $4,000 so that's the very most i would have to pay. okay great, a figure finally! I also spoke to the insurance coordinator at my surgeons office (shout out to blue point surgical group) and tried to make her give me some info regarding payments. yet again she was iffy. her answer was that it really depends on the surgeon, how long the surgery takes, how long I'm hospitalized, etc. she also mentioned that although I'm responsible for 20% with Cigna I won't be billed 20% of the total surgical costs but some percentage of that..okay great! so how much am I looking at? I wasn't about to have her give me some wishy washy answer again. or atleast i tried to get some clarification. The most I was able to get out of her was that she's never seen a patient pay more than $2,000 out of pocket. she went on to explain that whatever is charged is able to be paid with a payment plan and that it's very flexible
Okay great. so i originally i was anticipated $4,000 out of pocket now it seems like that figure could be cut in half. So let's see what happens. A couple of years ago I went to the emergency room and was charged liked $1500 just for one night because all the doctors and radiologists all charged me separately and boy did it add up. so we'll see what happens with this. I will keep track and see what everything comes to and share all that info with you. I'm hoping this helps someone who may also be interested in surgery.
one last thing, although the surgical group is flexible and will work with you regarding final payment for the surgery you still have alot of small appointments with doctors, nutritionists, and other things that you have to pay before you are even operated on. Thus far I've already paid between $1000-$1200. so please keep that in mind if you are considering surgery.
with all that said for me it doesn't make a difference whether the surgery is $2,000 or $4,000 this my body and my life and i think it's worth it! how much of us put that much money down on a car? and I'm pretty sure none of us would argue that our bodies are worth alot more than any four wheels.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for taking this journey with me!!! <3
so what shall we talk about today? how about some financials...
every since I've started this blog I've gotten tons of support and I truly appreciate it. in addition to the support I've received alot of questions and several people have reached out to talk about their own personal weight loss journey. it's been really rewarding to have people share with me. it's like I started talking thru this blog and now people are opening up as well and I love it! a couple of people specifically mentioned they were interested in getting surgery as well so I'll just mention some of the financials because if you are like me...money does matter.
so as it would turn out the financials aren't as clear as I would like them to be. ever since I started this journey I have asked, how much is this surgery going to cost me? sadly I haven't really gotten a clear answer. like i mentioned in the first blog, my insurance, which is Cigna covers 80% and I have to cover 20%. so what exactly is 20%? seems like a fair question right? well I'm still not sure. I've talked to Cigna and they explained that although I'm responsible for 20%, my insurance coverage has an out of pocket max of $4,000 so that's the very most i would have to pay. okay great, a figure finally! I also spoke to the insurance coordinator at my surgeons office (shout out to blue point surgical group) and tried to make her give me some info regarding payments. yet again she was iffy. her answer was that it really depends on the surgeon, how long the surgery takes, how long I'm hospitalized, etc. she also mentioned that although I'm responsible for 20% with Cigna I won't be billed 20% of the total surgical costs but some percentage of that..okay great! so how much am I looking at? I wasn't about to have her give me some wishy washy answer again. or atleast i tried to get some clarification. The most I was able to get out of her was that she's never seen a patient pay more than $2,000 out of pocket. she went on to explain that whatever is charged is able to be paid with a payment plan and that it's very flexible
Okay great. so i originally i was anticipated $4,000 out of pocket now it seems like that figure could be cut in half. So let's see what happens. A couple of years ago I went to the emergency room and was charged liked $1500 just for one night because all the doctors and radiologists all charged me separately and boy did it add up. so we'll see what happens with this. I will keep track and see what everything comes to and share all that info with you. I'm hoping this helps someone who may also be interested in surgery.
one last thing, although the surgical group is flexible and will work with you regarding final payment for the surgery you still have alot of small appointments with doctors, nutritionists, and other things that you have to pay before you are even operated on. Thus far I've already paid between $1000-$1200. so please keep that in mind if you are considering surgery.
with all that said for me it doesn't make a difference whether the surgery is $2,000 or $4,000 this my body and my life and i think it's worth it! how much of us put that much money down on a car? and I'm pretty sure none of us would argue that our bodies are worth alot more than any four wheels.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for taking this journey with me!!! <3
Friday, December 10, 2010
Let's discuss the hoops you have to jump thru ...
First I gotta say THANK YOU!!!!!!!! I've received so much love after my initial post I'm on cloud 9. I'm loving all the support. Please keep it coming. I know to many people I seem super confident, so assure of myself ,but even I have insecurities. And for those of you who know me well, I'm a true cancer, hard outside shell and soft, cushy inside.
So today I wanna talk about all the crap you gotta do to get approved before you can have the surgery. Okay so back in January I decided I wanted to look into getting weight loss surgery. I was for the first time truly unhappy with my body and the weight I put on and further when I visited my doctor for my physical the doc recommended I think about surgery. This was actually the first time a doctor really talked to me about my weight. Crazy right? You would think that on every doctor visit my weight would have came up since according to the docs I'm morbidly obese. Not fat or thick or even just obese but morbidly obese. But no Dr. Theodore, this cute little Indian doc was the first to bring it up. And he tried to do it in the nicest way but at the same time he made it clear that my weight was a serious issue that needed to be addressed asap. I left Dr Theodore's office with a referral for a weight loss surgeon.
I contacted my insurance company which is Cigna and asked if they covered bariatric surgery (weight loss surgery) and they instructed me that they do. I got all the in and outs. Cigna covers 80% and I'm responsible for 20%. Stay tuned because we will talk money later on. Okay so great my insurance covers the surgery. I say the surgery because I wasn't sure which surgery I wanted at this point. There are several weight loss surgeries out there and each has it own benefit. There's gastric bypass (that's mine), gastric banding aka lap band, gastric sleeve, and a couple of others. So in order for my insurance to cover the surgery they required several prerequisites. First, they required a 6 month, physician supervised diet and a psychiatric and/or psychological evaluation. Okay so great I thought. Let's get this thing poppin.
So I contacted the bariatric surgeon Dr. Theodore recommended and that was Dr. Halmi at Blue Point Surgical group. I made an appointment and visited with Dr. Halmi. He also stressed the importance of losing weight. Now eventhough I'm morbidly obese I virtually was in perfect health. No diabetes, no high blood pressure, perfect cholesterol so I had thought I was good. But Dr Halmi explained. Eventhough right now I'm perfectly healthy, all the weight is putting alot of extra stress on my organs and in several years my organs are not going to function right. So we are talking about my kidneys, liver etc-pretty important stuff. Dr. Halmi said he thinks weight loss surgery is needed asap as I'm nearly 400 lbs and am perfectly healthy (meaning surgery can be done with no complications). If i get the surgery now versus waiting till later I have a lot less chance of complications. He also gave me a lot of literature that talks about some scary percentages. One statistic I read was that 90% of people who loss weight (without surgery) gain the weight back. WTF!! 90% that's scary. So that statistic scared me right into enrolling in Dr. Halmi's office 6 month nutritional program which would count as the 6 month physican supervised program I needed for Cigna.
For 6 months, once a month, I visited the office with about 10 others considering surgery and we talked about nutrition with the dietitian. You would be surprised, fat people actually know more about nutrition than skinny people-we just don't listen and eat anyway. The classes were 1 hour and generally focused on one topic. Sadly the classes were kind of a joke. Yes, we went over nutrition and got educated but it wasn't impactful. Or maybe I just wasn't motivated I'm not sure.
Okay so while I'm doing the 6 months of nutrition classes I figured I should do some of the other stuff I needed to get approved for surgery. I had my pysch eval and surprisingly I was found to be "normal" and not suffering from any mental conditions. lol I know some of you may disagree with that diagnosis but hush ur mouth.
One of the things the shrink did talk to me about is the notion that I'm addicted to food. For those of you who know me well, know that I come from a family with addition problems. Now this is an entirely different topic that I could have a completely different blog about but let's stay on task. As a child of parents with substance abuse problems I have a very addicted personality. WHAT??? I'm addicted to food? I still kind of have trouble agreeing with this but I also can see the truth in it. Great! So just like pookie can't leave the crack rock alone are u saying I won't be able to put the drumstick down? geesh I hope not. Okay i digress.
Next on the agenda, sleep study. For years I've been known as a snorer. So what? both my mom and dad snored crazy loud growing up but as I got older people began to tell me that I just didn't snore but that I would stop breathing. My poor mommom would constantly encourage me to visit a doctor to see if I had sleep apnea so I did eventually. And guess what? I do. I had to spend the night in a weird doc office that looked like a hotel with all these gadgets hooked up to me to measure pretty much everything. The sleep study found that I have moderate sleep apnea and stop breathing almost every couple of minutes. This means that I'm never fully rested. Everytime I would enter into REM sleep (the part of the sleep study where you are the deepest in sleep and your body actually rests) I would stop breathing and wake myself up. The longest I stopped breathing in my sleep was almost 2 mins. That's crazy. So they gave me a CPAP machine which is some crazy looking bio hazard mat people looking like device that I was supposed to sleep with. I say supposed to, because I hardly use it. TSK TSK I know!!! but if you saw this thing you wouldn't want to use it either, trust me.
Last thing to get done before my case was submitted to Cigna was to have a Gastroenterology Consult for Upper Endoscopy..alot of crazy technical terms I know. I had an endoscopy which is where the doc puts you to sleep and then inserts a camera down your throat to see what's going on in your GI aka your stomach and throat. And guess what they found? I have hiatel hernia. what's that you may ask? well it means that part of my stomach is sticking through the hole in my diaphragm and is going into my esophagus..this means bad acid reflux. I had no idea i even had something wrong with me. The doc told me that this problem is pretty common with over weight people. Because of all the weight pushing down the hernia is common.
Okay so great I thought I was 100% health but thru this process I found out that I have sleep apnea and hiatal hernia. Okay well that's still not too bad. So I was ready to submit my application to Cigna for insurance approval. I was nervous. What if they say no? I'll be fat forever or what if they say yes than I may be getting surgery. The approval process took less than a month and I was approved. GREAT!!!
Now before I was approved I had to decide which surgery I wanted. Remember I talked about all the surgical options above. I'll go into how I made this selection next time. But to make the long story short I decided on gastric bypass. Okay great now i'm approved for surgery. Up until this point I was iffy. I told those closest to me that I was considering surgery but I still wasn't sure if this was def for me. I was a little scared. I mean surgery is a big deal. People can die from it. I actually knew a guy who did die after gastric. Back when I worked at Barclays a co worker got gastric bypass and died. That's some serious stuff. Now his case is different because he had alot of health issues but still I took this decision seriously.
Once I received insurance approval I just had a couple of other hoops I had to jump thru. I had to meet with the doctor again, I had several visits with a dietitian, I had to have extensive blood work, and several medical tests including an EKG to make sure my heart is healthy, chest x rays, an ultrasound. I think that's all. And eventhough I had to go thru all of that, it's actually not that bad. Most people have several other hoops they have to jump thru.
Last hoop for me is a 2 week modified Atkins diet right before surgery. Oh this diet is something I will def write about. Don't worry. I'm in the 2 week period before surgery (Dec 20) so i'm on this diet now!!!! all i'm going to say is...I"M HUNGRY!!!
I've included a pic of me as I'm getting all of these tests done. The second pic is of the big people chair the hospital has for plus size patients giving blood. this chair is HUGE!
So today I wanna talk about all the crap you gotta do to get approved before you can have the surgery. Okay so back in January I decided I wanted to look into getting weight loss surgery. I was for the first time truly unhappy with my body and the weight I put on and further when I visited my doctor for my physical the doc recommended I think about surgery. This was actually the first time a doctor really talked to me about my weight. Crazy right? You would think that on every doctor visit my weight would have came up since according to the docs I'm morbidly obese. Not fat or thick or even just obese but morbidly obese. But no Dr. Theodore, this cute little Indian doc was the first to bring it up. And he tried to do it in the nicest way but at the same time he made it clear that my weight was a serious issue that needed to be addressed asap. I left Dr Theodore's office with a referral for a weight loss surgeon.
I contacted my insurance company which is Cigna and asked if they covered bariatric surgery (weight loss surgery) and they instructed me that they do. I got all the in and outs. Cigna covers 80% and I'm responsible for 20%. Stay tuned because we will talk money later on. Okay so great my insurance covers the surgery. I say the surgery because I wasn't sure which surgery I wanted at this point. There are several weight loss surgeries out there and each has it own benefit. There's gastric bypass (that's mine), gastric banding aka lap band, gastric sleeve, and a couple of others. So in order for my insurance to cover the surgery they required several prerequisites. First, they required a 6 month, physician supervised diet and a psychiatric and/or psychological evaluation. Okay so great I thought. Let's get this thing poppin.
So I contacted the bariatric surgeon Dr. Theodore recommended and that was Dr. Halmi at Blue Point Surgical group. I made an appointment and visited with Dr. Halmi. He also stressed the importance of losing weight. Now eventhough I'm morbidly obese I virtually was in perfect health. No diabetes, no high blood pressure, perfect cholesterol so I had thought I was good. But Dr Halmi explained. Eventhough right now I'm perfectly healthy, all the weight is putting alot of extra stress on my organs and in several years my organs are not going to function right. So we are talking about my kidneys, liver etc-pretty important stuff. Dr. Halmi said he thinks weight loss surgery is needed asap as I'm nearly 400 lbs and am perfectly healthy (meaning surgery can be done with no complications). If i get the surgery now versus waiting till later I have a lot less chance of complications. He also gave me a lot of literature that talks about some scary percentages. One statistic I read was that 90% of people who loss weight (without surgery) gain the weight back. WTF!! 90% that's scary. So that statistic scared me right into enrolling in Dr. Halmi's office 6 month nutritional program which would count as the 6 month physican supervised program I needed for Cigna.
For 6 months, once a month, I visited the office with about 10 others considering surgery and we talked about nutrition with the dietitian. You would be surprised, fat people actually know more about nutrition than skinny people-we just don't listen and eat anyway. The classes were 1 hour and generally focused on one topic. Sadly the classes were kind of a joke. Yes, we went over nutrition and got educated but it wasn't impactful. Or maybe I just wasn't motivated I'm not sure.
Okay so while I'm doing the 6 months of nutrition classes I figured I should do some of the other stuff I needed to get approved for surgery. I had my pysch eval and surprisingly I was found to be "normal" and not suffering from any mental conditions. lol I know some of you may disagree with that diagnosis but hush ur mouth.
One of the things the shrink did talk to me about is the notion that I'm addicted to food. For those of you who know me well, know that I come from a family with addition problems. Now this is an entirely different topic that I could have a completely different blog about but let's stay on task. As a child of parents with substance abuse problems I have a very addicted personality. WHAT??? I'm addicted to food? I still kind of have trouble agreeing with this but I also can see the truth in it. Great! So just like pookie can't leave the crack rock alone are u saying I won't be able to put the drumstick down? geesh I hope not. Okay i digress.
Next on the agenda, sleep study. For years I've been known as a snorer. So what? both my mom and dad snored crazy loud growing up but as I got older people began to tell me that I just didn't snore but that I would stop breathing. My poor mommom would constantly encourage me to visit a doctor to see if I had sleep apnea so I did eventually. And guess what? I do. I had to spend the night in a weird doc office that looked like a hotel with all these gadgets hooked up to me to measure pretty much everything. The sleep study found that I have moderate sleep apnea and stop breathing almost every couple of minutes. This means that I'm never fully rested. Everytime I would enter into REM sleep (the part of the sleep study where you are the deepest in sleep and your body actually rests) I would stop breathing and wake myself up. The longest I stopped breathing in my sleep was almost 2 mins. That's crazy. So they gave me a CPAP machine which is some crazy looking bio hazard mat people looking like device that I was supposed to sleep with. I say supposed to, because I hardly use it. TSK TSK I know!!! but if you saw this thing you wouldn't want to use it either, trust me.
Last thing to get done before my case was submitted to Cigna was to have a Gastroenterology Consult for Upper Endoscopy..alot of crazy technical terms I know. I had an endoscopy which is where the doc puts you to sleep and then inserts a camera down your throat to see what's going on in your GI aka your stomach and throat. And guess what they found? I have hiatel hernia. what's that you may ask? well it means that part of my stomach is sticking through the hole in my diaphragm and is going into my esophagus..this means bad acid reflux. I had no idea i even had something wrong with me. The doc told me that this problem is pretty common with over weight people. Because of all the weight pushing down the hernia is common.
Okay so great I thought I was 100% health but thru this process I found out that I have sleep apnea and hiatal hernia. Okay well that's still not too bad. So I was ready to submit my application to Cigna for insurance approval. I was nervous. What if they say no? I'll be fat forever or what if they say yes than I may be getting surgery. The approval process took less than a month and I was approved. GREAT!!!
Now before I was approved I had to decide which surgery I wanted. Remember I talked about all the surgical options above. I'll go into how I made this selection next time. But to make the long story short I decided on gastric bypass. Okay great now i'm approved for surgery. Up until this point I was iffy. I told those closest to me that I was considering surgery but I still wasn't sure if this was def for me. I was a little scared. I mean surgery is a big deal. People can die from it. I actually knew a guy who did die after gastric. Back when I worked at Barclays a co worker got gastric bypass and died. That's some serious stuff. Now his case is different because he had alot of health issues but still I took this decision seriously.
Once I received insurance approval I just had a couple of other hoops I had to jump thru. I had to meet with the doctor again, I had several visits with a dietitian, I had to have extensive blood work, and several medical tests including an EKG to make sure my heart is healthy, chest x rays, an ultrasound. I think that's all. And eventhough I had to go thru all of that, it's actually not that bad. Most people have several other hoops they have to jump thru.
Last hoop for me is a 2 week modified Atkins diet right before surgery. Oh this diet is something I will def write about. Don't worry. I'm in the 2 week period before surgery (Dec 20) so i'm on this diet now!!!! all i'm going to say is...I"M HUNGRY!!!
I've included a pic of me as I'm getting all of these tests done. The second pic is of the big people chair the hospital has for plus size patients giving blood. this chair is HUGE!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
The Journey Begins
Okay so the title of this post may be a misnomer since the journey actually started back in January of 2010. So at this point I'm suspecting someone out there is wondering what journey am I talking about. Great question! Gold star to whoever had their hand up first. Well the journey I am referring to is my weight loss journey and more specifically, my weight loss thru surgery journey.
After years of my weight increasing and me getting bigger and bigger I actually realized just how big I had gotten. I know that sounds crazy. I admit it does. But it's the truth. I really never realized how much weight I had put on.
If we take a look back 10 years ago I was graduating high school (go Dickinson Rams) and starting my college career at UD (BLUE HENS!!) and I was a size 14/16. And today I'm a 28. Crazy right? I never really weighed myself back then so I can't really say how much I was back then but today I wear 384lbs. YES 384 that wasn't a typo. That's bigger than most NFL players!
Feels kind of crazy to have typed that. I'm not sure where this blog will travel and whether I'll share it with folks but I image and I will and it's kind of crazy to think that everyone (aka the world wide web) will know my weight. I wasn't even going to share the fact that I am getting gastric bypass (I'll go further into this as this is the point of this blog) but the more I thought about it the more I realized that I wasn't going to tell people because I was ashamed and a little nervous. What if i got this surgery and people judged me? Or what if I got surgery and was still fat? These are all thoughts that entered my mind. But you know what...Pride and shame will keep alot of ish bottled up and hold you back. So today when I hit the "post" button and this thing goes live this is me taking one step towards declaring and decreeing some things.
I am fat! No surprise if you know me. And on December 20, 2010 I will be getting gastric bypass in an effort to lose weight. The goal of this blog is for me to write about what I'm experiencing and feeling or whatever else I may want. I can't promise you that I will be entertaining or educational but I can't promise that I will write from the heart!
After years of my weight increasing and me getting bigger and bigger I actually realized just how big I had gotten. I know that sounds crazy. I admit it does. But it's the truth. I really never realized how much weight I had put on.
If we take a look back 10 years ago I was graduating high school (go Dickinson Rams) and starting my college career at UD (BLUE HENS!!) and I was a size 14/16. And today I'm a 28. Crazy right? I never really weighed myself back then so I can't really say how much I was back then but today I wear 384lbs. YES 384 that wasn't a typo. That's bigger than most NFL players!
Feels kind of crazy to have typed that. I'm not sure where this blog will travel and whether I'll share it with folks but I image and I will and it's kind of crazy to think that everyone (aka the world wide web) will know my weight. I wasn't even going to share the fact that I am getting gastric bypass (I'll go further into this as this is the point of this blog) but the more I thought about it the more I realized that I wasn't going to tell people because I was ashamed and a little nervous. What if i got this surgery and people judged me? Or what if I got surgery and was still fat? These are all thoughts that entered my mind. But you know what...Pride and shame will keep alot of ish bottled up and hold you back. So today when I hit the "post" button and this thing goes live this is me taking one step towards declaring and decreeing some things.
I am fat! No surprise if you know me. And on December 20, 2010 I will be getting gastric bypass in an effort to lose weight. The goal of this blog is for me to write about what I'm experiencing and feeling or whatever else I may want. I can't promise you that I will be entertaining or educational but I can't promise that I will write from the heart!
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