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About this blog

my bandit journey

Entries in this blog

 

WooHoo!

:clap2: I made my first mini goal today. It was to weigh less than I weighed when we got married 4 yrs ago (243) and today I stepped on the scale and it said 242! :clap2: I "think" I feel some restriction?? Its just when I take the first bite of food though. Its not a good feeling at all, so I need to be more careful about chewing my food, esp on that first bite!   I"m on a roll again. Next mini-goal is 230 pds, hope to be there by the time I get my next fill on Aug 7th.
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One week out

Well I must say that I don't think it went TOO badly this week. Pain wise was maybe a 2 at the worst, but once I started taking the meds regularily for pain there was nothing.   Today I weighed myself and I'm down 23 pds since the beginning of March, and 9 pds since getting banded. I'm VERY happy with this. 257 today! :clap2: At this rate I"ll be under 250 in another week. I can't believe it! So cool - and I"m not even hungry ever at all! :faint:   I did develop some sort of reaction to the pain pills I think - or at least thats what they're thinking. On my face around my mouth area, and around the incisions there is a few red itchy spots. I was advised to stop taking the pain meds and use x-tra strength tylenol instead, get some benedryl and cream to stop the itch. I still have the bumps around my mouth, but the rest of me is getting better.   More later!
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Wow

I am loving my band. Never before have I been able to lose weight and KEEP it off! Thats the greatest thing! I'm at -70 pds now, down to 210. I feel SO much better. I'm thinking that i need to cut back on my BP meds cause i'm having lite headedness - have a call in to the dr to see about that. Anyway - thats much an update. :bounce:
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Trying to be patient!

:help: I am trying to hard to be patient with this process, but really getting frustrated with all the hoops and BS that we have to go through. I can honestly understand why people go to Mexico now to have it DONE! I just found out that now I'll also have to attend a 4 hour pre-op class on a Wed. before I have the surgery. That means ANOTHER trip to the cities - oh joy!! Maybe I'll just have to switch our piano lessons to Tues. nites now until this is all done with?? Or Hopefully they'll let me skip this part of the process, I"m going to try and see if I can do that - since I've already done had a surgery before?? We'll see if that works. Thanks for listening.
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still nothing

I'm still maintaining the weight I've lost but haven't lost anymore! Hopefully things will start to move along in the weight loss department once I get that fill tomorrow. Right now I can just about eat anything and everything I want - but I do stop when I "think" I feel full.
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FINALLY!

I have a date for surgery and things are gonna happen fast!! One month from today is my surgery date - May 12th - I can hardly wait. I drove to the conseltation by myself today :clap2: and home. Met with my surgeon, Crystal Schlosser. I'm not sure I'm "that" crazy about her, but she seems to know what she's doing. I got the feeling she was more for gastric bypass over lapband due to more weight loss potential, but I'm sticking with the lapband.   Now I have to schedule a chest X-Ray, and lab work for this Friday or next Monday, meet with the surgery team for a pre-op class on May 3rd, then I'll be good to go. I start the liquid diet on April 28th for two weeks straight to shrink my liver. Hopefully I'll lose some weight during that too! I was down 5 pds from a month ago already so slowly but surely I am getting there.   Thats all for now. I love having this journal.
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in limbo aka plateau?

I feel no restriction at all - I can eat every thing and anything I put in my mouth. I do feel full eventually, but not until I've eaten about as much as I use to. Fortunetly I haven't gained any weight - just maintaining at -38 pds. I'm going to try and do the 3 day diet starting tomorrow to hopefully kick things into action PLUS I'm going to go and work out at the gym starting this week. MWF this week, TTH next week, etc. I have to get things moving again. I want to lose another 12 pds here so I can say I've lost 50 pds! Come on Deb, get your fat ass in gear!!
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At a stand-still

but at least I"m not gaining! I'm stuck at -29 pds and have been for a week now. Of course I started eating soft foods a week ago too and that may have something to do with it - that or the fact that I haven't had a good SHIT in a week, LOL :cool: I would take a laxative but probably will wait until Sun. nite so I'll be home in the a.m. when things start to happen.   I have been being pretty good, other than last weekend. I sort of went crazy eating and sneaking stuff last weekend - like a kid in the candy store ya know? I thought I was being pretty good, but apparently not as I put on 2 pds over the weekend - might've been fluid though - it was very hot and humid. It was gone by Tues and I"ve been stuck at 251 since then. I have been doing at least one meal of liquid protein, the other 2 have been chicken or fish, and occasionally I"ve have like the topping of some pizza - two times, but thats about it. I'm basically just stuck! Certainly not over-eating at all.   I found out that craig weighs 244 today - so thats my goal - my first mini-goal to weigh less than him......and when I reach that goal I'll weigh what I weighed when we got married! Funny huh. I remember how I worked to get down to that weight too - did the Atkins diet at the time....it worked, but man what a drag!   Hopefully next time I write I"ll have good news to report. First to get to 249 (move that bar down on the scale ya know) and then the next goal is to get to 243! I can do that no problemo! I want to achieve that by June 22nd - the day I get my first fill.   I can do this!!
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one year later

Wow am I ever a terrible journal keeper or what! Well, at least I'm here today right? I'm at 218 now. This has been a slow process for me, but I'm still losing so thats a plus for me. I switched to Crosby for my fills this month, due to Ryan leaving Abbott, and the 35W bridge collapsing. They are very conservative up there though so its going to take a while before I feel restriction. Yes, I said that I still have no restriction! 1 yr and 4 months later. So basically the weight I've lost I've done on my own - because the band isn't keeping me from eating! UGH. I am proud of my progress though - and on the downward ride now to reach my goal. 280-218=62 pds lost, 58 pds to go to get to 160. I would even be happy with 170 I think. We'll see when I get there I guess. Will write more later.
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Moving down again

Well the scales started to move again this week. I'm down to 247 now (-33 pds) It was such a good feeling to move that 250 marker down to the 200 one - just think what it'll feel like to move that 200 one down to the 150 one! :clap2: I'm more in control now and that has helped alot I think. Once I get a fill then things should be even easier to control.   Best thing yet happened to me today - a dcm noticed that I was losing weight and commented on it how good I was looking! :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: WOW - someone finally noticed! Its working. I just have to stay the course until the battle of the buldge is won!
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Bumming out!

:rolleyes I need some help - things are stopped, and occasionally go up a few pds too - very disappointing. I can't wait to get another fill - this one did nothing for me! I started exercising last week - weights and treadmill - I need more motivation I guess. I need a swift KICK IN THE ASS!!
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almost ready!

I am almost ready to start the liquid diet, starting it on Friday. I am excited to start, but at the same time I am a bit apprehensive. I'm afraid of failing - cheating - gaining weight - etc. I want to do so well on this, I want to acheive my goals, I want to lose weight! But I'm afraid it wont work for me, that I'll somehow manage to figure out a way to cheat the band and I dont want to do that! I can feel myself slowly getting more and more nervous about the entire procedure. I hope that this goes away and that I'll get more confidence soon. I really should attend a support group meeting, maybe that would help.   Thats all for now.....
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Liquid Protein Diet - Day 3/4

I started the liquid protein diet on Friday, April 28th. Friday night though I went out to eat and just watched what I ate. Its not been that bad at all. I'm not feeling hungry at all! I've been consuming between 60-65 grams of protein per day, and staying under 1000 calories too. Yesterday was only 650 calories! Needless to say I've lost four pounds. I sure hope it stays this easy. I can't say that I really am missing food per say, but I haven't been really tempted either. As long as I am not hungry there shouldn't be a problem, I hope!! I imagine by the end of this requirement I will be really missing chewing foods. lol. I am/was constipated up until today. I took some Metamucil and that must've done the trick. Gotta make sure I keep up with my drinking water too! So much to remember!!   112 pds to go!! :clap2:
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My Banding Journey

Today is 3/21/06. I am trying to have patience as I go through the process of getting a band. I started this process more than a month ago!   I had thought on and off over the past 2 yrs about seriously having WLS, but chickened out because all I had ever heard about was the gastric bypass surgery and I didn't want to go that route unless I had to. Last Nov. 05 I heard about the adjustible lap band procedure and looked online to get more information about it. Then the holiday hit and life got crazy and so my weight got put on the back burner for a bit. The beginning of Feb. I called my Dr. here in Mora and asked her to refer me to a hospital that did the adjustible lap band procedure and she referred me to Abbott.   The next day, a nurse from Abbott's bariatric unit called me (Joanie Callahan) and gave me some tips on how I can get the process going along quickly. I needed to visit with a dietician, have an up to date mammogram (done 9/05 ), an up to date pap and exam (needed to do that after 3/7) a visit with a physcologist, and attend a meeting at abbott. The next one was 2/25 so I signed up for that class. I made an appt. with a dietician for 2/13, but he forgot about our appt so I had to go in again on 2/14. He was very nice and apologetic about it. I made an appt to visit with a shrink, but the first available date wasn't until 3/14 so my plans to get this done asap were put on hold a bit longer. Craig and I went to the informational meeting on the 25th and I knew it was defiitely what I wanted to have done. I came home and filled out the paperwork and sent it back the next day. On the same day that my appt was with the shrink (Dr. Caven) I got a call from Abbott saying that my insurance had approved the procedure so they wanted to set up an appt. to meet with the surgeon. Woo Hoo! That date was set for 3/29 with Dr. Schlosser. I'll have to drive myself down there and back but figure I may as well get use to it and just do it! Yesterday, I started a cardiac diet that I had done last summer and had good results with it. My beginning weight is 280 pds. The heaviest I had ever been in my life and never want to go any higher than that. My ideal weight is 157 at the high end and I would be extremely happy if I made it to that goal 120 pds - its doable. Out of curiosity I weighed myself this morning because I could tell that I wasn't as puffy as I was the day before and I was down 4.5 pds. I know that its is mostly water weight - I retain alot of fluids and will be so happy when that isn't an issue anymore. My plan is to do this diet this week and next (its a 3 day diet) and then when I meet with the surgeon hopefully I"ll be able to schedule surgery and start on the liquid protein diet.   Thats all for now.....
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pre-op class

Well I kind of figured the pre-op class would be a waste of time, but I did learn that I have to drink this stuff the night before to clean me out - oh yippee. The class was mostly geared for gastric bypass patients but occasionally they would say something that was for lapband people. There were only 2 of us out of the 10 in the room having lapband. Man, I hope I"m making the right decision. I really feel that I am.   So far on the liquid protein diet - day 7 today - I"m down to 270 on my scale. Thats down 10 pds since the beginning of March, and 6 since the beginning of the protein diet. Its really not as bad as I thought it would be. I am not hungry, not craving foods, etc. I do miss the enjoyment of foods though - but not that much.   I still haven't figured out what I"m going to do after surgery - Larry's party is the first week post -op - :Banane59: Will cross that bridge when I get there I guess. First things first!   First - pre-op physical tomorrow! Tonight - work on the new room and get stuff ready for the weekend!! Friday - (tomorrow) leave to go camping for the weekend. Home Sunday - get groceries for the week and work on the room some more. I was really hoping we would get the room done before surgery but it doess't look too promising. But I"m not giving up! We have free evenings next week M-W and so hopefully we'll make some progress.   One more week - I can't believe its finally almost here!!
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update 3/24

Well after 3 days on the cardiac/tuna diet I lost 7.5 pds. Not bad! :clap2: I weighed myself this morning and was still down 6 pds, so hopefully I can keep it off over the weekend now and do it again M-W of next week before I meet with Schlosser.   I bought some foods from med-diet, and ordered some protein powder. Also got some chewable vitamins from Sams club. Getting ready for the big day.   Tonight we went to the Crystal for what will probably be the last time for me to eat normally (and drink!) It was so noisy in there and crowded we both decided we wont miss it all that much. Zander came in and wanted to come over and talk to us - very awkward, but felt good that he wanted to come and talk to us. Stupid mother of his. Their lose. I had a cheesburger and we shared some onion rings, plus two drinks. Was good, but not that good. :mad:   Thats all for now!
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stuck at -33

Well I'm still stuck at -33 pds, was actually up a couple of pds last week, and before that i was down a total of -34 pds - rather discouraging but I am hopeful that things will start to move once I get my fill on Thurs.   I can eat anything I want to so far- maybe I shouldn't have done that, but I wanted to see and so far so good - but maybe thats not so good either!   More later.
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First Fill today - 6/22/06 -35 pds total!!!

I had my first fill today and didn't know what to expect. He had a hard time locating the port hole to inject the solution into - that was grossing me out and making me nauseous. :faint: Other than that it all went great - I didn't feel any pain at all - just a few pricks when he was numbing it up - nothing unbearable. . I found out that I have a VG 11 band and it will hold 10cc's of solution. He put in 4 cc's today. Now I hope to see faster results and more restriction. I'm down 35 pds total so far and baby its gone for good! :clap2: :clap2: I can't believe how much more energy I have without carrying around those pounds and am excited to think what another 35 pds+ will feel like too! My goal is to lose that by Christmas!! I can't get in for another fill until Aug. 7th, so this will have to do the trick in the meantime.
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how did it go????

It went great! We came home last night. I virtually had no pain at all, just little soreness from the incisions. And was tired too so went to bed as soon as we got home around 9 pm. I was up just about every hour though going to the bathroom, and at 2 a.me. I was feeling little pain - like someone had kicked me in the gut, so I cut up a pain pill and took that. My mouth has been so dry too - just terrible!   If you want details - here yaw go ~grin~ warning...its long! We left Mora on Thurs evening about 5:30 pm, and got to the hotel shortly after 7, watched some to.vs.. and went to sleep early (as per your instructions~grin~) Very nice hotel and the showers were fantastic! I got up at 4:30 Friday morning and showered, then we took the 5 a.me. shuttle to the hospital. Could've taken the 5:30 one, but didn't want to be late. Sat around and waited until 6 when they called me in to go get prepped. Craig was like, what do I do? They told him to just sit tight and someone would come to get him when I was ready. They weighed me (I had lost 14 pads since this all began) and did all that other junk - drew blood, changed into the lovely gown, etc. Then Craig came back and sat with me. Poor guy was so bored. Then at 7:15 the anesthetist (sp?) came in and said he was going to give me something to relax me. Apparently I said that I was feeling dizzy and don't remember ANYTHING until I woke up in recovery. So weird isn't I? LOL Craig said we kissed each other, said our I love you's and see you later's, and they wheeled me off, so he went to the waiting room - thinking an hour later I would be done and he could go get his shower. Well an hour and a half goes by and he is going nuts - no news so he asked the receptionist what was going on, she checked and informed him that there had been an emergency come up for Schlosser right as they were taking me into surgery so my surgery was postponed a little bit - and they were just starting me now! 9 o'clock! I woke up in the recovery room and noticed the time was 10:10 and thought, gee, it took alot longer than they thought it would, but you know at that point you are just happy its over with and you are on the road to recovery. By 11:30 my nurse was on the phone trying to get it arranged to transfer me upstairs to my room and getting very impatient with the wait - and someone else was coming into recovery from surgery, etc. Finally they took me up to my room and got me all situated in there and then Craig walks in, looking really ticked off about something. After everyone left the room I said what's wrong? He said well what the hell is going on? Someone out there had told him that there had been complications and that I wouldn't be going home that nite and he was upset. I reassured him that they must've been referring to someone else because everyone that I had talked to had said that I would be going home that night. I guess once I was out of surgery,. he went back to the hotel, showered and packed up and checked out of the hotel, then came back to the hospital and someone in the waiting room area had told him that. Poor guy was freaking out. He still hadn't eaten anything so I shooed him off to go and get something to eat - and then I rested while he was gone.   The gal in the bed next to me - oh my gawd - I felt so sorry for her. At first I wasn't sure what was going on over there, just listening - couldn't help but hear. Her mom, 2 little girls, and her sister were there when I got there and this lady (patient) was upset because she had entered her two little girls in a state baby pageant in Alex, paid 200 bucks for an entry fee for them, and now she couldn't take them cause she was sick in the hospital. I didn't know what had happened to her at that point. Her sister told her that she would take the girls to the pageant for her, and her mother kept saying it wasn't that important, etc. Kind of like a family fight. I was like- ya know what, just whisper or something? I just got out of surgery and don't want to listen to this arguing, PLUS the two little girls were wild and noisy. I just laughed and said can't I get a day off from kids God? Some time later they all left - apparently the sister did take the girls to the pageant and mom was gone too - so just this lady in the bed next to me. We never talked. She was really sick though. She had had gastric bypass on the 14th of April (the day I wanted to have it) and Schlosser did her surgery. She was fine the first 3 weeks, then last Mon she started throwing up this green junk, so went to the hospital and they admitted her for further tests. She hadn't eaten anything - and couldn't keep anything down, not even water. I think they took her back into surgery though yesterday to see if there was a tear or leak or something cause I overheard Schlosser telling her that she couldn't see anything with her telescope. I wonder what it could be. Schlosser told her that the only thing she could think that it might be was that her sinus's were draining into her stomach. (the gal had a bad cold). Hope she gets better though - man that would suck!   Ok - now back to my story. Craig comes back from lunch and is a much happier guy now (typical man). The plan was for me to have the x-ray at 3 pm, then i had to drink stuff and pee and then I could go. We were thinking we should get out of there by 5 pm. No such luck. The x-ray went fine - man no one told me that stuff you had to drink those was nasty! YUCK! I hope I never have to drink that again. Got that done and then they pushed me out into the hall and I waited there for 1/2 hour. I finally said something to this hall monitor older lady that was out there and she raised a ruckus about it for me. She told me that they do that all the time and it was just very disrespectful she thought - so her job was to make sure things like that didn't happen. She told me I was a good sport at least 3 times, LOL. Back up to the room and Craig is crabby again- just tired of waiting I"m sure. I found out he isn't a very good bedside companion - but he is an awesome nurse - just give him something to do. Sitting on that uncomfy chair for hours was driving him crazy. I told him to take a nap and he did - and woke up much happier (thankfully) We waited and waited some more. Finally my new nurse came in and I asked her what the plan was now - I had had the x-ray, now what? She said that I had to drink something and pee then I could go - if all goes as planned I should be out by 7 pm. So I drank one glass down, then tried to pee, and just alittle came out - so drank some more and was about half done with that and brought me a tray of food - broth, apple juice and jello (the jello was really yummy). I looked at hubby and said i didn't know if I could consume all of that, plus drink all that water, plus pee more - I was feeling rushed. He said no rush now - he wanted to at least stay through Deal or No Deal. LOL Ok - pressure was off, but I kept to my tasks and finished everything without any complications. Called the nurse in at 7:30 and told her that I was ready to go. She offered me some pain med in my iv for the road - which I took, just in case but really didn't need it that much. She said i must have a high pain tolerance cause i hadn't had any pain meds all day - told her that I didn't have any pain! Oh well - took the shot anyway - just made me sleepy on the way home. Craig went to get the car and they wheeled me down to the door to wait for him. They had this huge wheelchair that two people could've sat on, but the gal pushing it said she liked it cause it was kind of automatic and she didn't have to push it - just steer it and stop it. Craig pulled up, I jumped in the car and we were home shortly after 9 pm. About 6 miles from home my tummy started feeling queasy and I was like oh crap, I'm going to get sick. I just lightly rubbed my tummy and the queasiness went away. Soon after we got home I went to bed though. So nice to sleep in my own bed!   I woke up at midnight, and every hour after that to go to the bathroom. At 2 a.m. when I got up I was like, uh oh - no I'm feeling pain, but is it 17,000 of pain? No it was just like a bad bruise pain so I hobbled out to the kitchen to get the pain meds and cut one up to take it then wobbled back to bed. Woke again every hour to go to the bathroom, but not with the pain like before. Got up this morning about 9 and took a shower and got dressed. Felt good to wash my hair and brush my teeth! Then I sat down to the computer and have been working on this email to you amidst phone calls. Abbott called this morning to see how I was doing - I thought that was nice. I did have some questions for them, mostly about what to do with the band-aids - leave them on, change them or what? She said to leave them on until they fell off. I am to go back in now in 2-3 weeks for a post-op check up and visit with the dietician - then again in 3 more weeks hopefully for my first fill - right?   Its kind of amazing how comfortable I am driving down there now that I've done it a couple times. I drove down there Thurs night so hubby could eat on the way. He likes it too that he doesn't have to drive all the time. I told him that I wanted to start doing more of the driving so that I wouldn't get so out of sink with it and I think its really helped.   Well I am just about finished taking the pain meds for my noon schedule, lol, takes forever to get all the pills taken during the day. I just finished breakfast and then started taking the pills. Weird. I'm feeling alittle sleepy now and so am going to go and lie down for a bit.   I'm so thankful that everything turned out ok, and now hope that this "tool" will help me lose weight and keep it off. Thats all for now.......Hugzzzzzz Deb
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Bummed!

:cry And angry too! I had a pre-op meeting scheduled this morning at 10 a.m. with Schosser - had everything done prior to meeting with her, on my way to the cities, 20 miles away from the hospital when they called and cancelled - she was sick with the flu. So I turned around and drove back home and called to re-schedule and can't get in now until the 12th of April!!! FUCK! I had hoped to be banded on the 14th but thats impossible because they want you on a 2 week diet before that - I suggested that I would go on it and be ready to go, but the person I talked to just laughed that idea off. FUCK FUCK FUCK! Now we have to take a day off and have it done. I didn't want to do that, didn't want people to ask questions about why were taking off, etc. Maybe I'll just make something up. Guess things were just going too smoothly. :think I wanted to stop and pig out at McDonalds on the way home, but didn't. Why hurt myself?   OK - more waiting....thats all for now.
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