Friday, June 30, 2006

6 weeks post op

Today I am 6 weeks post op. These 6 weeks weeks flew by. So much has happened in these last two weeks that i can honestly say that this is the most influential experience of my life. The last time i was this happy was when my Godson Ryan was born.

Being down 61 pounds is still shocking. I think about it all the time. I wonder sometimes, if I didn't have the surgery, if that 61 pounds would have been added to the 359 pound (me) before surgery. It makes me a little emotional sometimes to know that soon i will not be obese.

I am going away for the long holiday weekend. I sat down last night and plotted my water drinking and exercise routine while I am away from home. Last weekend when i went away, the hardest thing was trying to get all my water in. That will not happen this weekend. The exercise will consist of mostly walking. I am taking my newphew (godson Ryan) to the Zoo on monday. I will be walking a TON when i am there.

I will have computer access while i am away so i will be able to keep this up to date while I am gone. I hope that everyone had a good week and their holiday weekend is even better!!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

2 mile walk

Last night I participated in a 2 mile walk that was run by a local fitness club here where I live. I made completed the two miles in 41 minutes. My knees, ankles, back, and feet did wonderful. I felt no pain after. I can't wait until that 41 minutes turns into 21 minutes. I have to keep working at it. I am very proud of myself.

One other thing, shopping at Sam's Club is not a lot of fun anymore. I went shopping there the other day and i was looking at all the food and there was absolutely nothing there that I could eat. Buying in bulk is not a good idea now since i can't eat very much. My freezer would not be big enough to keep all the food that I would have to package and freeze. I am better off buying food at the store.

This Friday i will be 6 weeks post op. These past 6 weeks went by extremely fast. I can't believe how good I feel only being 6 weeks post op.

My next follow up appointment with Dr Shapiro is scheduled for july 13th at 1:00 pm. I am hoping to be down quite a bit more weight by then. My goal is 295. Keep your fingers crossed.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

I finally see a difference!!

Hello Everyone. I hope that you all had a great weekend and the start of the week is going well.

I went on a road trip last weekend and it went great. The only thing that I found to be difficult about traveling is getting all my water in. Now that I am back, I am drinking TONS of water.

Next weekend I will be flying on an airplane for the first time since I had the surgery. I am sure that i will be able to get all my water in then. Much different from driving.

After quite a few days being on a weight loss plateau, I finally am starting to lose again. I bounce between 301 and 299 on my scale. I haven't been under 300 pounds in almost 4 years. I was so happy that i bought myself a present.

Food is going well. I am getting in my protein. I found that eating small salads with chicken is the easiest. The one problem I am having is trying to find decent carbs to eat. Fruit would be the ideal carb to eat but it is hard to find small portions of fruit. I fill up so fast on the protein that i can only take one or two bites of the fruit. This leaves quite a bit of fruit left.

I am no longer wearing a bandaid on my drain tube scar. It has finally healed over. The bruises from the Lovenox shots are starting to fade. I don't know if i mentioned before but i am no longer on the lovenox shots. That ended last Friday.

I am still taking the calcium and chewable vitamins twice a day. Vitamin B1 is much to be desired. I can't stand taking that medication. I think that when 3 months comes around and i can swallow the pills whole, i still will try and find the chewables.

Now to the topic of this post. Yesterday is the first time that I really saw a difference with the weight loss. Especially in my face. I looked in the mirror and my mouth dropped. I couldn't believe it. This surgery was definitly worth it!!!

Friday, June 23, 2006

6-23-06

Hello Everyone. I hope that everyone had a good week and their weekend is as good too. I haven't updated in a while. Their hasn't been much change to talk about. Things are going very well. I am kind of surprised that things are going as well as they are.

I have noticed in my clothes that I have been losing weight. The official weight loss a week ago at the doctors office was 43 pounds but I know that I have lost quite a bit in the last week. My stomach is getting smaller, my back end is getting smaller. I can start to see my collar bones. It is very gratifying to see these changes.

Yesterday was my last day to take the shot of lovenox (blood thinner). So currently I am taking the Prevecid Solutabs, 2 multi-vitamins (chewable flinstones), 2 600mgs of Calcium Citrate + D a day. I have been doing really well with my medications. I haven't missed any and I never forget to take them.

Water intake is still going very well. I am still getting well over the required 64 ounces a day. I find it much easier now that I am back at work to concentrate on the water than when I am at home. I have always enjoyed drinking water but now I almost crave it when it comes time to drink 60 minutes after a meal. I am also drinking 12 ounces of crystal light a day. I have been trying different crystal lights and I really like the Raspberry Ice and Peach Tea. I have to be careful with the Peach Tea because it does have caffeine in it.

I now fit comfortably in a 3X shirt. 4X shirts are extremely baggy on me. I think in a couple of months I should fit comfortably in a 2X. I did go and buy some shirts last night. I didn't buy much cause I know that they will be too big in a couple months. I needed something nice to wear.

I am going on my first road trip since the surgery. I will be traveling to southern Minnesota for a wedding. Next week I will be taking my first plane ride since having the surgery.

My diet has been going really well. I have been eating a lot of chicken. The doctor has instructed me to eat each meal with 1/2 protein and 1/2 carbohydrates. It has been very hard to find carbohydrates that I can eat easily. The whole wheat pita bread has been sort of a favorite. I also found out that Farmers Cheese is a low fat soft cheese. Farmer's cheese has always been one of my favorite cheeses.

I will update when I return from the road trip. I will be eating at one restaurant while I am down there. I will let you know how that goes. I do have my gastric bypass card that the nurse gave me. Maybe they will let me order off the kids menu.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Water, Water, Water

Things have been going really well. Especially since more foods were added to my diet last Friday. This evening for dinner I had some naked chicken tenders that were cooked in the oven and I ate it with some hummus that was homemade. I love the taste of hummus.

On Saturday I purchased a pedometer. It is interesting how many steps I take in one day. Today I ended up doing 6,836 steps. With the length of my steps that ended up being 2.36 miles. I am keeping track of my progress and will keep you all updated. It feels good to walk now that my ankles, back, and knees don't hurt as much. I sleep better at night since I have started walking.

Now to the topic of this post. Water, Water, Water!!! The doctor has always stressed how important it is to get at least 64 ounces of water in a day. At first it was extremely hard to get even the 64 in. Now it isn't so bad. I have been getting close to 96 ounces a day. I have noticed that when I get light headed or I start to feel shaky, it is because I was not drinking water. Once I start drinking the water, I feel much MUCH better. Regardless if you have had the surgery or not, it is always important to get 64 ounces of water in each day. It helps to stay completely hydrated!!

The scar where the tube came out last friday is almost healed up. I think in two more days I will not have to wear gauze on it anymore. It hardly hurts anymore. I noticed that when I bend down, it hurts because I pinch it. I can't tell you how nice it is to have the tube out. I am able to take normal showers and I am able to sleep on both sides at night.

I found out today from the nurse at Dr Shapiro's office that there is a difference between Citrate and Caltrate Calcium medications. I am currently taking the Citrate. I found the chewable Caltrate at Target. The nurse says that the Citrate absorbs better into the digestive system than the caltrate. The nurse also informed me that there is a natural foods store in the city that sells the Citrate in liquid form. I will be visiting the natural foods store tomorrow. I will keep you all posted.

One last thing. I returned to work half days today. Since my job is mostly sit down, the doctor okay'd me to go back half days. So far so good. I worked until noon today. Starting next week, I will return full time.

1 month comparison

One month ago

Today June 19th, 2006

1 month post-op

Down 54 pounds!




Sunday, June 18, 2006

Fats (diet update part 4)

Favorable Fats:

Almond Butter
Almonds
Avocado
Canola Oil
Guacamole
Macadamia nuts
Olive oil
Olives
Natural Peanut butter (yummy!)
Peanut oil
Dry roasted peanuts
Tahini
I can't believe its not butter spray

Fair choices

Light Mayo
Sesame Oil
Soybean oil
Walnuts

Unfavorable fats:

Bacon Bits
Butter
Cream
Cream Cheese
Lard
Margarine
Sour Cream
Vegetable Shortening

Vegetables (diet update part 3)

Favorable Vegetables:

Alfalfa sprouts
Artichocks
Asapargus
Bamboo Shoots
Green or wax beans
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
Cabbage
Celery
Cauliflower
Chickpeas
Cucumber
Eggplant
Kale
Kidney Beans
Leeks
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Onions
Okra
Green or Red peppers
Salsa
Sauerkraut
Snow Peas
Spinach
Swiss Chard
Tomato
Turnip
Water Chestnuts
Zucchini

Unfavorable Vegetables
Beacked Beans
Beets
Carrots
Corn
Lima Beans
Parsnips
Peas
Pinto Beans
Potato (any form)
Refried Beans
Squash

Fruits (diet update part 2)

Favorable Fruits:

Apple
Applesauce
Apricots
Blackberries
Boysenberries
Cantaloupe
Cherries
Fruit cocktail
Grapefruit
Grapes
Kiwi
Lemon
Lime
Nectarine
Orange
Peach
Pear
Plum
Raspberries
Strawberries
Tangerine

Unfavorable Fruits

Bananas
Cranberries
Dates
Figs
Guava
Kumquat
Mango
Watermelon
Papaya
Pineapple
Prunes
Raisins
Fruit Juices
Dried Fruit

Protein Choices (diet update)

Best Choices:

Chicken (breast, deli sliced)
Turkey Breast
Game-venison, buffalo
Fish
Egg whites (egg beaters also)
Low-fat cottage cheese
Tempeh
Tofu
Protein Powder (Genisoy)
Soy burger
Soy Hot Dog
Soy Sausage (boca)
Yogurt (unsweetened)

Fair choices

Lean Canadian Bacon
Lean Ham, pork, and lamb
pork chop
pork tenderlion
Turkey (dark meat)
Veal
Reduced fat cheeses (6 g's fat or less).
Skim Mozzarella cheese
Duck
Deli Ham
Turkey Bacon
Whole Egg
skim Ricotta cheese

Poor Choices:

Fatty Cuts of Beef
Beef or chicken liver
Pepperoni
Salami
Hard cheeses
Bacon
Hot Dog
Kielbasa
Sausage
Ground Beef (over 93% fat)

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Tube it OUT!!!


Yesterday at the doctor's office, Dr Shapiro took out my tube. It was an unpleasant experience but at least it is over with. I am glad it is out. Right now I have a huge bandage on it. I will be able to take it off around 11am this morning. I will have to keep gauze on it until there is at least two days of no leakage or discharge.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Support Group meeting

I attended my very first support group meeting last wednesday night. It was awesome. There were some very helpful people there. I was able to get other people's opinions on the surgery and hear everyone else's journey. It is amazing how different everyone's body is after surgery yet so similar.

Next Support group meeting is July 12th. I have put it on my reminder calendar and will attend.

4 weeks post op

Today it has been four week since i had the surgery. Time goes by so fast. I am doing well. Today is also the day that i get my drain tube removed. My appointment is at 10 am this morning. I really am excited to get this tube out. I will be able to wear shirts that are so big (wearing bigger shirts allows the tube to be comfortable and not confining).

I will also get my official weight loss today also. I weighed myself this morning and i am between 300 and 305. I will let you all know what the doctors office shows.

4 week food log

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

FOOD IS EVERYWHERE

No matter what channel you turn on. No matter what program you watch. Food is everywhere. I new this before surgery. I just had to make this comment.

There is this one commercial that KFC has out now with there new "Famous bowls". That commercial is on every commercial break on every single channel. I have learned to mute the commercials now. I keep myself occupied now during commericals.

I am able to watch the food channel with no problem. That doesn't bother me for some reason. I figured that i will never have all the ingredients to make what they make on the food channel, so i will never be able to make what they make.

Food is everywhere. I will have to deal with it!!!! I challenge all of you to sit down and watch your favorite TV show from beginning to end including commericals and count how many commericals have to do with food. You would be amazed.

Medical Bills

I got my medical/Hospital bill in the mail yesterday. The total bill was $19,184.76. I got the Explanation of Health Care Benefits from my insurance company also. My insurance company covered ALL but $315.18. I couldn't believe it. I only have to pay $315.18. That is incredible!! I was calling everyone on the phone to tell them this awesome news. I was expecting to pay somewhere near $2,000.

The Anesthesiologist bill is only $248.00. That was incredible also!!

Things are well

Hello everyone, sorry about the delay in posting. I am trying to keep this updated a least every other day.

Things are going well. The diet is going ok. The foods that I am eating are staying down. I am still drinking plenty of water. I am still walking for exercise. The weather is supposed to get hot again the next few days. I wish it wouldn’t be so hot. I like to walk when there is a nice cool breeze.

This morning I have a little problem. I think that I ate too much. I had the dry heaves. The feeling came and went and after the episode of the dry heaves I felt ok again. My focus these next few days is to REALLY concentrate on how much I am eating. I will not go through what I went through this morning again.

Medications are going well. Last night I did not take any pain medication to sleep. I slept like a baby. I will see if I can do that again tonight. The shots of blood thinner are also going well. I will only need to take them for another two weeks and then I will be down. The Calcium + D is going well. This medication dissolves in water and I am able to drink it. The Prevacid Solutab’s are going well too, this medication helps with keeping all acid out of my stomach. The Thiamine is NASTY! I won’t lie. It is gross. I have to crush it and put it in water. The taste is unbelievably gross. I can’t even explain it. I gage every time I have to swallow it.

On a very positive note, I am down 49 pounds. It is unimaginable to think that in almost 4 weeks I have almost dropped 50 pounds. I have never lost this much weight on any diet I have ever been on. All my clothes are too big for me (that has never happened to me). This is a very good feeling. It finally feels good to be a LOSER!!!

This coming Friday at 10am I will be getting the drain tube removed. I can’t wait. I can then start to see if certain shirts I have will actually fit. I have been wearing very baggy shirts because the drain tube needs room to move. Also this coming Monday, June 19th I will be one month post op. I will be taking pictures of myself on the 19th and will post them. You all will see how losing all this weight looks on me after one month.

In all I am doing pretty great. Better than I every imagined I would do. My emotions are starting to calm down. I am glad and lucky to have had this surgery. It will not only make me feel better about myself, but I believe that this surgery will have saved my life!!

Friday, June 09, 2006

3 week food diary

Telephone call with Nurse

Hello!

I just got off the phone with the nurse at the doctors office. I updated her on my food diary. She was really impressed with my progress. Foods are going down really nicely. My average water intake is around 80 ounces a day. This is really good considering a lot of people who have had the surgery have trouble even getting down 64 ounces.

My updated diet is the following:

1. Water packed chicken or Tuna (can use light mayo to soften)
2. Backed white fish (Pollock, cod, catfish, walleye)
3. Thin sliced deli meat (chicken, turkey, ham) *not cured in sugar
4. Canned Green Beans, or Waxed Beans
5. Ripe Cantaloupe
6. Skinned and seeded cucumber or Kiwi

My next doctor’s appointment is next Friday the 16th at 10 am. I get the drain tube taken out. I will update in a couple days and let you all know how the updated diet is going. I hope the next week goes fast!!

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

6-7-06

Hello, I hope everyone is having a good week so far.

There is not much to update today. The diet is still going well. Tomorrow I will be calling the nurse to update her on my diet. If all seems well she will be adding stuff to my diet. Walking is getting much better. The more I walk the easier it gets.

Last night I had a little nausea. I have no idea how it happened. It was well after I had dinner. I got really hot and sweaty. I felt like I had to vomit. I calmed myself down and let the feeling pass. It passed about a few minutes later. After it was like nothing happened. I think that I had sipped too much water in a very short period of time.

Medications are going well. I don’t like the thiamine. It tastes weird. The shots are going well. Before I take the shot everyday I get this thing in my head that it will hurt but it doesn’t. I don’t even feel it going in. The Calcium Citrate plus D is going well. It takes forever for it to dissolve in water though.

I weighed myself this morning and I am now down to 320. This is amazing!!

I will update everyone after I talk with the nurse tomorrow. I will also put up a copy of the food diary I have been keeping for the last week.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Diet, update, exercise

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Things are going really well. I am losing weight and it is coming off quite fast. I am kind of at a loss for words at how much weight I have lost.

I still have the G-Tube in. I am doing ok with it. It is kind of weird to walk around and have people looking at this “thing” protruding from my stomach. I will find out this Thursday just when exactly I will get it out.

I have been walking quite a bit. Yesterday I walked a half a mile and this morning I walked a half a mile. This evening I will try and walk another half a mile. I will be very proud of myself if I make it a whole mile. I can’t tell you how long it has been since I walked a whole mile without having to sit down. Even walking a half mile without sitting is accomplishment enough for me.

I stepped on the scale this morning and I am under 330. It was between 328 and 327. This is good news. It is hard to imagine that when I left the hospital I was 375.

The diet is going well. I have been getting 64+ ounces of water in a day. Everything is going down without a problem. The cottage cheese is my favorite right now. I have tried the cream of wheat, Egg beaters, applesauce, and diced pears. I am not too fond of the diced pears. I used love pears but they don’t seem to taste right now. I will be calling the nurse this Thursday to see if she will be able to add anything else to the diet.

To be honest I have been getting cravings. These quickly subside because I am always feeling full. The television is the worst. Almost all commercials are about food. I turn off the TV when this happens, or I put the TV on mute and turn away.

My surgery scar is looking better every day. The scabs are starting to go away. The scar has healed nicely. As I lose the weight, the scar gets smaller. I remember after surgery and looking at the scar for the first time and it was HUGE. Now it is very small.

Hope everyone has a good week!!

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Staples out!!


The scar now looks truly like railroad tracks!!

2 week follow up with doctor

At 10am this morning I had my first follow up visit with Dr Shapiro. Tomorrow I will be 2 weeks post op. By going off my consultation visit, I am down 25 pounds. They had me listed at as 359. I am currently at 334. Dr Shapiro stated that the weight loss right now isn’t a factor. The weight loss will mean more at 3 months post op because that is when my body will be fully adjusted to the surgery.
I got my staples removed. I hardly felt a thing while Dr Shapiro was removing them. I felt little stings but nothing I couldn’t handle.
Dr Shapiro has put me on a soft foods diet for the next week. I have a few options that I can eat. The foods that are allowed are the following:

Cottage Cheese- 1% or Skim *I am unable to use fat-free because the sugar content is so high.*
Light Vanilla Yogurt
Canned Peaches or pears
Eggs -*whites only, more tolerable than the yokes, I can also use egg beaters*
Oatmeal, Old fashion slow-cook style *needs to be very thin consistency w/ skim milk*
Cream of wheat (thin consistency)
Applesauce-no sugar added variety

In addition to these foods I still need to get my 64 ounces of water in a day. I am not able to drink any liquids 15 minutes prior or 60 minutes after a meal. Drinking can cause me to be too full and or cause vomiting. It will also push food out of the pouch prematurely.

These foods in a variety sense will be eaten in a 3 meals a day format. Each meal needs to be at least 5 hours apart. For example, if I eat breakfast at 8 am, I will be able to eat lunch at 1pm and then dinner at 6pm. Each meal should take me 15-25 minutes. I should eat until I am comfortable. Also, breakfast should be eaten within 90 minutes of waking up in the morning.

This diet will last for the next week. I need to keep a log. I will call the doctors office in a week and find let them know how I am doing. If all is well they will give me more food instructions for the following week. If that goes well then I will be able to get the drain tube out in two weeks.