Going Public & Filling in the Gaps

Hey everybody! I wanted to let you know that this blog is going public. Now that I've made the decision to go forward with weight loss surgery, I'm interested in starting to become a part of that blog community, as well as any health/fitness stuff in general. I'm planning to start posting here a lot more frequently as I go through this process.

As a side note for those of you who have been following me while this blog was private - I deleted a few posts and edited others for personal content. I kept copies of them and your comments for myself, just so you know :)

My videos will still have to remain password protected even though this blog will be public. That is because I use my Vimeo account for a lot of public videos too and someone could be looking at one of those and then come across my weight-related videos, and that just isn't something I feel comfortable with. I know this could be found by people but I just think this makes sense to avoid it when possible :)

I would also like to take this opportunity to fill in the gaps. I realize when looking through my posts here that the information has been a little sparse as to what has actually been going on in my life. I focused on talking about my therapy sessions but I really didn't talk that much about the pain I've been going through and the way things have changed. I talked about some of this in my video but for those who don't watch them here is a summary.

Some of you know through Facebook that I have been seeing a chiropractor for a while now. I had horrible "hip" pain bothering me for months... turns out it was being caused by my lower back. My upper back also started to get very tight. My ability to sit became almost nothing. I had to pretty much give up completely on doing school work... as well as my hobbies that are on the computer such as blogging and digital scrapbooking. My life was getting taken away from me!

I had do do something about it. "Dr Kate" knew of a really good chiropractor and I started seeing him. He first only treated my upper back because I didn't know that I also had lower back problems. A few nerve block treatments and my upper back pain was basically GONE. But my hip pain hadn't gotten any better at all.

I went back to my regular doc, and got new Xrays taken that revealed my lower back problems. (This is also when my doc brought up that I should consider weight loss surgery.) I promptly began treatments for my lower back also at the chiropractor. It is much more slow-going... but the decompression treatments are really helping!

So here is where I am at right now....

• Still going to the chiropractor. It's helping a lot but is slow going.
• I'm doing well enough now I could start school back up again, but at this point will wait until after surgery so that it is not interrupted again.
• Ian is going to have surgery too and our consult with the surgeon will be on May 12th.
• Because we will be self pay, it's possible I may get a surgery date about 3 weeks after this consult!
• We're trying to get all the appointments out of the way that we can - doctor appointments, blood work, psych evaluations, pulmonary testing, sleep study, etc... the sooner we get all that done, the sooner we can have surgery.
• We are starting to prepare for what life will be life after surgery. We've researched protein powders, vitamins, diet/menu plans, read a lot of information. I've been watching a ton of YouTube "Vlogs" (Video Blogs) from people who have had the Sleeve surgery that we are going to have, getting an idea of the aftermath of surgery, the adjustments to lifestyle, etc. Also joined some message boards for this surgery and learning a lot there, too.
• We have filled out an absolute mountain of forms, and have all of our paperwork organized.
• We are starting to say things like "when we are thinner we can..." and starting to plan a more active life for ourselves... think about fitting in clothes better... having more energy, etc. It's been a long time since I've allowed myself to think this way, for fear of it never happening. We are both seeing that this is really going to happen and starting to believe again.
• Our friends and family members are VERY supportive of the surgery and that has been really helpful.

I guess that's about it for now... oh! Except one thing I am not sure if I mentioned - I am still planning on maintaining my therapy sessions with Dr. Kate ... this is not taking the place of that. If anything I think it is a perfect combo - I will have the help of the surgery as a tool, but keep working on my emotional eating issues and proper nutrition/ intuitive eating with the help of Dr. Kate. I won't need her for the first several weeks after surgery quite as much because I won't be eating much (first liquids, then mushies, etc.)... but will probably have 30 min phone sessions each week during that time to check in about emotional issues that may crop up (such as mourning eating bad food/pigging out, or whatever it might be.)

So for now, mostly waiting for the surgery consult on May 12th. At that point we can ask a lot of questions and know a lot more about what's in store... and when :)