8 Months

Today is my 8 month "surgaversary"... I wish I actually HAD something to report, but I don't... lol. I am STILL bouncing between 211-212 every time I weigh. I was having a lot of pain so had a hard time working out, but the past two weeks I've worked out 4 days per week. Nothing changed. When I didn't work out... nothing changed. My body seems to be very happy right here. While I do want to get things moving, I am not stressing too much about it because I feel like my body is going through an adjustment period.

I do plan to do new progress photos and measurements for 8 months over this weekend since I haven't done them since my 6 month. I'm hoping I'll see some change in measurements even though my weight hasn't been changing. :)

Also, we had our 6 month appointment with our surgeon last week - yes, 6 month. It was VERY late because it got postponed a couple of times. It was supposed to be Thanksgiving week originally. Oh well.

The appointment was VERY positive. My surgeon did a double take looking at my chart. He said "we did this in MAY?? and you've lost HOW MUCH??" He was thrilled and said he would have expected this amount at one year. He also said my plateau is not the big deal that I've been thinking it is and just give it time, get back into exercise, continue on the same path and everything will work itself out :)

He wants me to try to lose 15 more lbs by my one year... works for me. Hopefully I can do more, but who knows... at this rate, maybe not. My weight hasn't changed at all in almost two months. But I keep reminding myself that maintaining is a great accomplishment too. The fact I am just living my life and not gaining any weight is a great thing :) :)

I REALLY will try to catch up on blogging over the next week - my best friend is coming into town for a long visit a week from today and I want to have some blogging done before then!!

For now, here's a couple photos of me from last weekend :) As an example of where I'm at at 8 months out. Although I'm in my puffy clothes since we were out in the snow all day :)

A few notes about the wardrobe... I made the hat :) Still need to blog about that. Also, I was able to buy snow pants. They are men's XL but they run small, usually in men's pants I'd wear an L. They were out of women's so I didn't even get to try any on. But my husband and I both bought snow pants... in past years, we could never fit into any!!! Also - my new snow boots are a Women's 9.5 - not wide width... not mens... just NORMAL women's 9.5... this is a huge accomplishment in my world too.

Another milestone this month... I can now wrap a regular bath towel around myself. It covers me and it stays. I am not sure when this happened because I hadn't even tried it before... but now it fits :) I did actually take a pic... but I am not sharing it here LOL.

That's all for now... more soon :)

3 Month Video Update

Finally got my 3 month video update posted to YouTube! Although my video was 14 minutes 50 seconds and it says it can be 15 mins, for some reason when it uploads it changes it to 20 minutes and rejects it. Weird. So I had to split it into two parts again.

Hope you enjoy :) I talk about my dr's visit (3 month checkup), how it's going for myself and my hubby, lots of random stuff.

8 Weeks Post Op

I am now 8 weeks post op and I weigh 262. This is a total loss of 48 pounds. I am thrilled with that! The scale wasn't budging but suddenly it did and here I am. I just have to keep hanging in there and know that it will go. :) My official 2 months will be coming up on the 20th so I still have 6 more days and I'm hoping I'll hit -50! At the 2 month mark is when I will have more official photos and measurements to share. For now though, here's an unofficial photo of what I look like today:

Okay okay.. I still have white legs!! But I think they are getting a LITTLE bit better from all the pool-going :)

Those are the smaller Wal-Mart shorts by the way.

In other news - my blood pressure is in a good range. Today it was 122/70. I don't know what it was when I started, but I know it has improved. Ian's used to be dangerously high before surgery (150/120) and now it's 110/70!! Wow isn't that great?? Ian's stats today at his 6 week appointment was that he has lost 37 pounds. So proud of him!!

We had some really good experiences there today. Kim, the director of the bariatric program at the hospital, was who our appointment was with today. She asked us questions and wanted our opinions because they are trying to make the program better for Sleeve patients. Same thing with our nutrition class today... we spent 30 mins afterward talking to the nutritionist and she took down lots of notes about what we had to say because they are totally revising everything in relation to sleevers. It sucks we had to go through it ahead of the curve, but I'm glad that our insights may help those that come behind us.

Also ~ something really interesting! They told us today that one of the news channels wants to do a little spot on us. I don't know any more than that but I said they could give the lady my phone number and so hopefully soon I will know more.

One more thing. I love crock pots and especially post-op they are great because it helps keep the meat so much more moist. We were using a tiny one meant for sauces because our regular one is just WAY too big. The sauces one though was tooooo small, and also had a crack in it. We picked up this little beauty which is 1.5 quarts (our sauce one was 1/2 a quart, my big one is 6 quarts!)... this size is perfect. I got some chicken breasts cooking in it with broccoli cheese soup pretty much immediately:

If you're interested, it's only $15 on Amazon! :) We love it.

6 Weeks Post Op

Today was my 6-week post op appointment at the surgeon's office. It was with the main nurse again, which is fine.. she actually asked us a lot more questions this time and seemed a lot more interested in how things were going for us. What's funny is after my little freak out on Monday, something must have happened because today I weighed 3 pounds less at the gym. And when I got to the dr... their scale weighed me slightly less, even. So my official 6 week weight is...

Yay for 269! That's more like it! Take THAT 273! Bahahahahaha. OK I'm done now :) I guess my swim monday and walk yesterday (plus getting all my water and protein) got things moving again. In case I haven't already said this, those are not my feet. Mine are way wider. But curiously, the toes on her right foot look exactly like mine as far as the directions they curve in. Ha.

I am happy to say that at six weeks I've now lost 41 lbs!!

I'm happy with this. It feels good to be back in the 260's. A place very familiar to me.  I don't think I ever really came to terms with being 310 pounds. I still kept seeing myself as the 260-270lb version of me. So in a way I feel like being 310 lbs never happened. But it did and I have photographic evidence lol so it's really good to see how far I've come.

I don't want to set too many goals and end up being diappointed like I was on Monday... but I will be going back to the Dr in two weeks for my hubby's 6 week appointment and getting weighed. I would like to have lost 9 more pounds by then to be at 260 - which would be 50 lbs lost total. I think that's doable with the exercise I'm getting so here's hoping :)

As for my hubby, today was 4 weeks for him and he's down 26 pounds. He started at 339 and is now 313. We both thought he'd be around 300 by now, since he was heavier than me, and men lose faster too. But he doesn't watch his sugars and carbs as much as I do and he also doesn't exercise as much as I do, so it makes sense. He is fine with it though and I am too. He is still a few days from his official 1 month (it will be July 3rd) and that's when we will take his 1 month progress photo and measurements. I will definitely post his measurement results - and his photo if he gives me permission but it depends if he feels comfortable or not.

At six weeks I am feeling great. I feel healthier and stronger. I have more energy. I work out and I like it. :) I am LOVING swimming!!! AND WHO WOULDN'T with this pool to go to?

3 Weeks Post Op

Yesterday was my 3 week post op appointment. Again, it wasn't with my surgeon, just the nurse. Sigh. I am pretty sure at this point that the surgeon's business is too big for his own good as I rarely see him for anything and things around there are so confusing. Regardless, it was a really good appointment still. Of course the first order of business was the weigh-in:

This is 10 lbs lost since my 1 week appointment. I am definitely happy with that. I have been really working my tail off making the right food choices, getting in all my protein, getting in all my water, and going for my walks. My total loss now in 3 weeks is:

Whoo hoo! I'll take it. It's tough not to wish it was an even 30 but really, in the past it could take me 3 months to lose this much weight, so I will not complain ;)

I asked her all of my questions... the pain in my stomach is most likely caused by scar tissue. She says I probably pulled it away from my abdominal wall when I felt like I "pulled the muscle"... my aunt had told me the exact same thing (from her own previous experience) so with two sources I'm going to believe it I guess lol. I just hope it stops hurting soon.

As for strength training, I am supposed to wait until 6 weeks to do any. She said if I REALLY want to do some, no more than 5 pounds, but she would prefer if I just wait. Swimming on the other hand, I can do as soon as my incisions are healed up. I'm guessing another week to week and a half for that. I would really love to do some swimming, and that would be a good way to be getting an arm workout without lifting weights.

Also I mentioned that my back pain is out of control and the prescription the surgeon gave me at my last visit (for Ultram) didn't do anything to help. She suggested Celebrex, but said I need to go to my PCP to get that prescribed. So sometime soon I'll have to get an appointment for that. She said it's the only NSAID that is okay to take for whatever reason... sounds good to me.

As for Ian, he had his one week appointment and got his drain pulled. He did better with that than I did lol. He has been walking the past few days and eating his soft food diet of yogurt, cottage cheese, refried beans and egg beaters. His pain is getting better but he is actually having a harder time than I did and needed a refill on his oxycodone. We both thought he would heal faster than I did but that hasn't been the case so far. But the good news is the medicine is really helping him. He even worked from home for 6 hours today.

As for his weigh in, in his first week he lost:

16 pounds! Yay for my honey!

We also had to go to new nutrition courses this week. Ian went to his one-week class but we BOTH went to the 3 week class, so he doesn't have to go back to that later. Unfortunately when we tried to go we were running late (their fault, not ours) and then we get to the elevators and they are not functioning. So we had to hike up SIX flights of stairs to make it to class. In our shape this was really hard. I did okay, but Ian is only one week out so it really took all of his energy. Of course after class, when we had to go DOWN, the elevators were working. LOL. Oh well, I guess we burned some extra calories :)

I am really looking forward to doing my one month photos and measurements and making some comparisons!! 10 days to go! I have so much more to blog about but I'm so behind... more posts coming soon.

1 Week Post Op & Weigh-In

Yesterday I has my 1 week post op appointment and my nutrition class for the next phase of eating. Unfortunately, they mixed up my times and told me to come to my appointment at 1:00 and nutrition at 2:00, but it was supposed to be the other way around. Thus, my appointment was VERY short (just pulling out the drain) because she said we needed to hurry over to the nutrition class. Then as we were leaving, a woman said to us "if you wait right here I'll be walking everyone over to the nutrition class." 15 mins later we figure out that's for the other group... and by the time we got there we missed the whole class and the poor girl had to say it all over again just for us lol. Oh well, I take comfort in the fact it wasn't my fault. :)

So - as far as my appointment goes, it was basically just my weigh in and getting my drain pulled. I never even saw my Dr. Is this weird?? I was expecting to see him. I hope I see him at the 3 week appointment.
By the way - getting the drain pulled out - NOT FUN! Yikes. It hurt but mostly felt SO freaking weird. The tube is so long inside and it came from all the way up by my heart. I do feel so much better now that it's out though. My pain decreased a lot more so I guess it was causing me more discomfort than I realized. I was even able to finally sleep on my side last night!!!!! :)

Now for the amazing part. My weigh-in blew me away. Remember, I started at 310. At my 1 week appt I weighed in at...

292! That's 18 pounds lost in 8 days. I know I lost 6 in just one day (the day before surgery when I was on liquids), because I weighed 304 the morning of surgery. So I also lost 12 more in the past week. Wow! That was definitely more than I was expecting. It didn't phase me too much though because for once I can honestly say that the number on the scale, the speed of the loss, etc... really is not the most important thing to me anymore. As long as I'm doing the right things, feeling good, making progress, I am happy. I'm of course very HAPPY to see the numbers go down on the scale don't get me wrong... but it was funny how when I saw them I just went "huh, wow, more than I thought, cool" not like WHOO HOO YIPPEEE OMG OMG OMG. Some people might think that means I'm not allowing myself to be happy enough about it but trust me it is such a relief that it is not affecting my emotions so much. I love it :) I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what it will be at my 3 week appointment.. but I'm sooo not stressed about it, which is awesome.

The nutrition class wasn't too incredibly important... I already knew the foods I can start having.. refried beans, cottage cheese, egg beaters, light yogurt, sf pudding. 1 ounce every 2 hours. But one new piece of info was that I should only try one new food each day until I've had all of them... I guess to see what I can tolerate and everything. So yesterday I had refried beans, and today I'm adding in cottage cheese. All is going well so far! I'm a little bit concerned because I still feel hungry and it doesn't feel like the 1 ounce is filling me up. But it's not really bad or anything, I can handle it just fine. So I'm hoping when I get to the next eating phase at week 3, it will be a little easier :)