Update

Well I wrote a long blog post last night, and made sure it was saved... but today, it's not here! :( So I will save most of the weight-related stuff for my weekly update post tomorrow.

For now I'd just like to say THANK YOU for all the wonderful comments and for keeping my family in your thoughts and prayers.

Here's an update for you. Neil started his treatments yesterday. He had radiation at 8 am, then had to go to a different hospital for chemotherapy. He ended up having to be there from 10 am to 4 pm. They didn't tell him it would be such a long day... they had to put in a pic line and do a bunch of other things, and the chemo itself was 3 or 4 hours. My mother in law Shirley went out to get lunch and her car broke down! So my hubby went to go help her out. It was just a long exhausting day for all.

Overall though it went well. Neil called us last night and said he was feeling pretty well. He went home with a continuing chemo treatment, some kind of bag thing, that will keep treating him until Saturday. He didn't feel sick yet, but he didn't have much appetite. He has radition every weekday for 5 weeks, and he will have chemo again in a few weeks.

I put together something for him - a Recipe Book. They said the radiation will make his throat really sore and he won't really feel like eating solid foods. Well, having been through weight loss surgery and going through all the post-op phases of eating, I knew some great resources for liquid and soft food recipes. I got many things from Eggface's Blog, and from a few diabetic and weight loss surgery cookbooks. Since he is also diabetic, all the sugar free gastric-bypass recipes are perfect for him. I have a great book put together of Protein Shakes, Protein Ice Cream, Pureed Foods and Soft Foods. I'm going out today to pick up some protein powders, sugar free syrups and an ice cream maker so they will have everything they need to be able to use the recipe book. I really hope it will be helpful for him to keep getting proper nutrition when he isn't feeling well through his treatments.

That's all for now, back with more soon!

Finally Sharing the News

Friends and Family,

I have some news I would like to share with you. We had been waiting to get more specifics before we could share with everyone.

A few weeks ago, we found out that my father-in-law, Neil, has Esophageal Cancer. He had been having trouble swallowing food ever since his hospital stay in 2007 with Pneumonia. It was expected that there was scar tissue from the tube he had in his throat while in an induced coma for 18 days. In the past months this problem had been getting worse. He went in for a procedure to have his esophagus stretched, and they ended up finding the cancer.

At first we were told they caught it early, and so we had a very positive outlook.

Unfortunately, as they performed further scans, tests and evaluations, we received the news that he is actually in Stage 4.

Esophageal Cancer is very slow-growing, no one knows how long he may have been developing it. Because of the slow speed of growth he has not experienced any symptoms other than what he thought was caused by his previous hospital stay. We are lucky that he even went in to have this procedure, or we still wouldn't know.

The cancer has gone through all the layers of his esophagus and is affecting at least 12 lymph nodes. There are no surgical options at this point.

We have known about Stage 4 for a couple of weeks but we waited to share the news until we heard what his treatment plan would be. They were still unsure of his severity and if it has reached Stage 4B they would not have even treated him, just made him comfortable.

Thank God we have found out he is Stage 4A and they WILL be treating him. This coming Tuesday he will be beginning Radiation and Chemotherapy treatments.

His first round of treatments will last for 5 weeks. He will have Chemo and Radiation this Tuesday. He will have Radiation every weekday at the same time for 5 weeks straight. There will be a 2nd round of Chemotherapy during the 5th week.

After this initial 5 week course of treatment they will reevaluate and decide what to do next.

With this type of cancer, they haven given him a 15-20% chance of survival. If the treatments do not get the cancer under control, they are saying he would have around 9-14 months to live. Even if he beats this with treatment, they say to expect about a 5 year life span. We are hoping for better of course and we want him to beat the odds, but the family is preparing ourselves in case the worst does happen.

We are grateful we at least have time to prepare, spend time together, and possibly say goodbye. When he had his Pneumonia 3 years ago, it was a sudden shock and there would have been no time for any of this. We are choosing to be grateful for the time we will have in this case. We are preparing for the worst, but hoping for the very best.

Thank you in advance for your sweet comments, your thoughts and your prayers. Right now nothing needs to be done. Within the family we are taking care of anything that is needed such as transportation to treatments, food, and anything else that is needed. We know you are all out there and we will definitely ask if we need any help. The best thing you can do is pray that everything goes as well as it possibly can. Thanks everybody.

Week 25 Update

A bit late this week but here is my week 25 post-op update. Firstly here is my video for this week:

Here is the link I mention in the video if you want to read about the donating food for pounds lost idea :) http://www.vsggoodlife.com/2010/11/100-pounds-lost.html

So, my weight this week is:

215.4 lbs! That's a loss of 1.8 lbs this week. Definitely staying on the slower side, but I'm very happy it continues to go down instead of not doing anything. I doubt I'll lose 5 more lbs by the 20th when I hit my 6 month mark, so probably won't make 100 lbs lost by then, but I'm getting close and will definitely hit it DURING my 6th month so I will take that :)

Here is the hair product I mentioned in my video also:

I feel that it really helps my hair to look fuller. I got it from my salon for $10. Hubby is using it also and it makes his hair look fuller on top as well. Definitely a good product and it's not heavy like moose, it's a spray that feels more like a leave-in conditioner.


Workouts this Week:
Thurs 11/4 - 3.32 mile walk : 1 Hour
Friday 11/5 - 1.65 mile walk : 32 mins
Sunday 11/7 - 25 min walk plus Leslie Sansone 5 day Slim down (35 mins) warm up + mile 1 + mile 2 + cool down
Monday 11/8 - 50 Mins of Leslie Sansone 5 Day Slim Down - Warm up+ mile 3 + mile 4 + mile 5 + cool down


Food this Week:
Most things were same old same old this week, but I did cook another recipe. This one wasn't new to me, we used to make it before surgery but we would have it with mashed potatoes or rice plus a veggie. Now we eat just the meatballs.


Sour Cream Meatballs

You will need:
2 lbs lean ground beef (I use 93/7)
3 cans campbells soups, you choose combo (I used 1 can cream of mushroom, 1 can cream of chicken, 1 can cream of chicken with herbs, cuz that's what I had)
2 eggs (or egg beaters)
2 packets (1 box) Dry Onion Soup Mix
1 cup Sour Cream (I use Daisy Light)
Water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl combine ground beef, eggs, dry onion soup mix, sour cream. 

2. Mix well and form into meatballs, whatever size you prefer. Place meatballs into 13x9 baking pan.

3. Brown meatballs uncovered in oven for 30 minutes.

4. In separate bowl combine 3 soups plus 1 1/2 soup cans of water. Remove meatballs from oven, cover with soup mixture. Cover baking dish with tin foil and bake for 30 more minutes.

5. Check to make sure meatballs are cooked through. You're ready to eat! We are able to eat 1 - 2 meatballs with some soup mixture. Very filling!

That's it for this week's update. Back with more soon!

Savers!!

My update for this week will be a little late because I've had a BUSY day! Today was my weigh-in (will report tomorrow) and then I had to leave home fairly early to pick up my sister-in-law and take her to get an xray. She had called me yesterday evening and said she fell at work and sprained her ankle pretty severely. So I picked her up to go get an Xray... then grabbed some coffee and took her to Redbox so she'd have movies to watch while she stayed home and rested her ankle. Poor thing.

Then I set off on an all-day adventure, although I had no idea it was going to be all day. I had heard about this store called Savers which is a thrift store similar to Goodwill. I looked up their website last night and it just so happened that Thursday was a 50% off sale for Veterans Day! I decided that made it a really good time to go check it out. I had been wanting to do some thrift store shopping anyway while we are going through various sizes so that we don't spend too much money on clothes.

All of their locations are somewhat far from me. First I went north up to their Boulder location (19 miles from home)... found 3 tops for myself and picked up a bunch of things for my husband to try. Then I went from Boulder all the way down to Aurora (37 miles!!) only to find that location had been closed down! (Or so I thought - I just found out it MOVED. Argh.) Thanks for the heads up, website :-P Then I went to Littleton (another 15 miles) - oh my gosh this location ROCKED. It was huge. I was in there for 3 hours or more and didn't even see everything I wanted to see. I got tons of great stuff for both myself and my husband. Then I drove home, another 24 miles.

Savers in Littleton, CO. Photo from yelp.com

SO... my little day of shopping fun somehow covered more than 6 hours and nearly 100 miles of driving... LOL!!!!!! Good thing I had packed my lunch box with 3 meals in it, and two water bottles. It's like I KNEW. :)

Here are just a couple of the pieces I bought, I didn't take pics of everything I tried on.

Teal top $2, brown vneck sweater $3, brown button up sweater $3.50

So I have to say I am now a HUGE Savers fan. I think I'll be doing all of my shopping there for a while. Wow it was so great! In the end I have some things to return that didn't work for hubby, and a couple I decided not to keep after all... but here is what we ended up with:

IAN'S HAUL: 3 long sleeve shirts, 3 short sleeve shirts, 1 pair jeans & 1 pair athletic shorts (minus the athletic shorts, because he's wearing them) = $13.50

MY HAUL: 4 long sleeve shirts, 4 sweaters, 3 short sleeve shirts, 1 jacket, 1 hoodie, 1 scarf, 1 pair pj pants = $41.50

Love it!!! ALL of this for $55!!

Tomorrow is going to be busy too. I have to take my SIL to the doctor to go over her Xrays, do the grocery shopping I didn't do today because I was busy with Savers lol,  and do a few loads of laundry. But when I get to the laundry part, and catching up on my TV shows from this week, I will do my weekly update video and blog post :) So stay tuned!

Ian's Leather Jacket

Just wanted to quickly share this photo. My hubby Ian found this old leather jacket of his at his parents' house the other day. He wore this jacket a lot not too long after high school. He was absolutely THRILLED that it fits him again. He is 5 months post op and down 70 lbs.

I put the comparison together for a blog post I just wrote on the blog he and I share. Many of our readers of that blog don't read my blog, or have facebook, or really ever get a chance to see updates so I put together sort of a summary post of what we've gone through so far and the progress we've made. As a regular reader to my blog you wouldn't find any of the info to be new but definitely have a read if you'd like, and check out the blog we have going over there :) Here's the post.

24 Week Update & Hubby's Progress

Hey everybody. Firstly, I'm sorry my update is late, and that also there is no video this week. My family is going through a difficult time and we got some bad news last night. I will elaborate eventually, but I can't just yet. If you are the praying type, I would ask for your prayers for my family. Thank you and I will provide more information soon.

Also thank you for all the kind comments on the last post. I wasn't upset or angry or sad, just kind of perplexed and didn't understand why he would do that :) All is well.


As for this week's update, there have been some pros and some cons.


Cons:

- my lower back and hip pain have been especially bad this week. Possibly due to getting new athletic shoes. When your back is this weak, the simplest changes can throw everything off.

-On Monday night I tried to work out at the gym, but my body was NOT having it. I did the treadmill for 5 mins and gave up because the pain was intolerable. I switched to the ARC trainer and managed 10 mins, but then had to stop. My hip was just killing me and no amount of stretching was helping at ALL.

- Halloween candy is still around, and I'm still eating quite a bit of it. I've kind of had my fill and we are getting rid of it this weekend. Don't need any more.



Pros:

- Even though I couldn't work out as much as I would have liked, I still got some activity - a couple workouts plus a whole day of shopping.

- I cooked real recipes twice this week (actually twice in the same day!) and we ate off those for a few days this week.

- Had a decent loss this week, despite the cons mentioned above.



My weight yesterday was:

217.2 - that's a loss of 2.2 lbs this week. Still not as fast as I had been used to, but I will take it over a plateau any day :) I may not make my -100 lbs mark by the 20th like I wanted to, but I am super pleased things are moving again.



Workouts this Week:

Friday 10/29 - Swimming laps, 23 mins
Monday 11/1 - 5 mins treadmill, 10 mins ARC trainer, stretching (bad pain day)

I worked out Thurs and Fri, but those technically count toward next week's weigh in. At least I am getting a bit better now and able to work out more again. Stupid pain.. leave me alone please.



Some New Foods This Week:

I picked these up because I haven't had a muffin since before surgery. I LOVE muffins, ESPECIALLY with cream cheese. One of these is just the right size for my tummy right now. It's basically just the top of the muffin. They are frozen, so they will keep even if I don't eat them too often. You zap it in the micro for 18 seconds and it's ready to go. (Or you can thaw at room temp for 30 mins.) I put an individual pack of light cream cheese on top of it and YUM! Since it's higher carb and lower protein, I wouldn't do this every day, but it tastes GREAT for once in a while.

Not technically NEW for me, but I haven't shown a photo before. This is a protein smoothie from my gym - this one has strawberries, pineapple, 27g whey protein, skim milk and nonfat yogurt. Delicious. The one in the background is Ian's with all the same stuff but blueberries instead of pineapple. We order the kids size, but with the full amount of protein.

Double Bean Quesadilla. I made this up this week. It has refried beans, seasoned black beans (pre packaged), and cheese. Tasted good, but SO MESSY because of the sauce the black beans come in. Probably won't make it again. It did keep me full for like a gazillion years though.

Turkey Club from the food court at Super Target. I was grocery shopping and needed to eat (had been out a while already) before I did my shopping... was feeling weak. It was tasty but I had no interest in the bread and it had WAY too much bacon. I pushed most of the bacon off and ate about 2/3 of the turkey and cheese... threw the rest away. Tasty, decent price ($3) and got the job done in a pinch... but not something I'd go out of my way to plan to order.

Taco Chicken Tenders - one of my recipes this week! Chicken tenderloins (1 lb) rinsed and patted dry. Add as much taco seasoning as you like, patting it onto both sides of the chicken so it sticks. Cook it in a skillet over medium-high heat, flipping every 2 minutes til cooked through. (It took like 5-6 mins). Remove from skillet, squeeze half a lime over it all, and serve with some light sour cream. These were very tasty and very moist. A great all-protein meal. From the 4 Ingredient Diabetic Cookbook.

Pizza Burgers - another all-protein recipe I cooked this week. It's from the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook. One major tweak - we didn't bother with hamburger buns. I also purchased premade patties. What I did was sprinkle the seasonings across them all and then take each patty, roll it into a ball and reshape it. I felt it worked well and then they all come out the same size in the end :) Doesn't need to be done, but I had bought these already so I tried it, and I actually liked doing it that way. I will have to post the full recipe later - I used my own concoction of seasonings in my own amount so I didn't really follow it. I used oregano, garlic chips, garlic powder, garlic pepper, a ground pepper blend (instead of red pepper flakes), salt and some Mrs Dash onion & herb seasoning. We grilled up the burgers on the George Foreman grill, adding sliced mozzarella on top and melting it. Topped with some Classico Tomato & Basil marinara sauce and then a dash of parmesan. Delicious!!!!!!! We really enjoyed this meal. We each can eat 1 patty, so we had it two nights in a row.



Some other Tidbits...

A quick little Calcium supplement review. These are both from Celebrate. The one on the left is the chewable calcium supplement. The one on the right is the liquid supplement which includes both multivitamin AND calcium.

The chewables are pretty hard to deal with, we feel. My friend hated them so gave them to us, and we pretty much hate them too. Today I tried the liquid - not so bad! The liquid includes multivitamin AND calcium, so I could stop taking my gummy vitamins if I am taking this. You have to take it twice a day though. It tasted totally decent, kind of like a koolaid. You empty the packet into 8 oz of cold water and shake to mix. I poured it in a glass after shaking it in a bottle. Might be ordering these to try for a while as I think it will be a good way to get everything in. But at $45 per 30 day supply, and the fact we BOTH need it, that's pretty pricey. So we'll see.


My hair is still thinning a LOT... Ovation isn't really helping. I decided to get my hair cut a bit shorter to help it look fuller. I am also using a protein spray I got from my stylist, makes your hair appear a bit fuller also. Here is me and my stylist Tarah :)

And FINALLY.... My husband Ian's 5 month progress photos from Nov 3rd. He has lost 70 lbs and is feeling great!


5 Months all in a row, front view:

5 Months all in a row, side view:

Start vs. 5 Months, Front View:

Start vs 5 Months, Side View:

Start vs 5 Months, Back View:

So proud of him!! He has gone from tight 2X shirts to loose 1X shirts, ready to start getting into some larges. His pants size has gone from 54 to 44!

That's it for this week - sorry so long. I probably won't have a chance to post again until next week's update. I'm expecting a bit of a tough and taxing week. I'm trying to still take good care of myself and keep on my path, but definitely have some bigger fish to fry at the moment. Have a great week everyone.

Sure He Meant Well, But...

So an interesting thing happened when my husband and I went swimming at our gym on Friday night. We had just gotten into the lap pool and I started ducking under the lane dividers and making my way to the other side. When I looked back to see where hubby was, he was in the water but having a conversation with this other guy above the water. I listened as much as I could from so far away, enough to gather that they were discussing weight loss surgery. I heard the other guy say "it saved my life... I used to be over 400 lbs." Since I was already farther away I just went ahead and started my swim, expecting Ian would tell me about the conversation later.

I had assumed that since my husband does not wear a shirt when he swims, the guy had seen the scars on my husbands stomach and recognized them as weight loss surgery scars, and that this had prompted their discussion. Their discussion went on 10 entire minutes (which felt like FOREVER as I was swimming, lol.) I was rather curious what it was about. When we finished swimming we went to the hot tub and my husband filled me in on the conversation.

As it turns out, the guy had not noticed Ian's scars. On the contrary, he was SUGGESTING weight loss surgery to Ian and me, because he saw us walking to the pool and saw our size, and he wanted to tell us about it so we would know there is hope, and there are options out there.

Um... ouch. Can I just say, this feels like a sucker punch to me. I am glad I was off swimming and doing my own thing instead of present for the conversation. Ian did tell him we had it, that he has lost 70 lbs and I have lost 90lbs... and they had a pretty pleasant conversation. The guy used the same surgeon as us, and had gastric bypass... he hadn't heard of the sleeve and was curious so Ian explained it to him.

While I understand this guy has good intentions and just wants to spread the good word so to speak... that can be VERY offensive, whether the person has had surgery or not. As a post op, especially with as MUCH WEIGHT as we have lost... it makes me feel like... really?? We are still SO BIG that you would suggest it to us??? Both of us have BMI's low enough now that we would not even QUALIFY for weight loss surgery. (You should have a BMI above 40... mine is currently 36.4 and Ian's is 39. When we started mine was 52 and Ian's was 50.) Here I am fitting into non-plus size clothing sizes (at least on top anyway) and someone thinks I'm big enough that he should suggest it to me... that kind of blows my mind. I am pretty average now I think... not in the fact that I am normal weight... but that there are a LOT of people out there wearing size 18 and XL. I like to think I don't stick out like a sore thumb anymore as the fattest person in a room, you know?

Ian took it a lot better than I did... he saw the guy's good intentions and the fact that he was so excited about how it changed his life. Maybe if I had been present I would have seen that more too. I feel like while I'm sure the guy meant well, it just isn't his PLACE. I mean, when my DOCTOR told me I should consider weight loss surgery, I cried right there in his office. I was so sad and hurt. And then I was 310 lbs... he had every reason to suggest it and, as my DOCTOR, it was his responsibility to try and help my health. Even then I was hurt. To have a stranger come up to me on the street (or at the gym pool as it may be)... well that is just a whole different situation and seems really inappropriate to me.

In a way I am kind of glad it happened because I have actually been tempted to say something to people before. When I see VERY large people, I wish to help them, to let them know what surgery can do. But I don't... and here are my reasons why I don't. 1- Surgery is not the right answer for everybody, even the morbidly obese. You have to be ready for it, able to commit, have enough self control and discipline to make it work beyond what the surgery does for you, and to make it last.  2- some people may WANT surgery, but either don't qualify, don't have medical insurance, or don't have the ability to pay even with insurance, let alone self pay. 3- I don't feel it is my place. While yes, it COULD save someone's life, I also think it could destroy someone's life. Many obese people suffer from depression (I heard 89% as the statistic at my surgeon's seminar)... what if a comment like this causes them to hate themselves even more? What if they were to commit suicide over the fact a perfect stranger suggested WLS to them? Yes that is extreme, but it could happen. Sure it could motivate someone to try to diet again... and then 6 months later when dieting fails, they feel like a failure again. I would not want to be responsible for someone feeling ANY of those things.

My rule is this - I am not secretive about my surgery. If someone asks how I did it, I tell them. While some people go with "I eat small portions and exercise" because it is technically not a lie... I don't personally take this approach because I would never want to make anyone feel 'less than'. For example going home thinking, 'that girl lost 90 lbs just eating right and exercising, why can't I do that? I am such a failure!' I know that's how **I** have felt when someone has told me that.
On the flip side though, I don't go around talking about my surgery to everyone... if they don't ask, I don't tell. I will not go up to a stranger and just tell them I had it, or that they should consider it themselves. Nor will I tell overweight friends or family that they should have it. If someone asks because they want to know, I will gladly tell them as much information as they would like to hear. But only if they ask.

What is your take on this? How would you feel if this happened to you, both pre-op (or not even considering/never have had an op) or if it happened post-op like it did to us? What is your stance on talking about surgery?