1 month post-op

Had my one month post op appointment yesterday. I was initially disappointed with how little I had lost until the doctor reminded me that I have lost 18lbs in the last month and that's not too shabby! So I just have to focus on getting my movement in and eating healthy as normal.

Tired today but hanging in there by a thread!

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1 week post-op

I am a bit late getting this posted but better late than never. I went to my one week appointment on Nov 14th and had lost almost 10lbs since surgery. Whew, ten pounds in a week! Since then it hasn't really been moving much but I am trying to stay with the diet and not get too far ahead of myself and worry about it. It will have to start moving eventually.

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Surgery!

I finally had surgery on Nov 8th (election day)! It went really well and really fast. I had to be there at 6am and was in the operating room by 8:15am. My husband came with me and my pastor came up that morning to prayer for me before the surgery. Unfortunately, my pain wasn't well controlled most of the time until I started the oral pain meds. I am not sure my IV was quite in my arm right. My arm is still tender and bruised but getting better. I am trying to make it on tylonel instead of the pain meds because of the problems narcotics cause. Overall though, it wasn't terrible pain-wise following the surgery though getting all the fluids down was difficult. I was able to go home on Wednesday which was good for both me and my husband. I learned some things through this process including:

1. Sneezing sucks - big time
2. It's really hard me to sleep on my back
3. My husband is amazing
4. Projectile vomiting sucks (specially when it is milk)

More to be added as I think about it....

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Liquid Diet

Yesterday I began the 2 week liquid/pureed diet that leads up to surgery. It's hard to believe that I am almost finally there! This has been quite a year getting all this figured out. Yesterday was a rough day and I spent most of it grossed out by the pureed food and hungry too. I have to alternate between 1200 and 800 calories each day so I anticipate hunger being a pretty common theme the next two weeks. I know my body will also start to detox from sugar which I know is unpleasant (from what I have read anyways). I am doing a decent job of getting in plenty of water, evidenced by having to get up twice last night to go to the bathroom. Bringing my own ice to work helps since the ice machine is broken. My water has to be ice cold or I don't like to drink it as much.

My main hope is that I can stick with this and that it will do the job it is supposed to - shrink my liver and help me lose more weight before surgery.

I attended my pre-op appointment on October 20th which consisted of getting labs run, weighing-in, meeting with the nurse, a dietary group, meeting with the nurse practitioner, and meeting with the surgeon. After I did all that, I met with anesthesiology to get cleared by them for surgery as well. I was up there from 9am til about 2pm. Thankfully I had taken some breakfast muffins I had baked that are both filling and healthy. The ARNP was proud of me because I hadn't gained any weight and had actually lost weight before the pre-op. Apparently, many people gain back a little before pre-op because they are "saying goodbye" to all their favorite foods. I would have been mortified and too anxious to have risked gaining weight right before surgery!

So, I just have to get through the next 14 days and surgery day will be there. I could have waited until today to get started but I thought that it would be better to start on a Monday officially. I have done a good job so far of prepping everything the night before. I usually have trouble on weekends so I will have to work extra hard to stay on track. I know I can do it though!

preparation

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Surgery is set!

The surgeon called me last Thursday (you read that right, the actual surgeon who will be operating on me!) to set up an operation date. So his first available date was Nov 8th which I took as he only does surgeries on Tuesdays apparently. My pre-op appointment is October 21st so I will find out more about what I have to do pre-surgery and post-surgery and all that jazz. I was initially really nervous but am now getting excited and looking forward to the changes that will be happening with my body. Looking forward to less pain!

surgery

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Approved!

I had an appointment in Iowa City on Friday, September 9th to meet with the dietitian and the doctor/PA/nurse. I also had some blood work done though this is just the beginning I believe of all the bodily fluids I will give them.

Met with the dietitian first and she cleared me for surgery for her part. I know I need to exercise more but they also need to understand how much pain that causes me if I over-do it. It's a very fine balance that I am still working out. Diet-wise I have been doing okay and the weight loss proves it I think.

Met with the PA and with the doc briefly. They have no concerns except they have to get the rest of the records from my doc so the insurance will clear me for surgery.

Nurse asked me questions about anesthesiology and then took some blood.

I called the doctor's office after I left and they re-sent the records. Called today and they were received. Paperwork person said she would probably have the information sent to the insurance tomorrow and then the insurance has 15 days to reply. After that they will call me to set up a surgery date and then it really gets real! I will have a pre-op appointment where I will do more lab work, meet with the doctors, and all that good stuff. Looking forward to taking this step in my life!

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Delayed

I had what I thought was going to be my last weigh-in today. Fortunately/unfortunately, I have been honest with the dietitian about my exercise, or lack thereof. So I have to attend another appointment in Iowa City with her and with the doctor after proving that I will exercise regularly. I hate exercise - it makes me hurt, and it makes me sweat a lot. It takes my body so long to cool down after that I have to schedule like two hours aside for a 30 minute exercise. Otherwise, showering makes no difference. And we all know what getting overheated does to the MS body. I don't blame her for delaying me but it just sucks. Guess this is the part where I suck it up and just do it. With things so unsettled in my life right now, I am worried about having to wait on the surgery. The stress levels have not been pretty.

So now I just have to wait for the scheduler to call me and to set aside a whole day to go to Iowa City for an appointment. Good thing I have plenty of vacation time right now.

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Turtle

Feeling like a turtle at this point. But I am all about the instant gratification so I guess that's okay. I lost 2.6lbs this month which is pretty decent. Doc started me on phentermine last month to help curb appetite. I got incredibly tired the first day I took it. After that, the sleepiness wore off more. It has helped with my appetite so I am eating less and being able to recognize when I am full. That is my hardest problem - recognizing when I am full. So I am going to be a turtle and be content with it....

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Food Poisoning

After having a wonderful weekend with my husband where we were able to get out of town, stay in a hotel, go to dinner and a movie in Quincy - I got to come home and be sick. I think it was from leaving leftover food from Applebees in my truck while we visited my grandma in the nursing home. All I know is after eating said leftovers, I started feeling really unwell and ended up with vomiting and diarrhea that evening and into the next day. Even two days later my stomach is still pretty tender and I am hurting from throwing up. Sure makes the diet easy though - I don't want to eat anything!

sick

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2nd Weigh-in

Met with my doc for my second weigh-in today. This month has not gone well and I was nearly positive that I had gained all the weight back that I had already lost. Well low and behold I didn't which really blows my mind. I made terrible choices but apparently not terrible enough (thankfully). So I only lost 1.2 lbs but that is more than nothing. My doc also suffers from a chronic illness so he understands how difficult it can be to be on a one-size-fits-all diet plan when you really don't fit in the box. He thinks the diet is pretty restrictive given my health concerns and is going to tell them so. I feel a lot better after talking to him and feel like maybe I can get this figured out after all. So, two months down, three to go! 

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Teeth!

Throughout my life, I have had problem with my teeth. Health-wise they have been pretty good but started out very crooked, as a result of sucking on my pinkey finger (hey, we all have our things). I also had what are called "peg laterals" which are the teeth next to the front two top teeth that don't become the proper size so they look like pegs. Braces took care of the crookedness but the small teeth were never really fixed correctly (bonded to be bigger but not big enough to look right). So yesterday, my dentist fixed this up for me finally. Insurance covered 80% like they would a filling, which is essentially what they did. I am so completely happy with the results! Here are some before and after pics of my smile.

This is a before picture - as you can see, teeth are nice and straight thanks to braces in high school. But the two teeth lateral to the front two are smaller and look a little crooked due to chipping over the years. The two front teeth are also flatter from being worn down (probably from biting my nails). You can also see the scar on my bottom lip from falling up the stairs when I was 3 and getting stitches.

This is the after picture - the teeth are now taller and more in size with the surrounding teeth. The front two were also rounded a little to take off sharp edges and give a more feminine look. 

teeth

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First Weigh-In!!

I went to the doc's office today and did my first official weigh-in with the nurse and the dietitian from Iowa City. I am officially down 12lbs! I am pretty happy with this number, especially since it took a couple of weeks for my body to actually start losing. I was afraid I was in a plateau before I even got started. My next weigh-in will be May 24th with my doctor. Hopefully I can keep up this momentum!

weight loss

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Exercise

So part of the diet plan is supposed to include exercise, at least 30 minutes a day. I won't lie, I have been slacking. It's hard to do something when you know it's going to hurt like heck during and after. I desperately need a new pair of tennis shoes (this weekend I hope) because the ones I have now cause me great agony. My left heel is especially sore, though I don't know why (beyond the obvious reasons). And I hate walking in the evenings when my shows are on and I have to worry about getting dinner cooked.

So at the store the other day, I had a great epiphany that maybe I could take my lunch to work and walk either before or after I ate, depending on how I felt. So I got myself a cute little lunch bag and have done so for the past two days. I only live about 8 blocks from home so I usually go home for lunch. However, there is a lot of lost time in the going back and forth it seems. So yesterday I ate my lunch and then took a walk as far as I felt capable afterwards. I only made it around two full blocks and 11 minutes worth. My feet and legs were killing me and cramping up. I didn't know if I would be able to do it again today. But I brought my stuff to work (lunch, socks, crappy tennis shoes, deodorant, and body spray) just in case. My whole morning crapped out on me so I took a walk at about 11:15am. The same distance took me 12 minutes today but I was walking a little slower and more carefully due to my feet hurting so badly. But I made it and feel considerably better for having done it. I plan on continuing.

Bad points: my feet are killing me - especially my left heel!

Good points: I feel good otherwise and it seems to have helped the constipation issues occurring due to the diet changes. Good outweighs the bad here I think.

exercise

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DUH - AKA PCOS

I was diagnosed in 2004 with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. If you don't know what this is, click on the link at the bottom of my blog and educate yourself. Once I started using birth control (in an attempt to deal with mind crushing cramps), I started gaining weight. I haven't always been overweight, just since college really.

I was having a rough time of it last week because the scale wasn't really moving. Well, duh me, realized that I hadn't started on my new birth control after my last cycle. The PCOS seems to respond well to the hormones in the Nuvaring and doesn't behave itself when I don't have it in. I knew that losing the weight with the PCOS was going to be hard but good golly! So here's hoping that with the Nuvaring back in, everything will start moving in the right direction.

stuck

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Scales/One week down!

I realized yesterday that neither the old scale at home or the new one my husband bought is going to weigh me correctly when I have to do the telehealth weigh-in. My guess is that it doesn't have the surface space available for me to stand on correctly to get an accurate weight. What a pain in the butt! So I think my plan is to call my doc's office and see if I can do my telehealth appointment there so I can just weigh-in on their scale. That will give continuity throughout anyways and shouldn't be too difficult to pull off.

I have one week down and lots to go in this process. I guess I should keep track of that so I can know I am getting close to that date. As much as I don't want this year to run away without me, I do want to already be at the end of this! I feel like I did moderately well this week. I had a rough day the first evening trying to figure out what to eat and what to cook etc. I hope I don't get tired of chicken because that is what the next six months is going to look like. We did have thin pork chops one night and those were good in the NewWave oven. Unfortunately, carrots are the only vegetable that I care for so I have had a lot of carrots this past week. I need to try to venture out a little bit in this situation. But it surely does simplify things in that I don't spend much time on meal prep or cooking and I have been feeling better. I have no idea if I have lost much weight since I don't have a decent read on it yet. Perhaps I will drop by the doc's office later this week and see how it is going. I am trying not to set myself up to fail and I am kind of glad my scales suck because it means I have to stay off of them and just rely on eating the proper foods.

weight loss

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New patient

On Good Friday I had my first doctor's appointment with the bariatric team at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. It started at 7:30am and after an 11am appointment with the registered dietitian, it was over. That was a long morning! But I think the team was impressed with the amount of research I have completed on my own as nothing they told me was much of a surprise. They were in agreement that the laproscopic sleeve gastrectomy would be the best option for me due to my health issues (specifically the multiple sclerosis).

I am working on the diet plan and doing okay so far. Fruits and vegetables make my eyes and mouth itch, and sometimes my throat. This is apparently related to a cross pollination issue where the bees who pollinate plants/trees I am allergic to also pollinate growing things that I am not allergic to. So about 20 minutes of itching and I am back to normal again. It's not too bad. I have already seen the scale move though this is not official so I am not going to record it at this point.

All in all, I am on the right path to making myself healthier. Just gotta keep it up!

patient

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Inside-Outside

As I was trying to think of a name for this blog, my favorite Bible verse went through my head which is listed at the top of this blog. "If anyone is in Christ, he/she is a new creation. Behold, the old has gone away, the new has come!"  It really fit for what I am going to try to accomplish, becoming a whole new person. Usually I consider this verse to speak more of the transformation of the spirit and soul of a person when they accept salvation through Jesus Christ. That transformation has already happened for me. It reformed my soul (ask me about my salvation story sometime).

However, this current transformation will also require me leaning heavily on God as I figure out how to make the outside match the inside. 

new creation

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Preparation

I meet with the surgeon at the University of Iowa on Good Friday, March 25th. I am not sure yet what all this meeting will entail but I assume it consists of my fit for surgery and what will be expected of me prior and post surgery.

I met with my primary care physician and discussed the surgery possibilities with him. He feels like the combination of my age and diagnosis makes this an ideal time to take a big step like this towards getting healthy. I am glad to have his support.

I feel like this is my chance to get my life back...finally.

preparation

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