Tagged

Well I don't have 6 people to send this on to but I can still write the 6 things about myself.

1. I hate to make my bed. I think that it is such a waste of time.

2. I want to quit work and become a stay at home mom. (maybe some day)

3. I love to read and go to the movies.

4. I collect snowmen and love to get them all out in the winter time.

5. I do not like to clean and any time I can get my husband to do it the better.

6. I love to cook and watch the food network channel and find new good receipes.

Long time no see

Well you know it is bad when your brother in-law calls you up and asks why you have updated your blog. I am finding that it is hard to get to the computer and take the time to write a post.

But I am doing good, a couple of weeks ago I wasn't doing so good though. All most every meal I had which was only about 1/4 cup would come right back up an hour or 2 later. Now this was good for weight loss and got me to 43 LBS lost, but I felt horrible. I got to the point that water would not even stay down. So I called my doctors office and they told me I had to go to the hospital and have a different doctor then my own doctor put a scope down my throat so that they could see what was going on. Well the opening to my intestine was to small and food could not get down it. So the doctor (my doctor was out of town) cleaned out my stomach and made the opening bigger and I am doing so much better.

But now I have hit a stopping block, in the past two weeks I have not lost any weight. But I started a new birth control pill and it is making me retain a lot of water. I also lost so much weight so fast I don't know if my body is just taking a break trying to catch up the the weight I lost. For now it sure is nice to have my wardrobe expand again to all the things I grew out of.

My biggest problem now is trying to get enough protein in during the day. Most protein around I hate, hate, hate. But I just found a new pre-made protein shake made by Boost and it is not to bad so I have been having that for breakfast. If I don't get enough protein in I am in danger of loosing my hair, and I do not want that to happen.

Starting to see results!!

Well tomorrow will be my 2 week anniversary for my surgery. These past two weeks have not been the easiest but have not been as bad as I thought they were going to be. I am still on soft foods; jello, mashed potatoes, pudding, cottage cheese, apple sauce, re fried beans, and Cheerios's. I am very tired of soft food and just want something that I can really bite into. But I am seeing some great results, on Saturday I weighed myself and I am down 20 lbs. I have never had that kind of success before. I can't help but smile after I see those numbers on the scale. My family said that they can start to see results and say that I am looking thinner in the face. I will try and up date this post and a few older posts to add some pictures that I have taken along the way.

I have been doing pretty good at home, the first week I was home I had to stop half way up or down the stairs because it was to much for me. But now I have been able to go up and down stairs without stopping just not very fast. I did not think that I would be physically winded just because of the surgery but I was. Well like I said I have been doing so good so I thought I would go shopping with my sister (Laura) to Jo Ann's to get some stuff for our postcard project that we were going to do.

So of course Jo Ann's was having a great sell on fabric and other things so we had to walk back and forth to make sure we say everything. Then we decided that we needed to go to Walmart also. Half way thru Walmart I was not feeling so good. By the time we got out of Walmart I was sweating up a storm. So even though I am feeling pretty darn good I think I will have to cut back on my shopping trips.

After surgery.

I made it thru surgery!!! Now is the hard part. My mom and two of my sisters, Laura and Holly, came to visit me in the hospital after my surgery. I don't know how far out of surgery I was but I was having a hard time paying attention to them. They brought me flowers and cards but Scott had to read them to me. I did not hurt as bad as I thought I was going to. But they also gave me a magic button that I got to press every 10 minutes to make sure I did not hurt that bad. I was really kind of out of out but Scott was there for me the whole time. I had a great nurse that was so nice and helping me out but then she had to go. My next nurse was not the same, she was OK but not very friendly. That night I had to get up and go pee 3 times. The first time was not fun at all but it got a little better every time. I ended up in the renal care unit for some reason so I got a funky hospital room. I did not have my own bathroom, I had a room that I say was the RV room. My toilet just pulled out from under the sink and all I had was a curtain to pull out to give me privacy.

But other than that everything has gone pretty good, and know that I have a bit of recovery ahead of me.

The day of Surgery.

Yesterday was one of the worst days I think I have ever had to go thru. Two words "bowel prep". I think that that experience is horrible, at noon you have to start drinking this stuff, 2 bottles, within an hour. The bottle says it has a "pleasing lemony taste", I don't know who thought it would be good to say that but I think that who ever wrote it should drink that stuff and see if it is pleasing to them and they would rethink that product label. ( I have to admit I did not got all of the second bottle down, I could not take anymore I had to throw it in the sink)

Then you get to take some lovely pills to make sure that the liquid you drank did not miss anything in you system.

Later that night my dad and my husband Scott gave me a priesthood blessing that I am so grateful for. They blessed me that I would get thru the surgery OK and that this whole process would be a success and that I might be able to have children one day because it was a righteous desire and not a selfish desire. Maybe one day soon this blessing will come pass.

So now is the day of my surgery. I have been kind of scared but haven't said to much because I didn't want to so fear, but I have had a small fear that I will not wake up from surgery. There are so many people who have this surgery and do great but you just don't want to be that 1 % that does not do good. But I health is getting worse and worse so my life would not be any better if I do not get this taken care of. It seems like no matter what time you get to the hospital you always have to wait. My doctor's office told me after several time changes that I would have my surgery at 9am, which I was not looking forward to very much because that meant I had to get there at 7am and since I live an hour away from the hospital leave at 6am. I am not a morning person, my family use to joke around that I was really a mole person in the morning because I don't like light or noise and don't want anyone to talk to me. Well I am not that bad anymore but I still do not like mornings!!

Well we made it to the hospital at 7:30am and around 8am they took me back to the pre-op area to get ready for surgery. And wu-hu, I lost another pound, they weighed me got the compression stockings on put my IV in and then layed the news on me, my surgery had been moved back to 12 noon. I got up that early for nothing!!!!

I was then taken to a holding cell ( = D ) to wait my turn. At 12:30 my doctor came in made sure everything was OK and said a little prayer with me and Scott and let me know it was time to go. I said my goodbyes to Scott hoping that it would not be the last time I saw him and was taken back to my surgery room.

Getting ready for surgery.

So to get ready for my surgery I have to go on an Atkins diet. Which means no carbs, I hate this one of the reason's I have a weight problem is my love of carbs. But my doctor wants me to lose some weigh before I go thru with my surgery.

The first night that I can not have any carbs some girl who was over to our house for dinner thought she was going to be funny and make a joke that the muffins my mom made were so good and she just wanted me to know that. Well needless to she I wanted to let her know where she could go but held my tongue, Scott glared at her for me. Just have to love my husband he is there for me and love me and stick up for me always when I need him to be.

I did great on the diet for most of the week but I have to admit I finally broke down and had a sandwich I could not help it. But I think I still lost 6lbs before the surgery when Scott and I did our before pictures and before weight.

I've been approved!!!

So yesterday I got the magic call, around 9am my doctors office called and said "is Wednesday October 10th a good day for your surgery?" I almost did not know what to say, in my mind I was thinking did I even get approved? My next thought was, Duh!! do you even have to ask any day that you have I will take. They also asked me if I could come in that day to go over somethings. So I had to tell work again that I would have to be gone most of the day, but at this point if they have a problem with how much I am gone I would rather find another job than postpone this for them.

My doctor that is going to do the surgery is the best. He is so kind and treats you like a normal person not just this overweight thing like other doctors do. Dr Todd is not LDS but is very religious and before we left he had a prayer with us so that the surgery would go good.

I can hardly wait for this life change. The next 30 days are going to be very challenging but oh so worth it. I have had to start a pre-surgery diet to get my liver ready for the surgery and let me just tell you it sucks! I basically have to do an Atkins diet all protein and no carbohydrates and I am still hungry like a fat person. I know I should be scared of the surgery because it is major surgery but I am not I just can't wait to have it.

Ipod

Yeah, I finally have entered mainstream and bought an Ipod. I bought the new Nano Ipod, that is square, in black.

At work all day I mostly do data entry to bill out ambulance transports so music is kind of important if you want the day to go by fast. Before I just listen to the radio but the only channel that I could get was called the Valley station. We live an hour outside of Anchorage so the valley just listens to Anchorage radio stations. But the Valley does have it's own station that plays a mixture of everything. So you get a lot of songs you don't like. I moved to a different desk at work and the one station that I got I could not make come in very good anymore. So my 8 hour day felt like a 20 hour day.

We I plugged my Ipod into my parents computer to set it up the Ipod pulls all of the music you have on the computer. Well my dad is a big have of OLD COUNTRY and he had about 180 old country songs on there. I had to let the Ipod pull them in before I could delete them. So then the next day at work I was all ready to listen to my Ipod I found a few songs that I had missed from my dad's collection. Oh well, at least I can still delete them off.

Doctors

Have you ever just been so mad at your doctor and think then and there that you do not want to go back, but you stick out the appointment so that they will do what you want.

Man I had my monthly doctor appoint to follow up with my doctor supervised diet until the insurance company approves my surgery on Tuesday. I was so mad at him by the time I got out of there I could have just scream at him. My normal doctor that I liked a lot was going to have his first grand baby so he decided to move to the lower 48 to be close to the baby. Well that doesn't help me because I am still in the middle of the process trying to get the surgery. But I go to a family clinic so I think I will just make an appointment with a doctor that I saw maybe twice before I started this process. Well he was a jerk!!! He is one of those doctors that thinks I should be able to do this on my own. He told me that I am like "a smoker who smokes 2 packs a day and if you take away there cigarettes it does not solve the problem". And told me that I need to see a shrink because I have problems and they won't be solved with the surgery and that there are so many people who have the surgery and gain all the weight back. And the surgery is not going to be fun.

For one he is not my surgeon and if he was I would go to someone different, but he does not know me or why I am having the surgery, but talk about trying to make me fail. That is what it felt like he was just trying to bring me down.

So I bit my tongue so that he would finish the appointment and fill out the paperwork I need from a doctor for my September appointment. I am not going to jump thru all the hoops that I have to let some pompous doctor ruin it for me.

Cards

I went with my sister and mom to a Stampin Up party today. It was called 10-10-10, you make 10 cards at 10 minutes a piece for $10. This is right up my alley because I am not very creative but can copy real good. So I can take the examples that we have to follow and sometimes make them a little better (not often). We got to make a variety of different cards not just fall cards which made it nice.

It was so funny though a lot of people from the ward were there and most of them know our family because my dad was the bishop for a while. Anyways one lady was asking about my other sister Laura and why she wasn't there because she is so, then she stopped herself and you could tell she was going to say creative so she added well you all are creative also. My mom, sister, and I just laughed and told her we know that Laura is the creative one in the family. Once I figure it out I will post some pictures of the cards we made.

All clear....

Well I got the call and I have been cleared for surgery. yea!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sometimes felt I would never get to this point. Now is the hard part I have to wait for the insurance company to authorize the surgery so that I can have it. And I know what you are thinking because I thought the same thing I have had to go thru all of those appointments and spend quite a bit of money and I don't even know if I can have the surgery yet.

Now I just have to go thru the waiting game.

Dr. Todd's office....

My first appointment with Dr. Todd was 7/11/07 finally I was a step closer to having the surgery. The first thing that they do is take your picture from the front and the side. (what fat girl wants there picture taken) Then you have to fill out a survey that is very embarrassing but you want to be honest so that you won't get turned down for the surgery. Like how often do you get short of breath, how do you do in public situations, and some things I wont even tell my husband.

I was weighed, and they went over everything that was wrong with me. Dr. Todd was very nice though and knew that I want children, so he told me about other women who were in my same boat and how they had success and were able to get pregnant. And he said he wanted to do whatever it took to help me get the surgery. Then he gave me the list of all the test I had to do to get cleared for surgery.

- chest X-ray
- upper GI
- lab work (like 8 tubes of blood)
- abdomen ultrasound
- EKG
- treadmill stress test
- sleep test
- psych eval
- meet with a nutritionist
- pulmonary test

- last thing was to see Dr. Lucht to get "cleared" for surgery

The first step....

One of the first things I had to do was a 6 month doctor supervised diet. Back in November I went to my doctor and told him I wanted to start the process because my insurance requires a 6 month doctor supervised diet. So he wasn't real supportive at first he was just said "what do you want me to do". In my head I felt like screaming I want you to do what ever it takes so that I can get this surgery.

Well he did not tell me I had to come in every month, I think because he did not take me seriously, so I did not come back in until February 2007. Which meant I had to start the 6 month doctor supervised diet from then not November.

Still some how I missed April so I might have to do 6 months from May on I am not sure how strict the Insurance company will be. So basically I live at the doctors office. Once I got 5 months into the supervised diet my doctor refered me to Dr. Todd in Anchorage who will be the one to do my surgery.

The start of my journey...

Well like others I started this blog because of my sister. I did not think that I had enough going on in my life because I don't have any kids yet, and I did not feel I would be very interesting. I love looking at many different blogs to see the challenge that women go raising kids and maintaining there home and job.

But then my sister thought that it would be good if I blogged about my process of going thru gastric bypass surgery. She thought that some people out there might want to hear about it. I started this process almost a year ago with my doctor. Let me back track even further, I have been overweight most of my life. I know that I missed out on some normal high school milestones that most kids go thru, but I was probably a better kid because I was out of the mainstream. As I grew up the only thing I have ever wanted to do was get married and become a mom. I know a total step back from women's lib, but that is what I wanted. I got out of high school and meet my first husband. I had a very bad first marriage that only lasted a year and we didn't have any kids. (I thought I was just lucky)

Then several years later I met a wonderful man that I am married to today. So I thought now is the time we can start to have children. Long story Long, I went to the doctor and I have something called PCOS Poly cystic ovarian syndrome. Some of the things that PCOS does is make you gain weight, thin hair, facial hair, skin tags and basically everything a woman doesn't want to have a problem with. It also makes it very hard to have kids especially if you are over weight.

So that is it that is one of the main reasons I am going to have the gastric bypass surgery, I want children oh so very bad.