3 weeks post-op update

33 lbs lost in 3 weeks!!!!!! HOW BOUT THEM WEIGHT LOSING APPLES?!?!!? If you can't tell...I'm SUPER excited!!!!!!!! I'm only 3 weeks post-op today and down 33 lbs and that is the most i've EVER lost in that short period of time...well aside from being pregnant with twins! Thank you family and friends for ALL your support. You are the best people ever and you know who you are!!!

The banana thing was true!

Holy crap! The banana thing was true!! I didn't eat bananas at all yesterday and low and behold I woke up this morning and weighed myself and I lost more weight overnight! I really didn't think bananas would have such an effect on me but I guess I can't really have bananas until I'm done losing all the weight I want to lose. Right now, it's just a hindrance. It's all a learning process and I learn something knew every single day.

Acceptance...written by Chelle’s co-worker Lexce

There's a homeless man that resides behind a building next to the building I work in, so we see him quite frequently and i've usually always been the person to not really care about the homeless because I have always figured that there was something that they did to get themselves that way and well today I have learned this man's story and I want to share it with yall. His name is Daniel McCormick, he is probably about 6 ft., he has the most beautiful blue eyes that I have ever seen on a human being, sandy blonde hair and a graying beard. A couple of girls that I work with and I have been trying to help this man as much as we can. Just about every night he comes up to our work and digs through the ash trays outside looking for any cigarrette butts he can find and if we happen to be out there when he comes by, we offer him a couple of cigarrettes and he tells us how wonderful we are and how grateful he is and ALWAYS says, " God bless you." Well, we have since decided to try and get some clothing and numerous neccesaties togethr to give to this man and just Wednesday, Mechelle finally got to give him the beanie she had been trying to give him for about a week now, but he hadn't come around, well come to find out, he had been arrested for public intoxication when he literally had only had 2 beers. After he had been arrested and booked, he then got pepper sprayed directly in his eyes and i'll tell you what, I have never seen any person's eyes as red and swollen as I saw his. After he was released he then carried on about his way as usual. Everyday he will go and dig through trash cans to try and find aluminum cans to sell just so he can eat. Just recently someone robbed him of his clothes, sleeping bag and wallet including his ID. He can no longer get a job without his ID and he cannot get another ID because he cannot get the money to pay for a replacement. Today Mechelle gave him one of her husband's hunting type jackets because as you all know, it's getting cold outside and anyday now it'll be freezing, so she brought that for him and we are going to try and get him a backpack to carry his stuff in so he doesn't have to find hiding spots anymore. We are also going to get him soem stuff like socks, shoes, toothbrush, etc., just neccasary things. We don't plan on spending a fortune ont his man, but just simple blessings. I am at work now and just came back in from taking a smoke break and Daniel was outside when I went out there so like usual we sat and talked while we smoked and I asked him how he got to be homeless, which may have been an inappropriate thing to do, but you all know me and i'm not the most appropriate person and plus I just wanted to know, so he proceeded to tell me his story. . .He is 51 years old, he served in the vietnam war and returned home when he was 21, the same age as me, he then told me how proud he was when he came home, he had something to hold his head up high for and, like anyone, he expected to be praised for his courage when he returned, but instead, he says that when he and his fellow soldiers arrived at the bay they say nothing but protesters and instead of being praised, they were spit on for fighting for those peoples freedom. I believe that while he was away serving our country, his first son was born, Raymond, who he calls R Dub, after his arrival home he and his wife had their second child, a girl, Crystal Star, whom he proudly named. He said that she had the most beautiful golden blonde locks that he had ever seen on a baby. By this time he and his wife succesfully gained 5 acres of land, a 3 bedroom home with a garage that he remodeled into an apartment years later for his child to come. He once had a typical American family. He had an old Harley that he had been working on for quite some time and from the way he spoke about it, it was his prized possesion. Daniel and his wife later had their 3rd and last child together, Jesse. Shortly after Jesse was born, Daniel came home to catch his wife cheating on him with her boyfriend, so he left her. When it came time for divorce court, Daniel lost everything, as he stated, " I did'nt stand a chance. " After court was over, the police escorted Daniel back to his beloved home only for him to leave with his sea bag full of clothing that she, his now ex-wife, would let him take and his Harley, which was never finished, so there he was, pushing his Harley with his bag on top, down the road to no where. That's how he lost everything. He told me that he used to work over on the shore and that he was doing pretty good then until they caught him drinkin, he then proceeded to tell me, " Oh well, it's my fault. Sometimes you just make decisions that you have to live with. " As I sat and watched this man speak of so much wisdom, I couldn't help but think of all of the things that I could lose. We all take for granted, everyday, the blessings that we have in our lives. We have roofs over head's, food in our belly's and, on top of that, we have loving people on our lives that are standing behind us just in case we fall back. Daniel's children are now 32, 31 and 20. They all reside in Arizona and have children of their own now. The one thing in my life that I can count on to never change, is the love that i have for my son. Laken is more than i could ever ask for in a child. Yes, there has been many very hard times since I have brought him into this hellish world and i'm sure there will be many more to come, but I would never change it. For those of you that don't have your children, I don't know how you do it. Laken is my best friend, my baby, my comfort, my stress, my love and most of all my world. I know that alot of us act a little crazy sometimes, especially the females with raging hormones ( all of us ), but to all of those that stick through the crazy times, the husband's, the best friends, the mom's and dad's, sisters, brothers, and even the kids, I thank you. You may not have done it for me, but i'm sure you've done it for someone and you deserve to be told thank you. We all have our own problems, but it's really nice when you can out your own problems aside for a little bit to help out someone else with their problems. Sometimes it's really hard for us to help eachother or be there for eachother whenever there is anger, hatred, sadness, guilt, etc. that we have for the other person, but if you all would just remember that if you didn't care about that person, then you wouldn't be so upset with them for whatever reason. This man has accepted the fact that he has nothing and it will probably be that way until he dies. He understands that and he's ok and after everything he has gone through, all the loss, the disappiontment, he still has his faith. Me personally, has lost my faith before and blamed the Lord for the things that were happening in my life, but I realized that those things were not caused by him, they were caused by the choices that we make in life. I have now caught myself slipping back again, asking the Lord, why, why this way, why now, as if it is his fault, but I was the one that made the decisions that I made, no one else but me, so now, I have to accept the facts and move forward to the best of my ability. That's not what I want to do, but I have to. I have always refused to be another statistic and that's what i'm afraid of being, but I refuse! i have to keep pushing forward even if it is hopeless. I have accepted that I have made some very poor choices in life and i accept that i am the only person that can change that. We all need to accept the paths that we have chosen to life and stop pushing the blame on someone else.

Love is not a loss. You are not fighting a losing battle. If you love something, once loved something, or believe you could love something, then fight for it. Do not give up on love and NEVER give up on yourself because if you give up on yourself so will everyone else.

NO more bananas

UGH!!!!!!!!! NO WONDER!!!!!!! Ok as many of you know I had gastric bypass surgery on October 30th...exactly two weeks ago. Within the first week I lost almost 20 lbs and after that I haven't lost hardly any at all! Well I was reading this artical on bariatriceating.com that said:

"I have noticed that many people add ½ of a banana or even worse a whole banana to a shake. Keep in mind that bananas and many other fruit are high in fructose, which is another name for sugar, and will stall or slow down your weight loss. Bananas also make many people sick from the high concentration of sugar and carbs. Even a medium banana can have 30 grams of carbohydrate. Use a small piece of banana no more than 1-2 inches, to flavor a drink. Or use DaVinci Sugar Free Banana syrup instead!"

Well, needless to say, I've been eating ALOT of bananas lately. I guess I'm not going to be eating those anymore. LOL!!!

Home from the hospital

Well we got to the hospital at 5 am and they took vitals and preop pictures. They called us back to pre op holding around 6 where I had to get into my fasionable gown and clot preventing stockings, got my IV set up. After I got my IV in I got a sedative shot to calm my nerves. Me and my husband said a prayer together, I gave him a hug and kiss and I was off to the OR. The last thing I remember was getting 1 more sedative shot and the gas mask and I was out. The surgeon told my husband that the surgery was a "piece of cake." The next thing I remember was being in anesthesia recovery where they put on my CPAP because I wasnt breathing right. I got to my room around 11 o'clock where I got my "happy" button. My mom, husband, mother in law, and my kids came to see me in my room. Later I asked for some pain medicine because the morphine was just knocking me out not helping with the pain so I got liquid loritab in addition to the morphine. Talk about being messssssed up...I was loopy and out of it. I couldnt eat much but I ate some broth and the nasty yellow jello. I could have all the water, decaf tea, and crystal light that my stomach would allow. Throughout the evening five of my close friends came to visit me. I tried to stay awake and talk to them but I would nod off in the middle of conversations and then come back to...that was pretty funny. Through out the night I woke up about every hour or two. My doctor came to see me around 3 o'clock and I was released about 4 o'clock. My dad picked me up in his truck and I cried most of the way home. I had a pillow to help my stomach but it didn't work as well as I thought it would because every time he hit a bump it hurt bad enough for me to cry. For the rest of the night I took it easy. My mother in law set up the bed with a bunch of pillows so I could lay reclined and I went to test it out and fell asleep. I only woke up once at 2:47 am and my husband helped me get out of bed and to the bathroom and then helped me with my pants. Then I went back to bed and took some liquid Loritab and some water and I went back to sleep until about 7:45 am. I started me vitamin and pepcid and lovenox regiment. Thats about it I will blog some more later its hard to sit at this computer.

Tomorrow’s the big day

Well tomorrow is the big day. I can't believe it. How fast it got here. REALLY!! OMG! I have to be at the hospital at 5:00 in the morning and surgery starts around 7:00 a.m. I am starting to get a little nervous, anxious, scared, and most of all excited! I think this is only going to get more and more so as the day goes on and into the night. Hopefully, I will be able to get a good nights sleep. There will be alot going on through my head like last night. I slept about 5 hours last night. And since I am not supposed to have caffeine on this liquid diet, I am pretty tired right now so I am probably going to fall asleep pretty easily tonight. I still need to go have my prescriptions filled, get my overnight bag ready, and put my nausea patches on tonight. My husband will be at the hospital with me and then family and friends will come and visit me after I get out of anesthesia recovery. I am looking forward to this. It's going to be hard...very hard but I'm willing to make this change for the rest of my life. I'M READY FOR THIS! Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I go through this surgery tomorrow. Thank you everyone for all your support!!

Saw V

Ok so I've seen ALL the Saw movies before this one and they were all good. This one didn't disappoint! I'm not going to tell the movie but you gotta see it and if you haven't seen the previous ones...go rent them!!

Liquid Diet

I was supposed to start my liquid diet Friday and I did really good until I saw my leftovers in the refrigerator from Taste of Italy. MMMM That is the best italian restaurant ever!! So halfway through the day I gave in and ate my leftovers. I decided I was going to eat whatever I wanted for the rest of the day and start my liquid diet Saturday. I had steak, scalloped potatoes, fried squash, and baked beans. It was divine!! How's that for a last meal? HAHAHA So anyways, Saturday I went and bought alot more slimfasts, broths, sugar free jello, and I have enough sugar free popsicles and crystal light stuff already. I stuck to the liquid diet the whole day yesterday despite all the good food I cooked for my family. Then today I made sausage, bacon, eggs, and pancakes for my family for breakfast and of course, I got a high protein slim fast shake and jello. YAY ME!!! I have my eye on the prize. It's all worth it. I CAN DO THIS!!!!

update!

Ok I went to my surgeon's office today to get a sonogram on my gallbladder to check for stones and my legs to check for clots in my veins. She looked at my gallbladder and told my I do have stones and that she would give me a prescription to dissolve them. Then she looked at my liver and told me I have a moderately fatty liver. She said the liquid diet will shrink my liver down to mildly fatty and reduce the size of it to make surgery go a lot easier. Then she did a sonogram on my legs. I have no clots in my legs but the cool thing was that she said I have very muscular legs in which most people who know me know I do. I guess it is first from years of playing softball and then being fat and carrying this weight. After seeing the sonographer, I went to see the dietitian. She gave me my two week liquid diet list. Breakfast: high protein slim fast, snack: high protein slim fast, lunch: high protein slim fast, snack: high protein slim fast, dinner: high protein slim fast, snack: 1 cup of broth (chicken, beef, or vegetable). Then in between I can have all the crystal light, water, broth, sugar free jello, sugar free popsicles, and other non-carbonated, decaffeinated, sugar free clear liquids. I start tomorrow. yay me!

I GOT A DATE!!!!!!!!!

OK so I found out my original surgeon was going to be on maternity leave when they called me to schedule my surgery so I asked them if I could have another surgeon do the surgery. They said yes that's no problem and that they could do it in as little as one or two weeks. Anyways, I went today to go meet with the other surgeon who happens to be the Director of the program. He has done over 2,500 surgeries and hasn't lost as patient to the surgery. I feel incredibly confident and safe with him doing my surgery. He isn't a man of many words but he says I am going to come through just fine. I don't have any real health issues except the sleep apnea. I going to do great!! I can't WAIT! OMG So after I met with him, I went to schedule the date. OCTOBER 30TH!!!! I am his first surgery of the day. I have to be there at 5 a.m. and my surgery is at 7 a.m. I go back to the doctor's office on Nov. 16th to see the dietician so she can tell me all that I can have on my pre-op liquid diet...yay. LOL! And then she is going to do a sonogram on my gallbladder to check for stones and doppler on my legs to check for clots. Then I go over to the hospital to pre-admit, get an EKG done, chest x-ray, and lab work (blood tests) done. So, wow, this is really happening. It's awesome!!

APPROVED!!!!!!

I GOT THE CALL!!!!!!!! They want to set up my surgery date! OMG I can't describe everything that was going on in my head at the time...anxiety, excitement, and scared. I couldn't process everything on the phone with the surgery scheduling lady. Well my surgeon is out on maternity leave and won't be back until November. Her partner can do my surgery and has done ALOT more than she has and has been doing it on his own longer too. So I asked them if he could do mine instead. They said yea. So on October 8th, I'm going to go meet Dr. Kuhn, decide whether I want him or Colleen Kennedy to do my surgery, pre-admit into the hospital, get a sonogram on my gallbladder, get checked for leg clots, and whatever else they want to do to me, AND schedule my date all on the same day! PHEW!! OMG it's going to be a hectic day on myself. LOL My biggest issue is I know there is a travel limit after surgery and I'm flying to California on Christmas Eve with my husband and four kids and I don't want any added stresses on my body than I'm already going to have. Heck...I don't even know if I'm going to be able to fly anyways. We'll see. I want to fly out there but this is more important to me. I can't believe it! It's here! It's SOOOO close it's SCARY!!! So depending on the surgeon I choose, my surgery is going to be close to the end of October or about mid November. All I have to do now is wait. *sighs* I know everything is going to be great BECAUSE I have the best support system and help line-up EVER!! My family and my bestest friends I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!! XOXO

Sleep study results

Well I went in for my sleep study results yesterday afternoon. What I found out was shocking. I have moderate to severe sleep apnea. I quit breathing 160 times in a matter of about 4 hours of sleep. I also woke up ALOT during the night. It mostly happened in REM sleep when I was dreaming. That was the first night that I slept there. The second night that I slept there I slept on the CPAP machine so they could compare results. I hardly quit breathing on it and I stayed asleep the whole time. They also did a test on my lungs to check them out and the doctor said my lungs look good actually! That was awesome to hear since I have been smoking for 12+ years or something like that. I was surprised! That was a good enough reason to quit smoking knowing I still have good lungs. Anyways, so they recommend that I sleep on a CPAP machine and at night and even during naps. I dont' have to but they recommend it. I have a friend who sleeps on it and she said she has unbelievable energy and said after a while you won't be able to sleep without it. I haven't done it yet but I guess I might as well. UGH! LOL The doctor said the sleep apnea should be gone by the time I lose a good amount of weight from the surgery. We'll see!!

Sleep study 2

Well last night at 9:30 I went in for my second and LAST sleep study. Everything was the same except for last night I had to sleep with a c pap machine (an oxygen machine / mask that sleep apnea people have to use). It's standard for all second nighters. I actually slept better the second night then I did the first night. I fell asleep earlier and without a sleeping pill this time. I did wake up around 3 or 4 (I guess...there are no clocks in the rooms) and I couldn't go back to sleep. All in all It wasn't to bad.

Sleep study 1

So I had my sleep study last night. "My" technician's name was Moe. He ROCKED! He was super sweet and took well care of me and he was only 20 years old! HAHAHA Anyways, I had wires coming off of me everywhere! My scalp had 4 wires stuck to it, one behind each ear, one on each temple, two on my chin, one on my throat, one on each collar bone, and a few on my legs. I also had some kinda strip stuck horizontally between my upper lip and my nose. I had little tubes in my nose and mouth to check whether I was breathing through my nose or mouth (I guess). Well, I WAS tired when I went in there but with little room to move and little metal things poking me in the head it was NOT easy falling asleep. I'm the kind of person that has to be COMPLETELY comfortable to fall asleep. Also I like it COLD when I sleep and I always sleep with my hair up because it makes my neck hot. It was NOT cold and my hair had to be down. UGH! I toss and turned til about midnight. Around 12:30 I called Moe in there and told him I just could not sleep at all! He said, "if you are not driving, I can give you a sleep aide". I'm like BRING IT ON!!! I was asleep within 30 mins or so. After about 4 hours asleep, the study was over. They woke me up at 5 am!! That totally sucked. I cherish my sleep and make sure MOST of the time that I get my 8 hours. LOL Oh well it wasn't as bad as I thought it was though. For my next one, I'm going to take a sleeping aide as soon as I get there!

Upper GI screening

I had my upper GI screening at the Baylor imaging center in Dallas. I was told not to eat, drink, smoke, or even chew gum after midnight last night. My last meal was actually around 6:00. I was pretty hungry by the time I was ready to start drinking Barium. TALK ABOUT NASTY!!! The first drink was ok. But after the second and third drinks, my gag reflexes started kicking in. The resident doing my screening was the sweetest man. He was understanding and made me feel better through the process. Everyone there was GREAT. Their office is SUPER nice and modern / chic. They have a lil fridge of juices and waters and a fancy coffee machine to help yourself too after the screening. They all made me feel like a human being. Not at all like just a big fat woman. THEY ROCK!! The whole ordeal took about 45 minutes or so. Everything went well. They saw all of my esophagus, stomach, and small intestine just fine. Next is my sleep study to check for sleep apnea on Friday night. I have to sleep there from 9:30 pm to 5 am.

Consult

I had my consult with Dr. Kennedy. My first impression of her was she was VERY PREGNANT! =D And since I have 4 kids of my own we talked about that a little bit. Dr. Kennedy seems very competent in her line of work and her team. I took a list of questions I wanted answered to my consultation and she answered every single one of them without hesitation. I was very scared and nervous going in and my mind was alot more at ease as I was leaving her office. Her office staff is WONDERFUL. They seem very put together and all had a smiling face. Their office is very nice and welcoming also. I asked her if she ever lost a patient due to surgery and that is my biggest fear. She said she didn't lose one to surgery but one of her patients died 2 months later from something non-surgery related but she still counts her because she was her patient. She DOES have a structured aftercare program which they highly emphasize. Overall I rate Dr. Kennedy a 10. I can't wait to have her do my surgery!!