Life wOrTh LiViNg...

Well it has been a little over a year since I had my duo switch. My life and my activities have changed drastically.
I now teach water arobics, a year ago, I couldn't even attend arobic regularly.
I now have a full time job, a year ago, I was hardly dependable due to my overweight issues.
I now feel like I have a life worth living, last year, I wondered If it was all worth it.
I can honestly say YES! It was so worth it.

To date I have lost 99 pounds. Yes that's right 99. I so wanted to say 100, but it isn't there yet. I have lost 58% of my excess body weight. I am slightly down from the 60% I should be at at this stage.
I have only lost 5 pounds in the past 3 months. So this is the right time to have my cosmetic surgery. I am scheduled to have my hernia reparied, and my adominoplasty (tummy tuck)
and my brachioplasty (arm lift) on November 3rd.
I am really excited about this and look forward to more weight loss after I recover. The doctor mentioned that once I have this surgery that my metabolism will kick back into gear, and I will start to lose once again.
The way I look at it, I have about 50 more pounds I want to lose. I was told by several doctors that the amount of excess skin I am carring will amount to an immediate 15-20 pound loss.
As for now I am adding tons of protein to prepare for surgery. Doctors orders!

Mothers Day May 10 2009

Mothers Day 2009. I actually didn't hate it, weird. I usually hate it,but I was okay. Big improvement over years in the past!

I had a new dress from a friend and I wasn't sure it would even fit, alas it did! I even have Kelsey's 3 inch heals on...

Good Day!

Another great Saturday!

It is so wonderful to have a desire to do something like yard work, and to actually be able to do it. What a blessing! I cut the whole yard, and planted more flowers, yes more, and dug up those nasty dandelions.
The plans are full steam ahead for my laundry room make over. My sweet husband and I purchased the tile, and he laid the backer board. It took a long time, but it was done to perfection. This is true with every thing he does.
The tile is a beautiful mix of earth-tones, with a touch of Italian flair. I love it. We also bought these little bitty tiles (1x1) to compliment the 16x16 tiles. Funny, these little tiles cost more than the big ones.
I find myself looking forward to each day. Come rain or shine. I look forward to my exercise classes and what I will be able to accomplish for the rest of the day.
The week is the start of a new month, and a start to my 8th month. I am trying to remember all of my goals:

1. Water (drink every time I think of it)
2. low/no sugar Natural sugars okay like fruit
3. work harder in my workouts don't wimp out do what I them do.

This will be a great week!

Plateaus Happen

These are a horrible thing. I am finding myself getting more and more worried that I have lost all I can. I have been at the same weight for 2 weeks now. I am worried. I started keeping a log of my eating on FitDay Free Calorie Counter, and I think maybe I am eating too many calories. One day I will have 21oo or so, and other days I will have 1300. Protein is usually high in calories, and I need to have about 100 grams a day of protein, So I am a bit confused as to what I should do. After the surgery, My Doc said not to worry about calories, so... I am going to call the office here in a minute and see if I should start worrying about it or not. No luck... I had to leave a message, dang now I just have to keep guessing.
My workouts are good and steady, I could do more. I feel so tired when I get home I usually fall asleep for a couple . I have been doing okay on the vitamins and taking them Most of the time. My memory sucks! But I am doing it most of the time.
Just got a call from the doc's office and I was told,"No worries." So I will just chill out. , (sort of)
These little plateaus are normal. They happen. "Plateaus Happen." My new mantra.

Boy, am I sore!

Yesterday was such a great day.
I did yard work the whole day. I planted and plowed and re potted plants painted a bird feeder, cut the grass and spade for weeds. 8 hours of pure joy! I could tell after dinner that I was starting to get sore.
I am so grateful I was able to do all that! I had only been able to "wish" I could do all the things out side in years past. I feel wonderful, sore muscles and all! Yeah me. (plus my yard looks pretty good as well.!

I finally did it...

I bought something off the rack. That may sound weird but this is the first time in a long time I was able to buy a nice shirt off the rack in the "normal" size section! Yahoo! I feel great.

Getting ready to start a new week!

Just checking in on this fine Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow starts the new session in my aquatic class. It is the "kicking it up" a notch week. Good luck to all.

Goals to shoot for

April 18, 2009
New Goal to shoot for.

I have been thinking its time to “kick it up into high gear”. SO this is the plan

Long term goal: Have plastics in November
In order to make that happen, I want to lose 50 more pounds.
In order to make that possible I have to lose roughly 7 lbs a week.
In order for t hat to happen I have to,
1. Increase my intensity of each workout, and
2. Make great food choices, ie, NO SUGAR!!!
If I follow those two small short term goals, I should reach my goal of 49 lbs by Oct. 15th.
I really think this is an obtainable goal, and have every intention on meeting these goals.

The new session of Water classes start Monday, and I am teaching 4 days a week straight, Monday-Thursday. That means I could add weight training on Fridays and maybe walk with my husband on Saturday. I want to think, that this is a realistic goal. I am worried I will be tired not having a break in-between my work out days like I have had, but I am keeping the long term goal in my mind,,(plastics)

new cravings.. is that normal?

April 14, 2009

I feel like something happened in the surgery.. Let me explain. Before surgery, I had a take it or leave it attitude with sweets, well now I have a major sweet tooth. I not only want it I crave it. I need it I think about it. This is a new phenomenon for me. Before, I never cared about dessert or cookies but now, it’s like I have this monster inside of me. How to tame it is the question of the hour.

I need to be sure I do not bring sweets into this house! Besides the obvious, they aren’t good for me, it is so painful… White sugars, white flour, white rice, all are poison to me. I get the worse stomach ache and the gas is something horrible, both in pain and smell.
I get so bloated I look 8 months pregnant. Even knowing I will have all those side effects, I still reach for the sweets. I have to get a hold of this NOW. This is a demon and I have power over it. I have bought “no sugar added” ice cream. I am happy with that! It tastes good and I don’t have pain with it. I even bought me some sugar free jello, and sugar free pudding, So, I am trying…

Easter 2009

Sunday April 12, 2009 Easter

Today was a good day but what is the deal with all this candy. I have had a huge change in my desires for food. I used to not care at all for sweets and now I go crazy. I ate a ton of candy today and tried to counter it with lots of Ham, I mean protein. Dinner was nice and I did a good job of eating slowly and trying to not eat too much. If I eat fast at this stage of the “game” I get sick and I am full before I have even enjoyed anything. So today I enjoyed it a lot. I even went back a couple of hours later for more ham. It was great. I am sure I will be a bit puffy in the morning from the salt in the ham, but I will be fine other wise.

This stupid candy is almost gone, than heavens! I will do well this week. I have plans to eat like a champ! Goals for this week:
Exercise harder -kick it up a notch.
Water water water At least 64 oz.
have dinners at a normal time

That should pretty much do it. I have noticed that as I am teaching my classes, I don’t have to work as hard. It is difficult to talk and exercise, so I think I need to do it all a little harder and faster. And the water is such an easy thing, and yet… It is sometimes noon before I realize I haven’t had any water for the day yet.
I have been doing really well at the planning of meals and getting everything done in a timely manner. I just want to keep it up!
That’s all for tonight.

First grass cut of the year!

Saturday April 11, 2009

Today was a nice spring day and I got the bug to cut the grass. I t has been 7 months since I had my surgery. I had not cut the grass in the past couple of years due to my lack of ability to push the mower and walk and keep my breath. It used to be something I enjoyed so much, before I got so large, but as I got bigger, it made it an impossible task for me to complete. Yesterday, however, was a new day. I was so excited to cut the grass. As I started up the mower, I allowed myself to enjoy the job I had long given up!

Cutting the grass was just a symbol of things to come. Of things I was going to be able to do from now on. If I didn’t cut the grass, it would be because I didn’t want to, not because I couldn’t do it.

Earlier in the week I moved 30 bags of mulch, by my self. It is kind of funny to me that I am just now thinking about it. I think it is because I just did it, as if it wasn’t a big deal. See I am changing already!

7 months out and I went from size 3X to Large tops!

Here I am seven months after the best decision in my life. I am so much happier. I now teach water 3 days a week, and I am eating what ever I want. I am noticing I can eat a lot more that I could before, and in some ways it worries me. My surgeon is please with my progress, even though I am a little slower than the average. I have lost 37% of my excess body weight and 82 pounds. I feel WONDERFUL!! That is the only way to describe how I feel.

This picture was taken by my youngest daughter. I thought she did a good job. My hair is still thinning. Not happy about that, but I have noticed a lot of little baby hairs growing in. That's a good sign. I love that spring in fast approaching. That is another reason to be happy!

(I am now officially caught up with this blog, from here on out I will post regularly, as often as I need to "speak")

Time is flying by

3 months out...

Christmas time has always been fun for me. I am starting to eat better, and by that I mean I can eat more than in the past 2 months. Still about 1/4 of what I sued to eat though. My weight is steadily coming down, I am now 42 lbs down and it seems to change daily. I like that. I am tempted much more than ever in my life with sweets. Weird new thing for me. So far I am able to keep it under check. However, if I want some thing at this point I eat it.

My face is the most noticeable change to me so far. My stomach is much smaller too. I am wearing clothes I haven't had on in years. To think it will get even better is a true dream. I am truly amazed at my energy level. Just losing that small amount, I am already much more energetic. I love it. I am going to water classes regularly, and I am thinking about teaching in the near future. I spoke with the aquatics director before my surgery and mentioned I would be interest in it, and she seem good with that. Weird that I could get paid to work out! I like that too!.

Forgot to mention, I went to Disneyland in Oct. I was only 6 weeks out and I was still a bit tired, but I kept up with the kids. I was so happy about that. I still had to use an extender on my seat belt, but that's OK. I ate and had a blast in Florida. I miss one of our sons who was in college and could not get away. I rode all the rides and just had a blast! Saw my parents and they could tell already. (about my weight loss)

I chose not to tell my grand parents about my surgery and this is why: My father had a type of beriatric surgery and had horrible results. With many complication due to his own non-compliance, he died. I did not want my grandparents to worry that the same thing would happen to him. So they did not know. I am not sure when I will tell them. It was a little awkward while we were out to dinner with them, as I am still eating so little, but they didn't even notice. So there you go...

I am happy. That's reflected in my smile on this picture.

one month already

It's been a month already and I am getting around better each day. I had a really rough first 3 weeks or so, but now that I am off my blood pressure meds I have more energy. I went in for my first check after surgery and they couldn't get my blood pressure. I was still taking my medicine and I guess I had lost enough weight that I no longer needed it. It was making my pressure so low, I was week and NO energy. Once I was off of them for a week or so I started feeling a lot better. I still sleep a lot, but I was told that was to be expected.

At 3 weeks out I am down 28 lbs. It is amazing how fast I am losing. The first week I am sure I was only getting about 200 calories a day. So knowing that, I guess it makes since I am losing so fast. This photo is from exactly one month out. Only 2 more weeks until I can get back into the pool to exercises. I have really missed that. I have started walking on the treadmil s l o w l e y.

what I remember about the hospital

The first thing I remember was asking for my husband. I was a little shocked that he wasn't in the room waiting for me. I later learned of the ordeal he went through.
I don't really remember feeling much pain. I did not want an epidural so I had a pcp pump, for pain management.
The tube in my nose was the one thing I had feared, and I wasn't sure about it as I woke up. It went from my stomach out my nose and to a drain on the wall. It would make this gross noise as it sucks out your stomach. I had just a few visitors. I asked that no one come until I had that stupid thing out. It was a goal to get that thing out.
Food was weird, once I got the tube out I could eat soft foods, maybe 2 bits at a time. That's all I could hold. I hated doing the breathing treatment thing where you inhale into this machine and it helps your lungs stay clear.
My hospital stay was to be 3-5 days and I was able to stay the whole five. In an earlier post, I mentioned my husband being gone for part of my hospital stay, well that is due to one of our son's need to be at college Freshman orientation in the middle of all of this. Not wanting our son to feel like he was just "sent" out to school my wonderful husband flew out with him, and returned in time for my release.
The hospital staff were all really sweet, but I was ready to get to my own bed.
So home I headed. I was also going home with a feeding tub in my belly. They leave that in just in case you have trouble getting food in and keeping it down.

September 2, 2008

This is parts of a letter sent to our daughter the day of my surgery, written by my husband:

It is 7:50 pm. Your mother is finally in a hospital bed and recovering from her operation. Today has been a busy day. The alarm rang at 4:30 this morning, and we both showered and then left for the hospital by 5:00 am. We were scheduled to arrive by 5:30 with instructions that if we were not on time, the surgery would have to be postponed. We arrived at 5:20, parked the car and made our way into the hospital and to the check in station. We gave number one to a gentleman who was sitting in the waiting room when we arrived, and we took number two.

Finally we were checked in and instructed to go to another waiting room until the pre-operation nurses called for Donna. She was the second patient called back, and the second to go into surgery. Surgery was scheduled for 7:30 am, and the instructions stated that it would take two hours to prepare patients for surgery. Donna went into surgery at 7:35 am. I was permitted to go back and sit with her for about an hour and a half, after they did some of the prep work on her.

Dr. Anthone came into her room about 7:05, and looked at her stomach, before the surgery. When he pulled the sheet back he said “oh!”. Donna asked what was the matter. He responded that it was nothing, just that he could tell that the surgery would go well, because her stomach was laying flat. He said that is a very good sign. Donna told him that she was a compliant patient. On the original screening visit, Dr. Anthone had instructed Donna to lose one pound, and when she was weighed in, she had lost seven pounds (depending on the patient, sometimes patients are asked to lose up to ten pounds prior to the surgery – the main thing is to decrease the size of the liver. The liver lays over the other organs, and increases in size with weight gain, etc. Normally the most difficult thing to work around in these surgeries is the liver because of where it sits, so losing a few pounds of weight usually has a huge impact on the size of the liver.)

After they took her to the operating room, I went back out to the waiting room for a few minutes until I could see that they had started the surgery. Methodist hospital has a computer system where the status of the various patients is shown on a flat screen on the wall, using the first two characters of the patient’s last name, some other character, and then the first letter of the first name. Dr. Anthone said the surgery normally took 2.5 hours plus a half hour for set up time and a half hour for take down time. After that he would come to the waiting room and find me and give me an update on how the surgery went.

(At this point Husband went to get something to eat only to find a flat tire!)

. They wanted to keep the car and look at all oft the tires, but I needed to get back to the hospital by noon, because that was when I anticipated that Donna would be our of post op and moved to a hospital room. It was 11:45 when I started driving back to Methodist. I arrived about 12:10, and was relieved that she had not been moved to a room yet. Donna wanted to make sure that I was there once she got into a room.

I waited and waited. No change in status. Finally I went to the desk and asked how long they thought it might take. I was informed that the hospital was over crowded, and that they were waiting for patients to be discharged so that they could clean a room and then have a room available to move her to. So, the receptionist took down the cell phone number and told me she would call me when a room was assigned.

I was back in the waiting room at 3:00, and still no change in status. I waited some more. Finally the cell phone rang at about 4:00. It was a friend from church returning my voice message from earlier and checking on the status of Donna. After the phone call, I checked with the receptionist again. Still they were waiting for a room. I told the receptionist to please call me on the cell phone once a room was available, that I was going to go and sit in a different waiting room where the chairs were more comfortable, and where there was less noise, so that I could work on the computer a little. I noticed other families in that waiting room that seemed to be in the same predicament. They were waiting for patients to be moved from post op to a room, which there were none of. Finally, at 5:20, the cell phone rang, and a nurse was calling down from the 6th floor, and told me that Donna had asked for me. I was soooo mad. I asked how long she had been in the room and they said since about 4:20 pm. I’m still mad about how they did us this afternoon. It is ridiculous that she had to wait over five hours for a room to be made available, and there was no way for me to go back and see her all that time, and then when they did put her in a room, the receptionist never did call me on the cell phone! If there is any survey at the end of this hospital stay, I will have some dissatisfaction to share.

Donna seems to be doing well. She is in some pain. She did not want an epidural, so she is on a pain medication pump, where she can push a button after 15 minutes and get a dose of pain reliever. She was pushing the button before the nurse ever got authorization from Dr. Anthone to set the pump up for her. Dumb that she was in the room for about an hour before they called the doctor to get authorization! While she was in post op, they were giving her shots of pain reliever in her IV tubes. But nothing once they sent her to her room. Then she went about an hour before she pushed the button the second time. She said she was trying to go an hour before pain reliever shots if she could. The nurse told her to not be a hero, and to push the button if she was feeling the pain, and not make herself uncomfortable. If she can keep the pain reliever going so that she can rest, I think the recovery will be better for her. She always did the same thing with the cesarean births – always tried to go longer before taking the pain medication, etc. I just hope she doesn’t make it too hard on herself.

I have to drink WHAT? and it makes you do WHAT?

Now it is only a week before surgery. I am lurking on all the Weight loss surgery web sites I could find, and I read everything. I tried to read the good stories as well as the Horror stories. I wanted to be informed. There is a place you can go and look at before and after pictures of people who had the DS (duodenal switch) and I would go on there for hours and daydream, of how it would be. http://www.duodenalswitch.com/patients/patients.html

How I was going to look. I read their stories too. There was a common thread that was quite alarming. DIVORCE. A lot of these people, once they had reached their goal, would "become" someone new. Many talked about why they married who they did. Some said they thought they wouldn't ever get anyone better. This happened more to people who had not ever been thin. The ones who had been "normal" size and married that way and gradually became obese, didn't seem to have as high of a divorce rate.
I was okay with that. I was "normal" before my marriage. And besides that, we were still in love.

When I went in initially, the Dr. pushed around on my tummy and concluded I would only need to lose 1-2 lbs before surgery. It would help shrink the liver, there by making the surgery easier. I understand, some patients have to lose 20 lbs or more before they are allowed to have surgery. Luckily for me, I was only 1-2 pounds away from my dream.

The week-end before the DS I had to do a sort of cleansing of my intestines and stomach. I did liquids for a day and the day before surgery I had to drink this very yucky stuff that completely "clean " you out. OHMYGOSH. That was gross. Both the taste and the results of it...
Let's just say, it worked.

My last visit to the Dr office was a weigh in and check on all paper work as I recall. I remember the nurse saying something like, "Okay Donna lets see if you lost what you need to so you can have your surgery." That kind of scared me. I hadn't really tried to lose a pound. Come on, if I could lose weight would I be having the surgery? As I got on the scale, I was trying to stand as "light" as I could. Yeah I know, another fat persons game.
As it turned out I did lose the 2 pounds, in fact, I think I lost like five. So there!

Looks like all is a go. Next blog will be from my husbands own words, (as I was kind of out of it for a few days.)

Help... the zipper to my fat suit is stuck.

In order to get to DS day, I still had a few more things to do. More tests to run, and more papers to sign. Looking back at it now, it really was a fast process, once I was "approved."
I had my blood drawn again, I had the psych eval done and I had to have my GP send over all my records to Dr. Anthone's office. There was another "class I had to take, that I didn't know was a class. I thought I was just seeing the nurse for some more pre op stuff. It ended up being a huge deal. I wish I had understood that before, as I would have had my husband there also. He, BTW has been so wonderful throughout this whole thing. By my side every step of the way. (Except while I was in the hospital 3 days) I will write about that later...
At this class we learned more of the "how to's" of eating after surgery. She showed us some more pictures of how small our stomachs would be. She also gave us samples of protein drinks, and bars. Talked to us about how horrible we would feel the first couple of weeks. Made sure we knew what our surgery dates and times were. Talked a lot about what would happen the day of surgery, where we park. The whole time I wanted to "push a pause button" so I could run and get my hubby. He would have known what questions to ask, I just sat there and listened. She gave us a lot of handouts and Then sent us on our way.I think I was a like a zombie. A little in shock with the while thing. I was really going to have this surgery. I was actually going to go through with it. I was going to get my life back.
I had said before, I was like an actor who wears a "fat suit" but my zipper was stuck and I couldn't get it off. I wasn't this fat woman everyone could see, I was a normal sized woman who had a fat suit on. I was finally going to get that darn fat suit off!

starting from the beginning...

This blog is a journal of sorts, for me to track the progress of my weight loss.

On September 2, 2008, I had bariatric surgery, RNY with a duodenal switch. http://www.duodenalswitch.com/procedure/procedure.html

To be honest I research for several years here and there, all the while trying to "do it all on my own". In 2005 My father had a type of bariatric surgery, and in 9 months he was dead. This was devastating as you can imagine. His outcome I would later learn was mostly because of his non-compliance. I vouded I would never put my family through this kind of pain, and I would never have this type of surgery.

I began to think about it off and on for the next couple of years, then a friend of mine, who's husband works with mine, (therefor having the same medical insurance as me) got 100 percent covered for the surgery. I was so intrigued. I started imagining me getting the surgery. Her surgeon was top notch, and I was impressed at how much she knew of his success.

Gary Anthone, MD, FACS. I went to one of the seminars and I was hooked! I wanted to sign up and get my surgery date scheduled.

I was so excited, I called the Dr.'s office the very next day only to find out it doesn't work "that fast".

First I had to have documentation of having tried a medically supervised diet, exercise, and all for at least 6 months. Cool, I had done this for over a year. No problem. Next I had to have a "work up" done while waiting for the insurance to "approve" this surgery. Duh... I knew it would be. Remember my friend...Same insurance ... I had my first visit to Doc Anthone and we talked about history, (I had all my records in hand, as to not get them lost in the "mailing of them) He took my picture and said I was a perfect candidate for this surgery. He quoted me something like losing 75% of my excess weight, and What that would put me at. That day I weighed in at 330. But I was recently 342. From that time on, they would mention my starting weight and mean 330, and I would refer to 342. It is a fat persona #'s game. But it is how we do it. I from this point on will refer to my highest weight when figuring my weight loss.

I had to have a psy eval. piece of cake. I had been to shrinks before, no problem. At that visit, I think I made a new friend. Then there was the waiting for the actual approval before I could actually schedule the surgery. Geez, they wouldn't just take my word for it.

Finally the word came in as I was actually on the phone with his office. As I remember it, Lisa, said the usual, "No, Donna, we have not heard from your insurance." Then a plea from me that went something like, "I am sorry I keep calling, I am just so excited to start my life again." and then she must have felt compassion or something because she had me hold on she thought she saw the mail man. ( No I am not making this up.) She said ,"Hold on, I think I have something here that just might be from Blue cross. (my insurance) and she said something like,"Will you come and give me a hug If I tell you we have your approval?" I think I cried. She at that moment, transfered me back to schedule my surgery. September 2nd, 2008.