2/4/2013

Happy Monday to all!

I ended up having my gal bladder removed on 1/21/13. I was super excited that the doctors finally figured out why I was having those horrible episodes, and more excited that we were able to schedule the surgery so soon and able to get the issue fixed! the healing was better then expected- the first 3 days were probably the hardest but after that the days just got easier. I have tried to eat things that may be  bit more greasy or fattening just to see how my body reacts to it, and so far it has been okay. Although some things I eat clean my system out, i guess that could be a good thing for me since I am not normally on a regualr bowel schedule since the sleeve! lol. (TMI i know) The only thing that concerns me at this time is that when fall asleep at night and lay on my back I get sharp pains in my left upper chest area. The surgeon that did my gal bladder told me that it was uncommon but if it didnt go away within a month then to go back and see him. Keep your fingers crossed that its nothing big and it will eventually go away!
People tell me with the Gal Bladder being removed it will slow down weight loss- not sure excatly if that is true and really hope its not but I guess in the long run I am satisfied with where I am right now. but dont get me wrong i would love to see a couple more pounds go away but I wont be greedy haha.
I am a little past my 9 month post op date- attached are some photos I took

When taking these and comparing them to my 6 month post op photos i guess I really didnt see much of a change, although there was a change it wasnt as drastic as the 1st set that i compared. I am still very satisfied with my weight loss. As of today my weight is 158.2 which is a decreas of 87 pounds.. CAN YOU BELIVE THAT!!

Now I cant help but to start pondering when I should schedule my tummy tuck and boob job! two things that I must do.. who knows when but I hopefully soon.

8 month post

I hit my 9 month post op day last friday but I was off work so here I am updating the status of 9 months along. I weighed in at 164 the other day so that would put me at a loss now officially of 81 lbs.. can you belive that! I still can't belive i hit the 80 lb mark.. never thought I would say I lost 80 pounds.. sounds like so much! never really looked at myself being that over weight but I guess I was!

so because I couldnt finish my last email (or i should say I accidently deleted it before saving it) I wanted to share again that I am still getting these "episodes" the last one I had was on 12/22- I had gone to my daughters soccer xmas party- this is what I ate while there- I had a small spoon on some patato casorole,  a peice of a roll, a bite of a tamale and maybe half a cup of wine, along with one cookie.. this was not at one sitting of course but thats what I ate while I was there for the few hours. Well around 8:00 I started feeling the pain coming on in my belly and decided it was time to head home- long story short i was in excrusiating pain from around9:00pm- 4:00am in the morning, nothing i could do would make it go away! i was walking around the house, sitting on the toilet, laying on my back, laying on my side, and sitting up on the bed but still nothing. I was really close to going to the ER the pain was that bad! but didnt. finally fell asleep around 4:30am and the next day i swear i felt like i had just been hit by a car, i felt like I just had the stomach flu but never vomited or had a bowl movement! I was in bet the entire next day! was very careful with what I ate because I honestly thought this time it was the flu!

everything was okay from that point on and then here comes 1/6/12... here is what I ate- We went to my daughter soccer game and then went to have lunch at the HAT, i didnt order anything for myself but I had a bite of my daughters hamburger, and ate maybe 3-4 fries, and some of the pastrami off my hubbys sandwich, then a couple hours later (around dinner time) I had a few spicy cheeze its, a plain hot dog,and a half scoop of ice cream. about 30 minutes late here came that feeling again! THE STOMAC FLU feeling, very nauseous, chills, and in PAIN.. I begged my hubby to stay up with me this time becuase the last time he was sound asleep and I just felt alone.. so he stayed up as long as he could.. Again this time the pain made me cry there was nothing I could do to feel better and it was just so unbearable! it lasted again until about 4:30 AM and The pain started to go down enough for me to fall asleep- the next day again felt like I was just hit by a bus! so I called and made an appt with my family practice, I couldnt continue with these episodes!

Once I had my appt I called my surgeon again to ask them what questions I should ask and what dept I should request a referall for becuase these needed to be stopped! she asked me questions on my syptoms and then tells me she thinks its my Gal bladder! so she gave me advice on that. After i looked it up and boy oh boy did my syptoms sound just like the ones listed. i went to my doctor apt and she referred me to GI department as well as requested blood work and an ultrasound.

Then last night the doctor calls me and says go to the ER your lab work is way too abnormal and other tests are needed. i called my friend who is in the medical field and she recommended if I dont have an episode to just wait until my ultrasound which is what I decided to do.. so we shall see what is said tomorrow morning during my ultra sound and what the next step is.. Lets hope I finally have an end to these awful painful episodes that I have been having!!!

12/27/12-

i just typed a great deal of words on this blog date.. but umm then i got an error.. i am not going to retype it again.

just know i had ANOTHER episode on 12/22/12 which lastes all the way through sunday! holy cow

PAIN!

So yesterday I had another awful episode!!! holy cow it was bad!! These episodes are really getting annoying now!!

Yesterday I had my lunch around 2:30 ish had some past without tomato sauce- just maybe a half cup- then i had some peanuts as a snack and a "few" peanut butter m&m's  ... at around 5:00pm I felt this episode coming.. it didnt start off bad but I felt the pressure start in my tummy and start working its way up through my esophigus (however you spell that) at around 6:00pm I was hurled over in pain, my mouth started watering as if i was about to vomit.. but nothing.. the pain then started going away a bit. (it was there but it was barable) I sat and watched my daughter play her soccer game. We headed home and I started cooking the family dinner- still in pain but barable-- then it started escalating again! My hubby had to run to the store so I waited for him and when he got home I told him he had to finish dinner and I headed to bed.. I was drained by this time and started to snooze but couldnt get to sleep cuz of the pain. it was weird this time, it felt like a mix of my "episode" and the stomach flu.. for a minute I totally thought I had the flu.. I just layed there. getting the sweats and being cold all at the same time.. after about another hour I tried to go to the bathroom. I was able to go #2.. and since i had the chills decided to warm my self up by taking a shower.. I took shower and after just crawled back into bed. Still in so much pain i could have cried. I have never been this close to going to the ER, I was seriously scared. But figured it was either the stomach flu or this episode. I finally fell asleep maybe about an hour later. and woke up today feeling better. I still feel stomach pain (the way you feel after you had the stomach flu) but not in pain. I am here at work and really being careful with what I eat just in case it is the flu, i dont want to vomit here at work. hehe.

anywhoo. I am really getting scared with all these episodes that it may start to be eating away at my esophaugus.. (however you spell that) I dont want to end up like my grandfather and not get this kind of thing treated and let it get worse to were I get cancer. That is my fear!!! my doctor wont yet give me the referal to the GI doctor but I think I will ask around and see if i can gt the referall from another doctor. because I would really feel so much better and be way less stressed out if I knew for sure this wasnt causing damages to my insides...

Good Bye for now!  :)

Almost 8 Months

I guess my 8 months Post op isnt officially until friday 12/7- but I am bored right now so I figured I would go ahead and type something out.

To upate you all on my special "episodes" that at one point i was having every day! I called my surgeons office and spoke with the nurse she told me it was a possibility I was constapated. I really didnt belive this because seriously I was super uncomfortable but i tried what she said (although she recommended milk of magnesia) I cant stand drinking any form of medicine so I just went and picked up some Ex-Lax- The next day those bad boy pills kicked in and cleaned out the system. I only have had one really bad episode since then! i started to feel pretty bad a couple days ago and was afraid that the episodes were going to start again so I went ahead and took another ex-lax- which again cleaned me out. I still get the chest pains but they are not unbarable like they were. They are less frequent too. I am supper happy about that, I have even stopped taking my Acide Reducer pills - and even without taken them I have not had any episodes. Pheww.. I really hope they are starting to go away all together because those were the most intense days since surgery and really prayed it wouldnt be a permenent change in my life. I gotta say though with these episodes it really helped me control what I ate, since I was always in pain I was always afraid to eat. Now that I dont have pain I am scare to over eat. I am scared that I am consuming too much!

This journey has been one roller coaster... I have my days where I really get sad and think that this weight loss is great but wont last... then I have others that just drive me to do better! I dont know what the end result will be with my journey but I sure havent given up the fight! I still will continue fighting.

I am still going to the gym 3 days a week. Trying to get more days of intense weight training done but it doesnt seem to be happening! It is really tough trying to fit in a full days work along with supporting my kids sports and being a mom and then fitting in a workout plan. but again I am determined to not give up and to make this work!

I am still eating quiet a few sweets, I hate to say it but they really are my down fall, it gets really bad around my menstral cycle but I really dont know what I can do to change that. I have tried trust me but it is a never ending battle which I am currently loosing. I am aware of the calories in intake and I always want and have planned to write it down to track them but then when i actually start I see what I eat and it scares me. I would rather not write down what I eat, but I know I should...

Thats enough for now-- please keep your fingers crossed that this journey continues to have a good outcome becuase I really dont want to become what I was... I really am enjoying what I am turning into!!!!

I currently weighed in this morning at 169--- (starting weight was 245) that would be a total of 76 pounds lost!!!!

6 month post op appt

I went to my 6 month check up with Kaiser yesterday, it was pretty interesting and boring at the same time! hehe, the doctor ran through my lab work which showed all my levels were great, not lacking in any one that he ran. He of course said I needed to add a WHOLE lot more water to my diet which I knew, and also vitamins which I knew too! That will be my next focus...

The one thing I keep getting stressed out about is this pain I get every evening around the same time! I call them episodes and as you have probably read before in the blog they are pretty bad when I get them, I have had maybe about 6 really bad ones since surgery and maybe 3 of them have lead me to vomit as an end result- the other episodes have subsided around 2 hours later. However every evening I just feel the pressure of an episode about to start and just feel really uncomfortable, the pressure in my chest is at times unbarable. I asked the doctor yesterday what it could possibly be and he said it maybe sounded like Esophageal Spasms... This worries me because my grandfather died of cancer of the esophagus, and that cancer was started because of his awful acid reflux he had and never treated... Is this something that can happen to me??? can the issues and pain that I am having cause cancer??? will it lead to not being able to eat like my grandfather did??? I am beyond scare about this.. Here I am trying to be thin and now look, I may have caused more damages to me that may be more painful then just being obese!!  I am a person who always over thinks a situation to the max, I may just be over thinking this, and may be drawing awful conclusions to a situation that may not be that big, but it really does scare me!!! I will be asking the doctor to referr me to the GI doctor so they can run more tests! I will keep you posted.

As far as the good news, I weighed in at the doctor at 174.00 yesterday! yaaay.. this puts me now at a weight loss # of 71 lbs! that is amazing in just 7 months!! I am now wearing a size 10 pants, and fit in most medium size shirts, however some still have to be a large, which I am good with! I have been going to the gym at least 2-3 days a week, and have been running/walking while the kids are at soccer practice on other days, I am trying to stay fit and trying to continue to excercise!

I am now craving more sweets which is a huge down fall for me! I try hard to pass them up as much as possible or to avoid them entirely as much as possible however with the holidays approaching I am not sure how good i will do with that! I told myself if I eat something sweet I must go work it off! I must excersise to feel better about that decision, I know in the long run i really need to put the sweet stuff away but damn its really hard, and I dont want to deprive myself, and binge later so I have it when I crave it... I will contiue to work on this and hopefully find a happy medium with the healthly lifestyle and sweets! I can do this! it just takes work!!!

Today's Update

So to update you I had another awful episode that occured on friday 10/19- started around 2:30 pm and aggressivly got worse until around 4:00pm when my body finaly got the urge to vomit. About 10 minutes after I vomited I felt fine again! seriously that is just getting so annoying, this is the 3rd big episode since surgery 6 months ago.
remembering what I ate on Friday was Starbucks grande skinny vanilla latte (decafe) and for lunch had some home made chicken - and a snack size twix. that is all i was able to get down before the episode...
I weighed in again today at 178.2 another pound down from last week! Yaay

Here is a picture of me wearing leggings with boots for the first time EVER! this wasnt in style when i was in high school so I didnt wear it but now.. I just feel so comfy in it and love the outfit! (totally reminds me of that movie "the Nutty Professor" when he gets thin and yells "Spandex alllll Spandex" LOL