Where do I start on this one? It has been a time of surprises and of healing since I last stopped by to lay my thoughts out for the world.
I had given up, you see.
I had problems and I knew it. I have tried repeatedly to get in to see my surgeon, making perhaps five trips to Johnson City to see him, to try to get answers to my questions about why I feel tis way or that, why my weight loss had slowed down to such a crawl early out, etc. This past trip was during Christmas break - I call his office and very clearly explained why I wanted to see him. I haven't seen him since I was in the hopsital, I explained. I don't feel well. I am not losing weight - as a matter of fact, I have *gained* at only eight months out, despite only eating about 1200 calories a day. My PCP does not know how to deal with my since I have had my bypass, and he constantly refers me back to my surgeon. The appointment clerk sounded horrified that I had not see the doc since I was in the hospital, and she promised me an appointment with him on the only day that he would be in the office over my holiday. Great! Maybe I would get some answers.
I showed up with my notebook of questions and went to the window sign in. When asked for my check, I declined to hand it over, suggesting that it would make it far easier to wait until we established that the doc was really, actually going to see me - especially last time he wasn't even in the office I had to argue to get my copay back.
Guess what?!? That's right, he never even came in at all that morning, and his office didn't bother to pick up the phone and call me, saving me a THREE HOUR ROUND TRIP for apparent reason. I just thanked to the girl at the front desk (somewhat snottily, I'll be the first to admit) and left. Husband stood there and clowned a bit, loudly explaining to the crowd in the waiting room that once you were paid up by the insurance company then you were on your own.
So by the middle of January I am back at my PCP, complianing about the same problems that I was bitching about in October: serious fatigue, major irritability, insomnia, lack of weight loss, mental fog, difficulty concentrating, lack of motivation on all fronts, and now, very irregular periods as well. I told the doc that I was there for a referral to an endocrinologist as I was certain that there was something wrong hormonally. Doc said that was fine and that he was not going to send out my regular labs to include a thyroid test as it had already been tested "out the yin-yang" before I ever had my surgery. I had been talking to two ladies that I work with, and they were very insistant that I should have my thyroid tested - BOTH levels of it. So I asked the doc to do so, telling him to please just humor me. It wouldn't hurt anything and just might ease my mind. He agreed, wrote down "mood disorder" on my diagnosis page, and offered to increase the wellbutrin that he had put me on in October. I declined, explaining that it wasn't doing anything at all for me. He said that he would call with my results that next day, and yes, he would check both levels.
No one called on Tuesday as he said, but Wednesday the nurse let me know that my appoinment for the endocrinologist was for March 28th and all of my labs were just fine, except that dlkgjhsdfkgjhsdklfjhg. Pardon? Can you slow down, please? I want to make sure that I understand everything after the "except" part, as I am pretty sure that just might be something important (ya think?). Turns out my TSH level is 5.89, but that's okay, the endocrinologist can get me straightened out when I see her in March. His nurse also tells me that they very thoughtfully faxed the results of my bloodwork to my surgeon. WTF? I had just gotten through explaining to this man that I couldn't get in the see the surgeon, that I hadn't seen him, and probably was never going to get to.
The endocrinologist will start me on something in MARCH?!? I am supposed to just keep feeling like this for another two and a half months because the doctor says that he doesn't know what to do with me because I am a gastric bypass patient? I am a patient with a thyroid problem - this has nothing to do with my surgical history.
So the next day I changed my PCP with the insurance company and go to see my husband's a doc - an internist. (Husband calls and begs me in, explaining that I am not in very good shape and need help.) The new doc immediately put me on 100 mcg of levothryoxin and asked why my PCP did not do this as soon as he got the test results back. I explain the whole thing and I am so relieved to actually find a PCP who has an idea about how to deal with bypass patients.
New doc also tells me that the NSAIDS old doc had me on for cramps could kill me, that the idea that old doc had about them being okay for me just a couple of times a month just wasn't accurate. Yay.
So now I have been on meds for this for a grand total of four days now, and I already not only feel beter but have lost a little bit of weight again for the first time in a couple of months.
Weight this morning: 191 (again - finally)
PS - all that crabbing about not being able to sleep before... poor husband.... it wasn't really his fault at all.
Showing posts with label diet after gastric bypass surgery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diet after gastric bypass surgery. Show all posts
Monday, January 21, 2008
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The Long Stall...
It seemed like this long stall would never, ever end! I suppose that I was spoiled a bit, watching the weight fall off after my surgery. For a month almost, nothing happened with the exception of gaining two pounds. How *that* happened I have no idea, especially since it's not like I can really eat much of anything.
The scales finally started moving again about four or five days ago. I dug around in the cabinets until I found my trusty jar of protein powder, and I started drinking about 35 grams every morning before I went off to work. After just a couple of days of that, the pounds just started melting off again. I guess that my body had gone into a mini starvation mode, and the influx of extra protein reassured it that all really was well.
My energy has really picked up as well, and I am very grateful for that, especially since I have gone back to work. The only real problem that I seem to be having is being all stopped up - yet another issue that my surgeon never bothered to mention! (grrr!)
Highest weight: 294
Weight today: 202
The scales finally started moving again about four or five days ago. I dug around in the cabinets until I found my trusty jar of protein powder, and I started drinking about 35 grams every morning before I went off to work. After just a couple of days of that, the pounds just started melting off again. I guess that my body had gone into a mini starvation mode, and the influx of extra protein reassured it that all really was well.
My energy has really picked up as well, and I am very grateful for that, especially since I have gone back to work. The only real problem that I seem to be having is being all stopped up - yet another issue that my surgeon never bothered to mention! (grrr!)
Highest weight: 294
Weight today: 202
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Day 124
Well, only a little over four months, and already my weight loss has seriously slowed down. Only 8 pounds since the last time I posted on Day 100.
I am wondering if this is what my endocrinologist and OB/GYN warned me about when they suggested that I have this surgery. I was told then that I would never be a "normal" weight because of my PCOS, but I could lose some of what was making me so miserable.
Dear God, I hope that this isn't "it". I don't eat a lot of junk - heck, I can't eat *anything* with more than 10 grams of sugar or 10 grams of fat. I've been exercising and everything like I am supposed to, but only eight pounds in 24 days.
On the bright side, I'm not freezing anymore, even though I should be in about another week. Turns out, that particular issue is PMS related. Nothing quite like being bitchy, tired, *and* cold, all at the same time.
I am wondering if this is what my endocrinologist and OB/GYN warned me about when they suggested that I have this surgery. I was told then that I would never be a "normal" weight because of my PCOS, but I could lose some of what was making me so miserable.
Dear God, I hope that this isn't "it". I don't eat a lot of junk - heck, I can't eat *anything* with more than 10 grams of sugar or 10 grams of fat. I've been exercising and everything like I am supposed to, but only eight pounds in 24 days.
On the bright side, I'm not freezing anymore, even though I should be in about another week. Turns out, that particular issue is PMS related. Nothing quite like being bitchy, tired, *and* cold, all at the same time.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
As The Scale Turns - Day 100
My husband told me the other night that he thought the doctor's office hadn't told me enough about what to expect in the days after my surgery. Sure, they gave me a lot of information about the surgery itself and what to expect during recovery, but very little about the changes that I would go through as the weeks progressed into months and my body kept changing.
I wonder if that is just the nature of surgeons: they are so preoccupied in the actual procedure that they really don't know how to get involved and pro-active in the life changes that come as a result of what they accomplished.
I went back to the doctor's office several weeks ago, and I had all of my questions lined up: Is it normal to have a change in your drive after this surgery? Am I supposed to keep drinking the protein mixes? Is it okay to switch from Flinstones vitamins to adult chewables? You know, questions like that. Instead of the doctor, though, I got the nurse practitioner, and I got the feeling from her that she didn't finish that much school because she was that smart, but maybe instead she just worked really, really hard and promptly forgot everything as soon as the exam was over. I don't mean to be disrespectful to her, but I've met other professionals that just seemed to be rather, well, dim, but they were just willing to work hard enough to "get through it". After a couple of answers like, "Oh, don't worry about the vitamins anymore..." and such as that, I threw the rest of my questions out and figured that I would just do my own research. I just might be better off that way than taking what she said as gospel.
So what's new? I am freezing at night now. Night before last, I was shivering and shaking so much that my husband got up at two in the morning and got an electric blanket for me - in July, no less. I've always been the kind of person that could generate enough body heat to get through just about any temperatures, but now, now matter how many blankets, I can't even overcome the AC keeping the house at 72 degrees. That's not to say that I can't get overheated outside during the day, because that's not the case, either. It's mostly at night, and then I freeze like it's mid-winter in Minnesota or something.
Something else that is interesting is the lumpyness. It's not like cellulite, but when I rub my hands over my arms, I can feel a million tiny little bumps under my skin. Husband says that it is because the body doesn't lose weight evenly, but takes the fat from where it can most easily obtain it. He says that I will smooth out later, and I certainly hope so. While it's not something that you can see to look at me, it sure does feel weird.
I am starting to look too small for my skin, showing signs of droop and sag. The worst places are under my arms, where I am getting the "granny sag", and across the tops of my thighs, where you can see where the skin is starting to just hang there. I wanted to talk to my doctor about that, too, and ask him if there was something that I could do to minimize that and how much of it just time would take care of, but like I said earlier, I didn't trust the nurse practitioner to give me a thoughtfully considered response. (Please don't get me wrong - I've met nurses that I trusted more than the doctors, but she just wasn't one of them.) Anyway, I really, really want to try to avoid any more surgery unless I just have to, and my doc is one that just takes it as a matter of course that you must have more after your bypass to correct the skin issues, etc. Maybe you do, but I'd like to be really certain.
I am such a weenie. :)
One really nice side effect of this surgery is that everyone in the house has lost weight since I started being really careful about what I fix for us to eat. We still do the traditional sit-down dinner every night, so I have to make sure that whatever I fix is "safe" for me. My daughter has lost her baby fat belly, and my husband has lost about 40 or 50 pounds (but he's been dieting, too. He says that he doesn't want to be looked at as the fat slob with a skinny wife, so he works pretty hard at it.)
I am not going to have a blasted thing to wear when school starts. All of my clothes fit in one dresser drawer. It's a big drawer, but still... I can't shop ahead, either, because I have no idea what size I will be in by then. I have boxes and boxes of "fat clothes", and I have no idea exactly what I am going to do with them. I guess I need to find a consignment shop and throw them out. We've threatened to have a rummage sale, but I have more stuff than I could honestly expect to get rid of at just one sale.
I still get nauseated sometimes, especially when I eat too fast or try something new, but that is to be expected. I've lost my taste for sweets, which is really good since I can't eat them anymore. Even Splenda doesn't get it. Wild, huh?
Weight this January: 294
Weight at surgery: 274
Weight this morning: 218
Current size: 16/18
PS - a word about insurance... Blue Cross Blue Shield not only turned me down for this surgery back in October of last year, but they left me stuck with over $500 worth of doctor bills. I filed a grievance, and they had until December 2, 2006 to respond. I called several times even after I changed insurance companies to try to find out why I was never notified of their reasoning or response to my grievance, and finally about a month ago, I was told that they never acted on my grievance AT ALL. I filed a complaint with the state insurance commission, and then I called the state department of education. I figured that since they were the ones who negotiated the terms of my coverage, they might have an interest in BCBS's failure to respond and provide the coverage agreed upon in our contract. To make a long story short, it took the lady in the state department of education's insurance department fewer than two days to get that matter straightened right out, and and I should have a refund check from my doctor's office within a day or so. The letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield informed me that "an administrative decision" had been made to go ahead and pay the claim. I sure wish my current insurance company would sue them for the cost of the surgery, too.
I wonder if that is just the nature of surgeons: they are so preoccupied in the actual procedure that they really don't know how to get involved and pro-active in the life changes that come as a result of what they accomplished.
I went back to the doctor's office several weeks ago, and I had all of my questions lined up: Is it normal to have a change in your drive after this surgery? Am I supposed to keep drinking the protein mixes? Is it okay to switch from Flinstones vitamins to adult chewables? You know, questions like that. Instead of the doctor, though, I got the nurse practitioner, and I got the feeling from her that she didn't finish that much school because she was that smart, but maybe instead she just worked really, really hard and promptly forgot everything as soon as the exam was over. I don't mean to be disrespectful to her, but I've met other professionals that just seemed to be rather, well, dim, but they were just willing to work hard enough to "get through it". After a couple of answers like, "Oh, don't worry about the vitamins anymore..." and such as that, I threw the rest of my questions out and figured that I would just do my own research. I just might be better off that way than taking what she said as gospel.
So what's new? I am freezing at night now. Night before last, I was shivering and shaking so much that my husband got up at two in the morning and got an electric blanket for me - in July, no less. I've always been the kind of person that could generate enough body heat to get through just about any temperatures, but now, now matter how many blankets, I can't even overcome the AC keeping the house at 72 degrees. That's not to say that I can't get overheated outside during the day, because that's not the case, either. It's mostly at night, and then I freeze like it's mid-winter in Minnesota or something.
Something else that is interesting is the lumpyness. It's not like cellulite, but when I rub my hands over my arms, I can feel a million tiny little bumps under my skin. Husband says that it is because the body doesn't lose weight evenly, but takes the fat from where it can most easily obtain it. He says that I will smooth out later, and I certainly hope so. While it's not something that you can see to look at me, it sure does feel weird.
I am starting to look too small for my skin, showing signs of droop and sag. The worst places are under my arms, where I am getting the "granny sag", and across the tops of my thighs, where you can see where the skin is starting to just hang there. I wanted to talk to my doctor about that, too, and ask him if there was something that I could do to minimize that and how much of it just time would take care of, but like I said earlier, I didn't trust the nurse practitioner to give me a thoughtfully considered response. (Please don't get me wrong - I've met nurses that I trusted more than the doctors, but she just wasn't one of them.) Anyway, I really, really want to try to avoid any more surgery unless I just have to, and my doc is one that just takes it as a matter of course that you must have more after your bypass to correct the skin issues, etc. Maybe you do, but I'd like to be really certain.
I am such a weenie. :)
One really nice side effect of this surgery is that everyone in the house has lost weight since I started being really careful about what I fix for us to eat. We still do the traditional sit-down dinner every night, so I have to make sure that whatever I fix is "safe" for me. My daughter has lost her baby fat belly, and my husband has lost about 40 or 50 pounds (but he's been dieting, too. He says that he doesn't want to be looked at as the fat slob with a skinny wife, so he works pretty hard at it.)
I am not going to have a blasted thing to wear when school starts. All of my clothes fit in one dresser drawer. It's a big drawer, but still... I can't shop ahead, either, because I have no idea what size I will be in by then. I have boxes and boxes of "fat clothes", and I have no idea exactly what I am going to do with them. I guess I need to find a consignment shop and throw them out. We've threatened to have a rummage sale, but I have more stuff than I could honestly expect to get rid of at just one sale.
I still get nauseated sometimes, especially when I eat too fast or try something new, but that is to be expected. I've lost my taste for sweets, which is really good since I can't eat them anymore. Even Splenda doesn't get it. Wild, huh?
Weight this January: 294
Weight at surgery: 274
Weight this morning: 218
Current size: 16/18
PS - a word about insurance... Blue Cross Blue Shield not only turned me down for this surgery back in October of last year, but they left me stuck with over $500 worth of doctor bills. I filed a grievance, and they had until December 2, 2006 to respond. I called several times even after I changed insurance companies to try to find out why I was never notified of their reasoning or response to my grievance, and finally about a month ago, I was told that they never acted on my grievance AT ALL. I filed a complaint with the state insurance commission, and then I called the state department of education. I figured that since they were the ones who negotiated the terms of my coverage, they might have an interest in BCBS's failure to respond and provide the coverage agreed upon in our contract. To make a long story short, it took the lady in the state department of education's insurance department fewer than two days to get that matter straightened right out, and and I should have a refund check from my doctor's office within a day or so. The letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield informed me that "an administrative decision" had been made to go ahead and pay the claim. I sure wish my current insurance company would sue them for the cost of the surgery, too.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Day 17
Today was a good day, it really was. I made sure that I got my protein in first thing in the morning, then it was off to work. I put in a full day, came home, planted some flowers, cooked supper for the family, cleaned house, folded some clothes, and then watched about an hour of a DVD that came in the mail from Netflicks. I managed to stay up until about 9:30 without any problem, too.
Three different people came up to me today to tell me that I look like I have lost weight. Nice, but I'm not any lighter than I was when I started back to work. I thought that I would be since I am definitely moving around a lot more, but it hasn't worked out that way. Still, it's been almost twenty pounds since my surgery for a total of forty pounds since Christmas break. Only a hundred pounds left to go. (only a hundred - har har har...)
Breakfast: protein mix and skim milk
Lunch: Chef Boy-R-Dee ravioli cup
Snack: 6 pretzel sticks
Supper: 1/2 quesadilla and two tablespoons western-style rice
Three different people came up to me today to tell me that I look like I have lost weight. Nice, but I'm not any lighter than I was when I started back to work. I thought that I would be since I am definitely moving around a lot more, but it hasn't worked out that way. Still, it's been almost twenty pounds since my surgery for a total of forty pounds since Christmas break. Only a hundred pounds left to go. (only a hundred - har har har...)
Breakfast: protein mix and skim milk
Lunch: Chef Boy-R-Dee ravioli cup
Snack: 6 pretzel sticks
Supper: 1/2 quesadilla and two tablespoons western-style rice
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