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.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
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.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Day 79
I've been really tired the last couple of days, probably over a UTI that came from not drinking enough water. That's probably been my greatest challenge: the timing of nothing to drink for 30 minutes before or after meals. I get really thirsty sometimes before dinner, but I lose track of time afterwards and then find that it has been an hour and a half before I realize it.
Weight in January: 294
Weight this morning: 227
Weight in January: 294
Weight this morning: 227
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Day 40
Yeah, I know it's been a while since I've posted, but it's the end of the school year, and there really is no way to describe how busy and hectic it gets at this time for everyone that works in a school.
So what's new? Hmmm...
I'd been buying the protein mix from Wal-Mart because it was low in sugar (like 1 gram per serving) and no fat, but I had to quit drinking it once I realized that it was what was making sick in the mornings. I've switched over to something called "Edge" from CVS, and it seems to do the trick. I'm not sure what the difference it since the labels indicate the sugar content is about the same, but the Edge has less protein per serving and it doesn't make me nauseated. Go figure.
I've been working a regular schedule, and my surgical site doesn't hurt anymore. Still, I am prone to getting really tired by the time evening rolls around. Finally last night I went to bed around seven p.m., and I didn't get up this morning until almost six. Hopefully I'll be a lot more on top of things now.
Last week or two, I've managed to get all of my seeds planted and several flower beds done. I have a ton of crinum lilies coming that I bought via eBay, and I am pretty excited about getting them in the ground as they have the most beautiful blossoms.
I talked to a friend of mine at work yesterday, and it turns out that she had her stomach "done" several years ago by having her excess skin removed. The thought of having a band of 100 staples under the lower edge of my belly really didn't do a single thing to perk up my morale. What a surprise. :(
I do get hungry again and have for a couple of weeks now, but I am pretty easy to fill up. It's been pretty inconvenient trying to find options for lunch or dinner when I am away from home, but so far I've had a little luck sticking with McDonald's grilled chicken sandwiches without eating the bread - just the chicken and fixings with mustard instead of mayo. Same goes for Sonic's grilled chicken wrap - again with mustard instead of the ranch dressing. (There's no nutritional info on the dressing packet, so I am afraid to eat it.)
Weight last December: 294
Weight the day before surgery prep: 274
My weight this morning: 243
Clothing size: 22 (mostly)
So what's new? Hmmm...
I'd been buying the protein mix from Wal-Mart because it was low in sugar (like 1 gram per serving) and no fat, but I had to quit drinking it once I realized that it was what was making sick in the mornings. I've switched over to something called "Edge" from CVS, and it seems to do the trick. I'm not sure what the difference it since the labels indicate the sugar content is about the same, but the Edge has less protein per serving and it doesn't make me nauseated. Go figure.
I've been working a regular schedule, and my surgical site doesn't hurt anymore. Still, I am prone to getting really tired by the time evening rolls around. Finally last night I went to bed around seven p.m., and I didn't get up this morning until almost six. Hopefully I'll be a lot more on top of things now.
Last week or two, I've managed to get all of my seeds planted and several flower beds done. I have a ton of crinum lilies coming that I bought via eBay, and I am pretty excited about getting them in the ground as they have the most beautiful blossoms.
I talked to a friend of mine at work yesterday, and it turns out that she had her stomach "done" several years ago by having her excess skin removed. The thought of having a band of 100 staples under the lower edge of my belly really didn't do a single thing to perk up my morale. What a surprise. :(
I do get hungry again and have for a couple of weeks now, but I am pretty easy to fill up. It's been pretty inconvenient trying to find options for lunch or dinner when I am away from home, but so far I've had a little luck sticking with McDonald's grilled chicken sandwiches without eating the bread - just the chicken and fixings with mustard instead of mayo. Same goes for Sonic's grilled chicken wrap - again with mustard instead of the ranch dressing. (There's no nutritional info on the dressing packet, so I am afraid to eat it.)
Weight last December: 294
Weight the day before surgery prep: 274
My weight this morning: 243
Clothing size: 22 (mostly)
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Day 23
Today, I felt almost normal again, and I think that I may be reaching the end of my blog.
I don't hurt much anymore except for some tenderness and a little pain if I pick up something heavier than I should, but I have my energy back and I feel more like getting out and doing things like walking, shopping, etc.
Highest weight: 294
Weight before surgery: 274
Current weight: 253
I don't hurt much anymore except for some tenderness and a little pain if I pick up something heavier than I should, but I have my energy back and I feel more like getting out and doing things like walking, shopping, etc.
Highest weight: 294
Weight before surgery: 274
Current weight: 253
Monday, April 16, 2007
Day 20
I had several pretty good days in a row at the end of last week: Thursday and Friday both went really well. I had plenty of energy, and I got a lot done.
Saturday and Sunday were both grey, rainy old days, and it seemed like my energy level corresponded. I didn't get anything useful done at all on Saturday, and Sunday, I only managed to stay up for a couple of hours before I was back down for a nap. On the bright side, though, I did managed to get all of our tax info (talk about the last minute!) entered in and ready to file.
I found a new message board full of great information about having this surgery:
http://www.wlsbutterflynetwork.org/forums/index.php?act=SC&c=2
Saturday and Sunday were both grey, rainy old days, and it seemed like my energy level corresponded. I didn't get anything useful done at all on Saturday, and Sunday, I only managed to stay up for a couple of hours before I was back down for a nap. On the bright side, though, I did managed to get all of our tax info (talk about the last minute!) entered in and ready to file.
I found a new message board full of great information about having this surgery:
http://www.wlsbutterflynetwork.org/forums/index.php?act=SC&c=2
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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