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Thursday, 19 September 2013
Four Week Checkup
Today I had my four week checkup with the nurse practitioner. I found out that since surgery I have lost thirty four pounds, since july 19th I have lost fourty eight pounds, and since two years ago when I started this journey, I have lost 69 pounds. WOW!!! I still can't believe it. Its been really hard at times, but I hope that the hard times are all over now and from here on it will be a steady up hill climb to a healthy me. I already feel healthier. I can see a difference in myself, but really only on top, that may sound funny but that's what I see. I can see that I have lost weight on my face and shoulders but the rest of me looks the same.( I told my friend that soon my head is going to look like a marble!) I know that is not true though, the weight loss part, not the marble part, because my measurements are changing. I have lost inches off my waist and stomach. We took the boys to a movie the other night and when you get to the weight I am (was!!) every chair in the world worries you. The ones with arms especially. Is it going to be tight and uncomfortable, are the booths going to be wide enough, and so on. The last movie I went to before my surgery was torture (for two reasons but I wont get into the irritating people behind me) the chair cut into my legs and hips so much that by the end of the movie I was in so much pain I could have cried. This movie experience was so much different. I had room to spare in the seat. So really not only my head and shoulders are shrinking, the rest of me is too. The only thing I find difficult is that I get so tired and I assume that is because I'm still on liquids yet. OH yeah!! I almost forgot, I get to eat today!!! Im sooooo excited! The dietition is supposed to be calling me soon to discuss how i can progress with my diet. I cant wait. It really does feel like forever. Its strange but since i have been on liquids for so long I needed an outlet, so my outlet has been the food network. I watch all the healthy cooking food shows I can find. I love cooking and preparing meals for my family and making sure that they are eating well. I guess its my little relief. So that is where i am in my journey... I will keep you updated! .JPG)
Friday, 13 September 2013
Four Week Update
On Monday it will be four weeks since my gastric sleeve surgery. Have things changed since then... oh yeah!! My life hardly resembles my old life already. I haven't had solid food since July 19th. I explained why my liquid phase was so long in my last blog (totally my fault, I take full responsibility) Normally you can start mushy foods on this day, (Monday that is) but i'm not starting until Thursday. This is because I have had a horrible week and I need time for my system to to bounce back after it all. For the first two weeks after I came home I felt great. I was losing weight, had way more energy, and felt amazing. It was shocking to me that clothes that were too small were were so quickly fitting me. In the second week I was able to give away a large box of clothes because it was just too big. (I owe this in part to the longer liquid diet phase) One morning I got up and said to the boys, "lets go to the playground", but instead of driving we walked both ways and it was great. Things were changing for the better. My family had decided to organize the red shoe crew walk for families in pasadena.
(my niece introduced this to us and we are so thankful that she did, check them out. www.OurHouseNL.ca, ) Me and Micah were out fundraising, walking door to door without the old sweating and wheezing and puffing. (and micah did such a good job and has already raised 55 dollars for this wonderful cause..JPG)
But then this week happened. At the beginning of this week I began to feel, for want of a better word, ikky. I was tired and had a pain in my stomach that wasn't there before. Then the pain happened every time I drank or ate (actually still technically drinking, I was only eating soup, completely liquid soup) My first thought was oh my gosh something is wrong. I put up with the pain for a day and still managed to get most of my fluids and protein in. Then I had a night where I was awake all night with horrible acid reflux. I told myself my troubles are all stemming from this. On Wednesday night things all came to a head. I was up breathing fire, my stomach was hurting, my back was paining and my mind was racing. Oh my gosh I knew for sure that i had torn my sleeve and now my stomach contents were seeping out into my body. I remembered that earlier in the week I was doing laundry and a piece of clothes got tangled around the agitator and I had to lean way over the side of the washer and pull on the stubborn shirt. when I did I had hurt my self a little. well that was it, laundry had destroyed my sleeve! I knew I hated laundry for a reason! On Wednesday morning I called the bariatric team and told the nurse how i was feeling and she suggested that I head on in to emerg and check it out. Well the doctor didn't seem too concerned, gave me some gravol and sent me on my way with the advice to certainly come back if I got a fever or was throwing up. So I went home. I managed to spend the next night home. I was in pain, terrified, and not able to drink without getting very nauseated. On Thursday morning Bill went to work, by the time he got home he knew I needed to go back. Even though I knew needed to get to a hospital, I kept trying to pretend I didn't. I was hardly drinking, rocking myself on the couch, and crying. Around supper time it really all came to a head. I couldn't handle it any more... when i looked at my fluid journal I had gotten about three hundred mls in for the day, in a day i am supposed to get 2000 mls. At ten I wrote a girl that babysits for us and she agreed right away to come over even though it would be for the night. When I got to the hospital and saw how busy it was there at midnight I was really ready to walk out the door! But I didn't, So I went to the waiting room and waited. I was in so much pain that i couldn't stand it. I began walking up and down the hall hoping that it would relieve it some how. After three hours I started crying. (embarrassing) but i just couldn't help it. When the nurse came I was sniviling down at the end of the hall, like a baby! So I finally got inside and the doctor quickly ordered that I be hooked up to an iv for fluids and pain meds (insert a choir singing HALELUJAH!!!) .JPG)
My blood pressure was 95/35 and then the next time it was 87/42... scary! The pain was subsiding but the vomiting wasn't... ughhh. So the doctor finally came back and said that my blood work was perfect, and my ex-rays were as well he was waiting on one more test before he sent me home. (my pee test) Thankfully again my pillar of strength was by my side... hee hee..JPG)
My urine test showed that I was very dehydrated and also that I had a bad water infection So thankfully my stomach was not leaking, no major issues, no reason to freak out, regret my surgery, and cry for hours. Time wasted. At 6 am I left the hospital hydrated and almost pain free.
On a side note something happened while at the hospital that night. CNN was on the television in the waiting room and they were discussing the situation in Russia. The broadcasters were discussing the Russian president and his followers and his main demographic being women who were fifty plus years old. They showed a picture of him with no shirt on saying that the reason he takes pics like this is for his voters...his target voters. One of the women news casters said... "I mean all of his voters are fifty plus women", then another one of the other bright broadcasters said "exactly hes playing up to all these chubby fifty year old women." WHAT!!! Chubby fifty year old women?? When I was watching this I was in pain, crying a little and in no mood to watch the news, but I sat upright (from my slumped position) looked at Bill and said "tell me that woman did not say chubby". I was disgusted. I, at that moment lost respect for the woman speaking and then also lost a little respect for CNN... I sputtered on for a few more minutes before I slumped in pain again. The word offended me...I was offended for the Russian women who were lumped in the category of chubby, and I was offended chubby women who were lumped in a category of being stupid enough to vote for someone simply because he took his shirt off for them, this causing them to ignore his policies just following along like dumb sheep because their chubby little brains could only see the shirtless man. Really CNN... really???
So that's how my week has gone.
(my niece introduced this to us and we are so thankful that she did, check them out. www.OurHouseNL.ca, ) Me and Micah were out fundraising, walking door to door without the old sweating and wheezing and puffing. (and micah did such a good job and has already raised 55 dollars for this wonderful cause..JPG)
But then this week happened. At the beginning of this week I began to feel, for want of a better word, ikky. I was tired and had a pain in my stomach that wasn't there before. Then the pain happened every time I drank or ate (actually still technically drinking, I was only eating soup, completely liquid soup) My first thought was oh my gosh something is wrong. I put up with the pain for a day and still managed to get most of my fluids and protein in. Then I had a night where I was awake all night with horrible acid reflux. I told myself my troubles are all stemming from this. On Wednesday night things all came to a head. I was up breathing fire, my stomach was hurting, my back was paining and my mind was racing. Oh my gosh I knew for sure that i had torn my sleeve and now my stomach contents were seeping out into my body. I remembered that earlier in the week I was doing laundry and a piece of clothes got tangled around the agitator and I had to lean way over the side of the washer and pull on the stubborn shirt. when I did I had hurt my self a little. well that was it, laundry had destroyed my sleeve! I knew I hated laundry for a reason! On Wednesday morning I called the bariatric team and told the nurse how i was feeling and she suggested that I head on in to emerg and check it out. Well the doctor didn't seem too concerned, gave me some gravol and sent me on my way with the advice to certainly come back if I got a fever or was throwing up. So I went home. I managed to spend the next night home. I was in pain, terrified, and not able to drink without getting very nauseated. On Thursday morning Bill went to work, by the time he got home he knew I needed to go back. Even though I knew needed to get to a hospital, I kept trying to pretend I didn't. I was hardly drinking, rocking myself on the couch, and crying. Around supper time it really all came to a head. I couldn't handle it any more... when i looked at my fluid journal I had gotten about three hundred mls in for the day, in a day i am supposed to get 2000 mls. At ten I wrote a girl that babysits for us and she agreed right away to come over even though it would be for the night. When I got to the hospital and saw how busy it was there at midnight I was really ready to walk out the door! But I didn't, So I went to the waiting room and waited. I was in so much pain that i couldn't stand it. I began walking up and down the hall hoping that it would relieve it some how. After three hours I started crying. (embarrassing) but i just couldn't help it. When the nurse came I was sniviling down at the end of the hall, like a baby! So I finally got inside and the doctor quickly ordered that I be hooked up to an iv for fluids and pain meds (insert a choir singing HALELUJAH!!!) .JPG)
My blood pressure was 95/35 and then the next time it was 87/42... scary! The pain was subsiding but the vomiting wasn't... ughhh. So the doctor finally came back and said that my blood work was perfect, and my ex-rays were as well he was waiting on one more test before he sent me home. (my pee test) Thankfully again my pillar of strength was by my side... hee hee..JPG)
My urine test showed that I was very dehydrated and also that I had a bad water infection So thankfully my stomach was not leaking, no major issues, no reason to freak out, regret my surgery, and cry for hours. Time wasted. At 6 am I left the hospital hydrated and almost pain free.
On a side note something happened while at the hospital that night. CNN was on the television in the waiting room and they were discussing the situation in Russia. The broadcasters were discussing the Russian president and his followers and his main demographic being women who were fifty plus years old. They showed a picture of him with no shirt on saying that the reason he takes pics like this is for his voters...his target voters. One of the women news casters said... "I mean all of his voters are fifty plus women", then another one of the other bright broadcasters said "exactly hes playing up to all these chubby fifty year old women." WHAT!!! Chubby fifty year old women?? When I was watching this I was in pain, crying a little and in no mood to watch the news, but I sat upright (from my slumped position) looked at Bill and said "tell me that woman did not say chubby". I was disgusted. I, at that moment lost respect for the woman speaking and then also lost a little respect for CNN... I sputtered on for a few more minutes before I slumped in pain again. The word offended me...I was offended for the Russian women who were lumped in the category of chubby, and I was offended chubby women who were lumped in a category of being stupid enough to vote for someone simply because he took his shirt off for them, this causing them to ignore his policies just following along like dumb sheep because their chubby little brains could only see the shirtless man. Really CNN... really???
So that's how my week has gone.
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