One month down!

I had my one month appointment with Dr. Evanson and a dietician last Thursday. I was down 30 pounds - woohoo! Right where Dr. Evanson said he expected me to be. I will see me again in 3 months. I told him I want to be down 100 pounds total by Christmas. His exact words, "oh, no problem." Hopefully he's right. The excitement from the dietician appointment is that I can now have crackers and whole grain cereal - whoop whoop! Very exciting.

Did my first traveling and going out to eat this past weekend for Mary's graduation. Went very well. Took some lunch packs of tuna and chicken salad. Ordered cottage cheese one night and soup the next. Was easier than I thought. As of today, I am down 34 pounds, so at least I know I can travel and stay on program.

Went and saw Dr. Wunder, my family physician, Monday for a BP check. 126/90. Borderline. He told me he wasn't going to put me on anything right now, just watch it closely since we know I'm losing weight. I go back to him in 6 weeks. I was excited to stay off of meds.

That's about all from here. My jeans fit again, my rings fit again, and I'm under 300 lbs. Life is good!

2 weeks down!

It's been two weeks today since the surgery. As of this morning I'm down 25 pounds - I've gone from 328 to 303! Woohoo! I'm hoping to be down 40 by my one month check up with Dr. Evanson. We'll see. My jeans are still tight - ok, they were way tight before surgery, now they are just normal tight. :) My rings definitely fit better though....they were getting pretty snug. I have a tub of clothes in the basement that I could wear 5-6 years ago. Hopefully I can pull those out soon!

The eating is going well. I'm living on canned chicken and fresh fruit. It's getting a little boring, so I've been experimenting with spices and condiments and trying not to eat the same thing at every meal. When you only get to eat 6 ounces of food a day - you want to make it good right? The protein drink is the biggest bummer right now. It tastes ok, but I'm just getting so tired of it. Sometimes the thought of drinking another protein shake makes me want to gag. I'm headed to GNC soon to get some different flavors - hopefully the variety will help. They constantly stress how important it is to get the protein in, so I just keep plugging away at it. I'm used to being able to just chug my drinks down. It's frustrating to only be able to sip. I'm not getting in all of the fluids I should. Hopefully I'll get a routine down soon. I can definitely tell when I drink too much to fast - hurts my baby stomach.

I've had some questions on the type of surgery I had. It's called Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. I initially wanted to have the lap band done which is where they put a ring around your stomach to restrict how much food you can eat. The lap band is more easily reversed which is why I was leaning towards it. Dr. Evanson said he wouldn't do the lap band on me as it just isn't the right procedure for me. Reason being: The average person who has lap band loses about 50% of their excess weight where the average peron having RNY loses 75-90% of their excess weight. Well, being 180 pounds overweight, if I only lost 50% of that excess weight, I would still have been considered morbidly obese, thus it wouldn't have solved my problem. The RNY has greater success because it is restrictive like lap band in that you can't eat as much, but it's also causes malapsorbtion - since my food sees less intestine, less of the calories/fat/etc. are absorbed into my body. RNY is also reversible if I would ever need to have is reversed. I've attached a picture of what my stomach intestine looks like now. They don't remove the rest of my stomach. It still does some work - processes body fluids from other organs.

Ok, that's about all for this post. Thanks to everyone for your support!

Well, I did it! Had the surgery on Wednesday...came home from the hospital yesterday (Friday). I'm doing pretty good. I had quite a bit of nausea after the surgery and I'm still struggling with that, but it's getting better. I'm not at all hungry. It's so bizarre for me to not be able to finish my 2 oz meal! I'm also working on finding a protein drink that tastes ok. I bought some Slim Fast and some other premade drink at GNC - both of which aren't great. We can also mix 4 cups milk with 1 cup of dry milk for our protein drinks. That can be mixed with sugar free syrups and frozen fruit. I've been able to stomach that, so I think that's what I'm going to be using from now on.

Kevin has been great taking care of the kids and not asking me to do much since I've been home. It was also great to have my mom here while I was in the hospital so Kevin had some help with the kids and could also come and spend some time with me at the hospital.

I had gained 4 pounds in the hospital - from all of the fluids they were pumping into me. I go and see my surgeon again the first of May. He said he's expecting me to be down around 30 pounds by then. I sure hope so! My goal is to lose 100 pounds by Christmas.

More later....thanks for everyone's calls and e-mails of support!

It's here

It's late Monday night. Wednesday is my surgery. It seemed like so far away that I can't believe it's time. I'm done eating the old way. Tomorrow, the day before surgery, I have to eat a liquid diet in preparation. I'm nervous, excited, anxious, and most of all, ready for the surgery. It's time to get it over with and start losing weight. I'm posting some before pictures. Not very flattering in my black cami top, but I didn't want to try and hide in a big T-shirt. Hopefully wearing a smaller top will make my after pictures more impressive! Next time I write I'll be post-surgery and on the road to a lighter/healthier Sarah!

Ok, well, the surgery is set for April 2. Insurance has approved everything, I've had my psychological evaluation (I have an above average emotional attachment to food!) and I've scheduled my pre-op testing and 8 hour dietary class. Whew! I'm set to go. The surgery seems far away, yet 2 months is going to fly by. I hope I'm ready for the lifestyle changes that are about to happen. I'm going to miss some things - soda, ice cream, cookies, chips, etc, but I am so excited to start this weight loss journey. I saw a man on Dr. Phil yesterday who weighed 725 pounds! I know that could be me if I just kept on going the way I have been. No one thinks that they would ever let themselves get that big. But, I never thought I'd let myself get to 225 or 250 or 275 or (gulp!) 300, but here I am and I feel so good knowing that I'm going to start the trek down to a healthier weight. It is scary though and part of me (the doubting part of me) wonders if I'll ever get there. Is it possible for me to weigh less than 200 pounds? I haven't since middle school. I've been fat for so long that I'm comfortable in this body and I feel safe. It's kind of scary to leave what you know, even if you know it's for the better. Well, that's all of the thoughts I have for now. More later....