I have made it to the other side!

I would like to begin with a humongous  "Thank You" for all of the great inspirational comments yesterday.  My surgery went well.  I had the whole nursing staff in same-day surgery to myself.  It was great.  To those of you who don't remember, I was the first bariatric patient of this particular hospital.  My surgeon has done thousands, but just a new location.  The whole staff of the hospital had to come and see how I was feeling, and make sure everything was going well. 

I went to the hospital at 9am, I was in surgery by 10:30.  I don't remember going into the OR with any of my other surgeries.  I was wheeled in very awake, moved to the other bed and let them tie me down.  Next thing I know I am in recovery.  I was so tired.  I kept falling asleep.  I ended up getting home at about 4pm.  I went to bed at 7:30. 

For pain meds, I asked te dr. if I could have something in pill form, as I can't handle liquid medication.  He prescribed Dilaudid for pain.  It is a very small pill.  The pain hasn't been unbearable.  I am walking well, but getting up and down is still sore especially the port area. 

The surgeon chose the standard Lapband AP.  I am doing well on Clear liquids today and start full liquids tomorrow. 

Surgery Day!

I leave in about an hour to go to the hospital.  I am excited and NERVOUS.  My mom made it in safely last night.  The kids will enjoy her being here and they will let me heal.  I didn't sleep really well last night.  Oh well, that is to be expected. 

Next time I post, I will have crossed over!

The Before, The Bad, and The Ugly

I thought that since my surgery is set for tomorrow, I needed to post some before pictures.  I am not happy with the looks of these, but I do feel that they are a fair intrepretation of how I currently look.  I am really hoping that this band works for me.  

 

I have also taken some Amy W. style pictures, but I am not brave enough to post them here.  Maybe if I get skinny, I won't have any trouble comparing. 

I am nervous about tomorrow, but also excited.  My mother will be arriving this afternoon to help me (by cooking for my family I bet... she probably thinks I will starve them).  It is my last day at work.  I hope that I stay busy, although the Court that I had scheduled got continued so I have a free afternoon.  That probably isn't a good thing as my mind tends to wander. 

I purchased a Wii Fit for my birthday.  I have been very happy with what I have done with it.  It seems that the whole family is having a good time with it.  I am thinking that the stepping will be good post surgery to get me moving as I don't want to try and walk and get to far and have trouble getting home. 

I will leave you all today with the photo of me that truly influenced me that I needed to do something about my weight.  This picture has not been seen by anyone except my husband and myself, but I think that it is a great before intrepretation.  This picture was taken last summer.  Yuk!

Confused!

So I had a great weekend.  I walked around all day Saturday with my husband and boys and a lot of our scouting friends.  It was great to see friends that I haven't seen in a while.  There were about 25,000 boy scouts at this event!  The boys had fun. I re-discovered how hard it is to push a stroller in tall grass.  The confusing problem I am having is that I am on my pre-op diet.  I did not waiver from it all weekend.  (Boy did I get the looks when I had my protein shake for lunch at camp)  We walked and walked for about 9 hours.  It was 90+ degrees.  Here is my problem...  When I left for this weekend, I weighed 188.  I came home weighing 192.  WTF!??   That would only put me 3lbs down on pre-op diet.  I don't get it.  Oh well... getting really excited.  I only have 2 days of work this week.  My mother has left for her 3 day drive home to stay with me. (It wouldn't take 3 days if she didn't stay at the casinos, here's to hoping she does well as always!)  She will arrive tomorrow evening.  I almost have the house completely clean.  I went to Wal-mart yesterday and bought toilet paper, dishwasher tabs, trashbags, and laundry detergent.  That should tide me over for a bit of being out of commission!

BYOC

1. If you could live anywhere in the world - where would it be and why?


I have lived in Australia & Indonesia.  I have lived in Hawaii.  I have to say I like the good ol midwest the best!  Nothing against the Australians on here, but I really didn't like Australia.



2. How old were you when you got drunk for the 1st time?

I was 15.  We were living in a "company town" on the island of New Guinea on the Indonesian side.  The teenagers had nothing else to do.  Unfortunately, my "friends" left me on my parents couch.  I don't remember walking home!



3. What was your favorite toy growing up?

I had a little arcade frogger game.  It looked like a real arcade game only smaller.



4. What's your favorite season and why?

I love fall.  Something about the crisp air and the smell of the leaves



5. Repeat question....which blog or comment spoke to you or stuck with you the most this week?

 I really love all the blogs I follow, I can't pick one this week

TGIF!

I have again made it to the weekend with this pre-op diet.  It is getting easier and more tolerable.  I haven't even thought about looking at the vending machine at work!  Today however, we have a staff meeting in which our bosses will be buying in lunch.  I wasn't sure how I was going to handle that situation, so I took the afternoon off, so that I could say I had to leave before the eats.  It's my birthday and we are heading out of town, so I guess it all works out then. 

On the homefront, we are preparing for our trip this weekend.  I have all my protein shakes packed and ready to go.  I just can't seem to believe that my surgery will be next week.

I have been working really hard to get all of my work ahead before I leave for a couple of days.  I have only taken off for Wed (surgery day), Thurs, and Fri.  I am planning on going back on Monday if I feel like it.  If not I will call in sick I guess.  My work is pretty flexible about that.  I do however need to work on Tuesday.  I have a couple of kids in Court, and my co worker can't seem to handle the workload if I am not there.  I am not too concerned though if I am not back, and if I don't feel like it I won't be.  I handled 10 kids in Court one afternoon when she was out for gall bladder surgery (for 3 weeks!) without any problems a couple of weeks ago.  Guess that just makes me different!

One WEEK until I am banded!

I am really getting excited now.  This time next week, I will be getting ready to head to the hospital.  I am so ready for this.  The pre-op diet is getting easier.  I have lost 5 lbs on it so far.  I am still a little worried about traveling on the pre-op this weekend, but I will have to do it.  I already paid for the hotel, so I am going.  Actually it will be a lot of walking which will be good for me.  I can't believe how excited I am about letting someone cut me open.  That is really sick! 

I did get a call from my PCP yesterday stating that my labs that I did on Friday indicated that my liver enzimes were a little off wack.  Could that be this pre-op diet?  He took me off my cholesterol medication and will repeat labs in three weeks.  I will be banded then and maybe those labs will show that I don't need that med anymore? 

Well I had better get going... the husband has overslept again and I need to go wake him up.  Then, I need to get ready for work.  I start my day with the stinkiest client I have.  Yeah me!  I will make sure I am armed with the Oust!