3rd Day In

I had my surgery Monday and today is Thursday. The surgery went well. I woke up in some pain. There is a gas pain that some people get in their left shoulder. I was prepared for it and sure enough I woke up with it. The first thing I said was "oh no, i got "the pain"' I woke up in recovery and i had a mask on for oxygen and I ripped it off. The nice nurse told me that I needed to keep it on and I said "slightly claustrophobic." He laughed and gave me a oxygen nose tube instead. My belly hurts. I got dry heaves my first day and it hurt so bad!!! that so far was the worst thing of all of this.

I have been resting and sleeping most of the day. I have weighed myself already. Scott thinks I am crazy for doing it, but I had to see. I have already lost 13 lbs. Yay!!! I am hoping to be under 200 lbs by the end of the week.

What am I eating? I am eating sugar free low fat vanilla yogurt, chicken broth, jello, and protein shakes. I eat three meals a day and two protein shakes, or at least I am supposed to. I have not been able to eat all of that in one day yet. My nutritionist called this morning to check on me and I told her I have not been able to fit it all in and she lectured me. So I am doing good today so far.

What am I doing besides sleeping? Walking. Walks make me feel much better. I am up to 20 minute walks. I am going to be at 30 minutes by Saturday. The walks help the gas pains.

I am feeling good and can't wait to see the scale move more!!!!

Liquid Diet

Tomorrow is the big day. I have been on a liquid diet for the past two days. What have I eaten, hardly anything...

hot water mixed with the packets from top ramen noodles. (had that twice)

strained chicken noodle soup, so basically just chicken broth. As I was straining it I kept thinking "canned chicken noodle soup has never looked so good". I wanted to eat those noodles and carrots.

and that was all I ate. lots of water and sugar free lemonade.

What was my last meal? Sukara Japanese steak house. One of the hardest things to eat after a band is rice. So I went and ate my last rice dish with lobster and scallops. It was so yummy. Then I topped it off with a bunch of twizzlers and oreos and cherry dr. pepper. It was all so yummy!

My life changes tomorrow. I have taken my before picture. I will post it when I am ready to post my first "after" picture.

Two More Days....

So I just have two more days until surgery. I go in at 8am Monday morning. I can't wait. I am very nervous for this weekend.....all clear liquid diet. Jello and broth and that will actually be my diet for the next two weeks. I am most nervous for this weekend though. I am having my last big feast tonight. Don't know what it will be, but I am sure oreos will be involved and a dr. pepper.

I will post before pic on Monday or Sunday. an official before shot. Then hopefully my next post after that will be of my good news progress report. I am just so glad this day is coming finally. It has been a long wait, but I know it will be all be worth it.

Before Pics.....

I have been browsing around on some support groups and found some great before and after pics of people that have had success with their surgery. I am so motivated by their before and after pics. I can't wait to have some great after pics, for now I am going to post some terrible before pics so some will see why I am so urgent to have the surgery:

that is my big gut......I had some gross butt shots too but I will spare you!

It is Approved and it is Official!!!!

The office called on the 23rd and said they would send my packet into insurance, despite my elevated thyroid levels. My last post stated that I thought my surgery would not get approved because of it. I had not heard back from the surgeons office since February 23rd so I was getting very nervous as to why I had not heard back. I kept thinking "no news is bad news" instead of the other way around.

I emailed my mediator/liaison on Friday and asked how long it takes to hear back from tricare for approval. She said the average is two weeks. I told her it had been three weeks and she said not to worry, give it another week or two. Urghhh!!!

So I got online and emailed some of my banded buddies on two support groups that I belong to. I asked if anyone had tricare and how long it takes to hear back from them....I got a bunch of replies and read some posts that it only took four days to a week to hear back and get a date.....urghhhh again!!!!!

So I called the office today and asked what the status of my approval was. They said that they were waiting for some labs to be done, my thyroid and pylori tests....I laughed in frustration! I said that I had already had the tests done and that the lasts time we talked it was in reference to my test results. I asked if they had sent the packet in or not. She said wait a minute, turned a page in my file and said, "oh yeah, it was sent in and you were approved. we will keep your date of April 20th if that is fine with you." Wow!!! I am approved and have an official date!!! yay!! Anyone who has kept up with my blog knows how long I have been waiting for this.

The part I am most looking forward to the week of my surgery is to be with Scott. He is out of town for a month, then I am leaving town, then he is leaving town, then I leave town again. We will not be reunited until April 19th. Then he is going to take the week off for my surgery. I am looking forward to being with him that week. And very much looking forward to the change this will make in my life.

I will be in Arizona before my surgery and I will need to start my liquid diet while I am there. My mom plans to do it with me. I know she is nervous for me to get the surgery and wants me to try to do this on my own without surgery, so it means a lot to me that she is going to support me while I am visiting her.

April 20th.......Only 35 days away!!!!!

Might Not Happen

I know I just post good news about April 20th, but now it might not happen. I just got a call from the surgeon's office and my lab work did not come back so great. My thyroid is not functioning right. I have to see my family Dr. before they will progress any further. I am ready to give up and just not do it. So much time and money invested. I am so tired. It has been a huge emotional roller coaster. What should I do now?

April 20th?????

I got my 2nd opinion on my psych consult and it went great, despite the kind of day I was having. I have been extremely emotional these past two months because of some events that have taken place in the last two months. So every time I get in the car by myself I start to cry as my mind thinks about tragedy, death and loss. When I dropped my kids off with my friend to watch so I could go to my psych appointment, I told her I was going to listen to only fun uplifting music on my drive and repeat positive thoughts so when I arrived for my appointment I would be calm and not walk in with blood shot eyes from crying. My plan almost worked. when arrived in the parking lot at the Dr's office I got some really bad news about the death of my nephews' father. I was so sad for them and almost left the parking lot and just drove home. I knew there was no way I could go into the office in the state I was in. But I went ahead and went in. I knew I needed to just get this done. I had shuffled the kids off to different houses and the dr's was a little trip away, I had to just go in and hope for the best that I would pass my psych consult. So I disclosed all info to the dr as soon as I entered his office because he could tell I was emotional. He asked if I wanted to reschedule, I told him rescheduling was way too hard for me and asked him to just go through it and hope that I could compose myself. We got through it and he was very nice! He was very patient and understanding of my situation and passed me with flying colors.

I called the surgeons office a few days later to tell them to throw out the first psych consult and make sure only the 2nd one got sent in. They said they never even got a first one. That dr. I first saw three months ago never even sent in her eval.....what a flake. She was very weird. She was more concerned with billing when I met with her. She kept talking about how she was going to bill it to the insurance as two appointments because it takes her an hour to write up the eval. she seemed to just be doing it for the money and not really to help people.

I asked the office when they thought I would hear back from them about insurance approval and get a surgery date. They told me my packet was incomplete........What????? incomplete? I thought I was done! They said I had two blood tests that had to be submitted. But they did give me some good news. They said that they would be me on the calendar for April 2oth then that way when I got my blood tests done and they heard back from insurance with a yes then I would have a date already. So I went and got my blood tests a week ago and I am anxiously awaiting a phone call from the surgeons office. Then I will go for some more pre op tests and appointments and my surgeory will happen on April 20th!!! Yay!!! Scott has already asked work for that week off. We are being very hopeful. And we are already making plans for what we want to do that week that he is off as I am recovering. We are planning to watch all of the episodes of Lost from beginning to current. We love that show and have followed it from the beginning but we are LOST right now and need a refresher course.

Last night I was at the store with Scott and had my eye on a few swimsuits I liked that hopefully by the end of summer I will not look too terrible in. Hopefully by August I might feel comfortable pool side. I hope!!!