Update...

It has been four and half months since I had my surgery. To date I have lost approximately 90 pounds and have gone from a size 26 (3-4x) to a size 16 (XL). I couldn’t be happier about my progress, I never though in August that I would be in a size 16 by December.

Last night when I went to buy new jeans, I took a size 18 to the dressing room and couldn’t believe they were big. I stood there and actually contemplated going out and getting a size 16, because I couldn’t believe it was possible. When I tried the 16’s on I almost cried. I know that sounds strange, unless you’ve been big your whole life, it’s hard to explain the feeling of fitting into a regular size. I’ve never been a size smaller then 20 before and 16 just seem so strange and new.

I am struggling a bit with the emotional side of losing so much weight. When I look into the mirror, I still see that size 26 girl staring back at me. Logically I know I’ve lost weight and that I’m smaller, but it’s hard to get my head around it.

4 Mionths out...

It’s been a while since I’ve thought about this blog. It’s funny because before the surgery, it’s all you can think about and then after, you just want to get back to normal and live your everyday life. I guess that’s what I’ve been doing.

I love my sleeve, I’m almost 4 months out and I’m down 70 pounds. I starting see the effects of being on such a low caloric diet though. My iron is really low and so now along with having to take a multivitamin for the rest of my life I have to take iron too. Small price to pay I know, but I hate taking pills on the regular. Being low in iron though is awful, I mean forget the fact that you’re so tired you can sleep 10 hours every night and still want to keep sleeping, but the hair loss and the skin issues suck. I’m still waiting for my iron stores to increase enough to fix these problems.

I’m surprise though how little I eat now and how well I’ve adjusted to that. I still get head hunger sometimes, but I’ve learned to recognize that and it’s not difficult to get under control. Eating now doesn’t control me…I control it and that feels great.

I would recommend this surgery to anyone, who has been struggling with their weight their whole life. I feel free from food and I’m so much happy for it.

New Beginning...

After a crazy few weeks, I can finally say I’m doing great and am almost back to normal. Up until this point I haven’t really been up to sitting at a desk long enough to write anything in length. Before the surgery, I actually, though I would be back to work and my life after 2 weeks, but boy was I wrong. The surgery itself went great. My stomach hasn’t given me much trouble and I’m happy to say that in total I have already lost 40 pounds. Anyone who says this is the easy way out though is crazy. This has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

I have been off for 5 weeks and I’m finally returning to work. I had a lot of problems with one of my surgical sites, that caused so much pain I though it was never going to go away, but after a lot of pain killers and anti-inflammatories, I can finally say I’m over the worst and ready to start my new life.

Post-op update...

I know this one is late, but to be honest this surgery has been harder then I thought it would be, at least I can now say I'm on the other side. I had lost 20 pounds on the 3 week liquid diet and another 10 pounds since surgery. It's a lot I know and I'm happy about it, but wow what a process to get here so far.

As I said the surgery was harder then I thought, I was a day longer in the hospital then I expected, bring my stay to 4 days. I was really nauseous the first few days and I had a fever and high pulse, all of which contributed to the extra night. I'm doing better now and keeping down everything I'm eating. I still have pain though and that's annoying, I would have thought by now the pain would be gone and I'm so looking forward to when it is.

I'm still not feeling quite like myself right now and just taking it day by day.

Pre-op and sleep study...

Yesterday I went for my pre-op and internists appointment and found out that they needed me to do a sleep study. I looked at them and said that’s nice, but I leave for my vacation on Saturday and when I get back, I’ll be having my surgery. That left them two nights to squeeze me into an appointment and guess what…they did…last night. It was the single worst experience of my life and I hope I never have to do one again. It felt like torture. I was soooo tired, yet I couldn’t get comfortable and fall asleep because of all the crap attached to me and when I finally did fall asleep they work me up 3 hours later, because it was time to go home…at 5:30 in the morning. Needless to say, with my lack of sleep, pending vacation, followed by my surgery I have not been too productive at work today. If I had been given advance warning regarding the sleep study I probably would have taken the day off, but less then 12 hours notice, didn’t give me much time to plan and research what I was in for.

On another note, the rest of my day yesterday, getting poked and prodded went well. It confirmed my suspension that I am in fact healthy and just over-weight. I’m glad I’ve made this decision though, because as I was giving my family history of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol, I realized that it’s only a matter of time before I fall into those categorize too, if I don’t do something now.

7 days in, 7 pounds down…

That’s right I am currently losing at a rate of a pound a day and let me tell you it certainly helps keep me going. Being on a liquid diet is hard, there is no doubt about it, but seeing the scale go down helps motivate me to keep going.

I have 2 weeks left and then it is my surgery. I can’t believe how fast it is approaching. I’m trying not to think about it and just focusing on getting through this liquid diet phase. Next week I’m on vacation and I fear it’s going to make it harder. At least at work I have a distraction, but on weekends, it’s easy to obsess and think of food constantly. I would imagine the week off would be the same, but hopefully because I will be up at the cottage I will be to busy having fun, swimming and hiking...fingers crossed!

Day 4 of Shakes...

Well I am near the end of my 4th day of my liquid diet. I feel like I am doing better then the first few days. I was a bit bitchy, tired and over all irritable, but now I can say that currently that is behind me. Other then that I seem to have waves of emotional turmoil, I feel like I'm on the verge of a ball. Although I haven't cried yet, I feel like its right there and can happen at anytime. I guess we’ll see what happens…