Weigh in Tuesday

It's Tuesday April 29th and it has been two weeks since my gastric by-pass surgery. Since this is the first Official weight in I will post a few stats from the past.


October 2007 - 335 lbs. BMI 49.4 Extremely Obese


February 2008 - 327 lbs BMI 48.2 Extremely Obese


April 2008 - 317 lbs BMI 46.8 Extremely Obese


Surgery Day April 15th 317 lbs BMI 46.8 Extremely Obese


Tuesday April 29th 2008 294 lbs BMI 43.4 Extremely Obese

My first real goal is to get down to 270 lbs, that is when my BMI will move into the Obese catagory and out of the extremely obese catagory.

Coping with Loss

It’s Sunday again, I have had a tough week. I am very weepy and emotional, lots of feelings of loss and a great desire to eat things that I cannot.

I started to feel better yesterday and I have a good feeling about today. Food is becoming less of an obsession and I am starting to think about what I eat as fuel for my body. I still have times when I am sad about not being able to have something I want and I’m sure it will be that way for a while.

I am going to write just a bit about the feeling of loss. Food, it seems, was my best friend. Always there when I needed it to comfort me, help me celebrate my joys and accomplishments and even to help combat loneliness. I’ve lost my best friend.

Now you may say what about your real friends… It seems I may have lost them too for at least the immediate future. They seem to be afraid of the limitations I am living with at the moment. I live about an hour away from most of my friends and family since I moved last fall. Most of the activities we do together have always revolved around food and the transition is gong to be tough. It will be up to me to make sure that they are comfortable and to see that It’s okay if they have the hamburger while I have the yogurt.

I worked in my garden yesterday and some time this week I will be planting peas, broccoli, and tomatos. I bought all of the plants already started in pots; I do not do well with starting things from seed.

Today I am going to take a ride to the bookstore to find something to read. It’s hard to watch TV with all the food commercials and even the radio can drive you nuts. I have some CD’s that I like very much and some needlepoint to work on. SO I’m sure with all of that I can keep myself busy without over doing it.

My husband keeps getting upset with me for trying to do to much (especially the garden work) and I’m trying to keep him happy too.

I am definitely losing weight. In October at the weight center I weighed 335 lbs one the day of Surgery 4-15, I weighted 317 lbs, This morning just shy of two weeks from surgery I weight 295 lbs.

From this point forward I am going to post my weigh ins on Tuesdays if each week.

headaches and flowers

I got flowers yesterday from the people that I work with, they are lovely. Really brightened up a less then cheerful day. I seem to be in a funk. I have a headache that is reminiscent of a hangover headache I had back in my college days. I think it’s because I’m not drinking enough water and I might be getting a little dehydrated. So today my goal is to sip, sip, sip, all day long.

I am getting really tired of protein drinks and clear liquids. I can’t wait to be able to eat something, even a yogurt sounds like a delicacy at this point.

Tonight is the post-op support group meeting that I go to. It’s a good thing I really need to go.

Beautiful Sunday

It’s Sunday morning and all is well. I came home from the hospital on Thursday night and I feel remarkably good all things considered. I was able to go to Wal-Mart on Friday and stop at the grocery store (all with hubby) he did all the work I just got my walking in. Then Friday night we went for a ride to the Chicopee BJ’s to buy our outdoor patio furniture. We had picked out the furniture months ago and waited until all the BJ’s were sold out of what we wanted. After several phone calls we found one set in Chicopee. Hubby spent Saturday setting it up (some assembly required). He also set up the new canvas gazebo. Hopefully today it will get warm enough for us to go and sit out there for a while.

I’m still taking the pain meds but only one pill now instead of two. I gained 8 pounds while I was in the hospital and they are coming off slowly. This morning I was still up 5 pounds from the surgery day. I’m doing all the liquids and nothing even remotely solid. Following all the instructions and wishing I could have something crunchy or chewy. Only 2 more weeks before I can have anything even close to that. Not hungry though…

Friday I bought a mini ice cube tray and I have been making flavored ice cubes with crystal light and left over coffee. I have several flavors to pick from now and it’s good to have something to chew on, they also mix up nice in the blender with my CIB and protein powders. I’ve come up with some interesting flavors. (Chocolate raspberry, mocha., vanilla raspberry with white chocolate.) I have a variety of flavored syrups and now flavored ice cubes. All no calories.

Today my kids and grand babies are all coming for dinner. I put a pot roast in the crock pot late last night with some potato’s and veggies. They will be on their own as far as serving and clean up are concerned. But it feels good to be able to put a dinner together for all of them. Hopefully I won’t be too jealous while they are eating.

Daughter is on school vacation this week and we will spend some quality time together trying to find her a prom dress. I can’t drive but she can so she can drive me around and we will find her a dress for the prom.
I hope to start puttering around in my garden and maybe get some peas planted later this week

I am home

This has been an interesting week for me. I left the house for the hospital at 4:30AM on Tuesday morning, arrived just before 5:30am. My surgery was set for a 7:30 start time and I would say that it started right on time. I remember waking up in recovery and feeling pretty sore around my belly and very tired, it was hard to keep my eyes open. So I slept for some time in recovery before they moved me to my room. I saw my mom and my husband about 5PM in my room and they looked relieved to see me.

They sent me home from the hospital about 7PM on Thursday night. I feel very good, still some soreness in my belly around the biggest incision site. The pain meds are helping a lot with that. Yesterday (Friday I went for a ride to the grocery store with my husband to get some needed items for the house. I was fine as long as I could push the carriage and I had something to hold on to. The doctor said it is good if I can get up and walk a lot to try and get some of the gas moving out of my system. When I got tired I went and sat in the car and waiting for hubby to finish up.

The weather was beautiful yesterday up in the 70’s and the sun was out all day. I want to be able to sit outside when the weather is good like that. I asked hubby and son to please get the patio furniture assembled for me today so I have a comfortable place to sit. We bought the furniture a while ago just haven’t put it together yet.
Feels like another great day on the horizon. The sun is out and I feel remarkably good. Very little pain and gas left. Now if someone could explain how I could have possibly gained 8 pounds this week I would really appreciate it. I am actually up 8 pounds since the morning before the surgery. Oh well, onward and downward I say!!!

5:30am

It’s finally here, the big day. I just got the call from the hospital and I need to be there at 5:30am. I’m the first surgery of the day.

I sat here to write about my day of clear liquids and hunger pains but the phone kept ringing with well wishes from family and friends. I’ve been on the phone for an hour and now it is just about time for bed. The hospital is an hour from home so I will need to be up very early.

I’ll be home on Saturday and I’ll try to post a message then. Enjoy the week!

A different Outlook

I work at a college located in a good size city in Massachusetts. The neighborhood is what you might call inner city, not the best neighborhood. As I drove though this neighborhood to the parking lot I use I took the time to really notice things that I might have missed before as I drove through on “auto pilot”.

An elderly Asian man riding a bicycle waved and smiled at me as I drove by him; ten feet up the road was a man dressed in many layers of clothing pushing a shopping cart full of returnable bottles, just across the street were several college students walking to class from their off campus apartments. What a mix of people to see on the same street. Then I noticed that the students had cans for the man with the shopping cart. I also saw young children walking to the neighborhood grammar school and lots of employees driving and walking to the places on campus where they work. Even the squirrels are out and running around today. It looks like spring is just around the corner.

All kinds of people are in this inner city neighborhood and it would be easy to see the grime and rubbish lining the streets on the outskirts of campus, a homeless man pushing a shopping cart, an old man on a bike and kids, both college aged and young ones on their way to school. But today I seemed to see it differently; I saw it as a neighborhood with real people with real lives, interacting with each other. It’s hard to put in words but it made me feel good about working here in this part of town. Spring is in the air and life is good.

All is well

Pre-Op testing went great. I am all set for admission into the hospital on April 15th. My tooth is another story. I had the root canal, post build up and a crown lengthening done two days ago. The pain is bad, still on pain meds. I sure hope this starts to get better quickly.

I will be meeting my daughter and grandchildren for lunch today at a restaurant near my place of employment. It's going to be a great day!

Root Canal and Pre-op testing

Last week I had the misfortune of breaking a tooth. I went to see the dentist and he did what he could to make me somewhat comfortable. I had an appointment to go back to see him this coming Thursday for a root canal but the tooth is really bothering me and he had a cancellation so I am going today. I hope that after he is done today it will not hurt anymore.

Tomorrow is pre-op testing for my upcoming surgery. My only concern is any weight gain I may have had in the past few weeks. I know that I haven't lost any more weight but if I have gained the surgeon could send me back to the nutritionist and delay the surgery. I have been doing a clean liquid diet since Sunday just to try and get the numbers down a little bit. Wish me luck.

Rainy and dismal day here in the northeast the only up side is that it's actually pretty warm out. It should reach 65 degrees today. Spring is definitely coming.