Quite the day so far!

It's only 3:30 or so and it's already been quite the busy day! I have off on Mondays now so I tried to squeeze every last thing in. I started the day getting new tires at the car dealership. They have comfy chairs and cold beverages while you wait so I was happy. I brought the second Twilight book "New Moon" and got a good chunk of that read.

I came home to eat lunch and then had my fill at 1:15. The NP got a new job out in Boston so this was my first fill with this surgeon. He is the partner of the surgeon who performed my band surgery. It went well, he found my port without a problem and mentioned he could feel the outline without a problem (to the resident who was with him). He was going to use lidocaine but I politely declined and it hurt less than a pinch this time. He gave me 2 more cc's to total 8 ccs in my 9 cc band. I'm more than a little concerned about where I'm going to go with my fills in a few months. I'm going to be FULL and then what?!!?!?! SERIOUSLY! I asked him if it was common to be at 6 ccs without much restriction and he sort of avoided the question. Basically said we'll just give me more and went about the procedure. I plan to ask and be more persistant about it next time.

So anywho.. I've not eaten anything yet but this had better be it... because where do I go from here if it's not? :(

After I got home from there I was inspired by my .4lb weightloss in one stupid month to go to the gym. I did cardio for 30 minutes and then took my measurements. I've lost some inches in several areas so that was encouraging. Also, I talked to the guy there about signing up for Boot Camp which starts on Wednesday. I'm considering it seriously. Something needs to give.

I'm so concerned about being 1 cc away from being FULL! WTF am I going to do :(

Weight Break-Down

I answered a post on LBT about progress in the first couple months and it really put things in perspective for me. I checked my weights according to my excel sheet I have and pre-op I lost 8 lbs. In the first month I lost 12 lbs and the second month I lost only 5 lbs.

I'm HAPPY with that when I break it down but when I compare it to everyone else that's done SO awesome I get jealous and think I haven't lost enough. I guess for me, I have. I have mentioned how I don't feel much restriction even after my two fills so the 5 lbs loss this month shouldn't (and isn't) be too surprising! I can still eat a LOT and I know that. Also, I don't get to the gym.... period. I have this lovely new gym membership right up the damn road but do I go?! Hellll no! Got to summon the motivation for that NOW!

Anyways, I have my third fill tomorrow at 1:15 so I'm hoping to feel something more this week. I would really like to jump start this weight-loss ... once again.

Pictures of ME at 2 months post-op :)

Side view :)

Front view!

And check that out! My big ol' pants!

These were all taken with hubby's iPhone cuz we can't locate the camera at this point, lol.

Two Months :)

Today is my 2 month "surgiversary" and I'm down 25 lbs since April 11 (day 1 of pre-op diet). I think I thought it would be greater but I'm pretty happy with this loss. It's more than 10% of my weight from when I began this and it's a LOT of weight! It averages out to about 2.5 lbs per week.

I'm going to put on the same clothes I wore on April 11th for pics and have Chris take some tonight for comparison.

The weekend was good. We went to visit my older brother and his family on Saturday and we grilled brats and corn on the cob and had watermelon for dessert. The 8 of us polished off an entire watermelon, haha, the kids went nuts! Thank god they were in swimsuits and went directly back into the water... what a mess!

From there, I met a friend at the movies and we saw "The Proposal" which was seriously cute! I finally got home at 12:30 that night.

Sunday we just relaxed, a LOT! We finally got our shit together and went grocery shopping and came home to cook dinner. Once we did cook (in the oven and on the stove) we realized our A/C wasn't kicking in. It was 77 in our house at that point. It finally kicked back in enough to cool us off sometime this morning but we called for a tune-up and they had us turn it off again, lol. The guy just called and he'll be here shortly. Tomorrow is supposed to be a scorcher with a high of 93 so thank goodness we called today!! ICK!

I'll hopefully be back soon to post pictures!

New Clothes

I bought a few new pairs of capris and bermudas (three total) to see about getting me through summer. I purposely bought in a size 18 which is 2-3 sizes smaller than where I started. I wanted them to be tight now but fit all through summer and not wind up falling off by summer's end. Well, they arrived today. They FIT! Like, no laying on the bed to button fit! As in, barely had to suck it in fit! HOLY HELL! I wore a size 22 to work today! I have a few 24s still in rotation that aren't completely falling off.. so the thought of fitting into these 18s was basically this, "hmm, not gonna happen!"

Did I mention I cried? My shirts still fit the same but just baggy in the belly area. My tatas need to shrink before shirts shrink I'm thinking. My bras are a BIT big but not enough to make me purchase a new one LOL.

I had to share.. in the moment! :) I'm so happy! :) :) :) LOVE YOU, BAND!!!

Yesterday and the day thus far!

The picture this time is after my cousin's wedding (9/8/07). I stood up as a bridesmaid so my hair was done up all purty! I always thought this was a cute picture of me. Wonder what I'll think when the weight's gone! :)

I had a SUPER busy Saturday yesterday. It started with my kiddo sleeping until 10:15 in the morning so we had a late start. We had plans to go to Breakfast on the Farm, an annual event held at a different farm each year within our county. We missed that due to the late start. But we ate some quick breakfast and head off to my sister's house for my nephew's birthday party. She had a bounce house for him and we brought squirt guns (hehe) for all the cousins (7 kids) and that started a war. EVERYONE wound up soaking wet of course even though we declared our sitting area the "safe" zone!!! It was great fun.

After we stayed there for like 6 or 7 hours (EEK!) we went to a nearby town to catch appetizers and drinks (eek again!) at Texas Roadhouse. My cousin met us there and her husband is a police officer in that town so he drove his squad car there to say hello and caused a tizzy in the whole restaurant. Apparently the managers thought there was a sting going on! LOL.

We made it home at about 11 or 11:30 and crashed.

Did I mention my weight yesterday morning was down to a loss of 25 lbs!?!? WAHOO!! I've been waiting for some awesome progress like that. Something about these landmark numbers that really make you feel good about where you are. I was telling people I had lost 22 lbs or 24 lbs - whatever the number was that day - and they just didn't REACT like they did when I finally could say 25! I'll take it!!! :)

This morning Chris woke up at 3:30 and stayed up because he was sick. I took the kiddo out shopping for some new summer sandals so he could rest. We're home again and he's feeling better so I am going to head out shopping for some new Tiffani clothes. I haven't yet purchased new clothes since losing weight so this should be interesting. I just want a few things to make myself feel good about me! I was wearing a size 22 pair of capris yesterday and I could slide them off without unbuttoning. They are huge and I am sick of them hanging off my ass and my thighs rubbing because they're hanging so damn low! GAH! Do you know what feeling I am referring to here?! OUCH!

Anyways, I'll report in afterward!! :)

Once again... been a while!

The picture is from October 2008.. a friend from high school took the shots. She is now Heather Kessler Photography if you want to check out more of her work. I'll share more of these in future blogs :)

After my last post I was sorta down and out for a while. Not out out but ... out. I still watched what I ate and tried but I was just down about things. This last Monday was the monthly support group that my clinic puts on. One or both of the surgeons are there, the nutritionist is there, the NP who does all the fills, and one RN who sorta runs the show and passes the "talking stick" (not an actual stick but she designates who talks when). My surgeon has been there every time and it's nice to see him, :) I just feel happy when I see him.. I know he changed my life... *sigh* happy feeling again!

Anyways, we separated into 3 smaller groups after announcements and upcoming events/changes. There was a pre-op group, post-op RNY, and post-op band group. The NP was our ringleader and it was her last meeting.. she is going to Boston with her boyfriend and she'll be in neurosurgery! So her replacement was also there and that was nice to meet her. At the end I hugged the NP goodbye and told her thanks for everything. She did some pre-op workups and then all of my fills so far so she was a pretty big part in my process. I liked her too. :)

ANYWAYS (!!!) - we went around and introduced ourselves and told where we were in the process and all that. Well there was one guy who had his surgery 6 days after me but otherwise I was the baby (age-wise) and this other guy had gone on vacay and not had any fills yet.. and I've had two. So, I told my story about how I had one fill, felt nothing, went back, doubled up, and still feel nothing. Then all the rest of the stories were way out (18 mos or so average) and they all took time to look directly at me and tell me to hang in there and it was seriously like a BIG GROUP HUG! It was perfect.

Then! We got to this one girl... she had a "strange" experience. She had the same experience as I did in the beginning (she didn't want to tell her story in front of me) and kept going back for fills and finally found out, when she was darn near FULL, that her band had slipped. She had no symptoms except that wheat chex and wheat thins would swell in her esophagus and cause some pain. So apparently, two stitches came loose and caused her to slip. She had her band replaced last week from what I understood. She said she feels like she got a second shot at things and she was also self-pay like I am so she's doing everything right (both times - this wasn't her fault!) and it's apparently easier for her the second time. So that's her story...crazy to meet someone in person that had a complication like that.

I felt SO good after this meeting. The other meetings I've been at really haven't made me feel this way. There's too many RNY patients there and our experience is just SO different from theirs! It was nice to have a small group (8 people) of JUST bandsters.

So here's the big news... ;) The next three mornings I LOST WEIGHT! LOL!! First day, down 2.2, second, 1.2, third 0.2! CRAZY! Finally some movement again. I'm down 24.4 now total and I'm happy with that again. It's nice to see the scale moving in the right direction again. I'm also under 220 again finally (wasn't there since 5/25) and I hope to stay under it and get under 200 SOON!

Been a while.. yet not much to say

I haven't written a blog post in a while and the only real reason for it is that I have nothing to report. I have been sitting at the same weight (+/- a pound or two) for days... since about May 19th really! I know because I track my weight every day and that's the first day I started this up and down bull crap. In all fairness, I haven't started working out but I am eating less but probably not what I should be eating. It's that time of the month (or will be this week anyways) and I am feeling munchy and want to eat all the time. Add that to the fact that I threw a baby shower on Sunday and yeah... the weight is just being maintained. I'm ok with that mostly but really I WANT ANOTHER FILL!

When I got my last fill she told me I really did have to wait the full 4-6 weeks for another fill now regardless of how the last fill made me feel. Well, even though they doubled my fluid in my band I'm still feeling zilcho change. I know I eat less. I see it when I get full and sit back and see all the food left on my plate. I see it when I'm out to eat someplace and bring 3/4 of my meal home with me. I do see that I am eating less, I do! Yet, I'm still frustrated because I want my fills when *I* want them and I'm not allowed to get another one until June 29th. ARGH!

In the mean time I'm just going to sit back and start exercising and watching the crap that gets near my face. Our new gym opens today at 4pm. It was supposed to open May 1st but don't get me started on that.

I've ultimately lost about 23 lbs (since April 11 - pre-op diet) and I guess I should be happy with that but I just am being ridiculous and want it to happen overnight.

Blah... add all that to the fact that Cadence was walking on the edge of the sandbox yesterday at school, slipped and fell and landed straddling the edge. She was alright but didn't pee from 5pm yesterday until 1:30pm today! We were both QUITE cranky by then and I think mine hasn't quite worn off yet. :(

I'll be back with a more positive post soon.. I hope! (grr.. LOL)