Journey to the Center of Me!

My Shadow looks thinner! Two weeks after surgery, and I am discovering new things.  For the first time in a long time I can bend over and tie my shoes.  I first did this last week on one of my long walks.  Normally, when I am walking and my shoe comes untied, I just continue walking until till I get home.  This time I stopped, put my foot on the curb, and bent over and tied my shoe.  Normally I have  to sit on the end of my bed and bring my feet up and tie them. I had a doctors appoint this week, which was my two week check up after surgery.  Everything is going good.  My weight loss is above average.  They took the stripes off the 5 areas they did surgery at, and they glued them together.  The first night of not having them covered, they did hurt a little.  Still on the pureed diet until my next doctors visit on the 17th of January. Also I was told I could eat food until I feel full.    I have been eating onl...

So this was the week I had been working for the last 5 months.   Surgery was not scheduled till 2:30 in the afternoon, so we did not have to be at the hospital until 12:30.  My dad came down and gave me a blessing (Yes I am LDS or Mormon).  We got to the hospital and checked in and waited, and waited.  My surgery was delayed because the forgot that I was scheduled that day.  So an hour later, I was in surgery, and an hour later I was out.   After Surgery picture.  Bottom right is where they took the stomach out! I don't remember being in much pain.  I went for two walks around the floor that night.  The nurse did ask me if I wanted pain meds and how strong did I want them.  I went for the weak ones, and was fine.  Was woken up at 3 by a vampire (Blood Work).  I was woken again, by Brandon, who works with Dr. Graf, to see how I was.  Him and Dr. Graf  said I could stay another night, but also said I co...

This week was the end of regular food and the start of the liquid diet.  So last Sunday, was the last day that I could eat anything that I wanted.  So for lunch I chose to go to the Olive Garden.  Haven't had anything that was pasta based for a while, so I thought this would be a good choice.  We sat down and opened the menu and I got anxiety, that I have not experienced since we started the diet back in May, when we went to Chili's to eat.  What to eat and not over it eat was the worry.  So we talked it  over and we split the tour of Italy.  This ended up being the right choice because it was portioned out to where it was the right amount of food for both of use.   For dinner I had a salad, wings, and pizza.  Again, not really over doing it.  Only 4 wings, and two pieces of pizza.  This would have been different 7 months ago.  All the wings I could eat and 3 or 4 pieces of pizza.   On Wednesday, we sta...

Everything that I have been working for the past 6 months, has come to pass.  I have a surgery date of December 12.  Earlier in the week I had gotten a call from the doctors office, telling me that first, all of the test of I have done the past few weeks, they don't have them.  Then she tells me, that the surgery can not be done until January 7th.  I was not to happy to hear this news.  My thought went from, all the work I had done was for nothing, and I was not going to have the surgery, to delaying the surgery until we get back from Hawaii.   So my doctor's appointment was for Thursday.  So we went in there with a lot of questions.  So we see the PA, who says he will send in the scheduler.  She comes in and says that we can get me in on the 12th, and they have everything but my chest x-ray.  As we are driving home, I remember that I had a chest x-ray on the 17th of October.  I called back in and gave them the date, and the...

Welcome to November!  It has been an interesting week and I don't know were to start, so lets start at the beginning.  I fought off the demons of Halloween.  No Halloween candy at all.  No going to get cheap candy after Halloween.  This is a big win.  Four times at work, I had Supervisors come around with candy, and I declined.  Last year, I bought a big bag of candy some days after Halloween, and limited myself to 2 pieces a day.  The bag lasted over a month.   Went to my lung doctor on Thursday, and got the clearance I need from him for the weight loss surgery.  There was no word if the oxygen stuff is going, because I just sent the test back on Monday.  He said if come back good, then he will put in the order to have it removed.  He also said, that he would order a new sleep study 2 months after the surgery to see how we needed to adjust the CPAP machine.   Also on Thursday, was an appointment with the nu...

The last update for the Month of October.  And I have been doing this blog for three full months.  It has been a busy week of doctor's appointments and test.  That being said, that has thrown off my walking and workout schedule for this week.  Finally broke a mile in my walking on Monday.  It has been a long time, since I have walked a mile on one of my walks.  First time since I really started the walking back up again.  So I have not walked the rest of the week, until Saturday.  On Saturdays, I usually do a short walk and then go to the gym.  My short walk Saturday was a half mile walk.  And it felt good to get out there and walk.   Went to my last weigh in for the weight loss surgery.  Everything looks good and they are going to summit the paperwork to the insurance, and then schedule the surgery.  This is going to happen!!  So with that being said, they require a EKG and blood work.  So After the appo...

Another good week.  Was able to get in all my walks and go to the gym 3 times.  Also went and saw the lung doctor this week, to try to get clearance for the surgery.  I thought I was going to go there, and he was going to see how good I have been doing in the  past two years, and just sign me off.  Well, he wants a new chest x-ray, and a breathing test.  So the chest x-ray is done, and the breathing test is scheduled for this week. One of the things I talked to him about was finally getting the oxygen tanks and the oxygen machine out of my life.  I really have not used the tanks for the past two years, and I had to use the oxygen machine when I got pneumonia and bronchitis earlier this year.  I have used a CPAP machine for this time as well, and he told me my sleep apnea is now in a good range.  So lets see if the breathing test goes well, and I can get these things out of my world.  Weekly net weight lose:  2.1 lbs.

Here we are in October!  Been doing this blog for over two months, and have had over 1000 views.  It was another busy week.  Two doctor's appointments this week.  Got the clearance from my heart doctor for surgery, now I have to get clearance from my lung doctor, which will happen next week.   My other doctors appointment was to the foot doctor.  I have had pain in my left foot for a few months now.  It has been a nagging pain, that would wake me up some nights.  I am never in pain when I am active.  The pain is in the ball of my foot.  So I got a shot between my big toe.   It is hard to believe that I am going to say it, but I am glad that next week is normal, because I get back to my work out schedule again, which is 3 day walking and 3 days at the gym.  It can not believe that I want to get back to working out that much, but I do enjoy it now.  It really has improved my life.   We went to the movie...

This week was a busy week.  Wednesday I meet with the weight lose surgeon for the first time.  He was amazed at how healthy I am.  I have a lot to do before I am ready for surgery,  One of the things I have to do is get my body mass index down two points.  He said he would feel better doing the surgery on me, if it was at that point.  But I still have work to do. The week of the 20th I  go and do a psychological evaluation that will last 3 hours.  Then the next day I meet with the nutritionist.  The good thing is that the last few months I have already been watching what I eat.   I  also have to  have to get clearances from my heart and lung doctors. I also had an appointment with the feet doctor.  For the last few weeks I have had a pain in my left foot, that hurts most of the time when I am at rest.  I was giving some meds to see if that helps.  If not then we will do more test on the next appointment...

Today I had an appointment with my doctor to go over my last test.  I was told they were normal, but what does that really mean?  When I went to see him when I had pneumonia, all of my numbers were way off.  I was put on some medication to control the mount of insulin, because my body was making to much.  So the doctor wants to take me off the medication and see what the numbers will be in 3 months. He wants to see if the insulin has changed because of the drugs or my lifestyle changes. I am all so down 6 lbs since the last visit.