Journey to the Center of Me!

The 12th was one month after surgery.  My girlfriend about a week or two after the surgery, ask if I was happy I if it?  At the time I really could not answer her, which did not really make her to happy.  But after a month I can say, I am happy to have done it!  I can already see the health benefits that the doctors told me I would see.  I sleep a lot better, I don't go to the bathroom a million times a night, and my breathing is much much better.  I know I am already down a size, in my clothes.    I now live in the world of one mile and more with my walking.  I was doing a mile or more a few years ago, but now it is almost  a everyday thing.  As I am walking I know I am getting close and waiting for my app to say I have reached a mile.  The question after that is how much or how far am I from home.   Weekly weight Loss:  0.9 lbs lost!

Happy New Year!!!  And with the start of the New Year, I can say I am some what starting my journey to a new me.  This week was a lot of first.  I left my girlfriends home and finally went back to mine.  With that being said, I went back to work on the 2nd. It was weird being back.  But as soon as I walked in, everyone could notice the change.  I had a little pain, because of the belt I was wearing, but that is because for 2 weeks I wore gym shorts. I am lucky that my job offers voluntary time off, so my first day back was just a few hours.  But I am back to working full time again.    Being back at my place, I have to find the schedule to eat my food and drink my water.  With the surgery I have to stop drinking water about 15 to 30 minutes be eating, then take 30 minutes to eat and then wait 30 minutes after that to take a drink. This is so the new stomach can digest the food.  This is the hardest to so at work, because I...

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...

It has been over a week since the surgery.  Doing good!  I have had a little pain in the area that they did the surgery, but nothing that I can not handle.  Been walking almost everyday, trying to build myself back up to what I was doing pre-surgery.  Going and see the Doctor the day after Christmas, and hope to go back to work!  Sorry this is so short, but there will be more to talk about next week! Weekly Weight loss:  15.8 lbs loss. 

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...

Well nothing really to report this week.  Have finished off 11 days of the liquid diet.  Just two more days to go until surgery. Will try to update you all on how that goes next week.   Weekly Weight loss:  10.3

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...

Sorry this it a little late, but it was some what of a busy week.  I worked a few hours on Sunday, so that kind of through my day off.  Nothing really happened this week, until Thursday.  I went and got my stomach scoped.  For something that only took about 5 minutes to do, I was in the hospital for almost 3 hours.  So since Thursday, my stomach has been upset since then.  I have medication for it, but I still have not felt good since.   Saturday was my 30th Class reunion.  It was good to catch up with some old faces.  Was able to catch up with Amy, a classmate that had the surgery a few years ago.  She gave me advice of some dos and don'ts that I may go through during this process.  I also saw a friend who is a doctor, who told me my life would be so much better after the surgery.   Sunday besides work, we meet with one of my girlfriends clients, Moe.  she told what she went through have the surgery.  Telling a ...

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.

This week was some what a normal week for me.  Got to get back to my work out schedule this week with not interruptions.  The only difference this week was, on Saturday, I normally do a short  walk and then go to the gym.  But it was raining really hard, so I skipped the walk. I had two interesting things happen to me this week.  The first was, on Friday, I woke up with my right leg and foot in a lot of pain.  I have been have problems with my foot for a while now, but on Wednesday as I was finishing up my walk, I pulled the muscle in my left calf.  So I resigned myself that I was going to take it easy today, and not walk.  But as I am sitting there, my mind is telling me that I need to get up and walk, that I can not skip today.  So I got up, got ready, and took it easy.  I felt much better for getting it done. The second was, I get asked a lot why I am doing the weight lose surgery.  Last night, I somewhat saw my future....

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...

Pictures of me, one year apart. Here it is, the last day of September, and I have been doing this blog for 2 months now.  Almost 1000 people have seen this blog.  The week was a good one.  I walked twice and went to the gym twice, because I had a doctors appointment and to meet with the nutritionist   Both are happy with my progress to weight loss surgery.  I asked the nutritionist about popcorn.  She said it was ok, as long as we brought our own popcorn to the movies and not buy theirs.  So yesterday, I bought popcorn in individual bags for our next movie night.  Still do not know if I want to do the surgery or not.  I was reminded by a work friend, that I have to do it for me and only me.   Weekly net weight loss:  2.2 lbs.  I lost all the weight that I gained plus .1 of a pound more. 

Sea Stack at the Cliffs of Mohr Trying to catch up from the trip to Ireland this week.  Had to go back to work on Thursday, and it was hard getting back into the swing of work.  Trying to get back on track to eating and tracking what I eat.  We noted that we did not eat any American fast food while in Ireland.  We did eat at three fish and chips places.  Had so much bread and potatoes last week.   Got right back to walking and going to the gym, that was not hard at all.  Did pretty good with the walking in Dublin.  When I set up the trip I planned on not renting a car in Dublin so we walked or took public transit most of the time.  My step count was about what a normal week would have been.   Weekly weight loss:  gained 2.1 lbs. I could be disappointed in this last weeks results, but I am not.  I did really good with my weight last week.  I eat a lot of stuff I would not normally eat.  And the ...

Sorry that this is late but we got home late last night.  Our trip to Ireland was amazing!  We got to see people I had not seen for almost 30 years.  The Customs line in the Dublin Airport almost killed me, and it took me  till Thursday to recover.   We walked a lot in Dublin.  I did not worry about eating while I was there, and that made the trip more enjoyable, but we are back to the diet and food log again today.  Weekly weight loss for the week ending on the 16th:  5.1 lbs.

Up late trying to get things ready for the trip to Ireland.  This has been a busy week of making phone calls and two doctors appointments.  We are also trying to form a plan for eating while we are gone.  Temptation is going to be great this next 9 days, with all the chirps (potato chips flavors you could imagine) and the different Candies.  It has been over 4 months since I have had a potato chip,  So I may have to start that trend over again when I get back. Next week update will be  little late. weekly net weight loss:  3.5 lbs

It has been a really good week.  I lost a lot of weight this week.  Which has left me with with some doubts.  Is surgery the right way to go?  Can I lose the weight on my own, and how long will it take me?  Still more questions to ask and to be answered.  Still have time to make up my mind.  But I know I am on a good path right now.  I stand at a fork in the road and wonder which way to go.  Net weight loss for the week:   4.5 lbs.

Another busy week.  Had two appointments, a psychological evaluation on Monday and the nutritionist on Tuesday.  Psychological Evaluation was meeting with a doctor for about an hour, asking background questions, then a two tests, that had about 500 questions.  I thought I could get this all done before work, but the test was so long that I had to use a sick day.  The nutritionist was good.  Learned what I should and should not eat.  Need to tweak the diet  just a little.  I now look at labels more closely. Went grocery shopping today.  Had to walk through the soda and snack isles.  Stopped at Mountain Dew to see what I was missing.  Moved along.  This week is not bad.  One doctors appointment this week, so far. Net weight loss for this week:  0.8 lbs.