“Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes How do you measure, measure a year?”

Next Tuesday will mark one year since I went under the knife and changed my life forever. The last year has been a whirlwind of change, growth, and curve balls. I am doing this post early since it will require a bit of time to gather all the details and photos required to write it, and next Tuesday I will be back in class. If I get a chance on Tuesday I will post some official one year numbers. At this time last year I was morbidly obese (301 pounds with a BMI of 53.8), scared about having surgery, unsure if I could handle the post op life change, and terrified that I would be one of those people who have gastric bypass and only drop 50 pounds never even getting close to their goal weight. This was me, and I was leading a life that was ruled by fear.  The night before surgery I was 296.6.

Today I am almost a year out from the best thing I could have ever done for my life. I am no longer led by fear, I have learned that if you take a leap of faith it’s not always spikes waiting to impale you, it can be a circus net awaiting your landing.  I am currently overweight with a BMI of 26.6 and 15.2 pounds to go until I hit my goal. I have no regrets, well one and that’s that I didn’t do it years sooner. I have lost 158.4 pounds total. Even now as I write that number it doesn’t seem real. I have a hard time seeing it in the mirror sometimes but it punches you in the face when you look at before and after pictures. Here are my current measurements.

I am not sure what it is about birthdays or anniversaries that make you question your life plan and where you’re at. It could just be that I haven’t had a moment to process anything since October. I am glad that my birthday and surgaversary are close together because the last week or so have been a bit of a mind fuck.  Perhaps it’s the fact that I am approaching my golden birthday (29 on the 29th) marking the last year of my twenties, or the fact that this last year has housed more change than you can shake a stick at, but it makes me wonder what the next revolution around the sun holds for me. The one thing I do know is if it’s as transformative as this last year, the chapter that is my twenties is going to close monumentally.

A Quick Update

I must say  that this week has been going better than last. It’s amazing what the addition of protein drinks and soup will do for your spirit and keeping you from feeling like a feather could knock you over.

Things have not been easy as far as dizziness goes. Sunday I was going stir crazy and figured I could handle going to get a pedicure with my sister and then to the store to pick up some soup and other things I could have on the full liquid diet. It took so long at the nail salon that I wasn’t feeling so hot by the time we left. I ended up telling my sister that if she didn’t need anything from the store that we could just skip it. She took me home and my dad was out back and couldn’t hear me ringing the door bell. By the time he came in from out back and let me in I was so close to passing out that I was dripping sweat and ready to pass out.

I had all of the following soups this week which I poured through a mesh strainer and through away the tasty morsels. Monday the first thing I tried was Cream of Potato Soup and it was heaven. I ate it really slow and savored every bite. The other soups I have tried and is a chicken and cheese enchilada flavored soup by Progresso. It’s one of their light soups and it is amazing and full of flavor. It completely cured my craving for Mexican food.  I also tried Campbell’s  Creamy Poblano and Queso Soup. That one sat well earlier today when I had it but boy did it put me in a world of hurt tonight. Warning slightly TMI ahead.

About 40 minutes after I ate it I was getting ready to get in the shower. I sat down to pee and as I am trying to find a Pandora station to listen to I notice that I am starting to feel really hot and nauseated. My vision started going blurry and it felt like I might pass out. I thought I was going to vomit so I grabbed the trashcan, I didn’t puke but I spit up this foam and then dry heaved for a few minutes. After I felt fine but noticed I was literally soaked in sweat. Needless to say I was curing that stupid soup as I felt like I was going to kill over.

I ordered a bunch of protein food from Bariatric Choice today. I wont be able to have any of it until I get to the solid food stage but I am sure I will be happy to have it. I had ordered a sample pack from Celebrate Vitamins,. I have been taking those since they sent me a number of chewable ones. I have to say I am very impressed with the flavors they offer. Tonight I tried their Chocolate Fudge Calcet Creamy Bites  and those things were freaking tasty. I emailed to see if I could have them added to the order I placed today.

I had called last week to make my follow up appointment for my 2 week appointment and since Dr. Brown is going to be out of the office starting today through next week they weren’t able to get me in until August 6th. The only problem with that is that we need him to clear me to be able to go back to work. I certainly don’t feel like I will be ready to go back on Monday since I still can’t sit for extened periods and am easily exhausted since I am not getting many calories, but I didn’t think it would take the whole week. Although with the way I responded to the soup tonight I am glad I will be home during the pureed stage because I don’t want to come out of the bathroom looking like I fell in the toilet because I got all hot and sweaty from something not sitting well.

Well that’s it for now I am off to bed.

“The Greatest Healing Therapy Is Friendship and Love” – Hubert H. Humphrey

Well my babies I am home, and on the road to recovery but let’s take things in order. I just want to say before I dive into this post that I appreciate and am touched by every single well wish,  prayer and kind word sent my way.  I read from a lot of fellow patients how un-supportive people can be of this procedure and I have been lucky not to experience any of that thus far.

I woke up at 5am on Monday to get in the shower and get ready to head out to the hospital. I didn’t sleep well at all because of the liquid diet, I was up having to pee every 45 minutes because I decided to chug water and broth at 11 PM since I wasn’t allowed anything after midnight. I went ahead and weighed myself and on the last day of the  liquid diet I had lost another 3.8 pounds so my weight day of surgery was 292.8.

My parents and I arrived at the hospital at 7:05am and my sister meet us there shortly there after. It took a while for the pre-pre-op nurse to come get me we got to jam out to 90’s hip hop/rb that was coming from the hallway. The RN instructed my family to give us about 15 minutes while I got changed and he got me prepped. He weighed me, gave me two different sized gowns to pick from (I opted for the larger one without even trying the smaller one because I wanted to be sure there wasn’t any sort of gap in the back lol) and some cozy grippy slipper socks.  After I changed he had me pee in a cup to make sure I wasn’t pregnant. When I got back from the bathroom my family was waiting for me and got to stay while he inserted my IV, they did my EKG, blood work, and Heparin injection. The Heparin injection wasn’t nearly as bad as I had been anticipating although it did bruise a little. They put circulation cuffs on my calves and then we waited for Dr. Brown to call to say he was ready for me to be brought up to Pre-Op.

Once we were in pre-op I could only have one person go back with me and since I figured my Mom would probably be a nervous wreck and I didn’t want to cry I opted to take my sister back with me since she’s a nurse and has a much better poker face. Dr Brown came by to see if we had any questions, as well as my OR nurse, the physicians assistant, and then finally my anesthesiologist. He asked me a series of questions and when I said yes to I get really bad motion sickness he gave me some sort of patch behind my ear to help. After that it was time to head back to the OR.

The OR nurse wheeled me back to the operating room and I noticed their were a ton of people in there prepping stuff and that I was freezing so they put a warm blanket on me and pulled me onto the operating table. As they were untying the knots on my gown I heard the anesthesiologist tell me I am going to give you something to make you sleepy. The last things I remember after that was asking them if they listen to music while the operate, and they said Dr. Brown and been listing to Van Morrison on Pandora (to witch I replied I can live with a little Van) I took one last look at the clock as the put the gas mask over my face to see that it was 10:29 and then I slipped into the Mystic.

I had anything but a gentle awakening in recovery. I anticipated this as I don’t handle anesthesia well. I was hot, in pain, had to vomit, and was very agitated. All I remember about the first few minutes being awake was being pissed that I had to vomit and no one was handing me something to get sick into and as I was throwing up either a nurse or the anesthesiologist saying we started your anti nausea meds before you woke up. They weren’t able to do the On-Que pain pump like the wanted to and it turned out they had to do an extra incision because they couldn’t see my intestines from where they went in. I protested the Dilaudid they wanted to give me since the last time I had it I vomited and the nurse was like I don’t know what else we can give you then to which I replied “do what you have to do”. By that point I had kicked off all my blankets and was still hot (not running a fever I just felt hot) so they put a cold wash cloth on my head. The Dilaudid did the trick because after that I was out and woke up an hour or so later to them telling me my room was ready.

Once I got to my room I felt great (this was close to 5pm I think). I sat up chatting with my family and got ice chips. They stuck around until 6:30 pm.  I didn’t have any pain or nausea once I got out of recovery. They had started me on one of those patient controlled pain drips of Fentanyl and I just made sure I hit that button every so often.  At 7pm my night nurse came by and at about 9:30 it was time to walk around the unit before bed.  It wasn’t until I was walking around that night that noticed I should have took my nurses advice on wearing the smaller gown. The gown I put on was so big that it was touching the ground and I could have hid two dwarfs under it without anyone seeing.  I guess I could have went smaller but at least my ass wasn’t hanging out.

The next day went just as easily I told my parents to save themselves the trip since I was doing fine and probably would nap on and off all day. I was expecting visitors that evening so it’s not as if I was going to be lonely. My nurse took out my catheter and started me on Norco pills so we could ween off of the Fentanyl drip. After I got my catheter out I did about 7 laps around the unit and continued to do laps every time I had to pee. By the evening they had taken me off everything I was hooked to and I was able to shower and then sleep much more comfortably  Tuesday night.  My friends that came by couldn’t believe how good I looked and was moving around they were like it’s as if you haven’t had anything done.

I woke up Wednesday morning to Dr Browns smiling face asking me if I was ready to go home today which I was.  My parents arrived at about 10 am and they were shocked to see me up and brushing my teeth.  We came home I napped for a handful of hours and then had another visitor before it was time to get ready for bed.

Thursday was not such a walk in the park however. I woke up around 7 feeling very nauseated and dizzy and decided I was done with the pain killers. I woke up and had some broth and jell-o and then spent the rest of the day sleeping. Anytime I got up I felt dizzy and like I might vomit. My sister came by last night to check on me and took my blood pressure and said everything was ok. I drank a cup of broth over the course of about 40 – 60 minutes and then got in the shower. The fainting feeling was so bad by the time I got out of the shower that I couldn’t decided if I should go to the ER or not. I decided to just go to sleep and see how I felt the next time I got up.

Maybe I was detoxing off the narcotics yesterday but I feel much better today. I still feel a little week and off balance when I get up to walk around but I am actually able to stay awake today where yesterday I could barely stay up long enough to get some water down. I don’t really have much pain except for a little slight pain around my incisions if I sit straight up for too long. Speaking of incisions want to see them? If you don’t close your eyes and scroll down fat and bruising ahead.

Please excuse my lack of belly button in the pick I had to sit up slightly to take this as I was laying down when I did it. I know the bruising looks awful but it’s doesn’t hurt I just bruise kind of easily. I also feel like bruises turn crazy colors about 4 days out. The only one I can feel is that center one that’s a lovely shade of yellow and blue.

I have now officially been on liquids for a week and I can’t tell you how forward I am looking to full liquids where I will finally get something more than broth, sugar free juice, Jell-O and Popsicles. On full liquids we can have soups and anything that can go through a strainer. Last night I had a dream about being on yacht and we free-ed sea turtle and these massive sting rays and we had a party to celebrate. At the celebration in the dream I was chewing on nut mix, and key lime pie and spitting it out lol so needless to say I am ready for something with more flavor. I haven’t gotten on a scale since Monday since it takes at least week or so for all the fluids and gas they pump you full of at the hospital to get out of your system.

Well that’s it for now. It’s back to my full time job of consuming liquids one ounce at a time and to schedule my follow up appointment with Dr. Brown.

 

“Well my bags are packed I am ready to go…”

 

The bewitching hour is steadily approaching. I am as prepared as I am going to get and now it’s all up to Dr. Brown and his team to get me to the next phase.

Last night I had a dream that I forgot I was on the liquid diet and blew it by eating several cheese sticks, smart popcorn, and fruit snacks. I woke up in a panic only to come to my senses that I had not in fact eaten an entire pack of cheese.

I spent the day washing all my bedding and taking before pics. I waited entirely too long to go pick up more broth from the grocery store and hadn’t drank nearly enough juice which resulted in me nearly fainting in Kings Supers. I came home and chugged two cups of broth and some juice and felt much better after that.

Speaking of before pics avert you eyes if you don’t want to see a picture of me à la the biggest loser (in my bra and bike shorts). This morning I weighed in at 296.6.

I spent the afternoon/ evening hanging out with my BFF and then packing for my stay at the hospital. Here’s what I am bringing:

The guide for what to bring said to bring basic toiletries and that we could bring clothes as patients prefer their own. I am bringing: A black tube top tunic and a blue and grey baseball tee I opted for dark just in case my incisions leak. Black bicycle shorts, A Hanes Cozy bra for a little support, lotion, chapstick, travel tooth brush,  tooth paste, glasses cleaner and cloth, Gas-X strips, dry shampoo,  brush, face lotion, facial cleansing wipes, pads (because you never know with PCOS), headphones, my charger, and my phone.

I have to sleep with a pod cast or tv on so the headphones are for just in case they won’t let me leave the TV on.  Speaking of sleep I should try to get some. Goodnight everyone and stay tuned for updates!

 

 

It’s the final countdown…

Well kids the time is quickly approaching. I hope everything post op goes as easily, and quickly as the process leading up to this.

I am almost finished with the second day of the liquid diet. It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be, although I might be singing a different song tomorrow.  My stomach finally stopped growling at me around 6pm last night when it got the hint that it wasn’t getting real food anytime soon. The only thing I am interested in off the allowed items list is low sodium chicken broth, sugar free Jell-o, diet Ocean Spray juices, and the sugar free popsicles.

Perhaps I’m so hungry at the moment because I haven’t had as much today as I did yesterday. I am just sick of having to pee every three seconds so it’s kept me from drinking as much today. Yesterday I drank a whole bottle of juice, almost a whole carton of broth, at least 40 ounces of water, and 12 sugar free Jell-o cups. Today all I had was 3/4 of a carton of broth, a 1/4 of a bottle of juice, 4 Jell-O  cups and then like half a bowl of sugar free orange Jell-O, and about 52 ounces of water.

My stomach just growls at me in protest after I “eat” the jiggly water like bitch this is not food! I am just so grateful that I only have to do this for 3 days and not 2 weeks pre-op like a lot of surgeons require.

Last night after work I drove to Ft. Collins to visit the Screamin Peach for a wax since I figured hair removal for a week or two post-op might be tricky or painful.

They had a giant version of this in the waxing room, it makes me far too happy.

I wasn’t craving anything bad all day until I got there. The wax smelled like brownie batter, and then all I could think about was how tasty a brownie would be.

Afterword I drove to Denver to hang out with some friends and we went out to the bars. I was surprised at how well I did without anything to drink considering how packed it was where we were. It’s not as if I drink much but I do enjoy a cocktail or two however I didn’t mind sipping on water all night.

Today all day long all I have wanted was cheese and fruit. My dad had a bag of smart popcorn and all I wanted to do was to suck the cheese off a piece but I resisted.

I had not been eating super well up to the liquid diet so I gained about 8 pounds and ended up at 301 when I stepped on the scale Friday morning. I actually wasn’t eating horribly minus the ice cream I had every night for the last month.

This morning when I stepped on the scale it said 298.6. I’ll take a 2.4 loss in a day. Here’s to hoping that I will never see 300+ pounds on a scale again.

Well I think sleep is going to win over hunger at the moment because I can’t stop yawning. Tomorrow I plan on drinking as much juice and broth as I can get in all day long in the hopes of controlling the hunger between midnight and 9 am when I go under.

 

 

Holy Shit! I have been approved!!!!

Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God!!!!! I just got a voice mail from my surgeons office saying I have been approved!!!!! I was really expecting for them to come back and say that Cigna was going to want something else.

When I got back from Sint Maarten I had a 3 day old voicemail from my surgeons office saying they needed to talk to me. When I called them back they said that all the Cigna patients they had submitted recently that had been told they only needed three months of classes had been denied. Cigna came back on all of their patients and said they needed a 4th month of classes and that they wanted me to get one more class in before we sent it off the request just in case. I only had a couple of days before we needed to submit my paperwork but we made it work.

Well it’s official July 14th at 7:30 am my life will change forever. Pending of course that my work doesn’t decide that we are going to be too busy for me to be out. I scheduled it for when they said would work but now they are concerned about how coverage since it’s around our busy season.

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear” – Nelson Mandela

Every time I look at my countdown I get excited and then my stomach turns in anticipation of certain things. It’s similar to the feeling you get before you ride a new roller coaster for the first time, your excited and terrified all at the same time. I got a letter from Cigna yesterday saying they received my surgeons request, and they now need my file to determine the necessity of an inpatient procedure. Now we wait (some more).

The closer I get the harder the fear kicks in, and the harder it is to put it to the back of my mind. To everyone I have not seen lately I am sorry but my anxiety surrounding this procedure has caused my social anxiety to kick into overdrive. Not to mention that I am having some body image issues which have made it all but impossible to get into the studio and dance. It’s strange to not have body issues your whole life, then all of a sudden be afraid of mirrors but it seems like since I have made the decision to go under the knife mirrors have not been my friend. I have become painfully aware of how much larger I am than the rest of my fellow dancers and instead of coming out of class feeling alive, I would just leave wanting to cry after an hour of being able to see them and myself in the same reflection. I am hoping this is something that will fade soon because I miss my Vertical Fusion family more than words can express.

Last night I joined a Facebook support group for Gastric Bypass patients. It will be nice to have a community of people whom have been through this process to seek advice from since I don’t know anyone who has had a bariatric procedure.  My surgeon offers them but they are during the week days when I can’t make it.

One of the things I have been most afraid of is what will happen to all my beautiful ink if I ended up reaching my goal of a 150 pound loss? None of the bloggers I follow are heavily tattooed and large portions of my body are covered. Luckily a number of people in this group are heavily tattooed as well and they all said they didn’t notice any change in their tattoo’s. Luckily for me I don’t have them any place where they might have to cut into them if I end up needing any skin removed.

Just the tip of the tattoo ice berg.

In the thought that things are more frightening in the dark, I am going to shine some light on my fears in the hopes that seeing them written will help me deal with them. Here goes nothing.

1. The procedure and hospital stay- This is probably the thing that gives me the greatest anxiety. I hate needles (ironic I know considering the photo above but tattoo’s aren’t the same as an injection or IV). Anesthesia makes me very nauseated so I am afraid of how much it’s going to hurt if I have to vomit. Vicodin, Percocet, Dilaudid all make me vomit so there is a great chance that Morphine will too. Not to mention how little I am looking forward to having a catheter.

2. The financial piece of it – $500 is due to the surgeon the morning of the procedure (which I have now met my deductible so I don’t know if I will have to pay this or not). I was always under the impression that as long as you had insurance that you paid your co-pay  then the hospital, and doctors etc. submit the bill to your insurance company and then you are sent a bill for whatever Cigna won’t cover. The last time I was at my pulmonologist his receptionist was talking about how her daughter had to go to the hospital for something that she had to pay everything in full out of pocket and then was reimbursed for what the insurance company would cover. I hope this isn’t the case for inpatient surgery. I have never been admitted to a hospital so I have no clue how any of this works. Also I was under the impression that our insurance company had a max out of pocket expense of $2000 for the year for in network treatment. Today while I was on Cigna’s website I didn’t see the information about max out of pocket expense like I did when I was previously on there. I have been planing this whole time not to have more than a $1,200 expense since I have already paid $898 out of pocket so far this year (I have sent an email to my HR lady to see what she has to say about these two things). Not to mention all the vitamins, protein product etc that you have to buy.

3. What if I hate what I look like after – I know this is a strange thought for most considering the body image issues I mentioned above but I don’t hate the way I look now (as long as I don’t try and do stripper pushup in a mirror). In fact the only thing I really don’t like about my body are my arms and my trunk (the section starting above your ass and ending below your boobs) and my arms. I think I have a beautiful face, a killer rack, and a nice ass and legs. I just want to be smaller. It’s hard for me to imagine what I might look like at a size 8/10 because the last time I can remember even being around that size was in 6th grade when I was 12/14. This is a horribly bitch thing to say but I have seen people who look really scary after WLS (cough cough Star Jones granted she must have had some work done to her face because she doesn’t looks so bug eyed anymore for a while I thought she looked more beautiful pre-op) and the last thing I want is to feel worse clothed at 150 pounds, than I did doing burlesque at 300 pounds. It has been a relief to see a bunch of before and after pics in the support group because I haven’t really seen many (aside from the blogs I follow).

4. Failing – What if I go through all this and I never see Onderland (A weight under 200 pounds)?

5. Losing way too much hair – I have had my hair thin out before so much to the point that my hair dress was like “dude why is your hair falling out” at the time I had no clue that my thyroid was out of whack and perhaps during that period it was really out of whack (it’s always off on my blood work but not enough to medicate me for it). I know that there is nothing you can really do about your hair falling out after surgery I just hope I don’t end up with a bald spot.

Well that’s it for now, apparently I am long winded because I hit a thousand words easily. I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to stop by and read my posts, and everyone who has expressed their support thus far. It really means a lot to me.

“Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.” – Khaled Hosseini

Oh my how the time flies. April has just blown by because I have been so busy with my photography business and other general spring activities. I feel like April and May are always jam packed with birthdays, graduations, and other social requirements.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 4 months since I started this whole process, and in just 1 day and 19 hours I will be headed to NYC (see this post for more on my trip), In 34 days and 9 hours I will be soaking up the sun in Sint Maarten, and in 80 days and 15 hours I will be going under the knife for gastric bypass (if all goes as plans).

I finished the last of my three months of supervised nutritional classes on April 14th, the class was on fitness and since I am already pretty active all of this was review. The surgeons team has all the other paper work needed by Cigna to have the surgery approved. The only part left is to wait on is their answer. I was worried about the gap in my classes and when the surgery is going to take place (July 14th so I imagine they will submit my paperwork the last week in June) so I asked if they thought I should continue taking classes until it’s time to submit my paper work. The lady that handles all the insurance stuff for Dr. Browns office says that she doesn’t think so that she doesn’t see a reason why they shouldn’t approve it.

I really wish I could attend the last 3 classes of the series but since it doesn’t work out with my work schedule and I have pretty much all but used all of my time off for they year I wont be able to. They however were very helpful in providing me with the power point sessions and handouts for the classes I wont be able to attend so at least I will be able to go over this information on my own.

I keep thinking surely it can’t be this easy but perhaps it will be. It’s crazy to think that in 3 months I will be 10 days post op. I wish they would just submit the paper work now so we would know for certain. In the mean time I am trying to keep this in mind.

It’s hard because every time I look at the countdown on my phone I can’t help but feel scared, worried, and expecting the pain post op. So I try to focus on things like how awesome it will be to do a forward bend and not have my belly keeping me from reaching my fullest potential because it will only squish down so far. I keep going back and forth between being very excited and then wanting to vomit when I think about how momentous of a feat I am about to take on.

On the bright side I am down to 295 pounds which is a 18 pound loss since I started this whole processes. Hopefully I will have some more time to workout when I get back from NYC and before Sint Maarten. I just need to make sure I walk a ton in NYC so I don’t gain a million pounds from all delicious food we have planned to try while we are out there.

Well that’s all I have for now but I wanted to post something since I finished up my third class. I will be sure to keep you posted on our adventure to the Today show and our NYC shenanigans.

“One should eat to live, not live to eat” – Benjamin Franklin

Yesterday was class two of three before we can submit my paperwork to Cigna for approval (see this post for what the current requirements are for my insurance plan). The class was on grocery shopping and how to read labels in order to make smarter decisions post op. This is super important post op (especially for gastric bypass patients because of the malabsorption part of that procedure) since you physically wont be able to consume a normal volume of food.

The recommended program for nutrition post op for RNY/Gastric sleeve are as follows:

• Eat 5-6 small meals per day
• 60-80g of protein per day
• 64 oz sugar-free and caffeine-free fluid per day
• No drinking during meals and for 30 minutes before or after meals
• Take a Multivitamin daily
• Take 1500 mg Calcium Citrate (no more than 500-600 mg at a time)
• Take Iron daily (separate from calcium)
• Take B-12 daily
• Limit calorie dense foods (sugar, fat)

Avoid

• Carbonated beverages (soda, beer, fizzy water etc.)
• Nicotine use/exposure
• Alcohol consumption during the rapid weight loss period (12-18 months)
• High fat and high sugar foods
• Straws
• Chewing Gum
• Getting pregnant for at least 18 – 24 months.

The class starts by everyone introducing themselves, what procedure they are having, what class they are on, and any struggles they are having. Then our nutritionist had us “go shopping” by selecting from a wall of food (empty food packages). She then would create a days worth of meals composed of the things people selected to see where we would land for our daily goals. She did this different times once for sugar, fat, sodium, and protein. After she would create the plan that put us over the daily limits she went back and selected things that were smarter alternatives.

Most of this information was review for me however I thought the class was beneficial, and I did learn a handful of new things. I didn’t know that fruit doesn’t count toward your daily allowed grams of sugar which makes me feel a lot better about the days that I was over for sugar on My Fitness Pal because I ate fruit for multiple meals.

I was a little shocked to see how many people in this group didn’t know how to read nutritional labels. Obviously we are all there because we could use a little help with our food choices, I just don’t understand how you can have made attempts at weight loss without knowing how decipher this information. I was also blown away by how many people didn’t know much about any of the surgeries or which one they were considering. Granted we had some people who haven’t meet with surgeon yet, however by the time I decided to go in for the consultation I had already done days of research and pretty much had my mind made up about what I wanted. Now I know I am an over preparer for sure but one would think you would gather some basic details before considering going under the knife.
After my class I had a physical with my PCP, I recently switched to her and she is fabulous. She was also blown away by how stellar my labs were. The only things that she’s worried about is that my HDL level is still low, but she thinks that the surgery should help with that since weight loss will bring that number up.

Cholesterol 123 (140-200)

Triglycerides 113 (35-135)

HDL 29 (40-75)

LDL 72 (60-100)

Estimated Average Glucose 103 (68-126)

Hemoglobin 5.2% (4.o – 6.0)

Thyroid Stimulating Hormone .657 (0.465-4.680)

“Knowledge is love and light and vision” – Helen Keller

First and foremost I would like to extend a giant hug to everyone that offered their support, it means so much to me, I am filled with tears of joy every time I think of it. Sharing this blog with the people I know is probably one of the scariest things I have ever done. Isn’t funny how we often don’t care what strangers will think but it terrifies us to be judged by those we know and love? I was shocked to see how many people actually took the time to read it. Before I kind of felt like I was alone trying to find my way in the darkness with only a head lamp. Your support is like love and light guiding my path which is much brighter now.

It feels so much better now that everyone is aware of what’s going on, and that I don’t feel like I have this huge secret I am hiding. I am very independent, and not the type of person that likes to ask for support or help, so admitting I have a problem and that it’s going to need outside help to solve it was something that was weighing on me heavily. It was also something I was afraid to admit because it makes me feel like a bit of a hypocrite to have preached love your body, that numbers on a scale don’t define you, and sexy comes in every size for so long that people would think that I don’t believe in that because I am dramatically altering my body. I still believe all of those things. I am not doing this because I hate my body, I am doing it because I love it and I don’t want it to give out on me. Don’t worry kids I haven’t come to hate myself I am still the bubbly spirit you have come to know and love.

Since I have shared my big news I have found out from many friends and family members that they don’t actually know much about Gastric Bypass, or the different bariatric surgeries that are available. I figured I would use this post to provide a little information about them. I will explain each procedure but the graphic provided by nordbariatric.com contains much more information but not much about the procedures.

Gastric Bypass – also known as Roux-en-y, is considered the gold standard for weight loss surgery and is performed more than any other weight loss surgery. It also has been medically researched more than the other options. The procedure is done laparoscopically and takes about 90 minutes to complete. The surgeon will make several small incision to access the stomach and intestine. They will then reduce your stomach by 90% by creating a small pouch that is roughly 15-30 ml in volume or about the size of your thumb. The second part involves removing 45 inches of your intestine and then connecting it to your new pouch. The surgery works by restriction and malabsorption. Not only are you able to eat less you also only absorb a small portion of the food that you consume.

Lap Band – Is a restrictive surgery where the stomach is reduced in volume (to about 100 ml) by an adjustable band. It is done laparoscopically and takes about 40 minutes. The reduction in size allows the patient to feel full more quickly thus reducing the amount of calories consumed. The band has a reservoir filled with saline which is connected to a capsule under the skin. This allows for the band to be adjusted as needed after surgery.

Gastric Sleeve – Is a restrictive laparoscopically performed procedure where the stomach is reduced by about 75% creating a tube or sleeve like new stomach. The surgery works by restriction but they also remove the portion of the stomach that produces ghrelin (the hormone that tells you your hungry) greatly reducing the amount of ghrelin you produce. The surgery takes about 2 hours to complete.

I have chosen to go with Gastric Bypass because it’s the most successful of the 3 surgeries (see the graphic below), even though it poses the biggest lifestyle changes. More people reach their goal weight with bypass than with the other bariatric surgeries. To read more about where I am in the process of getting approved and scheduling my procedure see this post.