11 days and a new year

It's the monday before I have my staples removed. It's also New Year's Eve and I'm down 26lbs. I've been struggling with my liquid intake. I've never been one who drinks a lot of fluids of any kind so having to drink 64oz. a day has been hard. I start to get a brick feeling in my stomach after drinking just 4 or more ounces at a time but to get the full daily amount, I need to constantly be sipping. Last night I tried holding Emmett. It went good. I sat in a chair and Ken handed him to me. I miss holding and snuggling with him. After that I was sitting in the bathroom while Aidan was taking his bath and he asked for more warm water in the tub. As I was turning the water off, I felt this horrible pinching pain in my belly. It was just a second of pain but it caught me by surprise. Ken of course told me I was over doing it but I didn't think that bending to turn off the water would be considered over doing it. Today I'm going to take it easy. Other than my liquids and that second of pain, I'm doing pretty good. I do hate when Ken cooks any meal though, it smells wonderful throughout the whole house and it makes my stomach hurt. I can't wit to have something to chew.

Aftermath

So it's 3 days post surgery and I'm feeling much better. My first day/night home was horrible. I was doing awesome in the hospital. I was getting up and walking the halls, I was "eating" and keeping it down, and I wasn't having any negative side effects from the surgery....then the car ride home came. It was 2 hours of pure pain. I felt every bump, every brake, every THING! Once we got home, I was nauseous and just wanted to lay down. I slept for a little bit then woke up and tried to eat. I had a few sips of Slim Fast and it tasted real good. My stomach stopped hurting and I thought "This is going to be a breeze", but I spoke too soon. My body decided that it didn't like it and it came right back up. I waited a few more hours and tried some chicken broth. It stayed down until I tried to take my pain meds, then it too came right back up. At around 10pm, I tried two sips of water which instantly made me vomit. I was in pain and I couldn't do anything about it. We called the On Duty Nurse and all she told me was go to the ER. So once in the ER, I got to sit in pain while trying to not vomit. They took my temperature then had me sit back in the waiting room. Then they called me back and took my blood and again, back to the waiting room. Once I finally was taken to a gurney, I put on a gown and got to wait some more. All the while I haven't had any pain meds since before 11am. I'm in tears and we can hear the doctors outside the curtain saying they have no idea what to do with someone who's had bariatric surgery and they may just send us back up north. One of the doctors finally asks who did the surgery and contacts the surgeon. He instructs him to hook me up to an IV, pump fluids in me and give me pain meds. The instant they inject me with the pain meds, I'm doubled over the big, orange bowl dry heaving and shaking. I can't talk and tears are streaming down my face. I finally finish and as I lay back, they give me the nausea meds. I'm given 3 bags of fluids and end up staying until 6am. I'm home now and have finally showered and washed my hair. I'm not doing a lot of moving and I can't hold or carry Emmett so I'm mostly laying and sleeping or sipping on water or tea. I did get to feed Emmett some jar food today and he was happy to be with his mommy, but I was soon tired and napped for a good two hours afterwards. Stay tuned for more exciting updates............

The Beginning Is Upon Us

It's Tuesday night and tomorrow morning will be the last time I have food for 30 days. Of course I'll still be taking in calories, the difference will be that now they will be in liquid form only as my stomach heals from surgery. I'm not nervous, I never get nervous before surgery, but I'm just ready to get it over and done with and get to healing. I hope I have everything I will need for post surgery. I bought gallons of soup/broths, flavored waters, and herbal teas. I bought a few Jell-Os but to be honest, I HATE Jell-O. Ken put a handful of movies on the laptop for me to watch while I'm in the hospital, but I may end up sleeping the whole time. He's going to drive home Thursday night and come back up in the morning on Friday so I won't have company that night. In two weeks I will go back for a post-op follow up and the doctor will determine if I can add drinkable yogurts to my diet. I'm excited for Christmas. It will be Emmett's first Christmas and Aidan will be getting a new bike from Uncle Matt so he'll be stoked. Stay tuned for post-op updates!(If the world doesn't end of course)

Yowzer! The story unfolds.

The past few weeks have just been a whirlwind of activity so brace yourself. For the last couple of months I have been having a horrible burning sensation and sometimes a stabbing pain at my port site and after eating I would sometimes have to rush to the bathroom to get sick. If I ran my hand over the port site, I could feel it without even pressing. None of this is normal, especially for having the band for two years now.I contacted the facility that put in my lapband and after a couple attempts, I finally got to speak to someone and all they wanted to know was "What did I do?" They said they wanted to see me but it would cost me $100 and we'd go from there. Ken suggested I try our healthcare provider and see where that takes me. I promptly got an appointment to see my PC physician and once I explained to her my symptoms, she put in a referral to the bariatric department and another to radiology for an upper GI. I received a call later that day from Karen, one of the Kaiser Care Managers, wanting more information in regards to my band. After I told her what I had been experiencing, she told me to get into radiology as soon as I could and she would put a rush on my referral to bariatrics. The next day was Friday, November 30th, and boy is that the day that tried to kick my ass. I was already tired from having problems sleeping and Aidan had been having half days at school all week, and anyone who is a stay at home mom knows that those extra couple of hours everyday can be a lifesaver. Well, I was getting Emmett ready to go in the car to pick Aidan up and I went to let Newkie in from the backyard when I saw him eating something on the ground. I had put snail bait out the night before after catching the little bastards all over my sweet pepper plants, and here was Newkie eating them as a snack! I quickly put him in the office and rushed to go get Aidan. While waiting for his class to be excused I googled snail bait ingestion and found that it's fatal, especially for small dogs. As soon as I got home, I grabbed Newkie and took him to the vet. They induced vomiting then made him ingest charcoal to help absorb any left over poison. They wanted to keep him over night to monitor him so I left without my dog and $374 dollars poorer. I went home with the feeling of guilt because I was the one who put the bait out in the first place. Later that day I found out my father-in-law had had a heart attack. I knew my husband didn't know and I didn't want him to find out the same way I did, via Facebook, so I called him. If you know my husband then you know the love and respect he has for his father so you would also know that this news was like being hit by a freight truck. I just wished I didn't have to tell him over the phone. I was still worried about Newkie come late afternoon so I called to check on him and got the good news that the doctor had given the ok to pick him up!!!! He wasn't allowed any food and he was pissed about that, but he was home where he belonged. The hubby came home and as we were sitting talking about the day, my phone rang. It was the bariatric department. They had a cancelation for Saturday and wanted to know if I was available? HELL YEAH I AM!! I had expected to have to wait at least 3 weeks to see a specialist so I was pleasantly surprised to be seen so quickly. The appointment was for a Kaiser almost two hours away, but that was the only hospital that does bariatric surgery so I didn't have a choice on location unless I wanted to go back to TJ, and I didn't. So I saw the doctor and he confirmed that my port had indeed turned and it was surrounded by fluid. Right then and there he scheduled me for Jan 10th to have the band removed and the sleeve put in its place. On the way home my husband got to talk to his dad and that gave him some peace of mind that if his dad was well enough to call him, he would be ok. That night my brother started moving into our office and Aidan got sick.....I mean SICK!!! He was throwing up everywhere and every time he would calm down and relax, it would start all over again. By Sunday night he was back to his normal, hyper self. On Tuesday I got a call to schedule my upper GI for the following Thursday. I had assumed I was just supposed to go so I was surprised to get a call to make an appointment. That day, I dropped Aidan at school and headed down to meet my mom. She was more than thrilled to have the baby all to herself and couldn't wait to do some Christmas shopping with him. I got my upper GI done and they couldn't find anything wrong with the pouch, the band, the port, or the connecting tube, but since they didn't know the initial placement of the port, they couldn't determine if it had moved. By the time I was done with my appointment I saw I had missed a call from the bariatric department up north. They had an opening for an earlier date, Dec 20th, and wanted to know if I wanted it??? I knew I wanted to get the surgery over with but 5 days before Christmas???? I took it. So to recap- In a matter of 7 days I went from having a lapband that wasn't working and it was causing pain on a daily basis to having the thing pulled out and my stomach will be stapled to the size and shape of a banana, my dog got poisoned, my father in-law had a heart attack, Aidan vomited on every surface in his room, and my brother moved in with us. Can't say my life is boring for sure. Oh, and Emmett is now 6 months old, has two teeth that just came through this past week, and he weighs almost 18lbs. It's time for a nap.

Holy Crap I suck!

It's been over a year but at least I have a reason to be MIA for so long.......A new baby.

I have taken two steps back with my weight loss and now it's time to get back on track. I'm happy to announce that I didn't gain nearly as much with this pregnancy compared to my first, but still with any weight gain, you have to get over the negative feelings and get your head on straight and push forward. My new moto is going to be "LET'S DO THIS!"

Remember....... pain is just weakness leaving your body