Update

Good news!!

I saw my surgeon yesterday. I get to go back to work next week!!

I know, I know. I'll be whining about having to go in no time however for now, I'm looking forward to getting out of the house and into a routine.

Everything is looking good and the weight is coming off. I'll post the update Saturday morning. I'm now allowed food other than pudding, jello, etc.

We went to a favorite restaurant last night. I ordered one a la carte manicotti and ate half. The other half is in the fridge. I'll get to it sometime today. A full order is three manicotti. I got one.

And ate half.

No salad. No bread. Just half of a manicotti.

And that filled me up quite nicely.

Life is good.

And now.......

Because PK asked.......

I took Sage Vivant's Erotic Personality Quiz and discovered I'm a Bottom!

What is your Erotic Personality? Find out now.

Staying Out of Trouble

The surgeon said I would need a four to six week recovery period. I was okay with that. I went to work. I made all the arrangements to miss the first two to four weeks of the school year.

Now however, there's a problem I wasn't counting on.

I feel GREAT. I want to go to work NOW.

School starts tomorrow. I see my doctor on Wednesday. I'm hoping maybe he'll let me go next week.

Adam says that's only three weeks so probably not. I will go NUTS waiting around another week. I'm ready NOW.

Okay, before you all go giving me the "don't push it" advice, let me say this... I feel better than I felt on my very BEST day the last two or three years combined.

My back doesn't hurt. My feet don't crack when I walk. My knees are good. I'm walking straight .... and I'm walking a lot. I haven't clocked it but I am getting out there 4 or 5 times a day and the bare minimum is a trip around my block but I also have been taking longer and longer walks too.

If I could survive the work day when I felt lousy, you better believe I can survive it now!

I'm bored.

Adam is afraid I'm going to hop in the car and go to the school or get myself into some other kind of trouble. He threatened to take my keys. He threatened to have the neighbors watch my comings and goings.

Cassie?? Does any of this ring a bell?

SHORT LEASH!!!!!!!!

I can't go to the school anyhow, they would just boot me off the premises. Workers comp laws and such.... My only hope is that the doc gives me the go ahead to go back to work next week. If I know it's that close, I will be okay.

On another note, people are really - I mean REALLY - starting to notice that I've lost weight. Probably has a lot to do with the fact that because I feel better, I probably look better too. It's kind of fun to hear the comments. The best part is, I've just begun. I am looking forward to the next six months to a year. It is sure to be quite the journey.

I told Adam last night that for the first time in 3 or so years I feel there's hope and that life really is worth living.

Speaking of Adam... he tried his belt out on my hiney this morning as he was getting dressed for work. He had no good reason so I called him a meanie.

He talked about me behaving myself and not getting into trouble. I told him it would be much EASIER to NOT get into trouble if I didn't feel good. Right Sar? Cassie? I mean if a person is feeling crappy, there's not much to catch the eye. But now? I have keys. I want to GO!!! I want to meet the 100 teenagers that are all mine for the next nine months. I want to go to the store and just roam around. Something. Anything.

Maybe I need to just forget it all for today and go upstairs and start sorting through all my clothes. I'm down three sizes from when the school year ended last year so I need to make sure I have at least a few pairs of pants I can start work in NEXT week.

Hopefully.

I'm trying to behave. Really. I am.

Ticker Change

Everything is going well. Getting enough protein and calcium is a challenge at this point but it will come in time. Right now my favorite things are hot tea and sugar free Popsicles. Some food smells get to me. Others just don't phase me. In other words, I'm not hungry and I don't feel like I'm missing out.

Adam changes the dressing on my incision after I get a shower every night. It's then that I get weighed most nights and it's been exciting to watch the numbers drop. This week, I'm down 12 pounds from where I was last week. I know, I know. I won't lose at this rate forever but let me enjoy it while it's here!!

My blood sugar is running at a nice 80-90 WITHOUT the meds. And my blood pressure is about 125/72 also without meds.

Adam smacked my butt just once yesterday. I would love more but it kind of jolted my stomach so I think I better wait a bit. Heck, that poor boy would be happy with sex only right now. Soon, though.... pretty soon.

Anyhow, we have a lot to do today but I was excited to change my ticker so thought I would do that before the day gets rolling!!

Love you all!!!

Stuff

Where in the world has the time gone? My surgery was one week ago yesterday. PK left about 3:00 yesterday afternoon. I just spoke with her on the phone. She's almost safely home. I hope to hear soon that she made it all the way safely.

Her visit was just what the doctor ordered. We talked. We laughed. We walked the pup. We went for rides. Neither of us need much to excite us so we are a perfect match. Sitting quietly talking about whatever comes into our heads is the best ever. I never had a sister. I would imagine that's not half as good as having a twin!!!

I saw my primary care doc this morning. She's quite pleased with my surgery and progress this summer. I asked her what my highest recorded weight is on her records. I'm updating the ticker with this post because I want to make a few changes. First off, the highest she has me recorded at is higher than the ticker's high and by golly, I want credit for EVERY LAST pound I lose.

Okay so I would have been mortified previously for anyone to know this weight but now that it's on the decline, I really don't care.

If anyone out there has considered this surgery can I recommend a book to you? It's called "Before and After" written by Susan Maria Leach who had surgery a few years back and has lost 143 pounds. It's her journey and also tons of recipes which she follows. You can find it here.

I highly recommend that web site. She has a recipe for vanilla custard that I made yesterday. AWESOME. I get six "meals" a day now. A meal might be 3 ounces of jello, pudding, or soup. Three ounces. That's it. Measure out three ounces of something, pour it in a bowl. Take a look. That's a meal. One item. Three ounces. Six times a day.

Wanna hear something bizarre?

It's too much.

I've only been able to squeak in 5 meals a day. Incredible for me. I'm supposed to get 48-64 ounces of water a day too. I drink nonstop and the most I've done is about 35 ounces. Unreal.

So anyhow, about that ticker.

I am changing my starting weight because there's documented proof that within the past six months it's been a bit higher than what's there. I also want to change my goal to a more realistic 160. At least for now. 150 scares me. Most will tell you that I would be entirely too thin at that weight. I'm 5'7-1/2" and VERY large boned. My surgeon's office says my normal range is 147-167. Hmmm... maybe I'll split the difference and go with 157. Yep. That's what I'm going to do. I won't change my current weight until sometime Saturday, though. You all will get bored with that if I do it too often.

The pup's growling. He wants to go for a walk, I'm sure. When Adam brought me in from the doctor's office this morning we found the pup had gotten into raw spaghetti and scattered it all over the kitchen. I had planned on a walk right then but he made me mad!!! Guess it's time. Now he's whining.

Have a great week everyone!!!!

Better than Expected

I am so thankful to be doing better than I expected after this surgery. I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting but on Monday evening when they wanted me to merely dangle my feet off the edge of the bed and stand long enough for them to straighten the bedding, I thought I was going to pass out.

Tuesday morning I took my first walk. I made it half way down the hall and back to my room.

OH!!! MY ROOM!! Let me tell you about my room!!

I was on a floor that handles mainly bariatric patients and other surgical patients when extra room is needed for them. There were two surgeries scheduled for that day but the other one got canceled. When Adam and I arrived at the hospital we found out that they have two private rooms on the floor and they give those to bariatric patients on a first come, first serve basis. Not only do they have two private rooms, one is a VIP room. THAT is the room I was put in because I was the first bariatric patient there. The six who came the next day had to share rooms.

My room was gorgeous with scalloped curtains, shiny hardwood floors with marble looking trim around the edge of the floor, and very stylish wallpaper. Not only that, the staff was WONDERFUL. Many times, a nurse would pull up a chair and just chat about anything and everything. It was a great stay.

Anyhow, by the time I came home I was going CLEAR to the end of the hall (my room was on the other end) and back 4 times. I was also doing steps. And yesterday PK and I took a pretty nice walk. So all in all, it's not been as horrible of an experience as I was expecting. I'm not sure what I expected but I did not expect to feel as good as I do right now. Sure, I have to move slow especially getting up and down but it's okay.

Now about my weight at this point. I checked into the hospital weighing 248. I'd lost since I first posted that little meter here on my site but that was mostly from the whole colon cleansing routine I had endured the day before surgery. Before surgery they warned me to not be alarmed when 24 hours after surgery they weigh me the first time and I find I've gained ten to twenty pounds.

Excuse me?

OUCH!!!

Sure enough, true to their word, I found I gained 18 pounds. Yikes!!! It would have really upset me however they had warned me and explained it would be all water from the massive amount of IV fluid I would have pumped into me. By the time the IV came out on Thursday my kidneys were functioning finally (another story) and I had lost about half that weight. I got on the scales yesterday to find I am only a few pounds above my check in weight.

Today is Saturday and I've decided that Saturday each week will be the day I update the meter above so for what it's worth, I'm now only 1.5 pounds above my check in weight.

Check back each Saturday for the update as I melt away!!!

First Day Home

So PK's here. Between her and Adam I'm strictly sticking to my eating schedule. Don't worry. That's not as bad as it sounds. It's not like I am trying to eat things that I shouldn't have. I'm not tempted by food at all right now. Well, wait. I saw oreo is making cake cookies. If and when I reach my weight goal I will let myself try one of those just because they look awesome. But seriously the eating problem I'm having is keeping up and eating everything I'm supposed to.

I'm given a half hour to eat three ounces of something or a whole hour to drink 4 ounces of water. Occasionally I get half an hour to "rest" where I don't do anything however it seems to me as though that half hour goes by way to quickly or I'm playing catch up. It's just not easy to keep up on this schedule.

Today - my first day home - I've had sugar free jello, a little bit of crystal light peach tea, some beef broth (gag) and a lot of water. In a little bit I'm going to have a hot cup of decaf tea with sweetener in it for supper.

I'm looking forward to my evening snack though. I get a sugar free Popsicle!!!!!! I know that doesn't sound like much BUT I'm looking forward to it like a little kid. In fact, I'm looking forward to it so much that PK has been using it as leverage. She's threatened to dangle it over my head in order to get me to do other things I don't want to do...... like eat more gross broth for supper. We all negotiated and decided I get tea instead. So while Adam and PK eat chicken, coleslaw, bread and pie, I'll be doing a cup of tea. Don't feel sorry for me though. The tea sounds good. The other sounds like torture.

Gosh, it's going to be nice to be thin.

The two of them are a team when it comes to changing my dressing. I have an 8 or so inch incision and 4 smaller wounds from the drains which need cleaned and covered. Things were going well until Adam held his hand out to PK and said "scalpel." PK said "No, we've done that, we're gluing her back together."

Ouch. It hurts to laugh.

And poor PK. Bad enough being exposed to my bare belly, she's had a few shots of my bare boobs too. I commented on that and she says "yeah, I have two of those too." Nothing's phasing her and she seems to like my pup so for sure, she can stay as long as she wants. Liking the pup is a prerequisite to staying here. She passes with flying colors.

All in all she and Adam are making a great team. I try to comply for the most part but broth is nasty stuff. I really can't wait till tomorrow when I advance from a CLEAR liquid diet to a FULL liquid diet which means I get to add sugarfree pudding, strained creamed soups, thin oatmeal, thin mashed potatoes, and cottage cheese. Yum.

Quick Post

As much as I would love to answer emails and comments individually, I simply can't at this time. Tomorrow they will make sure there are no leaks in my system and then they will feed me a few liquid items - broth, jello, etc. If all is well,I will be sent home. In the meantime I want you to now I've read all comments, emails, and e-cards and appreciate every word of support and encouragement you've written.

Today they took my cath out. I still have needles in both hands and two drain tubes in my abdomen. Assuming all goes well tomorrow I'm looking forward to all that being removed. Oh and they finally removed my oxygen tonight. So anyhow thank you for all support and encouragement.