16 days Post op and 21 Pounds Down

Just wanted to give a little update on how things are going . I am steadily loosing a pound or 2 a day. Which is fine with me, I know that will slow down once I start to eat regular food.
Energy level is slowly getting back up to normal but I still end up having to take a nap almost everyday . I have also had some issues with sleeping since surgery . Hoping that gets better.

This go around has been a little harder as far as the full liquid stage . I wont lie.  Because of my migraines and issues with artificial sweeteners I have only found one protein drink that does not give me a migraine and I cant even have that one more than once a day .
Because of the artificial sweeteners bothering me I have to usually dilute full sugar items. For instance I drink 20 oz of water with 1 tablespoon of juice . That much does not bother me.
Sugar free jello and sugar free pudding are out , so I can only have a small amount of each at at a time Too much and i get sick to my stomach and feel nauseated . ( Dumping Syndrome) The dumping is a BIG issue for bypass and something I knew I would have because i dumped with my sleeve.
So I feel like i stay nauseated most of the day , I know that will get better when i can have more foods. I see the doc on Tuesday so he should move me up .
The GOOD thing about this surgery is I really am not hungry . I Just in the last day or so started to feel hunger and it will usually go away after drinking some more water.

I have to take my antibiotics with applesauce, ( Technically a mushy food ) and 2 or 3 bites and i can FEEL It going down or myself getting full . So I feel hopeful that is a good sign of the restriction to come.

So over all things are going well . Just anxious to move on to pureed foods so i can have some butternut squash or re fried beans !

My story: Lapband, To sleeve To Bypass Revsions

 PLEASE NOTE : I am still working on this post ,, Excuse the choppiness of it ! Still working on adding details ! 

I have had several people over the last week ask me what my "whole story was " for all my surgeries , why i needed one after having another etc. So I'll try to keep it short and put it in all one page so here goes :

The beginning :
As a young adult i was 130-150 pds .
My weight issues started about 15 yrs ago when I got married , became a stay at home mom and got pregnant the same YEAR !! Not a real good combo for someone's weight.
When i got married in 2000 i was about 140-150 pds. More than I had ever weight in my life.
In 2001 i became pregnant w/ my second son and my weight just came on and on and on ( I GOT HUGE ) . After I had him , the weight did not come off. Would not come off.
I'll be honest though I did not and have not tried every diet under the sun.
I tried Atkins , I tried weight watchers , working out a curves and eating better over the last 7 or so yrs. So did i try EVERYTHING ? Probably not .
I also have something called PCOS ( Poly Cycstic Ovarian Syndrome)
Here is the definition from Wikepedia
Polycystic ovary syndrome abbreviated PCOS or PCO (also known clinically as Stein-Leventhal syndrome, Sclerocystic ovary syndrome, Hyperthecosis, ovarian, Polycystic ovarian disease PCOD ) is an endocrine disorder that affects approximately 10% of all women .^[1] It occurs amongst all races and nationalities, is the most common hormonal disorder among women of reproductive age, and is a leading cause of infertility.^[2][3] The principal features are weight problems, lack of regular ovulation and/or menstruation, and excessive amounts or effects of androgenic (masculinizing) hormones. The symptoms and severity of the syndrome vary greatly between women. While the causes are unknown, insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity are all strongly correlated with PCOS.

It became very obvious to me that my weight was not going to come off. Over about 7 yrs I lost 25 pds and that was IT !! So I gave up . I wont lie I did !

The Band ( Starting Weight 250 if not more Goal weight of 125 lbs hit in 10 months  )
In 2004 I started researching WLS with the encouragement of my long time OBGYN. At the time the Lap Band was " THE" Surgery to have , it was being sold as least invasive , blah blah . So i deiced I would check into it . At this time the longest anyone had the band I think was maybe 5 yrs ? So in talking to people who had the band for a while 1-2 yrs out it looked great ! People kept the weight off, no one really had anything bad to say about it , including my doc .
In 2006 I decied to take the blunge and get banded and was banded in July of 2007
Here is a link to my one year mark with my band ( oh if i had only known what was to come ) .


The day I hit my goal weight with my lap band I slipped my band for the first time .
That is where the end of the band began. Nothing really ever was right after that . I slipped my band again in July of 2009 !
As this stuff was going on I started to have some other funky things going on with my health . Those are all located here under Auto Immune if you would like to read up on them .
For the record I beleieve these issues I had were mostly if not all band related !
Now the kind of short story at this point is, my band was unfilled for nearly 2 yrs. My band got to the point where it could not be filled with out strangling my esophagus , I got to where i could not eat anything but mushy foods . You can read more about that here .

So my over view of the band now , looking back , Its an evil contraption that needs to be taken off the market ! They have a 50-60% Failure rate and have no business being in peoples bodies ! PERIOD







The Struggle to Remove the Band
At the time my band failed me and I knew I had to get it out we were self employed and in no way able to afford the removal of my band and revision to sleeve out of pocket . My only option after checking into it was to get pre existing insurance coverage through the government. I still had to pay over $500 a month ( I think it was ) for JUST ME being covered plus 20% . Long story short I ended up having a fund raiser and raised most of the money .

The Sleeve( SW 225 Lightest weight 190 )

I had a HORRIBLE experience with my first revision surgeron , he was ok but his office staff literally gave me panic attacks by just talking to them on the phone !
This guy was suppose to be " the best revision doc around " which by the way was 4 hours from my house . (Horrible doc experience )
I have been in the medical field for many years. After asking some of my nurse friends who had a good rep in the OR , who had good technique and who THEY would trust to do their surgery I found my awesome doc Dr Fass !!
The surgery it self was good but I had a few issues . Over all the recovery from band to sleeve revision was decent, harder than the band but doable . My story of my 5 days in the hospital post revision can be read here !

ANOTHER Revision ? You are kidding right ? (SW 215 Current Weight 205 )
At about my one year anniversary I started to feel like I was able to eat a ton of food . My doc thought I was being a little over paranoid so he suggested I get an upper GI . Turned out my sleeve was too larger and I needed or could have it revised .
That story is here !

My Last Revision and the roughest !

With a second hiatial hernia repair and the bypass my surgery , this last one was probably the toughest , I am still recovering from it .

5 Days Post op 

So that is the basic of all my issues, I will fill in when I feel like it , but feel free to ask me any questions !

Updates and honesty !

It has been a while since I have updated the blog. So i thought I would go over a few things.
First as you know I have had chronic migraines since i was 11 yrs old. I get 15-18 migraines a month.
A few months ago they were really out of hand, due to not having insurance for 7 yrs the only thing I could do was treat them when I got them . Now that we have insurance I was able to go see a new Neurologist , who is amazing by the way . The end of December I got my first round of botox treatment for migriaines , to prevent them . I got around 30 injections on my forehead, behind my ears, the back of my neck and down my shoulders. I was "Warned" the botox may take a treatment or 2 to really work . Well to my amazment it worked the first treatment and I have only had 5 migraines in the last 60 days. ( I Had 3 this week I think the botox is wearing off now ) So I will go back in March for another round ! But I am VERY Happy with the results !!!

Now for my weight loss. I was hoping to get my migraines under control so i could then start to work out . However the weather here in Texas has been NUTS . So I have not gotten out much lately .
That being said , I will be 100% honest with those of you reading this ... Because I think its important if your considering revision to know ALL of the facts. I have lost 40 lbs in over a year.. Not to bad BUT Weight loss surgery wise its not good . 30 of those pounds came off the first 30 days.
I dont want to go into too much detail right now .. we are waiting to find out more . However the doc is concerened something is not right . My stomach maybe too large or something, Its not "Normal" to have not lost much weight . SO I will have an upper GI next week to find out if anything is going on . Its not anything bad he does not think but he wants to find out why i am able to eat as much as I can .
There is where the honesty comes in . IF I am trying to be good and eat what i should in the amount I should I can EASILY eat 4 oz of food , protein and an hour later be hungry again !
IF I am being bad , like I was the other day I at nearly an ENTIRE Wendys Hamburger and some fries ! NOT normal for someone who had the stomach the size of a highlighter, Or suppose to have a stomach that larger !
 I feel like I am a bottomless  pit when it comes to what i can eat . Similar to what I felt like before surgery . I agree with my surgeon when he says lets not set around and wait for you to gain more weight back before we do something, OH Yeah i forgot to mention I have gained 9 lbs in 3 months !

So I will update more when I find out more . To be honest I was not going to make this public, the upper GI ect , but I feel its important to be honest with everyone who reads my blog, those who
are thinking of surgery , have had it etc . To be honest is what people need ! Including being honest with myself !

Thanks for reading !

7 months post op Visit. Eat More weight less !

1 week post op (November 2012) 

7 months post op . 40 lbs down
Taken today 

I saw my surgeon today for my 6 month follow up appt . ( 7 really ) I was concerned he might not like that i have only lost 7 pounds in the last 3 months. He was happy with the way things were going . 

Turns out he wants me to eat MORE ! I was trying to get in 800-900 calories a day , He said that is NOT NEAR enough for how active i am now . He wants me to be between 1200-1500 a day . Closer to 1500 on days I am at the gym . While that seems great its going to be a little hard to get in that many calories, but I will try !! 

I also spoke to him about my vitamins .. i can't seem to find any that don't give me migraines. Since my lab work looks great he said not to worry about it , try to get in some when i can if I can . Once i start eating more my levels will probably get better.  

He said I look good , healthy and happy , he can tell I have lost lots of inches so he's happy with my progress. I go back in September and that will be my last of my every 3 month visits, I'll then go every 6 months ! 

Over all I am pretty happy with how things are going. 

The DATE ! The Numbers !

Has been set ! For my surgery !!! Next Wednesday November 14th ! Its finally here and I cant believe it !
There have been times were I felt this lap band just might kill me . There have been times where I felt like I was going to die . There have been times where I felt like I wanted to die from this crap band I have installed in me ! For the last 2 or 3 yrs all I have wanted was to get the band OUT !! After road block after road block it is finally here ! My doc is amazing , he normally does not operate on Wednesdays but is going to so i do not have to wait til after Thanksgiving to get the surgery .

Thanks to everyone who has supported me and been there for me during this process. All my "real life " friends and all my " cyber friends" you all have been great.

There are those people who I no longer speak to or do not speak to much because they do not agree with my choice to have a revision . I have " done enough damage to my body " to those people I say this .. educate yourself before you speak about what you do not know ! The revision is just as important as the removal of the band . And if you do not know then do not speak about it !! But support , if you cant support then see ya !! Im off to my new life  ! New healthy life !!!