Well Hello Friday!!

Oh goodness here we are and I still have laundry to fold! I cannot stand laundry. It is my LEAST favorite household activity!

I have soooo much to do today and yet here I sit on the computer!!! UGH!

Ok, it's official, I can eat again! I am officially off all liquid, full liquid, mushie and soft diets. I can eat regular foods again today. The idea of that is strange to me. I've been eating whatever I've been told for more than a month now so now that I have control of it kind of scares me. I REALLY need to keep tracking of everything.

I'm also really bad at eating first thing in the morning too! Got to break that habit!

So, I am officially banded. Officially have a fill in it. Oh yeah, yesterday while at the hospital with my mother-in-law waiting for my father-in-law to have his surgery, we went to grab lunch because his surgery got pushed by 3 HOURS (felt bad for them!!!) so I got a cup of soup and a piece of pumpkin pie. They had stopped serving lunch and well, I was still on softs yesterday and considering my choices it was the best I could do. I still had a bad habit. I bought the bigger cup of soup. Only ate half. Took 3 or 4 bites of the filling of the pie (no crust was eaten) and was TOTALLY full!! But, by the evening meal (which because of the crazy hectic schedule of surgery waiting and recital going to for niece and nephew consisted of a small chili from Wendy's) I didn't get as full with that. Is that because I am tighter in the morning that evening? Is there a way to stay as tight all day long???

So, I'm banded. I called the insurance company today too. I've been a nervous wreck for like a month and a half because for some reason I've been nervous that they weren't going to end up covering it even though I fit the profile of it. Well they did. Whew. The hospital's business office has been calling and I haven't spoken with them but it must be for another reason, I think I know why now.......got to call them back....sigh.


I'm banded. I can't believe it. For years I have contemplated it. And now I finally did it! I'm banded baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first Lap Band Fill

I have a big packet of info from my nutritionist I got the last time I was at the clinic. She gave me all the info I would need to progress in my diet over the pureed to soft to regular food periods. And as I was looking over the regular foods, I noticed what was expected of me for dinner. 3 oz. No, not 3 oz. of protein. 3 oz. Yikes! Knowing that and knowing that I am stuck now in that bandster time frame where I could eat anything again, yep, I fell into that, I called the clinic.

My PA (oops, sorry I stated early she was an NP, she's not, she's a PA) said I could call earlier than my scheduled appointment if I thought I needed an adjustment or fill earlier (thank goodness) so I took her up on her offer!

I went in today. Remember in my previous post how I said she told me she would be aggressive, she wasn't kidding. She put in 5 cc's in my 11 cc band. Took 2 sips of water and she said you need some out. Instant "gurgling" (the only way I can explain the feeling or sensation - if you are a bandster you may get it) on the second sip.

She took out maybe less than 1 cc after. I was told to take it easy, full liquids today, purees tomorrow, softs Thursday and officially back to regular foods for the first time in a month on Friday. If I don't need her to take anymore out. I still feel a little in my throat. So, I'm thinking I may need to go back. I just drank 4 oz. of a protein shake and didn't really feel like it was much of a problem though......

So tell me my fellow lap-banders, what were your first fill experiences like? Similar? Completely different? I thought before was interesting now comes the interesting part I think, finding that green zone.


Also, I don't know if this will be considered a NSV or not (probably not, since it is related to my scale) but my BMI has already dropped 7 points!!! (EDITED TO SAY: it's actually 6.1 points. Opps!!!) YEAH!! Really that right there is starting to bring tears to my eyes!

Starting to try to get out there and walk more too. My mother-in-law kept my kids while I was at my appointment so when we got home my goal was to walk for 40 mins. with them in our neighborhood. It is getting close to 90 degrees, which doesn't sound like much fun, but we have a lot of shaded areas so it wasn't too bad, but after 20 mins. L was COMPLAINING so we started to head home. I ended up getting in 31 mins. So, not too bad considering.

Lastly a quick update on my dad (I want his permission before giving a MAJOR update), he's home and resting and did well with what he had to do today!!!

Also edited to add: I took the stairs to the clinic today! Lap Band Gal said on her blog one day that she had made a promise to herself that once she had her surgery that she would only take the stairs to her clinic. Well, I missed my first post-op appointment, but what a great idea! So, today I did!! Can't wait until I'm not out of breath!

Simple Monday and something actually Band related!!

Outside my window...it's raining and thundering!!! Glad we got our errands done early today!!

I am thinking...that I'm actually going in for my first fill tomorrow. My first fill isn't technically scheduled until July 11th, but I am supposed to start "regular food" tomorrow and well, I know right now I could eat WAY more than I am supposed (3 oz. at dinner time). So yeah, it's time for a fill. My NP said that if I felt like I needed it earlier just to call and I did and I'm on my way in tomorrow. She said she is going to be very aggressive to get me into my green zone in the 90 days following my surgery. I mean we are already 28 days in today and no fill so it's going to have to be VERY aggressive in the next 60 days.

I am thankful for...my husband. I had a few VERY grouchy days last week and he was so incredibly patient with me.

From the kitchen...I just made both my kids sunbutter sandwiches. What’s sunbutter you ask? Well, since we are a peanut free home (unless we sneak some in our bedroom ONLY when L is not in the house and then we have to CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN before he comes home, which by the way is like once a year when this happens) we have a peanut butter alternative. It’s made from sunflower seeds. It looks like peanut butter, smells like sunflower seeds, tastes like sunflower seeds, has the consistency of peanut butter and you can use it in way you would use peanut butter! There is a name brand Sunbutter, but we usually just head from Trader Joe’s and buy their brand.

I am wearing...a t-shirt and capris. Small NSV…..shirts are STARTING, I say starting, because it is just BARELY happening, to become loose!!! Small NSV!! (for those not in the band world an NSV is a non-scale victory, in other words, it means it has something to do with weight loss, but the scale doesn’t count!)

I am creating...ideas in my head about what to do with these kids this summer!!

I am going...nowhere else today! We’ve already met my in-laws for breakfast, went to the gas station, went to get the tags renewed on my mini-van (yep, that’s how I roll) and to the grocery store..

I am reading...nothing really. Band blogs. Pinterest. My brother gave me the Hunger Game trilogy but I have yet to get into them.

I am hoping...that everything goes well for my dad and father-in-law. Praying for both this week.

I am hearing...washer just stop and thunder every now and again.

Around the house...my tween and I got a bunch accomplished today already but laundry is a never ending battle at our house. How about yours?


One of my favorite things...texting. I love texting. I don’t know what life would be like without now. You know? My mom HATES to text. My in-laws just got a texting plan in the last 6 months.

Father's Day Edition

Father's Day

I wasn't blogging really during Mother's Day. So, I have some guilt about not blogging about how awesome my mom is, so I will need to set aside some time soon and tell you all about her!

But, in honor of today being Father's Day, I think it's important to tell you about all the Fathers in my life.

First, is my Dad. My dad is a Southern man made into a Northern man. He was raised in the south by his parents. His own dad passed away when my dad was young so he and his 5 siblings were raised by a single mom with not a lot of money. When he went away to Bible college, I'm sure this was a big deal to them all. That's where he met my mom. They met and fell in love. I'm not actually sure why, but she came home after only a year away at school and well, he followed her. And that was it. A couple of years later they were married. A year after they were married I was born. He is a HARD worker. He has a tremendous work ethic. Most people could learn from my dad. I could learn from my dad. My dad is the kind of man that has a BIG heart. He is very tender hearted. He has an opinion on most things, he knows a lot of stuff, he came back to the Lord when I was a teenager, he meant business when he was discipling you, but you knew he loved you. My dad loves my mom more than I can say and shows it by actions and words. He loves me and my brother by the way he raised us by teaching us ethics and morals and the ways of the Lord and what's right and wrong. My dad is my little autistic boy's big buddy. They have a little thing and it is one of the sweetest things to see.

My Papa (pronounced paw-paw). Well, my Papa has been gone this summer 8 years. He was a man who had been through a lot. He was raised in the south as well and moved north for work. He worked in a place where he moved to a place where he could have had a more prestigious position of management (I hear) but he turned it down, because he didn't want, I don't think it was the responsibility per se, but maybe the drama that comes along with that type of position. See he would have been moving from the blue collar side of the world to the white collar side. He chose to stay on the blue collar side. Still kind of a "boss" but not quite the manager. My grandpa had a brain aneurysm when I was like 7 or 8 years old. I think my mom and I were at a Brownie meeting. That changed our lives forever. That was in the early '80's. We are blessed that he lived, but his personality was never the same. He was a patient man before and kind of lost that. He was still a sweet man, but not quite the same. I don't remember much before he got sick but everyone tells me stories of me running into his house and he would have butterscotches hidden under the couch for he and I to share and watch tv. I was the only grandchild for a couple of years and the only girl for a long time. At his job he ended up having to medically retire because he couldn't do his work anymore. Everywhere we turned around our town we would run into someone he would know from work. Sometimes he would know their name, sometimes just faces. But, I think almost every restaurant we went to there was somebody. I hear he was tough, but fair. One memory I have is that he made a bunch snowballs in the winter and kept them in the freezer until the summer for us to have a snowball fight.

My husband. My goodness what an awesome man I got. Who knew at 16 years old (that's how old he was when I met him) that not only would I meet the boy that would become the man who would not only be my husband but the father to my kids!! He is an AWESOME dad. LOVES, LOVES, LOVES these babies (I say babies but they are almost 12 and 6 1/2)and he is not the kind of man that only plays and doesn't discipline. You know those kind of guys? I hear about them. My husband, thankfully, is not one of them. He plays with them and disciplines them. He loves them, but will talk with them. He shows them how to do things, sits down and does homework with them (I have no idea how I would have helped my poor M with her math this year had it not been for him). He couldn't be a better father. Honestly. I am in love with the man that is my husband and the father of my children.

The Lord.

I saved Him for last. If it wasn't for the Lord, I don't know where I would be. I know a lot people on tv and throughout life talk about God so easily, but I wonder how many of you have people in your lives that have an actual relationship with God. Well, I do. When I was young my parents took me to church. I learned all the stories from the Bible and all the things they wanted me to learn, but it took me becoming a teenager and adult to hear the things and think about them for myself to really think about them to understand them and believe them to know that my God is real. He created this universe. I know the world is scary. I know a lot of bad things happen. But, a lot of good happens too. God loves you. HE LOVES YOU!!!!!! With everything He had (His own Son's life) He gave it all for you!

So, to all my Father's in my life, Happy Father's Day!!! I love you!!!!!!!!

Tired

I haven't blogged in a few days.

Tired.

Tired of crying.

Tired of lots of stuff.

Don't you hate when the junk in your life pops it head up ALL at the same time? I mean seriously?????

This is when I should be relying on the Lord more and I feel like I run away from Him. I'm a coward. I should cling to Him, instead I drive further away. I'm so glad our God is a patient God, because if He wasn't I would be a lost case.

It's been a long few days....be patient with me blogesphere.

Support

When you are thinking about having WLS (weight loss surgery) lots of things happen. At least to me. First you contemplate it. For a while. A long while. Then you think about which kind of surgery would I have, gastric bypass or lap band. I thought those were the only two types at the time. Little did I know, there are a couple more than that now.

Then you start sharing with your spouse your desire to have said WLS. He shares his thoughts, ideas and concerns with you and you discuss it. And if you are in agreement then you maybe move forward. Well, that was me a few years ago.

I have thought about having WLS surgery for a few years. I even signed up to go to one of my clinic's monthly orientation things a couple of years ago but cancelled, because it wasn't the right time for me.

Once I really got serious about it, I shared it with family. Then friends. You do get a lot of opinions when sharing the idea of having an optional surgery. I mean after all no one is "making" you have this surgery. It's not life or death or is it?

Let's think about this.....when I visited with my surgeon we talked about the risk factors, i.e. co-morbidity diseases. Right now, I don't really have any, well except sleep apnea. I don't have diabetes. My blood pressure has been a bit up and down this year, but has had some normal numbers, so my PCP wasn't too awfully concerned especially if I move forward with the WLS. So, what does this all mean....it means if I don't have the surgery, according to my physician, by the time I am 42 (a few years from now) I will have diabetes. Plain and simple. No ifs, ands or buts about it. And likely if my blood pressure keeps it up the way it was going it wouldn't have been good either. So, we are back to was a life or death surgery? To me it was.

I want to be around for as long as possible. My weight has held me down for FAR too long. In too many ways to list here. But, I had to have the support to be able to do this surgery, I couldn't just go and do it.

My husband was leery. I won't lie. He was nervous because after all, it is a surgical procedure. My parents were nervous. But all were supportive.

My in-laws have been supportive.

My sister-in-law, T, might be the nicest person you will ever meet. No honestly. I don't know if I have ever heard a cross word come out of her mouth! She is also the most fit and healthy person you will ever meet. But, she is not the person who will ever judge you if you are not. I NEVER felt judgment from her. EVER. Do you know how awesome that is?

I called her up this morning and said, well, I need to start walking, can we walk together in your neighborhood and she said I'll see you in an hour! Love her!

My husband and parents are practically applauding every ounce I lose! They are giving me text high fives often :) Telling me how proud they are of me. I hope they don't get sick of doing that. It's a long road and we are only a partial way down!!!!

I hope that if you are considering some sort of WLS you have a serious support team in place. They are a big part of the recovery and weight loss process!!!

Simple Monday

Outside my window...it's cloudy and it just rained.

I am thinking...unfortunately today may be a pity party day for me. I'm not feeling well at all today. Seems I've caught a summer cold very early in the summer, so hopefully that means I am getting it out of the way for the rest of the season!

I am thankful for...family!

From the kitchen...I had to eat, so I made 1/2 cup egg substitute with 1 oz. of very thinly sliced and diced turkey from the deli and a slice of cheese. I also ate 1/2 of a thing of strawberry applesauce. That's all I could eat.

I am wearing...pajamas. If I could live in them, I would.

I am creating...nothing. I'm not creative. Ok, wait, does this blog count? I will probably keep repeating that.

I am going...nowhere today.

I am reading...nothing really. Notes from school. Band blogs. Pinterest.

I am hoping...that I feel better tomorrow. The laundry does not do itself!

I am hearing...the air conditioning and the fan on.

Around the house...it just needs a general picking up. Bits and pieces of things here and there need to be put away.

One of my favorite things...popsicles and fudgesicles. I ate way too many yesterday. I think yesterday was my first day that I feel like I was way off band-wise.

Well, I weighed myself this morning and although I haven't shared my weight here on the blog, I will tell you in my pre-op side I lost 25 lbs. over maybe a 2 month period. Since my surgery 3 weeks ago today, I've lost 16.6 lbs. For a total of 41.6 lbs. That is the most I've lost in my life. Honestly. No diet has ever worked that well for me. I'm well on my way toward getting my weight off of me. It's exciting to see the number. I wish I was more of a positive person, look at what I've accomplished type. Instead I tend to lean toward, look what I still need to do. None the less, it's 40+ lbs that are now gone!! That's a preschooler!!!!!! Woo hoo!!

Ahhhh Saturday

Saturday is a fun day, except when you are feeling your age from being up too late the night before!!!!

Last night we went to the drive-in and saw Madagascar 3 and Mirror, Mirror with our Girl Scout troop. It was mine and M's official last troop meeting. While the kids and parents snacked on pop, popcorn and candy, I drank half of an Icy Orange Flavored Isopure and had two, yes two, frozen lemonades from the concession stand. My allergies are acting up so badly and my throat was so sore and I totally forgot to bring a snack for me :(

We got home around 2 am and had to both jump in the shower to get the bug spray off. We then woke up and made it back to meet more friends this morning for round 2 of Madagascar 3 so that L could see it this morning!!

Later today we went over to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house for my nephew's birthday party. Today was a weird day. It was a bad ASD day and a good ASD day rolled up into one. L was overwhelmed with the amount of people in attendance today and his behavior showed it, however, it wasn't SO bad that I had to remove him from every situation, but we had quite a few "talks" today. Once the crowd thinned a little, he picked up his attitude a lot. I even noticed him playing with the other kids and engaging quite a bit socially. This is a really big deal!!!! He had a great time. M saw a friend she doesn't see often, in fact she only sees at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house, because it's their friend's son. They had a great time. A lot of water balloons were thrown today and water was soaking almost every child.

Once almost everyone was gone we got to sit around and talk for a bit, it was nice visiting with my in-laws and aunt. My daughter got to hang with her cousins for a while.

Today I had a slight emotional moment band-wise. Have you felt like this? After leaving the movie this morning I was exhausted. We were out late last night, up early this morning, I had to take a Benadryl because of my allergies and was just feeling a bit wiped. So, I stopped to grab the kids some lunch. Convenient. However, with a band, no more convenience for me. I really didn't feel like eating anything but needed to eat, so I ended up making up some soup and some yogurt for lunch. Took a couple of protein shakes over to their house for throughout the day. I know they are slippery foods, but I am still getting there. Ugh.

So, how was your Saturday? I would say overall, mine was great. I saw friends this morning who I love, family this afternoon who I love. Missed my hubby like crazy. He only got to be at the party for a little bit. Had to work and then has to be at work again tomorrow!

New Foods

Since my appointment on Tuesday I've been moved up a stage into the "pureed" food category. This is both a blessing and a curse. For some reason I am entering into the world of "Bandster H-E-Double Hockey Sticks" :(

I am hungrier. No doubt. I feel like I am not getting enough protein in, for sure. I am just blah. Any other bandsters out there feel me???? Hungry, but don't feel like eating? Feel like you are either eating or drinking all day long, peeing all day long....sigh.

Ok, enough of that. My menus are currently including egg substitute with a piece of sliced cheese, a healthier version of "Texas Trash" so that I can get some refried beans for protein (I have never really been a refried bean fan) and some deli meat with mashed potatoes. I feel like I've already told you all this. Am I having deja vu or have I??? Guess I need to read an old post.... Oh and some low sodium V-8 juice, I don't think I can't handle the "pureed" veggies....baby food doesn't sound appealing to me at all!!!!!

I woke up today with a sore throat, not sure what that's about and I am also dealing with my costochondritis, which is a super inconvenient time for that to be going on.

What's on tap for our weekend? M and I have our very last Girl Scout meeting ever tonight. We have decided not to join Girl Scouts last year. This was her 6th year as a Girl Scout. We are going as a group to the drive-in movie.

Tomorrow I am meeting a girlfriend and her son with my two kids to see the same movie (that way my son can see it and I get to hang with my friend). We then have my nephew's 6th birthday party.

Sunday is church and then meeting my family for my aunt's birthday. Then we get a break on birthdays until the end of August. I don't know about you guys, but our family has a whole bunch of birthdays packed together from the middle of April until the middle of June.

What's in store for you this weekend? I'm looking forward to nice weather (FINALLY)!!!!

Catching Up

I realized after my last post I skipped over a few days and actually had a lot going on so I thought maybe I'd catch up on that and my appointments I had as well!!

On Friday night we took our Girl Scout troop on a "Formal Fast Food Progressive Dinner". It was a blast for them!! We took them to 9 (yes, I said 9) different restaurants. We went for the following:

- 1st Course: Appetizers at Sonic, Menu: Cheese Curds, Onion Rings and Sweet Potato Tots, oh and a small drink to go!! Mind you we had one order of each thing per car (not per kid). So, they were sharing and not eating a BUNCH of junk!!!! No one liked the sweet potato tots.

- 2nd Course: Soup at Panera Bread, Menu: A cup of soup of their choice and a half a piece of French baguette. I believe most choices were Broccoli Cheese, Chicken Noodle, French Onion, Chicken and Rice and a couple of others I cannot remember right now.

- 3rd Course: Poultry at Popeye's, Menu: a half of a chicken tender (after all we had a lot of places to go and we realize they were eating a lot of junk food, but we were still limiting the amount of junk food they were eating).

- 4th Course: Fish at Long John Silver's, Menu: a half of a piece of fish and a hushpuppy.

- 5th Course: Roast at Arby's, Menu: half of a Junior Roast Beef Sandwich

- 6th Course: Impromptu - stop for drinks - whatever they wanted to drink from McDonald's

- 7th Course: Salad at Wendy's, Menu: half of a side Garden Salad or a side Caesar Salad with their choice of dressing.

- 8th Course: Dessert at a local cupcake bakery in our area, Menu: their choice of cupcake. Big choices of the night were cookies and cream cupcakes and samoa cupcakes.

- 9th Course: After Dessert Coffee at Starbucks, Menu: Demi-Tasse, crackers, strawberries and cheesecake (instead of cheese). Formally this course would have a dessert coffee, crackers, fresh fruit and cheese. NO WAY were we going to give a bunch of kids coffee, but we let them have a choice of hot chocolate, white chocolate or spiced apple cider and changed up the rest of the menu :)

Before we took the kids out we did research on this website. Obviously you can see we veered a bit to fit our needs, but we wanted to do "courses" with them.

The kids had a blast, we did too. I made the mistake of showing the 4 girls in my vehicle an AFV video of a guy whose wife kept locking him out of the car and making him dance to get back in, so guess what happened to me at the Long John Silver stop? Yep, they locked me out and made me dance and yes, someone got it on video!! Stinkers :)

Oh and how did this new bandster do on this trip?? Crazy right? Oh, I did great! No sarcasm at all in my voice by the way! I had broth from chicken noodle soup at Panera Bread and I brought my own apple sauce and ate that at Wendy's. I had a short skinny mocha which I had them add sugar free caramel and not so sugar free coconut (I love the summer time at Starbucks), which when I threw the cup away, I realized I didn't even drink half of it.

This is a long blog today whew.

Saturday we had our niece's 16th birthday party! We were all worried about rain. It was windy, which made it a tad more chilly than what we would have liked, but hey it was better than rain. Everything was tore down and brought in just in time for rain clouds to start coming down! A great time was had by all!!

Fast forward to yesterday my first post op appointment! Yippee, my NP is thrilled with my recovery and I am so happy to see her too! She's been out on maternity leave since before my surgery. I like her so much and I think we are going to make a great team in getting this weight off of me. At my office they have what's called the global period. It's the 90 days after surgery in which anything that happens at the office is covered by insurance through the surgery. So, she wants to be as aggresive as possible with my fills (or band adjustments) as she knows my clinic payments are not covered and I am a self pay in that regard. My surgery was covered but my clinic visits are not. Fills are but office visits are not. Crazy insurance. Anyway, it's good to know she has my back. I have a feeling we are going to be talking a lot and back and forth a lot to find that green zone for me as quick as possible. As of yesterday, I am officially down from my highest since starting with them 35.5 lbs! I am also starting on the pureed stage. Which will give me more food to eat. I had some refried beans yesterday and am looking to eat some scrambled eggs today and maybe some mashed potatoes as well.

I am also working on making sure I get more water in. This is hard because you can't drink a half an hour before or after eating so you really need to schedule meals. I think I am actually going to have to write stuff down for myself. If I have it in black and white (including when to drink water) it might actually help me more.

Some of you noticed, I include a lot of links in my blog. Some are silly like all the fast food places, but the other things related to the band is because I have some readers (i.e., family and friends) that are not familiar with band terms and this will help them understand what I am going through a bit easier :) You all that have the band already are familiar and can TOTALLY relate!!!!!!!

Ok, I have bored you long enough!! Bye all!