Intuition Juice » weight loss surgery

Progress! Down 55 Pounds in 5 Weeks!

Lisa — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:24:11 +0000

My recovery has been fantastic! I have more energy and I can breathe easier an don’t get short of breath anymore. As of last week when I started my Wii Fit project (more on that later) I found out I have lost 55 pounds so far! I started at 340 pounds and am now down to 285 pounds in 5 weeks! I have learned some things post surgery:

I can not seem to tolerate protein drinks anymore (makes me really sick to my stomach and puke)
When you lose weight and it comes off your butt it hurts to sit on your butt for long periods of time
I have a hard time eating most meats so I have to eat small amounts at a time and east super slow
I have collar bones and hip bones!
I go through sizes every week or two right now and I am running out of things to wear!

About the Wii Fit project- wince the weather right now is not exactly comfortable to be taking walks in (but I walk at least 5-7 miles a week anyway) I decided to give the Wii Fit a try. My goal is to lose 15 pounds a month (at least) so I will track my progress here every two weeks. And now for the best part- progress pictures!

Sometimes I Love the Mail

Lisa — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:46:32 +0000

I got my paperwork in the mail for all of my pre-testing and pre-surgery appointments. In less than 3 weeks I am going all my pre-surgery labs. It’s starting to really sink in that before this month is out I will be on my liquid diet preparing for surgery! I am all kinds of excited and I can’t wait to go to the support meeting next week to tell everyone I have my date scheduled!

Surgery Date!

Lisa — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:00:33 +0000

The surgeon’s office called this morning to set up my surgery date! I am set to go in for surgery on November 4, 2009. It feels so far away and so close at the same time. I feel like I have so much to do before that time comes. I am excited but I am nervous too. I know they have made lots of advances and the risk of dying is less than 1% but I am still a bit nervous about it. It is major surgery. I know that I need to have the surgery so I can be healthy and loose this extra weight. I want to be around for the boys as long as possible and I want to stop feeling sick all the time. For the most part, I am really excited. I am sure in two weeks I will be losing my mind though!

The Scale Can Be Your Best Friend or Worst Enemy!

Lisa — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:23:48 +0000

When you are trying to lose weight it seems like the bathroom scale becomes a fixture in your life. When you lose weight the scale is like your best friend but when you gain weight the scale can feel like it’s working against you and is your enemy. I’ve heard it from doctors and I seen it for myself- weighting yourself everyday is not going to go your way. It is best to weight yourself once a week on the same day of the week and at roughly the same time. Weighing yourself daily is going to drive you crazy and your weight is naturally going to fluctuate (especially for women- got to love those hormones and PMS!). I found I often got discouraged when I was weighing myself daily and I would gain a pound or two and then I would sometimes eat more because I felt well I can’t lose weight anyway what is this going to hurt. I have finally stopped doing that and I have set backs from time to time I feel like I am doing well and keeping on track this month. My goal for the month was to be able to use the Wii Fit balance board (it has a weight limit of 330 pounds on there). I am right at 330 (finally!) but I want to lose about 5 more pounds before I try to use the board just in case. I am so close to my goal! At my highest point this year I was 343 pounds (in around January) and now I am at 330. The weight has come off slowly while I am waiting for weight loss surgery but I have been able to do it! I have started weighing myself every week and logging it into a journal and writing anything significant about that day- like if I was tempted to eat something I shouldn’t and didn’t or if I have gone a week without forgetting the take all of my vitamins throughout the day (I take the vitamins 6 times a day to try to prepare more for having vitamins spread out throughout the day after surgery) or if I went for a walk or something that day. That way I can go back and look at my weight loss journal and see how well (or not well in some cases) and can add new goals or adjust some things.

This is my Emily the Strange Morphing Journal (Emily morphs into a black cat on the cover) that I use as my weight loss journal. Find a journal that you really like as an added bonus!

My last week in a Nutshell

Lisa — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:46:37 +0000

My youngest son fell ill after having two head injuries at school and we spent some time at the doctor’s office and at the ER but his head seems to be ok. He was throwing up a lot and they just wanted to make sure. Then I got sick and was throwing up and running a fever. So I had to go to the ER and then spent a couple days passed out in bed until whatever I had passed. Not a very fun week and it made for no posting on this website but I do have exciting news!

I just spoke with the surgeon’s office again and apparently my insurance no longer requires prior authorization for weight loss surgery. Wouldn’t that have been a nice thing to tell someone?! But that does mean that I am completely cleared for surgery and I am now on the wait list. Basically once insurance is cleared they put you on a wait list until the scheduler actually schedules you for a surgery date. My surgeon not only does weight loss surgery but does a variety of other surgeries as well so only a percentage of his surgery spots are for weight loss patients. Once the spots on the schedule open up then they will call and set up surgery date. The general word in the support groups is that it is about 2 weeks or so before you get your surgery date. Sometimes it’s a little longer and sometimes it’s a little shorter. So I am just waiting to hear my surgery date! I am pretty excited and over the course of whatever flu bug my son and I had I have lost about 7 pounds as well. At least there was some good things thrown in there with the bad this week.

The Longest 29 Days of My Life

Lisa — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:49:29 +0000

I posted a few weeks about how I had my psychological evaluation for my weight loss surgery and guess what?! I called my surgeons office this morning just to check after allowing three weeks (an extra week just to make sure!) for the report to be sent from my psychologist’s office to the surgeons office and they have received the report. I was also excited to hear that the request for insurance approval was sent off yesterday! She said it usually takes about 30 days with my insurance (the insurance says 30-90 days but this person handles this kind of thing on a daily basis and said I should hear something in 30 days) and that I would get the letter about 3 days before the surgeon’s office did. This has been what I have been working toward for the past 4 months (technically the last 4 years)! Everyone from the surgeon’s office to my own family doctor keeps assuring me that it will go through my insurance without any problems but I am still on pins and needles just waiting for the approval (I hope it’s an approval!). Most of the surgeries seem to be scheduled about a month out so I should be having my surgery in about two months! I am so excited that I am dancing around my bedroom (that counts are exercise too, right?!). If for some reason I do get denied then I will just have to do whatever more the insurance company asks for me to do. It is a covered procedure through the insurance and I have done everything (and MORE) for the eligibility requirements so maybe I shouldn’t be so worried about it and should just relax like they are all telling me to do. They deal with insurance and this stuff everyday so they would know best, but I guess I don’t want to assume and prepare for an approval and then be destroyed if I get denied. So- 29 days and counting till I (hopefully) have my approval and surgery date!