AreU1096
1 Year Bandiversary
Mar 27, 2008
It's hard to believe that a year ago today, I was recovering from my surgery! I had my 1-year follow-up appointment on Monday, and I have lost 42% of my excess weight, well ahead of forecast. My highest weight was 341, and as of Monday, I was down to 226. Although I've been told that it's not realistic, I would still like to get down to 141, which would be 200 pounds lost. I'm still extremely camera shy, so I don't have many pictures of my progress, but I will do my best to get an updated picture posted.
9/13/06 UPDATE
Jun 15, 2007
I actually got good news today (finally). I have been going to regular visits with a counselor, and it has been decided (between the counselor and the bariatric team) that I may be ready for the surgery a lot sooner than they expected. I have scheduled my follow-up appointment with the bariatric psychologist on October 6. This is definitely a lot better than the December 27th date! :-) I have made most of the changes they have recommended, and I recently joined a health club. I still don't enjoy going, but I guess that will come in time. Once I start seeing actual results from my hard work, it will be a lot easier to keep at it.
9/27/06 UPDATE
Jun 15, 2007
Another bit of good news came in the mail today. I received a notice from WPS stating that, starting in 2007, they will cover the LapBand! Now I need to re-do my research and decide between the two. Until now, I had completely written the LapBand off, because my insurance outright denied it as "experimental." This news goes a little way toward balancing out the fact that I now officially have to sleep with a CPap machine :-( for my sleep apnea. I'm praying this goes away after weight loss.
6/12/07 UPDATE
Jun 15, 2007
Ugghh...I didn't realize it had been so long since I updated. After several more disheartening hurdles and denials, I managed to get approved for surgery and went "under the knife" on March 27th. The surgery itself went fairly well, but I guess I had some scary moments immediately following. I was completely out of it and only vaguely caught some of the conversations. My best friend was with me throughout the whole ordeal. I knew that there were some problems with my blood pressure and oxygen level, but I didn't realise just how serious it was until I talked to her about it this last weekend. I have high blood pressure and have been on meds for it for several years. With the meds, I've been able to keep it pretty much under control. Unfortunately, for some reason, my blood pressure plummetted after the surgery. I can vaguely remember hearing the nurses discussing whether they should page the surgeon, but it just didn't register at the time what was going on. As it turned out, my blood pressure had dropped dangerously low, and required an immediate infusion of meds to bring it back up. My oxygen monitor kept going off, too, and the nurses kept coming in, waking me up, and reminding me that I need to breathe. Lucky for me, I was so drugged up throughout all this, I wasn't even thinking about what was going on...just blindly followed whatever instructions they gave me. The other thing I kept running into is the fact that I just could not get the buttons straight on the "remote" which had the TV controls, the bed controls, and the nurse call button all on one device. I felt bad because several times, I accidentally hit the nurse call button instead of the TV or bed control button. I thought they would be angry with me for disturbing them for no reason, but they were always very nice to me. Since I was having some issues, they decided to keep me overnight, and I was able to go home the next morning.
My body evidently likes defying everything that it's supposed to do, and it took forever for the swelling to go down. I tried to go onto soft foods at two weeks, but simply wasn't ready. This caused vomitting, which caused more swelling, which caused more vomitting. I struggled through 2 weeks of that, and at my 4-week appointment, I was put back on pureed foods. By my 6-week appointment, I was just starting to get back on soft foods, so my first band fill was delayed another 2 weeks. At this 8-week appointment, I was still struggling with a lot of foods, so I was only given a half-fill. I'm now at 10 weeks post-op, and seem to be where I should have been at 6 weeks. I can eat just about anything, and don't feel a lot of restriction. I lost 25 pounds before going on the liquid diet, another 15 on the liquid diet, and 15 during the first month after surgery. I've plateaued for the last 3 weeks, but I knew it would happen, and I know it's because my band isn't doing a whole lot yet.
I went to the first WLS support group since my initial one (back in 2006) last night. I felt a little out of place because it seemed like a majority of the people there were pre-op or very post-op. It was a little depressing because I felt like I should have better results to show. I had to put it into perspective. Since they said not to expect to lose more than 1-2 pounds a week, I am still ahead of "schedule" as far as the weight loss is concerned. I'm just trying not to get frustrated.
My body evidently likes defying everything that it's supposed to do, and it took forever for the swelling to go down. I tried to go onto soft foods at two weeks, but simply wasn't ready. This caused vomitting, which caused more swelling, which caused more vomitting. I struggled through 2 weeks of that, and at my 4-week appointment, I was put back on pureed foods. By my 6-week appointment, I was just starting to get back on soft foods, so my first band fill was delayed another 2 weeks. At this 8-week appointment, I was still struggling with a lot of foods, so I was only given a half-fill. I'm now at 10 weeks post-op, and seem to be where I should have been at 6 weeks. I can eat just about anything, and don't feel a lot of restriction. I lost 25 pounds before going on the liquid diet, another 15 on the liquid diet, and 15 during the first month after surgery. I've plateaued for the last 3 weeks, but I knew it would happen, and I know it's because my band isn't doing a whole lot yet.
I went to the first WLS support group since my initial one (back in 2006) last night. I felt a little out of place because it seemed like a majority of the people there were pre-op or very post-op. It was a little depressing because I felt like I should have better results to show. I had to put it into perspective. Since they said not to expect to lose more than 1-2 pounds a week, I am still ahead of "schedule" as far as the weight loss is concerned. I'm just trying not to get frustrated.
