chipymunk
.....Welcome to Chip's Profile..... Latest update is February 2nd....
Struggling with weight all my life. With the birth of my son and career aspirations now on the line, I coming to WLS to make a new me...
April 25, 2005
Well I met with Dr. Quinlin two weeks ago. I also met with the nutritionist. I have several appointments in the next few weeks for various tests. Have been reading and reading on various website about this and I'm undecided at the moment.
May 9, 2005
Well a lot has happened in the last few weeks. I have had the following tests...
Upper GI Series No biggie
Gall Bladder Ultrasound No biggie
Chest Xray No biggie
Psychology Consult Interesting - would like to do more
Sleep Study Sucked big time...
If there is anything I'll be non compliant with, is the CPAP. You can take that thing and shove it... Heck I dont even know if I need but I can tell you I dont think I'll use it...
At the prompting of one of the few doctors that I've seen, I had my PCP do a physical. Its been 2 years since I had one so figured it was high time. He did a full workup to include urinalysis, blood work (with a LDL/HDL and TSH level). This was a good move I think, if one because I needed it. I have a feeling though that I'm going to get some bad news this week.
I relatively confident that I have diabetes. I will be surprised if I go through the week without being told that I have it. I am also confident that my Cholesterol level will be astronomical. Hey, I have no delusions here. My life has been debauchery of food for many years.
So its going to be an interesting week. I think I'm going to be called into work tonite so if anyone would like to chat via email, drop me a line @ chipymunk@aol.com
TTYL,
chip
May 10, 2005
Got some lab work back from my PCP. Fasting glucose is only 91- sweeet... My TSH is 0.75 which is pretty normal. Total Cholesterol is 204 with HDL 44, LDL 142, TRI 89. My Globulin levels are up as well as ALT-SGPT. He says they are only slightly evelated and wants to do the test again in a month. All in all not bad. I thoguth for sure I'd be on cholesteral medication and testing my sugar by the end of today. But nope...
chipymunk
May 17, 2005
Hey everyone... Well Yesterday I had my second appointment with my awesome nutritionist Sarah Ward... She and I spoke for about 45 minutes. I explained that my attempts at journaling were pathetic at best and that I had a solution. My solution is that I will email her on weekly basis my food journal. And that if she doesnt hear from me, she will call my house. To me that seemed to be the easiest way to build in some more accountability into this relationship.
Important observation here.
There were two reasons that my attempts at journaling failed. One, was the fact that I saw what I was putting into my mouth and realized it was somethign I didnt want to write down. My mind at that point said, well, I'll start over tommorrow. At some point down the road there wont be a tommorrow so stop it.. Bad argument with no value.
The second reason was there was no accountability. Which is why I have put that email thing into place...
So I weighed myself again. Stayed the same at 389. My goal is to bring that to at least 379 by my next nurtionist appointment. My homework from the nutritionist is
1) Email each satuday my food journal
2) Get active doing somethign for myslef 1 hour a week; Golf, Boy Scouts or working on a hobby.
3) Excercise 3 times a week for 40 mins.
4) Print one week out and mark "P" beside protein foods.
By the way this week is National EMS Week whic means that everyone and there uncle is going to send us food. There are literally 6 dozen donuts behind me right now. I'm not wanting one but I did have a bagel for breakfast. But lunch will be catered so that will be something to watch. Maybe a salad.
Also today is National Air Medical Communications Specialist Day. So hug your Comm Spec or Paramedic today.. That means I get two hugs!! Yippee!!
Interesting devlopment... I looked at a copy of Ultrasound and it says the findings were consistent with fatty deposits in the liver or ... Liver disease.. a few weeks ago, my PCP said that my Globulin and SGPT were "slightly" elevated. Will have the results sent to my PCP for review. I'm sure it's just the fatty deposits but ya dont wanna take that chance. If I think of something else to say today I will...
Chipymunk
May 24, 2005
Well, its been about a week so I figured I would update everyone wiht whats going on. I had a pretty busy week last night but good news... My food logging is going better. I still need to get more excercise but I feel like I have made some progress.
Speaking of progress, Shawn continues to amaze us. He now says duck, book, moo (as in moo cow) and is able to toddle a few feet, stumble and recover without falling down. Work continues to kick my butt but it will get better. Anyway, not much more to add here, see you on the boards (where I will have a particularly boisterours rant about a local car dealer)...
chip
July 7, 2005
Hi everyone!!! I just realized it been almost a month and half since my last update.. And as was pointed out to me by Kelly from the PA board, I havn’t posted in a while.. Well, like many things in my life, theres a story to that..
To bring you up to speed.. I have been busy with work… Trauma season is well under way and my usual time for posting and emailing back and forth is during work so I get on when I can…
My battle with my weight is on going… I have gone to three nutrionist appointments and umm, well… Not lost anything… I’m really discouraged.. I wish I knew what I was doing wrong.. Well I know what I’m doing wrong.. I’m cheating.. What can I say… I’ll eat work… I hit the cafeteria on a 12 hour shift twice.. once for lunch and once for breakfast… I keep finding myself wanting more.. and its really discouraging because food has become my alcohol..
So what am I to do? I have found myself at times in the last 2 months in some pretty deep and dark holes that I didn’t think I would get out of.. I’m not out of them just yet.. I’m trying to find a psychologist who will take me and my insurance and hopefully will get an answer here in a bit..
My head battles are two fold… I continue to find myself unable to get excited about WLS. Other people are overly excited to the point that they are jumping up and down.. You read there posts and you can just tell they are smiling as they type. I on the other hand find it hard to do that… Why? Well, as I’ve stated before I am very much functional at my weight, so to me.. I don’t have a problem (like the alcoholic who says, I don’t have a problem with my drinking, I work, I drive, I have a wife, whats the problem)…
But I do have a problem… I’m living in a ticking time bomb and I know I will be dead in 10 years if I don’t do something about it… This is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do and I can only hope I get out of this on the other side…
Medically, I’m doing great.. When I last left you my liver enzymes were a little out of whack.. Well I had them rechecked and they are fine… But get this, my doctors office submitted the blood to the local lab, who billed it out and they didn’t pay it… So I am battling with them over that… I have been keeping pretty good tabs on what I’ve spent on this journey of mine and will post up that so everyone see’s what I’ve spent in cash for this..
So how many people think that a sleep study center is the SEVENTH CIRCLE OF HELL! My god.. let me tell you, I felt like a guinea pig in the little yellow tube homes we had in the 70’s… So I have “mild sleep apnea”. My score they say was like 8.4… I went to my pulmonologist’s appointment and he was like you have to get a mask (CPAP Machine). Ok fine…
So I scheduled the second sleep study test 4 times.. Each time was because either my wife had oncall obligations or I had oncall obligations.. And with Shawn we couldn’t run the risk of her getting called in and not being able to watch Shawn.. Fine, ok.. so the Friday before the last appointment the receptionist from the sleep center called and confirmed the appointment. I literally had just gotten off the phone with my wife and was going to reschedule for two days later.. I told the lady that I needed to reschedule.. Get this, she sighs and says “I’ll go get your chart…” Puts me on hold.. Oh dayum.. you just did not do that..
She got back on the phone and is like “We have rescheduled your appointment 4 times and cannot continue to do this.” I went off the deep end.. I’m not all that stable as it is (read above) and this just set me off.. Who the hell are you to talk to a customer like that? I can take my business elsewhere.. I broke medieval on this chick, but she didn’t care… I will demand an apology from her, once I am reasonably assured she can’t screw with me or my medical records…
So I go to the second appointment.. Go through all the wires and what not, and we try the full face mask… Um.. no.. this is not happening.. It felt like I was being suffocated.. I tried it for 30 min and just couldn’t stand it anymore so I rang the bell.. The lady came in.. We talked, took a break and she suggested we try the nose part only.. Ok.. fine.. I’ll go for that.. We try it and it’s a little better but now instead of feeling like I’m suffocating, I feel like I’m swimming.. 30 minutes of this and the tech is back in the room.. She says its not a big deal that some people cant tolerate the machine.. I felt bad (truly I did), because I had bad mouthed this whole sleep apnea thing from the beginning.. I think it’s a crock of crap to be honest but for the record, I DID HONESTLY TRY… Well the good news is the Dr. Quinlin said that he will just monitor the situation and take appropriate action when needed…
Well, nutritionist appointment last night and guess what.. I’m only 2 more months of supervised diet before I can submit for insurance approval.. I’m like are you for real and she was like yeah… So I’m driving home and it hits me, this isn’t going to be over the Christmas holiday like I had thought.. Rather this will be just before Halloween… yikes… (this is where I should be jumping up and down… ahem.. Jump… LOL)
Still 389lbs.. Lisa and I had a bit of an argument about this… She thinks I should have lost at least something by now… I agree.. but, well.. see above…. I know the importance of loosing some weight before surgery, just for whatever reason I havnt… So I think ok, nothing says I have to have this surgery now.. I can push it back right? Sure, I could but is that the right thing to do… I know myself well enough to know, that as long as there is an out, I will take it.. Like for example I bought a house after almost 4 years of looking, hemming and hawing about it… 4 years!! Big purchase sure but what made me change my mind after 4 years? Well, I could always sell it right? Its not like I’m tied to this house forever…
New Car? Can always sell it… New job? Can always go back to the old one… Move to Pittsburgh? Can always move back… See a pattern here?
Just about the only thing that I have done that is permanent, is become a Dad.. So here’s my dilemma… I don’t have a problem (alcoholic syndrome going on) and there’s not a reasonable out on this one.. Once I have surgery, its pretty permanent…
But so is death… Feeling like a nut case now…
chip
July 19, 2005
Well last week I went to the Psychologists office and had my initial evaluation.. I had my apopointment with a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and afterward she thought I had some mild depression with some.. OCD?? I was like, Huh? WTF? But thats what she said.. So I guess officially I'm in therapy which is ok with me..
The week's going pretty good.. Im doing a little better at Journaling but had an episode today where I saw how easy it was to fall off the wagon.. Yesterday I got the news that I didnt get the job that I was hoping for.. Again.. I'm 15/15 now and I'm getting tired of being told no... Well, when Lisa got home, I went to the Gym to work off some stress... 20 min on the treadmill and 40 min doing laps in the pool.. I felt a little better.. But of course my mind is on the job hunt and not in my journal so like since I got back from the gym not one entry...
Shawn is going ok.. He ran a fever this weekend and we went to the Doctors.. he's back on Zithromax... My parents are in Germany at this point.. somewhere.. I dont know where.. But they are having fun...
Work is getting busy so I will check in again later...
Chip
October 4, 2005 ********* SURGERY SCHEDULE FOR NOVEMBER 1ST!!!! *********
Still not going nuts over this.. Not sure why but I've come to grips with this and have embraced it. When my doctors office called and said that UPMC had approved my request for insurance I was like, umm ok.. I know everyone else has done flips and what not when they get approved..
For whatever reason I'm still kinda like blah... All is going well.. I weight 375 which is down 4 more lbs from my last doctors visit...
Chip
October 24, 2005
Hey everyone.. I know I havnt been as talkative as I used to be.. I've been trying to keep my spirit up but in the last few month's I've been so busy with the new job that I havnt been my usualy self..
So I guess if you dont already know, I'm scheduled for surgery on Tuesday of next week.. Since I'll be missing Turkey day, my wife and I made Thanksgiving dinner for everyone last night, which was a lot of fun.. We had a good time..
I'm just starting to get a little worried now.. I guess cold feet.. I've never had cold feet before, probably because I just procrastinated everything away that I could have had cold feet over.. Not sure how to describe it...
I have no reason to not have surgery, except for the usual thought, I could've tried harder, done somethign different, etc... My surgeon is pretty much hand picked, the OR staff is pretty much hand picked... Everyone is in my corner.. As my 4 year old Nephew would say... Its just scary ya know..
Anyone else have this happen?? Last minute panics?? How do you deal with them? I'm going to keep myself busy this week, really work hard on projects at work and get some excercise.. I think quitting the gym a few weeks ago becuase of money issues was probably the worst thing I could've done... I'll probably be upddating this daily now until surgery...
Scared, just really really scared...
Chip
October 25, 2005
Quiet day here in the office.. I'm all alone.. everyone is either at the conference or off sick... Think I'll take a half day to go home and relax...
Chip
Its hard to believe it that its been 6 months since I started this whole thing.. But I'm here and I'm off to surgery tommorrow morning..
I just finished the bowl prep... Tastes like sea water.. Wow, what a disgusting bunch of shit that was (no pun intended)...
I'll be honest here and say I'm scared.. Not because I'm afraid of the surgery but if you know me you know how I havn't been all that excited about this... I'm not giddy and happy.. I'm nervous which is good but I'm not like oh boy I cant wait.. I dont know why but I'm not.. My wife is excited for me.. I know I have a lot to look forward to but for some reason, I'm not oh boy I cant wait... Who know's why.. Kinda too late now to try and figure it out isnt it.. I'm at peace with this though I think..
So tonite we go trick or treating with my son.. and I am on Clear liquids... My last meal this morning was 3 eggs, 2 pieces of waffles, a decaf latte and a muffin... Wish me luck, and I'll see you on the losing side, as they say...
Chip
November 4, 2005
I'm 3 days post op... We went into the hospital Tuesday morning after dropping my son off at daycare.. Surgery went fantastically.. No complications.. From a pateint stadn point I was ok with everyone.. Check in was smooth but somehow my wife got left in the waiting room and no body would go get her.. Finally she came back to see me off...
I dont remember much after that except waking up in recovery.. They didnt warn me about the drugs they were about to push, I was just looking at the ceiling... Next thing I realize, I'm intubated in recovery and anesthesia is saying, "Dont worry, I'm going to take it out soon.." Man.. that sucked.. Then the pain hit..
I wont lie to ya.. It hurt like a bitch.. But they gave me good drugs pretty quickly and it got under control... Up to my room after that...
Most of that afternoon was a blur.. A fog of mashing the PCA button, some freinds visiting and calling.. Occasional check in's from the nurse.. My wife stayed with me that day and night.. I have to give her more credit than I could possibly do right now, she has really been much more understanding than I thought..
Note to self: Buy day at Spa for Lisa...
So anyway.. Day two, unventful... Out of bed several times to walk the halls.. Needed more pain meds but was easing off of them.. Then the DC'd the IV and Foley (Thank god).. That meant no more PCA but they gave me Rocecet which is the elixir form of Percocet... Oh yeah baby.. they were good.. Knocked the pain right away.. Felt like a new man.. But when they wore off, ouch.. Still though, all in all it wasnt that bad.. I mean it was like a 4 or 5 out of 10..
Day Three: Go home day.. Yippee Skippee.. I get to go home.. Doc came in at 630, checked me out, said you healthy, get out of here this is for sick people.. Discharged and was home by noon..
The rest of that week was tough.. Clear liquids.. High on Roxicet.. I did get out and start walking again right away.. at first halfway down the street.. then further to the end of the street.. By the end of the first week I was back to walking my usually 1.5 to 2 miles.. I spent most of that week, just walking and dealing with the clear liquids... It sucked but it wasnt as bad as I thought it would have been. Not sure why but I wasnt hungry. I did crave a few things from time to time but the feeling passed. Ya know what the worst part of all this was? The first time I went to a mall and smelled a steak house.
I started my pureed phase by day 7. Now this was interesting. At first it was just soups. Potato, Tomato but eventually I was able to tolerate Chili. Wendy's Chili is the easiest to tolerate, which was nice because there is a Wendy's down the street from my office. That helps. I didnt have any problem tolerating any foods at this point. Tunafish rocked with mayo. Hot suaces galore.. Oh yeah and Scrambled Eggs. I know that sounds weird but its true. My usual breakfast was one scrambled egg with hot sauce, cheese and skim milk.
**** A note on Skim Milk - If your like me, you hated it. I admit skim milk is yucky. But there is an alternative! Its called Super Skim in my Food Store (which is Giant Eagle). It comes in a purple carton. It contains an additive which is what they put in Ice Cream. When you add it to things like egg, or cereal, you really cant tell the difference. And before long I was drinking Skim Milk and couldnt tell the difference. It really helped to get this out of the way before surgery (along with Caffiene)....
I started getting to the gym before work in the morning which has improved my mental game in such a huge way. I drop Shawn off at daycare in the morning, then off to the gym. I'm usually at the gym by 7, 30-35 minutes on the elliptical, shower and then out of there by 8. I want to cut this back to 630 to 730 if I can because of traffic. Were working on it. Going ot the gym is such a part of my rmorning routine now that I dont like it when I cant go. I'm up to 5 days a week now. I love it...
Fast forward to December 7th. My 5 week weigh in. The scale at the Gym is a rickety old rusty thing that I really cant trust what it says. Nevertheless it continued to decline all during the month of November. I went from 351 through the 40's and then down to the 30's... Weightloss during the 30's noticeably slowed down. I went to the doctors and wham, it read 329!!!!! I was so psyched. I couldnt believe that I could now weigh myself on my home scale.
December 12, 2005
Yesterday was my 35th birthday. And I am officially today, down 50.1 lbs since my official presurgery weight of 374.5. I weighed myself this morning and it said 325.4. I had to recheck it. It really hasnt sunk in yet that I am officially one driveway ice melter bag from lowes lighter!!! Birthday was fun. I tried a littel Ice Cream cake from Dairy Queen. I did ok with it. I dont have any lactose intolerance but I did a little last night. Dont know if it was the ice cream or the fat. But oh well.. It's my birthday I'm not going beat my self up over it.
Clothes continue to fall off. Last night as I was carrying Shawn to bed from downstaris, my pants fell off, despite my belt. ROFLMAO... True story, ask my wife. There I was, winter coat on, holding my son with my pants down around my ankles. I'm quickly runnign out of smaller clothes so I'm not so sure what I'm going to do here in a bit. Christmas is coming and my family knows to buy my gift certificates instead of clothes.. We are going to Maryland on Wednesday. House still looks like the scruges house. I took down the Clampet lights and bought new ones. But it was snowing its ass off yesterday and didnt put them up. Not sure when I'm going to be able to put them up. I think tonite though. I forgot a belt today, which really really really sucks... (_l_)
Chip
PS: Working on new pics...
January 23, 2006
Hi everyone... This blogging/profile thing is harder than it looks.. Jeesh.. I cant ever keep up on it.. At any rate.. Here I am.. Healthy and doing great.. My weight continues to drop off but lately in smaller and smaller increments.. I'm a very impatient person and want to hit some of these goals of mine ASAP. Right now, my big hurdle is getting to below 300 lbs.. When I reach that I can officially tell you I will be the lightest since my wedding day.. I'm at 300.8 right now and its really pissing me off becuase I've been there for almost a whole week...
As far as eating goes, I continue to not have a huge appetite at home. There are a few things that I need to work on. First is my speed. I need to eat more slowly. I sometimes get gonig too fast and end up throwing up. Second is munching. Its amazing but I can still graze. I know this becuase I'm guilty of it more often than I care to admit. Work is the worst. Snacks everywhere...
I went to JC Penney the other day and bought a new pair of jeans.. Dude's and dudettes, check it out.. I'm in a size 48!!! I was in a size 58 on November 1st. My wife wants me to dump the big clothes and clear out some room but I want to make the 300lbs mark first. Just a personal thing I dont know...
PS: Still working on pics...
Well today was my weigh in day.. I'm down to 297!!! I havnt been this light since I got married!! Next goal is the big 100...
2/2/2006
Hey everyone.. Thought I would share with you a little victory of mine..
First of all, for those of you that have lurked on this board for more than a year you know I can't tell a story without getting way into it. So sit back, grab a latte and read...
Back in 1995, when I was 2 years out of college, I applied for a job with the Howard County Department of Fire Rescue Services. At the time, it was pretty much the fashizzle ( my meager attempt at being hip ) fire department to work for. Of course, being a government job, it required a test. And the first portion of that test was the physicial apptitude...
No problem right? I'm a big guy.. Fire firghter, blah blah blah.. I climb ladders, breathing apparatus, can do CPR for hours... So I get my paperwork before the test and the first thing it says is 1) Run 1 mile in 15 minutes... Oh lord.. My biggest weakness... Like Kryptonite to Superman...
Now at the time, I thought people who ran were cookoo They were granola eating freaks who did yogurt (oh, no thats Yoga )... I avoided it as much as I possibly could. I smoked, sat around a firehouse, ate take out day after day, watched movies, ran a few calls but for the most part a sedentary life style. Oh and drank like a fish...
Mr. Obvious says... How do you think Chip did on this 1 mile run??? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Thats right! He didnt finish it.. Halfway through the run was ing all over the place... Needless to say, I said screw it to the civil service and stayed in the private sector, which given that hindsight is 20/20 I can say now was a simple escape mechanism. Perhaps a professional escape mechanism (if such a creature exists). Looking back now, I can say that a lot of things would be different if I had gotten that job, but not necessarily better...
Anyway.. Fast forward to this morning
I've been working out several days a week since my surgery on 11/1/05. I've lost a lot of weight and broke through my 300lbs barrier earlier this week. Of course, as luck would have it, I'm now that guy who runs at the gym. I don't eat granola and still think Yoga is still nuts, but like many of us who enjoy seeing that scale drop week after week, I concentrate my workouts on high intensity cardio workouts for the maximum calories burned... So I'm up to a good 40 minutes of heafty cardio (20 minutes elliptical, 20 minutes treadmill)... Well guess what...
This morning I completed that 1 mile run in less than 15 mins.. (_l_) take that Howard County... The good news is, that fire department is no longer the fashizzle that it once was.. And I think I'm better off for it..
So there.. Next stop, Century club...
