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AARRGGHHH!!!  Why oh why did they have to wait so long for my first fill?  With such a tiny bit of restriction, it's almost like I have no band!

It's 16 more days before I'll have a restrictive "working" band.  I wish I could do it tomorrow!  I know my stomach needs to heal first, but 7 weeks is a long time to have to wait (it was supposed to be 4-6 weeks).  Oh well, I'm hanging in there (albiet a bit impatiently).

I am discouraged though. It's been a month since my surgery and I've only lost 10 pounds.  I was expecting much more than that.  But my overall weight loss is good though. I've lost a total of 48 pounds, so that's pretty good!  And I'm tolerating food really well (no vomiting or PB'ing yet).  I can't wait until after my first fill though, because my weight loss should speed up then!

I did get to celebrate my first 10 pound loss though!  My mom bought me a new outfit (black dress pants and a pretty olive green sweater, in a 3X instead of my normal pre-band 4X!) to celebrate.  To help encourage me in my weight loss, my husband and my mom will be taking turns buying me an outfit (or an article of clothing or pair of shoes, etc.) for every 10 pounds I lose.  So I need to lose another 100 pounds, so that'll be a total of 10 new outfits (5 each)! So I'm really excited about that!!!

I met with Dr. Davey today. He's so nice. I really like him!  He was happy with my progress and I can advance to solids tomorrow. YAAAYY!!!! 

Since surgery, I've lost 7 pounds (in 13 days).  Not fantastic...but pretty darn good! I'm happy about it!

My first fill (to 4.5cc) will be on November 26th.  My band has a 10cc capacity and has 2.5cc of air pumped into it right now. At my first fill, he'll empty the air and replace it with 4.5cc of saline. He figures I'll likely only need one or two fills after that.

I can't wait until tomorrow...I need my solids!!!

YAY! I finally lost all those nasty pounds I gained from all the IV fluids and gasses they pumped into me during the operation!  Plus I'm down an extra 4 pounds too (I'm now 261)!  Things are looking up!!!!  I was worried there for a bit!

The dietitian at the Weight Wise Program set my one year weight loss goal as 205 pounds, so that's only 56 pounds from now. If I reach that by October 9, 2008, I'll be considered a "success story" in their eyes.  I have no doubt whatsoever that I can do that!  In fact, by the one year mark, I want to be in ONEDERLAND!!

I finally started feeling a bit better and then my daughter was playing around and ran full force into my stomach!    Because of the extra pain and swelling of a little girl running full force into an already bloated, swollen and painful stomach, I had to go to the E.R. We went in just after midnight and it was close to 7:00 a.m. before a doctor even saw me!  Thankfully, I'm okay. The band didn't slip and nothing happened to my stitches.  Just in a bit more pain than before. Fun stuff.

I was officially banded on October 9th and stayed 2 nights in the hospital.  It's now 5 days post-op and I look like I swallowed a beach ball because my abdomen is so bloated and swollen!  I'm frustrated too because I weighed myself after being released from the hospital and I GAINED 7 pounds IN the hospital (after two days of eating and drinking nothing at all)!

Supposedly the extra weight is just supposed to be all the fluids and gasses they pumped into my stomach for the surgery, but I know so many other patients never had this problem and managed to lose a ton of weight in their first week anyway. Then there is me...7 pounds heavier than when I started.  

So I'm a bit discouraged and frustrated right now.  And very, very bloated and swollen.  But things will get better soon, I'm sure.  (I hope)

At least I'm tolerating my more textured fluids well (i.e. cream of wheat, soup, etc.) and am not having any gas pain (despite my major bloating).  My port incision hurts though and I still have a bit of abdominal pain, but that's normal.  Overall, I'm doing well...except for the majorly unexpected weight gain, of course (who expects to gain weight after barely eating or drinking anything for 3 days???).   Patience. I just need patience.  The weight will fall off once the bloating goes down (in theory). I just wish I knew how to speed things up a bit!

I'm now 266.3 pounds, so I've lost a total of 37 pounds so far pre-op!  YAY!!!

Now it's just 4 more days until surgery!  I hope I can keep the weight off and not binge even though I am struggling against the "last supper" syndrome!

I meet Tanya (from this site) and her husband today!  What lovely people...they were both sooo nice!!  It was so great to meet them.  Tanya looked fabulous, especially for being just 3 days post-op!  You'd never know she even had surgery. I hope I do as well post-op!!! 

It went well, except they were totally unprepared for me. They didn't have the test results for ANY of the tests Dr. Davey sent me for over the last couple of months (no EKG, chest x-ray, lung test....nothing!).  I had to re-do my EKG and get some more blood tests (because they forgot to check for a few things), and they are going to track down the chest x-ray and lung test from the Hys Centre for me, so everything should be taken care of now.  The whole thing took about 3 1/2 hours.   

I'll describe the process for anyone going through the same clinic:

When I first arrived, I filled in a two-page form describing my medical history, prior surgeries and current medications.  You'll need to bring your actual perscription bottles too because a nurse will double check them later to what you wrote on your form to make sure you have the information right.  They also need your current weight and height and may weigh you right there.

After the forms are completed, you sit in on an information session with several other patients (I was there with 4 other patients all going for different operations).  We learned how to prepare ourselves for surgery (i.e. no food or drinks after midnight the night of your sugery, no nail polish, etc.) and what to expect the day of surgery.  It took less than an hour, including the time filling out the forms and getting weighed.

Then we were all seperated into seperate examination rooms.  A nurse comes to answer any questions you might have about preparing for your own surgery and goes over your meds with you and lets you know if the surgeon requested you to have any further testing. In my case, Dr. Davey just wanted more blood tests (which all of the patients seemed to get) and then I had to re-do my EKG.  And that was it...no sweat!

Now as long as my bronchitis clears up before October 9th, I'm good to go for surgery!

The booking office called and told me that they had to move my October 9th surgery date to October 30th to fit another patient in instead!!!!!   

Thankfully after I explained that my husband took all this time off in October so he could help look after our daughter while I'm recovering and that he moved absolutely everything to November, and that October 30th really doesn't work for us anymore, she agreed to find another way to fit this other patient in!  WHEW!!!  

I feel bad for the other patient and hope that he's easily fitted in somewhere else soon, but we rearranged everything to make October 9th work for us...plus the extra 3 week wait (so 5 weeks from now) would almost kill me. It's hard enough waiting until the 9th!

I just hope she doesn't call me back and say that they have to move me anyway!  I don't think that would really be fair. 

On a good note though, I'm going to meet up with Tanya from this site on October 5th, just 3 days after her surgery day!  I can't wait to meet her!  

And I wanted to shout out to asugrad06 too, who added me as her friend!  HI MOIRA!   

Anyway, with a bit of luck (and an answered prayer), it'll be just 14 more days to my big day!

October 9th is the big day!!!

WOOOHOOO!!!!!  

Tomorrow will be exactly one month until surgery!!!

OH WOW!!!! 

I'm so excited and kind of scared!  I'm so happy though!!!! 

I forgot all about posting my blood test results until someone asked me about them!  

Turns out it was nothing serious *whew*...a liver function test came back slightly higher than normal, which is supposed to be an indication that I bleed a bit faster than most people.  But since my doctor didn't seem worried about it, I'm not worried about it...

Everything else was normal!