APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I received a phone call today from my surgeons office! APPROVED FOR MY VSG!!!!!!!

As a reminder, this is to remove my lap band, and revise my weightloss surgery to vertical sleeve gastrectomy.

As soon as I got off the phone with her, I scheduled my pre-op physical for next week. I'm starting my pre-op diet on Sunday.

Yes, I am very excited!

New Beginnings

Today, April 22, 2012, is the new beginning. I started the 5 Day Pouch Test Diet. Basically it is starting over with the post-op diet only a much shorter time period. Remembering not to drink liquids 30 minutes prior to and wait 30 minutes after a meal. For today and tomorrow, everything will be low carb, protein rich liquids and plenty of water. On Day 3, I will be a transition to soft proteins such as 4 to 6 ounces tuna, salmon, eggs etc. Day 4 will be 4 to 6 ounces of ground meats, such as ground chicken, beef etc. Of course every day requires plenty of water, at least 64 ounces a day. The plan should have me feeling the restriction that I felt after the surgery. I weighed myself this morning and weighed 265.1, and will again at the end of the 5 days. Others have reported a significant drop in wieght, but most importantly I should have a renewed sense of accomplishment. One must never forget, the Lap Band is a tool that is a choice to get control of obesity. There are several other choices. I was 355 pounds on the day I first walked into my Bariatric Doctors office and met Dr. Taddeucci. My knees hurt, it was difficult to perform my job as a firefighter, and I was a poor example for my 4 children. I lost just over 100 pounds in the first year. I some set backs and gained back to 285, which caused me some personal disappointment. My doctor told me that I had stretched my pouch. I took his advice and started monitoring my portions, and lost 20 pounds, but got stalled. That is why I am doing this 5 Day Pouch test. By the way, I cannot afford to gain any weight. I got rid of almost all my clothes that fit when I was over 300 pounds. I don't want to buy bigger clothes ever again.

Making Progress

I am making progress at re-losing the weight that was gained. I did quite a bit of reflecting on my situation since last seeing Dr. Taddeucci. It is amazing how a little slip here, a little cheat there can really add up to 40 pounds of gain. Anyway, I've lost almost 20 pounds of that gain, and have the goal of losing another 20 by sticking with the program.
Yesterday, my lovely bride went into have her bad reconnected after her band slipped last year. Dr. Taddeucci removed the old band, and replaced it last summer, but couldn't do all the work at the time due the swelling and scar tissue. She is home today, resting as you would imagine a person would after surgery.
I have taken some time to review all the instructions on eating so that I make sure we are both successful.

Finally an Update

Well, I am finally making an update to this blog about how my Lap Band weight loss is going. Every once in a while you just need to write things down for others to see.

I was stuck at a range of 270-275 for almost 2 months. I couldn't figure it out. I wasn't eating more food or large quantities, or so I thought. I started back to keeping track of everything again at www.fitday.com just to see what was going on. It is amazing how honest you keep yourself when you write down everything you eat. Anyway, I realized that I had been eating too much sugar and high carb foods.

I took in the previous 5 days of eating into the doctors office last Monday. The nurse, Jackie, looked everything over and started laughing when she saw the whiskey entry. I told her that they didn't have single malt scotch as a choice. Actually she was pleased to see the honesty. She told me I shouldn't be eating more than 50 grams of carbs per day, and I had many days close to or over 100.

We decided I needed a new fill on my lap band, just to help restrict the intake. So we added another .8 cc's to the band and on liquids for 48 hours. I thought to myself, no big deal. I of course was wrong. Eating soup was a challenge, as only 1/2 cup of soup was more than enough to satisfy me. Since then, I am really down on quantity, and my cards are staying low. I am focusing on making sure that I am getting high quality proteins.

As it normally goes after a fill, I am losing weight again. Yesterday morning I was down to 265. Only about 30 pounds to go to meet my goal weight.

First Lap Band Fill

Just finished my first lap band fill with Dr. T. It was amazingly painless and simple.
The doctor used the flouroscope to locate the fill port and then inserted the needle. Did I say needle? This thing was at least 4 inches long. Truthfully, I didn't anything since he numbed up the area.
After locating the fill port with the needle, I stood up infront of the flouroscope so that I could drink some barrium and watch it enter the stomach. It was pretty cool to see. The doctor removed a little of the saline that he had put in, and I had to drink another sip of the barium and got to watch it flow through. It was really cool to see.
Anyway, the first fill is done.

Today my lovely bride also had the Lap Band placed in her. We are doing this as a team. I love her.

First follow up appointment done!

Just got home from the surgeons office. You know, my Lap Band surgeon of course.

Everything is looking good. My wieght is down a bunch in just 3 weeks. My incisions have healed almost completely now. I don't need to food processor everything.

Scheduled my first fill appointment for next Monday. Looking forward to see how things change with a band fill.

Anyway, it has been a very interesting 3 weeks. I never imagined that only eating between 800 and 1500 calories a day would be satisfying. I never would have believed that my weight would slide off as easily as it has. Pretty soon I will need to buy new uniform pants and belt. Good thing it is getting to be shorts season, so I won't need to buy new jeans for a little while.

Feeling better and finally something with real texture.

I decided to try some blenderized chicken breast yesterday. So when I was grocery shopping I picked up some skinless, boneless chicken breasts.

So yesterday afternoon I put them in a pot with some chicken broth and boiled away. Threw them into the food processor and ground away. I know too many details.

So at supper time, I had about 1/3 of a cup of delicious chicken and 1/2 cup of baked mashed yam. It was delicious. I ate all of the chicken and only half of the yam, and I couldn't have eaten any more. All I can say is it sure fell good to actually chew some food and it took me about a half hour to eat.

I forgot to weigh myself this morning so I don't know how much if any I lost.

Don't break the rules!!!!!!!

Well today I did it. I broke one the important rules of the Lap Band. As soon as I did it, I knew it, but it was too late.

Our oldest daughter made some Amish cinnamon bread last night. It was sitting on the counter calling my name. Anyone who as ever had a weight issue knows that food will call your name. It had been doing it all morning, and I had been doing a pretty good job of ignoring it. Well, I got busy and let myself get hungry, so I took a very small bite (and I mean like a 1/4 teaspoon size). It went down well do I thought I would do it again with a slightly larger size. Stuck it in, didn't chew enough and wham pain in the stomach. I was afraid I would throw up, which is one of the worst things a band patient can do, especially in the beginning.

So much for Amish cinnamon bread. None of that for a very, very long time.

The good news is that my wife told me that I need to start wearing my suspenders because she is tired of seeing me "hitch" my pants all the time.

First day back to work.

It has been a crazy few days since my Lap Band surgery. I hope to have the picture of “Al” scanned in the next few days so I can post it on the blog.

Today is my first day back to work. It is nice to get back to work. Trying not to put myself in a position that I will strain myself. Straining could cause the Lap Band to slip, and nothing good comes from band slippage.

I am learning a lot about my new life every day. “Al” lets me know when I am not doing things right. I have learned what it really means to sip water. Al has taught me that it is OK not to eat the entire individual serving of Jello.

Easter dinner over at Mom’s was really difficult. It was nauseating sitting at the table smelling the food. It got worse after the meal.

Ever since the surgery, I have taken a lot of naps. I have never taken so many naps. I think I really like naps.

All in know right now is the pounds are melting away. I know that at some point the weight loss will slow down, but right now I am enjoying the loss. Goodbye weight. I bought a scale that measures body fat, water hydration along with weight. My hydration is staying high while the weight and body fat is dropping.

Changes

Well......
Monday I get my Pre-Op physical with my family doctor. Monday is also the day I start my two week liquid protien pre-op diet. I get to drink to protein drinks and eat one small meal per day until the surgery.
I have got to admit I'm getting nervous about what is to come. I pray that I can follow the plan.

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