my blood pressure at the surgeon's office on Thursday was 113/70
oh yeah... it's like I can feel my heart smiling :o)
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Nip/Tuck & ER Visit
Strange title? Yep! It helps me keep my posts organized ;o)
I was feeling great on Thursday. Had my doctor's appointments, and that evening went to my Weight Loss Surgery Support Group at WFUBMC. It was Nip/Tuck night at Group. The guest speaker was Dr. Andrew Schneider, MD from Forsyth Plastic Surgery in Winston-Salem. I'm only 6 weeks out from surgery so I'm far from even thinking about extra skin and some of the unflattering results of extreme rapid weight loss BUT it was good to hear about the options and see what could happen in the coming months and years.
The reason people have excess skin is because the skin has lost it's elasticity, and is not able to bounce back into place after weight loss. According to Dr. Schneider, the longer a person is overweight, the less elastic the skin may be. So the younger you are, the better.
Several people in Group have had the 360 Body Lift (I can't remember the medical term for this). Which is an incision all the around the body at the hips. The skin is then pulled up and down, and the excess is removed. In short, it is a way to iron out the wrinkles.
Another common surgery is an abdominoplasty or Tummy Tuck. This helps to get rid of excess skin in the lower abdominal area.
According to the doctor, there is little you can do to get rid of flabby skin after weight loss. Exercise will tighten the muscles but it does nothing for the skin. I found this interesting because this is the opposite of what I've been told and read among WLS blogs.
Plastic surgery is one of the procedures that is usually not covered by insurance. I was (pleasantly) surprised to hear that in this area of NC, plastic surgery starts around $7,500 and goes to $15,000 depending on the procedure and complications.
So that's the long and short of what was covered in Group. Informative but not something that's on my radar right now.
Yesterday (2/25) I woke up at
I was feeling great on Thursday. Had my doctor's appointments, and that evening went to my Weight Loss Surgery Support Group at WFUBMC. It was Nip/Tuck night at Group. The guest speaker was Dr. Andrew Schneider, MD from Forsyth Plastic Surgery in Winston-Salem. I'm only 6 weeks out from surgery so I'm far from even thinking about extra skin and some of the unflattering results of extreme rapid weight loss BUT it was good to hear about the options and see what could happen in the coming months and years.
The reason people have excess skin is because the skin has lost it's elasticity, and is not able to bounce back into place after weight loss. According to Dr. Schneider, the longer a person is overweight, the less elastic the skin may be. So the younger you are, the better.
Several people in Group have had the 360 Body Lift (I can't remember the medical term for this). Which is an incision all the around the body at the hips. The skin is then pulled up and down, and the excess is removed. In short, it is a way to iron out the wrinkles.
Another common surgery is an abdominoplasty or Tummy Tuck. This helps to get rid of excess skin in the lower abdominal area.
According to the doctor, there is little you can do to get rid of flabby skin after weight loss. Exercise will tighten the muscles but it does nothing for the skin. I found this interesting because this is the opposite of what I've been told and read among WLS blogs.
Plastic surgery is one of the procedures that is usually not covered by insurance. I was (pleasantly) surprised to hear that in this area of NC, plastic surgery starts around $7,500 and goes to $15,000 depending on the procedure and complications.
So that's the long and short of what was covered in Group. Informative but not something that's on my radar right now.
_______________________________
my ER visit...
Friday morning I bolted out of bed at 5am with severe back pain on my left side, and was sick to my stomach. (Not good for someone who doesn't have anything in their stomach.) I took a 25mg Phenergan - my surgeon gave me a prescription after surgery to use as needed to help with nausea. The Phenergan helped for about an hour by the pain in my back escalated. I took some Lortab Elixir (a pain med I was also given) and it didn't even take the edge off. At 10am, I told Richard something was not right, and he took me to the emergency room. My bp was up, and I was running a low grade fever. They did some blood tests & I was diagnosed with a severe kidney infection. ER for a kidney infection = embarrassed. So I got some meds, and I've been holding the couch down since then.
Even though I wasn't diagnosed with it... I think I may have had a kidney stone. This same thing happened back in October, and they called it a kidney infection too. The sudden pain seems to add up better with a stone. Anyway, I'm going to talk to my doctor about it at my next appt. For now... I'm on the mend :o)
Friday morning I bolted out of bed at 5am with severe back pain on my left side, and was sick to my stomach. (Not good for someone who doesn't have anything in their stomach.) I took a 25mg Phenergan - my surgeon gave me a prescription after surgery to use as needed to help with nausea. The Phenergan helped for about an hour by the pain in my back escalated. I took some Lortab Elixir (a pain med I was also given) and it didn't even take the edge off. At 10am, I told Richard something was not right, and he took me to the emergency room. My bp was up, and I was running a low grade fever. They did some blood tests & I was diagnosed with a severe kidney infection. ER for a kidney infection = embarrassed. So I got some meds, and I've been holding the couch down since then.
Even though I wasn't diagnosed with it... I think I may have had a kidney stone. This same thing happened back in October, and they called it a kidney infection too. The sudden pain seems to add up better with a stone. Anyway, I'm going to talk to my doctor about it at my next appt. For now... I'm on the mend :o)
Yesterday (2/25) I woke up at
Friday, February 25, 2011
Week 5 & 6 Update
Week 6! I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since my gastric bypass surgery. The time has flown by! I had a little mishap yesterday, and I'm looking & feeling rough today so I decided not to do an actual video this week.
Week 5 Update: I have tried every which a way to upload my week 5 video and short of standing on my head, it's just not happening. So here's the short of it... Week 5, I lost 4.8 lbs to total -38.
Week 6 Update: On Thursday 2/24/11, I went for my first follow up appointment with my surgeon, Dr. McNatt & my Nutritionist, Amber Norris. Oh it went GREAT :o) Much better than I had expected actually. McNatt said that I'm doing great, he wants me to keep measuring all my food and gradually start to eat up to 1/2 cup of food at a meal. (I'm eating about 1/4 cup right now.) My incisions are looking good... but I may be allergic to the glue they used to seal my incision- the scar looks good but around it is abnormally dry. Weird.
OH! I've lost -40 lbs total. They were VERY pleased!
My meeting with Amber, my nutritionist, went great too. Nothing new really. She gave me some more samples of Calcium to try (b/c that's the hardest thing for me to take.) Amber went over my food journal and basically said that I was doing great and following all the rules and... that's why I was doing so well :o) Yay!
Week 5 Update: I have tried every which a way to upload my week 5 video and short of standing on my head, it's just not happening. So here's the short of it... Week 5, I lost 4.8 lbs to total -38.
Week 6 Update: On Thursday 2/24/11, I went for my first follow up appointment with my surgeon, Dr. McNatt & my Nutritionist, Amber Norris. Oh it went GREAT :o) Much better than I had expected actually. McNatt said that I'm doing great, he wants me to keep measuring all my food and gradually start to eat up to 1/2 cup of food at a meal. (I'm eating about 1/4 cup right now.) My incisions are looking good... but I may be allergic to the glue they used to seal my incision- the scar looks good but around it is abnormally dry. Weird.
OH! I've lost -40 lbs total. They were VERY pleased!
My meeting with Amber, my nutritionist, went great too. Nothing new really. She gave me some more samples of Calcium to try (b/c that's the hardest thing for me to take.) Amber went over my food journal and basically said that I was doing great and following all the rules and... that's why I was doing so well :o) Yay!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
I got a belt!
this is merely to tide you over until my wk 5 video will upload ;o) it's coming, I promise! In the meantime... here's my new (and only) belt! I'm excited to watch the little holes keep going in as I shrink ;o)
Monday, February 14, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Unlady-like Topic
There is no lady-like way of bringing up this topic. But I assure you, it is the reason I have not yet done a Week 4 Post Op - Weigh In Video or update.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words... so:
This is now going in EVERYTHING that I eat and drink. And I do mean EVERYTHING.
I did weigh this morning, and I had lost about a pound. Let's just say, "it's been a while" if you get my drift. A LONG WHILE. I'm hoping the BeneFiber is going to help correct this problem of mine.
They say that "irregularity" is normal after gastric bypass surgery, and I'm doing my best to fix the problem. Me and God have even had a few talks about it ;o)
In other news... my follow up appointment with my surgeon was scheduled due to "snow" for another two weeks. BUT I have been talking with my nutritionist, and I have now graduated to "solid" foods. I use the word "solid" very loosely as my food choices are still very restricted. Strangely enough, I'm VERY excited that one of the foods on my permission list is shredded lettuce. WOOT! I haven't been able to eat any fresh veges in over a month, didn't realize how much I missed them. So tonight, I plan on trying out a bite or two of salad for dinner.
I promise to post a video soon :o)
They say a picture is worth a thousand words... so:
This is now going in EVERYTHING that I eat and drink. And I do mean EVERYTHING.
I did weigh this morning, and I had lost about a pound. Let's just say, "it's been a while" if you get my drift. A LONG WHILE. I'm hoping the BeneFiber is going to help correct this problem of mine.
They say that "irregularity" is normal after gastric bypass surgery, and I'm doing my best to fix the problem. Me and God have even had a few talks about it ;o)
In other news... my follow up appointment with my surgeon was scheduled due to "snow" for another two weeks. BUT I have been talking with my nutritionist, and I have now graduated to "solid" foods. I use the word "solid" very loosely as my food choices are still very restricted. Strangely enough, I'm VERY excited that one of the foods on my permission list is shredded lettuce. WOOT! I haven't been able to eat any fresh veges in over a month, didn't realize how much I missed them. So tonight, I plan on trying out a bite or two of salad for dinner.
I promise to post a video soon :o)
Monday, February 7, 2011
Old Habits Die Hard
I'm learning that even though my stomach is now the size of an egg, my old habits are still as strong as ever.
I learned a very important lesson on Friday night. I had just eaten something, and for some crazy reason left my brain in the refrigerator when I got out the milk. The next thing I know, I chugged a cup of milk. Chugged it, don't even remember swallowing.
Oh the pain that followed. The worst part was that I couldn't get it to come back up for some relief (sorry if that's TMI.) So after about 20 minutes of pain and hovering over the toilet without any luck, I managed to get down a nausea pill. After that kicked in 30 minutes later, I went to sleep.
Lesson Learned: Sip. Don't gulp. Sip. Don't chug. SIP.
It's a good reminder to me that even though I'm feeling better, it's so important to continue all the new lifestyle changes until they are habit. Sipping, not gulping. Taking 30 minutes to eat. Not drinking while eating (or 30 min before or after.) Eating small frequent meals. Avoid sugars, fats, and simple carbs. No carbonated drinks. No caffeine. Exercise, 30 minutes a day. Just to name a few :o)
All that to say.... just like being on any other diet, Lifestyle Changes are a must for success!
I learned a very important lesson on Friday night. I had just eaten something, and for some crazy reason left my brain in the refrigerator when I got out the milk. The next thing I know, I chugged a cup of milk. Chugged it, don't even remember swallowing.
Oh the pain that followed. The worst part was that I couldn't get it to come back up for some relief (sorry if that's TMI.) So after about 20 minutes of pain and hovering over the toilet without any luck, I managed to get down a nausea pill. After that kicked in 30 minutes later, I went to sleep.
Lesson Learned: Sip. Don't gulp. Sip. Don't chug. SIP.
It's a good reminder to me that even though I'm feeling better, it's so important to continue all the new lifestyle changes until they are habit. Sipping, not gulping. Taking 30 minutes to eat. Not drinking while eating (or 30 min before or after.) Eating small frequent meals. Avoid sugars, fats, and simple carbs. No carbonated drinks. No caffeine. Exercise, 30 minutes a day. Just to name a few :o)
All that to say.... just like being on any other diet, Lifestyle Changes are a must for success!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)