5 Groups Down, 5 To Go

Wow!! 5 groups down and 5 to go! I still have 2 more that are required but it will be easy to get those in. It’s passing so fast and I know going into the holidays it will pass even more quickly. I think I actually chose to do this at a good time of year.

Today’s group was a cooking demonstration and it was really good. They had samples of a pan seared turkey breast, garlic bread and broccoli salad. The chef said the turkey was sodium free but I was positive I could taste salt. I guess it’s proof that sodium free can taste good sometimes. The broccoli salad was awesome! He used low fat yogurt instead of mayo and it also had dried cranberries and almond slivers. It was very yummy!

Dieting is going pretty good. I still don’t have a handle on sugar but it’s getting better and I’ve also gotten better with fast food. I’m fluctuating between losing 3-5 lbs but I know if I get my sugar intake lower it will be better.

I had my 6 month checkup with my pulmonary dr and he said there aren’t any problems with the blood clots but I told him I’m still having problems with breathing. They did a “huff n’ puff” test and there was something irregular there so I’m going to have a pulmonary function test done in a couple weeks. He thinks it’s probably asthma and I think it could be also but why didn’t I have problems before the blood clots? I still need to get referred to a hematologist but I guess that will happen when I go back in December. I like being off the coumadin, even though it’s a bit scary, but I really want to know if I have the protein C deficiency or if it was just a fluke and I won’t have to worry about having blood clots again.

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Plodding Along

Been awhile since I posted so decided to give an update. Things are moving along for my weight loss surgery. Sometimes it seems so long then other times it seems to be flying by.

I’ve been going to my group meetings, actually need to get my second one in this week. I had my psych eval last week and was a bit nervous for that one just because of my bipolar issues. My regular psychologist said it would be just fine because I’ve been stable for a while. I know it’s because they need to make sure you’re ready for this change in your life, but they really delve deep! The only thing she said was that it was a good idea to continue to see my psychologist after I have the surgery. I said I agree because everything I’ve read is that you go through a lot of ups and downs after you’ve had the surgery. She said they will get my records from my psych doctor and then if everything is still okay they will schedule an appointment with the surgeon!

I was also asked which surgery I was interested in. I know I’ve not interested the band but I hadn’t been sure between the sleeve and gastric bypass. After much research, I’ve decided on the bypass and the reason for that is my sugar addiction. I would really like to get rid of that! It’s so hard though. I’ve cut back a lot and the cravings are not bad but I still give in sometimes. It’ll be interesting to see which surgery the surgeon recommends.

Nutrition Meeting

Today was the meeting on nutrition. It was just very basic because I’ll meet one-on-one at a later time. I’ve discovered that at the very first seminar they will tell you what you want to hear so that you’ll enroll. We were told that we didn’t have to diet until the 4 week Optifast diet, that we just had to get our weights checked every month. Doesn’t that sound good to an overweight person? It’s not really true. They want you to start watching what you’re eating and try to eat around 15oo calories a day.  Once we meet with the dietitian it will be more tailored to our needs.  It’s ok though because I had a hard time believing that I wouldn’t have to diet. So far my goals are to cut out sugar and fast food, drink 80 oz. of fluid a day and do some chair exercising since I’m not able to do much else at this time.  The one thing that she keep reiterating was compliance. If you can’t do what is needed to get the surgery then you really don’t want it.   My next big appointment is with the psychiatrist in October, otherwise I just have to keep getting my group meetings in for each month. I also need to find a primary care physician so that I can get lab work done. I usually go to Doctors Care but I guess I will need to find a “real” doctor. I’m also going to try to write down everything I’m eating. I love notebooks so I’m going to find something pretty and hopefully keep up with it. So far it looks like I’ll have the surgery in March.

Overwhelming Day

I have to admit that I feel some trepidation with writing this post. It’s a shame there are still people that judge you on how you lose weight but I want to be honest with my journey,

I’d been struggling with this decision for a while but when I had my health scare with the PE I decided that I would check into bariatric surgery. My life and health isn’t something that I want to play around with and if it takes surgery to get it back then I’m going to do it. I know I can lose 50 lbs because I did it before but obviously I can’t keep it off.

I never struggled with weight until I got diagnosed with bipolar. The first medicine I was on was lithium and with it I gained 70 lbs. Lithium makes you extremely thirsty and because I was having mental issues I wasn’t paying attention to what I was drinking. My husband was still drinking full sugar sodas and because I wasn’t able to do even the grocery shopping I was also drinking them. I was also drinking juices and whole milk. I wish my mother had been around during that time because I know she would have helped me with that but we lived a state apart. With each addition or medicine change I would gain about 10-20 lbs. Each medicine that I’m on has weight gain as a side effect but I think that as I kept gaining weight I gave up on ever being the weight that I was before I got diagnosed. I got to where I really didn’t care what I was eating because what’s the use, right? Obviously I care some because I’ve dieted but seem to lose weight and then regain it over and over again.

I decided that I would go to the seminar that is required to go to get the ball rolling. I figured I would be able to make a decision either way after going there. After talking with a surgeon and nurse I knew it was something that I wanted to do so today I had another meeting and enrolled in the program. I’ll go into more detail in another post because I’m feeling overwhelmed and need to process it.

Starting again

I’m almost back where I started in the beginning. I originally lost 50 lbs. but have gained back 30. The regain first started when my sciatic nerve got inflamed and I was very limited in what I could do. Then I had a pulmonary embolism which made it to where I could do even less. Just goes to show you how much even daily activity helps with weight.

The recovery from the PE has been very slow but I know I’ll get better. My family has a history of Protein C Deficiency and I will find out in October if I have it as well. If I do I’ll be on Coumadin for the rest of my life. I actually wouldn’t mind because having the blood clots was really scary! Truth is I almost died. I was misdiagnosed so many times that it took over 2 months for them to find out the problem. It took me collapsing and going to a different doctor to finally get the right diagnosis. Lesson learned: if you feel like something is wrong and you aren’t getting the care that you should, go to another doctor!