Well, I've jumped 3 more hoops and passed only one major one left to do. The Cardiologist told me the echo cardiogram showed no change in the mitral valve prolapse and that I quite easily passed the nuclear stress test. I'm going to glow like crazy with all this nuclear meds they keep putting in me. I had the breathing test with the pulmonolgist. (Side note....spell check is telling me I need to change pulmonologist to the word vulcanologist...what?) the first half of the test consisted of me breathing according to the instructions the tech gave me. Then she gave me 4 puffs of Allbuterol (which spell check says should be changed to Butterball) and we redid the first tests. That was to see if the meds helped me breath better. She laughed and said well it did help you to breath better 18% better but you were already at 100%! I have a sleep study to be done on the 25th and then the reports go to my dr.
This is taking longer than I thought it would and in the last month I've been seeing people who have had the surgery, lost big amounts of weight but gained it all back and then some. If I do that just shoot me! It all comes down to controlling those things you don't realize you are doing....licking your finger when you make cookies or tasting the soup to make sure it's just right or eating a few corn chips while you watch tv....I'm going to have to be very attentive to that. I can't ask Tim to help with that cause if he points things out like that I get a wee bit pissy.
It's still scary but I keep thinking it will be worth it to bend over w/o my eyeballs popping out. Or sitting in a chair, looking down and finding out I have a lap! Yahoo!
This is short, storm coming and I don't want to loose what I've written....I love you all and thank you for your prayers and your faith in me.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Misty Eyed
Sitting here with tears in my eyes and a few on my face. I just read the comments to my first blog post....what would I do without family? I know for sure I don't want to find out! Thanks you all so much!
Raspberry tea huh? That and peach tea are 2 of my favorites. I've been experimenting with different things to drink. I think I've gotten myself hooked on iced coffee. Lots of crushed ice, cup of coffee, 1/4 c milk and 2 sweetners...it's really quite good. I have a friend that I worked with at the Indiana School for the Deaf many years ago. She had this surgery 7 years ago. Now this gal drank enough Pepsi to float a battleship...and she made it so I will too! In fact she told me that when the craving got so bad she'd take a sip of Pepsi, swirl it around in her mouth and then spit it out-just the taste was enough. I don't think I could do that, I'm not really a strong person..I'd swallow.
Now there is one thing I can drink....milk. Well, sort of, drink milk. Skim? Are you kidding me? Skim? Why not just get a glass of water and put a drop of white paint in it...would taste the same. The nutritionist assured me it's very tasty. I told her that I was raised on fresh milk from my Grandpa Literal's cows (Grandpa Street for the greatgrand kids) and that I'd force myself to go to 2% but I wasn't going any lower unless I could use the "skim" milk to make pudding. She said that wasn't really very good for me even if I used sugar free pudding. So I solved the problem...told her I wasn't going to drink milk I'd just eat Greek Yogurt and put fresh fruit in it. That didn't go over well either but come on, I'm a farm girl at heart. I know for certain if I drink skim milk my membership in the farmer's daughters club will be revoked! No skim milk shall pass these lips!
Gonna have to learn an entire new way of cooking. My farmwife Grandma Literal taught me to cook so you know what that means....lots of butter, bacon drippings and lard! I'll have to "learn" to measure cause when Grandma teaches you to cook she teaches you to dump! Why measure when you can eyeball it and it still comes out great! Goodness, just thinking about her food has made me hungry....anyone for fresh green beans cooked all day with bacon grease? Now I'm drooling.
My husband is looking forward to a new thinner me. I told him to get a second job cause I'll need new clothes and I'm not gonna buy a few.....maybe he needs to get 2 more jobs! What I didn't tell him is that I loose weight in my boobs first and since they are not that big to begin with I'll probably be flat chested. He'll just have to live with "them"! LOL!
December 2, 2012 my entire family - Tim, Katie, Mitch and Robbie, Emily and Gary and Sophie and I are going to do something not a single one of us has done before-run a 5K marathon! The Emily, Gary and Sophie are running the "Color Run" in Charlotte, NC in November. When I told them I was going to do the one in Tampa they all talked and decided they were all coming to "run" with me. I'll tell you more about that in a later post.
Once again, thank you all...oh, and when you post put your name in the post so I know who is posting. You don't have to join Blogger or Google just put your name at the end of your post. Thanks! I love you all!
Raspberry tea huh? That and peach tea are 2 of my favorites. I've been experimenting with different things to drink. I think I've gotten myself hooked on iced coffee. Lots of crushed ice, cup of coffee, 1/4 c milk and 2 sweetners...it's really quite good. I have a friend that I worked with at the Indiana School for the Deaf many years ago. She had this surgery 7 years ago. Now this gal drank enough Pepsi to float a battleship...and she made it so I will too! In fact she told me that when the craving got so bad she'd take a sip of Pepsi, swirl it around in her mouth and then spit it out-just the taste was enough. I don't think I could do that, I'm not really a strong person..I'd swallow.
Now there is one thing I can drink....milk. Well, sort of, drink milk. Skim? Are you kidding me? Skim? Why not just get a glass of water and put a drop of white paint in it...would taste the same. The nutritionist assured me it's very tasty. I told her that I was raised on fresh milk from my Grandpa Literal's cows (Grandpa Street for the greatgrand kids) and that I'd force myself to go to 2% but I wasn't going any lower unless I could use the "skim" milk to make pudding. She said that wasn't really very good for me even if I used sugar free pudding. So I solved the problem...told her I wasn't going to drink milk I'd just eat Greek Yogurt and put fresh fruit in it. That didn't go over well either but come on, I'm a farm girl at heart. I know for certain if I drink skim milk my membership in the farmer's daughters club will be revoked! No skim milk shall pass these lips!
Gonna have to learn an entire new way of cooking. My farmwife Grandma Literal taught me to cook so you know what that means....lots of butter, bacon drippings and lard! I'll have to "learn" to measure cause when Grandma teaches you to cook she teaches you to dump! Why measure when you can eyeball it and it still comes out great! Goodness, just thinking about her food has made me hungry....anyone for fresh green beans cooked all day with bacon grease? Now I'm drooling.
My husband is looking forward to a new thinner me. I told him to get a second job cause I'll need new clothes and I'm not gonna buy a few.....maybe he needs to get 2 more jobs! What I didn't tell him is that I loose weight in my boobs first and since they are not that big to begin with I'll probably be flat chested. He'll just have to live with "them"! LOL!
December 2, 2012 my entire family - Tim, Katie, Mitch and Robbie, Emily and Gary and Sophie and I are going to do something not a single one of us has done before-run a 5K marathon! The Emily, Gary and Sophie are running the "Color Run" in Charlotte, NC in November. When I told them I was going to do the one in Tampa they all talked and decided they were all coming to "run" with me. I'll tell you more about that in a later post.
Once again, thank you all...oh, and when you post put your name in the post so I know who is posting. You don't have to join Blogger or Google just put your name at the end of your post. Thanks! I love you all!
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Bucket list for weight loss
I'm supposed to keep a journal of my journey. I just made my first post. It's scary to put all this out there for anyone to read....keep wondering if people (friends and family) will just shake their heads and roll their eyes, Janet's off on another tangent.
I've got lots of thoughts about what is to come.....thinking of the things that I've never been able to do.
Surely I can do this, I'm a grown up woman. There is one thing that has me concerned...Diet Coke as in, I can't have any, at all, never, ever,again. No Diet Coke!? What am I gonna do? I love that stuff....when it's icy cold to the point it almost has ice crystals and you take that first swig......the bubble and the cold and the taste...that's my idea of Nirvana, kinda.
The surgeon's office called and I'm waiting on a call back. I have to have a nursing consult over the phone then she sets an appointment with the dr.. for me. After talking to the dr it should be 2 weeks and then surgery.
I'm scared but looking forward to this next step. I would covet your prayers for my health and for my family during this time.
In the Love of the Lamb,
Janet
I've got lots of thoughts about what is to come.....thinking of the things that I've never been able to do.
- I'll be able to sit on a chair and not have rolls of fat hang off the edge.
- Even better, when I sit, I'll have a lap for all my grandbabies to sit on.
- I will be able to move more freely and maybe can get my friends daughters to teach me how to move like a dancer, with grace and form - I'm talking about you Shannon Lonnen!
- When I walk will I realize that I'm walking different? Will it be easier? Will I feel like I'm going to float into the air?
- What will I do with all that excess skin? Ick!
- I've decided I'm going to participate in the Color Run in Tampa on Dec 2....my girls are going to do it with me and Tim too....celebrating a Mom that can finally move.
Surely I can do this, I'm a grown up woman. There is one thing that has me concerned...Diet Coke as in, I can't have any, at all, never, ever,again. No Diet Coke!? What am I gonna do? I love that stuff....when it's icy cold to the point it almost has ice crystals and you take that first swig......the bubble and the cold and the taste...that's my idea of Nirvana, kinda.
The surgeon's office called and I'm waiting on a call back. I have to have a nursing consult over the phone then she sets an appointment with the dr.. for me. After talking to the dr it should be 2 weeks and then surgery.
I'm scared but looking forward to this next step. I would covet your prayers for my health and for my family during this time.
In the Love of the Lamb,
Janet
Next Step in the Journey
I'm starting a Journey. Actually it's a journey I've been on since is was very little....it's the fat body journey. Really it's the uber obese journey but that word is extremely offensive. From the age of 10 or so I'd hear things like-"Janet you would be so happy if you would loose a little weight." Intimating that as I was I would never be happy because it was an impossibility. Now I have pictures of me at 10, I can still hear the taunts of schoolmates calling me fatty....you know when I look at those pictures I see me towering above most of my classmates, male and female. You get the picture? I was tall, yep and they weren't so much.
Down through the years I have tried every diet that came along...some of them were fad diets, some whacked out diets, some were well-balanced but none of them helped me keep it off. When I say I've tried them all, I have tried them all.....Adkins Diet, South Beach Diet, Weight Watchers (a dozen different times) Vinegar and sea weed diet, grapefruit diet, Diamonds food combining diet, The Daniel Diet....been hypnotized (that was a nice nap) and had staples put into my ear canal...man did that hurt!
Two years ago I found out that around 1968 a small, microscopic cell began to grow, abnormally in my thyroid. I was 14 years old....this cell would grow and divide and make thousands of cells that were just as abnormal as the first one. From 1968 until June of 2009 I had doctor after doctor feel around on my neck, prodding and poking at my thyroid - saying things like hmmm, seems enlarged but we'll do a blood test. Tests always came bake stating nothing wrong. It took a dedicated endocrinologist to try another test, an older one and order an ultrasound. Ultrasound showed 4 growths, the blood test showed problems too. After having a needle biopsy I was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer.
The things I've learned since removing my thyroid.....from my endocrinologist and my surgeon amazed me. We all learned about our endocrine system in school. We were taught that each hormone secreted from the various glands worked together to control our hot/cold feelings, energy levels, and weight loss, not only weight loss but the ability to keep the weight off. Chief among these glands is the thyroid and mine had pretty much been malfunctioning since I was 14. It actually is at the point where loosing any weight is almost impossible for me (or others like me). SO......
So, sometime the end of January or beginning of February I am going to have Gastric Bypass Surgery. I was hesitant at first thinking oh, this is just the easy way out BUT having gone to all the requisite classes, meeting for 6 months with the nutritionist, talking to the psychologist, talking with my doctor and others who have had the surgery it's not going to be a picnic. After the surgery my stomach will be the size of my thumb-FOREVER! Everything they told me I would not be able to eat was fine until they said no diet soda. What? OMGoodness what will I do? But I know if I drink some I will be one sick puppy so I guess I'm going to have to find some really fine teas and coffees to drink.
I'm not sure what this will become....I'm supposed to keep a journal for a year and share it with my doctor and nutritionist so I might as well make it available to the world.....as if the world cares.
Prayers and Faith and Grace is all that's going to get me through this. So be praying for me!
Jan
Down through the years I have tried every diet that came along...some of them were fad diets, some whacked out diets, some were well-balanced but none of them helped me keep it off. When I say I've tried them all, I have tried them all.....Adkins Diet, South Beach Diet, Weight Watchers (a dozen different times) Vinegar and sea weed diet, grapefruit diet, Diamonds food combining diet, The Daniel Diet....been hypnotized (that was a nice nap) and had staples put into my ear canal...man did that hurt!
Two years ago I found out that around 1968 a small, microscopic cell began to grow, abnormally in my thyroid. I was 14 years old....this cell would grow and divide and make thousands of cells that were just as abnormal as the first one. From 1968 until June of 2009 I had doctor after doctor feel around on my neck, prodding and poking at my thyroid - saying things like hmmm, seems enlarged but we'll do a blood test. Tests always came bake stating nothing wrong. It took a dedicated endocrinologist to try another test, an older one and order an ultrasound. Ultrasound showed 4 growths, the blood test showed problems too. After having a needle biopsy I was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer.
The things I've learned since removing my thyroid.....from my endocrinologist and my surgeon amazed me. We all learned about our endocrine system in school. We were taught that each hormone secreted from the various glands worked together to control our hot/cold feelings, energy levels, and weight loss, not only weight loss but the ability to keep the weight off. Chief among these glands is the thyroid and mine had pretty much been malfunctioning since I was 14. It actually is at the point where loosing any weight is almost impossible for me (or others like me). SO......
So, sometime the end of January or beginning of February I am going to have Gastric Bypass Surgery. I was hesitant at first thinking oh, this is just the easy way out BUT having gone to all the requisite classes, meeting for 6 months with the nutritionist, talking to the psychologist, talking with my doctor and others who have had the surgery it's not going to be a picnic. After the surgery my stomach will be the size of my thumb-FOREVER! Everything they told me I would not be able to eat was fine until they said no diet soda. What? OMGoodness what will I do? But I know if I drink some I will be one sick puppy so I guess I'm going to have to find some really fine teas and coffees to drink.
I'm not sure what this will become....I'm supposed to keep a journal for a year and share it with my doctor and nutritionist so I might as well make it available to the world.....as if the world cares.
Prayers and Faith and Grace is all that's going to get me through this. So be praying for me!
Jan
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