The surgery – for those of you about to have it done or interested in having it done

I cant fault The Hospital Group at all – it all went really well. They called me 48hrs prior to my surgery to confirm the time my driver will pick me up from home and advised that I would be given surgery time on arrival. The driver arrived at the time stated and the journey was great – we had a good chat along the way and the 2 hour drive flew by without any additional nerves added. The minute I was admitted there was a constant round of nurses, anesthetist and surgeon who all came by to make sure I was okay, advise time of the surgery and what the process was. My room was large and very comfortable. It really didnt seem too long before I was fitted for my anti embellism stockings and asked to shower prior to surgery.

I was duly collected and taken directly to the theater. Once there I was introduced to the surgical staff and laid on the operating table, next thing I knew I was being told it was all over and that it had gone well, also I had a hiatus hernia which was repaired at the time of banding.

My pain was so well controlled during the op for post op that I didnt need any pain killers at all, and although I dozed on and off for 14 hours post surgery I slept well.

I was given breakfast of a diet yoghurt and a smoothie (which I could not manage to drink) and discharged at 7am the next day. Since the op I have only needed painkillers once – this was due to travelling wind pain in my left shoulder (they advised me this may happen) and only lasted about an hour.

A week has now passed since the operation and I feel fabulous, my wounds look great and are healing well which in itself is a miracle as I am not the best healer. I have had no other pain and am mobilising well.

Thank you to all at the Hospital Group – you are truly great at what you do. I now have a great New Year to look forward ot with the new me emerging daily.

Weight loss to date 16 pounds!!!!!

Very quick weightloss update

Prior to surgery I had lost 6 lbs – since surgery on Thursday last week another 7lbs lost.

Total weight loss 13lbs

Surgery over

I had my surgery on thursday and I cannot praise the team at Dolan Park Hospital enough, this includes the drivers, theatre staff, nurses etc.  My surgery went well, a hiatus hernia was discovered and repaired at the same time.  My recovery is good so far – I have only taken one painkiller since the op which I am so pleased about.  My shoulders hurt a little from being filled with gas during the op but other than that I have no discomfort at all.

Everyone at home is looking after me well and are seeing to themselves for food etc which makes my recovery easier.  They are also ensuring I have plenty to drink and that I am rested in fact mobilising is a struggle as I have to insist that I do move – not sure this will last much longer though lol.

Just a quick note today – take care folks

2 days to surgery

I woke at 3.30 this morning my stomach full of butterflies, I was so excited when I thought that it was only 2 days until my surgery.  I have just had a call confirming my pick up for surgery on thursday morning between 6 and half past in the morning; once there they will confirm the time of the operation and look to discharge me approximately 24 hours later.  I am so keen to get going, I really can’t wait. 

Have read my admission information several times already and what my post op diet will be, considering it is Christmas and there is so much food around me I am gobsmacked that I am not cheating at all on my yoghurt and milk diet.  Having said that I did put on about 7 pounds since my initial consultation with my surgeon (I suppose it was the thought that I was not going to be able to eat this junk once I have had the operation so lets just eat it all now)  so I have lost 8 pounds in 5 days which now takes me to just below the weight I was when he last saw me.  I am sure that I am not the only person to do that right?

If I get time tomorrow I will update you further – however I shall be preparing for the trip to hospital such as ridding myself of hairy legs etc etc lol so don’t be surprised if you hear nothing until after the surgery.  Signing off for now – with great anticipation and excitement.

Change of surgery date

Yes, I have gone and done it.  I’ve moved the surgery date forward – it’s now December 15th yikes. 

In order to be best prepared for the surgery I have revisited the leaflet provided by TheHospitalGroup and have started taking multi vitamins and calcium tablets daily.  I spent quite some time at the weekend looking for chewable versions of these for post op days, this turned out to be a bit of a mission but worth it I know.  And as of Thursday this week I will start on the milk and yoghurt diet which will give me 14 days to prep for surgery and hopefully my liver will be suitably reduced.  Whilst my bank balance may remain in the black as I wont be spending so much on groceries in this period (as if, what with Christmas just round the corner lol). 

I received my letter from Sarah the patient coordinator confirming my change of date – which I was relieved to get through the post as the mail is a little slow at the moment.  And did check my original receipt which did indeed have transport as provided which is a huge plus.   I don’t need to get hubby to book time off work or worry about the drive there and back, parking, getting there on time etc etc.  All of this is already taken care of; you probably won’t understand what a big deal this is for me.  I can’t bear the thought of being late for anything so having the transport sorted for me is an enormous plus.

I still have a few family meals and 2 parties to attend prior to the surgery however I know that I can and will manage to stick to the diet as there is huge goal in sight and light at the end of the tunnel.  It may be difficult however getting the rest of the family to understand the pre op diet so will probably avoid the subject with them as much as possible.  Yes, my nerves are kicking in but so too is the excitement which by far outweighs the nerves.  So bring it on as I feel at this moment that I could take on anything and come out with a positive outlook (which is just as well as this is my penultimate day at work prior to redundancy). 

Onwards and downwards – here’s to the journey and the adventures awaiting me.

Change is a coming

 

I have had a few stressful days this past week, apart from the fact that I realised that its now less than 7 weeks to my surgery (yikes).  I am being laid off from work in less than 4 weeks, and I must admit to having mixed feelings regarding this.  In one way I am really looking forward to the change of job (once I get a new one) and in another way I am scared stiff of being unemployed.  I have not been in the job market for over 12 years!  So I sat and thought things through.

Is it a good time for me to go ahead with the surgery when life is so stressful at present?  Xmas is just a few days before the operation – and we all know how stressy that is!  However on the other hand – as I am not working it really will give me the time to make a good start on my exercise pre op, and also adhere to the pre op diet (as I wont be working I can ensure that I am intaking the correct level of fluids).  But Christmas!  Really is that a good time to do a milk and yoghurt diet – then I remember that a few years ago I spent xmas and new year on lighter life eating only shakes or soup; if I can do that then why not now?

Plus if you look at it in a different light if I can deal with weight loss surgery, job loss and christmas then I can deal with anything – so bring it on I say.

I really cant wait to be on countdown in days for the surgery; I want to lose over 100lbs so as you can imagine the journey will be long but worthwhile for me and I am sure make our grocery bill look a little more healthy too lol.  I recently asked for insight from fellow weight loss bloggers/tweets and received the following advice which I think will be beneficial for anyone wishing to lose weight either through surgery or dieting -

1. Don’t eat when you’re really REALLY hungry. The longer you wait to have meals, the more calories you’ll consume as a result.

2. Eat everything in moderation, avoid foods high in calories, sodium, sugar. Eat more foods that are rich in fiber, calcium, and iron.

3. Make use of modern technology, Endomondo and MyFitnessPal are very useful tools to use to track your exercise on your smartphone and computer (except Endomondo can’t track your exercise on the computer).

4. Get in as much cardio as you possibly can. I personally am lucky that I live very close to a walking and biking trail beyond my backyard. Drink plenty of water. Pace yourself. If you are unable to exercise outside during inclement weather. Try using a treadmill or elliptical.

Thanks for that Mike I shall certainly be joining you on MyFitnessPal etc.  Good luck fellow weight loss members, the journey is onwards and downwards yay.

Just remember the weight did not go on over the course of one night or one month so it is unrealistic to expect it to come off in that time frame either; and even if there was a magic pill which took all the weight off at once what would we learn?  I was a bad enough yoyo dieter before so thank goodness it doesn’t exist I say!

 

 

Winner of the Versatile blogger award

Recently I asked for nominations for the Versatile Blogger award and promised that I would let you know who won and why.  Well the nominations have been received and the winner is ……  the fatgirldiary blog, she writes about her journey to lose weight through gastric bypass surgery. What is unique is her transparency and truth of her situation through her own eyes.  Well done and keep blogging.

So now I have had some insight

Photo thanks to 123rf.com

Thanks to everyone for their input either through commenting on my blog or on the blogs that I have read.  I have decided that I shall tell everyone that I am having the surgery, it is after all my journey and my decision and I feel that I have made the right one; so why try to hide it?  My fellow bloggers have all said how hard it is in the beginning – knowing that there will be strong reaction to the surgery from others and also that they themselves struggled both pre and post op regarding their own mindset. 

Yesterday I spoke to my lovely nurse Louise at The Hospital Group, she carried out my pre op checks and was fantastic.  So reassuring, and ensured that I was fully aware of my pre op diet and post op diet.  Laura explained that it would take a little time for my head to get around the band which is why the first infill is done a few weeks after. 

Not too long now until my surgery and already family members have started saying that I am alright as I am and that I don’t need surgery (funny that I was never told I am ok before!).  Then of course all the comments started regarding people they know who know someone who has had the surgery and had complications or had to have it removed.  Well, life is a rollercoaster and we just don’t know what will happen – if we don’t take a risk then life would be very boring.  I am happy knowing that my decision is the right one for me and that my nearest and dearest fully support me.  And it is not like The Hospital Group just leave you to it after the operation, there is a lot of readily available support both prior to and post surgery.  We just have to learn to ask for help when we need it – if I had done that initially maybe I would not have piled on so much weight.

I am looking forward to enjoying exercise again, not that I ever was or ever expect to be a lover of the gym.  I did say to my husband that once I have recovered from the surgery and I have the go ahead we will have to find an activity to do together – lets just say his eyes lit up at the thought; that was until I told him that the moon was still not blue lol…..  So we are going to try roller blading as I don’t like jogging.  No doubt there will be many changes to the activity choice and hopefully more activities over the coming months – time will tell.

Versatile Blogger Award

As I’ve only started this blog about a month ago, you can imagine how thrilled I was when UKate presented me the Versatile Blogger award.     So …what do I do now to live up to it?  I’m basically using changingmeforthebetter to document my and my family’s journey with my weightloss efforts and now that I have decided to have weight loss surgery the effects that will have on us all, but perhaps there could be more to it than that?  I’ll definitely have to give this some more thought.  It’s entirely possible that through blogging, I can give myself at least a rudimentary education in the past, present and future of weight loss and maybe help others too.

In the meantime, I’ve been instructed that part of the process of accepting this award entails listing seven totally random facts about yourself.  So here goes:

1.  I’ve got a squeaky eye.

2.  When I vomit it also comes up through my nose.

3.  I met John Pertwee when I was at my uncle’s club in Edinburgh at the time he was Doctor Who so I went in search of the Tardis.

4.  I lived abroad for a major part of my life (Gibraltar, Germany and Belgium).

5.  I love foreign holidays and one day aspire to retire on a small Greek island.

6.  I don’t like wet hair between my fingers so washing my hair is always an unpleasant experience.

7.   I once held an Anne Summers party for a bunch of very religious American women who were unable to purchase such items or wear them ordinarily but we had such a fun party; they absolutely loved it so did I sale or no sale.

The very last step of accepting the Versatile Blogger award involves selecting a number of other blogs to pass it on to.  I’ve been told that I can select anywhere from five to fifteen blogs, but I’m so new to this  that I don’t even follow that many!  The blogs I follow the most regularly have already gotten the award.  So, n – I need to find ten good, solid, entertaining blogs to award.  In order to find them, I would like for you to submit nominations of your favourite blogs, or perhaps your own!  To submit, all you need to do is leave a comment at the end of this post with a link to the blog in question and a single line describing the blog in general.  (I.e. This is the changingmeforthebetter blog, and she mainly writes a lot of drivel about weightloss.)  The winners will be selected over the coming weekend.

Thanks again to Kate for this award – I really am terribly excited about it and can’t wait to add the award icon to my blog page.  I’m also looking forward to finding the next ten recipients of the Versatile Blogger Award!

Do I need that much?

Thanks to plateoffoodatsaw.jpg for the image

I definitely know my biggest problem is that I love food and that portion control is a real issue for me; and that’s something I’m actively working on.

I’ve started to question do I need that much?  And having just come to the realisation that I don’t NEED as much as Duncan and Michael do. Do I want as much as they have… YES! But we are different and I don’t NEED it.  Perhaps a visual trick may help – I give them their meals on a dinner plate and put mine on a smaller plate – visually it looks the same size.  Portion control is a huge struggle, but it’s something I need to work on.  And of course once I have the gastric band fitted the struggle will be less of a problem. As long as I make the right food choices and don’t keep going back for more, small portions throughout the day.  The band does 30% of the work I still have 70% to do…..

The second problem I have with food is the ‘need’ for sugar – I have ‘needs’ for chocolate and sugary sweets.  Why?  Does this go back to my childhood when if I was a good girl I would get something nice (that always being a sweet of some description)?

I personally do not subscribe to the idea that all fat people have been abused or had awful childhoods, sure there are a lot who have and I mean no disrespect or insult at all.  However there must be some out there that had an absolutely normal life. And for those of us who did we need to be accountable for what we put in our mouths.  No one was holding a gun to my head when I just ate that large bar of cadbury’s chocolate five minutes ago.  What use is there in me saying I am fat and I need to do something about it, if I cant walk past the sweets in the grocery store without planning  the best time for me to eat it in secret without being disturbed or having to share?  My problem and one that I need to GET OVER otherwise surgery or no I will still be fat.

And finally to the last huge problem with food – emotional eating.  Why is it that some people cant eat when they are unhappy, angry or stressed out?  I, on the other hand can eat at all times of the day and in all kinds of emotional states.  When I am happy or sad I turn to high sugar content food, when stressed out or angry I feel the ‘need’ for comfort food such as chocolate or chocolate and lots of it.  And of course there’s the issue of alcohol – vodka being my favourite followed closely by Irish cream liqueur. Why, oh why did I have to choose to be the emotional eater?  Skinny girls who stress and cry – you don’t know how envious I am!

Let’s just face it I’m a food junkie and have a detox programme planned, thank goodness.  We all face problems in life. It is the way we choose to handle them which is what makes us all different and defines who we are, maybe we need to undergo challenges to make us the person we are today.  And to teach us all lessons in how to be more accepting and understanding of each other.  Just hope that we all have great support structures and plans to overcome life’s challenges.  I know my support structure is in place, my family, friends and of course the surgery.  Here’s to life being a little less challenging for us all and to smaller plate and portion sizes for me!