Fill Er' Up!

I'm home from my first fill and it was easy peasy lemon squeezy!

I checked into the outpatient center and had to get a hospital band and fill out a form.  The form asked me how I could tolerate swallowing thick liquids, red meats, fish, chicken and if I had heartburn or regurgitation.  I could tolerate everything with ease. 

I was taken back for a Body Composition Analysis - my current stats are as follows:

Current Body Weight: 290.9lbs (my scale says 286.8...boo!)
Total Body Fat: 46.8%
Fat-Free Mass: 53.2%
Total Body Water: 41.5%
Body Mass Index (BMI): 41

I am 5'10 inches tall and 38 years old.  My target weight according to the report is 190.4 to 205.7

The report says that target weight is determined by adding the recommended percentage of body fat to your current lean body mass.  Therefore, your target weight is not necessarily your ideal weight. 

In my head my target weight was 180....I guess we'll see.

The actual fill was done under fluoroscopy so I was able to see my band and port on the screen and watch as I swallowed the liquid to see how fast it was going down.   I stood against the xray machine with the screen in front of me and Dr. Clark sitting next to me.  I only had to pull up my shirt - so no undressing.  It was weird that I was standing, in my mind I would be laying down like a pregnancy ultrasound.  Dr. Clark gave me a numbing shot first, which stung a tiny bit, but IMO hurts much less than a blood draw.  Then he injected the saline into the band.  While he was injecting I took a sip of liquid which went right down and then he had me take a second drink which went a bit slower. I was able to watch it on the screen. All in all I had 5.5cc of saline inserted in my 11cc Realize Band.  He said it was pretty aggressive for a first fill, and warned me to be very careful for the first few days.  I have had only liquids today and went into the fill with an empty stomach per the Dr's advice.  Liquids only tomorrow followed by two days of soft foods.  He said it's so that I will jump start weight loss as well as adjust slowly to the new level of restriction.  He said it's important that my Fat Free Mass (shown above) stays the same.  This is acheived by eating proper levels of protein (90+ grams) and exercising, everything else should go down.

I asked the doctor if I did not feel proper restriction after 10 days if I could come back and get another fill.  He said No.  Boo!  I have to wait 6 weeks in between each fill for the first 3 fills and then they are patient derived.  My next fill is August 25th. 

The whole process from check in until I walked out of the building took less than 20 minutes.

Confession

Forgive me friends and fellow bandsters for I have sinned.

I am not doing so well with Bandster Hell.  I said it.  This totally sucks.  Next week and my first fill can not come fast enough - and they better clamp that baby down, for my own safety!

This weekend I had a hamburger - grilled by me, lean beef, whole wheat bun, blah blah blah, whatever, no justifications...I ate the whole thing with toppings, and cheese, and some potato salad.

Madison (my 9 year old) baked her very first cake, all by herself for fathers day.  I had a piece. 

I'm scared to step on the scale today - so I'm not doing it.

My hubby and I are going to the gym tonight...I'm going to walk...ALOT!

There I said it...I feel better...moving forward! 

Real Food

I had my first real food this week.  I had chicken breast that I cooked with black beans some veggies and salsa and a small amount of brown rice.  It tasted amazing - but I forsee chicken breast will not be a food I will be able to eat in the future.  I'm such a 'white meat' kinda girl, but it's dry - like REALLY dry even cooked in a lot of liquid, and for me it was almost impossible to eat without washing it down with something.  I've realized I'm pretty dependant upon drinking with my meals...so while I wait for that fill I'll be working on that, and getting used to darker poultry meats.

We are going to Ocean City, MD for a long weekend next week...any advice on handling vacations while in the bandster hell phase?  I've never been to Maryland (despite living in VA)and the only MUST on my list is crab's. Anyone ever been to Ocean City and have any must see or do's?

Finally....20

So after 26 days, today I finally cracked the 20lb. down mark!  YAY!!!  It all came off so easily during the liquid part of the diet, but the minute I added in mushies and soft foods and had my TOM I gained big time.  So today on my weigh in day I was at 284.0.  Down from my pre-op weight of 304.5!!

In the NSV category - my engagement ring now fits my finger comfortably, but surprisingly my wedding band does not fit yet, even though they are the same size.  I have not worn either ring since my son was born in 2002.  When I look at my drivers license picture I can tell that the chunk below my chin is starting to leave the building. 

I'm still chugging along and waiting for that first fill on June 30th.  I had planned to start exercising today but my plans have been derailed due to my youngest daughter waking up with a fever.  Hopefully she will be feeling better tomorrow.   This is also our last week of school. 

Have a wonderful week!!

Dining Out

One of the things that my hubby and I like to do the most is eat out.  When he is home we get lunch together often, we take the kids out, and it was one of the things we loved to do the most back in the days when we were dating and first married (ahhh, the double income no kids days!).  We love to try new restaurants, order exotic things from the menu and just talk and eat. 

I've been concerned that eating out post  band would be a challenge, and I was sad - because it's something that we love to do.  Today, however, I decided to give it a shot.   I ordered Quiche Lorrainne and a cup of French Onion Soup.  Something I totally would never have ordered at this particular restaurant.  I picked all the crust off of the Quiche and just sipped the broth from the soup...I was afraid if I ate the melty cheese on top that I might get stuck - it was quite the glob.  I was totally full from the meal, and it was very delicious and satisfying.  It seems that eating out will be a whole new adventure post band.  Everything went down fine, and I figured it still sort of qualifyed as mushies/soft food since I eliminated the crust. 

Yay!! I can't wait to experience more new things post band!! :)

Have a most wonderful weekend.  Those of us in Virginia will be roasting our bums off in this insanely early hot weather we've been having....and it's only June!!  I figure I will probably sweat off 20lbs in July and August at this rate....

Amy

You know you've read too many blogs....

...when you've had dreams about people in the blogs you've read.  It's happened to me twice.  It's the strangest thing.  These bloggers don't follow me or know I exist - yet I have read their entire blogs (sometimes twice) and I guess they've gotten in my head.

I've read a lot of blogs, some i'm in the process of reading...I read them like novels - I have to start from the very beginning.  I do a lot of comparing about their weight loss, or when they started eating solid foods....I know it's bad but I do it anyway.  I don't comment much - yet...I'm working on it.  I feel like I have to read the person's entire blog before I have the right to say anything.  I will get better.  Can't really expect support if you don't give it in return. 

My hubby comes home tonight....I look so forward to it....mostly because then I know I get a bit of a break - he'll take the kids to the pool and I can have some quiet time.  This whole single mom during the week thing is for the birds.  Don't know how full-time single mommies do it.  Props to you guys.

Oh, I had a bite of bread tonight.  Bad.  It was the first real solid thing I've eaten since May 18th.  Bad.  It went down ok, but I know it wasn't a good choice.  It tasted reeaaaaaalllllly good though.  I need to exhibit a bit more willpower - I have a little less than 3 more weeks until my first fill.

I put my 4 year old to bed super early tonight - she was so tired from camp that she was just talking back and acting evil.  She fell asleep in about 2 minutes.  I was relieved.

My son said "bastard" at school yesterday.  He is always naughty toward the end of the school year - it's like he knows it's almost over so who cares....he has Autism and the anticipation of the disruption in routine starts to set him off.  The anticipation is worse than the actual transistion for him.  Someday I'm going to figure him out.

My oldest daughter is so helpful and sweet, such a great kid.  She's getting into the age where all she wants to do is talk on the phone to her friends, and be with her friends, and hang out with her friends.  Soon I will be lame.  I can feel it coming.

Anyway - this was a really random post.

Enjoy your evening peeps!!

Yum!

This stuff is so good it should be illegal.  I have been eating probably waaaaay to much of this stuff - but it's an excellent mushy food.  I'm trying to perfect my own hummus recipe - but until I achieve greatness this stuff is Ahhh-mazing!  It's so wonderful that I had to share it on my blog. 

Ouchie

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I have a reoccurance of the left shoulder pain that I experienced immediately following surgery.  It lasted 2 or 3 days post surgery and I was able to walk around and burp and it would go away.  Now it's returned, only this time it's more persistant and then its kind of a shooting pain if I burp.  It hurts enough that on Friday and Saturday nights I took some of my post surgery meds to get some sleep, and I pulled out the heating pad again.  I called the nurse today and she told me that I could be eating too fast - well, I'm eating mushies and not that many of them so I don't know if that's really it.  I am on CD 3 of my period - maybe that could be it?  I found a thread on LBT under "complications" and it seems this is common and can last a long time - even indefinitely or could be chronic.  UGH!  I did NOT know that prior to surgery and I researched for a long time.  I expected it after surgery, but long term....I don't know if I'll be happy about that.  Of course I'm not losing weight fast enough or have seen any big changes to know if it's worth the discomfort. 

I'm curious to hear if any of you have experienced this? 

We had a really quiet weekend - my husband was home and now is gone again.  He took the kids to our neighborhood pool, but I feel like we didn't even have a chance to talk this weekend - it just flew by.  We do most of our communicating via Skype it seems.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead!!

Amy

Happy Fry - Day

Q: What's a Chicken's least favorite day of the week?



A:  Fry Day


HAAA!!!  My son told me this joke this morning and I laughed and laughed.  He's so cute!!


Band News:  My shoulder pain is back - that's what I get for being cocky, I guess.  I thought I was some kind of miracle case where I hardly had any gas pains.  I think I'm going to stick to liquids today - maybe it will help me feel better....I feel a bit yuck today.

Here's a picture of my babies....aren't they adorable?

Sniff Sniff

My baby graduated from preschool.  My last baby...preschool...over.  Let me just say I bawled like a little baby at her ceremony.  I actually let out a few sobs.  Three people handed me tissues.  She went to the best little school, and 5 of her friends from her class have been together since they were babies at a local mother's day out program.  They are all going to different Elementary schools next year.  Realizing this made me cry harder.  It stinks that they have to grow up.  Another milestone is that I let her get her ears pierced.  She is such a girly girl and has been begging since she was two to get them done.  I decided to mark the end of an era by letting her go for it.  She did so awesome, and didn't even make a peep.  Her smile lit up the whole room after she was finished.  She is so proud of her earrings. She also got a giant sparkly Tiara at Claires (where her ears were pierced) - she was shocked they had real tiara's there. LOL!

Somewhere in all this chaos of raising three babies - they decided to grow up on me....I have a rising 4th grader, rising 2nd grader and a rising Kindergartener next year.  Holy smokes!!

On the band front - I'm back to hating my scale.  I just started eating mushies...egg beaters, tuna salad, refried beans all per my dietary handbook.  I've been consuming about 800 - 1000 calories a day.  The scale says I've gained 5lbs since Monday.  Seriously.  I should never have put a new battery in that thing.  Hopefully it's because my period is about to start - because if not...i'm going to be ticked off!  I know I'm not supposed to be worried about losing right now - only healing, but when you see nearly 20lbs fall off in the liquid phase you just kind of want to keep on going...kwim?

Tomorrow is Friday, which means my hubby will be home tomorrow night!  Hooray!!  :)  This travel schedule is for the birds.

XOXO,
Amy