SkyeBlu

Thought I should post this....lol

C176 (-34 total -4 this week)

P.S. DH starts chemo this next week!!

I let hubby pick out my panties today so this would not be my "normal" day to day choice....black lacy boy shorts with red lace flowers embroidered on them. Normally VS microfiber bikinis...soo comfy and I still feel sexy. As for the bra i'm wearing a black 38DDD Cache bra that is WAAYYYYY to big...I think ya'll just encouraged me to break down and get a new one

Skye

My doc gave me a tiny fill .5cc 3 weeks post op and it made a difference because I was pretty well into healing and was get that hungry feeling again. Now I feel so hungry between meals...and hate that I can eat so much. I'm still watching what I put in my mouth and trying dilligently to stay on track.

April,

I had my surgery Feb 10th and was wondering the same thing. In the past 3 weeks I have been able to eat about double what I was able to in the first weeks after surgery. I was thinking it is probably the fact that the swelling has finally gone down. But still wasn't sure (and my next visit to the doc is not for weeks)

Skye

70 Pounds....that is awesome! Great job!

Hubby made me weigh myself today....

C 180 (-30 total -5 since last weigh in)

I was happy with that!! Considering I have very little restriction, have been living off of hospital food, vending machines and take out I will take the 5 lbs lost!!

Skye

It is so great to hear that so many of us are doing so well!!!

MoOrless...I have "geneticly" high cholesterol too. Since my surgery my cholesterol level has gone way down. One of the things that my doc said to make sure I always do is to read labels! I was amazed at how high the fat content was in so many foods I thought were good for me. He says to read the label before you even choose a food. Worth a try.

P'nut...i'm about 30 seconds from meltdown. I went to my primary care physician today and got an anti-depressent perscription. I figured when I verbally assaulted the elderly lady in Rite Aid the other day it was time to get my stress/emotion/anxiety under control. Hubby is doing good. He has come to terms with the chemo and isn't dreading it as much as he was last week. We are taking life day by day right now. I quit my property managment job and am going back to waiting tables 2-3 nights week. We will have to see how that goes.

Skye

Thank you everyone for the prayers and well wishes!

P'nut...I pop in and read what is going on when I need a moment of sanity :confused: (scary I know that this is where I come for sanity..hehe)

We are hanging in there. It is amazing how one word "CANCER" can compltely turn your world upside down. A book I am reading says that cancer is one of the only words that you see in all capital letters. No matter how you say it, word it, or sugar coat it, cancer is a word that defines complete change in how you view life, it is like being sucked into a vaccum and wanting to scream and yell and you can't even hear your own voice. If that is what is going on in my head I can't even imagine what Duke has mulling around in his.

I am having major issues with taking on a new role that I NEVER thought would be mine....I am now the protector, the emotional rock, the one that holds it all together. I am not enjoying it! I want so badly to put my head on his chest and just cry like I normally would. And, right now I can't, figuratively and litterally (he has a breast bone to pubic incision that isn't healing well). When I get upset about something I can see the look in his eyes and it is one of guilt, as if this is his fault, like he did something wrong. I have told him it's not like you woke up 2 weeks ago and said "I think I'll go get cancer, that sounds fun".

I'm seriously thinking about going to my doc and getting anti-depressants to try and help keep my head on straight. The last thing my family needs right now is for mom to completely lose it!

Thank you for letting me vent!

Skye

Thursday March 16th I came home from work and found my husband in bed clutching his stomach. I took him to our doc and she promptly sent us to the ER to have him evaluated for apendicitis. In the ER waiting room he started babbling incoherently and I alterted the nurses, his blood pressure was 50/20. By 10:00pm he was in the OR having his burst apendix removed. Friday and Saturday were spent in the hospital helping him re-coup from laproscopic surgery.

Sunday morning my world came to a crashing halt...the surgeon told us that the apendicitis was caused by colon cancer. My 34 year old husband needed an immediate colonectomy/bowel resection to remove the diseased portion of his colon as well as the removal of all lymph nodes in that area.

It is now exactly one week later and we have just been home a few hours. Thanks to my parents staying with the boys I was by his side the entire time, spending every day and night there in his room (the nurses even set me up my own bed). We now face a world of possible chemo, possible re-occurance of cancer and the mortality of a man whom I love and adore in ways I can't even put words or expressions to.

We have talked long and hard this week about what we want in life and I can say our priorities and goals have drastically changed. I am quitting my job in the morning so I can be here to nurse him to health as well as be the one that he turns to as he goes through the emotional and mental ups and downs of this disease.

I will be lurking in the shadows and may even post on occasion but won't be active with the group for a while as I get my home, family and self in order.

Good luck to all and God Bless as we all endeavor on this amazing journey we call life!

Skye

C-185 (-4 this week) -25 total!

Sorry I haven't really been participating this week but i'm in a weird place mentally. Not a "bad" place....just different.

I have had to focus so much attention on myself for the first time ever in my life that i'm looking at life in a HUGELY different perspective when it comes to many things. I have spent my entire life worrying about what other people thought....if their needs were met....it they had what they needed, even if often (or most of) the time it was at the cost of what I needed, wanted or desired. I have put up with other peoples rudeness, selfishness and ignorance for so long that I didn't realize that I had shoved so much of myself aside that I actually put myself in the position I was in. I have alowed my family, friends, co-workers (you name it) to believe their needs were 10x's more important than mine and bent over backwards to make sure they were happy. For the first time since I can remember (that didn't involve me being sick/hospitalized/etc) this is MY TIME! I am wanting to shine....to be the center of attention...to have MY needs met....to do something I want to do...to take a big step forward with my head held high and move in a direction that works for me. I love my family very much and have no intention to ever seperate myself from them but things are changing on how we function. I'm cleaning out my closet and my life of things that don't fit and not feeling one bit badly about it.

Here's to taking my life down the path that "I" want to travel!

Skye

And that would be why I don't like to post a dissagreement with a comment.....

Thank you for the personal attack it just emphasized why I tend to keep quiet.

I am very passionate about the future, about our children who are our hope as a society and obviously in my zealous statement I didn't get across what I wanted to state. EDUCATION EDUCATION EDUCATION is the key to our future. The only way we are going to educate our youth on a grand scale is if the government gets involved and helps with the funding THAT was my biggest point!

Yes, I think that we need to regulate what is blasted at our kids (it may not be a popular oppinion but it is mine) because unfortunately what they (and we) consider important is WAY out of whack.

We regulate the driving age...the world has not gone to hell in a handbasket

We regulate building a new house...a vortex to another world hasn't opened

We regulate how many people you can legaly marry...dogs haven't started to walk on their hind legs and shop at Wal Mart

It has just made us EDUCATE ourselves or THINK about what we are doing and maybe just maybe helped us make a smarter choice for our lives.

Skye

And Shaw...don't ever asume you know anything about me, what I do or don't read, watch or pay attention to. I just find different things more important than you do and you know what....that is OK!

This is a bit babble'ish so I appologize now.....

I very rarely dissagree on a point in an open forum but this is something I have to completely dissagree on.

"Our government should be concentrating on other issues" What could be more important than our nations health? Each and every year the detrimental effects of the nations growing obesity is costing us BILLIONS of dollars! BILLIONS!! If we're not healthy we are not productive, we don't move forward. Take a look at the unfortunate slow downward spiral our society is on. We can blame it on our leaders, we can blame it on what ever we want. What it comes down to is WE as a society have created a "I have to have xy or z RIGHT NOW" kind of world. The bombardment of ourselves and our families by what is on billboards, tv, raido, internet, you name it, is part of what causing us to have the issues we are having as a nation. We have gotten very selfish and not in a healthy way.

I'm not asking for the government to infringe on the right to free speech by any means BUT I think like any other "potentially detrimental" substance (alcohol, cigarettes, etc) there needs to be a level of regulation. food is a "potentially detrimental" substance if used wrong. Millions of Americans die each and every year from the long term effects of living on diets that are full of Dominos pizza, McDonalds, Starbucks, and the like.

I think there is a bit of a mix needed to help our growing obesity levels in the US. I agree we ABSOLUTELY need education, where is the money going to come from? We ABSOLUTELY need to take responsibility as individuals and as a society.

One of the things I love about being human in the USA, as human beings we are inherently different, we have different oppinions and ideas. Being lucky enough to live in the US we can express our different oppinions and even stand on a mountain top and scream and yell about what ever it is we feel strongly about. Lets see if there are ways we can raise and educate the next generation (and even ourselves now) about what they put in their bodies so they don't end up where we are today because we gave into the McDonalds jingle one to many times.

Skye

I can eat pretty much what I want as long as it is chewed to a complete pulp before I swallow it. If I don't have my food to the consistency of a thin paste before it goes down I have issues. What is comes down to (for me) is how much time I really want to spend chewing on one small bite....and is it worth it.

Daily goals

*Drink my freakin' H2O! (I am having real issues getting this done)

*15 minutes of yoga every morning

*Go for a 1/2 hour walk (outside or on the treadmill)

*Work on my room/office (remodeling a room in the house that is just for me)even if it is only for 15 minutes

*Study or work on my financial goals

Actually my doc speaks very highly about the benefit of Jerky for WLS patients (high protien). He just emphasises chewing it very well and eating small pieces! I acutally had some day before yesterday, took it really slow, chewed it to a pulp and it went down just fine.

I average 500-800 calories a day. My doctor recomended 1000-1200 per day but I just can't get that down in a day!

C-189 (-21) (-2 this week)

I Have delt with some real winners in my life.....

When my son was almost 5 years old I went to see the doc about the fact that I still had enough breast milk to feed a small army if need be. I discuss it with the doc for a few minutes and he looks at me and tells me that when men sexually abuse their wives by drinking their breast milk it tends to cause the milk to dry up and wanted to know if I had sought help for the sexual abuse my husband is subjecting me to. :speechles I was speachless!

In the same month as the above incident I had slipped and fell at work landing and hitting my upper back pretty hard, Duke met me at the hospital from work and was listening intently as the ER doc was showing us the x-rays and starts to explain that I have some degeneration and calcification of the thoracic spine due to "ALL" the weight I was carrying up front, at this point he nudges Duke and gives him the "hey yeah way to go your wife has great boobs" head nod and goofy grin. Duke looks at him and says "excuse me?" the guy just about curled up in the corner.

Duke had to do a physical test to get cleared for going back to work and had me go with. The doc doing the exam tells him she doesn't have anything in the office to effectively test his upper body strength and then points at me and says "but we could just have you lift her and if you could do that your more than strong enough" We both were speachless!

And my personal fave......

I went to a new Rheumatologist to be evalulated for Lupus, in preping for the visit the nurse told me to make a list of any and everything that has happened with my health in the last 15 years. The doc walks in the office reads my list and proceeds to tell me I "don't" have lupus and that I need to seek psychiactric assistance IMMEDIATELY that I not only need emergency care for severe depression but I need medications on a large scale as well, and that any "woman" that can come up with a list as long as I did "had" to be severely depressed to the point they needed emergency if not lockdown psychiatric care. I cried hysterically for 2 days I was so upset, I wasn't depressed until that moment. I am now under the care of an awesome rheumatologist for my lupus and my hubby and I have a good laugh every now and again at what a bunch of quacks we have seen in our lives.

Almost having a 100 lb loss....

Sending the girl scouts packing....

Feeling sexy.....

Recognizing you had a bad week(and making a plan to not do it again).....

What a good couple of days we have had!

Dr. Billy is wonderful! He just did my first fill after he preformed my surgury in February. One shot and he was done.

One thing that I like about Dr. Billy is he isn't afraid of people that have been banded in Mexico where as alot of docs don't like to fill people that they didn't operate on. I have heard nothing but good things about him. My husband and I just love him and his staff!! They are a great team to have in your corner.

If you do chose to go with him be forwarned he is very blunt about diet which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. He explains everything in very laymens terms BUT doesn't beat around the bush either!

Good luck! Let me know if you need any more info!

Skye

Please don't waste anymore of your valuable time on this Jerk!

You are worth SO SO much more than what little (if anything other than a complex) he is giving you!

Jill...I love the analogy! Very good way of looking at it!

Girl Scout Cookies *shiver* I will have some in my house next week...I'm bracing myself now!!!!

I need to vent about something that happened this weekend! (and get some input...I don't really want to start a post about this)

My hubby is a police officer here in Reno and every year they have an annual Police dinner, well we have never gone because of the shift he has worked and this year was the first time we have ever been able to go. Duke asked the guys on his team what the attire was and they told him it was nice casual. We were both rather happy with this as he isn't a big "dress up kind of guy" and I am still in that "my tummy is swollen from surgery, I feel and look fat anyway so I don't want to wear a nice dress kind of mood". I have had the week from HELL (that is another story in itself) and when I went to my post-surgery visit earlier on Saturday (the dinner was saturday night)I was given my first fill so I was ordered back on liquids. So at this point i'm not really happy about going because I'm an emotional wreck in general, I'm stressed out of my mind and now I'm on a liquid only diet again.

When we get there we walk in to find EVERYONE, including Dukes entire team in suits or their dress uniforms and the women are all in formal dresses or suits. I damn near had a full on system shutdown "Danger Will Robinson Danger" nuclear meltdown before we even get to the coat check. Duke asked me if I wanted to go, I started to cry and shake and we walked out and left. We went to a new restaurant we have wanted to try, we split a lovely lobster pan-roast, went to Barnes and Noble and wandered around and came home and had popsicles

I reallize it was pretty crappy of the guys to tell him it was casual when it wasn't but I don't normally lose it like that....is that normal post banding to get "woman over the edge" emotional?? OMG that was SO not me!!!

Skye

I actually had a horrid craving for Peanut Butter about 7 days post-op, so I did two things

1) I took just a small bit of creamy Peanut Butter on a spoon (2 tsp or so) and licked on it like a lollypop only taking a bit on my tongue at a time and would sip on warm milk to make sure it didn't get stuck.

2) Mixed peanut butter, chocolate protien powder (I like Atkins the best) and milk in the blender....voila liquid peanut butter cup!!!

Skye

Ok i'm going to stop complaining now....

I was complaining about the $4000 I have to pay after my surgury as my part (in reasonable payment arrangements) but I am now realizing I don't and didn't have as bad of a fight as some. Even though they were putzes about it my insurance covered the nutritionist, behavior modification specialist, psychologist and all other pre-op tests. As well my doctor and his nurse run a support group that meets once a month free of charge.

I will be happy with what I got!

That just really sucks that the system has to make it so tough for a relatively inexpensive procedure compared to the grand scheme of things with what our obesity would cost the healthcare/insurance system in the long run if we leave the extra weight on our bodies!

Hello Hello!

My name is Skye and I am from Reno, NV.

I have been married for just shy of 16 years to my wonderful husband Duke whom I met my very first semester of college, we started going to lunch one day and have been attached at the hip even since. We have 2 great kids Devin 15 & Hunter 12, plus....a yellow lab named Memphis, our old lady muttle Sassy Girl, a 4 month old chocolate lab named Blu and then there is Miss Meow Meow our cat that addopted us a few years back. Easy to say I have a HOUSE FULL!

I have never been "thin" by any means but was at 142 on my wedding day (i'm 5') but after 15 years 2 kids (with highly medicated pregnancies), a partial hysterectomy, PCOS with insulin resistance, back surgury and some heart problems the weight has crept up and crept up until it was at 210. With all my health issues (particularly the insulin resistance) it is darn near impossible for me to get rid of ANY of my excess weight without near marathon effort.

My husband was VERY anti-band at first and didn't understand why I would do this but after some research and a visit with my surgeon he has been an amazing supporter of my efforts. Between Duke and my boys I am feeling more sucessfull with my newly placed band (02/10/06) than I have about anything I have ever done in the past!

Skye

H-210

S-206

J-191

G-130

(-19) I can't beleive this number is real but the doc confirmed it today at my visit!!!!