About 2.5 weeks out

Hello my friends,
Well I am about 2.5 weeks out and doing well.  Last night I went with the youth group to a haunted corn maze in  the Eugene area. It was about a 2 mile walk through the maze and it was a BLAST.  Previously when going through a maze I would be hurting and winded about 1/2 way through, last night was pretty easy.  I had some pepperoni yesterday and I think it may be causing me some "issues" today.  I am having some pain from two of the incisions above my belly button, I am pretty sure that it is just healing and stretching that I am feeling.  I feel like I am getting more of my energy back, so thats a good thing.

Have a GREAT DAY!!!

1st Post op appointment

Well I am about 12 days post op right now.  I feel great, many of the aches and pains that I had pre-op are gone.  I had this problem called "fatty liver" it made my chest hurt so bad I thought I was having a heart attack, gone. Today I weighed 341 lbs or something like that. Stefanie has the exact number. 341 is close though and it makes for easy math. 30 lost since 10/6, yeah thats like 2.5 lbs per day, holy catfish batman!!!! 50 lbs lost since starting this adventure.  If you have found the lbs I have lost, I DON"T WANT THEM BACK. Consider them a gift from me to you, Merry Christmas.  There are 3500 calories in 1 lb of human fat. That means in order for me to gain weight pre op I was eating close to a whopping 9000 calories a day!!!!! Mylanta 9000 calories, thats a big number. So anyhow I have been walking a lot and done some biking.  It feels like I am starting to regain some of my stamina, where did that go btw??  I also got some pretty gross pics, drop me a line if you want to see em'.

Day 5 whew. So much better.

Today was a great day. I am feeling good. I am growing tired of liquids. I need something to wrap my gums around. I have been driving rather than riding...driving is much, much softer. We went to Albany this afternoon, and that was a long trip it seemed.

See ya tomorrow.

Day 4......GRRRRRR

Today has been miserable!! I have vomed twice for reasons that I can only speculate about.  Did I put the wrong stuff in my mouth, everything was on the approved list.  Consume to fast or too much at once, who knows.  I know that since I have not had any Jello or Popsicles, bummer, I love those things. Just so you know puking really hurts and there is no trying to go easy. It is just heaving until my pouch feels like it wants to be done.  After the first time this morning I slept for like 4 hours it just sapped my energy levels.  I went to Wal-mart with the fam this afternoon and while it was good to get out the ride to and from was less than pleasant to say the least. On a positive note my BG levels are the lowest I have seen them in recent years at about 115 and falling. Hopefully they will stabilize soon.

See ya all tomorrow sometime. Hopefully it will be a better day

What a difference a bit of sleep makes!!!!

Today is day 3 post op, I am feeling so much better. I slept better last night then I did even before surgery. Before surgery I would wake up nearly every hour to pee and have a drink of huge drink of milk and many times something to eat with it.  Last night I woke up to pee and took advantage of being up to get some fluids in. other than being sore when I woke up I felt great.  Today I have been experimenting with beverages that I like within my post op diet limits, clear very low calorie liquids. Lemon crystal lite is my favorite so far. I have tried and like sugar free Jello and sugar free real fruit popsicles.  I have slept a lot of today. One thing that is kinda amazing to me is that so far the smells of food, which were like an aphrodisiac, have not bother me or made me want food. Stefanie and the girls had link sausage and eggs for breakfast and it smelled good but I didn't desire any at all. I sure hope that this does not change when I can eat.  I think most of the pain that I am in is from bruising rather than the operation.

All in all, I feel that I am doing as well as can be expected. I might even be in church in the morning.

2 days post op. I am finally home.

Well I made it through the surgery. Dr Read said that it went well and that I was going to be sore because he "really had to do some torquing on me", which reminds me of a visit with Tim Hindmarsh, but that's a different story. Se he was right I am sore. I was only allowed 1 oz of liquid per hour on the first day, that was brutal I normally consume 44oz in about 10 min. This is a whole new thing. I was held over for 1 day due to high blood sugar levels. They are down to about 145 right now with no insulin.  Staying over for 1 day was not a bad thing at all I feel a lot better today than I did yesterday.  So today I came home about 1230 or so. FYI car rides are brutal, I think we hit every pothole one the way home from Corvallis.  After arriving at home I took a couple of naps, a shower and consumed a measly 20 oz of liquid.  Who would have thought that crystal light would taste so good.  The really amazing thing to me is that I have no desire to eat, the thought, sight, smell doesn't bother me but its not attractive either. Lest just hope it stays that way and food will become nothing more that fuel. The above picture is showing the 8 HOLEs that the poked in me to get the gadgets where they needed to go.

8 hours to go!!!!!

Well friends I have about 8 hours to go before they cut me open. At this point I am having very mixed emotions about all of this. On one hand I am utterly terrified. I mean really what the heck am I thinking; I am willingly allowing and even paying some bozo (sorry doc) to cut into my guts and replumb me. Did the shrink miss something in his evaluation, maybe he should have asked me back for a 3 visit of maybe just referred me up to Salem and a rubber room.

On the other hand I am stoked, like so excited I don’t think I’ll sleep much tonight. I have been obese nearly my entire life. I remember coming home from school so many days in tears because the other kids were so mean. Mostly just degrading names they came up with for me. I learned just to laugh with them, if I didn’t respond they shut up a lot sooner. You would think that those kids would have matured as they aged into adults, however they just remain bullies in an adult form. As an adult the bullies have had different names and been in different places but have been bullies none the less.

I have never really let my weight get in the way of what I wanted to do, if I really wanted to do something I just did it and paid the price in pain the next day, maybe into the next week. Now my weight limits what I can or am willing to do. Heck I get out of breath tying my boots. Many mornings I just don’t tie them up all the way.

So many things will change some for the better some for the worse. It is hard to imagine the “worse” at this point, thinking I already have that t-shirt, yeah it’s a 5X.

The Bible is pretty clear about me being able to add days to my life, I can’t. However I am fairly sure that I can shorten it significantly by making poor choices. I feel that this surgery is one of my better choices.

I know I am kind of rambling, it’s my blog that’s what it’s for, for me to ramble.
So I will post again post op and let the world know how it went. Maybe I might have pictures of the insides of me. That would be pretty cool.

4 Days to go!!!!!! WOOHOO

I have only for more "sleeps" until the big day. I am uber excited on one hand and crazy scared on the other.

I am really looking forward to losing the weight and becoming 1/2 of the man I am now. I am however scared of several thing
1. The unknown...
2. Losing a friend that has been with me all my life.
3. Never being able to eat again. I know thats not true, it just feels that way.
4. What if it doesn't work?? ???

I am not so scared however that I am going to back out, I am more committed than ever just apprehensive.

Kevin