Adjusting

On Friday I went to the doctor to get an adjustment for my band, I've been having trouble losing weight lately and thought tightening my band should help. Well, without getting all technical and stuff, my band is too tight now. I haven't been able to eat solids since Thursday, I'm starving here. I lost 5 pounds but this is NOT how I want to lose weight. I'm so weak from not eating that I can't run, I can barely even do the dishes.

I'm going in to my doctor in just a little bit and I'm having the fill taken out, I'd rather not lose weight and still be able to run than lose weight and not be able to anything. I can't wait to be able to take a sip of water and not have to wait 5 minutes for it to go down.

Preview

So, it's been awhile since I did an update about how I'm doing since my surgery. For those of you that don't know, I had lap band surgery back in December. So far I'm doing really well.

I've completely changed my eating habits, I've totally cut out all carbonated beverages, I rarely eat bread and french fries make me hurl so I've pretty much cut those out too. I eat a lot of salad, fruit cups, yogurt, cooked vegetables and of course, I still reward myself with some Blue Bell ice cream.

My starting weight was 260 pounds, today I'm 217 pounds. My first goal is to reach 200 pounds, once I hit that then I will reevaluate where I'm at and set a realistic final goal weight. Regardless of what that number may be I'm trying to reach it by February or March so I can meet with a plastic surgeon to discuss my well-earned tummy tuck and breast lift with implants (this weight loss has really taken a toll on my chest).

I want to post a before and after picture on here when I reach my goal but I've somehow misplaced my before picture so hopefully I will find where I stored it before February rolls around. For now though, I can give you this:

January 2009 - 250 lbs

June 2009 - 220 lbs.

...and then I was stabbed repeatedly.

Yesterday was my first adjustment (fill) for my lap band, I had been looking forward to this for weeks because I haven't been having any of the benefits of lap band since the swelling went down after surgery (and by benefits I mean the full feeling after drinking 1/2 cup of water).


I haven't lost any weight in weeks, I haven't gained any either so I was trying to look at it as the glass half full but it was starting to wear on me. I lost 15 pounds, I didn't have surgery to lose 15 pounds! So, adjustment day was really exciting....until it happened.


The way it works is you go to fluoroscopy and the doctor uses the image to help guide the needle into your access port that it just under the skin. For some reason though he would go in straight and the needle would hit the hard plastic edge of my port, then he'd try again. After a few attempts he decided to forget the fluoroscope and just feel for the port, he did this by pressing on my port ...very, very hard! He still couldn't get it. Finally, after about 15 tries he hit the sweet spot and my poor belly was bleeding everywhere.


When he finally hit it he added more fluid and then they check to see if you can drink some barium and it will go down. Of course, mine did not go down and they had to lay me back down and access my port again (this time it only took 3 tries) and take some fluid back out. My stomach is so sore, not my actual stomach but the area around my port. I took a picture yesterday to show J so I'll just post it and you guys can see my mutilated belly (ignore the stretch marks, I've had 2 kids). It looks worse today because it's all bruised now and the funny thing is that the bruise is a perfect circle, the exact size of my port.

All those tiny dots are where they shoved a 14 gauge needle into me (the line at the bottom is just my scar though).

So, anyway now that I've had my horrific fill hopefully I will start losing weight again and this whole surgery will be worth it. Otherwise I put my life at risk for 15 pounds and that is just stupid.