Ten Weeks to my Surgery!

Seventy days until my surgery date. That sounds so long, but two and a half months sounds a lot closer.

Today I scheduled my pre-op history, physical and blood testing. That will be done at the hospital, since they have a better way to transmit the information straight to my surgeon.

I talked to my sister today. She's skinny. Always has been. She said that her husband, who is a family doctor, finds that the people who regain after the sleeve are those who keep drinking high calorie liquids and who just eat ALL THE TIME.

I am finding that a lot of foods that are listed as diet foods are the worst for me. I tried eating AllWhites Egg Whites.  Major pain where my gallbladder used to be. They say there is nothing but egg white in it, but something is wrong.

I am making a little ten week video, which I will post below. I promise from here on out to keep my videos to five minutes or less!!!

Ok, probably won't ever happen. I talk too much!

Meeting with the Surgeon

Today I have my first appointment with the bariatric surgeon. I had a list of questions, but I think I have lost them. Really, I am mostly just concerned about what, if anything, they would do with my hiatal hernia.

My GI doctor told me about fundoplication and it sounds horrible. I don't want that. It causes constriction by wrapping the top of the stomach, sort of like a lap band, and it causes all of the problems that people tend to have with a lapband procedure, such as an inability to burp and a possible inability to swallow.

I want to avoid that.

Another thing that I just want to be sure of, is that having this surgery will not doom me to a limited life span. I want to live a long time. Will this surgery increase or decrease my lifespan.

When I look at the fat that surrounds my torso, I find it hard to imagine that after being unsuccessful so many times and the fat just increasing, that I can do this on my own.

For my own reference and to be transparent, I post this photo.

My arms and legs are normal sized, my legs are actually quite slim, but all of my weight is carried in the torso. When I lose weight, it tends to come off my legs and arms first and the belly just stays.

My main health problem is diverticulitis, which is a problem of pouches forming in the colon and large intestine. This fat just pulls on that area and, as you can see, it makes it impossible for the surgeons to remove the infected area because of the large fat mass right there.

I know this is something that I have to do to be able to have the surgery to fix the divertululosis, but the question is: Will this surgery make my health worse in the longrun?

The Wheel Is Turning

Old Mill, Oil on canvas, 2008 Janet Bowser

I called the Bariatric Center, even though I had some nightmares last night about doing so. Mentally, I am still scared. But I called and my surgical consult is October 20th. I was afraid she was going to schedule it for the 13th of October. I am still that superstitious.

I start my weigh ins on Thursday with my primary care doc. That will go for five months. I will have the following tests done:

1. Blood work
2. sleep study
3. Upper Endoscopy
4. Possible Upper Barium test
5. Stress Test
6. EKG

And probably more. Each time to different doctors. I did find out that the in-home sleep test is frowned upon, as it introduces too many variables into the test and many people who might have apnea are not diagnosed as such.

So there we are. The wheel has begun to turn.

PS. The reason I was so scared is that I was reading about a person who had their staple line leak. Very scary. I know this is a risk. I asked if my surgeon oversews or buttresses the line and she told me that she does. So that makes me feel better, but I am still that person who is going to worry.

Come ON long weekend.

It is Labor Day. On Friday at 3:36 PM I missed a call from the surgeon's office to start setting up appointments. I am waiting for the start of business on Tuesday to make the call and get the ball rolling.

This weekend is interminable.

It's been a good, active weekend, but it's a long wait.

In the meantime I will fold clothes, cook meals, clean up from the meals, get the kids ready for back to school tomorrow - YEA! and try not to think about the wait.

In the meantime, I have painted some pretty cool paintings, but now I am down to one 11x14 canvas and one 2x3 inch canvas.

Bummer. I hate to paint on the last canvas. It's like washing the lucky socks.

And I am broke. Time for a swim and maybe a dog walk.

Here are some of those paintings. I want to tell you something first. I have seasonal affective disorder. The end of summer hits me hard. But this time, since I have a focus toward getting to a surgery date, I don't feel like I am being pulled kicking and screaming into Fall and that is affecting my painting, as you will see.

"ONE"

"You Just Shine On"

"What a Moon Tonight"

Each of these are oil on canvas. I have been experimenting with using a resist method for painting. A resist is a surface which does not allow the paint to permeate through it. The resist is removed after the painting and the image beneath it is revealed.

The resist for the Christmas tree was really complex and took a long time to create.I didn't plan for the tree to look like it was dancing.

Here is a really crappy video of the process. I hate my voice in it. 

A short painting video

The Introductory Meeting - Part Two

I had the meeting at the hospital last night. It was run by the head surgeon. It was surprising to me to meet with her, she was very nice and personable. She answered all of my questions:

1. Q. Do your surgeons oversew the staple line or buttress it? A. Yes, they use a stitch similar to basting in sewing, which reinforces the staple line to prevent leaks. They also sometimes insert a material to help the seam (buttressing).
2. Q. I am highly sensitive to dairy, whey and soy and cannot eat nuts. The diet post op and forever requires a lot of protein, how would you suggest that I get that? A. Tuna, other fish, chicken? Are those good for you? My answer was yes, I enjoy those.
3. Q. Do you require endoscopy and is it sedated?  A. Yes, it is required and it is a sedated procedure. If one was preformed within one year and the results were normal, it is not required.

The descriptions of the surgeries were great and I feel that I am least comfortable with the idea of the lap bad, because I have had gastric reflux for many years and heartburn and I am afraid that the lapband would make that worse.

The sleeve is an intimidating surgery, mainly because it is new and there are few longterm studies based on it. However, since it does not re-route the small intestine, it is preferable to me. This is because, as a chronic diverticulitis sufferer, I may end up needing a large bowel resection at some time in my near future and frankly, the less they mess with my intestines, the better.

Plus, dumping syndrome, which I understand it can happen with all bariatric surgeries, is more common in gastric bypass. Dumping syndrome is very hard on the colon, where I have a lot of other problems.

So, I am making my appointments and going forward with things. The process is lengthy, which is good, I think it will give me plenty of time to make a good decision and to set my mind on the changes that will be with me for the rest of my life.

I think it's time for a photo of me. I am the one in the green shirt. I was playing around with my best friend, who's face I have whited out. I had so much fun that day. Until I saw this photo. Then the fun stopped.

Chew chew chew, who knew?

Chew Chew Train(ing)

 
I have been immersing myself in the world of gastric surgery and what life is like on the other side. Not because I want to be there right NOW, but because I want to know if I can live a life without 90% of my stomach.

Chewing. Chewing is apparently a huge part of this. Digestion occurs in the mouth with saliva. Your stomach secretes acid, but it does not secrete saliva. Saliva breaks down  the foot while it is still inside your mouth and your teeth are so important.

Dear Lord, I have to become a Masticator.

How much chewing? Well, apparently a lot -  I will get to that. I am a food bolter. This is how I typically eat:

Bite, chew, chew, swallow, swig of ice water (or used to be soda).
Each chew was one chomp of the teeth.
CHOMP, Chew, Chew, Swallow - WATER.
Faster, faster, like someone is going to GRAB my food away from me.
And I am done eating well before anyone else, having eaten more food than anyone else.

I grew up with five kids. If you didn't eat fast enough you were not going to get a second piece of mom's fried chicken.

So, how many chews? Some say 30, one said 42 Chew, I have found that chewing until the food is liquified is different depending upon what food it is. A baked potato is going to take more than pudding.I used to do my bite, chew, chew, swallow, rinse method with steak OR pudding. It was just my way. I never even thought about it.


Well. I chewed. I counted at first, but I can't count AND chew, apparently. So I started closing my eyes, feeling the consistency. I noticed two things:

1. Food tastes better with the eyes closed, concentrating on the food
2. You can't chew all the food if you take bites that are too big.

Small Bites are Essential

Taking a large mouthful means that some of the food is going to slip down, mid-chew, still chunky. I have had to cut my food smaller and then chew until the food does not have consistency to it. I mean, chew until it's liquid.

Next: Eating without water, I have been reading, is crucial with gastric surgery. I could not imagine doing that. How would I wash the food down?

Surprisingly, if the food is really chewed until it is liquified, I don't need the water. I don't feel like I am swallowing pills. I take a sip at the end to clear my mouth and then drink after an hour or so.

Water is important, I drink about seventy ounces a day, but I am trying to hold back on drinking anything with my meals. If I can't do it now, how will I do it then?

Here is the crazy part, for the past day and a half I have been eating the exact same stuff, but I have not had the constant diarrhea that I usually have. I don't have a gallbladder and foods just fly through me, but since really chewing and taking smaller bites and not drinking water with the meal, I am finding that I am actually having formed bowel movements without Imodium.

Who knew. I am also burping more. I never burped before except after drinking soda.

So, chewing my food until it is liquified (as gross as that sounds) tastes better, fills me up with less food AND helps me realize that YES, I can live out this part of the gastric sleeve lifestyle.

It feels good to slow down and I am getting less on my shirt now.

On A Journey

I have been down this road before. I have lost and regained the same 100-120 pounds several times. I have quit, gotten sick and relapsed. A cancer of the soul?

My doctor told me that in order to get a needed surgery, I needed to have a different surgery first. Bariatric surgery.

Me?

Well, yes. Today I stand at 5'8" and 280 pounds. I am 49 years old and tomorrow is my orientation meeting at the bariatric center in the large city that I live in. The process to get bariatric surgery is long and intricate. It will take more than 6 months, probably nearly a year. I don't know if I can manage that. Time will tell if I am strong enough. I don't feel very strong right now.

I am currently on antibiotics for the fourth flare up of diverticulitis. I have been cursed with this disease since August of 2013 and it is still with me a year later. The only sure fire remedy is a bowel resection. That means removal of the large intestine or part of it. And even that is not a sure remedy, because there will still be diverticula in my digestive tract.

I choose to do this because I don't have any more time to pussy foot around with weight loss. It's a life or death proposition.

I have started logging my foods again, started swimming mildly (15 minutes of laps or so) and walking. I am not pushing myself too hard because I know that in the past I have gone FULL BORE and have burned out.

Moderation is my watch word.