MGB update

BTW, it has been a little over 2 weeks since I've had the surgery and I've lost 24lbs. I think I'm eating too much salt (I have to sip sip sip, and eat salt salt salt) because I believe I'm retaining fluid. But I am happy that I am on my way. I am having some problems getting down all my pills and getting in my protein, because that shit tastes nasty!!!! It makes me sick to my stomach. But i am doing great for the most part.

family

My sister and brother-in-law are coming down Sunday. It will be nice to see them. They can see me while I'm still fat, and then the next time they see me they'll be shocked at how skinny I am!

McCain's VP

So I was very suprised to learn that McCain picked a woman as his running mate. I just didn't see him being open to that. Plus she is pretty inexperienced. I think he did it to appeal to female voters and to try to gain some popularity. I am voting for Obama!

Back 2 school

So school started on Monday. Fun fun! It was a lot of work to get Abe's and my schedules to work, but they did finally. I am taking: Research Methods in Psych, Biology for non majors, Intro to Art online, and Color photography. Let me tell you, I am pretty scared of color photo. First of all, everyone in there as had way more photo classes than me and they all know each other. I am like a inexperienced loser in there. But my teacher, who was my beginning photo teacher, thinks I'll do great. I have a project I have to shoot this weekend, that I have to use 2 cameras for, so I had to borrow his. And I can't figure out how to open it to load the film! I will feel like such a lamo asking! We also are eventually going to get into digital and photoshop, so that's exciting. I am just worried that I will have the lamest photos compared to everyone else. My other classes seem cool, so harder than others. I actually have quite a bit of homework to do this weekend. So the big new is that Abe's course load and other things (CLEP and GRE tests) are a bit overwhelming and if he has any shot getting accepted into the architecture program this year he'll have to quit his job. If he does we should get more aid, so that's good. And so we are pretty much gonna do it and move to Tampa. Because the best apartments are full we may have to wait a month to get in one. Other wise we can rent a much smaller, crapper apartment for the same price or more. We pretty much have one picked and were told that we could move in at the end of Sept. Its pretty exciting. Of course we will end up being the typical poor college student. But it will be worth it.

Luckiest girl in the world

So I woke up this morning (way to early I'd like to add) to find this:

You are my blessing,
Who makes my heart sing
You are my love, my queen, and my wife.
I don’t know what I’d do, without you in my life.
I’d be sad and lonely--miserable too,
But now I’m happy and joyful, all thanks to you.
Have a great rest, to avoid feeling sleepy,
And know you are, the best thing that’s happened to me.

I love you

Abe.


Abe writes me quick poems from time to time. Isn't that so sweet!! I love my husband!

HP push back

So I'm a little sad that the new Harry Potter movie is being pushed back to July. All because they think it will sell more tickets then. But i am not surprised. This has not been the first push back. So by then I'll be so much thinner and maybe I'll enjoy it more. haha.

surgery complications

Okay, so I had my surgery on 8/13/08 and I was a problem maker. My liver was covering my stomach so the surgeon couldn't work on my stomach from the normal 5 small incisions (its laparoscopic) he makes, and had to make 8 to be able to do it. I was in excessive pain, and after I was released (because I said I was fine, but I was on pain meds) I had to be readmitted for 3 days. It was pretty crazy. The pain eased and then i got nausea, but the surgeon (Dr. P) quickly fixed that. there were issues with sharing a thermostat and roasting at 90 degrees, getting sicker and having to be moved to a cool room, but then I was fine. So Sunday after I got home I slept most of the day away. Which I had to sleep on my back for an entire week. that gave me problems! And for 2 weeks I am only allowed liquids (mainly Gatorade), yogurt, and crackers. It is very hard to get in all the liquids I need. Especially drinking Gatorade all the time. I literally have to sip (you can only take small sips at a time) constantly. The first day I over did it and made myself so full that I couldn't do anything for a few hours. I have had a couple other weird things... pains and stuff at weird times. But all in all I am doing much better. I had my staples removed yesterday and that's when I was given the okay to sleep on my sides again. I have lost 14Lbs of water weight this first week. So that's pretty good. I can't wait to be on stage 2 in a week, which is adding mushy foods. The stomach is really sensitive right now, which is why I must ease my way back to a normal diet. And this is mainly what I have been having to deal with the past week. It is a pretty dramatic change. The first day after I was released I kinda freaked out. I was balling my eyes out about not being about to drink enough and not feeling normal and on and on. But I slowly but surely am feeling better and better about everything. I can't wait to see where I am 6 months from now.

The Mole

So I just watched the season finale of The Mole. And it was awesome. First of all Craig was the Mole, and I had mixed feelings about him being the mole. At the beginning I said he would be a great mole because no one would suspect him (being the funny, lovable, overweight guy). But then I thought that it would be too easy to make him the mole. So I started thinking about who else would no one think was the mole. By the finale 3 I decided that my pick for the mole would Mark who turned out to be the winner. But the cool thing was what I missed throughout the show. Apparently they had clues as to who was not the mole, who was in the finale 3, and who the mole was, but I never really thought anything of them, because I didn't know they were giving clues. they were so hidden, it was awesome. I wish I would've known so I could've been on the look out for them. Next season I will definitely be on the look out.

My birthday

So yesterday was my birthday. It actually kicked off at the pink party pub crawl, which rocked. I got home at like 6am and talked with Abe for about an hour and went to sleep. Then got up at 10:30am, because I figured everyone was waiting for me. We were suppose to go out on the boat. But that fell through. Abe and my dad went golfing while i was sleeping. And they got home around noon and brought home some taco bell. My dad had to work the next day, which meant going to bed early. So he was worried that we wouldn't have time to take the boat out, go out to dinner, and him get to bed. So I axed the idea. I was pretty cranky from no sleep and didn't feel up to debating the day. So I opted for a cheap family day at home playing board games, ordering pizza, and having cake and ice cream. I know, how thrilling. But I had to try to please everyone else, and it got annoying. And I get sick of planning my own birthday every year. So I just decided to relax and not have to worry about everything. I had a very cute birthday cake, it was actually a cupcake cake. I loved it. I got a brand new slim nikon digital camera... well it hasn't got here yet, but its ordered. I got a I.O.U pedi and mani. which I can't wait to use. $20 from my grandpa. A scary movie, shutter, and a DS game. Also a fairy book and some super sweet, emotional cards. I was tearing up like crazy! I may get eyelash extensions too as a late bday present. If you haven't heard about eyelash extensions, OMG they are they best thing EVER! They are actual extensions for your eyelashes, it takes hours to put on cause they are individual. Since eyelashes fallout normally so do the extensions, so after you have them done you have to have monthly up keep. But they make your eyes so gorgeous. Its like having celebrity eyes! I want them soo bad. But anywho, back to my birthday. I also have something coming from my inlaws. They usually send money, so that is always a good good. It may not sound like the coolest birthday, but I enjoyed it.

Pretty in Pink--my last drunken night

So Saturday night I went to pub crawl in downtown Orlando with JimMay!. You pay a cover to go to 4 different bars/clubs and get a free drink, plus cheaper drinks after that. The theme was Pink Party. So I, a self professed pink lover, had nothing to wear. Since I didn't have a car, I had to catch a ride with my parents to good old walmart to try to find something that would fit me, and that looked half way decent. I found a pink Tinkerbell baby doll tee. It was super casual and not the coolest thing in the world. But I had to rock it. So I was pretty reserved at first. I needed to get some drinks in me to really loosen up. Jimmy on the other hand was showing off his dance skills! And people were loving it. He was the pink celebrity! It was awesome. So by the last club I was feeling it. And I was ready to let loose. I was having a ton of fun dancing it up. AND they kept calling ladies on stage for free shots and I always made my way there. I had at least 4-5 free shots! And they tasted so good! Jimmy and I found some new cool clubs we could hit up now. However, since I can't have alcohol after my surgery I will have to just rock it sober. I'll just buy virgins. Jimmy got some retarded footage of me on his flip video camera. But whatever, it will be funny as hell to watch. I definitely missed those good times. And I definitely plan on not letting this no alcohol ruin those good times to come either.

MGB

So its been forever and a day since I last wrote. I have kinda been putting it off since almost all of my time as been consumed by something I didn't want to talk about. But since now it is definitely going to happen I might as well spill the beans. So I have decided to have the Mini Gastric Bypass surgery. It is of course a weight loss surgery. I usually don't admit anywhere online that I am overweight because it just turns people away. But since this is going to be such a major impact on my life I just have to be able to post my struggles and achievements on here. It has been such a rollercoaster just trying to get this surgery it is unreal.
So first of all the deal with the MGB. It is the best, safest, most affordable weight loss surgery available. It has the lowest complications out of all other weight loss surgeries. And with all other surgeries (ie RNY, lap band, etc) they can fail, (ie able to gain weight back). With the mini gastric bypass people loose the weight and maintain it. Plus it is revisable/revers able, unlike many other surgeries. So if I loose too little I could get the bypass length increased and loose more. Or if I loose too much it can be fixed. So it all seems great right? Well there are downfalls. I can never have Alcohol or soda again in my life. Apparently red wine may be okay after a couple years, but nothing hard. Giving up Dr. Pepper was actually a hard choice. But I know it will be worth it to be thin. Also I will have to take multivitamins for the rest of my life. I am not a pill person. I forget all the time, but I will make it work, because again it is worth it.
This surgery is only about 10 years old and not too well known. This is because the surgeon who created it only lets doctors do it after working with him, and have done it on tons of people for the experience curve. Therefore only him and one other doctor have a clinic open to offer it currently. One is in Las Vegas and the other right here in Florida, right by the hospital I live by. So I knew that it was fate.
So most insurance won't pay for obesity related things, and mine is no different. So I had to come up with the money myself. The usual charge is $17,000. that includes everything; surgery, hospital stay, followups, etc. But employees at the hospital get 50% off and sometimes can get their family the discount. Luckily my mom works there and after talking to quite a few people, including the surgeon who does this, everyone agreed to give me the discount. So I still had to come up with $8500. Abe and I applied for loans and were rejected a lot. We finally found a company to give us $7500, so we figured we could come up with the rest and thought it was a done deal. But there were problems, but I'll get to that in a minute. After thinking I had the money I began trying to get this surgery rolling.
I went to a "clinic" which is where new patients and some post ops go to talk to the surgeon. You can ask him anything and everything. It is a requirement to go to to have surgery. There I got my manual and packet. The manual is 130 pages of information, and I had to read it all. Which was harder than it sounds because of the material. But know I am very well informed about my surgery and others, and what to expect. The packet is all the paperwork and such required, and it is a lot of stuff. I had to go to my doctor and get him on board. He had to write a support letter and do a physical. He was suppose to order my lab work too, but there were issues. He had a family emergency vacation. But his office had the lab orders for me and I just had to pick them up by noon. However when I got there at 11:30am they were gone. I tried everything to get my labs. I went to the lab place at least 4 or 5 times in one day with new attempts. I was able to get a doctor who i used to work for to write the order. And I finally got my labs done.
It was important to get them done that day for a reason. It usually is required to have the packet in 2 weeks before surgery and I needed to have the surgery before I started school on the 25th. So I was rushing everything. The surgeon's office agreed to let me turn it in without the 2 week requirement. They just had to rush it, but it was still a very tight deadline to meet. I had to go get a psych eval. And actually read the manual. I had to write a 9-10 page letter answering all sorts of questions. It was crazy hard and long to do. I had to have a family support letter that was notarized. And I had to contact 10 former MGB patients. The easy part was actually contacting them, since another requirement is to join this web group, and there are tons of contacts that way. plus it is a great place to get information.
It was a crazy time getting the packet done. And there were a lot of ups and down... one day it was working out and I was going to get the surgery, other days stuff would go wrong and appear I wouldn't get the surgery. And that rollercoaster is still going. Thursday we went to get our loan money, and they screwed us. They made a critical error and it turned out they could only give us $3900. So we were a lot short. We ran around Friday trying to get loans and my parents offered to cosign. It was a day of craziness that fell through. But my uncle George, (yes one who I often complained about) had the money and offered it send it to us. So OMG, my Uncle was a life saver. And I am so grateful. Of course we have to pay him back, but without interest! So it was amazing. We had to get the $3900 from the loan company and the rest is coming from my uncle. So the surgery is definitely happening. BTW, it is happening on the 13th of Aug. That's just 4 days away. I will have to stay overnight in the hospital. I am really excited, and sad because I have to stop drinking Dr.pepper today. But I gotta go because I have to go to fill out some paperwork I missed in my packet.