A frw more photos - blecht

Look at the flabby upper arm

Oh my .. and such a wide middle section. How did that happen? I used to have a great shape with curves and a great waist and everything. Jeeze.

I took my before photos.

So here are some photos. IN black from 1/30/10 and the other from sometime in 2004.

A very rainy holiday Monday for me

The house is quite today. I slept till 10 a.m. even after a call from my son at 7:30 a.m. He was at the airport in Boston and his flight to Chicago was delayed. What to do in his spare time? yup, call and wake me up when he knew this was a vacation day for me. Gotta love the kids.

My friend Nita had her RNY on Friday. I saw her on Saturday and she was feeling pretty crappy. Evidently she reacts very poorly to anesthesia and could not seem to get it out of her system. She was ok enough to do three laps and I walked with her. Her mood was down and I was feeling at a loss. When I phoned her on Sunday - wow - what a difference. She was talkative and feeling so much better and if she got her fluids in she was going home on Sunday nite (come to find out she did get to go home and she was feeling good but apprehensive on how to deal once she was without nurses!)

I'm here awaiting my call saying everything was approved by insurance. I'm worried the VSG may not be covered. I really want that vs the RNY but I can't seem to get a clear answer out of my CS team. They say weight loss surgery is covered but they did not get any more specific. I guess I just need to wait and see!

I pulled out my Wii a few weeks ago and have been looking at it and deciding what to do. I've done a bit of bowling a few times but yesterday I did some real exercise. LOL I did ski jumping and hula hooping and step box aerobics. only 15 minutes but that is 15 mins more than I've done in the last year. It can only get better from here right? Speaking of that, I suppose I should go do some now while I've got some energy.

It's official ... I'm somewhat sane!

I had my Psych Eval for the surgery today. Very odd and interesting set of questions and they asked a lot about voices and if I heard ones that others did not. LOL Unfortunately, I don't! The doc was nice and we touched on some points that she wants me to work on (exercise - yes I know)

One more thing down! I think Dr Q now has everything he needs to submit to insurance for approval. Next call I expect to be receiving is the one from his office with the surgery date. Yes, then I need a pre 0p and a 2 week liquid diet so I know surgery won't be for at least 2 weeks ... but I can hope that it will be the first week in Feb. What a way to start my birthday month.

A visit to 7-11

My friend Kim and I stopped by 7-11 convenience store last weekend when we were out for dinner. She wanted a bottle of water. I loved the bottle she got (VOSS) a tall clear bottle with a wide mouth. I got to thinking - again, amazing I do that so much - that I wanted that bottle too. In prep for surgery and my new lifelong plan, I need to drink more water. Why not drink out of a bottle that is aesthetically pleasing and to my eye, the VOSS bottle is.

I walk into 7-11 to get the bottle and see the Hostess pies. I used to be seriously addicted to those damn Hostess Cherry Pies in my youth. I admit, I'd even have occasion to 'borrow' one off the shelf in our trek thru the liquor store each morning on the way to junior high school all those years ago. When I was pregnant with my son, who will be 25 in July this year (OMG where did time go) I craved HOSTESS CHERRY PIE. My (then) husband went out to get one for me and came home with a GENERIC CHERRY PIE. Can you imagine what kind of response that got from me - I mean, pregnant and emotional and in the midst of a craving? Let's say he never EVER got me anything other a HOSTESS CHERRY PIE when that is what I asked for.

Well, I did it. In addition to my water, I picked up a Hostess Cherry Pie. The gent in line in front of me has his own demons. He had an extra tall can of some type of beer with a red label and a bag of BBQ chips. Seems his 'after work' relax is of a different nature. Wonder which of ours is worse?

I'm sitting here drinking my water, all 28.7 fl oz of it, and I'm eating my cherry pie. The pie is good. I've not had one in well over 2 years but truthfully, I don't think I'll be missing it after surgery.

Oh, I called the doc on my biopsy taken from the endoscopy and they said all was normal. That is good. Tomorrow a.m. is my psych eval and they called tonight just after 4p.m. and asked if I could come in at 8:30am instead of 2pm Sure why not - I'm no crazier or any more sane at 8:30 than I am at 2 pm .... am I???

Thinking (again!)

So as I'm playing games on Facebook instead of doing anything constructive, I got to thinking ... are there any blog etiquette items I should be aware of? I mean, can I have a thought and stop what I'm doing and run to my computer to post it? I have a terrible memory and if I want to catch stuff I need to post several times a day. Is that overkill? LOL

The picture here is of me and my sister Barb on Thanksgiving. I'm in the black and blue shirt. :-) As for my weight loss journey - let me tell you a little about it. I've finally decided that I need weight loss surgery. I spoke with my doctor about it almost a year ago and my medical group requires a six month set of 'classes' all about bariatric surgery. I'm not going into this lightly (no pun intended but it worked out well if I really did mean it that doesn't it?) I'll be 50 next month and I want the second half of my life to be spent active and more awesome than the first half. I started motorcycling almost 2 years ago and now I'm tackling the weight issue.

I'm over my 6 months of 'bariatric education' and I've met with the surgeon. I've had my endoscopy, gotten a biopsy to rule out Barrett's esophagus (will know more about results next week) and on Tuesday I'm meeting with the psychologist. I'm hoping to get a surgery date soon. I'm not looking forward to the two week liquid diet my doctor has his patients do prior to surgery but I am looking forward to the entire 'after' of my life spent in a new way.

I'm hoping to have the 'sleeve gastrectomy' this is a procedure where they just cut off 3/4 of your stomach and what is left is shaped like a small banana instead of a football. There is no bypass of the stomach in this surgery. I'm not sure if my insurance plan covers this particular surgery so again, I don't know for sure what type I'll be having but that is my current 'plan' as it were. My goal with this is to loose between 100 - 125 lbs.

For those of you who don't know me, I've always been a bit heavy and I don't mind curves or even those pesky few extra 5 - 10 lbs. but in the last few years I've put on more weight than I can take off. Dieting can help me loose 20-30 lbs which is great but I can never keep it off. This is drastic measure yes but I've thought about it for about 2 years now and it is my choice.

As for love, well, I'm not in love with myself at this weight and it is really hard to open up for love when you don't love what you have to offer. I guess I need to clarify - I do love myself and so much about me, just not my weight and how I look with the weight.

And talking about weight - weight and fat are funny things. Some people are blubbery fat while others may weight more but don't look it in the least. And numbers - my god - during my class, I saw a few others weigh in and I weighed 30 lbs more than they did and they looked so much heavier than me. We all carry it so differently.

OK enough ... I need to go get dressed and brush my teeth, after all it is almost 4 p.m. LOL And I just noticed there is spell check here .... thank you lord for that.

My FIRST official blog ... what to say now

MMM I'm finally doing this. I've talked about it (in my own head) for some time now and it happened. Yea, I read a funny blog and then someones search for love and decided I need a history of my life starting in 2010. I'm curious myself to see where this takes me and wonder if I'll sit aghast at some point in the future thinking 'WTF was I thinking writing that for all the world to see'

So, let's just see where this takes me. Follow if you want - some days may be awesome and some may just be shit. LOL