Week 05 - Late

Being as I'm late posting this I'm just going to put up last week's pictures and stats.

Highest Weight - 457 (BMI: 63.7)

Current Weight - 386 (BMI: 53.8)

Goal Weight - 180 (BMI: 25.1)

Current Micro-goal: 375

Gout Attack

One of the measures that determines if a person qualifies for bariatric surgery is their comorbidities. These are chronic conditions that exist in the patient along with the obesity. The most common are diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. These are all also considered lifestyle diseases, as in they can all be treated with a change in lifestyle (most but not all). 

Now considering how large I was when I started in January 460lbs, my obesity alone is enough to justify the surgery. In addition to my extremely high BMI I also have a couple of these cormorbidities. Now surprisingly enough I wasn't diabetic, despite it running in the family, better still I wasn't even pre-diabetic.

My two CMs are high blood pressure and gout. Now the BP has been managed with medication and hasn't been an issue, the gout eventually was as well after I had a flare up in April.

If you've never had gout, consider yourself very lucky. Seriously. I can't emphasize enough how much gout sucks. I actually had a flare up this week and it was fucking awful.

How a gout flare up works for me:

Day 1:

Light ache begins in my foot (because that's where my gout attacks happen).  The gout has arrived and it has a message for me:

Shocked at Gout's sudden arrival I try to break it to it gently that I don't think we're good for each other.

I go to sleep with a dull ache in my foot that night and hope that Gout got the message

Day 2+:

Gout did not get the message. She has insisted on staying and throwing a rage fit in my foot. Clearly she doesn't handle rejection well.

I can no longer flex my foot without being in excruciating pain, my foot is swollen as though I have a shellfish allergy and have convinced myself that if I remove it from the shell it's all going to be OK. Forget walking, I'd rather be actively mauled by a Honey Badger than deal with the party that Gout is throwing right now.

Sometime in this I manage to get my hands on some pain medication. It used to be a heroic dose of Ibuprofen and some Norco/Percocet. That would help usually. However now that I've had my surgery I'm no longer allowed to take muscle relaxers, so Ibuprofen is out. However my lovely doctor did prescribe me something to combat the gout and a trip to the ER resulted in some Percocet. The combination of the two seems to have helped.

I am currently on day five and Gout has left for the most part. There is some residual pain and I'm still limping guy. Though it's ok, I can deal with cleaning up that broad's mess. Hopefully it'll be a long time before she tries to be friends again.

D

Week 4

Today I am exactly 4 weeks out from surgery.

I still don't feel that different in terms of my weight. I've lost 26 pounds so far (35 if you count what was gained in the hospital) and I I don't notice much of a difference in what I see either. My face is a bit slimmer and I know I've lost some inches around the middle. It just still feels the same for the most part. I know it'll take losing about 50 or more before I really notice it. I'm ok with that, I know this isn't a quick thing and anything worth doing takes time.

On a more disgusting note I think I had my first dumping today. According to the Mayo Clinic, dumping is:

Dumping syndrome is a group of symptoms that are most likely to develop if you've had surgery to remove all or part of your stomach, or if your stomach has been surgically bypassed to help lose weight. Also called rapid gastric emptying, dumping syndrome occurs when the undigested contents of your stomach move too rapidly into your small bowel. Common symptoms include abdominal cramps, nausea and diarrhea.

Most people with dumping syndrome experience symptoms soon after eating. In others, symptoms may occur one to three hours after eating. Some people experience both early and late symptoms.

Dumping syndrome is managed by adjusting your diet. In more-serious cases of dumping syndrome, you may need medications or surgery.

Now, based of that and what I've heard from other people, it was a very mild dump. I didn't get chills or feel feverish, not did it turn into some kind of ass disaster. What it did do was just come up not long after I ate a few bites of my lunch; and lunch was just two chicken tenders breaded in panko and baked. Left overs from last night. Had one last night and it went down fine, had zero issues with it so I didn't think I would today. I didn't even eat all of it, just two small bites. It's ok though, I'll  just stick to mostly liquids with one solid meal a day. Which is a great way to get my protein in, plus the weight goes faster.

This week's pictures are a bit different. Two are side-by-side comparisons with the pictures that I took the morning of surgery.

Now if I could just get my photographer to warn me before she takes the pictures maybe my eyes wouldn't be closed in so many of them.

Highest Weight - 457 (BMI: 63.7)

Current Weight - 393 (BMI: 54.8)

Goal Weight - 180 (BMI: 25.1)

Current Micro-goal: 375

Loss Since surgery: 26 pounds, about an average two year old

Week 3 - Milestone!

So I'm a bit late with the posting this week, but life happens. I do have some very big news though.

That's right. I'm officially out of the 400's. Not far out, but out nonetheless, and that is very exciting. I haven't been under 400 in at least four years. Next micro-goal is 375.

This week I've been transitioning to soft foods, essentially things I can mush with a fork, I haven't been too adventurous with my food selections, so far my favorite is sliced turkey breast and string cheese. Four pieces of turkey, two pieces of string cheese, comes out to four ounces. For most of you that won't seem like much, but for me it's very filling and that takes about half an hour to forty-five minutes to eat.

This week I also have my first NSV (Non-Scale Victory). When driving the truck I would always have the tilt on the wheel as far back as it could go. Turns out I don't need it that far back anymore, It's tilted down so it's facing the driver directly and I still have enough room between my stomach and the wheel.

Other than that news I'm still feeling good, have lots of energy. I want to start swimming and the gym near our house has a pool, I'm going to try to figure out how to get a membership there. Maybe if I walk Lady everyday Mom will cover it or something.

Time for this week's pics!

Highest Weight - 457 (BMI: 63.7)

Current Weight - 399 (BMI: 55.6)

Goal Weight - 180 (BMI: 25.1)

Current Microgoal: 375

Loss Since surgery: 20 pounds, an automobile tire

Total loss: 58 pounds (I've lost a 7 year old) a 5000 BTU air conditioner

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by!

Food

This week has gone by really well. I'm still technically on my mushy food diet, but I tried some chicken earlier in the week and it went down fine. Granted I chewed it until it was practically mush, which is kind of a new thing. I've stuck with the mush diet for the most part though. Tomorrow I can actually start transitioning to soft foods and I'm looking forward to that. I'll be glad to actually chew something again.

I did find this recipe I want to try. It uses spaghetti squash and makes it into a kind of potato au gratin thing. Only changes I'd make would be to use greek yogurt in place of the sour cream and make sure the cheese it calls for is low fat/fat free. That and remove the onions which removes the need for butter. All good changes.

Post by Natalie Wood.

That's the recipe if you feel like checking it out, but mostly this is so I don't lose it!

Week 2

I tried to stay off the scale this week, I really did. However, not staying off the scaled ended up being good. I noticed that the weight loss slowed down when I didn't get all the water in that I'm supposed to get.

Getting sixty-four ounces of water in a day has been a lot harder than I thought it would be. Essentially it's only four sixteen ounce bottles, which isn't much at all. The issue is I can no longer just chug the bottle like I used to be able to. It takes about an hour to drink a bottle, which means it should just take four hours to drink all the water I need. How hard should that be right? I've started using a kitchen timer in an attempt to remember to drink every ten to fifteen minutes.

This week I'm going to start going to the gym they supply us with. It's not the best equipped but there is a stationary bike I can ride or use the treadmills. They have a small selection of free weights too, but I haven't been cleared to use those, not even the two pound ones; so I'm going to wait on that and just do the cardio.

Anyway, here's this week's pictures.

Highest Weight - 457 (BMI: 63.7)

Current Weight - 406 (BMI: 56.6)

Goal Weight - 180 (BMI: 25.1)

Also, sometime this week I'll be buzzing my head. I usually do I've just been lazy about doing it again.