No Taco For Missy!

Howdy, folks....
This will be another short post.  I'm so sorry, my legs and feet have been soooooo bad that I can't have them down on the floor for too long then that nasty neuropathy starts up.  I don't know if my surgery started that up or flared up my fibro.....it certainly is possible.  Anyway, just wanted to let you guys know my hubby and I are going to the gym now to work out.  We are starting to go three times a week and I just love the stationary bike.  It is so easy on my back and I don't get that horrible back pain and have to stop while walking forty times!

If the gym allows, I'll take some pics the next time we go, which will be tomorrow.  I know now how many times I've got to pedal to get ready to get rid of the calories of a taco, so forget the taco!!!!  I'll take something low calorie!  Ha!  But I'm following the diet regulations and the exercises.  I take my pills all mashed up in applesauce.    I see the bariatric surgeon again June 4th, so we'll see how much weight I've lost then.  Hopefully lots more!  For those that are new to my blog, I had a "gastric sleeve" (which is where they take out 85% of your stomach and staple together what is left to your intestine) on April 18th.  I just passed the month mark and boy, has it had its ups and downs.

Nausea, heaving in the beginning, eating only pureed and liquid foods, all the protein supplements and vitamins....but I don't regret it.  I know it needed to be done as I have NO self control over food and it was ruling my life and would have eventually killed me.  I'm glad the surgery is over!!!

I woke up this morning with Jackie laying on my belly.  I didn't even feel it, so must be I'm healing up good inside.  Silly kitty!!

Well, my leg is telling me its time to put it up.  Please pray my neuropathy gets better.  Please!  Thank you!

Hugs,

Thanks, Gina!  :0)

I WANT A TACO!

Howdy, everyone!
Like my dramatic title?  It is so very, very true.  I can just taste it now.  But I can't have it now.  It would more than likely get stuck in my "pouch" (the new name for my new stomach) and I'd have to go to the ER like an idiot and confess I had a taco and have it surgically removed!  Big sigh.  I don't know if I am glad I had this surgery or not.  Too late to go back, but I'm so tired of pureed food.  I feel like a baby!  My stomach won't even tolerate an egg, let alone the beloved taco!  I tried eggs twice and got a monster stomach ache.  I can have eggs, pureed, clear liquids and bariatric full liquids.  I've had so much protein I feel like Popeye!

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not complaining and am so glad I am losing weight.  It's just getting used to the new life style.  In one more week I can have soft food....like meat loaf, mashed potatoes, stuff like that.  It just seems it's been forever on this "diet"!!!!  And I still don't feel like myself before surgery.  I'm tired, cranky, sore, my arthritis and fibro is in flare which makes exercise impossible....and then I realize it hasn't even been a month since I had the surgery.  So I'll be patient and rely on God.  You think HE will give me a taco?  Ha!

Sorry to make this short.  My back and feet are killing me.  My neuropathy is acting up, too, and I mean BAD.  The neurontin I take tastes sooooo bad in applesauce (which is how I take ALL my pills is crunched in applesauce!), I make sure to have a "chaser" behind it like something good to drink or a popcicle.  I'm hooked on those!  I do things in stints.  Later on or tomorrow I'll check my email.  I can sit up for about 15 minutes and that is it.  Life just has to get better as I lose weight, doesn't it?  Pretty please?  Hope you all are well and I wish the love of God upon all of you.
Thank you for all the support.  Speaking of which...I'm going to a support group next week.  Maybe that will help, too, to bolster my spirits a bit.

Since everyone loves Jack, I'll post another pic of him:

Jackie with my husband.

        
Hugs,

PS...Hi, Gina and Dad!  Hope you are both doing well.  Love you!

Woo Hoo!!

Howdy, all!  I'm almost too excited to write this post.  Yesterday my appointment with the bariatric clinic went so well, I almost cried right there on the scale.  I now weigh....drum roll, please....UNDER THREE HUNDRED POUNDS!  (296.5 lb with a BMI of 47 to be exact.)  I can now wear a 3x shirt (I'm wearing the shirt in my new profile picture I put up above under "about me"), and even wore one to my appointment with a new pair of shorts.  I cannot tell you the last time I weighed in the 200's.  I know it sounds atrocious still, but to me, it's a dream come true.  Because it will just be coming down and down to hopefully my goal weight of 160 lbs.  My dear family member (I don't know if she wants me to tell all or not!) is helping me by getting me a gym membership so I can work out on the treadmills and various other equipment.  Exercising in the summer outside in Arizona is NOT fun, let me tell you.  So I am so excited to be able to go to a gym.  :0)  So thank you, family member!  :0)  They gave me a card at the bariatric clinic that I can use at places to eat so I can honorably order the kid's size meals or 1/2 adult portions.  I haven't even thought of going out to eat yet, my stomach is so small I eat a few bites of things and I'm so full it feels like I had a full steak dinner!  I am now on to pureed food for two more weeks, then I can eat soft foods.  I will have to take liquid vitamins and protein drinks for the rest of my life.  No prob....don't want my body to eat off of my muscles instead of my fat!  Ha!  I still am recovering from surgery.  I feel kind of weak still and could use a shot of energy.  Hopefully that will come in time!!  I hope so!!  But so far, so good.

Today I have a doctor's appointment for the rheumatologist.  I can't take anti-inflammatories anymore due to the risk of stomach ulcers and I've got so little stomach left, I don 't need an ulcer on top of it.  So I'll just be on prednisone and deal with the stiffness as best as I can.  After that, we are going to WalMart and I'm going to use that as my daily walk.  I haven't been able to walk around there in years, so I'll take my walker in and do the best that I can.  At least it's air conditioned!  I hate having the arthritis.  I could do so much more without it!

Gina....I tried to get onto your blog but it's been removed from Blogger.  Did you change it?  Let me know.  I miss it!!

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for me during my surgery and recovery.  I really appreciate it.  I will post another pic of Jack with his new hair cut.  He's in a better mood this time.....sleeping!!!  Cats!  Where can I sign up for their life?

Hope you all have a great day.
Love ya all!!
Hugs,

Wordless Wednesday - Funny Face!

Here is my addition to "Wordless Wednesday."  It's my silly little kitty boy just freshly back from his bath & grooming.   Gee....wonder if they told him something he didn't like....like he needs to lose a few pounds?  Ha!  Don't we all!!!  Today my hubby and I go to Gilbert for my first two week post-op appointment with the bariatric surgeon.  I'm nervous....I hope I've lost some more weight.  I'll give you the full scoop tomorrow.  Have a great Wednesday!!!  :0)

Here's my "bad" boy......hehehehe.....

Hugs,

Happy May Day!

Hello, all!

Well, today is the first day since my surgery that I have felt half way decent.  I didn't wake up with the usual nausea and retching and I could lean up out of bed and not have my tummy muscles protest like they used to.  I felt like I was majorly beat up after that surgery!!!  Last week I felt so bad, I just could NOT believe I let myself go through with this surgery.  I even had to call the bariatric surgeon as I had such bad gas pains in my shoulder that I couldn't get rid of and I kept dry-heaving over the wastepaper basket.  Nothing was coming up, but it hurt like hell to be heaving on a freshly stapled stomach.  It scared me so much, I was shaking from head to toe while I was talking to the surgeon on the phone.  He made me feel much better by saying that the gas pain was probably due to me taking too BIG of bites or drinks of food/beverages.  I can only SIP at things now, because my stomach pouch fills up very fast and needs time to empty out again before putting more down.  Man, I tell you...it takes me all day to take my pills, eat and drink!!  The doctor gave me medicine to help the nausea, and it has.  I have only had to take it about once a day now, and only if I forget and eat one bite too much!

This is definitely a new life style.  I think after I get used to it and start to lose weight, I will like it better.  It's just so new and the rules are endless!  No wonder I forget what I'm supposed to be doing!  And I hate with having to take my pills are crunched up and in applesauce.  Some of them have really funky tastes!  Sometimes I miss the "old days" but then again, those days weren't so great with my weight.  So, with God's help, I'll get through this.  Everyday my husband and I take a walk down the street when the sun goes down.  I know it isn't much for right now, but with all that weight crushing down on my bones and my arthritis out of remission because I had to stop my pills for surgery (I just now have resumed them), it's the best I can do.  And as compared to BEFORE the surgery, I'm doing good!  At least I'm up and moving around more.  I am going to be joining a gym soon so I can work out at various other machines and tone my other muscles.  I want to lost weight very slowly, enough that my skin will "spring back" in and I won't need plastic surgery.  I don't want surgery ever again!!!!  I went to my primary doctor the other day and I lost another two pounds.  I go to the bariatric clinic on Wednesday, so I'll let you know what happens there.  Hopefully I'll see the exercise person for some pointers about exercises for my back and to strengthen that.  It is so very weak.

My "diet" is going along.  I have a popcicle and I'm full.  I have a HALF cup of soup, and I'm full.  It doesn't take much!  And my need for chocolate has been TOTALLY wiped out after the surgery!  I had some chocolate pudding and it gagged me.  I couldn't even have a chocolate calcium chew as it gagged me so badly.  So I take my vitamins in liquid form and they taste like orange juicy.  Yummy!  Unfortunately, the price tag isn't so yummy...$33.00!!  But, I need the vitamins and they don't gag me, so it's worth it.

I hope and pray that all of you are happy and well and out of "Tornado Alley" way!!  Keep safe!  I think and pray for all of you.  Thank you for reading my blog and praying for me.  :0)
I'll post again soon, and maybe with some new pictures.

God bless and happy May!
Hugs,