I'm With The (Lap) Band

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Liquid Lunches...and dinners...and breakfasts...

Went in yesterday morning to see if I could get an unfill after the problems on Sunday.

Dr. M wasn't in but Ruth - the Fill Tech - was there and did a Fluoroscope on me. The barium ran right through - so she sent me home with instructions for liquids for another 48 hours and no unfill. She said that I just have really good restriction.

Last night, I ate some soup (no pieces) and after one bite, I was in pain again.

This morning, it took forever to get a protein shake down.

If this is "Real" restriction, I don't know if I like it. I don't mind eating 1/4 - 1/3 of what I used to eat - but if I can only eat 1 Tablespoon, I'm not going to be happy!

I'm going on Vacation this week - and I want to be able to enjoy dinners with the family!

We'll see how the rest of the day goes.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Rough Sunday

Got up this morning and Alek and I hit a garage sale before going to breakfast and then on to church.

Found a beautiful set of Peal necklaces for 5 bucks. Three necklaces and a bracelet. Knotted in between each pearl. Quality strands - yes, I know they are fake pearls - but they are NICE fakes. (Also got a new game. It's been a good garage sale weekend - have a few things to show for less than $15.)

Then we get to breakfast. As usual, it's Aparicio's - but since this last fill, I've been a little tight. Last night at dinner, I had a piece of cheese first and that was all I could do. 1 stinkin' little piece of cheese. After packing up my 1/3 of the meal that we were sharing, I just asked for some of their soup to go. Once I was home, I was able to down the soup. My dinner still sits out there in the fridge.

So we get to Aparicio's this morning and I ask Perla for a cup of coffee - hoping to loosen up my band a bit before I tried to eat a bite or two of breakfast.

A bite or two would have been nice. I wasn't even able to drink the coffee!! And I'm just miserable...so I came home and have been lying down.

I called Cynthia and we talked about it and have decided that I'm going back into Dr. M's office tomorrow - just so I can have a little taken out. Not eating is one thing - not getting my caffeine is another!

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Fill #5

When I got on the scales at Dr. Maese's office this morning, they said the same thing that they said on September 13 when I went in for Fill #4. UGH!

(I'm still counting the 3 lbs that my "regular" scales say I've lost!) OF course, after the last two days of being able to eat any and everything - AND DOING IT - I don't doubt I've gained back that three pounds. Don't know what it was this week...

Otherwise, though, I know I've gone down in size on clothing and portion size. Energy is up, too. BP was 102/65.

When the nurse took my weight and saw I hadn't lost, the best thing she could have done for me was say "You've got the larger band - so it can take 'til you're more filled than you are - but WAIT...look at how much you've lost!!" Think her name was Ruby - and now I love her!

We'll get there - it's just a journey that's sometimes made in the fast lane - and other times - like for me right now - it's down a long country road behind a Sunday driver.

(Fill #5 - at 8cc's in the VG Band - Down 73 lbs. I'm still lovin' this band!)

Monday, October 10, 2005

Walking the State Fair

Alek & I took our 8 year old nephew (Matt) to the Fair with us for a couple of hours while Mama went to a church up in Frisco.

While we were looking at the map of the fairgrounds so I could tell her which gate to meet us at, I caught a glimpse of who was going to be at the fair yesterday.

One of the things Matt loves to do with his Daddy is watch this show called "Mail Call" on the History Channel. Not sure exactly what it's about, but this old Marine is the host of the show. Matt LOVES the Mail Call guy (R. Lee Ermey). The Mail Call Guy was at the Fair yesterday from 10 - noon. It was 10:30 when we left the house.

I wouldn't tell Matt who we might see - didn't want to disappoint him - because I didn't know if we could make it there by noon. Thankfully, I know backroads ('cause I'm the Navigation Queen) and we parked in almost the last row available on the back lot. We parked at 11:05. By the time we got wanded into the ticket line, stood in line for tickets and got through the gate, it was 11:16. I thought, there is no way we're going to make it to that building by noon. It was on the exact opposite side of the fair from where we were.

I grabbed Matt's hand and we started barrelling through the fairgrounds - that's just the best way to describe it...barrelling through. I couldn't believe it that I had him standing in front of Mail Call Guy at 11:33. The look on that little boy's face when he realized who it was was PRICELESS!

There is NO WAY I could have made that distance in 17 minutes a year and 73 pounds ago...and if I had, there is no way I would have made it through another 8 1/2 hours at the fair before telling Alek - I'm ready to go home.

Across the parking lot - where I thought there would be a tram to the car - there wasn't - Alek kept telling me that I could make it...I wasn't convinced. I was so tired and sore - and couldn't get out of the chair to go to bed last night - but I did it.

Now I want to know how far I walked! There were signs up saying that you could get that info somewhere in the park - but I never found it.

I wished I had had my pedometer on me...

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Today’s Forecast: Clouds of Frustration with a Slight Ray of Hope

I have decided that I am a person who should not set goals for myself. Well, weight loss goals that is. I seem to do fine with most other goals…

No matter how well I’m doing up to a point – I get to the point where I say “Oh, I want to be this certain weight by Day X.” Invariably, I approach Day X and am nowhere near that goal. There is something in me that sabotages my achieving that goal. And I get frustrated.

Right now, I’m frustrated. I wanted to hit my 75 pound loss mark by my birthday. My birthday is Saturday – and I’m anywhere between 3 and 5 pounds away from hitting that mark. It’s not THAT much of an amount to fall short with – but it’s still falling short of that goal.

I know I’m going to hit that weight loss – have no doubts about that. Maybe I just need to quit associating dates with the goals. Maybe it’s the DATES that are bad. That’s it!

I thought this last fill would last me – but I know I’m able to eat way too much now, so I’ve bit the bullet and scheduled a fill with Dr. M on the 19th. That will let me get past my birthday – and will give me time to get used to the fill before I go on vacation on the 28th.

Funny enough, the ray of hope in all of this started out as a frustration.

I often work on work stuff on the train on my way into work – it’s just a jumpstart on my day. I’m able to go through some things that are tedious little bits of the work I do and get it knocked out while there aren’t any phones ringing or emails to answer.

When I’m working on these reports, I have a folder that I use as a lap desk and I prop it onto the back of the seat in front of me to give it some stability. That way I can use the one hand to hold the report and folder and the other hand to go through the information sheets that I use to check the little factoids in my reports.

This morning, I was sitting there and NOTHING was balancing right. Tuesday morning when I was doing this, I couldn’t get it balanced right, either – made even more frustrating by the fact that in my trying to get situated, the folder got turned the wrong way and I dropped all of my papers on the floor of the crowded train. This morning, I was determined that I wasn’t going to drop everything again.

I made a quick adjustment in the seat and it HIT me – things weren’t balancing because I don’t have as much of a stomach now TO balance my work on!!

I know the guy who was sitting in the seat with me was wondering what this chick kept giggling about ‘cause I giggled to myself all the way into work.