Brian I.

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Well, it's been a while since I posted so here goes.  It's actually 10 months since surgery.  Around Month 9 I hit my personal goal of 205 which meant a total weight loss of 115 pounds from the time I stepped foot in my surgeon's office.  It has been a crazy ride so far but most of it has been good.  I have definitely been blessed throughout this journey and I know God has given me a good shot at a second chance in life.

I'm 100+ pounds lighter, I am WAY more active, currently have no medical problems and I don't foresee any problems coming up if I can help it.  I have been running on the treadmill and that is a huge feat for me.  I'm buying clothes at regular stores now which also means I can get stuff on sale.  No more spending exorbitant amounts of money at Casual Male on my 3XL shirts or my size 48 pants and shorts.  Of course that now means I spend way too much time at the mall looking at all the clothes I can finally fit in to without having to suck in my stomach or use pliers to pull the zipper up...lol.

Getting through the holidays wasn't easy.  I have to admit I slipped off the wagon a bunch of times.  Having fresh baked cookies just spread out on the kitchen counter was not easy to resist.  I ate way more of the stuff than I care to admit but I made it through by keeping up with my exercise and not going too far overboard.  After the past month I've only dropped 1 pound but I actually lost an inch around my waist and one around my hips so I'm happy!

I never thought this day would ever get here. Woke up at about 4:30am and couldn't fall back asleep so I figured I'd just get an early start. Took a long shower with the prescription soap and then got dressed.

Seemed like the ride to the hospital was taking forever. Was really surprised at how many people are up and about at 5:30 in the morning. Got to the hospital and checked in and waited. By 6:45am they called me in the back and had me get undressed and started prepping me. Around 7:10am they called in my wife and parents to say a final prayer for me before going under.

They had problems finding a good vein to start the IV so they ended up having to put in the IV in my neck while I was still awake! Okay that's not something you want to have to go through twice, I guess it could have been worse, it could have been the foley but that was put in after I went down.

The operating room is cold, the anesthisiologist is a young Filipino doctor and has some 80's R&B music playing to get him "pumped up". Haven't seen my surgeon yet but I'm sure he'll be here soon enough.

Waking up in the recovery room isn't as bad as I anticipated. Felt a lot of pain but nothing I couldn't tolerate at that point. Was told the surgery lasted about 4 1/2 hours but everything went well. Waited in the recovery room for another 4 hours or so until they found me a room.

Getting into the room it was like a full circus going on. There were like twelve nurses and aides in there hooking me up and getting me situated. At this point any hope of privacy is shot to death as everyone and their mama is in there telling you to move this way or that way while you're fully exposed to the world. I guess at this point it didn't really matter anyway because I just wanted to lay still and relax in my own room.

At this point this was my tube checkoff list:
O2 Tubes
NG Tube down the nose
IV Central lines in my neck
Foley catheter
JP drain
Epidural catheter in back

The one that irritated me the most was the NG tube as it cause me to feel like I was swallowing sandpaper everytime I'd go to swallow. The staff isn't giving me any ice chips tonight as I had been told I was going to get earlier. :(

Night time wasn't too bad. Kept hitting the bolus on the epidural to give myself pain meds to keep the pain tolerable. All in all it is turning out pretty well. We'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow has in store...

Well, it's the day before surgery and so much is going on in my head right now. Questioning whether or not I know everything I should know with all I've been through.

Just making it through the day of no eating, taking the mag-citrate and then preparing for the big day tomorrow. I have a couple of fears, one that I've obtained a little cough and I'm scared the surgeon might cancel thinking I'm sick. My second fear is that I won't wake up on time!

We'll have to just and see...

Final weigh in at the Dr.'s office: 285

Well, after a week of contemplating how I was going to break it to my boss, it is finally over. He was very supportive of my decision and just kept saying that I have to put my health first before my job.

I told him I would need between 3-5 weeks but that I would try and see if I could start working part time after the third week. His response was just to worry about getting better and that I could probably just do most of my work from home instead of driving in to the office.

Thank you Jesus!

March 4th, 2008! Sorry for all the exclamation points but it is time to celebrate! Now I'm just worried about how I'm going to break it to my boss that I need 3-5 weeks off of work. Oh well, I don't want to bring down my happy moment.

It will be exactly 5 1/2 months from my first appointment with the doctor to the day I'm on the cutting block and almost 1 year since I first called his office to schedule. Wow, what a long road but I am just so relieved that I am almost there.

Feelings are beyond words at this point. Thank you Lord!

I never thought I'd be so excited to wait...lol. It's just a blessing to have been able to make it to this point. I just met with the surgeon so if all goes well with the insurance, I should be able to schedule for the end of December!

One main thing is that now I am going for RNY instead of the LapBand. It was for a number of reasons but mostly because that is what my surgeon recommended for me and I really respect his opinion.

Oh well, let the waiting begin!

Just had my Upper GI, Doppler Echocardiogram, some more blood work and a weigh in this morning. All seemed to go pretty well so I should have nothing to complain about.

The barium they make you drink right after downing those "pop rocks" was nasty. I have a tough time drinking really thick drinks like that and the doctor kept making me gulp it down!

I'm just glad it is over! I am officially through ALL of the pre-op testing and I am so glad.

Let's see, maybe I will re-count what I've done so far...

1. Initial Surgeon Consult
2. Psych Evaluation
3. Lab Work
4. Weigh-In
5. Nutrition Class
6. EKG
7. Chest X-Ray
8. History/Physical Exam
9. DVT Ultrasound (Legs)
10. Weigh-In
11. Lab Work
12. Sleep Study
13. Respiratory PFT
14. Abdominal Ultrasound
15. Follow-Up Appt. (Surgeon's office)
16. Upper GI
17. Doppler Echocardiogram
18. Lab Work
19. Weigh-In
20. Meeting with Hospital Rep
21. Chest X-Ray
22. EKG
23. Orientation at the Hospital (3 hours!)
24. One-on-one with Nutritionist

I have one more appointment with the Surgeon in two weeks and I was told that might be it for the "pre-op" stuff. At that point I will be in the operative, or "op", phase of the process.

I just had an appointment with the CNP today. It was actually a really good appointment because everything was positive! I am basically at my goal of losing 10% of my weight. All of my lab work came back within acceptable ranges. My sleep study came back with good results and it showed I had only minor sleep abnormalities that would go away with weight loss. I only averaged one apnea per hour which was a very good thing.

The CNP said that I am pretty much done. She wants to check on my uric acid once more and also make sure that my Vit D levels, which were low in my first lab, aren't too high now. I have an appointment with the surgeon in 4 weeks and at that point I should be pretty much ready to set a date for my surgery.

I am so glad that the Lord is really opening up this path for me. Of course, I still have to get the final authorization from my insurance but I know God is going to open the door for me if it is in His will for me to have this done. At this point I think I am going to slow down on the diet pills since I really don't need to lose that much more weight. I figure as long as I eat healthy food and keep up with my exercise plan I should do okay. So far I have been making it my goal to drop 5 pounds a week and I have averaged about 4.7/week so that is pretty good. I think now I will just work on maintaining this weight and possibly dropping a pound or two a week.

I also noticed I am putting on muscle places I never had any before. My wife tells me my legs are rock-hard and my man-boobs are going away right before my eyes. They actually got to the point where they started to HANG! That was like a pivotal point for me in knowing something had to change. I wouldn't say I'm ready to walk around in a tank top yet but I can actually see it in the near future, for the first time in a decade. Heck, by next summer I should be perfectly fine hopping into a pool without a shirt and not worry about who is looking at me.

With next September being me and my wife's 10-year wedding anniversary, my goal is to take her on a nice vacation and be able to fit into the suit I wore to our wedding! Heck, at this rate I might even need to take it in a little...lol.

Weighed in this morning at 285 which puts me at a total loss of 33 pounds! My doctor told me I had to lose 10-15% of my body weight prior to surgery so that means I am at 10.4% loss right now!

I feel really good and I am actually getting motivated for the first time in my life. I think the main thing is knowing that with the help of the WLS, I have a huge chance of long-term success.

I think what held me back in the past from really trying my hardest was the thought in the back of my head telling me that I would just end up gaining the weight back so what's the point in trying.

Well, now I am on a mission and I am not going to stop till I reach my goal!