I went to my Local ER Saturday Night. It turns out it was Gas. Severe Gas.
Also, it appears that my trouble was found on an Upper GI. Turns out I have Acid Reflux. We won't know how bad until I go for an endoscopy.
My Primary Wants me to go for one ASAP. Dr Williams wants me to see his guy.. Dr Metz. I have no problem now waiting for Dr Metz, since I know that what the ER told me what to do is working so far. I was told to take Over the Counter Pepcid for the Acid Reflux and Phayzyme for the Gas. This has been the first pain free night in 5 days. This has also been the first time since I got home from my trip that I haven't wanted to throw up much of anything, but overdid the eating and did end up throwing up. (Forgot that I managed to decrease the size of my pouch some with all my troubles.) So as I sit here typing this, I sip on some hot tea with lemon. I don't understand it myself, but usually when Ive thrown up after eating too much, Hot Tea with Lemon calms my stomach down some.
The positive side of this is that when I went to see Dr Williams on the 9th, I saw that I dropped 13 lbs without trying. It pushed me to my halfway mark. Another week and three days later, even with being able to eat some on my trip, I had dropped another 12 lbs. I was 315 on the 17th. I weighed in again last night and was 312. I lost a total of 32 lbs in a matter of two and a half weeks.
Reflections time here. April 16, 2003 marked partial transformation for me. It was my one year anniversary of meeting up with Dr Williams. It marked the beginning of this crazy journey called WLS for me. I will always remember the day I went in, I was scared shitless of what was going to happen. One of maybe four times I got scared on this journey. (The other three would be in this order: Outside of the OR the day of surgery, my fourth week post when I kept getting abcesses, and just recently when I couldn't handle what was going on with my stomach.) I remember that day going in, and immediately signing the papers to have this at the end of the consult. I knew this was the right choice for me when he put my mind at ease.
April 16, 2002 was the day that I weighed in at my heaviest ever. I weighed in at 488. I subsiquently lost 8 lbs before surgery. So if you add in my total of weight lost to this day from April 16, 2002, I'm actually down 176 lbs. I'm only really 24 lbs from the double century club. But I don't count those 8 lbs, because I like to take my total from the day of my surgery.
So really April 16, 2002 was the turning point of my life.
I don't usually throw out some props unless I'm going to say it outright, but I feel this needs to be said. The Day after my consult, two guys I know from my support meetings and gatherings from Spotlight Health, Don and Dave went under the knife. Thursday marked their one year anniversary. I have to give Props to them both.
Don I have to give Props to because he did a complete 180. Before surgery, I would remember him coming into the chat and saying that he wasn't going thru with the surgery. The next day he would change his mind. He said that the two people who were the turning point for him were Rosa and this one person named Jerry Winner. Jerry is a local person, whom I had the privelidge of meeting at the April Graduate Meeting. Don has been a huge backbone to support in general.
Dave I remember meeting in the chat room one night late. One night We decided to talk on the phone. I was still not too sure of my decision to go thru with this. Dave put this into perspective for me. (Keeping in mind that Dave is maybe two years older then me!) He had said to me, "Think about things this way. You're gonna die of you don't do this. You could Die on the table. You could die after this as well. If you're going to have a choice, which would you make?" Before I could answer, he said, I know my choice and that's I'm going to die trying. This is going to kill me, if I stay this way. I'm not living, just existing." It made total sense to me. It came back to me that I didn't want to be like my dad. I didn't want to end up being a pain in the ass because I had problems with my legs. I didn't want to be on Insulin. I didn't want High Blood Pressure. I didn't want to have a heart attack and die. I may hate my mother, but to put her thru that agony of burying her kid, her only daughter nonetheless, that's just something that I couldn't do. I still had too much to live for.. and that conversation that Dave and I had that night just totally put everything in line for me in the thought process. I think the only way I could repay Dave for that advice is to pass it on.
So happy Anniversary to you both, and to your two other brothers, Stan and Dan, and your sister Kathy. For Don, may the next year bring you to goal and the plastic surgery that you are being covered for in your charts. For Dave, may it be a revision so that you can knock off the rest of your life with Marybeth in a healthy manner.
Ok... enough of that.
One thing I do need help with.. and for anyone out there reading this... I need some encouragement to quit smoking. As many of you know, I really never quit smoking at all. My last cigarette before surgery was at 3 am the day of my surgery. My first cigarette after surgery was a half hour after I got home and my brother left. Since then, I've been hooked. With my recent scare of my stomach, I'm realizing that I really need to stop. However, I don't think I can do that and change my eating habits at all. (This would be why I took the smoking back up after surgery.) I know my eating habits should be formed by now with being 8 months post on Monday the 21st, but with the trouble I've had with eating, they aren't as formed as they should be. I'm sure that my smoking has had a lot to do with some of my troubles, and that's another reason I need to quit. So if you could encourage me somehow, I may get testy at first, but with enough people telling me it isn't good for me and that I need to quit, I may just do it. (Call it a Peer Pressure thing, since that's how I started to begin with after a good friend's death back when I was 16.)
And if you didn't know.... well you know now that I smoke and am having some trouble quitting. It's another bad addiction I have.
Lastly, three things I fit into now. JEANS!! I wore them today to my aunt's house for the gathering they had for Easter. Also, I'm wearing Women's shoes!! I went in to look for shoes for the Philly gathering, and tried on a size 12.. THEY FIT!! The last thing is socks. I am wearing the diabetic socks, so that the calves will stretch to fit me.
Anyhow. I'm sorry this is long, and I am weary. TC all and TTYS.