How do you spell relief?

Wow. I feel amazing. I was able to eat dinner tonight without stopping and breathing deep and saying, "I hurt." It was great. A too-tight band is not my friend!

I won't need to follow up with my surgeon until after the baby is born and I'm ready to get the band filled back up.

Now if I can just keep from gaining oodles of weight with this pregnancy we'll be good to go!

Getting it all out

This week I'm going to see my surgeon and get all the fluid taken out of my band. I haven't been able to eat properly for the last few weeks. The heartburn isn't bothering me right now, but I've been taking Nexium, so that's probably why.

I've had a hard time eating much of anything solid. It's been rough. I do not like being so tight. Two bites and I'm full? Painfully full? Even sometimes drinking plain liquid, (warm tea, or water even) is painful. That's not what the band has been for me. So, I'm just going to go ahead and get the fluid removed. Hopefully that will help with both the acid reflux and not being able to eat.

I've gained about 7-10 pounds. I'm sitting right around 200 on my home scale. Not too bad. It's still hard to see my weight going up.

I've been feeling a bit of depression trying to seep into my life. I know I need to kick it in the butt with good nutrition and exercise. It might take a bit to get there, but I will get on a good schedule again.

Surgeon's Visit

My surgeon's visit was great. He was very happy with how I look and how I'm doing. I was about 200 last time I was there, I've gotten as low as 188 and am back around 200 again. I weighed exactly 200 at his office. (Deep breaths!) But apparently I look different to him, so that's cool.

He said since I'm not having issues with vomiting or extreme band tightness, he'll just leave my fill until my third trimester at which point he'll take all the fluid out. Won't that be weird? I haven't even had to have an unfill yet, so I haven't gone backwards on restriction except for the natural fluctuations in the band and weight loss.

He said one of the biggest issues for pregnant ladies is the port bothering them. Since my port is detached, it should be just fine. He said he has actually removed ports from two pregnant women. One of them he put back in shortly after the baby came and the other one he said decided to just get her band out because 6 months after baby she hadn't put any weight back on. She was confident in her new lifestyle.

Last night I woke up with burning in my throat from acid reflux. I used to have that a lot before my surgery, but it was under control with Nexium. After surgery I was able to stop taking the Nexium. So last night I got up and took a Nexium and drank some Alka Selzer Heartburn Relief. Looks like the surgery helped me with run-of-the-mill heartburn, but maybe not pregnancy-induced heartburn.

I've been so tired I haven't been exercising lately, but with the beautiful weather today (74) I think we're going to have to go for a family walk!

Life is changing

Big news at our house. We've got a baby on the way. We are very excited. This will be child number 4. I'm feeling a little sick, but nothing to complain too much about. I'm a little nervous about weight gain and pregnancy and the band, but we'll get it all figured out. I'll let you know along the way how things are going.

I'm probably due in June. I'll be going to both the band and regular doctors this coming week.

Answering a question

Anonymous said...

Melissa,

How do you get back on track or better yet get started when you don't have the right mind set? What gets you there?

Anyonymous,

I thought I would respond here because you've asked a good question. Getting started for mehappened because I hit my breaking point with being fat. I had enough and realized there wasn't any chance of me losing weight by doing what I'd always done. I had to make a huge change and I did. Because the change I made was so drastic, there was no looking back for me. The decision to have lapband surgery was a decision to live a healthy life for the rest of it. It's not always easy and I do fall sometimes.

Basically it's a daily process of getting back up and dusting myself off. I have realized that I can be healthy, but it takes a constant effort and focus to keep on track. If one day is bad, then the next day has to be better. Sometimes I feel really strong and have several good days in a row. Doing challenges is better helping me to be on track.

But really, you have to see it as a life-long pursuit. There is no going on or off a diet. It's a change you make and it needs to be a permanent one.

I also pray a lot. I pray for strength and determination. It helps.

Hope those words were helpful.

Body For Life begins

We have started the Body For Life program. My sister and husband and I are all doing it together. We started on Monday. I'm thrilled with how this week has gone. I have lost 8 pounds somehow. I think there's definitely been some retained water that I've lost. My husband has stuck with it really well, too. He didn't actually weigh to start with, so I'm not sure what his weight has done.

We have entered a new world of weight lifting! Part of this program has you do weights, three times a week. We did two upper body and one lower body work out. We're like a couple of goofs in the gym trying to figure out which machines do what, looking at the pictures in our Body For Life book, and then trying to figure out what weights are best. I'm glad we live in a small town and have a really low-key gym because I don't really feel conspicuous here. It's really nice.

I really like the aerobics part of this program. You do three days a week of 20 minute aerobic workouts. You workout according to intensity level, scale of 1-10. Whatever fitness level you are at and whatever activity you're doing, will work with this program. You start with two minutes of an intensity level of 5. Then you do a minute each of levels 6-9. You repeat that three times, the last time you get to 9 and then the next minute you go all out and go to 10 for one minute. Then one minute of 5 cool down and you're done. I feel like I'm getting so much more done in a 20 minute workout than I was in 45-60 minutes at a slower pace.

We took before pictures, but didn't take measurements. I think we will probably do those this weekend so we have some way to gauge our progress besides the scale and looks.

Recent pictures

We had a friend take some pictures of us on the way to church on Sunday. Well, the field of sunflowers wasn't exactly on the way to church, but you get the idea.