We took him out to eat to celebrate his first day of kindergarten. He chose to go to Red Robin! Later when we got home, Drew and I were snuggling in my bed and I was asking him questions about how his day had gone. He told me that he saw Aunt Leecie (Elicia- she teaches 3rd grade there) in the hallway and said hi to her but he didn’t give her a hug because his line was moving in the hall and he didn’t want to get out of line! He also told me he saw Taylor on the playground (she is my niece, daughter of Elicia and she goes to the pre-k program there) and he played with her! I asked him how many boys were in his class and he said 100. Then I asked him how many girls are in his class and he said 1000. I told him that those girls were going to chase after him and try to kiss him but he can’t get any kisses from girls other than Mommy, Grammie, Bebe, Aunt Leecie, and Taylor. HA! I asked him if he went to P.E. today and he said they went to the gym and were going to play games and play with basketballs but they didn’t have time. He liked going to the cafeteria to have lunch but told me NOT to put his snack in his lunchbox- to put it in the front pocket of his backpack.

Anyways, here are a few more pictures from today

I went to my first support group meeting and had a really good time! They did a Zumba class but I didn’t participate since Im just 2 weeks post op. But I was looking at the instructor thinking “this white girl can’t dance- you are NOT getting me to do Zumba”. Who knows- maybe I will give it a try sometime. Right now I just need to get off my butt and start walking. When I got home I had scrambled eggs with a little bit of ham and cheese and salsa on top. It filled me up but now I’m hungry again which is normal considering I don’t have any restriction in my band. I’m in what they call “Bandster Hell”- no restriction in your band means you could theoretically eat anything you wanted. So until I get my first fill Im going to have to really watch what I eat. I believe that Im supposed to see my doctor on September 13th and that will put me 6 weeks out from surgery so hopefully she will do my first fill then.

SpongeBob outside of the Aquarium

Scuba Diver in one of the huge tanks cleaning it.

MantaRay

Ugly orange fish

I don’t remember what this was but its wierd. It was stuck to the side of the glass.

A bridge by the tiger exhibit. I didn’t get any pics of the tigers though- my camera was dying a painful death.

At the Children’s Museum

They had a whole room where you could make huge bubbles

Making a huge bubble all around them

Bubble is all the way up- this is right before Ryan popped it

Trains

Playarea

Firetruck- This was their FAVORITE part of the museum. They LOVE climbing in and pretending to be a fireman!

Outisde of the museum on the playground

They LOVED the big tire swing!

On the trolley tracks by the park

Monday we drove to Boulder to have lunch and then took a drive up in the mountains. Man, the weather was GORGEOUS and it felt good riding with our windows down. We stopped on the side of the road where some waterfalls were but unfortunately they were closed and we couldnt get back to take pictures of the waterfalls. But the boys had fun throwing rocks off the cliff into the water!

Back in the car ready to head up higher in the mountains. Drew spent most of his time playing his DS rather than looking at the scenery.

Peter took us to a famous train tunnel but unfortunately it was closed and no trains were going through it. But the boys had fun throwing rocks (do you see a pattern here?) and running around for a bit.

Then on our way at we stopped and let the boys put their feet in the stream. We didnt stay long because there were HUGE mosquitos and the water was rushing a little too fast.

Then we drove to downtown Denver just to look around.

Here is a picture of a dead “Dancey-Dance” (as Ryan called them) that was on a billboard. I just thought it was funny.

And we went to see Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium

We also drove up to the baseball stadium where the Rockies play but couldn’t figure out how to get to the front of the stadium and by that time we were tired and hungry so we decided to leave.

We went to Chuy’s for lunch and I surprised myself at how much control I had. I wanted chips and creamy jalapeno soooo bad and I did take 2 or 3 very tiny bites out of a chip but thats all. And I ordered a Chuy-Gooey with just refried beans, queso, and meat on it then I put some creamy jalapeno on top and it was soooo good! Of course I was only able to eat like 2 or 3 tbsp of it so I practically have dinner for the next week! LOL.

I got on the scale today and was up 1 lb but I figured this would happen when I start getting back on solid foods. And I didn’t get enough protein in yesterday because we ran out of milk so I couldnt make my protein shake. I’ve read that if you dont get enough protein in then you WILL be hungry and it could make you gain a little bit of weight.

But man last night I was craving pickles soooo bad. I got a kosher dill spear and cut off the skin and took small bites and chewed really well. But the last bite I got too eager on and put it all in my mouth and chewed but forgot to chew well before I swallowed and I immediately freaked out. Luckily I dont have restriction otherwise I probably would have thrown it up. But it went down just fine. I still have the pickle craving today but I think I will just put some in the food processor to make sure its small enough and then eat it that way. I love me some pickles!

I was still feeling weak and tired yesterday so I decided it was time to get serious about trying some more protein drinks. I made myself a shake and I didnt get nauseous so all was good. Still eating s/f popsicles like they are going out of style too! I also ate some thinned down cream of wheat with a little bit of unflavored protein mix in it. I dont care for the unflavored mix so the next time I will just do the cream of wheat by itself.

I got up and took Drew to summer camp up at our church. It felt good to get our of the house but it seemed to have zapped my energy too. I stayed up there about 30 minutes and talked with Lisa and Cindy and let Ryan play on the playground. Then we came back home and I asked Peter to go with me to the doctors office. I just didn’t want to risk driving again.

So we went to the doctor and she said everything looked good! Took off the steri-strips on my incisions and told me that I could progress to the next stage of foods! Woo hoo! Applesauce, mashed potatoes, pudding, and cream of wheat- here I come!

I got home and ate some applesauce and man did that feel good to have something a little more solid going down. I also made some mashed potatoes and melted a little bit of cheese and those were completely yummy too. Later that evening I tried some refried beans and even though I put them through the food processor and thinned them down I thought they were too thick so after 2 or 3 bites I decided to not eat the rest.

So Im 4 days post-op and am sitting here at my computer and I just feel like crying. Im so ready to be able to eat something a little more solid. Im ready to start feeling better. Its not that Im in a lot of pain- Im just tired of being tired and weak. Im drinking a s/f carnation instant breakfast that has protein in it and Im sure I need to try and get more protein in but the thought of a thick protein shake just makes me want to gag.

I guess Im also in mourning a little bit for the food that Im giving up for a while. The other day when I threw up after eating jello I thought to myself "what in the world have I done? If I cant even hold jello down how in the world am I going to live the rest of my life and never be able to enjoy something that tastes good again?" Of course I know im being irrational- Im still completely swollen from surgery but food was my best friend before and I’ve lost that for the time being. I KNOW that I made the best decision for myself, my husband, and my kids but right now Im just having a pity party. I will be so glad when Im a month or two out and can look back on today and think it was just a blip on the radar screen. But right now Im struggling.

It also doesnt help that I havent taken my anti-depressant since before surgery. I might try to do that but im scared that I will throw it back up.

On a brighter note- THERE IS A FOOTBALL GAME ON TV TODAY! WOOT WOOT! This makes me completely happy! Oh and I lost another 3 lbs for a grand total of 27! I know things will change when I get on solid food but it feels good to look at that scale going down!

I wound up calling the doctor that evening because I was nauseous and still running a low grade fever. She said she wasn’t really concerned with either but wanted me to come in on Monday to see her.

And it was so sweet- Ryan came over to me a little later and gave me a hug and kissie and said “Im sorry you are feeling sick, mama”. All together now- AWWWWWW!

I was up for a few hours then laid back down on the couch and took a 3 hour nap. I took my temp and its 99.4 but the nurse from the hospital called me today and said a slight fever is to be expected. I took off the gauze and took a shower which felt sooo good. My stomach is swollen especially where the port is. But again, the incision pain is not really too bad- its just the gas pain. There have been a few times that the burps have been painful but what sweet relief! I’m sipping on some chicken broth right now and some ice water.

Good news is that Im down a total of 22 lbs so far! YAY!

I was still just drinking clear liquids- water, broth, and popsicles and I was able to tolerate that pretty well. Sleeping is difficult because I can only sleep on my back and Im a side sleeper which is impossible right now. I have 5 incisions across my belly and the first night I tried turning on my side slightly and was in severe pain. But I took my pain meds and fell fast asleep.

I left and got in the car and called mom who was good at calming me down. She told me that things were going to be fine and if I went into this with a positive attitude then everything would work out like they should.

So we get to the hospital about 9:40 and I check in and we were called back within 5 minutes. I was introduced to my nurse who was super sweet and she asked how I was doing and I told her I was freaking out. There were several times that she had me laughing which was good- it helped ease my mind a little. I got dressed in a lovely purple gown that was really thick paper and was pretty hot. I had ugly gray socks to put on then they started hooking me up to electrodes, O2 sensor, blood pressure cuff, and then finally the IV. Several nurses came in to talk with me and then the anesthesiologist came in to talk with me. I expressed how freaked out I was and he told me they would give me a happy cocktail on the way to surgery and not to worry.

About 11:00 I was given a shot of Lovenox which was a blood thinner and I heard the nurse said it was supposed to be given 1 hr prior to surgery. So I knew that surgery wouldnt be until at least noon. Then I had a slight panic attack and felt super hot. I had to take off the socks and the blood pressure cuff and I laid back in bed to try and not freak out. I guess I would snooze for a few minutes here and there because I kept waking up in 10 to 15 minute increments. Around noon I remember the nurses coming in and telling me that Dr. Marquez was running late. ACK! 10 minutes later I was thinking “she needs to hurry up and get here or Im ripping all of this stuff off and running out the door”. At 12:15 I asked the nurse if anybody had heard from the doctor and the nurse she not yet but just at that moment Dr. Marquez showed up. Thank goodness!

Anesthesia came and gave me my happy cocktail and it worked FAST. I was surprised at how fast it kicked in and Peter said I was saying some pretty funny stuff! I remember kissing Peter goodbye and being wheeled to the OR. I moved to the OR table and they put my arms on the arm boards and then were messing with my legs and feet getting those situated. They put the oxygen mask on me and I was told to take some deep breaths and the next thing I remember is waking up in recovery.

I had a panic attack when I woke up because I felt like I couldn’t breathe and I said there was so much pressure in my chest. I heard the nurse say “well you have something around your stomach now so its going to feel like that” but I started crying and they gave me something in my IV and I was able to calm down. I was in recovery for about 45 minutes and then they took me to the first area that I was in pre-op. Peter was there and I started coming around and waking up. They told me that as soon as I was able to stand then they would call radiology and take me there to have x-rays done to make sure the band was placed correctly.

It was about 4:00 when radiology came to get me. They wheeled me down to the xray room and had me stand up and drink barium while they took xrays. Well, let me tell you- 1 day of clear liquid and then another day of nothing at all and you want me to drink that nasty stuff???? UGH it was so gross but luckily it stayed down. They wheeled me back to the first area and she called the doctor and said every thing looked good. So I was given the green light to be able to sip some water- FINALLY! The nurse gave me some liquid Lortab which tastes like Robitussin. I was just praying that I wouldnt throw that up especially since I had to drink that barium crap too. But I was able to hold that down, I asked to go to the bathroom, and then was given the ok to go ahead and get dressed. I guess we left the hospital around 5- I didn’t expect to stay that long and it wasn’t because I had a hard time recovering. That is just how long it took.

So we went to Walgreens to pick up my meds and then Peter took me home. I called mom and reported to her that things were good. Called Elicia to let her know that things had gone well and asked how the boys were. Surprisingly I didnt come home and nap like I thought I would. I think I went to bed around midnight that night and that was only because I waited until I could take my pain meds again! LOL!

All in all- it was a much better experience than I thought it would be. The pain wasn’t too bad- definitely better than my 2 previous c-sections.

So last August, I was on the phone with Anissa and was having a particularly bad day and was discussing how bad I was feeling because of my weight and she mentioned that she had 2 co-workers who had the lap-band surgery done and lost a bunch of weight and were so happy with their decision. So that got the wheels started for me.

I talked with Peter who said he would be ok with the lap-band surgery but not gastric bypass which was ok with me- I wasnt interested in having parts of my anatomy permanently cut out of me. I emailed 2 friends who had had the surgery done and talked with them. I started reading, reading, reading on lapbandtalk.com and then watched an online seminar at Southwest Bariatric Surgeons which is where my surgeon is.

However, I called our insurance and found out that they did not cover any type of bariatric surgery. I was pretty bummed out because we just simply could not afford to pay for this on our own. The only other option was to wait until November when open enrollment took place at HP and research to see if any of the other plans did pay for the surgery.

So November came and there was a plan through Aetna and HP that covered lap-band surgery! Woo hoo! I was so freaking excited! I called the surgeon’s office and talked with them and told them that I wouldnt have coverage for any of this until January but wanted to know if there was anything I could be doing in the meantime. My patient representative told me I could start my 6 month doctor led weight loss program and she faxed me the sheet to get this started.

So I went to my PCP and got weighed in- 275 lbs. UGH. My scale actually said 277 so that is the starting weight that im going with. He didnt really seem too encouraging about the surgery but I wasn’t going to let that deter me.

So fast forward to 2010- I went in every month to have my weight checked and recorded. I honestly didn’t put a great effort into losing weight. I was just told by the surgeon’s office to make sure and NOT GAIN WEIGHT. At my last weigh-in in June I had lost about 7 lbs according to the doctors scale. I had to do a psychological eval which was easy peasy. I also had to go to a nutrition appointment and an exercise physiology appointment at the surgeon’s office. I had bloodwork done which showed increase liver enzymes so my PCP sent me for a u/s of my liver which was normal. So after all of that the information was sent to my surgeon’s office who then faxed it to Aetna that day. I was told they could take up to 30 days to make a decision but 6 days later I got a phone call from Dr. Marquez’ office and was told that I had been APPROVED!

I could have had surgery around the middle of July but I knew that we were going to Denver for 9 days at the end of July and didn’t want to be recovering from surgery while in Denver. So I chose to have surgery once we came back from there. I did have to do a 2 week pre-op diet of low carb/high protein which was pretty easy- after the first couple of days. The 3rd day on that diet was pure torture- nausea, headache, hot flashes, dizziness- it was awful. But a few days later I was feeling good and off to Denver we went. I know that I lost weight while we were in Denver because some demin shorts that I had that were too tight were completely loose on me but when I got home the scale showed no weight loss. In hind sight- I was not drinking enough water and eating too many peanuts and sunflower seeds that were salted so that made me retain water. The day before surgery I had to be on a clear liquid diet and that was hard for me- I got a really bad headache that evening and couldn’t take any meds for it. But I did take a sleeping pill before midnight and was actually able to sleep that evening. Thank goodness!

Aunt Jenny, Granny, and my mom

Everybody say it with me…..AWWWWW!

Jamiel AKA Mini Mr. T

Evan walking!

4 Generations

Granny and Mom

Granny and Natalie

Mom and Natalie

Dad, Elicia, Taylor, and Evan

Is this not the cutest picture? He was clapping at me!

Evan was trying to get Jamiel’s mohawk

Granny is going to hate this picture but I love the cute candid shot!

Here's the view from the first hotel I stayed at. Normally there would be a big water fountain right there, but it was off when I took the picture. Actually this was the view from my table in the hotel resturant; my room faced the alley in the back (so that I wouldn't hear all the crowd and traffic noise).

This is "La Rambla," the most famous street in Barcelona. On both of my trips, my hotel has been within a block of the Northeast end. There are lots of restaurants, shops, and other things like the opera house and a museum. It goes all the way to the harbor, and all the side streets/alleys have just as many shops and restaurants.

Here I am...this is facing almost the opposite direction as the first picture.

One evening after work, one of the folks from HP Barcelona took Christian, Shashi and myself out to dinner at a resturant on the beach. This was the view from our table.

This was the view out my window on my second trip over, it was about 8:30 am Barcelona time or 1:30 am Austin time (I have no idea what time it was locally or exactly where we were, somewhere between Greenland and Ireland). Anyhow, the camera makes it look like a little white dot on the left side above the wing, but another plane was right off our starboard side maybe a mile away almost at our altitude and stayed there from about the time we crossed out of Canada until the time we crossed over Ireland. I could only see that and one bright star out the window all night.

Here's the view out my balcony window in my room in the second hotel. The first hotel is basically on the opposite side of the block.

Maybe more pictures later this week!

Today, we went to Game Stop and traded in 2 of our Wii games for the new Super Mario Bros 2 game. Peter and Drew are sitting on the couch playing together and Drew is doing really well playing the Wii too!

Here is Drew in his new Mario t-shirt playing the Wii!

I took Drew into my bathroom so I could see what happened and while he was crying he told me “I wish I hadn’t of did that” and “is this boo-boo going to take a long time to heal?”. I felt so bad for him and I told him that it was just an accident I he didn’t mean to get hurt.

Here is what his head looked like that evening:

We put neosporin and a band-aid on the cut and gave him some Tylenol. He was laughing with Peter when they got in bed so he was feeling ok- no signs of concussion. The next morning I did some research about cuts and decided that since it looked deep enough I would take him to Urgent Care since his pedi’s office didn’t do stitched if he needed them.

So we went to Urgent Care and and the doctor looked at it and said it did need to be closed up but they could just use Dermabond- Drew was so excited that he didnt need a shot or stitches!

This is the nurse cleaning out the wound- Drew said it stung a little.

Playing his Nintendo while waiting for the doc to come in and fix him up.

And here is the doc fixing him up.

All done! Drew was so brave and he didn’t even cry at all. EXCEPT for after the doctor got done and told him he couldn’t go swimming for for a week. He wasn’t very happy about that.