not much

Not much has been happening lately it seems like all I am mostly doing is counting the days til I see Dr. Mayo and hopefully get the ok for the surgery. On Thursday I met a person that is having her surgery next Tuesday she is having the RNY just like I am going to have to do but she has a different surgeon and is on a liquid diet for 2 weeks. I will not have to be on a liquid diet which I think is a good thing.

I have been spending my time well I am waiting I have started to sew. I bought a sewing machine and a serger and I have been creating all sorts of different projects. I made pajama pants, a quilt a couple of purse and a tote bag since I started sewing last month. Right now I am working on making a dress for my niece Katie and then I am going to start my second quilt.

Right now I have to continue to work out and write down everything in my food journal so that I am able to maintain or lose weight before my surgery. I have also started to not drink while I eat which is pretty hard to get used to but I guess I better get used to this before the surgery because I will never be able to do that again after the surgery.

One of the reasons why I have not told everyone that I know about my upcoming surgery is some of the people that I have told have been really negative about it. When I told them or when they found out they spent all of there time trying to convince me not to have the surgery. They handed me weight loss books and told me there weight loss strategies and I was pretty hurt. Here I am although completely surprised that I was approved for the surgery I was pretty excited that I was approved and now some of the people that I saw all the time and that I thought would support me had that reaction to my decision so then in my head I thought it would be easier to tell people after the surgery so I would not have that reaction from anyone else. But now I have decided that I do not need to care about what other people think of my decision. It is my personal decision to have the surgery and I no longer need to try to please everyone with my decision. That is why I decided to tell everyone who reads this blog about my surgery.

I just realized that I just made my final payment on my car yesterday!!! I new that it would happen pretty soon but I did not think that it would be for a couple of more months!!! I am so stoked!!!!

On Monday I finally had time to figure out how to thread my serger that I bought off of Kijiji a couple of months ago. We had a unexpected evening where we had nothing to do because there was a snowstorm so we were not able to go to our churches congregational meeting. So instead I watched YouTube Videos to figure out how to thread the machine because it did not come with an owners manual and then last night I made my first Item on it a new purse and it turned out really well. Now tonight I am going to make some flannel pants with it and then I am going to start my second quilt. A couple of weeks ago Michelle and I went to FabricLand and purchased fabric and patterns for really cheap because they had a really big sale. So making myself some flannel pants is only going to cost be $9.00 which is way cheaper then buying them in the store and I made a work purse for Shauna and a purse for me. Right now today I am using it but I am not planning on using it every day. Probably just for Bible Study which I am going to start going to next week. Every week since September I have been trying to go but have had something come up and I am not able to go so I will be going next week for sure because I have nothing planned.

Update

Today I had a visit to the clinic as I had not gone to see the nurse or my dietician in a very long time. Right now my file is on hold until I get a letter from Dr. Mayo so my surgery will be in the new year unless there is a cancellation. But now I kind of know when I will have the surgery and after waiting 8 months I guess 2 more months is not that long.

It was kind of weird to go and see the dietician because my former dietician was promoted and so now for the first time in a year and a half I had a new dietician. She seems like she is really nice but I just do not like to change who I am seeing because you develop a relationship with them over time and it is easier to talk to people when you have got to know them a little bit better. I also have to continue to maintain or loose more body weight. If I gain any weight the surgery will be cancelled. I have known this all along so I have worked hard to maintain my weight even though I was on some medication that one of the side effects is you gain weight and Dr. Mayo said he would be surprised if I never gained weight so it is a relief to know that I have maintained my weight for the 3 months that I was on the pills and hopefully I will start loosing weight when I finish taking the pills in 3 more days.

The new thing that I have to work on is to not drink anything 30 minutes before I eat to 30 minutes after I eat. The reason for this is that after the surgery I will not be able to drink anything while I eat. Because at first my stomach will be so small that if I take a sip of water I will be full so I will have to wait to eat after each meal. They say that it is better to start this before you have the surgery because then it will not be such a big change after the surgery.

I will also have to start to eat every 2 hours during the day with small meals instead of having 3 larger meals and snacks. This is also so that your body is already used to eating often and you are used to not eating large meals any more. Right now when you eat you are supposed to eat your vegetables first, protein second and your starch last. After the surgery you have to make sure that you get enough protein so you would eat your protein first and then some vegetables and then if you are still hungry you can eat a form of starch. The reason for this is your body still needs the same amount of protein or your body will not be able to function. So I will have a protein goal that I will have to reach each day instead of a calorie goal. Because you are not able to eat as much food it will be hard to eat that many calories although you have to ensure that you are eating proper healthy food or else you will gain back all the weight you have lost.

Well I have to get back to work so I will try and update this soon.

Changes...

So I have decided to change the contents the topic of most of my blog posts because I have not been reveling everything that is happening in my life on this blog and I want this to be a written record of the journey that I am on right now and the changes that will be happening in my life in the next months.

All my life I have struggled with my weight and 3 years ago my doctor referred me to a dietitian who placed me on the waiting list for the Weight Wise program at the Royal Alex Hospital. It took 2 years to get it but in July 2010 I was accepted into the program and had my initial visit. Since then I have been meeting bimonthly with a dietitian and a nurse and they have been helping me with this journey to loose weight. They helped me keep myself accountable and assisted in helping me loose the weight that I have lost so far.

In April 2011 I had a consultation with Dr. Birch and he approved me for gastric bypass surgery. Because of the amount of weight that I have to loose the team and I both agreed that I need to have a tool to assist me with loosing the rest of my weight so that I can be a normal body weight. This is not because I was failing at loosing weight but because I was successful at proving that I am able to loose the weight that they accepted me. This is not the lazy way to loose weight because although you have the surgery if you do not watch what you eat and exercise you will gain back the weight and it will all be in vain.

In July 2011 I was scheduled to have the surgery but it was cancelled because there was an overbooking in the operating room. I also had a lot of pain on my left side so my doctor did an ultrasound and noticed a cyst on my ovaries. I was then referred to a Gynaecologist who place my gastric bypass surgery on hold in September until the cyst was removed and I finally had it removed on October 17, 2011.

I am still planning on having the surgery and it will probably be in December or January as soon as I have the a letter from my doctor approving me for the surgery. I am excited to begin this new phase of my life although it is a extremely scary step for me as a divulge into the unknown. I am planning on making this blog as the story of my weight loss journey.