Surgery is over

Praise the Lord, Thank God, Hallelujah and all of those other praises, Surgery is finally over and I couldn't be happier. This post is just going to talk about my surgery ( what I remember) and show some pictures that we took.
So i had to be at the hospital for 6am, surgery was scheduled for 10 am. I was fine waiting, wasn't really scared or anything, more anxious. I got my IV put in and the lady did a horrible job and it had to be done twice and the hole time it was in, it was aching.
Around 9:30 they came to take me into a holding area to wait for the dr to be ready for me. The put a stupid falling hazard thing on my arm because of my knee..lol Dr Graber came out to see if iwas ready to get the show on the road. The rolled me into the room, and blew up the mattress underneath of me and moved me to another bed, this is the very last thing that I remember. Next I woke up in recovery to the sound of the nurse saying "deep breaths, Melissa" over and over again...my breathing was so low that i was setting the alarms off on their machines.
After a few hours in the recovery room they eventually took me to my hotel room. I was sharing a room with a very nice lady, also from Canada. Poor girl, i was so hot that i had the air conditioner on my side turned up so high that she had about 5 or 6 blankets on her.
So, while in the hospital my job was to sip sip sip my water and walk. I would walk down the hall and then come back to my room and sleep. I am actually in quite a bit of pain, and the people who told me that this surgery didn't hurt, are full of crap...lol. I have 7 incisions on my belly and every one of those hurts as well as gas pains, from the gas they shot into me so they could see around. I would give anything to be able to have a big fart right now....lol
Tonight I think i'm going to have some diluted apple juice and jello for dinner....hopefully it stays down

for anyone wondering...fingers crossed, we should be home on Monday

The Numbers Are In

First lets talk about our drive down here. I would have to sit on the seat with my legs hanging out the door, put my good leg in and then lay across the seat and try and get my bad leg in without bending it too much. I'm sure bystanders thought this was a lovely view..oh well..lol My friend Melissa was kind enough to loan me her cane Ted..lol (I'm trying to find him an I Love New York sticker) He definitely made the journey a bit easier with all the walking we had to do to find washrooms. But today my knee was very sore and I decided it would be best if i rented a wheelchair for a couple of days.
OK, here we go the reason for this post. Today I had my pre operative appointments. First was at the hospital to speak with the anesthesiologist. They were super friendly and very informative. The firs thing they did was weigh me....the results....are you ready???.....416!!!! This means I have lost a whopping 50 pounds. This was my pre surgery goal, but I never thought I would be able to reach it...huge pat on the back pour moi.
Next I went to the surgeons office to meet with the nutritionist, to go over my post op diet. She basically told me that the most important thing is to drink drink drink...lots of sugar free liquids.
When we got back to the hotel I took all of my measurements so I can go back and compare once i start losing.

(all are in inches)

Neck - 18

Bust - 68

calf - right- 19
left - 20

Thigh - Right- 30 1/2
Left - 30 1/2
Hip 74

Waist - 64

Bicep - Right - 18
Left - 19

Forearm - Right - 13
Left - 12

I will post new measurements next month to see how I make out.

Surgery is tomorrow at 10am, gotta be at the hospital for 6am so i' m gonna call it a night..bye folks

Someone get me a rocking chair

Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up and every bone and muscle in your body hurts right down to your baby toe???
Well that was me this morning. My knee has been bothering me for awhile now. I had to stop taking my medication for it because of the surgery. So last night it was hurting a bit, i thought I'll sleep it off and be fine in the morning...WRONG.
I went to get out of bed this morning and i couldn't put weight on my right leg. So I thought maybe if i have a hot bath that would help, i shuffled my way into the bathroom, somehow managed to get into the tub. The warm water felt good, but then it was time to get out of the tub...lol I sat there for a few minutes trying to think of the easiest way to get out. I rolled over onto my good knee thinking i would just lift my bad knee over the edge of the tub, and there would be no problem. Well, BIG problem. I was stuck...lol I couldn't lift my sore leg up high enough because it hurt so bad. So here i am stuck in the bathtub with my ass up in the air. I had to call Darren in to lift my leg out of the tub for me, how embarrassing..lol.
After this I took some Tylenol arthritis and tried to go back to sleep, but I was so sore that it was impossible to get comfortable. Darren went to get me some rub for it and some Deep Cold patches (don't waste your money on these, they don't work). My mother suggested that I call my DR to see if they can see me quickly today as we are leaving tomorrow...good idea, except they are on vacation until August 31st. I called all the other Dr's that are in the family of physicians and not one Dr was the their office that day. So I decided that it would be best if i went into the Hospital to see if there was anything they could do for me...cortisone shot..something...anything.
I sat there for 2 freaking hours until I was called to go in. They knew i was there for a sore knee, but they put me in the room at the very end of the hall....a long hall..Anyway, the Dr came in and looked at me, took all of 3 minutes and said there really wasn't anything that he could do because of the surgery, except give me Tylenol 3's with Codine. This I was very OK with, knowing from past experiences with Codine, i know that it makes me high, so if nothing, i will have a very nice sleep tonight.
I am freaking out thinking that they won't do the surgery now, but then i think, they operate on people who are in wheelchairs for crying out loud, so i should be OK.....I'm cool with using a walker after surgery at the hospital to get around. Even if I'm in pain I refuse to let anything stop me from going through with this surgery. So if you see me, and I'm walking like a little old lady, you'll know why lol.

Leaving Tomorrow, gotta say goodbye to my babies

Well, I'm leaving tomorrow and i have to say goodbye to my babies for a week. Griffin is going to be staying with my cousin who so graciously offered to watch him...Thanks Brianna. Murphy is going to stay at the farm with my in-laws and I bet he will love every minute of it, being back there where he can go outside whenever he wants and run!!! Its going to be a rough week, i've never been away from either of my dogs for longer than one night. I'll probably be calling home everyday to check on them..lol Maybe I'll have to buy them a special 'I'm sorry i left you" treat while we are in New York.
I had my last meal last night, and it was the best meal i've ever had..lol. Ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, and carrots. I even had a little piece of a nanaimo bar. Today the Liquid diet starts, bring on the jello, broth, and juice. YUM. As much as i know the next 3 days are going to suck, and i'm probably going to be cranky as hell, I know it will be worth it in the end. You have to do a 3 day liquid diet before surgery like this to shrink the size of your liver so that the Dr can see things better when he is inside you with the scopes.
On top of having to do this liquid diet, my knee is killing me and I can't take anything for it. I had to stop my anti inflammatory last month. I can't walk very well right now because of the pain. Darren is going to pick me up some sort of rub today, hopefully it will work and give me some relief, I need to be mobile so I can start packing..lol

Some good news....My good friend from high school had her first baby yesterday after a very long labor. A little girl named Kylee, weighing 6 pounds 13 ounces. Congratulations Catie and Colin, I can't wait to meet the little one when I get home.

5 Days to go!!!!

So I have 5 days to go until my surgery. We are leaving on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday will be full of appointments and then Thursday is the big day. I'll be honest with you, i'm scared shitless...lol Don't get me wrong, i'm totally excited, but i'm so afraid of being put to sleep, afraid that something will go wrong. I know its all just in my head, but i can't seem to get my head to shut up.
I've been on a diet since I saw Dr Graber for my consultation 2 months ago, and since then i've lost 35 pounds, ON MY OWN!!. I'm so proud of myself for this.

My life so far

I'll tell you a little bit about myself. I've battled my weight my entire life. I've always been the 'fat friend'. I've had very low self esteem my whole life because of my weight and the way people have treated me. It seems like discrimination against overweight/obese people is socially acceptable. There are so many things that I can't do that "regular" sized people don't even think twice about. For example, riding a roller coaster, going to a restaurant and sitting comfortably in a booth, I love swimming but there is no way i would ever go to the beach and wear a bathing suit..i haven't done that in about 7 yrs, I won't fly anywhere because I'm too embarrassed to ask for a seat belt extender and this really sucks because both of my sisters are Pilots and i've never been in a plane with them. :( I started looking into weight loss surgery about a year ago. I know that this is my last chance at a real life. I am no longer going to let food control me and I am going to take my life back
2 yrs ago when i got married i weighed 290 pounds and I'm 5'7. Shortly after that i had to go on medication for anxiety, depression, panic attacks and agoraphobia. One of the medications they put me on was called Zyprexa and a major side effect is weight gain. In about a year and a half of being on this medication my weight went up to 452. CRAZY!!! It seemed like it happened over night. All of a sudden i was getting out of breath all the time, i couldn't stand for very long, all i wanted to do was sleep because i was so tired. Even rolling over in bed had become a task. I couldn't even shave my own legs, I would have to get Darren to help me. Then i got a really bad rash under my stomach and had to go to the hospital because it wasn't healing and was only getting worse, and I put it off for too long because i was embarrassed. The Dr ordered that a home care nurse come into my house 4 times a week to clean the wound and change my dressings. This was the most humiliating experience for me. This was something that I used to do for other people and having to have it done for me was horrible. So I talked to my Family DR about having a RNY Gastric Bypass and thankfully she was 110% behind me and thought it was a great idea. So the process began. I chose Dr Graber, a surgeon in New York. (weight times in Ontario are far too long).I had no idea i had gained so much weight until I had to get weighed because OHIP needed an accurate weight before they would approve me for out of country surgery. That day was absolutely devastating, 452 pounds how does that happen?? i was pissed at myself, embarrassed, I felt lost, like i had gone to far and there was no way I'd ever find my way back. I spent a few days in bed crying, and then i just told myself that enough is enough, I'd done this to myself and it was up to me to change it. I have tried every diet known to man...lol So, this is my last shot and I'm going to make it work....i have to make it work.
I feel like I'm really prepared for the surgery, and my new life. I can't wait to be able to give away all my fat clothes and go shopping with my skinny sisters...lol I can't wait to be able to start a family, right now i can't get pregnant, my husband and i have been trying for almost 4 yrs.