My new life as a bariatric patient

This will hopefully be my longest post but you have to have a starting point.

Having my sleep study done

     Like many I have fought weight issues through most of my adult life.  I tried many different diets and fads and nothing seemed to help me maintain the weight loss.  At the beginning of 2014 my partner, Paul, and I started exploring the possibility of weight loss surgery.  Around July we learned about Bariatric Specialist of NC.  We went to one of their weight loss seminars and decided to move forward.  After really thinking about it we decided to pick a relatively new procedure called SIPS.  It is essentially a hybrid procedure between having gastric bypass and gastric sleeve and it was showing a higher success rate than the previously more popular Gastric Bypass procedure.  You can actually read more about it here.  From that point I started the long process of completing my pre-work.  This involved, blood test, psychological exams, sleep studies, as well as a few other test and then finally meeting with my surgeon to pick, plan, and schedule my surgery as well as figuring out funding for said surgery since my insurance did not cover the procedure.  I also had to get everything in line to take a two month medical leave from work.  I took the maximum amount of time because I wanted to make sure I really had my new eating and living habits down before I returned to my crazy job of retail management.

Me at my heaviest (397 LBs)
On December 6th 2014

     On December 6th I had my final appointment with my surgeon and my surgery was scheduled for December 17th.  That night I started getting everything in line for the 17th.  I had to start a weight loss shake diet the next day to help shrink my liver so they would have room to move around.  I put things in place at work for my leave of absence and prepared myself for what is quite possibly one of the biggest events in my life.

At the hospital, about to be
taken back for surgery

   
     On December 17th Paul and I headed to the hospital and I was prepped and put under for my procedure.  During my pre-work it was determined that I had gallstones pretty bad so my gallbladder was set to be removed at the same time.  The bariatric surgery went extremely well but my gallbladder turned out to be a very annoying pain.  Unfortunately my gallbladder was severely infected.  My surgeon actually used the term "decayed" to describe it.  It turns out that I had had multiple infections over the years and it resulted in my gallbladder burning my liver.  This caused problems with my gallbladder removal as my liver had trouble healing and sealing after the removal of my gallbladder.  The day after my surgery I was released from the hospital and sent to my surgeons main office where they preformed a scan to check on things.  This is when they realized that things weren't sealing properly from my gallbladder.  This resulted in me being admitted to another hospital to have a drainage bag put in to help drain bile while my liver attempted to heal.  After a few days they still weren't seeing the results they were hoping for and I was transferred to yet another hospital where my surgeon and a specialist worked together to go in yet again and put some stints in to help with my recover.  Finally on December 23rd I was released to go home.  For a little while I was actually worried that I would be spending Christmas in the hospital.

Finally home and drained!

     From that point I started to have issues with swelling as well as breathing and moving issues.  After having a week full of surgery my body had taken on a lot of water and I had fluid everywhere including my lungs.  On December 30th I went back to BSNC for my first follow up where finally had my drainage bag removed.  We learned that since my surgery I had lost 40 pounds.  My surgeon also gave me permission to take my diarrhetic, which I had previously been taking for blood pressure before my surgery.  That must have been exactly what my body needed because by the next night I was able to go for a walk with Paul and my dog Sirius without discomfort and my breathing became much better.
 
     After that I started 2015 by learning my new eating habits and closely following my doctors orders.  After another month and a half I was cleared to return to work and started back on February 17th.

Me early 2014 compared to April 2015.

     Its now four months to the day since my surgery and my life is completely different.  I am now down a total of 130 pounds.  Im wearing pants that are 6" smaller than I was wearing in December as well as shirts that are two sizes smaller.  Ive been this big before and still have somewhere between 60-90 pounds id like to loose so that I am at my ideal body weight for my height.  The best part though is that for the first time I am completely comfortable in my body.  It use to depress me to step on the scale or look in the mirror and now all I see is the positive changes that are happening.  Ive spent a lot of time researching other blogs for recipes that fit into my new dietary needs and have loved the results.  This lead me to the decision to start this blog where I can document my experiences as well as share the tools I use in my new life as well as share some rather delicious recipes that anyone can enjoy.  Paul has actually loved everything I have made from Chili to Oreo Cheesecake bites!  Hope you all enjoy and keep up!