tuesday is a better day!

oh my goodness i feel so much better today.  last night swallowing was absolutely horrible and i thought my head was going to explode from pressure.  today i can swallow and all head pressure is gone.  GREAT antibiotic that the dr. sent out ~ it should be ~ the retail price of this medicine Levaquin is $135.99 for FIVE tablets!!  (so thankful for insurance)

yesterday had Labrada for breakfast (should call it brunch, because i drink it at work and it lasts around 2 hours) then for dinner something new, cytosport tangerine, which was tasty.  most days the two protein drinks i drink have 80 total grams of protein, so i generally don't have a protein drink at lunch, but work on getting in liquids.  i find that the protein drinks are really filling and in fact have a tendency to give me a bit of indigestion.  

weight loss after 7 days on pre-op liquids:  21 pounds!

doing well on liquid pre-op

... but have a horrible cold - even have pink eye.  i hope my dr. calls in some powerful meds to kick this in the butt before my surgery!  i seriously do not want to be coughing next tuesday!!

sunday i had a new protein drink - the cinnamon dessert protein added to the chai tea latte. that was really tasty.  i might make it with more water next time as it was pretty thick. but it had a very good taste.  my total intake for sunday was 515 calories (not counting a ton of sugar free throat lozenges), 14 fats (zero trans fats) 23 carbs and 75g protein. 

total pounds lost to date 18!

5 days on pre-op liquids

i have now completed 5 days on pre-op liquids.  yesterday i didn't get very much in protein wise.  first i put some of the "flavorless" whey protein in a zero power-aid and it isn't flavorless.  it wasn't horrible, but you could certainly tell something had been added to the power-aid.  maybe i will try adding this to a beverage that has more flavor, which will cover up the "flavorless" HA protein.  anyway i probably got 40g. protein in yesterday. didn't have anything at all in the afternoon or last night because we were moving sarah's stuff home from college (she comes home wednesday - HAPPY momma) and by the time i got home the cold i have really took over and i felt like poop so i ended up sleeping, coughing, sucking throat lozenges all night long. not going to church today because i will only be annoying to anyone i sit near with all my coughing and germs.  going to get hold of the doctor first thing tomorrow, because i certainly don't want to have this cough when i have surgery.  

total weight loss to date 16 pounds ~

3 days on liquid diet

... and i must say that it has been okay ... not great... but okay.  this morning before leaving for work i poured a labrada chocolate ice cream protein into a bowl and put it in the freezer - gonna have ice cream for dinner tonight!  oh yeah.

yesterday i had whey gourmet arctic cappuccino frappe for breakfast and labrada vanilla ice cream protein for dinner then a little later a half bottle of blueberry isopure. yesterday's totals are:  600 calories, 16 fats (zero trans fats) 17 carbs and 102g protein.  oh i also had around 4 sugar free throat lozenges and 1 sugar free pop cycle - not sure of calories/carbs but can't be very much.

total pounds lost TO DATE:  11  !!  that's in 3 days woo hoo.  i realize that the bulk of that is probably water weight, but hey that's 11 pounds off of my old bones!

where i am mentally

since the pre-op diet is self imposed and not required by my surgeon i must be honest in saying that watching all the burger commercials on tv last night really made me stop and think. but i am thankful to God that HE has control of my willpower right now and all i did was give those thoughts back to HIM and i realized that i am doing the right thing.  it hasn't been difficult at all fixing meals for terry and alex or being around all the junk food in the house.  although when sarah gets back home i know she wants to get started on south beach, so it will be a good idea to purge a lot of that junk for everyone's benefit.  

i also know that i need to see this as preparation for the surgery and that anything that i do now will help the actual process and recovery time.  i am so thankful to God for the way He has changed my thinking about food and the perspective He is giving to me!

results of day 2 liquid diet

yesterday i pretty much had the same as my first day as far as the labrada protein for breakfast and dinner.  i need to switch it up a little though because last night i wasn't enjoying the thickness of the shake as much as i did the first day.  so, right after drinking the labrada chocolate ice cream protein i poured almost half of the isopure blueberry in a glass over ice and it was just what i needed to get that thick milky feeling out of my mouth and settle my stomach. (lots of belching with the labrada protein)  i guess you could call that cleansing your palate.  

yesterdays totals:  100 g protein, 600 calories, 0 trans fats (18 total fats) 18 carbs.  and about the same amount of water, probably around 42 ounces of just water.  this is really difficult for me to get more water in.  

as of this morning i have lost a total of 5 pounds

day 1 liquid diet results

made it through day one and it really wasn't a problem at all.  when i needed to chew i just grabbed some gum a couple of times.  i had labrada vanilla ice cream drink in the morning and labrada chocolate ice cream drink for dinner.  and a LOT of water - seems like a lot, but i still didn't get in all that i should be drinking. probably had around 46 ounces  of water. my other totals were: 80 g protein; 520 calories; 0 trans fats but total fats 18g;18 carbs. oh and i lost 4 pounds!

A Grand Plan

i absolutely love it when my daily devotion is right on target for what is going on in my life!!  what a blessing to hear from God this way. as mentioned in my previous post for today this is the first day of my liquid pre-op diet and i have to share what God wrote just for me today!

"i will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; i will guide you with my eye." psalm 32:8  "God has plans for your life that are far grander than you can imagine.  but He won't force you to follow His will; to the contrary, He has given you free will, the ability to make choices and decisions on your own.  the most important decision of your life is, of course, your commitment to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour...  be patient, keep praying and keep seeking His will for your life.  when you do, you'll be amazed at the marvelous things that an all-powerful, all knowing God can do."

pre-op diet day one

dr. scott did not put me on the pre-op liquid diet, but i decided to do this on my own in order to put me in better shape for surgery.  taking off a few pounds before surgery and to shrink my liver.  this morning i started my bariatric vitamins too.  for breakfast i am having a labrada vanilla ice cream protein shake - tastes pretty good too.  filled a nalgene bottle with ice and added the protein.  

melting pot ~~ yum!

last night we had an awesome dinner at the melting pot ~ was one of two "last suppers". tonight terry and i are taking alex somewhere.  it's interesting, when you are thinking about eating basically your last BIG meal and possibly eating someplace for the last time it's really hard to decide.  today i have been thinking way too much about what to have for lunch too ~

hmm,  maybe i am getting to a perfect place mentally where good isn't really that significant.

wouldn't that be wonderful!  

ordered LOTS of protein supplements

yesterday i placed my first order with bariatriceating.com = hope everything is as good as people say it is.  although my doctor didn't put me on a pre-op diet i have decided to do the 2 weeks liquids anyway.  it will shrink my liver and just put me in better shape for surgery, building up my protein and vitamins.  over the next 6 days we are going to go to all the restaurants that are either my favorites or places i have always wanted to go to!!  

insurance approval - again

just called blue cross blue shield and on 4/11 the approval determination was made for the procedure at depaul!  so, now it's just three weeks away - eeek!

cardiologist approval

thursday afternoon teresa (nurse) received all the necessary approvals and reports (stress test, ekgs, echocardiagram, 2 heart monitors) from dr. nanda.

insurance update

earlier in the week i found out that depaul had to resubmit my paperwork for insurance approval.  because of the "sent to india" issue the first time around i was pretty much prepared for this taking a month for approval.  which is not an issue since my surgery isn't until may 6th.  wednesday teresa (nurse) said that they sent everything on march 26th.  thursday i called blue cross blue shield mainly to confirm that the paperwork would go through the same processing. (very interesting that she had never heard about documents going to india, nor had her supervisor) she checked my status in the system and saw that in fact the SSM DePaul documents were scanned into the system on March 30th!!

wednesday all day class at DePaul

on wednesday i was a part of a "class" of 6 people who are ready for surgery at our weight loss center. it was very informative ~ nurse got everyones stats; met with doctor; the nurse spoke for around 45 minutes; we watched a recording by dr. scott explaining the process a little more in depth explaining the risks involved in weight loss surgery;  there was a personal trainer who came in and talked about the importance of establishing a good workout program; then we each met with the nurse to turn in additional paperwork given to us that morning and she set up our surgery date.  since i am waiting for my daughter to come home from college i took tuesday may 6th!  we then went down into the hospital and had a pulmonary test, ekg, chest r-rays, and last they took 8 tubes of blood for a complete blood work-up.  (i think that since the beginning of this year i have given that hospital probably a gallon of my blood! :-)