1st Post- Day 3 of Pre-Op Liquid Diet

 I thought that it would be a good idea to write a blog about my experience with the Lap Band. So that I can reflect on my journey, share with friends, family, my kids. Although my kids are only 4 and almost 7 months, one day I would like for them to realize how hard I worked at being around for them longer.


First, my kids are Serenity and Scarlett. Serenity is 4 and Scarlett is almost 7 months old. They are the most important things in my life. I realize at the weight I am today that my health could take the toll. I can't stand the thought of being here any shorter a length of time than I should be, just because of my weight.

Second, my husband is David. We have been married 2 years and  3 months now. He has been my saving grace on more than one occasion. I was in about an 18/20 when we first met. Serenity was about 16 months old and I was still married to her father at the time. That was just a bad situation all around. I started dating David in August of 2007. Serenity's dad Joshua, and I had been separated since November 2006. But, I guess he thought I would wait on him forever to grow up and didn't expect me to move on. Well to make a long story short, Joshua ended up going to jail in Oct 2007-Nov 2009. During that time, I filed for divorce and our divorce was final March 14, 2008. David and I got married July 31, 2008. With all the stress going on, I gained weight and on our wedding day I weighed in at 251. So, David married me at a high weight so at least I feel like I can only get better for him ;)

In August of 2009, we found out we were pregnant with Scarlett. Prior to this we tried to get pregnant for about a year. I found out during this time that I have PCOS and that makes it really hard to lose weight and really hard to get pregnant. BUT if you can loose the weight the chances of getting pregnant is much better. So we stopped trying for a while so I could loose some weight. I lost about 40 lbs and the day I found out I was pregnant I was at 208. The day I delivered I was 264! :(

I started looking into Lap Band surgery in August 2010. I called my surgeons office to find out what I needed to do to start the process. I was told I had to go to a seminar before I can even have a consultation with the surgeon. I asked if there was anything else I could do in the mean time to get the process going and she told me that the surgeon requires me to do two support groups and I could go ahead and do those. They are only held a few times per month so I wanted to get that done right away. Since Scarlett was born in April, my out of pocket max and deductible had already been met for the year and if I could get this surgery done before Dec. 31st then I wouldn't have to pay anything out of pocket except for the co-pays and program fee.

I went to my first support group on August 21, 2010. It was about plastic surgery. That was pretty scary to see all of these pictures of people that have had the lap band and went on to get plastic surgery. BUT, I had to say, they looked fantastic! They didn't even look like the same person! I finally had my consultation with Dr. Oliver Whipple on Sept 2, 2010. He was great. He was very considerate and answered all of my questions. After that day I was on my way. I had completed a series of things. A psych evaluations, a sleep study, an upper GI, lab work, another support group ect. When my paperwork was submitted to United Health Care I called them EVERYDAY! It took them 5 days to give me my approval number. I immediately called my surgery scheduler and gave her my approval number. She called UHC while I was still on the phone to verify it and gave me my surgery date of November 16, 2010.  Today is Nov. 3rd. I am on day 3 of my pre-op liquid diet.

Now, most pre-op diets aren't the same. Mine is protein shakes, broth, sugar free jello, sugar free Popsicles. Day one I cheated and had 3 pieces of turkey bologna. I dont think that was too bad but I felt guilty for eating it. Day two I did great. Didn't cheat at all. I had headaches all day though. Today, Day 3 and I'm doing good. It is 11:40am and I have had two of my protein shakes so far. I am about to go to lunch at 1 and I have a jello and a beef broth packet ready. Tonight I will have a popsicle or two and probably some more broth. I still have time in there some where for one or two more protein shakes.

On day 1, I weight in at 251.4 (that day I did labs so that is the weight from their scale. My house scale said 251) I feel like I'm right back where I started from on our wedding day. I took my measurements that morning and did some pictures so I have a good "before" picture. On day 2, I weighed 248. I couldn't believe I lost like 3 pounds in one day! (I know its water weight!) Today on Day 3, I weighed 246. So I have lost 5.4 lbs in just three days! Whoo Hoo! Even though I know its just water weight it definitely helps with motivation.

My mom has been sending me these great little texts every few hours. "You can do it" "I'm so proud of you"...I bet she has NO idea how much that is helping! But I did tell her to keep sending them to me ;) I'm a member of www.lapbandtalk.com and reading posts on there help me too. I also put a reminder in my calendar at work that says "Remember, it will all be worth it when you wake up after surgery BANDED, because you followed the diet". All these little motivators are really helping me. I like to look at the before and after pictures too. There are some women that start out way bigger than me and yet they get down to 130-150! I would LOVE to be at 150! The lowest I can remember being in high school was around 165-170. And I thought I was fat then! lol.

Anyways, I thought it would be cool to have this just basically to reflect on how much I have gone through to get my life back. As the saying goes:

Being Fat is Hard
Losing weight is Hard
Maintaining weight is Hard
Pick your hard!

 I think that's just awesome.