Sorry, Folks

I know there are some of you who read this blog faithfully and are wondering why I am not posting with the regularity I was. I guess I haven't felt I have much that is uplifting to say. But, as one friend told me, "Write for yourself and don't care so much about readers." I guess that for myself, I have felt lazy and tired and that is not my best writing atmosphere. I am having some trouble adapting to the new, so called, eating. Actually, all I can do right now is drink. I am so bored with it and occassionally feel very like a manatee. Trying to get in 64 ounces a day into a stomach that can hold only a half ounce at a time is no small feat. My stomach is growling now and I don't know what it means! Used to mean, "Hey, you're hungry!" HOW can a person be full and hungry at the same time? I hate the taste of soy and the feel of mushy in my mouth. Wah, wah, wah....Anne

Home Again

Well folks, here's the deal with gastric bypass surgery: they put you on a liquid diet for two weeks, then take away 80% of your stomach capacity by punching little holes through your belly and sewing things into different pathways. Then when you think all is hunky dokey, they send you home to lurch around like an old lady ape. I had very little pain the first day, until I got home and tried to go to bed. I had to spend the night in my recliner, getting up every two hours to pee and every four hours for pain medicine. I felt like Quasimoto on his way to the bell tower. I really have no desire for food at all and am having to force myself to eat. Seems like a drastic way to diet, doesn't it? Oh, and by the way, I weighed 5 pounds more when I got home than when I left the house the day before! Where's the justice in that? I know that I will be feeling better soon and will start to lose weight, so I hope my future posts are sunnier. Love to all of you! Anne

It's all in the back!

As of today, I have lost 10 pounds on this stinking liquid diet. I can't tell a difference in my pants, but I can wear a sweater that was too tight just a few weeks ago. I wore it then and it showed off all my back fat. Now it is smooth back there. Who ever heard of that? I must have a lot of fat in my back! I am now to the point that I am counting down the days. Four more to go! I had my pre-op physical yesterday and came out with a clean bill, so that is the last thing down. The kids go to Mom and Dad's on Monday night and then Tuesday is it. If I live on this stupid liquid until then. Anne

Who Cares?

Wow, on my last entry, all I wanted to do was crunch something and now I don't really even want the food I can have. Maybe this is a side effect of this liquid diet. Last night, I made myself some corn soup that I really liked the first two times I ate it, but last night it made me feel gross just smelling it. I am less than a week away from my surgery now and have lost nine pounds. I'm not really feeling a difference in my clothes though. I am feeling a heightened sense of emotion. I was really irritable yesterday and I saw someone make blood pudding on a weird cooking show and I felt like I wanted to cry and puke at the grossness of it. Today I am depressed. Yuck. I am eating like I need to, so don't anyone worry, I am just not enjoying it at all. I have a feeling that my emotions are going to be strange for a while. Thanks for all the support everybody. Lurve you all. Anne

I Want to Eat!

OK, it has been only 2 1/2 days on this liquid diet, but I want something "crunchy" (said as if by Templeton on the old version of "Charlotte's Web", for those of you who don't know him, think Paul Lind). I have only been hungry a few times, mainly in the middle of the night, but right now, I could eat a whole bag of kettle cooked potato chips! As Steven used to say, "I need something to put my teeth on!" How will I last another 12 days?? One at a time, I guess. Anne

Before

This is my official before picture. I say official because I like it alright. This is actually a rare occurence these days. Most of the time, I want to throw out pictures of myself. Jeff took it with our Fuji digital camera that we bought back in 2001. In terms of digital photography, it is a bit of a dinosaur. It is huge and eats batteries at an amazing rate, but it still works, so we'll hang on to it. I won't say how much I weigh, suffice to say, too much! I want to print out one of these and write on it with a grease pencil like they do on that glycemic index diet commercial. The one where the person crosses out any part of their body that they want to trim and then in the after picture, their body is just that shape! How do they do that? I'd like to not be a rectangle on top and a triangle on the bottom. Note the cute new hairdo though. It is stacked in the back and I really like it, so I think it will stay for the duration. I need something to remain static. So, "Hi everyone!" Anne

New Beginning

As many of you know, I have had problems with my right knee and with obesity for most of my life. After many years of knee pain, weight loss attempts (and weight gains) and then almost ten years of saying "forget this!" to dieting, I have made a big decision (no pun intended). I have been working hard for the last six months to fulfill the requirements of my bariatric clinic and my insurance company and yesterday the date was set for surgery. I am having gastric bypass surgery on the 18th of March. While I am excited and no stranger to this surgery (my dad had it in 2003), I am still feeling some trepidation with the decision. It is a big surgery and any surgery carries risk. I feel that I have done my research and the program I am in is a really good one. The support and knowledge they have given me has been phenomenal. I will probably be using this blog for a journal of my experiences with the surgery and the new life I will have afterward. I still intend to write on other topics. My weight has never, nor (I hope) will ever be, the only thing in my life worth keeping up with and communicationg about. That would be a bore, wouldn't it? I will be posting a before picture before too long. Say goodbye to "puffy" Anne. Love to you all. Anne