Yesterday was a pretty big day for me as I went to my three-month checkup post-lapband surgery and also visited the audiologist at Mercy Hospital to get my shiny new hearing aids. Yes, I'm officially an old woman.
I'll address the hearing aids first. Hearing loss is something I have dealt with pretty much my whole life, not my own hearing, but my mother's. She has worn hearing aids since her mid-thirties and has had a cochlear implant in her right ear for the past five years. My little four-year-old cousin also just got hearing aids when doctors realized she had severe nerve damage in her ears a few weeks ago. Hearing loss runs in my family and I've known for about 7 or more years that I, too, would need to do something about it.
I went for a hearing test back in November and have severe to profound hearing loss in both ears. My left ear is slightly worse than my right. I had been teaching classes at work and had to start telling the class participants to wave me down if they had a questions or I would just keep talking. I realized that when I had to start telling people that I didn't hear well, that it was time to get it looked at. We ended up moving back to Missouri before I could get my hearing aids so I went to the audiologist at Mercy in May to get the ball rolling again. One of the main reasons I went to Mercy is because that is where my Uncle also went to get his the year before. We have the same insurance and he ended up not having to pay as much as he thought so I was hoping they could do the same for me.
Unfortunately, I won't know how much the hospital will cover in "write-offs," but it is a possibility they will cover more than the measly $400 from my insurance. EACH hearing aid is $3,500 so you can imagine after already paying more than $6,000 for lapband surgery, we are really hoping to get more than just $400 taken off of a $7,000+ hearing aid bill. Yesterday, I only had to pay a $500 deposit and then once they process the insurance and everything else, we will receive the remaining balance that we owe. Hoping it's a low number or else Mom and Dad will be having us as their roommates for a lot longer than originally planned. :-)
Now on to my three month check-up. In some ways this past month has been pretty disappointing... mainly on the scale. I am only down three pounds since last month. Though there are many areas that have changed pretty drastically over this past month that are keeping me motivated and excited about the future. It's hard for me to really picture myself at my goal weight of 150 lbs. It just seems so far away. Heck, the 100s seem so far away, but I know I will get there eventually.
I feel like I'm just waiting... doing a lot of physical activity while I wait, but waiting nonetheless. And waiting is exactly what my mom and I did yesterday morning. My appointment was scheduled for 9a and we finally saw the doctor at 11 for my adjustment!! We weren't very happy. Though once we were able to see the dietician and doctor, everything went pretty smoothly. Even though I am disappointed in the lack of weight coming off the scale, they say I am making progress and doing great. Though they do agree that I am not yet restricted because I am getting hungry more often than I should. And I'm eating a full plate of food-- eventually I'll get full off of much less than that.
So the adjustment this time was a little different than the last two. The doctor said they went to a seminar where they said it's a good idea to take out all the saline when you do the adjustment so you can see how much is in there (what your baseline is) and then put it back in. I'm so glad they did that! Turns out that there was already 3.25cc in my band from surgery so when I thought I only had 2.5 in my band that holds 15, I actually had 5.75! I've been reading online where most people are in "the green zone" around 6-8 cc in their bands. That means I am so much closer to being there than I thought.
Since 5.75 still wasn't giving me much restriction at all, she went ahead and put .75 more in. So now I'm sitting at 6.5 cc and am hoping to get full off of much less. I only ate soup yesterday and had mashed potatoes for breakfast this morning because I want to ease into eating solid foods just in case I feel restriction that I haven't felt before.
So while the scale didn't necessarily move as much as I wanted it to, I have made a ton of progress with losing inches, firming up and getting in shape. I have now exercised 73 days in a row on my way to my 90-day goal and I am definitely getting stronger through my crossfit workouts. So instead of just going off the scale, below are the inches I've lost in my three month journey so far:
Totals Lost:
Weight: 30
Thighs: 5.25 inches
Waist: 6.5 inches
Hips: 4.5 inches
Arms: 4.5 inches
Looking forward to the month ahead and hopefully moving the scale along to reflect what I'm feeling on the inside and starting to look like on the outside.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Running & Plantar Faciitis
Well not too much has changed since my last post, but thought I would update you. The scale has been bouncing around a bit over the past two weeks, but I am down 30 pounds this week and continue to exercise daily. Sometimes multiple times a day.
I either run or go to crossfit in the morning and one of the two in the evenings, unless Spike and I are playing tennis or disc golf. My hip hasn't hurt me since I realized my balance ball chair was the problem and switched it out for a normal chair in my office.
Though now my foot is killing me since I started running. I finally made myself run a mile and a half without walking-- big whoop, I know, but it took me a while to start running again-- and am hoping to progress to where I can start running in some races again soon. But because I am running again and still weigh 221 pounds, I believe I have developed Plantar Fasciitis (Thanks, Brooke, for looking it up and for motivating me to run more than a mile!).
According to livestrong.com, "Plantar Fasciitis is one of the most common conditions causing pain in the bottoms of runners' feet. Pain is prevalent from the front of the heel and along the arch, and is typically most acute first thing in the morning or when you get up after sitting a while. Fascia connect the heel bone to the ball of the foot; plantar faciitis results when the fascia becomes overstretched due to improper weight distribution from the heel to the ball."
Treatments include buying running shoes with good midfoot stability, stretching the band of tissue between the ball and heel, rubbing the foot with a golf ball and also doing calf stretches. I've tried the golf ball, but it still hurts after I go for a run so will be going shoe shopping this weekend to find the perfect pair of running shoes to help ease the pain.
I also am not able to take any anti-inflammatory medication so just need to suck it up and stop being a baby. Thursday will be day 60 of exercising in a row so I'm not going to let a little foot pain stop me from getting my workout on. :-)
In other news, I did have my first spell of vomiting (sorry, it's gross) from eating too fast last week. I was in a hurry to eat breakfast so I could get on a conference call and did not chew my food up good enough. I was having trouble breathing due to a piece of food stuck in my band and finally after an hour in the bathroom, it came back up. It was NOT a good feeling, but I just need to be more careful when I eat and make sure no matter what the situation is that I don't let myself get in too big of a hurry.
With all that being said, I hope that you get the picture that weight loss surgery is anything but easy. The band that was placed inside me does not automatically make me lose weight, it's the decisions I make each and every day that allow me to progress in this journey. The band is only a tool I can use, even though I'm not to the point where the band is really working to its full potential yet-- that won't happen until they fill it a few more times with saline so that even smaller portions of food will make me feel full.
Next adjustment (or fill) is on June 25th-- that gives me two weeks to shed a few more pounds before my three month "Bandiversary." Thanks for checking in!
I either run or go to crossfit in the morning and one of the two in the evenings, unless Spike and I are playing tennis or disc golf. My hip hasn't hurt me since I realized my balance ball chair was the problem and switched it out for a normal chair in my office.
Though now my foot is killing me since I started running. I finally made myself run a mile and a half without walking-- big whoop, I know, but it took me a while to start running again-- and am hoping to progress to where I can start running in some races again soon. But because I am running again and still weigh 221 pounds, I believe I have developed Plantar Fasciitis (Thanks, Brooke, for looking it up and for motivating me to run more than a mile!).
According to livestrong.com, "Plantar Fasciitis is one of the most common conditions causing pain in the bottoms of runners' feet. Pain is prevalent from the front of the heel and along the arch, and is typically most acute first thing in the morning or when you get up after sitting a while. Fascia connect the heel bone to the ball of the foot; plantar faciitis results when the fascia becomes overstretched due to improper weight distribution from the heel to the ball."
Treatments include buying running shoes with good midfoot stability, stretching the band of tissue between the ball and heel, rubbing the foot with a golf ball and also doing calf stretches. I've tried the golf ball, but it still hurts after I go for a run so will be going shoe shopping this weekend to find the perfect pair of running shoes to help ease the pain.
I also am not able to take any anti-inflammatory medication so just need to suck it up and stop being a baby. Thursday will be day 60 of exercising in a row so I'm not going to let a little foot pain stop me from getting my workout on. :-)
In other news, I did have my first spell of vomiting (sorry, it's gross) from eating too fast last week. I was in a hurry to eat breakfast so I could get on a conference call and did not chew my food up good enough. I was having trouble breathing due to a piece of food stuck in my band and finally after an hour in the bathroom, it came back up. It was NOT a good feeling, but I just need to be more careful when I eat and make sure no matter what the situation is that I don't let myself get in too big of a hurry.
With all that being said, I hope that you get the picture that weight loss surgery is anything but easy. The band that was placed inside me does not automatically make me lose weight, it's the decisions I make each and every day that allow me to progress in this journey. The band is only a tool I can use, even though I'm not to the point where the band is really working to its full potential yet-- that won't happen until they fill it a few more times with saline so that even smaller portions of food will make me feel full.
Next adjustment (or fill) is on June 25th-- that gives me two weeks to shed a few more pounds before my three month "Bandiversary." Thanks for checking in!
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