Four Months Post-Op: Is this thing working?

Zero.  That's how many pounds I have lost in the past month.  Before you start to yell at me saying that I can't just go off the number on the scale, "muscle weighs more than fat," and I need to stop being a Negative Nancy, please know that I'm not.  I'm stating the facts. That I haven't lost any weight this past month.

While I know I have lost inches and feel better about my health than I did a month ago, it still makes me question this whole process and whether the lapband is going to work for me.  The difference between lapband and other weight loss surgeries like gastric bypass and the sleeve is that the others result in immediate and drastic weight loss right from the start.  The moment after surgery, their stomach is smaller and they feel immediate restriction with whatever they put into their bodies.

With Lapband, it's a different story.  You may lose a large amount of weight at the beginning since you are on an all liquid diet for ten days, but once your stomach is no longer inflamed from surgery, you no longer feel that restriction.  I have been able to really eat whatever I want and large amounts of it.  The goal with the lapband is that with each adjustment you start to feel more restriction to where you eat less and you stay full and satisfied for longer periods of time between meals.  You keep going back to the surgeon get more saline put into the band until you are in what they call "The Green Zone."   Here's an illustration below that might explain this a little better:

So where I have been in the past four months is the yellow zone.  I get hungry between meals, am able to eat large portions and, well, haven't lost any weight this past month.  Currently sitting at 221 compared to 251 when I started.   What that really says is the thirty pounds I have lost is really due to the exercise and workouts I have put in and then also eating a bit less than I was.  I may have cut out some of the bad stuff like soda and alcohol (except for a weekend or two), but my eating behaviors haven't changed as much as I thought they would.  Or as much as they probably will once I'm in the Green Zone.

Four-Month Appointment:
So I went back to the doctor on Tuesday where they agreed I wasn't where I needed to be since I have only lost three pounds in the past two months. But in those two months, I've lost over three inches in my waist so obviously I'm making progress, just not on the scale.

They agreed to put another 1cc of saline into my band making it 7.5 total in my band that holds 15. Immediately following my fill, I could already feel restriction that I have not felt since surgery.  I'm not sure if I'm in the green zone yet, but I definitely feel the band working a bit better than it has been.

Here's a view of the progress so far.  You can't necessarily tell a huge difference between May and July, but it is still progress.

Non-Scale Victories(NSV):
One of the greatest things that has happened over the past four months is at some point I stopped being completely self-conscious about how I look(I mean, I shared those pictures above, am I right?!).  If you go in my closet you will find an embarrassing number of cardigans and jackets that I have worn in the past to disguise my weight.  I was disgusted by the fat on my arms and how tight some of my clothes would fit, and cardigans were my way to hide my flaws.  

Since I had surgery, I have been to two weddings, to both of which I wore sleeveless and strapless dresses with no cardigan at all.  Even though I am definitely far from where I want to be, I am finally happy in my own skin.  When I get dressed up or even when I'm wearing workout clothes (which is 98% of the time), I am finally proud of where I am and know that I am the best I can possibly be in that moment.

So I'm going to continue to set goals, like I did with exercising 180 days in a row-- on day 103 today-- and take things one day at a time.  And no matter what that number is on the scale, I'm going to keep going and eventually I'll get to where I want to be.

The Impossible: 90 Days of Exercise

Ninety-one days ago I made a decision.  I was going to work out 90 days in a row.  Up to this point, I had just started walking outside again after having lapband surgery on March 25th and was slowly getting back to feeling normal.  I knew I needed to set a goal.  A challenging, yet reachable, goal.

And in doing so, I found out something I wasn't expecting.  IT'S IMPOSSIBLE.   Not impossible to workout 90 days in a row, but impossible to stop.  

__________________________________

How I Got Started:
I didn't just start running a 5k on the first day.  Actually, I haven't even done that yet (I'm sure it will be coming up here shortly though.)  I started by walking.  I didn't want to push it too hard at first because I was nervous I would bust an incision and could still feel the presence of the band at the bottom of my esophagus because the swelling hadn't gone down yet.  So I started walking.  My mom or my dad would join me around the 2.17 mile loop at their house.

Walking became a daily occurrence, but I didn't limit myself to that.  My husband and I started playing tennis and can be found laughing and/or cussing up a storm at the Bonne Terre Park several times a week.  It's fun... for the most part. :-)  Neither one of us are pros, but it's physical activity that we wouldn't be getting if we were sitting on the couch watching Netflix.  (Though I'm sure that's where both of us would rather be lately-- we are late to the Breaking Bad party, but it's getting good in Season three!)

                                                         Spike in his stylish sweatband.

I also got a group of girls together to start playing sand volleyball on Thursday nights at the local Pub.  I didn't do it for the beer-- you can find me drinking water inbetween games-- I did it because it was another way to get myself to move.  Another commitment I had to follow through on.  I even started playing on another team so that I can get more exercise in each Thursday night instead of sitting around waiting to play again.

Probably the most important thing I did was join 573fitness.  Ever since this gym opened when I was living in San Francisco or maybe it was Dubuque, I have wanted to be a member.  It was one of the things I was most excited about when we found out we were moving back home.  It all just worked out that our move was at the same time as my surgery so I could join soon after.

This gym is a community of people, including many long-time friends and family of mine, all there with a common goal: to be the best and healthiest they can be.  We do this by lifting weights, running, rowing, and even handstand walks (Well, not me yet, but I have progressed to doing handstand holds against the wall!! woop woop!) among many other activities.   We do WODs(Workout of the Day) and most importantly, we support and push each other to do better than we did the day before.

I didn't show up at the gym able to do everything that was prescribed, and I still can't.  But that's not what this gym or overall crossfit is for.  It is for you to focus on how you can improve in many different areas of lifting and cardio.  It really is all about pushing yourself to do one more rep or one more lap than you did last time. But you must do this in a safe and healthy way.

So for the crossfit-haters-- not everyone is trying to win the next crossfit games, 99% of us are just trying to better ourselves and maybe drop a few numbers on the scale, all while being injury-free.

A Normal Day
My day typically starts with a conference call or a morning run at the Bonne Terre Pond.  I can actually run a ten-minute mile now... something I don't think I've done in my 20's.  Sometimes if I have plans for the evenings, I will go to the Tuesday through Friday morning classes that my friend, Aubrey, holds at the gym.  I work from home so that also allows me to go for a quick run on my lunch break or when I don't have meetings.  In the evenings, I either go to the gym (usually 4 times a week), play tennis, sand volleyball or get talked into playing disc golf with my husband.

I'd say more days than not, I workout or exercise multiple times a day.  And yes, it is important to have rest days-- especially for those athletes who train crazy hard.  But for me, it's more important that I get up and move EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  So on those days when I really don't feel like going to the gym or running at the pond, I make myself at least walk the loop at my parents' place.

That has really been the game-changer for me.  No matter what, I have to do some type of activity that day.  I no longer allow it to be a choice.  It is a given.  Every day I have to move.  I have to sweat.  I have to progress in my weight-loss and health-gain journey.

It really is that simple.

Day 90
So as I said on Facebook yesterday, I really wanted to do something significant on my 90th day.  Some girls from the gym were going to a competition in Union,  MO, as part of a charity event to help pay for a little boy's bone marrow transplant.  I'm always up for participating in a good cause(You may remember I ran a half marathon back in 2010 as part of Team in Training  for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.), but I had told myself when I started going to the gym that I wasn't going to do competitions.  I only wanted to go to the gym and do the workouts to get in shape.  I didn't care about lifting more than the other people at the gym.

When I found out they had a scaled division, which means the work out is the same but modified or with less weight than the Rx workout, I decided that it would be such a great milestone for me to finish FOUR WODs on my ninetieth day of working out.

Once I got there, it was a blast.  And something else happened I wasn't expecting.  I was determined to win my division.  Not because I wanted to lift more than other people, but because I wanted to prove to myself that I could.  That I could do anything if I just get out of my head and DO IT.

So I did.  

-- I maxed 125lbs. in clean & jerk.
-- Immediately following, I ran 400 m and did 40 burpees in seven minutes.
-- Next I did 136 reps of 55 lb. Thrusters and 25 lb KB swings in 12 minutes.
-- Then the final three in the scaled division competed for first by doing 5 Rounds of 5 dead lifts, 7 shoulder to overheads and 9 squats, which I finished in 6 minutes and 8 seconds to get first in the competition.

What's Next?
As I said, what I learned in the past ninety days is that I can't just stop after ninety.  Nor do I want to.  Exercise is now an addiction, but more than anything, it is now a part of who I am.  I don't ever again want to be that girl who lets a week go by without even walking more than a hundred yards to and from her car... the next thing you know a month has gone by with nothing to show for it.

So where do I go from here?  I'm not too sure.  I know I need a goal-- that's how I work by having something to drive towards.  So for now, how about 90 more days?  Yeah, that sounds good to me.

Anybody want to join me? 

The Waiting Game

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.  

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!

Transformation Tuesday: Work In Progress

So this past weekend was my two month mark and I am a little behind where I thought I would be, but things don't usually happen as instantaneously as we would like, do they?  I had my monthly appointment this morning where I got another 1cc of saline put into my band.  I now have 2.5 total-- most people are not "in the green zone" until they have between 6 and 8 so I have a ways to go until I really start to feel restricted.

Today I am on liquids since I got a fill and then will start eating a bit healthier than I have been this past month.  With my trip to Columbia and then the holiday weekend this past weekend, I haven't been making the healthiest choices, even if I am eating less than I used to.  Time to get back on the wagon. :-)

So while I did not meet my goal of losing 40 pounds by the end of May, I have accomplished quite a bit:

-- Down 27 lbs.
-- 3 inches in my thighs
-- 3 1/4 inches in my arms
-- 4 1/4 inches in my waist
-- 2 1/2 inches in my hips
-- 1 1/2 inches in my bust
-- Exercised 43 days in a row
-- Crossfit three times a week
-- And have played in as many tennis games that I can get my family to agree to.

That's kind of a lot for someone who previously was working 60 hours a week and only walking to her car in the parking garage.  I will share a few two month pictures with you though I have a LONG road ahead of me:

                                              March 21, 2014                 May 24, 2014

 

                                               March 21, 2014                 May 24, 2014

                                                  March 21, 2014                 May 24, 2014

So I've made some progress, but like I said have a long way to go.  My new goal is to be under 200 pounds by the time we go white water rafting with some friends in Tennessee the first weekend of August.  That means I need to really step up my game at working out AND eating better.  Hopefully this morning's fill will also help me curb my hunger and help me feel satisfied after eating a smaller amount of food. 

Bills, Bills, Bills

I'll start with the good news.  Down 25 pounds, which is good considering I have been fluctuating up and down four pounds from day to day for the past two weeks.  Now I'm finally down 25 and believe to be on my way further down each day.  I also today really noticed my waist getting smaller so am pretty excited about that.

Today was also my 30th day of exercise in a row and probably my hardest workout yet.  (270 jump ropes, 80 walking lunges, 70 sit ups, 60 kettlebell swings of 35lbs, 50 burpees, 40 squats of 75lbs, 30 good mornings of 25 lbs, 20 box handstand push ups, 25 ring pullups taking me 36 minutes to complete.)

I'm really starting to get into a groove where it's no longer an option whether I work out or not, I just know I have to do something each day.  Not "have" to, but I want to.  Though the next five days will be more difficult than most because I will be traveling to Columbia for work through Friday and then will be staying with my brother over the weekend since I have an appointment with the hearing doctor in St. Louis on Monday.  Yes, not only did I have weightloss surgery, but I am also getting hearing aids-- I'm so old!! :-)

Since I've been working from home, I haven't had to worry about wearing work clothes at all, but since I'm making the trip to Columbia tomorrow, I started trying on some old clothes I had put away for these types of situations.  I now fit into six pairs of dress pants that I haven't been able to wear in two years!  NSV!! Woop Woop!!!

Now for some ridiculousness that has been happening this week with the billing department of Des Peres hospital.  I mentioned in a previous blog post that I was caught off-guard when the hosptial came to me the morning of my surgery asking me to pay them $6,120 before I even went in for surgery.  That included my $1,181 deductible and then $4,960 in coinsurance.(My insurance covered 80% of the surgery)  I had to move my savings over to my checking account to cover around $5,000 and then used the credit card for ~$1,500 until I got paid the following Monday.  I was told that I was close to reaching my max out of pocket expenses and wasn't expecting anymore bills.  Even though we had not planned to spend that money until the following week when I got paid again, we were glad to have it all taken care of.

I should have known better.  This past Saturday I received an additional bill in the mail for $1,087 from my surgeon's office.  I called yesterday to understand what the bill was for, which turns out that I also had to pay the surgeon even though I had already paid over 6k to the hospital.  But it still didn't make sense to me because I had been two hundred away from meeting my out of pocket max.  I then called the nurse practitioner with Blue Cross Blue Shield, whose number I had from before my surgery and they were able to put me in contact with a gentleman named Joey.  He was awesome and also very informative.

Turns out Des Peres Hospital overcharged me $1,100 the day of my surgery and owed me that money back.  That was good, but disturbing news!  I would have had no idea if I hadn't called to ask about it.  I do still owe the surgeon the $1,087, but will not be paying it until I get my refund from the hospital.  I then had to call the hospital to get them to start the refund process-- they KNEW they owed me money yet were just sitting on it until I called them!  I can't believe they can do that.

The woman with the hospital told me that I would not get my refund for 21 days and that they would put it back on the card I paid with.  Well I paid with two cards and I don't want them to put it on my $0 balance credit card, I want it in my checking account.  The woman then tells me that there is no way of knowing what card they will put it on and when I asked if they would call me when they're doing it so I could tell them which one to use, she said they don't make outbound calls.  WHAT?!?

I asked her to make a note in my record on which card to put it on, but I have no idea if they will even look at it.  While obviously the overall picture is a lot better than it could have been, I am just so disturbed by the fact that this happens to patients every day.  The healthcare industry is sick...pun intended.  I actually took the time to call to understand my bills, but can you imagine the millions of dollars hospitals steal from innocent patients every day who don't realize anything is off when they get their bills?!?

My lesson learned is that I will never just "let it go" when I see a strange charge on a bill.  I will now always call and ask because you can't trust any of these companies.  Great, now I sound like a paranoid freak.  But the best news that came out of all of this was that I have met my out of pocket max.  That means I don't have to pay a penny more to anyone for the rest of the year.  So I don't have to worry about my monthly appointments or the fills I get-- they are now all covered.  Until the hospital tries to send me a bill again anyway....

The Slime & Other WLS Jargon

Six weeks post-op and the scale is playing tricks on me.  I have been going back and forth between 23 and 25 pounds lost, so on a good day I've lost 25 pounds. :-)

I'm pretty much past all the restricted diets now as I've been able to process everything I've eaten-- just have to eat slow or I feel like I'm dying.  I even had a bratwurst yesterday(!) and about three fork fulls of potato salad.  What's crazy is I used to have two brats and many sides for a normal meal.

Though I still can eat more than just a half a cup of food, at least now with my first fill I stay full for two or more hours, which has been awesome.  My next fill should start to restrict how much food I can intake as well-- next appointment is May 27th.

What has been really awesome is the lapband group that I'm following on Facebook.  I've learned all sorts of new words and jargon that are starting to help me understand what I'm going through.  For example:  NSV stands for "Non-Scale Victory" which is kind of self explanatory, but I had no idea what these people were posting about when they would use NSV.  I haven't had any substantial NSVs, but I am starting to notice my clothes fitting differently.  I'm really looking forward to losing the next twenty because I have a ton of clothes I've been holding on to in hopes I would one day be able to fit into them.

I also learned that the nasty phlegm in my throat every morning when I wake up is not just a sinus infection, but is normal with the lapband.  It even has a name:  "The Slime."  Gross!!  Other than the slime and my hip that keeps me up all night, I'm doing really great.  Have now exercised 23 days in a row-- most of which has been tennis because Spike and I are obsessed. (We actually played twice yesterday.) I also started back at crossfit in the mornings so hopefully that scale will move a little faster in the next few weeks.

 ________________________________
For reference:
WLS is Weight Loss Surgery
LBS is Lapband Surgery
NSV is Non-Scale Victory
The Slime-- you don't wanna know!