Just Another Day Forward…..

Well I haven’t blogged in a while, so I thought I would jot down some thoughts for a post today.

Tomorrow I weigh in. I’m curious to weigh because when I weighed at my new surgeon’s office I was 263, which seemed low at the time, not that I’m  complaining. So I’m curious what my home scale will say tomorrow. I’m always anxious to weigh because I’m terrified of either A)gaining or B) stalling……I think these are the two fears of my mine since having weight loss surgery.

I’m still hitting it hard every day in the gym. I just texted my personal trainer to see if I can move my sessions with him to 9am. This would give me time to drop my kids off at school and get 45 mins of cardio in before doing 30 mins of strength training with him. I am finding that our 8am sessions leave me with zero energy to do cardio after strength training, So I’m hoping 9am works!!

My BP is lowering. Today it was 98/76. It was swinging all over the place and one day it got really low and I felt like poop. So I called my PCP and she only wants me to take my BP reading once a day at the same time every day. Hoping in a week or so to come off of one of my BP meds. I’ve been on BP meds for almost 9 years, so it will be a welcome relief once I’m off of them.

Oh, I bought good running shoes, Brooks, and even went to a running store to be fitted. They have made a HUGE difference for my hip. It’s amazing what new shoes will do for a person. 

The 3 week stall

I have hit the dreaded 3 week stall, I’ve heard this happens, but I guess I had hoped it wouldn’t happen to me. Basically, it means that weight loss has stopped for now. From what I’ve read from others, weight loss stalls, but keep following your eating/working out plan and eventually the body responds. It has something to do with the trauma that your body just went through with surgery. It’s understandable, but WOW does it stink!!!! I mean, I came home from the hospital with excess water weight. Lost that and another 40 lbs like BAM and now nothing. It’s super frustrating, but if this is normal and will eventually get me to my goal of 137, I will just deal with it.

In other news, 

my super anal surgeon (I would NEVER recommend her) has FINALLY ok’d me to do cardio “as tolerated” other than just walking. So that means I can go back to the gym and ride the bike….super exciting to me.

 

The other little tidbit that isn’t really discussed is sex. You can’t have any for 6 weeks after your surgery. Of course, this is all based on the surgeon’s discretion and may be different per surgeon, but it’s something I wanted to mention.

 

My last sidenote is that today I ate Wendy’s chili, small bowl, blended up….yes it looked disgusting, BUT all I was eating was scrambled eggs with cheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner and that irony of scrambled eggs is that ever since I had my stroke in 2009, I woke up HATING scrambled eggs and lunch meat. BUT when you’ve only had liquids for 4 weeks and you move on to the pureed phase and scrambled eggs are on your “approved” list, you eat them. I still hate how they smell when they are cooking, they smell like wet dog to me, but taste wonderful. Anyway, today’s chili was beyond fabulous. Now after this phase I will probably never eat Wendy’s chili again, buy we’ll see. 🙂

Also, for those interested, I learned about this website: http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/ EXCELLENT resource for all things bariatric surgery. I haven’t tried any of the recipes, but I did go grocery shopping and got the ingredients for her ricotta bake and mashed cauliflower, which I’m excited for some variety to foods 

So that’s all I have for today, hopefully by my next post, the scale will start moving again 🙂

Bring on family life

after six long days in the hospital. I am home and enjoying my family enormously. My kids and husband are my heart and I am so thankful to be home where there’s love and laughter. Home is most definitely where my heart is and will always be.

So here’s the breakdown of what’s happening in the Deale household….

Jeff: is in the middle of his hardest semester as a petroleum engineering student at Missouri Science and Technology or S & T. He said this will be his most difficult semester until graduation in May 2015. I can’t believe we only have one year and 4 months until he graduates. It has been a long hard road for him, but he impresses me daily with his commitment level to his studies. Last semester he got straight As (again), which I think is outstanding for a 38 year old married father of 2. He amazes me every day and I fall more and more in love with him as I watch his beautiful attitude as he treks along this difficult life path.

Adalai: is in middle school and that still makes me think, “where has the time gone?” I remember when she was a 4lb preemie, wasn’t that just yesterday? Adalai loves being involved with gymnastics and she is a straight A’s and is involved with our church’s youth group called Fuel. She has an upcoming LOCK IN at church and a trip scheduled in March called Winter Jam, a bunch  of Christian singers and speakers share their life with middle school kids. She’s looking forward to these upcoming trips and fun things

 

Caleb: is in 3rd grade and is pulling his grades up this year, he’s doing well in school, something we were concerned about at the beginning of the school year. I’m not impressed with his teacher this year or the quality of his education. We are praying about homeschooling Caleb for 4th grade and will make that decision in May of this year.

 

Me: I had bariatric surgery on 2/3/14 here in Missouri. After a lot of in hospital complications, I came home 6 days later. I’m so thankful to be home. My mom is here from Michigan and has helped our family out as I stepped away to have this surgery. Thank you dad for letting mom come 🙂 We wouldn’t have survived this process without her being here. She leaves on Sunday and we will miss her greatly. It’s so hard being so far away from family, something I never thought would happen, but when we follow God’s call on our lives, we never know what adventure He’ll take us on next. It’s been a fun and interesting ride these last 8 yrs (the length of time we haven’t lived in Michigan. This summer we head to Houston, TX for Jeff’s second internship with ConocoPhillips. I am praying if it be God’s will that Jeff would be offered a job with them after his internship would you pray for us in this endeavor also?

 

So that’s the latest happenings in our family. We hope this note finds you happy, healthy and in love with Jesus.

Home, after Surgery

So I had my sleeve surgery on Monday, Feb. 3 at Mercy Hospital in Washington, MO. I came out of surgery and the complication I ended up having was a hematoma, which is a fancy word for internal bleeding/bruising. So what that meant was that my surgeon had to reoperate on me about 1/2 hour after my sleeve surgery. Not really sure what she did to the hematoma, but prior to her “fixing it” in surgery is was a hard ball on my stomach that made me look “pregnant”. My surgeon said I had a lot of blood in the stomach and it wasn’t clotting very well. She questioned me being on an Omega 3 supplement because apparently this mineral causes bleeding. Sooo needless to say, I ended up spending 5 days in the ICU after surgery. Knowing all of this info now, had I had the insight prior to surgery, I probably wouldn’t have done it. I am bruised across my stomach and around back to my side. Pain doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel. On top of that complication. My breathing in the hospital was shallow and difficult, which meant I was on oxygen all day and night. Something I am not on at home. This also qualified me for a Bipap machine, something I”m not excited to have to deal with and something I haven’t even attempted at home yet, mostly due to fear. So all in all, I’m hoping there is a day soon that I’m glad I had this surgery beause it’s certainly not today. My biggest advice would be to anyone, pratice sipping water prior to surgery because this is  your life after surgery. I find I get full VERY quickly and it’s not comfortable. This morning I had my first protein shake. I drank 8 ozs. of protein shake over a 30 minute period and I’m still uncomfortably full. My nose runs when I’m this full I’ve discovered…..not fun

Homeschool Happenings

As a parent in the United States of America, I have the right to teach my child/ren at home. I love this basic freedom.

Now mind you, I never thought I would partake in this basic freedom. In fact when I was first having children, a homeschool mom friend asked if I might consider the option when my children because school aged. I, all but laughed in her face, stating, “I’m not called by God for such an endeavor” I told her, she was amazing and walked away thinking, how crazy must she be? You see I was sure I was too inadequate to take on such a task and surely God would love my children more than that, to have an inadequate, unprepared mother homeschool them. After all, my degree is in social work, NOT elementary education. How in the world could I educate my kids at home, when I was the first generation line in my immediate family to go to college?

Well fast forward 8 years and here I am. I have two beautiful children. One who is a straight A, social kid, who loves waking up at 5:30 am every morning to get ready for school. She literally loves school. I’m sure she gets this from her dad. I was not like this as a kid, middle schooler, high schooler or even college student. Then I have my elementary kid, he’s more like me. Doesn’t really like school, if he never went again that would be perfectly ok with him. You see, my son fell through the cracks around first grade, when most kids were learning to read, he wasn’t picking it up as quickly and since he was in a small private school it wasn’t targeted as a problem. However, since that time he has struggled and struggled with school, hence the reason why I don’t think he likes it. Since reading is such a foundational skill, I think it’s important to try to get him caught back up. But how can this be done?

Then it hits me…..the dreaded thought….H.O.M.E.S.C.H.O.O.L.  dun dun DUN!!!

So I’m investigating this option for my son’s next year of school, his fourth grade year. I admit, at first, I was terrified about even thinking of it. But then I remembered. I have a pretty big God, who loves me and my son very intimately and I thought…DUH

I CAN do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me.

So I will make the final decision by May 2014, but for a mom who was sure I would never educate my child at home. I can honestly say I’m kinda excited about it. The thought doesn’t terrify me as it once did.

Moving…

SO I’ve decided to move to a different blog host, please bear with me as I make this transition. Also, I’ve discovered since starting my other Gastric Sleeve Journey blog how much I love to write. So the focus of this new blog is happenings in our family, so far away family can stay updated and also it will serve as a place for my personal ramblings. Curious to know your thoughts….will you read this content? LEAVE A COMMENT and tell me your thoughts…interesting? boring?