02.29.08
Posted in wls at 10:03 pm by Shari
I stopped at Dr. D’s office today to weigh myself. Left disappointed because the number ended 1.6. I couldn’t remember exactly what last week had been, but I was sure I was only down a pound at best. As I walked out to my car, I was doing the math… hey, if I was down 37, then it ended 1.6 or so last week…. but wait, wasn’t there a 2 in there? Hmm… called the office back and found out that I hadn’t paid enough attention to the 10’s position of the number - I was down 10 lbs in the last 9 days!!!!! That energy lasted from about 3 until about 7 and then I started to crash. I stayed at work a little later than I intended, stopped at Wal-Mart to get more Slim-Fast (since I had bought a bunch of the Atkins and then found I was allergic to it - I wasn’t as stocked up as I thought) and now I’m GOING TO BED. Nevermind any cleaning I was wanting to get done tonight, or what’s on TV or anything else. I’m just going to sleep
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Posted in wls at 8:23 am by Shari
I just talked to the doc office - they have received everything required for Monday to be a go!
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Posted in wls at 7:51 am by Shari
Everyone is asking me…. “If you’ve lost this much already, why not just keep losing like this and skip the surgery?” And the answer is “I’ve done this over and over before… I need the tool to help get further and then keep it off”
It’s been so fun getting reactions to the loss so far. Just yesterday I had 3 different people comment on my loss. One of them wasn’t sure if she had walked past me without realizing it was me. Another thought maybe I had been out for surgery and was already back to work when she saw me. I keep hearing stories about this friend or that that had the surgery and how you sometimes don’t realize it is them, so I’m getting a preview of that reaction now. I can’t wait until it is for real!
I lost steam yesterday on the nesting thing. I’m overwhelmed, so I asked Chuck to help me out a bit today before he goes to work. He’s worried, too, about me getting worn out and sick before Monday, so he’ll help me with some grunt work so that it’s not so intimidating. Meanwhile I’ve got a few errands to run, one of them doing one last weigh-in at Dr. D’s office.
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02.26.08
Posted in wls at 11:30 pm by Shari
Today was my pre-op physical w/ Dr. K. There were a number of calls around to get some of the lab results that were done during the past 2 weeks so she had all the pertinent info, and despite the fact that they did an EKG when I had the stress test, I ended up having to have another one today. But, it’s done, and she said GO. She took me off the meds for my blood pressure and put me on a beta blocker instead. I was supposed to go see Dr. D tomorrow, but since I don’t HAVE to go, and the weather is miserable, I did cancel it. I decided I will stop in on Friday to get weighed one last time.
I tried to start the liquid diet yesterday, 2 days ahead of time. Wow, was that hard to do w/ my stomach still expecting “normal” amounts of food. I did have some other food yesterday and today and WILL do it right the rest of the week. I had found both the slim-fast lo-carb and the atkins, but found out yesterday that apparently I’m allergic to something in the atkins chocolate shakes. Had to make a quick stop at the pharmacy to get some benadryl to take care of that situation. I am okay with both flavors of the Slim-fast, so I’m not even going to try the vanilla of Atkins - just stick to what does work already.
Stuff came in to try to get the rest of next month’s demos planned - that was the last big question mark in my mind for prepping things at work. There’s still plenty to keep me quite busy this week, but not so much that I can’t get it done.
That nesting instinct is still going strong too. I’ve been doing more organizing around the house so I won’t go crazy being home after the surgery.
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02.21.08
Posted in wls at 10:27 am by Shari
So I went to Dr. D’s office yesterday. Doc: “What’s the story with the Byetta?” Me: “My numbers were much better when I was eating better so I had been focussing on the eating to keep them down. Today it was 110, which could be better but was way better than it used to be.” He was happy enough with that. Then he took a look at the rashes. Luckily I had been treating them so they were way down from 2 days ago. He said keep doing what I’ve been doing and we’re still on. The nurses upstairs don’t have the same familiarity with the rashes that someone with the extra weight (or doc of many with extra weight) has, and he had to have me come in to see and talk to me himself. He said we’re fine. He even apologized for causing any alarm or anxiety on my part.
And, I was down another 2 lbs. that’s 37 in just over 4 months. He seemed pleased with that as well.
Our steak dinner the other night was nice. We went to Roadhouse Grill for dinner. We opted for the appetizer sampler to start, which we split pretty much right down the middle. Then I had a rib eye steak, steamed broccoli and baked sweet potato. By the time dinner came, I was pretty nearly full, so I had the potato and a couple of very small bites of the steak (YUM) and then took the rest home. OH, yeah, I had one of Chuck’s bacon-wrapped shrimp and a roll at the beginning of dinner too. (do you think that had anything to do with not being down more than 2 lbs?)
I got started on some sewing. Over the weekend I had picked up a simple jumper pattern and some navy poplin for a jumper. I got that cut out, the neckline stay-stitched and the shoulders put together. The other thing I worked on yesterday was re-purposing a navy short-sleeved dress that I bought about 4 yrs ago. It’s from HolyClothing.com - the same place that I got my wedding dresses (2 because I found one I really liked, bought it, then found one I LOVED and bought it - all told a whopping $70 total). With Diane’s help, I cut away the sleeves and using a bias binding, faced the edge of the new armholes. I also chopped about 5″ off the bottom and hemmed it. Now I have a navy jumper for work that’ll fit right after the surgery and a start on a second jumper that will fit by the time I go back to work.
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02.20.08
Posted in wls at 8:53 am by Shari
Monday was my pre-op labwork day. Go in to the hospital and plan on spending about 2 or more hours there. Things mostly went just fine. The NP that did my history and exam wasn’t one of my favorite people, though. I don’t know what it was - I felt like she got a negative attitude from me right from the beginning. Part of me thought maybe she didn’t really approve of the surgery I am going for, or I said something at the beginning (dunno what), that made her negative to me. Whatever it was, by the time we got to what I perceived as the first thing that I didn’t know/do right as we went over the history, the attitude was there and everything seemed to try her patience after that. My mom is a nurse, so I’m at least a little familiar with the medical field. I’ve also been really keeping up with what’s happening to me with this whole process. Yes, I haven’t kept up to date w/ my gyn exams. Yes, I didn’t remember to write down the dosage of one of my meds, and I didn’t know the results of last week’s stress test or who the cardiologist reading it was. But geez, that doesn’t mean I’m a bad person, does it? Cap it all off, then, with me having a terrible rash on my upper legs/lower abdomen. It’s something that happens frequently to me and I just deal with it - wash it more, put on lotrimin ointment and it goes away in a few days. Well, I heard all about how it’s a yeast infection, probably caused by my diabetes (I’ve had these for years - way longer than diabetes) being out of whack (oh, yeah, I haven’t been religiously taking readings) and could cause them to cancel the surgery. She did have to call the doc office anyway about a question on my surgery permission paperwork, so apparently she must’ve told them I needed to be seen about this to, because by the time I got home, I had a call from the Dr. D’s office telling me I had to come in this week and my appointment was Wednesday at 1, please call back to confirm. 
Well, the rash is nearly completely healed up and I go in today. I hope that’s what this is all about. Mary Carol didn’t know what it was when I called to confirm, but Angie was the one that had called to tell me, so I couldn’t find out for sure.
The other fun part of that whole appointment was the struggle to get 3 tubes of blood. Three nurses, many tourniquets to try to find a vein, 3 sticks with the needles and they just barely got enough to count in 2 tubes. Apparently they need only a little bit in those 2. The third tube, though, was bigger and had to be filled. They didn’t even try that one because they had so much trouble getting me to bleed at all. That whole “Don’t let anyone touch you the day of surgery - just call IV Services right away” was re-iterated and they ordered the last tube to be drawn that day once IV Services gets a needle into me.
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02.17.08
Posted in daily life stuff, wls at 11:03 am by Shari
Sometimes I don’t mind having to go out to do laundry. Line those machines up and it all gets done at once. The downside is the carting of stuff to and fro. Since I wear white shirts to work all the time AND I’m a slob, I have to make liberal use of bleach sometimes. Today my knee was giving out on me every few steps. It was raining outside, on top of the snow cover which made for slippery walking. I wanted to minimize the trips between house and van, van and laundromat. So, I grabbed the bleach bottle and stuck it into my big laundry basket. I didn’t think it was tipped over, but by the time I got to the drivers side of the van I could smell bleach. NOT a good sign. Sure enough, I grabbed it and could see a tiny drop of bleach on the outside of the bottle. DAMN. Oh, well, I can’t tell what’s hit or not, so I go ahead and do the laundry. Don’t you know it just had to hit the back of my favorite green shirt - high enough and center enough that it’s very obvious - and my purple work shirt - front and nearly center.
The saving grace is…. I won’t be wearing any of these clothes that much longer! Two weeks from tomorrow! I realized today that one of the things I’ve heard many post-surgery folks mention is not being able to eat steak. All of a sudden I’m realizing that I need to have a steak before the surgery. Tomorrow is a no-school day. Chuck is off and I don’t have a class scheduled at the HS, so that’s what we’re going to do - go out for a steak dinner.
I’m getting anxious, too, about getting everything else lined up for the surgery. Getting everything written up at work so Mario and others can cover for me there - getting the house in better order - samples done for classes at the store - having all the webwork I’m currently working on wrapped up. Not in a bad way kind of anxious - just the thing I need to keep me motivated to get it all done.
Tomorrow is pre-op labwork. One more step done in the journey.
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02.14.08
Posted in Crochet, knitting, wls at 1:05 pm by Shari
What a shock I had. Usually Chuck remembers Valentine’s day on his way home after working on Valentine’s day. Today I got up and when I went to the kitchen, there was a gift bag and card. Goodness gracious, way earlier than I expected! I had gotten him some little stuff too, but had decided to not put it out til he got home so that he didn’t feel like he had to stop on the way home tonight, so I put his stuff out before he came down today. So what did I get? A frog wearing boxers with hearts on them that dances and sings tags from a couple songs.
I’ve been totally avoiding looking at the plus-size clothing catalogs I get because I’m determined to not buy any new clothes until after surgery, and then only minimal clothes while I’m in transition and hopefully find lots of them at Salvation Army and VOA. (okay, so I WILL buy the undies and bras new) On a whim, I decided to check the most recent catalog that had come and found that they had a black twill jumper on clearance for 9.88! Remember, I was just talking about making a couple of jumpers for wearing to work. Then I looked at my e-mail and found a special discount code for the same catalog. Lo and behold, it was for 20% off on clearance items! So, I ordered 2 jumpers for 7.90 each! They were only available in one size that made any sense at all to consider, and that size is a bit smaller than I’ll be ready for when I first go back to work, but it won’t be too long til it works. I couldn’t have bought the fabric I needed for that price and saved the work of making them too. I also found a couple of white tops w/ collars (the other part of our dress code) in some smaller sizes that were pretty cheap, so I got them as well. With shipping and handling, it was under $41. I couldn’t go wrong with that!
I think I’ve found the lo carb SlimFast that I need to be on the last 5 days before surgery. The picture that Theresa showed us last week was different, but after looking at the SlimFast website, I’m pretty certain that this is the right stuff. I tried to verify that with Theresa today, but she’s not working again til next Wednesday, so I’ll have to wait to find out and get more. I’ve decided to try to start it a couple days early - on Monday rather than Wednesday because, for me, it’s easier to start a “change” on a Monday. Anyway, if it’s the right stuff - it’s not found everyplace that SlimFast is sold - I’ve only found it at Walgreen’s and Wal-Mart.
Last Sunday was a productive day. I got several projects either done or lots of progress on them. That neverending Candy Apple Shrug is FINALLY done. The sample square for the Vanna’s Choice 8 Color Afghan is done and a sample of the Textured Treasure Afghan is done. When I say done, I really mean done - the ends are woven in, the sleeves of the shrug are sewn and they are labeled and hanging in the classroom at work. The actual finishing didn’t happen until Monday, but the rest was done on Sunday. I still have more projects to get finished off before going out for surgery - crochet flower accents and the swing matinee jacket (I might work on that while I’m out) and the go green bags in knit and crochet. I’ll actually recycle and use the crochet one that I did last year and just knit a new one, modifying the pattern I’ve used in the past to give it a new look. All my knitted bags are done with old yarns, so I need an updated sample. I’d also like to do 4 more squares for the Vanna’s Choice project and show them put together.
In the meantime, I’ve got webwork to get done, so I guess that’s today’s pre-work-at-Joann’s prioity.
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02.10.08
Posted in Crafts, knitting, wls at 12:15 pm by Shari
… I’ll be bouncing off the walls.
I’ve started trying to gather up some of what I’ll need soon - looking for low-carb SlimFast & citramax, got some smaller undies and a smaller white shirt for work. Diane and I figured out how much fabric I’ll need to make a couple of jumpers for work. I virtually never wear skirts or dresses, but I figured a couple of jumpers will be easy to wear and fit the dress code at Joann’s. And I can belt them or take them in as needed while I’m losing weight. The sizing won’t be as critical as when pants get too loose and need to be dealt with. The thing I HATE about it, though, is the idea of wearing pantyhose/tights. So I picked up a pair last night at Wal-Mart. Yeah, I was reminded that I do hate them. BUT, even though I poked a hole in the one pair I got last night and they were a bit too tight, I decided that once I’m down a bit more, they won’t be soooo bad. If they’re not too tight I won’t be as likely to put my finger right through them and they’ll work just fine.
The neverending Candy Apple Shrug is nearly done with the crochet. I matched the dyelots (I’m using the Tudor colorway) when I picked up the last skein but wasn’t convinced that it was the same as I wound it to get ready to work it. I started anyway and noticed later that there was a second dyelot printed on a sticker that was attached to the label - not next to the original dyelot. It was a black sticker that blended in with the label and I would never have thought to look there. Well, I decided to just keep going anyway. I just want it done. I’m about 7/8 done w/ the crochet then just have to finish ends and stitch up the sleeve sections. Somehow I see getting it all done and then taking it apart, ripping it back so it’s just what’s needed to go across the back (not around the neck as the pattern shows) and re-stitching the sleeve section. It just feels too bulky to me to be wrapped around the neck. But, I’ll do it more or less as shown for Skein Gang and then alter for me later.
I just realized last night that I have to get my guild afghan square done for tomorrow night. They are due at the March meeting, but I don’t expect to be going to that (just 1 wk after surgery). Got that started and then this afternoon I’m going to a spinning group, so I’ll take that to work on there. I don’t have a spinning project going and as much as I’d like to be spinning again, I know I need to finish up things that are in progress right now.
Projects still to be done (hopefully this month):
- At least a few squares for this afghan - I picked only 4 colors and will make several variations - a pillow?
- A pillow knitted w/ the same stitch pattern as this Treasure Afghan. I just can’t face doing the whole thing with 2 strands of WoolEase T&Q at a time on Speed Stix.
- some crocheted (size b hook, size 10 crochet cotton) flowers
- Matinee Swing Jacket (kinda like this, knitted rather than crocheted, but still in Homespun)
It’s time to get some work done around the house. I’m hardly ever home to do anything except mess things up. Gotta get things in order so I feel good about being here while I’m recovering.
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02.07.08
Posted in knitting, wls at 1:29 pm by Shari
I had my education meeting/appointment today at Dr. D’s office - mainly a review of stuff we’ve talked about some with either the doc or the nutritionist and review of what we need to do to get ready for surgery. Before the appt, though, I got weighed again and was down another 5lbs! He’d still like to see another 15 before the 3/3 (3.5 wks to go). I’m aiming to do whatever I can, but I’m also not going to stress out about that. Whatever I can be down is good and I’ll go with it.
Theresa told me, when I got in, that I wasn’t going to be allowed to knit during the meeting. Thank goodness she was joking! I was working on a moebius banded hat and got a fair bit done on it. Should have had it done before last night’s last magical knitting class, but that didn’t happen
Tomorrow I go for my upper GI endoscope. Can’t drive for 24 hrs afterward, so I’ll be home all day. I hope I’m not as groggy as Donna predicts because I’d like to get the next few Skein Gang projects knocked off and I have everything here and ready to go. Not that I’m planning to do entire afghans as described by the project sheets - but representative sections of them done. A few crocheted squares to put together into a pillow maybe and the speed stix project scaled down to a pillow cover as well. There’s also some crocheted flowers to be done and at least a start on a knitted swing jacket. There’s also the final 25″ or so of the crochet shrug for this month’s skein gang to get done - sounds like I’ll be busy, huh?
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