Living with Diabetes and Lapband

First, I have always felt being pressured into bariatric surgery, and lap band surgery to begin with.  I had gone to my doctor and asked for permission to do Jenny Craig.  He wouldn't give it.  Come to find out the company that ran the business part of his practice owned a Lap-Band practice.  

I ended up firing that doctor and the same visit he fired me.  He has since retired and the Lap-Band company has gone out of business.

The person who coached me through the process no longer has hers.  It's also no longer a modality of choice.

I honestly didn't want to do anything permanent but wanted help dealing with binging issues.

I did lose 60 pounds and it has helped me learn to manage that better, so it's not a complete loss.

I sensed there were some issues with the lap band leading up to the pandemic and I had made an appointment with the surgeon but the appointment got canceled. I was more and more miserable, having trouble eating the correct food and seeing food again a lot.  When I finally saw the surgeon, I didn't like his attitude so went to a different bariatric surgeon, who I recommend -- Colleen Kennedy.

We went through the process to see what was wrong and to revise the band.  We also removed half the fluid from the band, and then a month later the rest of the fluid.

I felt SO much better.  I absolutely do not recommend bariatric surgery.

I ended up deciding against any more surgery, with the idea we will continue to document my attempts at weight loss so we can revisit it in the future.

Frankly, it's not happening.  The lap band is still in my body and I will discuss removing it at the same time we remove any lung nodules.

I haven't been happy with the lap band for a while. I've been stuck. I had lost over 90 pounds, then started gaining again and I'm at a total of 70 pounds lost. I've tried a bunch of stuff, but nothing has worked. Well, that's not true, I started losing weight again with Precision Nutition - an online program. I went saw the bariatric surgeon who initially did the lap band surgery but wasn't happy with his attitude. He wanted to put me under and look at the band. He didn't explain what he was talking about until I asked, and that was about 5 minutes of talking to me, with me totally confused. Before I left, I mentioned to the office staff I would rather talk to him about a revision before we did anything else, but that request went ignored. When I went to looking for him, he didn't come as being covered by my insurance. Another surgeon that I had seen for aftercare DID come up and after not hearing from the initial surgeon about the revision, I made an appointment with her. I'm very happy with her, and I've proceeded with her suggestions. Since I'm 60, we did a cardiac workout and apparently I'm cleared -- but haven't gotten the official word yet. I've also had an upper GI, and apparently the band has slipped slightly. I'll know more after the surgeon gets back from vacation. The best part is that I've gotten the office staff work with me. They wanted a sleep study and I finally got across to them that I don't need one because I'm under the care of sleep doctor and am on CPAP therapy. I'm happiest because I found a dietitian I like in June and I can use her instead of the one they referred that I don't like. That also means I've checked off two of the four visits I need for that. I'm hoping I can keep her.

Now don't count on a post every single day.  And sometimes they will be late in the day like this one.

Today was my first day with "food".  We had our end of school luncheon and we had Mexican baked potatos.

I picked a small one, and got lots of butter and sour creme and some cheese.  Then turned it in to a mashed potato.  We also had macaroni and cheese with some mexican flavoring.  It was over cooked so it was also good.

I will say that I didn't finish the baked potato but still felt REALLY REALLY full.  It is also different to get used to eating without drinking.

I did do some prep work last night -- had a cream of potato soup the night before, so it wasn't a complete shock to my system. 

Still maintaining my weight -- and that's to be expected and okay.

Still can see my ankles.

TDD is still the same.

Yesterday was hard. Woke up feeling a bit off, and stayed that way most of the day.  Now I think I was constipated but I'm so rarely in that state didn't realize what was wrong. 

We had our baby shower for the Associate Principal for Instruction (we used to call them the Dean).  She had her baby before the originally scheduled shower -- and they had lots of food.  I could have eaten queso or dip but nothing they brought for the dip so there didn't see much point.  They also had little sandwiches and cake, but couldn't eat any of that.

Didn't get to leave until at 4:00 pm -- that's for the other blog, later on today.

People have asked me how I feel -- physically I'm better than I was before the surgery -- I have ankles again.  Mentally, I just don't know yet -- I'm still in the initial healing stages and still on liquid diet.  I tell people ask me in six months how I feel about the surgery.  Right now it's all too new.

Dog agility went MUCH better last night.  I actually ran and there was a definite improvement in both dogs.  I need to lose at least another 25 pounds before it gets good enough to trial.

Still at 11 pounds since surgery but TDD was 37 yesterday.

I also need to get better at dosing insulin and on taking Symlin.

Survive the day from hell -- okay it wasn't that bad, but came back to an email inbox full of requests.  Also was a bit dumb, because I got excited because the wireless was up.  Walked the front of the building and answered a Dean question.  (Dean is the Associate Principal of Instruction - title used to be Dean, and I like it).

Had to do some work in the library -- so ended up walking the buiding at lunch.

Had a middle school meeting after school.  Unfortunately I was the second lead on that project, so had to be up and participating.

Fire alarm went off at 6:30, and a really nice lady took my stuff down for me.

Got home at almost 7:00 - fed dogs, chilled for a few minutes and walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes.

Then couldn't get the brain to shut down.  Finally took a sleeping pill and Tylenol which might have been a little too much but sleep until almost time to wake up (okay, woke up a couple of times but rolled over and went back to sleep).  Was constipated with nothing in me, which like the anaesthologist said on surgery day, is no fun when you are on a clear diet.

See surgeon today and is last day of clear liquids.

Blood sugar was a bit rocky yesterday -- but I am clearly still diabetic -- see those entries and yes, I need to figure out why contribute screws up my date and time stamps.

Priority today: grading!

Made it -- seriously this has been hard -- today is the first day I truly was on my liquid diet. Over the past 4 weeks, I've been doing mostly liquid via SlimFast. My exceptions have been SlimFast bars and various forms of protein. Before the surgery was scheduled, I did have a few days where I did a bit more than that, but have stuck to SlimFast / protein since Friday and each day of the four weeks the quantity was less.  And I am eating MUCH less than I usually do, both volume and calories.

Surgeon did seem okay with that yesterday but did urge me to get 100% on track.  I stopped by the grocery store on the way home from the appointment and picked up popsicles and different times of pre-made stock and that has REALLY helped. 

I was okay during the school day though had a few minutes during lunch when going down for a piece of chicken sounded good, but managed not to.

This evening I've alternated between stock, Crystal Light and popsicles.  Am also doing some Special K Protein water.  So I only have 6 days of preSurgery diet to go.  (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) - 2 days of clear liquids, 12 days back to the liquid diet and then can start adding some food. 

Yes, I'm counting.