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Monday, January 5, 2009

New Year -Lifestyle Changes

All of you know I have a worn out disc in my lower back causing a lot of pain and restrictions in my life. Surgeons will not operate and fuse it until I lose a considerable amount of weight. My search in weight loss surgery began about 4 years ago before we moved back to Des Moines. Now, with 2 replaced knees and my back so bad my search began here in Des Moines and was recommended to see Dr. Eibes at Iowa Bariatic. In August, I attended the meeting to get things rolling. After insurance approval, pysch approval, support group meeting I got my appointment to see the doctor for my lap band surgery scheduling on Thursday, December 18, 2008; and he had only one spot for the year for surgery which was on Tuesday, December 23, 2008. My prayer all along had been that my surgery be yet in 2008, because my deductible had been met with my knee replacement in March. Well, God is Good!! I had to scramble to get my History and Physical done on Friday morning, which is my internist day off. She made an exception to see me on Friday ...thank you God again. Plus, since it was sooo close to Christmas I had to finish shopping, wrapping and cooking. With the tremendous help from my loving husband and granddaughter we gotter done. My decorating was not as I would have like but the nativity scence and tree were up.

From December 9 until surgery I was on a presurgical diet to shrink my liver to make surgery easier for the surgeon and lost 6 pounds. On Tuesday, Dec. 23; Mark & I headed to the hospital at 4:30am for my prep before surgery at 7:00am. The surgery
went very well and they did not have to repair any hiatal hernia(which is common for people who have acid reflux..which I have). I was already to walk out of the hospital at approx. 1:30pm.

On Christmas eve I was able to sit up and watch everyone open presents. Couldn't miss all that!! I had 16 staples in my stomach area, which made it a little hard to get up and down but by Christmas day I was sitting up and watching movies for 6 hours.

Eight days later I had my staples removed and was weighed and had lost another 7 pounds. A total of 13 pounds. Woo Hoo!! A great new beginning!! My jeans I had been wearing now I don't have to even unzip or unbutton to take off.

The year 2009 will surely bring many blessings to us and you!!

8 comments:

Diane Tinker said...

Good for you Karen! I am so happy for your new lifestyle. Best of luck! So sorry you have yet another suregery down the road.
diane

Sandi said...

welllll....YOU JUST GO GO GIRL!!!.......new blog, joined Face Book.......losing weight......oh my!!!! i am so so JOYFUL for YOU!!!!.......can you breathe it on me so i can get a little sumpin sumpin goin on in my life too??? LOL

Sandi said...

oh....and i LOVE your new look! i need to re-decorate on my blog too....just like i need to lose weight....paint my house....get the scrapbooking done.....work on my Etsy store....play with the grands more...get the dog bathed....clean the cupboards...well, you know the routine....

Dawn said...

Hey girl! So glad to catch up with you through blogging! Let's do better at staying in touch, okay?

Love and blessings!

Diane Tinker said...

Oh, by the way, forgot to mention I love the photo of the cat with the santa hat. He looks less than thrilled.

Patter Cross said...

Karen, what an amazing blessing about your surgery! That is wonderful!! And thank you for your kind comments on my blog about my Project 365 journaling cards! The papers are Basic Grey. I have so much to use up that this will be perfect for the year! Have a joyous evening! Blessings,

Unknown said...

I'm so glad everything went well with your surgery. I wonder how well you'll be doing 6 months from now!

Do you have any goals as to when you'll have knee surgery? I know how much pain you've been in.

Glad to see you had a nice Christmas. Hope to see you this summer.

Theresa J

Sandi said...

update!
update!
update!....need one...now....bad....pleease????