Here are the emails Jen sent while I was in the hospital for those of you who weren't on the forwarding list

3/11/08


Just to update everyone….

Steve is having complications from the surgery. He isn’t able to keep anything down. The doctor believes it is because there is swelling and because of that the pouch in his stomach isn’t letting anything pass through. This is the process that he goes through. Our body naturally produces saliva and naturally we swallow it. So as more and more attempts to go into his stomach, he becomes in increasing pain until he vomits. Once he does that he feels good until after an hour or so and then it starts to build up again and the process just continues on. Dr Jones feels that the swelling will go down and this will just stop on its own. He told him today to get up and walk a lot and to sit up – basically not lay in bed at all and that should help. He did all of that this morning but around noon time he vomited again. If this continues throughout today he will go in for another surgery tomorrow. They will either give him a larger band or take a couple stitches out of the one he has now. This in turn will give him the size opening he needs. The larger band is for people who are over 300 pounds and if he changes to that he will have to have several adjustments made. Dr. Jones feels this is the right size. We will definitely know for sure what is happening tomorrow. Something has to give here because he is just suffering way too much. I would say he will be in the hospital at least until Friday. I know he definitely isn’t up for any visitors but if you want you can call me. I am pretty much there the whole day. I will let everyone what’s going on tomorrow.




3/12/08

Well I didn’t think I would have another update so soon but it sounds like he is going to be rushed into surgery tonight. He is all of a sudden vomiting very frequently so something is definitely wrong. I will let you know more tomorrow....



3/12/08

Well I just got home. The surgery went great and Steve says he feels like a million bucks. I don’t know if that is the anesthesia talking or the pain medication but I do believe he is doing better. Dr. Jones said that his stomach was extremely swollen both under and above the band. He loosened up the band and put in a GI tube. This tube connects from his stomach out through his nose. This will prevent him from vomiting. He is going to keep this in for a couple of days and then he will remove it. His plan is that the tube will give his stomach enough time to reduce its swelling since his stomach will not be aggravated from any more vomiting. Once he removes the tube Steve will have to try liquids again. At this point everything should be fine and he should be able to tolerate them. If he can’t he will have to go back in and remove everything entirely so his body can heal and then go in at a later date to have the larger band installed. I believe that this will do the trick. We really do have high hopes that this worked. Thank you everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers. It is greatly appreciated.



3/13/08

Steve is in great spirits today. He hates the tube but he is dealing with it. He feels great – well the best he can at this point compared to how he has felt. The tube will be removed on Saturday so hopefully everything goes well and it worked. He really isn’t up for any phone calls or visitors so if you want you can give me a call. It really is great to have such a wonderful support system. I’ll let you know how Saturday goes….For those of you that didn’t get all of my previous emails I have pasted them below starting from the bottom…



3/15/08

Steve obviously doesn’t like the gi tube. It is very uncomfortable for him and plainly not the nicest thing in the world. He asked Dr. Jones yesterday if it was possible to take it out, so Dr. Jones told him to disconnect the tube from the suction canister and to try drinking some water. He drank about 3 medicine cupfuls and then started to vomit. After that happened the nausea didn’t really stop and we asked to have the band removed. Dr Jones told us that if he keeps the tube in until Monday morning that everything should work out just fine. He just needs to relax a little bit His stomach just needs some time heal and to reduce the swelling. So we agreed on that and we said that we are going to wait. At 4:00 this morning Steve was dreaming and during his dream he pulled the tube out and he actually did just that. I just talked to him now and he hasn’t thrown up since and frankly I think he sounds pretty good. So hopefully things will stay on this path and maybe some liquids can be introduced on Monday. Maybe pulling out the tube was a good idea. Who knows??? I’m going to be at the hospital all day today so I will send out another email tonight….



3/15/08

Well great news!! He was feeling really great today. Didn’t feel sick to his stomach at all. He kept the saliva down so tomorrow he is going to try drinking some water. In fact, he was actually feeling hungry, which is a great sign. He was so happy today, smiling, cracking jokes, almost back to his old self. He was practically skipping down the halls today like a little kid. That was really nice to see. It looks like everything is going to work out fine. This has definitely been a tough week but as long as it all works out – well worth it. As long as everything progresses this way I believe he will be coming home on Monday.



3/17/08

Well everyone can rest easy now. Steve is now home. Everything is going great and he has already lost over 13 pounds. Now he just needs time to rest and recuperate. Thank you again for all of your nice thoughts.

STILL ALIVE!!! ONE MONTH 50 LBS GONE FOREVER!!!

Back from the hospital finally and in front of the computer. It's a struggle just taking in my daily liquids. However, something that keeps me going is looking at the change already. Here is a before and after (One month ago and yesterday) 50 Lbs gone for good. I will post some email's Jen was sending out to some of you on here when I get a chance.

LAST SUPPER!!!

So today was my last day eating the same way as I have for the last 30-1/2 years. Tomorrow is all clear liquids. I have been on a 2 week Pre-Op diet of mostly liquids. The Doctor wants to see everyone lose a little weight before the surgery. I went from 292-260 in 4 weeks (32 LBS gone forever). Since I lost so much I decided it was okay to eat 'Normal' one last day. Today we had a birthday party for Abby with a bunch of food. I did well and didn't touch that. However, Jen made my favorite meal for dinner, New England Boiled Dinner. I did touch that and it was fantastic. With only a day and a half to go I want to keep really busy tomorrow to keep my mind off of everything so I will spend half the day in the gym trying to lose what I gained back today. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A YO-YO DIETER. No more of that come Monday. Okay enough for today. I will check in tomorrow. I guess some people are still having trouble trying to comment. A lot of others are just calling and emailing me. I would like to try to make this much more interactive. As far as commenting goes I think all the issues are resolved so maybe some of you can comment on this and if it doesn't work still email me so I can send the issue off to Google. Have a nice night everyone.

How To Post

Okay so I have had a lot of responses so far about the new blog. A lot of people are having trouble posting comments. Under any of my posts there is 'COMMENTS' tab click on that... Then on the right type your comment in the box. Under this is the 'Choose an Indentity' field. In here click the bubble for 'name URL'. Type in your name and click publish comment. You can also choose to comment under anonymous just be nice we are a friendly forum here ;)... Any questions just email me. Thanks

Here is a picture of the band

Here is a picture of what the band looks like and the port where they inject saline into it to make the band tighter or looser.

When, Why, What, Where & How

First off I want to thank my cousin for giving me the idea of starting a blog. He just started one and it hit me that it would be a great way for me to let everyone know about what I'm doing. Those of you who know me know I have always been on the large since size since I was little. There was a period during high-school with football and track that I lost weight and kept it off. After that I slowly gained weight over the years to reach my all-time high of 292 Pounds. WOW. I just lost my mom a little over a year ago from heart disease and here I was at 30 years young weighing that much. A lot of people ask, (usually skinny people) why don't you just diet and exercise. Well I have always kept up with the exercising. I love to golf and I usually play Racquetball 5 times a week for a couple of hours, and even enjoy jogging (albeit slowly) now and then. I have always been the athletic fat guy. There have been numerous times since college that I have dieted and lost a lot of weight. One time that comes to my mind is back in 2003 for my wedding. I lost over 80 pounds over the course of a year and looked (if I may say) and felt great. By the end of the honeymoon I had gained 30 lbs back. By 3 months I had gained all 80 lbs back and then some. It wasn't that I was gorging and eating everything in sight, I was just eating how I always had. This YO-YO dieting has been going on the last 12 years of my life at least. There are a lot of studies out there that show this is very very bad for a persons health, some say even worse than staying heavy. However, staying heavy itself is very unhealthy and leads to a much sooner death. I was in a quagmire. What should I do. Fight for another year or year and a half starving myself on less than 1000 calories a day (which isn't much if you really count everything that passes your lips) or stay the same weight. Well I couldn't stay the same weight anymore. My knees started hurting, my back hurts all the time, my ankles give out a lot, it's hard playing on the floor with the kids, and I'm just generally really tired most of the time. I had to do something. I had been looking into the gastric bypass for many years. I watched my mom have it done and then saw her slowly deteriorate after 13 more surgeries. I still had it always on my mind and was thinking of giving it a try. About 6 months ago I read an article about a fairly new procedure called the lap band. It was much less invasive than the bypass, and even though you don't lose the weight as quickly studies were very promising that eventually you could get to a good weight and more importantly keep it off. It has been proven to be very safe with a less that 1/2% chance of serious complications. Compare that to a 3 times more likely chance of dying early of being MORBIDLY OBESE and the odds are terrific. My interest was peeked. I bought a few books and read them quickly. I went online and talked with others who have had it done. I researched all the hospitals and found what I think is the best one BIDMC and started the process. Jen went to the info sessions with me and at first was very against it. After listening to the nurse, doctor's, and nutritionists, we went home and talked about it. After she found out how much thought and research I had done she decided to support me. Now after having gone through this whole 4 month process of numerous Dr's appointment, psychologist appointments, dietitians, group meeting, and specialized testing, she is my biggest supporter. A lot changes when someone has all the facts and can make an informed decision. If I had a nickel for every time a person who I tell what I'm doing says "you don't need to do that", or "just diet", or "your not that big" I would be rich. The fact is people are basing there response without knowing any of the facts. 95% of them don't even know what a LAP BAND is. Strangely, the people who usually are the most negative are very heavy themselves. Oh well just human nature I guess. While a lot of Lap Band people hide their decision I freely tell everyone who will listen. I'm not ashamed of what I'm doing neither am I going to hide it. To the contrary I feel empowered to have a tool that will help me become a healthier person. Now that I have covered the WHY. Let me let you know the rest...

When: Monday March 10, 7:30
Where: BIDMC Boston by Dr. Jones
What & How: A Lap-Band is a silicone band that is implanted laparoscopically around the very top of the stomach. There is no modifying the stomach or anything like that. The band is placed to make a very small pouch above the band and then you regular stomach below the band. A tube is attached to the band and a port is put just under your skin in the muscle wall. After about 8 weeks post-op you go back to the Dr and they fill the band through the port with a needle with saline in it. This fill makes the band tighter around your stomach. As you eat a small amount of food you feel full very quick. You also feel full for a long time after you eat because the food slowly passes from the small pouch through the band into your stomach. Eventually when you are filled to the 'sweet spot' you can eat about 1/3 of what you ate before the band and in doing so feel full for a long time. Hence it's a tool. You can still eat ice cream, shakes, and chips all day and not lose a thing or even gain weight (but why even have the band if you are going to do that). With the right food choices, exercising, and the help of feeling full with a lot less food the weight should come off steadily... That's it. If anything should go wrong they can laparoscopically go back in and remove the band and your stomach returns to normal... Medical Technology is great isn't it. Well enough rambling for one day. I will post a couple of pictures of a band on here soon. Thanks for listening (Reading actually) and have a great day everyone...

Big Day Less Than A Week Away!!!

Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog. I wanted to have a place to store all my thoughts and stumbling blocks on this new journey I'm about to take. I figured this is a great way to do it. Please check back often as I plan to update daily. This is also going to be a place where I share some interesting links to news and other stuff. Please participate and let me know what you think...