I have sat and thought long and hard about what I wanted to say in this, my last blog before surgery. Which direction do I wanna take it? Do I wanna talk about the life changes I've made so far, do I wanna talk about my stats and pounds I've dropped so far? The diet changes I like or hate. My choices are endless but during all of this, there is one thing that has been weighing on my mind that I need to share. I've been wanting to share this will you all for a while....and that is, I'm not doing any of this by myself. It is only with hour by hour help from Jesus that I am able to make such drastic life changes. Trust me, I tried it before by myself and obviously THAT didn't work. I've heard that God will only give you what you can handle, but I do not believe in that at all. I believe that God will give you MORE than you can handle so that you finally turn to Him for help. If we are only given what WE can handle....then we might just handle everything ourselves and not turn to Him. And that is not what He wants. He wants us to continuously turn to Him with our needs, lay them at his feet and walk away having faith that He will take of it and that His will will be done. What a peace in knowing that!! So even though I get on here and announce all the stuff I've done or changes I've made, please know that it is only with HIS help....because without Him, I couldn't do anything. I know this...and I want you to know it too.
So now on with the stats, changes, blah blah blah. :) I've had no sugar for 4 weeks, no caffeine for 3 weeks and minimal food for the past two weeks. Today, nothing but clear liquids baby....less that 24 hours until surgery. Woo Hoo!
My highest weight ever in my life was back on March 2nd when I weighed in at 327.4lbs and since then I've lost almost 20lbs. Fifteen of that fell off after taking out sugar, caffeine and fast food. Once I have my surgery, I will be in the hospital over night to watch for leaking and to make sure I can get liquids down and keep them down. They will make me walk 4 hours after surgery and every 4 hours after that around the clock. As long as there are no problems, I will be discharged Tuesday afternoon with my little golf ball size stomach and will be on fluids for 1 full week. Then the next week will be soft foods and gradually moving up to normal food over a period of 6-7 weeks. It will be important for me to make sure I'm getting my protein, water and exercise in. My biggest fear is stretching out that little golf ball size stomach (called my pouch) to the football size it is now. So yes, I will be taking my scale and measuring cup when I go out to eat with friends and family. Every time you stretch your stomach out and overeat, it takes that much to fill you up again.....so no thank you! No overeating! I will continue to avoid sugar and pray that I have dumping syndrome if I attempt it. Dumping syndrome sounds like antabuse to the alcoholic. You eat sugar and you could get sick. That'll teach me. And for the rest of my life....my meals with consist of high protein, low fat meals that measure up to 1 cup each.
So I offer up a face-palm to anyone who calls weight loss surgery an EASY WAY OUT. This is going to be work, work for the rest of my life, putting thought into each meal, each day to make sure I'm doing what I'm suppose to do. Gone are the days of just grabbing something and eating it. But it will all be worth it. I have a lot left to do in this life...and a lot of folks depending on me...so I need to be here.... I can only imagine how many years I'm about to add to my life.
Surgery is at 0730.......Thank you Jesus for this life changing opportunity. Please be with my OR staff, pleasw guide my surgeons hands and bless those nurses who will get me through. Amen.
And away we go.......
