2 weeks post-op and Friday weigh-in....

Well you will remember that one word summed up my day yesterday, well my BFF kindly text me from the UK to put it all in perspective, I quote:

"You are not starving, kids in Africa are starving, you are hungry, hungry is good because it means you are burning fat!"

OK then, I was remarkably, extremely, exceptionally hungry yesterday lol!  Ah I do miss my buddy - mwah!


Well its 2 weeks since surgery day, and have spent the last week on the liquid diet and have managed to loose a staggering............ 0.2kg/200g, wow, whoppee.... I know, I know how disappointing!!!!

I don't get it, Ive done nothing different this week to last week on liquids and managed to loose 3.2kg last week, only difference being TOM arrived or perhaps too few calories is not good for my weightloss.  A typical day's diet looked like this:

Breakfast:  1 x optifast
Lunch:    1/2 cup of soup
Mid-afternoon:  coffee made with skimmed milk
Dinner:   1/2 cup of soup
Evening:  coffee made with skimmed milk
(plus water, flavoured tea, ice pole)

The surgeon did say that the 4 weeks post op is all about recovery and not about loosing weight..... but thats like saying the Pope isn't Catholic to someone who's just had WLS!

Anyway, this brings me to the start of week 3 and I'm allowed mushies.... yeah, whoop, whoop!!  Basically means anything sloppy or baby food texture.... will make a great change from liquid, but apparently can bring on weight gain!  Remember, that its all about willpower right now as I have no fill in my band, I am looking forward to eating normally again with some fill in my band!

On a completely different note, I found out that some people back home are reading my blog - "Welcome Katie and Mandy - love you guys!" but what I didn't realise is that you have to have a google account to make comments.... guess you'll have to set one up girls!  Also, can any of the experienced bloggers tell me how to add the followers icon?

Here's a picture of what the band looks like:

Well, its bank holiday weekend for us here in Perth, the sky is blue and the sun is shining, but its bloody freezing its about 15degrees!

I have a girlie night out this evening which I am looking forward too, Motown night, so shall have to dig out my dancing shoes.  I think I might drive, as not having much food and think anything more than  2 glasses of wine at this stage will make me fall down drunk!

Enjoy your weekend everyone..x

Thursday mumblings.........

I have one word to sum up my day today:

STARVING.........!!!!

and that's all I have to say about that..x

Ssshhhh..... its a secret

Wow, there's lots of mixed opinion on whether to be open or secretive about gastric band surgery.  I've thought about this one long and hard, I've discussed it over and over with a good friend.....

My initial thoughts were "I'm keeping it a secret, but will tell a selected few close friends and family......", mainly because I didn't want the negativity, criticism and extra pressure of feeling that people were watching what I was eating, or not eating, drinking or not drinking, continually asking about the weightloss or not etc  

"I've had a hernia repair or gallbladder op" was going to be my routine answer, if anyone asked where I was last week.  "I'm on a calorie controlled diet with lots of exercise" if anyone asks about my weightloss.....................
....................................but you know, its not sitting comfortably with me - I'm really not very good at telling porkies, and don't feel comfortable with the elaborated stories, so if anyone asks......................
..................................."I've had minor stomach surgery" and if people dig deeper "I've had WLS (weightloss surgery)"...I won't volunteer the information, but equally I won't lie!

As hubbie pointed out:  It has bugger all to do with anyone else, so they can stick the negativity where the sun don't shine!

(For those of you that haven't researched gastric band surgery.... please don't be hoodwinked into believing that it is the easy option, and that weight just miraculously melts away like magic...... it'll take hardwork, motivation, exercise, and sensible lifelong choices for the weight to go.  No amount of surgery will cure the headhunger.... and slider foods (eg chocolate, cake, crisps etc) are the easiest foods to eat, but obviously the wrong ones!)

The band is a tool, not a magic wand!

Back to normal week.....

Back to normal week.....

Here's how I'm healing 1 week after surgery:

Yep feeling really well so all back to normal and back to work!  Have been walking our dog Chester since last week, but managed a 5k power walk with him on Saturday, just a week post-op so pretty good going I'd say.  It was a beautiful day here in sunny Perth for a walk, and I could see my shadow on the ground as I marched along...... I swear my shadow looked skinner than normal.... ;)  Anyway, when glanced at my reflection in the shop window this morning I looked huge..... mind games I guess!

TOM appeared on Friday, so haven't lost any further weight, in fact gained 0.6kg / 1.3lb..... (must be hormonal, can't possibly have gained anything from the limited fluids that I am allowed at the mo), things are not moving along either... if you get my drift..... so had to stop by the chemist yesterday as well.

I must post a pic of gorgeous Chester, he's our 2yr old cavoodle and is the only one in the house that doesn't argue back, give me lip, moan or fall asleep drunk on the sofa..... he just falls asleep when he's tired himself out using the Wii...!

On another note we've got ourselves a treadmill....  I keep reading about the "Couch to 5K" program, and have decided to give it try.  The bookies are placing bets as to whether I start the program or use the treadmill as another clotheshorse - watch this space!

1 week post-op

Wow, how time flies - I'm 1 week post-op today and am feeling really well.  I think I've been one of the fortunate ones as I've had little pain, just some bad hearburn (which has eased now), I'm able to carry on as normal, get a slight twinge when I bend down to tie my laces, but thats all.  My incisions are healing nicely, jut some purple/yellow bruising now - so all's good!  Back to work next week.

Have decided that Friday will be my official weigh-in day:
...... drumroll......
since starting my preop diet on 6 May I have lost:  7.4kg / 16.2lb / 1st 2lb - yeah - happy with that!

So I have done 1 week of the post-op liquid diet.... and am sooooo over soup and optifast - just another week of it to go, how exciting not! before starting the 2 week mushies stage.  Am so looking forward to eating something solid and chewing.

The downside of healing so nicely is that the surgery swelling will have subsided and the hunger will return - currently have no fluid in my band and won't have until 17 June, so am expecting the "bandster hell" that everyone talks about to hit me full on in the face!

Have a good weekend all...x

Surgery day

17 May 2013 - Well the day finally arrived, I had to be at the hospital for 6.30am (... why so early?).  Fortunately hubbie had the day off work so I left him sorting the kids and drove myself off to the hospital.  I checked in and was taken to my room, I was lucky to have a room to myself with my own bathroom and TV.

Hubbie got dropped down by a friend, and checked in on me, before driving my car home.  All of the nurses that attended me during my stay were fantastic - a big cheer for the nurses at Glengarry hospital!  I was wheeled down to theatre around 11.30am, and laid in the waiting area for a while.  The nurses got me a lovely hot blanket, to keep me toasty!  My nerves had started to kick in at this point, and I started cross-checking myself as to whether I really wanted to go through with this surgery (par for the course I would think)...., then I wasn't sure whether I needed to pee again or not.....

I was wheeled into the op room, and Dr Dolan said something like "Are you ready, sure you want to do this?"  Eeek, wtf!!!  Anyway, the anaesthetist tried to insert my IV, he had trouble finding my veins (pin cushion springs to mind) but third time lucky managed, and the next thing I remember was waking up in recovery room!

Unfortunately I always feel quite nausea after anaesthetic, and this time was no different, apparently I had been given several things to try and alleviate this, but I was dry wretching into a sick bag, and some nurse was rubbing my arm... (times like that you always want your Mum!), I was taken back to my room along with my sick bag...., the nausea didn't subside for about 5hr but once it went I really felt pretty good :)  I felt quite sleepy, and didn't have a lot of pain, some shoulder tip pain (common with stomach surgery), but no real soreness!  Infact I was only on liquid panadol 8hrs after surgery.

Hubbie came to visit with my 2 beautiful kids, they didn't stay long, just long enough to see that I was OK and give me a kiss, before they headed off for a fun night at friends house.

The nurses kept waking me every 3 hrs to check my blood pressure, pulse, temp - all of which was OK.  I was able to sleep on my side from the beginning, infact lying on my left side helped the shoulder pain to go - weird!  I kept sipping water through the rest of day and night, was able to get up and pee and generally move around OK.  I felt far better than I thought I would.

The following morning I had a coffee, which went down fine.  Hubbie picked me up and brought me home, with some panadol, inflammation tablets, some strong painkiller (which I never used).  Liquid diet now for 2 weeks!...x

Pre-op appointment

Had my pre-op appointment on Friday 3 May 2013, which meant an hour with the dietitian and an appt with the office doctor.

It was useful seeing the dietitian (although I did wonder how such a young, petite and slim person could relate.....) however she was very nice.  We looked at my diet and what would need to change; she had a great visual book showing pictures of different foods and calories..... Did you know one glass of red wine =18 prawns, now I could easily devour a bottle of red wine, not sure I'd sit and eat that many prawns after having my evening meal though!??!  Anyway, back on track...., she told me that I would need to start the pre-op diet ASAP which would comprise:

- 2 x optifast products daily eg. breakfast/lunch
- minimum of 2 bowls veg (not all veg, only those on her list)
- palm size lean piece of protein
- limit to 1 drink of caffeine
- unlimited water/low cal soft drink
- DEFINITELY NO WINE

Started the pre-op diet on the Monday, which meant that I had 10 days before my op, and have to say I really didn't find it too bad.  I thought the opti-shakes were OK, and actually quite enjoy the banana flavour.  I made veg soup (tomato curry and cauliflower and leek) which I would have for my lunch, and would have lean meat or fish with salad for dinner.   An opti shake for breakfast, and another for afternoon tea.  (Infact I am finding the liquid diet 2 weeks after surgery more difficult!!!!)

I weighed in the day before surgery at 96kg / 211.2lb / 15st - whoop whoop! (loss 4.4kg / 9.6lb)!

Surgeon appointment

Everytime I failed at loosing and keeping off weight, I fleetingly would think of gastric band and then rule it out ..... lets be honest, its rather excessive, its surgery for goodness sake, I'm perfectly happy otherwise....and for everyone who believes its the easy option - please do your research before you make such foot-in-mouth comments!

Fern Britton (a UK presenter) was a stunning large lady, but an even stunnier slimmer lady following WLS.... got me thinking somemore!  For some reason WLS here in Australia seems more accepted than in the UK, I have 3 good friends who have had surgery, so had lots of people to talk this over with.  Knowing my PHI (private health insurance) would cover all but the gap and excess, made the decision more possible...

So after much thought, agonising and research I made an appt with Dr Dolan, a well respected bariatric surgeon here in Perth.  He is clearly a busy man as had to wait over 4 weeks for an appt to see him - 17 March 2013!

I took my husband along for the consultation, for two reasons really:

- I wanted him to be 100% happy with me having the surgery, I wanted him to hear about the successes, failures and possible problems first hand, so between us we could make an informed decision;

- Secondly, because at times he has to be "my ears" being hearing impaired means that sometimes I miss key bits of information, and bearing in mind Dr Dolan has a very strong accent could cause me some issues.

Well I weighed in at 100.4kg / 220.8lb / 15st7lb - my heaviest weight to date!  Which meant that my BMI was 36 classing me as "severely obese".  Fortunately I do not have any weight related illnesses (eg. diabetes, high blood pressure etc)...YET!  The Dr thought that 70kg / 154lb /11st would be an ideal goal weight for me (haven't been that weight since my wedding day - 19years ago!)

He then proceeded to discuss the two surgical options:  gastric band and sleeve, he talked about both surgeries, the success rates/failures and what was involved - and then said I met the criteria if I wanted to proceed!

I chose the band as opposed to the sleeve, because I felt it was the better option for me, because:
- it was not so evasive, key-hole surgery
- fully adjustable
- fully removable
- none of my insides needed to be cut....

Surgery day booked for  17 May 2013....  I could have had the surgery earlier, but had my folks visiting for Easter and didn't want it to impact on their stay...x

OMG - How many....

Calorie controlled, Weight-watchers (several times), Slimming world (several times), Rosemary Conley, Dietitian, Weightloss pills (dodgy black-market ones), Xenical (prescribed weightloss pills), Atkins, Cabbage, Slimfast, Dukan, Flat-stomach plan, Bodytrim, magazine diets

... how much money have I spent over the years on plans, classes, meal-replacements, books, videos, gym memberships etc....

WELL NO MORE!!!! ...x

Challenges/Defining moments...

I truly believe that life is to be lived.... there is "no action replay" in life, so have no regrets....!  I would describe myself as being a "half-glass full" type of gal as opposed to "half-glass empty", I try and see the good/best in most things.

Very cliched I know, but I had a great childhood, was loved and encouraged in everything by my parents, and was raised to believe that I could achieve anything.  As such my weight was never a problem to me in that it never stopped me from doing or trying anything.  Of course, I can remember moments of wishing I could fit in the new farrah trousers everyone was wearing at middle school, the tight denim fit jeans etc but I can't honestly recall being teased about my size as a child.  Even as an adult I am not embarrassed to wear my swimming cossie if we are at the pool/beach (which is often living here in sunny Perth), and friends often don't believe me when I say yes this top is a size 22, they assume that I'm smaller than that.... why I ask myself.... perhaps I carry my weight well, perhaps I don't give a damn, perhaps I feel this is where I am at, mmm I'll have to think about that one.

We all face challenges and defining moments in life, here are the key ones in my life's journey

- loosing my very dear friend 13yrs ago now
- emigrating to Perth, leaving my family and so many close friends behind
- being given my cochlear implant operation to overcome my leftside deafness

of course there are numerous other personal occasions, but all of the above have affected and defined my life and how I live it in some way...

- WLS (weight loss surgery) - well this is the new challenge for me.... I don't want to be "skinny", I just want to be healthy as I get older, and be able to shop where I like, and feel sassy in what I am wearing!  No regrets remember, I will get there.... x

First Post!

Firstly, a big Hi to you all,

Well this is my very first post on my very first blog, so you'll need to bear with my whilst I find my way around!

I'm "Aussie Bandit", I'm actually English but emigrated to Perth back in 2009, so currently Australia is where I call home!  I am a 42yr old proud Mum of two beautiful children, I'm also wife, daughter, sister and friend!

I'm an easy-going, happy, obese person with a great life.... and I want to be an easy-going, happy, slim person with a great life....!  I've been overweight for as long as I can remember, have tried every diet known to mankind, can loose several kg to only gain them back and more!!  My weight is one battle that I've never been able to win..... hence why I decided on gastric banding.

I seriously started looking into this surgery sometime ago, have read and researched loads and am excited and scared at what results will follow..... x