11 months post op.

Five months since I have written. Boy how time flies.  So many of you have asked if I was still going to be writing on my blog. And I believe I have told everyone that yes I will continue. But then I didn't.  So I have been sitting here thinking of why I didn't make my blog the priority.
Some of you know that we lost my father in law this summer. Taking care of him during hospice took a lot. Even though all of Markies siblings were here and involved, emotionally it took its toll. Then trying to get some summer in with Dontae before school starts. Then school. Not to forget trying to get my craft cottage all done. So something had to take a back seat, and guess what it was.

Check this out.

Not bad huh?  I wanted to hit 100lbs by November 14,2017, That would be one year, but its not going to happen and that is ok. My knee has been awful.  When I can finally start exercising again, I am going to rock. 30 more lbs to go.

One thing I am enjoying is wearing clothes and figuring out styles.  My daughter Calie is trying to teach me not to be so matchy matchy. LOL She wants me to go out of the box a little. For example, LOL I bought a pair of leopard pumps, to wear with my black leggings black top and my leopard duster.  Ohhhhhhh NOOOOOOOOO apparently you can't do that, LOL Ok well that is why I bought

the shoes. So I am taking back the shoes. Why have them if I can't even wear them with my cute duster. LOL   Anyway its been fun, Calie is helping me stay hip.  ha ha ha

I will go back in my blog and see where I left off and try to fill in the blanks, just not today. See you soon.

the shoed

One day shy of 6 months

Just noticed that last I wrote was exactly two months ago today. I should of wrote on here sooner but all my appointments got messed up, and didn't really happen. But my 6 month check up is on the 25th I believe. Already did the blood work portion of it. Like 6 or 7 vile's of blood. They kept asking me "are you ok" LOL. Then down in shoreline I will have the bod pod, exercise, Psychiatrist, nutritionist, and finally Dr. Kaufman.  I am excited to see him, since I haven't since November 14, 2016.
I am down 57 lbs. So from month 4 to month 6 its only been a total of 13lbs. I say only because I would of liked to have been down another pant size. I am not complaining though. 
One of the reasons I got the surgery was my left knee that I hurt in gymnastics in middle school. Dr. arrogant, not like women Hoelstien said that if I got some weight off I could delay surgery for years hopefully. Well its progressively getting worse, actually had to go to a cane and pain pills. Being hurt with my neck and back for 16 years, I thought I had a high pain tolerance. After that much time, if you want to have some normalcy in your life with NO pain meds, you suck it up and and pretend your doing great pain free. But holy cow, this knee pain is out of control to the point that I can not deal with it at all. So I messaged a friend from school days that said he had a double knee surgery and that he was very happy with his Dr. He said it was Dr. Oswin. I called right away and he see's me on Monday. Dave told me this man was arrogant as well. Thats ok if he uses that because he is a great Dr. and not that he doesn't like women. LOL He is married but he still is a jerk. A great looking jerk, but still a jerk and that out weighs his looks. So please pray that Oswin will be a fit for me,because I want this knee replaced yesterday. However, here is the thing. I need all the arthritis and scar tissue removed from where I had surgery on my neck. I meet again with Landau on Monday as well. My hope would be to do these together  on the same day. That way I wouldn't have to go under two times and then recovery time for both procedures. So I will know more on Monday.
As far as my sleeve goes. I am still learning things. But one thing that is not catching on is me eating to fast, then getting sick. Almost every night at dinner, Dontae says "Mom you better slow down"  LOL I Love that kid. I will keep you up on my next appointment with Eviva. Thanks for wanting to read my story.

A picture says a lot

I'm just shy of 4 months. I went in for my check up and my surgeon was caught up in surgery, so we had to reschedule. I was bummed because I haven't seen Dr. Kaufman since the day of my surgery.  So my appointment isn't until the end of the month. I want to share now because I think I am over my plateau. Either that or I am learning more and more of how to eat properly. I also have a new app on my phone called  "My fitness pal" that really takes the guess out of things. I know they want me at about 80grams of protein, under 50grams of carbs. and about 1000 calories. And all my vitamins and all my water. I will not give up my one cup of great coffee with cream and sugar, so instead of having a huge mug full twice like I used too, I just have one cup, and every so often I will have a second cup. And I am happy. I only get sick if I forget to eat S L O W..... and its crazy to think that once you get sick from eating to fast that you would ever eat fast again. But I must of ate fast before surgery, because it does happen more then I like.
I have been exercising,  not hard core or anything, and since my walk with Dontae when we walked way past our destination and didn't even know it, my knee has given me grief. The Dr. told me to only walk on flat surfaces but I didn't listen. My knee was feeling so great after getting some weight off that I thought I could do it. Well the walk was a month ago and my knee is still killing me. So walking is out for now. I hope I can continue as the weather starts to get nicer. 
So since I am just about at my 4 month mark, I decided to have Markie take my picture. It's the strangest thing though. I look at this picture and I just can't believe what I looked like and what I look like today. My eyes see the difference, but I don't feel the difference. But I do, because as of today I put on a size 14 pant, and those are new pajamas in this picture and they are a size large. WHAT!!!! But I still feel like an oinker. It's a head thing I tell ya. I have lost 46lbs. My goal is 54 more lbs. I will continue meeting with all the Dr.'s through out this first year, and will work on my head thing LOL.

3 month post op

It is really 3 1/2 months. I can't believe how time gets away from me. When I have people private messaging me asking how I am doing, that is when I know I am behind.  So I apologize for that.
I did have my 3 month check up which would of sparked me to write on here, but unfortunately when I got to my appointment, my surgeon was running 45 mins. behind, so we decided to re book. However I did get weighed and am down 41 lbs. I am so close to fitting into a size 14. I have been an 18 for so so long that I was almost forgetting. I just need to go down from a 14 two more sizes and I will hit my goal. A size 10, that was the weight I got married and it was pretty easy to stay at that weight.
All the hibernation syndrome is gone (Thank God) I am feeling so much better. Feeling so good that Dontae and I decided to start walking. Well LOL I made a couple mistakes. The Dr. told me to walk on level serfaces (for my back and my knee) But I thought we could walk the urban trail down to my daughters house and then Markie could pick us up.  That way I wasn't walking up hill. It was after dinner and Dontae insisted on bringing a flashlight. So we set out. We got lost LOL (I really don't know how) now its dark.  I thanked Dontae for taking such good care of Mama because he had a flashlight and we could see.  He was so proud. Any hoo we ended up walking from Vining st to Orleans. Way to long for my first time out. My knee was freaking killing me. But other parts of my body felt fantastic. Needless to say it is now  hurting more then it is not. The rest of me feels pretty darn good, so I hope to soon start to exercise more without the chronic pain.
Eating is getting better and better. I am really starting to understand what I can and can't eat. Bread is one thing that I don't really eat. It does not work with me. So I keep on going on and trying new things to see what messes with me and what doesn't.
I haven't experienced the hair loss and I hope it stays that way, since I have pretty short hair right now. I also went and had a facial and I haven't had one of those since beauty school 36 years ago.  And it was AMAZING!!!! I am sold!!!!!
Since I needed to reschedule my appointment, I am just going to skip the three month and go right to my 4 month. See you then!!!!!!

Hibernation syndrome

Starting at about week three after surgery I think it was, all I wanted to do was sleep and sit in my chair and do Pinterest or play games on my phone all in between me sleeping. I did not want to go anywhere I did not want to answer my phone or texts.  I didn't really get that something was going on with me other then just having major surgery.  But my Markie said to me one day that for the last couple of weeks I had been really quite and all I do is play games and go on Pinterest.  When he said that I started paying attention more to my body. And he was so right, I was even not showering every day, some of the days I didn't even brush my teeth. (Hey, I never went more then one day LOL)  but still that's gross.  A lot of people get depressed.  That is one thing I can say that I was not, which is strange for my other symptoms. Some get very emotional. I was really kinda happy but just wanted to do nothing. The hibernation syndrome happens to at least half of the patients. And I wish I knew about it ahead of time, so I could of prepared myself. I didn't know of this until yesterday.
You see, our bodies start to notice that we are not taking in enough calories. Our body is missing food and thinks this is a famine and struggles to conserve our energy. So our body makes us tired and or depressed, so we don't have the motivation to do anything. This stage can last several weeks. And boy my has. I have felt darn good yesterday and today, so I am hoping its over. Time will tell.  Its kinda been a drag having this go on, trying to figure out the new food and eating thing not to mention recovering from surgery.
When our bodies decide to get out of this stage our body has to say to itself "gee this famine is lasting a bit to long. If I keep conserving my energy with inactivity, I will starve to death. I'd better use my last store of energy ( the remaining fat and muscles in our body ) to hunt up some food."
At this point our body will switch from getting energy from food, to getting energy from our fat (and muscle too if we don't eat enough protein) and that is what we want.  Once our body goes through this stage then the real Kim will come back. LOL  
It's so strange how our bodies work. I told Markie today that I feel like my body is loosing weight now.  And maybe this hibernation thing is why I only lost 5 lbs last month. Especially with learning how to eat right.  I do hope its over, I really want to go back to being me. Like I said, yesterday and today have been good, great actually, so maybe I made it through.