Diagnosis: Dermatitis

I am SO happy it isn't shingles. I was really scared it was because my husband has never gotten the chicken pox. That would be all I need is to expose him to that at the age of 34. Contact dermatitis was what the doctor said it is since it is on both sides of my torso. 100+ degree heat, gym, exercise, rubbing/irritation from undergarments & sweat=yuck on your skin. He said it didn't matter that I shower after the gym, it happens. That made me feel a little less cootiesc. I am thinking it might be because I am still healing from surgery and my body is still susceptible to various ailments. He did comment on my incisions. Called them nice. I said "I know, I love them" :-)

Got some prescription cream, anti-inflammatories and the dreaded steroids. I am really worried about taking them because of the puffiness they cause. But, I guess I will just need to suck it up and do it so I can get better and back to the gym (since no more working out until this is cleared up). Talk about a double whammy. Ugh.

One good thing that came out of this visit was 1) BP was 124/78 with NO meds and 2) my resting pulse (which for as long as I can remember has always been 90ish) was 77!!! YAY!!!

It's the little things, isn't it? :-)

My Love/Hate Relationship With The Gym

I really do enjoy going to the gym now. I am getting stronger in my workouts and see that I am not tiring as easily...after only 2 weeks! I was also super excited when I came into work today and 2 people made the comment that I looked so much thinner from last week (which means that gym time is working! Woohoo!) I just hate getting up so flipping early to do so! My husband is religious about working out in the mornings, so I go with him...at 5:30 a.m. But last night when I went with a girlfriend and my son it was SO much better. The heat was terrible last night, but I was actually fully awake and felt I did much better than when I go in the mornings.

But now I have this rash thing going on. It is right along where my sports bra rests on my torso so I am hoping that it is just a heat rash, but it started last week and get worse with each workout. I am just praying it isn't anything more serious, like shingles or something. Slapped on some hydrocortizone cream a few hours ago and waiting for it to work it's magic before I call the doctor. What do you think, all you amateur doctors out there in blogger land? (P.S. Please excuse the fat, but it isn't all gone yet) See my tiny incision scars?? I love them :-)

4 Weeks Post Op (With Pictures!!)

I cannot believe 4 weeks ago at this minute I was in recovery with my mom and husband sending out mass texts telling everyone that things went perfectly while I was shushing people who were making too much noise. Time has FLOWN by. I am officially down 27 lbs, but more importantly, have lost a number of inches. I really need to start doing measurements, but the pictures are worth 1000 words. I can't wait to see where I am in 4 more weeks!!

Can you see the difference??
(Of course Josie had to model along side of me this morning)

Father's Day Recap

I know it is late, but it wouldn't be me if it wasn't!

I hope you all had a great Father's Day weekend...I certainly did! I ate. And then I ate some more. Oh yeah, and then a little more! I ate myself sick. Not physically, but pretty close to it. Now remember, I can only eat 4 oz at a time, but boy did I....about 5 times!!! We had such incredible food and, silly me, I made brownies (which I believe I ate about 1 lb of) and even though I put everything away so it wouldn't be calling to me, I grazed like the purple cow on my previous post.

I weighed myself the next morning to see the damage and discovered I lost .7 lbs. Huh?? I know about "shocking your body" and all that, but wow. NOT going to be regular practice!!

Since being able to eat all types of food now I have been experimenting. Can I eat steak? Can I eat chicken? Can I eat 1 lb of brownies? Yup, yup and yup. So far I have no limitations. I chew like crazy, but I can eat it. Having said that, since the scale hasn't moved since Monday, I busted my butt at the gym on Monday and again today because since I am a scale stalker, I need to see results.

Speaking of eating whatever I want, I did have my first stuck episode on Sunday, however. Not to the point where I had a PB (productive burp) but oh.my.gosh did it hurt. You know when you eat something too fast and it is like it gets stuck in your esophagus? That would be the exact feeling. I ate a chunk of chicken waaaaayyyyyy too quickly and thought I was going to die. Plus, you can't drink while eating so I had to sit there with this evil piece of poultry clinging on for dear life for 20 minutes or so while acting like nothing was wrong for our company. Lesson learned.

Mooooooooooo

That is how I feel about myself today. I am the purple one, btw

Remember my post this morning about the cakes and brownies and cookies, etc that would be at work? Well, I think I self-destructed this morning when I left my lunch at home on the island. I literally panicked. So I get to work and decide "Okay, I will get the protein pack from the lunch lady today." Or not. She didn't have any. Really?? Every other day she has no less than 4 but not today. So I settled for a turkey sandwich that I ate as 2 meals sans bread.

Well, then came the treats. The cupcakes were mini cupcakes and I ate 1/4 of one and gave the rest to my PIC (aka the evil b*tch who made said goodies). I just wanted to lick the dark chocolate off of the entire thing though. Yuuummmmmmmm. But where I really relapsed was with the cake. Picture this, german chocolate cake with sweet condenced milk and chocolate poured on top, covered in Cool Whip & Health bar. Are you freaking kidding me?! I had a tiny piece and it was almost orgasmic after not having any amount of sugar in 4 weeks. Now, having said that, I CRASHED about 15 min after eating it. I wanted to crawl under my desk and sleep. Crazy. Never experienced that before. I think my blood was made up of pure glucose before my surgery. I hated the feeling. I don't want to experience it again. I hereby pledge to be sugar-free (but still as sweet) for as long as I can possibly handle it. :-)

3 Weeks Post Op

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks, talk about time flying. I was afraid that my moving on to mushies/real food was going to be a bad thing, but it actually helped my weight loss to increase again. Today I was down 2.8 lbs for a total loss of 24.8...but we will just say 25 ;-) Going to the gym is much easier now and I actually enjoy it because I know it will help me to see more results. I had a very exciting day yesterday when I 1) put on a top that was very obviously loose on me and 2) I had a co-worker tell me she could "REALLY tell that I am losing weight" and even specified where on me she could see it. Yay!

Today we have a co-worker leaving and there will be cake, cookies, brownies, you name it about 10 feet from me all day. Ugh.

1st Workout Post-Op

I did it and I survived!! I think the hardest part was getting out of bed at 5:30 to go with my husband. At first I told him no, but then I remembered I am eating actual food now and so I got up and went. I knew I wouldn't be able to do much so I got on the treadmill, put in my iPod (with an excellent selection of 80's pop hits) and went to town. I only did 35 minutes on the treadmill but I did 3.5 and worked my way up to 3.0 incline. All in all I did a little over 2 miles. It felt really good to go do something. Sure glad I fell asleep at 8:00 last night in order to do so!

My son started his football camp today. It goes through August. He'll be doing 3 hrs a day, 4 days a week. His goal was to lose 10-15 lbs this summer and I am hoping that this helps him to do it! I had to put tons of sunscreen on his head because we cut off about 10 lbs of hair on Sat. But I am glad I listened to the news this morning and heard that the UV index was going to be "extreme" today (meaning burn in 10 min) because then I put even more sunscreen on him. Don't need burning already this summer!

I have been paying a lot of attention to how my husband and son eat since I had surgery and they eat a LOT. I did the same a month ago. I know that my habits were passed on to my son. I hate that. I get after them about the amount of food that they put on their plates (i.e. 4 pancakes and 2 eggs for breakfast) and I am sure that they are sick of me nagging, but I really want them to realize what they are doing/how much they are eating and be cognisant of it. It took me having surgery to do the same and I want my family to be healthy.

2 Weeks Post-Op

I ate an egg!!!!! It was one of the single most thrilling events in I don't know how long. I never new an egg could bring me such pleasure. But oh yes. It was amazing (I was going to say eggcellent, but you know). Who knew that 1 single egg could make you feel full. It is quite a strange feeling.

For those of you who don't know, I stay with my mom 2-3 nights a week because my home and work are 30 miles apart, one way. It is great to conserve gas :-) I am happy I took workout clothes with me to my mom's house so that I could walk. I didn't do any exercising on Wednesday night because I thought "I am so tired and it is so dark." Then last night as I was thinking of excuses to not walk I looked to the right and saw the treadmill. Duh. She has only had it in her family room for 2 years. So I walked last night on my mom's treadmill while watching Philadelphia. Not a good combo to have a moving belt under your feet and tears streaming down your face. Just an FYI.

I weighed in this morning and was very pleased. I actually weighed in on 2 scales (because my mom has 2 and they are both different from my scale at home) and am super excited to report a total weight loss so far of 22 lbs!! I also discovered that I have cheek bones again while putting on my makeup. Double bonus!!

Where Does Time Go??

This has nothing to do with my band, BTW.

Today my son completed his final day in middle school, which means in the fall I will officially have a high schooler. How on Earth did this happen...and so fast?! I remember starting high school and it really doesn't seem like it was that long ago. I remember him starting kindergarten and thinking he was such a big boy way back then. They say kids age you and I cannot agree more. Unreal. My baby boy is all grown up...and almost taller than me. I seriously want to cry.

Day he was born


Mother's Day '11

But on the bright side, at least he will have a smokin' hot mama when he is a high schooler ;-)

Fall Down, Go Boom

If you are my FB friend you probably read that last night I fell. I fell hard and quite ungracefully. I was chasing my puppy around beating him with my half chewed shoe when he knocked over a piece of furniture that I tripped over. It hurt so bad. It hurt so bad I cried in front of my son. I am very sore today and hoping that I haven't done any damage (aside from ripping off half of my pinky toe nail. There goes my pedicure on Friday). I called and left a message for the nurse and am waiting to hear back from her.

Anyway, I read this on a board that I am on and had to share it because not only is it hilarious, but it reflects my feelings of the past few days: "Dying to lick a piece of steak with a side of birthday cake."

Hurry up Friday!!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow?

This is a picture after my shower tonight. This is the hair that stuck to my fingers while washing my hair tonight. *Gulp* 500 cal a day my body does not like. Where is my food?!?! Good thing I have a ton of hair...easily camoflageable.

1 Week Post-Op

Well, one week down, a lifetime to go! I went to my surgeon's office today and they said everything looks good. Incisions are healing perfectly and I can swim in another week or two. My vitals are great. No more BP meds needed :-) I go back in a month and get my first fill if needed. I won't really know if I need it or not until I start eating real food. I have one more week on liquids and then I can start on mushies. I.Can't.Wait. I discovered today that I am only consuming 500 cal a day. No bueno. It will go up for sure when I start eating real food again.

Oh, I almost forgot about what everyone wants to know, my weight :-) Well, today I weighed in at 258 at their office but I was 257.3 when I weighed in this morning at home, so that is the number I am going by. That means in 2 weeks I have dropped 17.3 lbs...which makes me very happy. I know most of that is water weight and these types of numbers will NOT be the standard during my journey. Once I start eating real food again it will level out to 1-2 lbs each week, but that is alright by me because that will be actual fat leaving my body.

Today Is A Hard Day

I shouldn't be wanting to cry less than a week post op because of food, but I feel like I want to. It isn't even just about the food, it is traditions. Tonight was my son's last band concert ever (effing budget cuts) and after every concert we go out to eat....except for tonight. I was in a lot of discomfort during the concert because I did a lot today and didn't take any pain meds so I just wanted to go home. I pre-made a shake before we left so it would be good to go when we got home. Well. The husband asked me what we were going to do for dinner...to which I responded with a blank stare in his direction. I told him to make something. He obviously didn't want to cook dinner so I said they could get a pizza on the way home. I know he feels bad about eating in front of me when I can't, so instead they went to one of our favorite places, Roberto's. Fortunately they ate there but it still sucked. Instead of being with my family I was at home, on the couch, taking 20 min to drink my 8 oz shake.

I knew this was going to be hard. I know it is going to be hard. It is not going to happen overnight. I am in this for the long haul. I just feel weepy and emotional today. Watching Julie & Julia 3 times today probably hasn't helped...that movie makes me so hungry for rich, fattening food. Pity party, table for 1 please.