Frankie82

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I joined a plus-sized clothing swap group on Facebook a few months ago. It caters to sizes 14 or XL and greater. I had some great luck buying a couple pieces on there (a winter coat for $10 when none of mine would fit me) and even better selling my under-grown clothes. I had to unfollow the group as I’m down to a large in my tops and I am down to a 12/14 in pants.

Size 24 to 14 in five months…WOW!

Found out that I am a dumper on November 8^th. I had dinner with my friend’s parents and had a sliver of cake. I was thinking I was one of the 7 in 10 that don’t dump and was admittedly getting a bit cocky with my sugar intake. We finished desert and left shortly thereafter, but by the time we made it back to his place, I could barely walk to the house and he basically carried me in. Spent the next two hours alternating between hot and cold flashes, nausea, vomited for a bit, the shakes, weakness, and I think I nearly went hypoglycemic and started falling asleep against my will.
I also had a dumping episode at work yesterday. I had a peperoni stuffed bread stick (mostly because I didn’t pack a lunch and I thought it was the least evil thing I could grab) and it did not get on with me. Thankfully it wasn’t as bad as the cake incident, but now I must really watch my carbs and sugars like a hawk.

Very frustrated at my recovery. I saw my surgeon yesterday, had another CAT scan, and was told more rest is the best way to heal. As I said to the Dr. I am very happy that I don’t have to have corrective surgery, but I am disappointed that there isn’t something wrong with me that you can just go in and fix; rest and time are getting very old!

I am still off work. I was scheduled to do 3, 4 hour shifts last week, but was physically only able to do an hour on the first day (Monday) and an hour on the third day (Friday). Under my left ribs and that whole side are just too painful to work through.

I am also starting to really stress about money. I am very grateful for my awesome medical at work, but even my medical has its limits. Three weeks ago I dropped down to 75% salary and in a few weeks I drop down to 50%. Because of my BMI, history of migraines, and the condition of my back, I was not able to qualify for disability insurance on my mortgage or credit cards, so I’m making less, but still paying out the same. If I drop down to 50%, I will have to clean out my savings to get by.

I can’t believe that it has been 10 weeks already. I am down 43 lbs from surgery date, a total of 79lbs in total. Damn! That’s a big number!

I am having some issues from my surgery. The first being I still really haven’t returned to work. Thankfully, I have an awesome medical plan, but I am really losing it spending so much time at home. I went back at week 5, but I tore the surgical sites at work. I honestly felt like I did fresh from the hospital when that happened. I am working part-time next week to see how my body handles things.

I am having a hard time getting calories in. Vesuvius (my pouch) is great in that I do not have any food reactions (still have not had sweets) but he certainly lets me know when he’s full. I also do not have much of a hunger response, so combine not being hungry with it hurting when I eat, and it’s hard to get calories in. Today I doubted MFP and dug the boxes out of the recycling to make sure that that the calorie count was correct. It was. I ate all day and still only hit 650 calories.

There are also some nutrient deficiencies present in my blood work. When I met with my nutritionist at week 5, we upped my dosage of vitamin D to 2000iu up from 1000iu. I’m getting a minimum of 2000iu, plus the D in my calcium, plus the D in my A+D supplement, so I was really surprised to find a deficiency in that one. My iron is also low, but my vitamin B12 is through the roof! Waiting on my GP for a follow up, but the high end of acceptable B12 levels is 650 (units of something) and I came in just under 1300.

I’m missing my old wardrobe. There are just some staples that everyone has that you miss when they’re gone. I’ve been doing very well with buying from thrift stores and from swap groups, but I have a really hard time spending money on something that I’m going to wear for a month. Tonight I spend two hours going through beautiful clothes trying to find something that will work for an event tomorrow, mostly because I didn’t have a convertible bra and I can’t stand straps showing. I just dropped off five wool pea-coats to the women’s centre this week, yet I don’t have one that fits me because I just can’t justify the cost.

I had my first visit to the dentist post-op. I did tell my dentist about my surgery, as well as my hygienist, but that may have been a moot point as she suspected I had been vomiting more by my teeth. I did have some plaque issues before, but we’ve changed up my routine a bit to prevent any more damage to my teeth. My morning routine is to brush with my regular toothpaste then follow with a fluoride rinse, which works best if I don’t eat or drink for 30 minutes thereafter. My evening routine is to brush with my regular toothpaste, do my fluoride rinse, wait, and then use an at home fluoride treatment before bed, with no eating or drinking for an hour thereafter. Oh, and throw flossing in there somewhere :)

How do I fit in time to drink?

My nutritionist wants me to get in more calories and to increase my snacking to three meals and two snacks per day. With the half hour before and one hour thereafter rules for water, time spent eating, plus my dental waits, I am now at 8 hours per day I can’t drink. Throw in a bit of sleep there, and there are only 8 hours per day to drink. I’m still able to get all my water in, but it’s in the evening so I’m up in the night for the bathroom. I’ll get it all sorted, I’m sure, but it just feels like I spend my whole day staring at a clock.

I had been trying to figure out how to increase my counter space in my kitchen for months when it finally dawned on me to wall-mount my microwave. I found the brackets on line, but I just wanted to double check that my microwave was within the weight limit. Out comes the bathroom scale to the kitchen, I hop on, and then hopped on with the microwave. After doing a bit of math, I realized that I have lost two microwaves off my body! No wonder I haven’t had back pain in two months!

Also, the microwave was within the weight limit and will be wall mounted within 15-20 working days, depending on the mail :)

This week I started a return to work program. Rather than full time hours, I had arranged to work 12:30-5:30 for the week. Monday was a bit of a mess. I ended up having abdominal spasms and fell asleep as soon as I walked in the door and took some pain meds. Tuesday I took some over the counter Tylenol throughout the day and it was okay, so I tried the same thing for Wednesday. Thursday I was just feeling off. Tired, worn out, just out of sorts, but I still went in to work, assuming that it was normal end-of-week drain. By 1pm I was in the lunchroom with an ice pack trying to get things to calm down. By 1:30 I was home and back onto the prescription pain meds. I didn’t sleep that night and had muscle spasms basically from my pelvic bone into my chest all night.
Today I tried to get into my GP but she was booked, so I went to the hospital. I’m grateful I did go, although it made for a long 6 hours. There was significant concern that I had developed a blood clot in my lung and that was part of the reason for the pain when I would breathe deep. It was a whack of testing, but I came out cleared for that, I just had re-injured my surgical site and I’m back on rest, meds and ice packs for a while.

I am also on day 19 of a weight loss stall. I’m also on day 19 of my birth control. I don’t use it for contraception, but for migraine prevention, so I think I’m going to stop taking it. I’m not happy with the stall and after the clot scare today, I’m not happy with the increased risk of clotting.

I have done round one on the purge of my closet. I filled three Rubbermaid totes, plus a garbage bag that I took to the thrift store. I don’t even want to think about the dollar value of what I’ve put into those totes!

There is a consignment store in town that I’ve used before, so one tote of the “good stuff” went there. The consignment store that I use only carries high-end labels, and I have the choice of taking cash or store credit when my items sell, so that should help to keep the cost of filling my closet somewhat lower.

The other two totes are waiting for one of my friends to come by and have a dig. With the remaining items, I found a women’s centre that has a small clothing selection for women on the job hunt, so they will go there, and there is always a need for nice, business appropriate, plus-sized clothes.

Had a sad moment in the shower today; I think the hair loss has officially started. I’m less than three weeks out, but there was a layer in the shower, on me, a hand full when I wrung out my hair, and then I had to clean out my brush. I knew going in this may happen, but I was surprised to see it so soon. I have also been taking biotin and a heap of supplements for 3 months before surgery, trying to get a surplus of nutrients built up (if that’s even possible) to try and prevent this, but no luck. Hopefully my new growth will come in straight. That I’d be willing to lose my hair for!

I am also a testament to the stomach being the last to go. I have lost 1.75 inches off my waist, but 6 off my hips! I loved my ass and now it’s gone :( I had told my friend that my butt packed it in, and she said she didn’t believe me and that she was sure my weight loss was proportionate. Yesterday was the first time she saw me in four weeks, and was blown away by my lack of junk in the trunk.

One funny thing regarding my lack of back… I got in my car earlier this week and could have sworn that somebody had hit my mirrors because they weren’t where they should be. I was also grinding gears like mad (I have driven a standard for 15 years). Turns out with my smaller butt, I sit lower and further back in the seat, so I had to change my mirrors and pull my seat up, because I couldn’t reach to fully depress the clutch!

I am very grateful that, just before my surgery, OH sent me an email with what to bring to the hospital. On one of the links was a user comment tucked at the bottom on how to modify a nightgown into a hospital gown. I did this, and it was the best thing ever! I loved it because it was comfortable, smelled like home, was easy to put on and take off, I could do it by myself, didn’t cause issues with my IV lines, kept me covered getting into and out of bed, and covered my butt (literally) for those post-op walks. I am including my instructions and then a couple photos of the gown (under my albums as I’m having issues posting photos here).

1. Purchase t-shirt styled nightgown. A “slinky” material works well as it will let you scooch over in the bed more easily to get in and out.
2. Cut out the shoulder seam from the neck to the cuff of the sleeve. Finish your edges if you wish. If you do a rolled hem, the sleeve will be tighter as you will not have a seam allowance. I ran mine though my serger, but you can just use pinking shears if you want to leave well enough alone.
3. Apply hook and loop fasteners. You can sew these on, but I used ones that were both pre-cut and had adhesive on the back. Put the soft side on the back, so if you miss with the scratchy side, you’ll be rubbing your neck and face against the soft side.
4. Paint your fingernails and toenails to match (optional )

Getting into it was a snap! My IV was in my right arm, so I undid the right arm, stepped into the gown, pulled the gown up, put my left arm into the sleeve to hold the gown up, and then just did up the Velcro. Even my nurses were impressed!