Hollee's Weight Loss Success Story ((in progress))

Man oh Man I'm tired. Remember a few weeks ago when I had my blood tests done? Everything came back just awesome and perfect with the exception of ONE THING..... My Iron.  My level was 8... The normal range was 28-56.  Yeah.  WAY LOW. And I've known that for over a week and have yet to get any Fe tabs.  I need to do that.  Because I'm just pure exhaustion lately. I had a fantastic weekend of shoe modeling and shopping at what I basically consider a high class flea market-- the Southern Women's Show.

1. Tuesday night, the little sleep I did get, I dreamed about having pain in my port, only to wake up to actual bruises on my stomach, in a fairly straight line, across the area where my port would be under the skin dependent upon which way I'm laying. Not sure how that happened as this is the first time, but it's uncomfortable. 2. Speaking of dreams, I had a strange dream about Mr. Banker's best friend's wife last night-someone that I have never met, only heard of by the way. This after Mr. Banker hit rock bottom for me last night, leading me to the point that I swore to him on my life that he will never hear from me or see me again, at least not on purpose. I do not make empty promises. 3. I also had a dream about Max last night. I wish I hadn't, because I don't think of him that often anymore but this dream left me longing for the happiness he once made me feel. 4. I'm guessing you've figured out by now that I dream A LOT. 5. The n...

Almost at the finish line. I've done everything for the insurance approval.  The last thing left that my doctor wants to do is my EGD on May 5.  It isn't a requirement but if they find anything wrong (dialated esophagus, erosion, slip) then it would definitely help to get insurance approval to say my band is "malfunctioning".  He will not be saying my band is 'leaking' because he doesn't believe it to be the case.  My PA and I both know that saline is going SOMEWHERE though. My psychology evaluation Monday was interesting.  I was really annoyed I had to do it.  I had 2 computer tests and then 3 paper evaluations.  All of those in addition to the LONG questionnaire I filled out prior to my visit.  I hate those computer tests because the statements are true/false statements that are very black and white and I live in a world of grey. For example, one statment that kept coming up was something like: "Most people will cheat to get ahe...

I'm trying so hard not to feel sad, but here I am unable to sleep because of my thoughts. Last year tonight I was unable to sleep for the butterflies in my stomach from the cute and funny guy I'd met earlier that evening. The man that you all came to know as Mr. Banker. I never imagined a year could bring so much hurt. But I guess no one imagines that something will end badly in the beginning. And why? All because he couldn't commit. We both made mistakes, I'm not perfect. But I blame him. He just refused to make what we had real. I put deadlines on it in my head. Six months. But six months came and I was even more smitten with him. Then I said "the holidays" but thanksgiving came and I began planning his "25 birthday gifts of Christmas" and we decorated a tree together and he met some of my family. All I wanted for Christmas was a relationship. Yeah I'm a cheap date ha. I was sure we'd be official soon, things seemed to be going so well. I...

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you all had a fabulous Easter (Passover) weekend and I want to send a special GOOD LUCK to Luka Beth on her first day at her new job :) My weekend was great.  Friday I went to Kohl's to pick up a wedding present for my cousin and found this lovely cobalt blue maxi dress that I just had to have.  They didn't have an XL in the dress I wanted so I picked up the Large and decided to buy without trying on.  I didn't expect it to fit just yet, but I'd save it for a while until it did.  It was only $20 and I loved it enough to wait until it fit.  But guess what?   I had to give you all a comparison because I love it :) 

I don't know about the rest of you, but when I look back on my first approval process for Lap Band in 2012, it seems so easy now. July 4, 2012 the idea of having a band popped into my mind. My first appointment was July 20, 2012. I was approved August 16, 2012. It flew by. So yesterday I went to get my EKG.  Took 10 minutes, no big deal. I called my surgeon's office to ask if I could go for my blood work since I was only 5 minutes away.  Sure thing.  When I arrive, they inform me the bloodwork is done back at the hospital where I had the EKG.  Oh, and I need a chest Xray too.  So I got the EKG, Lab work, and chest Xray all done yesterday. I'm excited to see how the lab results compare to 2012.  I still have those numbers. Nutritionist tomorrow. Psychologist (a 4 hour appointment!!!) on Monday. And EGD on May 5. I just really don't remember it being this much work and stress before.  But maybe 6 months from now, when I've had my ap...

So what's next? Tomorrow I am having an EKG done for 'pre-surgery requirements'. I have submitted the paperwork to the nutritionist/psychologist to set up the appointment but I don't know when that will be.  I'm having an EGD (scope down my throat to explore what's going on in there) on May 5.  Yep, minor "surgery" the day after my birthday.  I only consider it surgery because they knock you out for it.  If they find anything 'wrong' during this, that's basic automatic approval so I guess we're "hoping" for erosion or band slip or esophagus dialation.  Who hopes for those things?  Sigh. After those 3 things, I guess we will try our hand at a submission to the insurance company.

Yeah, I'm goofy! We have two winners.... are you excited? Congrats to Luka Beth and Stacey! I hope that you both will enjoy the protein shakes and maybe even give us a review of what you thought of them! A huge thank you again to mybariatricpantry.com for providing the Syntrax Matrix Sample packs to give away! Happy Monday everyone <3

Who doesn't love a giveaway?!  aaaaaaaand who doesn't love free stuff?? Here's the deal: You all have been hearing me go on and on about how much I LOVE My Bariatric Pantry and their variety of affordable protein shakes for over a month now.  And because I love them SO much, and because they have such AWESOME customer service, the nice people over at mybariatricpantry.com are helping me to let TWO of you lucky readers try out my favorite brand of their shakes: Syntrax Matrix  Sample pack (One serving of all 9 Matrix delicious flavors:  Bananas & Cream, Cookies & Cream, Milk Chocolate, Mint Cookie, Orange Cream, Peanut Butter Cookie, Perfect Chocolate, Simply Vanilla, and Strawberry Cream)!  Two names will be drawn as winners- the same person cannot win both. If you want to win, here's what you need to do: 1) Like the My Bariatric Pantry Facebook Page 2) Come back here and leave a comment on this post with your email address so that ...

You guys pumped? I am! And you all will be too! Keep an eye out on the blog-something good is coming.  Okay, mine isn't quite as exciting as Miss Lorie's news yesterday, but you all will like it... I better stop now before I * give it away * ((see what I did there haha))

Happy Monday Morning! It's rainy here, but I can't even complain after a BEAUTIFUL weekend!  Saturday I woke up and decided to go to the 8:30am bootcamp instead of 9:15 per my usual routine, but when I got there realized class actually started at 8am!  Fail!  So while I was "waiting on the next class" (which I didn't make it to), I went to home depot and decided my house needed some sprucing up!  I spent $14 and got 5 small plants to go around my mailbox, a bag of soil, and two hanging baskets of flowers!  Everything was on sale, they had signs up saying it was Springtime Black Friday.  Sweet.  Except it was Saturday, whatever. I went home and planted flowers, weeded my flower bed...which hasn't started to look nice yet--hopefully that is soon to come, sweeped my front and back 'porch' areas.  Unfortunately, during all of this I was feeling quite dizzy.  I couldn't figure out what in the world was going on with me!  It wasn't until...

I was so upset yesterday that I couldn't really form my post into a comprehensive blog, so you got the succinct ten points.  But I went home, wallowed in my misery, ate pizza, ice cream, and cried, and now I'm a little better.  At least better enough to explain what all happened at my appointment yesterday. So my lovely PA, Erica comes in first to give me warning about what is about to happen with Dr. Y.  I guess I haven't made any secret about the fact that I prefer her presence to him anyday, on my blog, in the office, or otherwise.  I guess they thought hearing it from her first would soften the blow. RNY So Dr. Y comes in and right away begins telling me why he wants me to have RNY surgery (gastric bypass) instead of VSG (the sleeve).  He keeps going on and on about how we might as well knock it out of the park and get it right the second time around instead of needing a third surgery.  I couldn't take it anymore when he said "I just don...

Man I am having a really freaking bad day. Here's how my first revision appointment went. 1.  PA comes in and tells me I have to see Dr. Y (the surgeon) because he wants me to have RNY. 2.  Hell to the fucking no. 3.  Dr.  Y comes in and after 10 mins of him explaining why he wants me to have RNY (better results, faster, he wants me to lose 80 more pounds WTF!!!), I FINALLY interrupt him and tell him there's no way in hell at a BMI of 34.8 am I having RNY. 4.  Oh shit, he realizes my BMI is under 35. 5.  Ok, he's now on board with revision to Sleeve. 6.  However now that my BMI has gotten low, need to gain a few pounds.  Like at least 3. 7.  And oh damn, how are we going to get insurance approval?! 8.  I've probably been too successful to get approval. 9.  But what the hell, we're going to try anyway. 10.  Next steps:  Nutritionist, Psychologist, and Upper GI series appointments. So glad my hard wor...