Chris's 1st post-opp appointment

Notice how Blondie insisted being in all the pics with daddy. These are his front, side and back pics from this morning before we went to the Dr.

Everything went great at the Dr today for Chris. His new weight is 325 lbs which is 14 lbs since surgery day and 18 lbs since his pre-opp appt at Dr. Davis's office. He said everything looks great and keep doing what you are doing. And he told Chris he is doing a great job. Then he looked at us both and said between the two of you, you have lost a whole person 109 lbs! How crazy does that sound. Chris is down a grand total of 54 lbs from the beginning. I am so proud of him and I can see his clothes getting really baggy on him already. I can also see his face shrinking. Funny how I can see it on him, but I still don't see it in myself. I see clothes fitting better and stuff like that but when I look in the mirror I still don't see it. Everyone around me sees it and its nice to hear them compliment me. I know when Chris goes back to work next week he will get the same reaction I got when I went back. He goes back to the Dr on 7/30 and I go back on 7/16. I am currently eating soft foods for 2 1/2 more weeks and he is still on pureed foods until next Thursday. Next Thursday he moves up to soft foods. We are both doing and feeling great. Its amazing how much better we both feel already.

I promise to try not to go so long before updating again. Until next time, blessings to everyone!

Long awaited update in pictures

Daddy and his girls the morning before surgery Wednesday 6/17


Mug shots right before leaving for the hospital.....he's smiling but it doesn't cover the fact that he is very nervous and didn't sleep much the night before.

About 6 hours after surgery struggling because he has a really bad gas bubble. About 15 minutes after this picture he got up and walked for the first time and the walking helped to walk the gas bubble out!

Smiling to get his first meal on Thursday 6/18.....I am a little out of order on pics because I should have the one that has him smiling that his upper gi went perfectly.... you will see that shortly. oops!

First bite of beef broth

First bite of sugarfree popsicle....he also got iced tea.

Smiling because he just got back from the upper gi that went perfectly and the meal you saw above is about to be delivered.

goofy pic taken by ourselves :)

Impatiently waiting to go home. The Dr had just given him the clear and it was about 2:00 on Friday 6/19. He finally got sprung about an hour and half later.

My mug shots from before my Dr appt on Thursday 6/18....can you see a difference yet?

Sorry it has taken so long to get this updated but after we got Chris home on Friday, his brother and nephews came into town from Connecticut. Chris goes back to the Dr tomorrow so I will update with more details tomorrow.....I promise.

Thanks again to everyone for their support and prayers. Until tomorrow....blessings to everyone!

Impatiently waiting.....

We have been sitting here in the hospital all morning waiting for Dr. Davis to get here and release him to go home. Chris is sitting here all showered and dressed in his own clothes. Hopefully he gets here very soon. He is doing excellent. Walking and moving around just fine. Lucky him, he doesn't have the incision pain that I had.

My appt went very well yesterday. Dr Davis called me a perfect patient. The only issue I am having is constipation. I know I know I know too much information. But I want to document everything we are feeling and going thru. At any rate, I told him I had taken Colace for 4 days and still nothing and it had been about 13 days. He said until my body gets adjusted that I need to take Metamucil everyday. So when we get home today I have to go to the store. So since my last appt I lost 11 lbs! That's a grand total of 65 lbs lost. Dr Davis kept looking at the pic they took of me at my first appt and just smiling and saying that I can't believe its you, your face looks completely different. All the nurses kept complementing me on how well I looked. It really felt good. My family sees the weight loss but I can't seem to see it myself so when someone says something it makes me feel like a million bucks. I go back to the Dr in 6 weeks.

I will update later this evening once we get home and get settled. I will download the pics I took of Chris and the front side and back pic he took of me before I went to my Dr appt yesterday.

Blessing to all!

Upper GI done....

They took Chris down at 8:00am this morning for the upper GI and by 8:45am he was back in the room with a smile on his face. Everything went great, no problems. A short time later the Dr came in and said everything looks great. He said it was a little tough surgery but he got it done and that the section he removed was much larger than he anticipated. He said the upper GI looks great and he can now have liquids. :) With that the nurses came in a took the morphine pump off (he now gets pain meds by mouth) and removed the urinary catheter. He was so excited. As I sit here typing he is having his first meal of chicken broth, coffee and a sugarfree Popsicle. He is very tired because we had a bit of a rough night. He did not sleep much because number one they came in every hour and half and also because they were having trouble getting an accurate blood pressure last night so he got himself bent out of same. Nurse Jimmy came in and manually took the BP and it was good and he finally got Chris to calm down. So by the time we fell asleep at 2am they came in at 3am to draw blood. Fun times. He is still having quite a bit of gas pain but they said this should get better since the urinary catheter is out and he can drink now and of course they said lots of walking. Once he gets done with breakfast we are going for a walk.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers. I will update more later today...until then Blessings to everyone.

In the room and sleeping

Well we made it to his room around 3:00 today. They wheeled him in and he was awake and talking to everyone. He did so well and I am so proud of him. He is having a little pain sorta like gas pain which is very common because of the air and gas they use to blow your abdomen up for the surgery. Everyone has left now except me and he has been sleeping since everyone left. He has already been up walking twice and he is doing wonderfully. I will be staying with him overnight and in the morning sometime between 7 am and 10am they will come get him for the upper GI. Please say a prayer that this goes well. This is where he started to have problems when he had surgery 8 years ago. If the GI goes well then he will get a liquid lunch and if he doesn't have any problems with that or with his liquid dinner then he will get to come home on Friday. I am confident we will be coming home on Friday morning because he is doing remarkably well. Thanks to each and every one of you who said prayers for him.....as you can see it worked. Until tomorrow.....blessings to everyone! Love and God Bless

Sugery was a success

Well he got out of surgery about 30 min ago. He was in for right at 2 hours and everything went well. The Dr said that he removed a portion of the stomach just like expected and that he did not run into any problems so he didn't have to do any of the other things we discussed. He will be in recovery for about 2 hours then they will send us up to a room. His next step will be to walk this evening then he goes first thing in the morning for the upper GI to make sure everything is open and that there aren't any leaks.

We took pictures this morning before we left but I didn't have time to upload them. I will continue updating as things happen but I won't be able to load pictures until we get back home because I left my cord at home.

Keep praying and blessings to you all!

Tomorrow's the big day.....

Well tomorrow is Chris's big day! He is really nervous but very excited too. We have to leave the house at 6am in the morning so I probably won't be able to post in the morning with pics, but I will try to. Until tomorrow or after the surgery....blessings to all! Please say an extra prayer for Chris's surgery tomorrow.

Two days to go.....

Well its only 2 days until Chris's surgery. He is scheduled for 9am Wednesday morning. So if you have an extra moment on Wednesday morning say a prayer for him. I will update with his progress as soon as I have a moment. He is getting very excited and extremely nervous. He hasn't been sleeping well either. Tomorrow he will be on a clear liquid diet and at 4pm he has the drink the magnesium citrate like I did. Yuck! Oh well it will be well worth it in the end. I go back to the Dr on Thursday so I will have info then and I will try to post pics of the 2 of us before Wednesday morning. Until tomorrow......blessings to all!

TGIF!

I am so glad its Friday. I know its my first week back to work but it has been a long one. I have made it all day everyday but I am really tired at the end of the day. Each day gets a little better. Well we will spend this weekend getting everything in order for the hubby's surgery on Wednesday. We have lots of odds and ends to get done at the house and hopefully we will have time to go to his parents and chill in the pool for a little while. I could really use that as well as some sun on these glow in the dark legs I have right now. The hubby is starting to get nervous about next week and I told him he should be pro at this afterall he did it 8 years ago and just 3 weeks ago with me. But I understand anytime you are about to have surgery or a procedure you get nervous. I go back to the Dr for my next follow-up on Thursday after Chris's surgery on Wednesday. So I will do my best to update the blog by Thursday with news on Chris and me both. Until next time everyone have a wonderful summer weekend and blessings to all!

One last thing, please say a special prayer for our friends Angie, Brandon, Ellie and their angel Bennett this weekend, since it is going to be an extra hard weekend in their world. We love you guys and if you need anything you know where to find us.

Blessings to Everyone!

First Day Back to Work

Above are some pics from Sunday before we left to go to a graduation party. As of Friday I had lost 23 lbs in 18 days! And a grand total from the beginning in Sept 2008 of 62 lbs! I can hardly believe that this is really happening. I went back to work today for the first time and it was good. I was glad to be out of the house but I did miss my four legged babies at home and they were really sad when mommy left this morning. The day went well but I am very very tired and although I am tired and worn out I can't sleep cause the hubby is gone again. Today he started the dreaded shake diet to prepare for surgery next Wed. He is getting very excited and so am I. It will be nice to be on the same diet at the same time so we aren't fixing 2 different sets of food. Believe it or not I am still not feeling any hunger at all. This is just the most bizarre thing. I am having some cravings for foods but not because I am hungry because I want to taste something different for a change. But I am holding my own and sticking to the rules Dr Davis gave me. I didn't come all this way to mess things up. Its just a mind over matter thing right now and I am not going to let my mind win on this one! Well I am off to try and get a little sleep before I go back to work tomorrow. But real quick I wanted to thank everyone for their prayers during surgery and afterwards. It was greatly appreciated. Until next time....Blessings to you All!

Last day at home...

Well today is my last day at home before I go back to work on Monday. I have to say I am ready to get back to work after being home for 3 weeks. Chris is on his way home now....yea! It has been a long boring week being home by myself for a whole week and still not being able to do much. Chris has finished up his farewell to food tour while he was out of town and this weekend he has to start his liquid diet (5 protien shakes) a day. He is on the count down to surgery day. I am feeling great still don't have tons of energy but its getting better everyday. I haven't weighed myself since I went to the Dr last week but I am sure I will give in soon and weigh again before I go back to the Dr in 2 weeks. I bought a couple dresses yesterday because I still can't stand anything around my waist because the one incision is still sore and what I bought is already a size smaller. How crazy is that I lost a size in 2 weeks! Insane but I love it!

Until next time....blessings to all!

Doing great!

Well things are progressing very well. I am feeling better and better every day. I have been walking everyday and I am not having any issues. I am so happy for that and I thank God for helping this process to go so well. Chris is on his farewell to food tour 09 since he is out of town. If he was here with me he would have to for go that since that is just not fair to do in front of me. I am still not feeling any hunger or signs of hunger which is the the absolute weirdest thing in the world to me. I tried on some of my clothes this weekend and many of them are already too big. Due to the one still sore incision when I go back to work next week or go anywhere for that matter I won't be able to wear anything with a waist band for at least a few more weeks. So that leaves me with dresses, but thats ok I have a few summer dresses that I can wear to work with a little caplet and I got some new black sandals this weekend because mine are about to break. Other than that things in my world have been rather boring which is just fine with me. Usually there is so much drama that you can't keep up with it all so for now I am thankful to be bored. Until next time blessings to all!