I'm back, and I'm on Pre-Op Yet Again :)

OK, so it looks like it has been almost a year since I last posted. So much has happened in that time, but the main point of this post is that I'm going under the knife yet again. After having my 2 beautiful baby boy twins in December 14, I never got my restriction back and never felt satiated again. I had fills/unfills of .1 cc and it would either cause me to be so tight I couldn't drink water or so loose that I could eat anything. So, since Dec 14, I have been jumping through the insurance hurdles to have my band removed. Thankfully, in Feb 15, I was able to have it done. Barely any pain, thankfully! It was nothing like when the band was originally put in and I had unbelievable pain.  Well, after that removal, I decided to pursue a revision surgery, and am thankful that I was granted approval. So, yesterday, I started my 2 week pre-op and will have revision to sleeve on 8/3. I really never thought I would have to go through yet another surgery to be healthy, but here I am. I am doing this not just for my health, but to be here for my beautiful baby boys and husband. I'm not sure how many people are still blogging at this point, so I might be talking to myself, and that's ok. I like to have a diary of where I've been and where I'm heading, so hopefully I can continue to keep updates coming in the midst of my busy life with the munchkins. Here are a couple of pics :)

8 months:

10 months:

 

1 year: 

16 months:

I'm the worst blogger....

I, apparently, am not a good blogger like I intended to be when I first got this band. I thought I would be funny and witty like Amy from Cheese and Sunkist blog, but no such luck. I just can't seem to bring myself to blog all the time; however, I am here and following others and really struggling with my band after giving birth to my twins in December. I had gotten all of my fluid removed after finding out I was pregnant with twins and have been trying to get back that "green" area where I felt a good restriction without being too tight...alas, it hasn't been easy and I'm still not there.  Yesterday, I went to get a fill yet again...after just having some removed about a month and a half ago. I had .2 removed then because I was getting stuck and everything was hard to eat so I had started eating the "slider" foods just to eat. Well, after having that .2 removed, I lost my restriction almost completely and was able to eat whatever again...doesn't mean I should have eaten whatever, but I did :(  Anyway, I went back yesterday for a fill and we decided to add back .15 as they thought maybe my band was just irritated before. Well, when we viewed me drinking the barium under flouro, my doc noticed a small pouch dilation and that I was having reflux, even though I couldn't feel it. What the? So, they left the fill in, but I'm taking it back to basics and going through the mushies, then soft food and trying to focus on the number of times I chew and small bites. I never realized how small of bites you were supposed to take...they told me yesterday the bites should be the size of a man's thumb nail!!! Well, for sure, that hasn't been the size of any of my bites ;)  So, I'm now on My Fitness Pal and trying to track and follow my old weight watchers routine, but focusing on proteins and veggies more. I really hope I can work this thing and lose the pregnancy weight, as well as continuing on to try to lose more. Otherwise, it looks like I may have to have some sort of revision surgery. I'd really like to succeed with this band and need to realize its a tool and not just a quick fix...as those of us know who have one. Thanks for letting me rant. Hope to be back to blogging more often to keep me accountable...but in the meantime...here is a pic of me and my boys that are now 7 1/2 months old...just love them!

GO NY GIANTS!!!

 A little sleepy in the below pic, but I just love their eyes!

I'm back!!! With 2 new baby boys.... :)

I know it's been a super long time since I've written, which I see has been the norm for a bunch of the blogs I follow, but I promise there was good reason. I had a complete unfill back in June 2013 as I found out I was pregnant with twin boys. I went through a hell of a pregnancy towards week 27. I had severe hip pain, my pelvic bone separated, got pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel syndrome and my knees were giving out. However, I wouldn't change any of that because on 12/18/13 (albeit 6 weeks early), we welcomed 2 baby boys into the world: Christian John 7:15PM, 18.5 inches and 4 lbs 3 ozs and Logan Elijah 7:24PM, 17.5 inches and 3lbs 12 ozs. They spent 3 weeks in the NICU, but came home with us after the new year. I have been super busy trying to care for these babies and have been so blessed, but SOOOO busy :)  Here is a pic of our boys at 4 months:

Some of you had asked how the band affected pregnancy because you were also worried about it. I had absolutely no band related issues at all. The only thing was that I gained a majority of my weight back because I was instructed to get the total unfill since there were 2. 

I finally got all of my fills back in to bring me right to almost where I was prior to taking the fluid out, so I am now trying to get back on track. I really hope everyone is doing well and would love to hear how you have progressed since I've been gone!

Complete Unfill and Other News!

So, I realize it has been a significant amount of time since I have blogged...several months... Well, let me fill you all in on what has been going on with me. I had a complete unfill in June. Have a gained weight? YEP...Am I okay with that...YEP!  Did I have band issues or PB'ing episodes that caused me to have this unfill? YEP.  Let me fill you in on why I decided a complete unfill was necessary.  Well, hubby and I have been trying for quite some time to get pregnant and I am happy to say that we have now accomplished that task. However, we are not only pregnant with one baby, but we have two boys in the oven :)  We are having TWINS! They are technically due 1/28/14, but since they are twins they move the date to 1/7, which happens to coincide with the date my awesome father passed away. So, we are hoping I can make it to that date and offset the sadness with the happiness of these two boys. For some reason when I got pregnant, not sure if it was hormones or what, my great level of fill was no longer great. I could barely get any real food down at all and was beginning to have problems with "slider" foods as well, even drinks at one point. I talked to the doctor who told me I could have 1/2 the fill removed now and 1/2 later, but he suggested a complete unfill since we knew there were 2 inside me.  I decided that was the way to go.  I have gained approximately 20 lbs since becoming pregnant and expect to gain quite a bit more since they say you need to gain more with twins even if you are overweight to begin with. Here is a pic of me at 4 weeks and last week when I hit 20 weeks.

I apologize for not blogging but we were going through so much emotionally that I just couldn't bring myself to do it until I knew that they were past the most difficult stages. Apparently there is a thing called "vanishing twin syndrome" where one twin could be there at 8 weeks and then they won't be there at 12 weeks because they get reabsorbed back into the body, so needless to say that kind of had me freaked out and worried. I truly do intend to get my fill put back, or at least some, when they are born, but the docs advise I should be careful what I do until I complete the breast feeding stage because the babies need the nutrients. I hope all of you are doing awesome on your journey and yoru lives are as happy as mine is right now :)

Finally!

Well..I've finally hit my biggest scale victory to date. This week I lost 5 lbs, which is absolutely freaking amazing considering where I am in this journey.....BUT, that's not even the victory :)  I have finally reached the # on the scale which is the lowest I've been in my adult life, as a matter of fact I'm even 35 lbs below where I graduated from high school!!! This feels so good. I was quite afraid my band wasn't going to help me get to goal, but when I started tracking my food it said I was eating too little calories to lose the weight. As soon as I increased the # of calories and continued to bump up the walking and mountain bike riding, BAM, it started dropping. I'm down 11 lbs this last month which is awesome considering I had gained 6 while on vacation during that time. I am refocused and ready to do this! I can't wait to be able to go to Great Adventure and other them parks without the fear of whether I will fit on the rides with my extremely physically fit husband....lol...thank you all for your help, support, guidance and just being there with blogs for me to read and gain inspiration! We WILL do this!

OH CRAP...I just noticed ANOTHER victory too!!! I now have less weight to go than I've already lost...WOOO FREAKING HOO!!! I'm down 72.5 and have approximately 70 to go to get to my initial goal weight of 185....not sure if that will be my goal weight or not as I've NEVER been small enough to know if it will look good or not. I still want curves and don't want to be skinny, per se, so I will cross that bridge WHEN I get there....very excited!

WOOO HOOOO I'm Obese :)

YAY, I am no longer SUPER obese...lol...my BMI is finally 39.9 so I'm out of the super morbidly obese range...party time!!! That was one of my initial NSV's, so I'm super excited....Now, leave to vacation in the Florida Keys, so I have to keep all those Tropical drinks alone...:) Hopefully, the fact that I'm going scuba diving and going to be walking a lot will help stave off any vacation gain...and on another note...I found the Mountain Bike I want for my, dare I say it, 40th birthday coming up in a few weeks...Blah for age, but Yay for the bike :)  Here's a pic below...I'm a newbie to MTB, but I think I'll love it...hope so!

Well, well, well...it's been awhile ;)

So, no excuses for not blogging. I have not been too busy, nor too depressed, nor anything...I've come to realize I am not the best blogger in the world, but I am definitely one of the best LURKERS :) Since my last post I've lost a couple of lbs..I'm down 58.5 as of now. I was at a plateau for a long while and started using my Fitness tracker this past week, and its telling me that I am probably getting too few calories and that may cause my metabolism to slow...plus now that I look at what I'm tracking, not all the food has been the best choices, but the majority of the time have been pretty good. I'm going to start trying to "Faithfully" track and start drinking my water again and just get back to the basics. I also am still unsure if I'm actually in the "green zone". I hear people talk of this elusive place, and I just don't know if I'm there. Anyway, besides that, I guess its time to post some pix, since it has been awhile. This past weekend we went to Club Pure in Queens, NY to go see a freestyle show (its a type of club / latin house music) and below are some recent pix of me and some friends/freestyle artists, and of course my hubby, who is in the bright blue shirt to the left :)  Still have about 85-100 to go to get to goal!!!

Me and the Guys!

Just Me!

Me & a friend at the Hard Rock Atlantic City 3/8/13 where my husband performed!