March 14, 2011

Mar 21, 2011

Today I went to Duluth for my one year follow up appointment with Dr. Pitt. Even though it was only a doctor's appointment, it was very exciting for me.  I can't believe that a year has passed already.  I can't believe that I've lost over 100 lbs in this past year!  I was also anxious to ask him all the questions that I don't feel can be adequately answered by the doctors in town.

When I got there the nurse weighed me.  On their scale I weighed 148 lbs which is down 112 lbs!  After the nurse took my weight he didn't add it to my chart before the doctor got a hold of it though.  So when the doctor was looking at my chart before coming into the room, the last weight on there was from last April and I still weighed over 200 lbs.  The doctor thought that I had done horribly and was expecting to walk in to find a still much overweight person in the office! 

I told the doctor of my plan to be 130 lbs and how the weight loss has slowed down significantly now.  He didn't seem at all worried about that.  He actually told me to "slow down".  He said that he would be happy if I stayed exactly where I was, and in fact he said that if I gained 5 lbs he would be happy.  He did say that I lost 89% of my excess weight, but I'm not really sure how he calculates that.  So I'll keep working on my weight loss.  It is slow now...about 3 lbs per month.  But I also plan to increase my time in the gym, so maybe that will kick start it again.  I'd still like to shoot for 130 lbs by summer time...so that will be my goal.

I haven't had any complications from the surgery.  This past year has gone by fairly uneventful.  My iron did start to drop toward the Fall time and I began iron supplements, which led to bathroom issues unfortunately.  I'm now on my 3rd type of iron which will hopefully help to increase my iron levels, but not be so hard on my body.  At my last blood work my iron was only at a 3 so the doctor really wants me to work on getting that back up.  

I also told Dr. Pitt about some discomforts I've been having (which I attributed to the constipation / iron issues).  I told him that I occasionally get bloated and my stomach gets distended, I have some nausea and vomitting occasionally, just out of the blue, and I have a slight discomfort right in the middle of my abdomen just below my rib cage.  He told me that he would like to do surgery to investigate to see if I have a hernia, as well he'd like to take my gall bladder out.  I told him that I've had very little typical gall bladder type pain.  But he said that in his experience the symptoms I describe will almost always go away once the gall bladder has been removed.  He said that if I have the usual gall bladder tests (ultrasound and hida scan) they will most likely come back as being clear, which is why it would be hard to get a doctor in Thunder Bay to agree to remove my gall bladder.  The problem now is that Dr Pitt cannot request OHIP coverage for me to have this surgery done in the States.  Only an Ontario doctor can apply for OHIP funding and it will usually only be approved if the Ontario doctor can say that I cannot get adequate treatment in Ontario and therefore require surgery out of town.  OHIP would deny gall bladder surgery because any Ontario surgery can remove a gall bladder.  However Dr. Pitt's concern is if I don't see a surgeon who specializes in bariatric surgery, he may not look for hernias while he is in there, and he may also not understand how the anatomy should look after RNY.  So I'm really hoping that I can go back to Duluth for this exploratory / gall bladder surgery.  Dr Pitt sent a letter to my family doctor and also to the surgeon who is following me here in Thunder Bay to explain his assessment, so I guess we'll see where it goes from here.

I also had an appointment with a plastic surgeon here in town and he has submitted the paperwork to OHIP to have the excess skin on my tummy removed!  Yay!!!!  I also would like to have my boobs lifted, but he says that I couldn't have it done at the same time as it would be too much surgery all at once.  So he is going to do tummy first and then boobs.  I'm excited and nervous about all of this.  And I'm a little unsure about where to fit it all in if I do have to have gall bladder surgery.  I should hear back from OHIP by the end of April.

Other than all of this, nothing much is new.  Spring is around the corner and I'm looking forward to getting out for daily walks with my husband again.  I am really attempting to make it to the gym 3 times a week, but so far am only averaging about once a week, so I really have to step that up.  Things have just been soooo busy!  But I know that is no excuse.  Life is always going to be busy, so I'm going to have to find extra time in and around the things I am already committed to.

I plan to post some updated pictures soon.  I did take some new ones on March 17th (my actual one year anniversary) but I haven't yet transferred them onto the computer for posting.

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