Michigan Weight Loss EXPO

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine, Tyra from the Barix boards, put up a link to a site today that I found very interesting. It is for the Michigan Weight Loss Expo, when you link over to their site you will see the multitude of things to see and do during the course of this 2day event. I have never been to one of these before but it looks like a good time. My wife Tena and I are planning on going over to it on the Saturday to check it out.
Here are the particulars if anyone is interested...

Michigan Weight Loss Expo
November 8th, 10am to 7pm and November 9th, 10am to 5pm
Rock Financial Showplace
Novi, Michigan
Tickets are free, but you have to register for them online, just go to the site for all the details.
http://www.weightlosssupershow.com/

Off I Go!

So yesterday I was thinking to myself... self, let's go for a walk, but my problem is i bore rather easily. Admittedly I am sure I have ADD because nothing holds my attention for long periods of time if it is stagnant, so I worried about walking and being bored. I decided I would take along my camera, those of you who have known me for a while will know that I used to absolutely love to take pictures. In fact it is what I did to pay the bills for a short time, but after having three kids, the mortgage, the bills and everything else, it is really hard to find the time for it anymore. A couple years ago I bought a fancy digital SLR so I could take my photography to the next century but alas, hardly use the darned thing.

Well yesterday I think I may have solved two problems with one solution. I took my camera with me on an interesting walk. I decided on a nature trail not too far from where I live that has several different walking paths through the woods, it was a beautiful morning, if not a little cool, but overall, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, it seemed like a great idea. I took off on one of the trails and followed it around a small pond, shot some fall foliage and some birds, nothing exotic, saw a couple of blue jays but they eluded me. I continued on my path, contemplating life and all it's pitfalls and glories when I was startled by a sound in the woods. What did I see you ask? None other than a female deer and her baby, not more than 20 feet from where I stood. HOLY CRAP! Shoot the pictures dummy!

I have never, outside of a zoo had the opportunity to see such wonderful beauty up close like that, it was a truly awesome experience for me, I love nature, and with my rekindled foray into photography, I can see myself getting my exercise in places like this a lot easier in the future. My wife was definitely jealous when I returned with my prized bounty of pictures from my adventure. My pic of a deer, that's the one I saw:)

My wife, Tena, came with me today to visit friends of ours, Mark and his wonderful wife Colleen. Mark just had WLS yesterday and it was incredible to see how well he was doing just one day post operative. We went for a short walk and he described everything about the surgery he could remember, well not the surgery I guess, as much as the lead up to it. I was really glad to see him and to see how well he was doing, he gives me great hope for my surgery, which evidently is only 21 days from now, yikes!

Wayne

So Here We Are

I woke up in the night last night, don't remember when, covered in sweat(I know, real appetizing a fat sweaty guy lol)and I felt sooooo much better, for this reason I am not even going to the Dr. today as I feel great, 100%, yeah me!

I was looking at the calendar and realized my PATs are now only 6 days away and surgery is 22 days from now. WOW! Time sure is a flyin', I am starting to get a little nervous when I think about things, but I think it is just the PATs that have got me scared right now, gotta get through them to get to the surgery. So in just 6 days I will find out if I am a go or not, here's crossing my fingers.

As it turns out....

So, as it turns out, I think I am fighting an inner ear infection and that is why my withdrawal seemed so bad and I am planning on visiting my Dr. in the morning for confirmation and hopefully antibiotics to clear it up. (Or so my family, family Dr.(My dear wife,lol) thinks, and after visiting webmd, I tend to agree with her)

I have my PATs in seven days, so I want to clear this up ASAP, I wouldn't want anything holding surgery back, especially something as simple as an infection that can be cleared up rather easily.

So, for today, that's it, I am trying to figure some things out for my blog, I want to add more pictures and have a few sections for other things, but I am limited by what this free blogger from google will allow me to do, I may look into alternatives or at the very least send them off an email asking for some assistance. Till next time, Wayne

Feeling a Little Better Today

Hey folks,

I am feeling a little bit better today, I will explain what I have been going through for the past several weeks with withdrawal from some meds I have been on for quite some time.

If you remember, way down at the bottom of the page, I stated about my father passing away in Dec. 2000, around that time I was put on what was labeled as a "Miracle Drug" by my Doctors. It comes from a different family as Prozac and has less side effects, or so I was told, and you can stop it any time you want. Well, here I am 8 years later and struggling to get off of the drug PAXIL, and slowly succeeding.

At my highest point I was taking 60mg/day of the drug to level out my depression from my fathers death and today I can boast that, mainly due to my own diligence, I have reduced my intake to 5mg/day. It has not been an easy journey to get here, and I only really started it, seriously, about 4 months ago. My previous attempts at "quitting" this drug just didn't pan out.

The makers of PAXIL, Glaxo-Smith-Klein, refute that it is an addictive drug and under FDA guidelines(I use the FDA guidelines from the U.S. since we follow their lead here in Canada) it is considered non-addictive. In order to be an addictive drug one must feel a draw, pull or need for said drug, which admittedly I do not with PAXIL. However that is not to say that you cannot go through withdrawal from stopping it, which is what I am and have been experiencing for the past several months. My symptoms of withdrawal have been slight in contrast to some that have been reported out there and for that I feel lucky. You only have to do a quick search on google using the keywords "paxil withdrawal" to see the devastation being felt out there by millions of users.

So yesterday I was feeling woozy, it's kind of an electrical thing going on in my brain, at certain times I get a little fuzzy around the edges and feel kind of a "woosh" effect in my brain. It is hard to explain if you have never experienced it but is very similar to the reported conditions of vertigo. Although I have been at the 5mg/day level for a number of weeks now, I feel maybe I had a touch of a bug as well and that helped to contribute to the effects I was feeling. For the most part I am fine, just this vertigo feeling strikes once in a while. Unfortunately, these withdrawal symptoms can stay with you for up to a year after stopping the drug, ouch, I sure hope not! I plan on stopping my current 5mg/day dose as soon as my surgery is over and can use my 6 weeks of healing time as a bit of a detox as well. For the most part, the paxil is no longer in my system, as a drug that only stays with you for 24 hours, my 5mg/day is a very minute amount for a man of my size. I am confident I can finally get off this medication, Lord only knows what it has been doing to my insides for the past 8 years.

If anyone has questions or would like me to expand on my PAXIL "problems" then please drop me a line and I would be more than happy to discuss it a greater detail with you.

For now, today, I am feeling better, and am planning on going for a walk in a little while, just to get the blood pumping, have a great day everybody.

Wayne

No News Today

Sorry everybody, trying to get off some meds and withdraw-ing a bit, hopefully I will feel better tomorrow and can post.

Wayne

Mexi sauce recipe

Hello everybody,

I came up with this Mexi-Ranch sauce tonight and we used it to make Quesadilla Burgers and my wife just raved about it, so I thought I would post it in case anyone was looking for something to spice up their meals a bit. Also included is the spice mixture I put together to add into the burgers before they were cooked. If wanting to make these burgers, you want to use this mixture in the beef, or ground turkey, get some tortillas, place one side down in a pan, add a little cheese so it stays together. Pop your burger(that you would have already cooked ahead of time) on top, add about 2 teaspoons of the mexi sauce, I also added chopped tomatoes and onions here and finished it off with a little more cheese, then the lid of course. Cook like a quesadilla about a minute to two on each side. Very messy, but very good. Using extra lean beef and whole wheat tortillas total calories are about 550 for this burger(500 for the burger, bun and toppings, 50 calories for the sauce) but this burger is a meal in itself.(Hint: make the burgers real thin and large like a pancake to fit better on the tortilla)

Hope you enjoy...

**Southwest Seasoning Mix
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon dried cilantro leaves
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon dried oregano
Combine all ingredients and use to season hamburger.
Use 1 heaping spoon full of seasoning in 1 pound burger


Wayne's Mexi-Ranch Dressing
¼ cup sour cream
1/8 cup light ranch dressing
4 tablespoons light cream cheese
1 chopped tomato
2 chopped fresh jalapeño
1/8 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup shredded Cheddar-Jack cheese

2 teaspoons is approx. 50 calories

Throw it all in your bullet or other mixer/blender/chopper mechanism and pulse until smooth.
Add to anything that needs a little kick.

Cheating - Is there really such a thing?

So, you have probably come across someone who says that surgery is cheating; I know I have, and judging by a few of the emails I have received, so have many of you. I thought I would use today’s post to air out my feelings on the matter, just some more rambling thoughts of mine :)

When I look in the mirror I see the person that I am today, not the one that I want to be tomorrow.

In order to get to that state I need some help, some people choose Weight Watchers, others Atkins(so many to mention) and when those don't work for us a lot of us choose WLS (Weight Loss Surgery). Everyone makes the choice to follow this path on their own, or at least they should. As I have talked about before this is a very personal journey, not one that you can take for anyone other than yourself. Any type of diet is hard, that’s a given, but what a WLS patient endures is difficult as well. It is not like they just go in for surgery on Monday and on Tuesday they weigh a hundred or so pounds less, it takes them dedication and hard work to get to that point, the WLS is a tool to get you there only.

We call it a tool – Why? It’s actually pretty simple, if you misuse it, it won’t work. Anyone can have the surgery, whether it is LAP RNY or Lap Band but if they don’t follow rules, rules for the rest of their life, they will fail. That is a pretty big “weight” to have on ones shoulders, the knowledge that if you slip up, you may have gone through it all for nothing. Slipping up and not following good habits for the rest of your life will just cause a breakdown in the system; the pouch size will increase, you will eat more and therefore intake more calories leading to Weight gain and you’re right back to where you started.

Surgery is no laughing matter, it’s serious, and there are serious consequences involved in it. First there is the mental, getting your head around the fact that you are going to undergo this surgery for this problem. Second, there is the possibility of complications, although nowadays complication rates are plummeting, it is still a possibility that something bad may happen. Third, there is the recovery, it’s not like you leave the hospital and on your jog home you grab a cheeseburger and a shake, no, it’s a lot harder than that. There is pain, real pain; some say it isn’t bad, while others find it nearly unbearable, so that is up to the individual to decide. Fourth and probably the hardest is the new eating habits, we have lived a certain way for most of, if not all of our lives and to change those habits are a huge accomplishment. This is not even factoring in the liquid diet for 2 weeks, then pureed stage, oh yeah that sounds fun eh? And then of course, soft foods and then regular foods. But some people will never be able to tolerate certain foods ever again, and that is just the plain and simple truth of the matter. Something that someone else can eat and maybe an everyday “normal” food, cannot be tolerated by a WLS patient, know one knows why, just one day you can eat it and the next day it makes you “dump”(exactly what it sounds like, but add flu like symptoms for a few hours). Did we get ourselves into this mess? That’s like asking someone if they have ever gotten lost while trying to find an address, we all make mistakes, but a lot of the time it is our physical makeup’s and our predispositions that get us into these messes in the first place.

Bottom line, this surgery is what’s best for a lot of people, what will help them get healthy, live longer and enjoy their lives much longer and with more joy.

In my opinion, if someone says that WLS is “cheating”, well first off, I know it’s best for me and quite frankly, they don’t, not to mention, I stopped caring what other people thought about me a long time ago. If they don’t want to support me, then get outta my way, ‘cause I’m comin’ through.

Till next time….Wayne (and a shout out to the Wayno's out there)

New Tracking Site

I found this website, actually my wonderful wife did, and she sent it to me, so I thought I would share it with you all. It's not an epiphany or anything, I am sure lots of you have seen it or come across it in the time you have been researching but I am really impressed with it. Prevention magazine, not something I have every really read in the past, has a really great tracking tool on their website, the actual web address is http://www.prevention.com/cda/homepage.do and I have posted it in my links section as well(down and to the right:) )
When you first go to the page you will see a whole bunch of information, but just below the banner there is a navigation bar that has a bunch of buttons on it, the one you are looking for is "My Health Trackers", if you click on it, it will bring you to a sign in area where you can choose to create your own profile.

What I like about the site is that you can track so many things, not just your weight and BMI like so many other sites, but also your measurements as well. It has an area for a Weight goal that will ask for a target date to reach said goal, then it will tell you how many calories, based on your current body type and size, you should intake per day to reach that goal. It's pretty neat the way the site is decked out and makes for an interesting tour when you are figuring it out. There are a lot of these "type" of web pages out there on the net, but this is by far the easiest and most comprehensive that I have found to date. I love the food journal and have started using it as well. Kudos to the people at Prevention magazine for making such a comprehensive tool to assist us all in our goals.

And oh yeah, Thanks honey, I love the site! I hope you all like it as much as I do.

Wayne

So it's 12 and 27 now!

Well, 12 days to my PATs and 27 to surgery. Not much is changing right now, same old, same old, one day to the next routine. I am getting nervous a little more each day as I see the countdown dwindle and realize it will be here in no time at all.
I am trying my best to watch my fat intake, yesterday I had my first mini-win with myself. I made the chili(really good BTW)that I posted yesterday and had a bowl of that for dinner, I topped it off with low fat cottage cheese for extra protein instead of sour cream, which is what I would normally use, and it was really good. I am not a cottage cheese fan, but this way made it bearable for me. Anyway, I was driving my daughter to Youth Group and had planned on stopping at the convenience store on my way back to get some "Frito Scoops" to have with another bowl of chili.
I dropped her off and there is a little store across the street, but I think to myself, I will go to the one a little closer to my house instead. As I drive up the block I realize that I was talking myself out of going to that store and did the same thing for the one closer to home. I ended up back at home, no fritos, and no more chili 'cause I wasn't even hungry, I was "craving" the chips, and I fought back and won!
It may not seem like a big deal to a lot of you, but Chips are my downfall, I LOVE them, so to pass them by took a lot of willpower for me, something I admit I don't have a lot of.
So I did, it, I am proud of myself, it's all about the baby steps I guess.

L8R

It's So Chilly I think I'll Make Chili

BRRRRRRRRR! It's cold here today, the perfect day to make chili! Here is what I did, trying my best to keep it low fat(but still good tasting:)

Ingredients

1lb xtra lean turkey
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomatoe sauce
1 can beans in tomatoe sauce
1 can mixed beans(chile style-heinz)
1 medium onion
1 green pepper
1 can mushrooms
2 tbsp chili powder
4 tbsp tex mex seasoning(or sub 2more tbsp chili powder)
1tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
couple splashes of worcheshire sauce
couple splashes ofhot sauce
pinch of cayenne pepper

First I started browning the turkey meat and chopped the green pepper and onion then added it to the pan until soft and meat brown.
Meanwhile I added the canned items to the crock pot that I had set up and added all the spices and flavourings to it. Once the meat mixture is done, in the pot it goes, couple of stirs to mix, set crock pot to high and away we go.
I plan on leaving it until about 6pm so six hours.

This is a great pre surgery meal, not too sure about post surgery, you may want to find a low sugar tomatoe sauce, I used heinz reg. sauce in this recipe.

Hope you enjoy, I know I will!

CPAP

So I have been using this CPAP machine for a couple weeks now and I have to tell you, I don't feel one bit different yet. I have so far logged 116 hours on it and I wake in the morning feeling just as drained as when I went to bed. I realize they say it can take up to a month to start to feel better but my oh my is this thing getting old fast.
I have talked with many people who "can't live without" theirs and I wish it was the same for me. I find my nose is clogged a lot and am on claritan and a nasal spray to help with that, I hope soon it will resolve itself. It is just a really uncomfortable, unatural thing to wear and getting used to it is frustrating. Don't get me wrong, I am committed to it, and will continue to sleep with it on I just wish it would get a little easier.

For those that are not aware, a CPAP or continuous positive airway pressure machine is something used to treat a condition called sleep apnea. Sleep apnea affects thousands of people on a nightly basis and can be corrected and/or controlled using the CPAP and a few good health regimines. My sleep apnea is considered moderate to heavy moderate because I stop breathing 72 times per hour while in REM sleep state. Some people I have been in contact with stop breathing as many as 120 times per hour. It makes it kind of hard to get a good nights sleep when you are constantly waking up, rolling over, gasping for breath, just trying to get yourself breathing again. If you are overweight, snore, don't feel well rested when you wake in the morning, you may be a candidate to get checked out. The testing for it isn't any fun(requires an overnight stay) but the help you recieve could just change your life.

For me, I will stick with my machine and hopefully start seeing a difference soon in my wakefullness, heck I haven't slept well in a decade anyway, what's a few more weeks?

Wayne

15 and 30, MAGIC TO MY EARS

So I have 15 days until my PATs(Pre Admission Testing) and 30 until my surgery. It seems like every day is going by very slow but I know that it will seem like no time at all until I am sitting in that hospital waiting for my turn in the OR.
I have to get my head in the right place, because I realize it`s still not quite where I need it to be. I was reading on a forum that I frequent tonight that some people have what they refer to as `last meal syndrome` and while reading it I realized I have it too, which means I have a little work to do on myself.
`Last meal syndrome` is just what it sounds like it would be, as someone who is going through this life changing event we think it is the last time we will ever get to eat this or that, so instead of making the right choice and passing it by, we indulge using the excuse, it`s the last time I will ever get the chance.
I have been guilty of this syndrome myself since I found out about my approval for surgery and have to tell you, all I am doing is setting myself up for failure. Someone I admire very much on this forum I was speaking of said that once you reach your goal Weight, you can still eat anything you want, just in moderation. So, fear not fellow Weight Losers, there is no more `Last Meal Syndrome` start eating healthy, no more sugars and complex carbs, cast them aside and bring your water bottle with you on your walk, `cause that`s exactly what I`m gonna do. `till next time all.

The Countdown

Get this widget!

Some new stuff

Hey Bloggers!

I have added a link section on the right under that beautiful picture of my niece. If you have any related links that you think would be relevant, please send them to me via a comment to this post and I will add them to the list.

Wayne

Feeling Better

I'm feeling better today, not so down on myself, the last couple of days have just been hard ones. I find that since I made this decision I have been more emotional than usual and things affect me differently. I would assume that's because it is such a life altering thing that I have committed to and that my mind is just "wrapping" itself around the whole idea.

I do have fears though, don't get me wrong. There are the usual fears about any surgery, the whole not waking up part, but more so, my fears are about whether I can really do it. Some people think that just because you are having Weight Loss surgery, that it will be "easy". I am here to tell you that it is no such thing. First off, you need to be able to put yourself in the position of believing in yourself, and that you really want to change. Then there is the physical part of it all. Once the surgery is done, you have to work hard still, the only thing surgery does for you is lower your appetite. The decisions on what you will eat once it is over and how much is still up to you to make. If you make mistakes and eat the way you did before surgery, you will have problems and probably stretch your pouch and regain Weight. Because knowone says that your new "Pouch"(for you newbs, this is what our new stomach is called) cannot stretch to the size of our old stomach, in fact, it can quite easily if we are not careful.

So, will I eat properly to achieve my goals? It's a question that I have been asking myself since the day I made the decision to make this Journey. I believe in my heart that I can, but every once in a while there is that shadow of a doubt that creeps in, the proverbial "monkey on the back" that must be beaten back to make sure that I/we don't fail. To me, failure cannot be an option, I want this for too many reasons to let that happen.

Hellio Everybody

Hey there Blogworld. Well, today I went to see my new neice again. God she is gorgeous, it is amazing how a baby makes you feel. All happy inside, not like what I normally feel like. To be honest, new neice aside, I had a really rough day yesterday, and today I only feel mildly better.

I had a temper on me yesterday, more so than normal and I was pretty short with my kids. It seemed no matter what they did, I was snapping at them to stop it. Sometimes it's hard to remember that they just want to be kids and play and make messes like I did when I was their age. Anyway, I was feeling pretty down on myself, we were getting ready to head to the hospital to see my sister and her new baby when I put some clothes on and just felt like a behemoth! It was awful, I just really felt big and I have noticed lately I have less and less tolerance for myself. I truly don't like me. My wife thought I was angry with her because I "blew my gasket" while asking where some of my more comfortable clothes were.(more comfortable is code for "huge'r ones) When finding out they were in the laundry I got angry and went to sulk and hate myself a little. We finally got going to the hospital(me el sausage style) and didn't talk most of the way there. I was busy feeling sorry for myself and my wife was busy being angry at me.

At one point I realized why she was being so quiet and appologized for acting like a jerk. She, being the freaking Saint that she is, forgave right away, God I'm lucky to have her!
I am just so ready for this surgery and the anticipation is killing me at this point. i just keep telling myself, 1 month, 2 days left, that's all I have, then a whole new world of hurt can begin, one that I am excited to start.

I'M AN UNCLE!

Well, it happened, my sister gave birth to a beautiful 8pound 1ounce baby girl at approximately 12:45 p.m. today. Baby and mom are healthy and the little peanut is gorgeous. I am very happy that all went well and I am sure I will spoil my new neice like crazy!

Wayne

Second post today

I am laying in bed, listening to my wife breath, the rain is lightly coming down outside and I can't help but think of how lucky I really am. I have a wonderful family, 3 great kids, a home, a job, what more could a guy ask for. My wife has been so supportive during this journey I can't even begin to explain. I love her soooo much and can't wait until I can go on walks with her and just enjoy our lives together.
I explained the surgery to my two older children the other day, trying to make sure they understand what it is that I am going to d and why I am doing it. My daughter, Kaitlyn and my son Colin, they both get it I think, I even went to the Barix website and played the video they have of the procedure for them. I am realizing that this is a bit of a selfish journey and that if we don't want it for ourselves it will never work. I put myself to that test every day just to make sure I can commit to this and so far so good.

Well my sister is going to be induced in the morning so sometime tomorrow I should have a brand new niece, and the wonderful thing is, she will only ever know the skinny uncle Wayne, never the overweight one. That's all for tonight... Wayne

Post 2 (for the lack of a good title)

Well here it is, my second post. I had planned on doing a little "blogging" yesterday, because now I am a "blogger" but was highly involved in a political campaign in my area and couldn't break away. For you Yanks, yesterday was our election day in Canada, my candidate didn't win, but my party gained a little ground but has a long way to go... But enough about that, I could talk politics all day, and then you would all leave:)

So where was I? Okay, I told you quite a bit about myself but I did leave out my stats, and I guess to appreciate the journey fully you should know them. I am 36years old, 6'1" tall and my Weight is around(so many puns, so little time)375lbs and I would like to be around(here I go again) 230lbs when all is said and done. This goal Weight would still have me as overweight according to a BMI chart, but sure would make me happy. Oh yeah, BMI, I guess it's right around 49.

THE PROCESS

So I looked into Weight Loss surgery the first time about a year and a half ago. A Dr. from Henry Ford hospital set up a seminar in Windsor and advertised in the local paper so I thought I would check it out. The seminar was okay, well informing and the like, but at that point in my life I really just wasn't ready to accept that I needed help with my problem. Another year and a half of overeating and Weight gain later and I find myself wanting to take care of myself for the first time in my life. I have an Aunt that went to Henry Ford last year and has lost 135lbs, to me that was amazing to see. I also met a couple people from work that had it done and are doing very well. Then the icing on the cake, my sister, the one who I didn't get along with as a kid, whom I now adore btw, has a friend that went to a place called Barix Clinics in the states. I call up this friend and talk to her, she even gave me her "Barix Bible" a nutritional book to prepare for pre and post surgery, to look over. She told me everything she could about Barix and I liked what I heard. Then I started to do a little research on my own and found that Barix has the lowest complication rates in the country, that sounded good to me, as it would to anyone looking to "go under" I'm sure.
On Sept. 8th I attended a consultation at Barix Clinics of Ypsilanti Michigan, about an hour from where I live in Canada and was really impressed with the facility and the staff. It is a hospital set up only for bariatrics, to me, that is important, I want someone who does this procedure all the time, not someone who uses it to supplement their income. A nutritionist talked to us, it was a group consult in the beginning, then we were shuttled off to a waiting area and saw the Dr. individually.
When I met Dr. Nunn, I was impressed with his quiet confidence and his straightforwardness, I found it refreshing to have a surgeon just lay it out there instead of sugar coating things for me.

After the consult my wife and I talked and I made the decision that this was for me, and the facility was great and Dr. Nunn was who I wanted to perform my surgery.

NOW THE TOUGH PART

September 9th I went to see my family Dr. We had discussed many things in the past regarding my health but had never brushed this subject before and I was not sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised when he readily accepted my reasons for wanting surgery, in retrospect I know that he based that on my extensive research and thought process to getting here. He knew I didn't just come up with this idea but that I had actually been looking at it for quite some time. I had downloaded the OHIP forms that I required for out-of-province medical care that needed to be filled out and we actually filled them out together. Dr. Nunn had wanted an EKG and a sleep study so my Dr. did the EKG right there and set up my sleep study with a sleep study specialist in my area. Once I got home, I called the sleep study specialist and explained my situation and that I wanted to get it done ASAP as I was needing to get surgery done. They were so accommodating and filled me in to a cancellation spot on September 13th, that was only 4 days away! Fantastic, great, I'll take it, thank you so much, is what I said to the Dr.
My forms were sent away to OHIP on the 10th of September and it felt like things were coming together.
I went for my sleep study, boy that was a lot of fun, NOT! If ever you have gone for one of these you feel my pain, if you haven't, trust me, they are not fun, and I don't know why they call them a "sleep study" 'cause it sure didn't feel like I was sleeping:) But alas, I was and I did get some sleep, because they came in the room in the morning and unhooked me from a gaggle(that's right, I said it, a gaggle)of wires, most connected to my head, leaving behind a bunch of lumps of wax(yummy!) that took about 20 minutes extra and alot of hot water to get out. But it was done, yeah! They said they would call when they had the results in a few days. a few days past and they did call, imagine that, they did what they said they would do. I have sleep apnea they said, in fact I stop breathing 72 times per hour when in REM sleep cycle. Now, I'm no math genius but to me that means more than once a bloody minute, no wonder I'm always tired, I never sleep!
At this point I am thinking, Okay, here's the kicker, I am going to have to wait 3 months to get back in, because at this point I get to go back for more! Oh joy! It just so happens I have a horseshoe where the sun doesn't shine and she can get me in on the 21st which is only 8 days after my original date, woohoo!
About this time I receive a call that my family Dr. wants to see me. Oh oh, maybe they didn't approve me, maybe he changed his mind and thinks I should start yet another diet to change my Weight, so many things run through my mind. When I arrive at the Dr. office the receptionist puts me right in his office to talk to him and he has a fax from OHIP saying they don't have enough information to make a decision on my case. First I'm fat, now I'm a case!(fatcase:)
I love my Dr. but he has never dealt with OHIP on an out of province surgery request and apparently eight years of medical school doesn't prepare you for the bureaucratic bull of a government insurance plan. We go through the questions together and can answer a couple but they want results from tests, test results my Dr. hadn't sent them the first time. At this point he says to me, Wayne, I don't want to screw this up for you, I am going to give you all these papers and when your test results are in I am going to give you copies of all those and have you send it all away, just bring me what I need to sign. So that's what we did. I took over as my primary health care provider.LOL!
Anyway, boy this is another long one eh? Have I lost ya yet? Stay with me, we're almost there.
I go for my other sleep study and have loads of fun again, thanks for that guys, and head home to wait for my results. Wouldn't you know it, my luck with the sleep specialist continues and I have my results from him on the 25th. Look out fax machine, here I come. I get everything in order, all my test results, my original application, the request sheet they sent me from OHIP for more info, I make out a cover sheet and fax OHIP 15 pages of material, there take that! Then I take out the non pertinent info sheets and fax another copy to Dr. Nunn, my Dr. at Barix, better safe than sorry I figure, heck I would have faxed it to anywhere and anyone just to get this approval.
Dr. Denys, my sleep specialist sends me to get a CPAP machine, if you have one, again, I feel your pain, if not, it kind of makes you feel like a fighter pilot/darth vader. There is no easy way to describe it, but basically it just forces air into your lungs constantly so you can't stop breathing in the night, therefore stopping the apnea. My appointment at the dealer to get my machine(that's what we CPAP'ers call them, there our machine) is set for Oct. 2nd at nine am.
That appointment comes and goes and I arrive home with my brand new shiny machine, complete with hose and sexy mask! I see we have messages waiting so I call to check them... Bill collector, would you like to be part of a survey(NO!), BARIX Clinics, solicitor. Oh wait, Barix Clinics? What the heck are they doing, I just sent my stuff away and haven't heard anything so there must be a problem. Nope, no problem Wayne, we just received your approval from OHIP.
Now I should state something here, I am a baby! A great big baby! I cry at touchy feely commercials for gods sake, this, this sent me over the freaking edge. I couldn't believe I had gotten approved. And yet here it was. So, after verifying that my new machine was not electrically damaged from the tears I told them that yes indeed I wanted to go through with the surgery and that I just in fact received my CPAP machine. She told me to wait for a call from scheduling. Okay, I'll wait, I've heard this can be hell as sometimes it takes a week or two for them to call you. Nope, again, horseshoe, butt, I get a call a couple hours later from Scheduling, do I want to come in for PATs(pre admission testing)Nov. 14th and surgery Dec. 4th. DUH! of course.

MOVIN' ON UP

Two days after I got my glorious call, scheduling calls me back and want to know if I would like to come in November 19th for surgery and November 4th for PATs, again, DUH, yeah! So these are my dates now, and it's really happening, in a little over a month I will have my surgery and I can't wait.

Sorry it was long again, and I hope not too boring, they should be shorter now as we are all caught up I think.

Thanks for paying attention to little(huge)old me, I appreciate it.

Wayne

Better late than never

Well Hello Blogging world, how do ya do? My name is Wayne and with this blog I hope to spread information about my Weight Loss journey. You will notice right off that I capitalize the first letters in the words Weight Loss, and this is no typo, it is done on purpose. But maybe I am getting a little ahead of myself and should start at the beginning as I am starting this blog a little late, as my journey has already begun.


When I was a little kid, I loved to play baseball and basketball, I ran everywhere or rode my bike. I was the skinniest kid in my class and only a little below average height, this would have been grade school. I had a decent amount of friends and was raised by a loving mother and father who were always there for me when I needed them and even a few times when I didn't think that I did. I have a sister that I didn't get along with too well when we were growing up as we were always competing for attention, or something or other. We were raised in a blue collar middle class environment, not rich, but never wanting for much either as our parents were very generous to us. We travelled a lot as kids and I got to spend my thirteenth birthday at Disney World in Orlando Florida with my cousin Jason, who was a year younger than me, my sister, mom, dad and my meme and my pepe.(french background)

Exciting, that is the word I would use to describe my childhood. Their was always a game to play, a friend to play with, a family outing to attend or a great family vacation that we were going on.


ALONG CAME HIGH SCHOOL


So, my high school years, yeah, what can I say, it's a story similar to many others I would imagine. No big epiphanies, no relationship that changed my life. Well of course my first love was in high school as so many others, but that turned out to be for the best when it collapsed, but let's stay on track here... I don't remember a specific day that it became a problem for me, but an event when it all starting to unfold. My Pepe(grandfather to you anglo's) was diagnosed with cancer, lung cancer at that, not a good kind if there ever was such a thing. I believe I was sixteen when he died, we were very close, close from a very young age. I spent many a day with my Pepe and he was a big influence on me in my life. Well, it must have been some time after he passed away that I started to over eat. I'm not saying that event in my life caused me to reach this Weight that I am now, just that this was the time in my life that I remember it really starting.

As high school went on and I gained more Weight, I bought bigger shirts and wore them untucked, and bought baggier pants to hide my growing girth. High school was just that, high school, and the end of it came and I graduated and was preparing to move on with my life.


AFTER HIGH SCHOOL


I enrolled in college, Journalism actually. Then a real life changing event did happen in my life, just as I was preparing to go to college I got a part time job at a convenience store near my house where I was growing up, and I met her. Her being my now partner of 13 years and my biggest supporter in everything I have ever tried to do. We dated for four years before we got married and in that time, we ate out a lot, and I mean a lot. Probably at least 5 times a week we would go out to restaurants, whether they were fast food or sit down, we were there. I can't even begin to think how much money we would have socked away had we just ate with our families and saved the money we spent eating out. So, my girth increased in size and I did the only logical thing I could think of at the time, I went out and bought bigger clothes. I mean the idea of dieting hadn't even crossed my mind. And when I continued to get even bigger I bought even more clothes, and then more the next time and the time after that. It went on like this for more than a decade until we reach the point I am at now.

The winter of 2000 was a rough time for me, I had begun taking anti depressant medication the year before because I didn't like myself, my life or my job, even though I had the best family a guy could ask for. One scarry Saturday morning I got an early phone call from my mother, she was at the hospital and my father had had a heart attack while at work that morning. My wife and I rushed down there and dad was moved to ICU, while in emerg, I looked down at my father, this guy who had instilled everything in me, this man that I so took for granted and I couldn't believe this was happening. I glanced up and there was an ER nurse that met my eyes and she nodded ever so slightly and I picked up on the hidden meaning in her gesture, she was telling me it was over, that my dad was going to die. My father had a lot of colleagues, you see he was a trade unionist, part of a bigger family, one that I didn't understand yet at this point in my life and they came in droves to the hospital to visit us, I say us, because he was in ICU and could not receive visitors other than family. My mom and I slept at the hospital for the better part of a week, only breaking for a few meals and a shower now and again, and in that time, it was family, friends and trade union people that we hardly knew that came to offer their support. That is something that to this day I will never forget. We lost dad on Christmas eve 2000. He just couldn't hang on any longer, he never regained conciousness in the hospital, we never got to tell him those last things that still haunt us today. I have now followed somewhat in his footsteps and hope that he would be proud of me. I know he would support me in my Weight Loss journey, just as my mother is now.

I am a big guy, fat, morbidly obese by any chart that any doctor has in their office. I have heard everything a fat person could hear, and endured many indignities that some people put us through. I have broken chairs and also found many that I could not fit into. I have endured the stares of people when ordering 2 bigmacs because one wasn't big enough.

I have reached a time in my life, I am 36 years old, and I want to lose Weight. I have now tried all those diets that would never have entered my mind so long ago, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Atkins, Zone, Low Carb, I have been on xenical, which promotes a very not nice thing to happen to your lower extremeties if you eat high fat, and I have been on a Dr. supervised program, all to no avail. Sure they all worked in their way, I would lose some Weight and then as soon as I stopped the program, the Weight would be right back on. What I needed was something permanent, something that would actually help me stop over eating, what I needed happened to be Weight Loss surgery, I just didn't know it yet.

To me, the words Weight Loss deserve to be capitalized because it is a very hard thing to attain, something I have yet been unsuccessful at achieving. Weight Loss is something I respect, so I capitalize the words as a way to show that, because I realize those words carry so much weight(pardon the pun) in our society today. Weight Loss, to me, will give me my life back, I want to be able to play with my 3 wonderful kids, instead of sitting on a chair watching them play. I want to be able to go out somewhere and not have to search out the heaviest duty chair in the room and claim it as mine, or heaven for bid, go to a movie and leave with bruises and the outsides of my thighs because the seats are two narrow for my girth. I want to lose this Weight for me, and only me, this is how I know that surgery will work for me and I am committed to it.


THE JOURNEY BEGINS


So, this is a lot for my first post, hopefully it isn't too boring, but when I post again in the next couple of days I am going to go through the process I followed to get here, through the consult, the paperwork, and the talk with my family Dr. I wanted to give you a little background about me before we really got started with things.


Seeya next time,


Wayne