Happy Easter!

Band Issues

Since Violet was born, I have been having a few issues with my band.  I ended up having an emergency c-section due to the fact that my blood pressure was going too high and the induction was getting me far enough along to deliver naturally.  Well the first few days after the c-section I was very restricted, my band was closed for business.  It took me a super long time to eat and then the morning after my c-section when my nurse pushed the uber gigantic prenatal vitamin on me which I then proceeded to throw up while trying to hold Violet.  I shouldn't have taken the vitamin but I was still in a haze due to the magnesium they had me on to prevent seizures.  Magnesium = feels like you have been hit by a Mack truck.  (Side note, Violet's pediatrician who I had never met before her first appointment had heard about me from the hospital, I am known as the "Magnesium Mom", that is how awful that crap is).

Anyhoo, throwing up a prenatal vitamin 12 hours after a c-section equals NO FUN AT ALL.  Holy hurt, batman.  Anyways, after that I was very cautious when eating and my midwife was kind enough to prescribe my medications in liquid form.  I was in the hospital for 6 days, when I got home I had zero appetite.  I just had no interest in food for about a week.  

Fast forward to this week and I'm having some pain in the area where I imagine my band is.  It is not my port area but it band-ish area, at least in my mind.  Yesterday I was concerned enough to call the surgical weight loss clinic and make an appointment.  They were able to see me yesterday.  So my nutritionist left last summer and then my surgeon left shortly after that.  They have another hospital filling in to cover the clinic.

Let's just say I have never been so outraged at the medical profession.

Here are some choice phrases from my meeting with the covering surgeon...

"You haven't been very successful with the band"

"I see you have gained weight over the last few months, what has been going on?" (Mind you, Violet is right next to me in her car seat, DUH!)

"What have you been eating while pregnant?"  I answer that it's easy to eat around the band, ice cream goes down real smooth and he proceeds to say, "I don't understand why people do that to themselves."

Those are just the tips of the iceberg really.  I have never felt this way about our clinic, they are usually so supportive and helpful.  I have been successful with the band!  I'm up only 17lbs from my last appointment in August, I think that's pretty damn impressive as I just had a baby THREE weeks ago.

So basically the surgeon wants me to go for an Upper GI to see if my pouch is dilated.  He seems to think I've been eating so much (not the case if he'd listen to me) that my pouch has expanded.  He didn't over any fill being removed or anything.  Oh and I need to do two weeks of food journals to see the amount of calories I'm taking in, he insinuated that I could be consuming as much as 5,000 calories a day.

He treated me like I'm a freaking idiot, I'm 2 1/2 years post op.  I KNOW how this works.  Yes I've had bumps in the road but I count myself a success, I weigh less than I did when I started.

The more I think about the pain I am in, the more I think it's a muscle based pain.  It reminds me of when I had my port relocation in 2010 and went back to the gym too soon.  I just had to take it easy for a few weeks and it went away.  I think that is what it is, seeing as I'm keeping food and water down and the pain is only at night after I've been running around all day.  I'm doing a lot more than I have in months due to my broken foot and bed rest.

For now I think I'm going to skip the Upper GI and see what happens.  Of course if it gets worse I will go for it.  I don't even know if our new insurance covers anything band related so I have to check that out too.  I also think I'm going to follow my old surgeon to his new hospital.  I don't like this new guy, he's a jerk.

My Little Bunny

I promise my blog won't always be all about Violet but I can't resist posting this photo!

A Year of Violet

Everyone knows I'm addicted to Pinterest and I found this idea on there when I was killing time on bed rest.  The basic thing is taking weekly pictures of your baby through the first year.  I'm going to use different fabrics for backgrounds and at the end of the year make her quilt with all the different ones we use.  

Here are the first three photos.

I can't believe how much she has changed in just two short weeks!

Miss Violet has arrived

Violet Jane

Born 3/13/12 @ 8:55PM

7lbs 11.5oz 19.5 inches

Fat or Pregnant?

During this pregnancy I have played a game with myself, "Fat or Pregnant?" I've become obsessed with how I look.  Honestly, I don't think I have ever focused on how I have looked so much.  I guess in my mind I saw pregnancy as the great equalizer, that when I was pregnant I would just be pregnant not overweight.  Ha!  That doesn't go away my friends, silly me.

I don't have a lot of photos of me during this pregnancy because I don't feel as though I have looked sufficiently pregnant.  I know I'm being stupid and I know someday I will regret the lack of photos, especially if Violet wants to see photos of me while I was pregnant with her. I actually just scrolled through my pictures and I only have pictures from the gender reveal party and the baby shower!  How did that happen?  I don't even have any pictures of myself from Christmas!

I decided this week that I needed to get over that.  So I searched the internet for some cute poses of maternity shots and found one I liked.  Yesterday Marc helped me.  It was actually really easy to do ourselves.  I mean, they aren't fancy or anything but I'm happy.

It's really hard for me to post this picture, I don't know why.  I even sent it to my Mom to make sure it wasn't awful.  I'm so weird.  My mom said I should have included my face BUT I wasn't thrilled with those ones, I like the focus being on the belly.  And I have plenty of pictures of my face because when you are overweight cropping is your friend.  

So here I am in all my pregnant glory.  

When Violet is born, I'm going to have a photo taken of me holding her up against my belly with the ribbon and put these two pictures side by side.  I think it will be cute.

Being Pregnant and Banded

One of my biggest concerns when I was looking into weight loss surgery was about pregnancy.  The main reason for me wanting to lose weight was to have a healthy pregnancy.  I went with the band because I felt it was the better choice for me especially when considering I wanted to have a baby in the future.  

At least in the blogs that I follow there haven't been a lot of first time moms with the gastric band.  So I didn't have a lot to go off, plus I think banders sometimes don't post as much about pregnancy because they don't feel it's band related.  I'm totally guilty of that but I've tried to start blogging about all aspects of my life.  I thought it would be helpful to share some things I've learned and experienced while being pregnant with the band.

*I had approx. 7.8 ccs in my band when I became pregnant.  Both my band doctor and ob/gyn agreed there was no reason to take any fill out unless myself or the baby wasn't getting proper nutrition or if I became too restricted.

*I have had no fill removed during the pregnancy.

*I had pretty bad all day nausea during the 1st trimester.  I was never really sick in the mornings.  I don't know if my band helped me to not throw up or what.  I would have to immediately eat something when I woke up.  

*I did find that if I ate too fast or certain things, when the food would sit in my pouch for awhile it made the nausea worse.  I will admit around week 11 I found myself thinking of going in to get some fluid removed but the nausea started to get better so I'm glad I stuck it out.

*The 1st trimester the only thing I could stomach on a regular basis was carbs, saltines and mashed potatoes were my friends.  Not so much my scale's friends though.

*I have gained 39lbs during this pregnancy.

*Though I was hopeful I wouldn't gain much, it didn't happen.  I do know that when I got pregnant I was already up from my lowest of 309.4lbs.  (100lbs lost)

*If you remember, I broke my foot the week before I found out I was pregnant.  By the time the boot cast, physical therapy and my orthopedic doctor cleared me for exercise I was battling high blood pressure so I haven't exercised at all during this pregnancy.  I dream of spring walks with Violet.

*My high blood pressure is not because of my weight.  My blood pressure has NEVER been this high even 100lbs heavier.  My ob/gyn has made it clear that this happens to people who weigh 120lbs, it's just something people develop in pregnancy.

*I have had a few instances of eating too fast and such where my band declares it is still there and functioning.  I find when I get sick from being stuck, that I am more nauseous and it takes me a bit to recover, unlike before pregnancy.

*I feel as though I've had less instances of getting stuck while pregnant than before, it's almost like I'm more conscious of my eating too fast.

*My band hasn't interfered with my pregnancy at all, no issue at all.  My port was relocated higher up so it's not in my stomach area, not sure if that makes a difference or not.

*Even though I have never been pregnant without my band I feel as though the band hasn't been a problem at all which is what I wanted before surgery.

If anyone has any questions feel to ask!