Post-Op Day 150 - Time is flying by...
WOW…today marks my 150th day since surgery! I cannot believe it!!!!! Time really does fly by. I am so THANKFUL that I’ve had no complications from this surgery (knock on wood). It’s been a tough road medically otherwise, but I believe this surgery has been the best thing for my life.
Today I got on the scale and I weighed…drum roll please…235 pounds! I cannot even believe that number as I type it! Compare 235 to 324 – oh my …it’s incredible! That puts me at -89 down!!! OMG! I never dreamed I would see that kind of loss – especially before six months. I mean, I hoped to but you know how it is – you fail SO MANY TIMES at weight loss that you cannot even imagine anything this great happening to you!
Tomorrow is my five-month anniversary. I can’t believe it. Even if the scale is back up a pound tomorrow, it’s all good. This is such a wonderful journey. I am appreciating the freedom I have from food right now. I know down the road it will become more of a struggle again, but for now – it’s just such a fabulous feeling not wanting to gorge all the time.
And, when you do find that rare food that actually tastes so good and you want more of, you can’t have it! Sure it’s frustrating at the time because your instinct is to stuff your face. However, you can’t help but be thankful that you can’t shovel it in any longer.
Thank You God for this miracle tool!
Visit with the new surgeon
On Thursday, I went to Houston’s world-famous Medical Center. I met with Baylor University Ears Nose Throat Surgeon Dr. Richard Parke. Below is the letter that I sent to my friends and co-workers on Friday:
Hello everyone -
I wanted to give you all an update on my visit with the Baylor surgeon yesterday.
Well...he seemed confident that it wasn't cancer. After feeling the tumor and looking at my MRI results, he thought it seemed like a pleomorphic adenoma in my parotid (salivary) gland, which is a benign tumor. He said he is right about these things 95 percent of the time. (He was cocky and self-assured - which I want in a surgeon!)
He said I will still need surgery regardless to get it out. If it stays too long, it can get severely entangled in my facial nerve and/or turn malignant if it is currently benign.
The doctor said he wanted me to get a Fine Needle Aspiration (biopsy) to 1. find out how quickly he needs to get it out and 2. hopefully put my mind at rest by letting me know what exactly it is we're dealing with.
The surgery will be detailed as it is a delicate area obviously, but he's never had left anyone with permanent facial paralysis. He said he has done about 2,000 of these in his career, and he trained under the man who wrote the book on this surgery. He told me I just have to trust him that he will get me through it without lasting damage.
He then sent me to get a biopsy on the area. The pathologist who did it was SUPER nice. I told her how I am so tired of stress and surgeries (three in less than five months), and now the thought of waiting the long weekend to find out if it's cancer was an overwhelming feeling.
The biopsy hurt, as they stuck the needle through the gland with no numbing.
However, I know it needed to be done. It was just so wonderful in fact that I got to feel it again. Haha
But the great part about it is that, as she checked it under a microscope to see if she got what she needed for her labwork, she said cheerfully: "Well it's looking like a pleomorphic adenoma to me!"
I was stunned.
I said, "Really?"
She said, "Yup - I can't tell you officially until we review it in the lab, but it sure looks benign to me! I'm not supposed to tell you that, but I don't want you to spend your whole weekend scared you have cancer when it looks like this."
I was so relieved!!! She looked at the other slide from the second needle and said it too looked benign. She had another pathologist look at it. She too said it looked benign. I felt like the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders. I had told myself I can get through the surgery just fine and won't stress it if I learn it is benign.
So I am again cautiously optimistic. Of course, I will hold all celebration until it's official. I should know something by Tuesday. I will let you know the official results then.
Thank you all for your positive energy and prayers. It means the world to me. I know I couldn't have gotten through a fourth of this if it hadn't been for your support.
With that said, I also want to tell you that, as of today, I am down 88 pounds! Not bad for 21 weeks. I feel very blessed to have had such wonderful results thanks to my awesome surgeon Dr. Adam Naaman. I appreciate your support and encouragement with the bypass as well. I am so blessed by each one of you.
Ok I am done rambling. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
THANK YOU!
Melissa
Of course I was hoping to get my results yesterday. But, alas, they didn’t come through. While the pathologist did comfort me with giving me the inside scoop, I still have lingering anxiety. However, I keep pushing through and believe God will protect me through it all.
Coping
In this five months with my myriad of health issues – coccyx problems, strep throat, gall bladder, tumor – combined with stress from work and life, I’ve not been able to fall back on my best coping mechanism: OVEREATING.
This definitely has been a crash course on how to not rely on food for comfort. I have been stressed to the max on so many things and I’ve not been able to fall back to the old “stuff my face” routine. Now I find I don’t eat much at all. In fact, it’s something I have to overcome because I can’t neglect myself this way either.
Jeans
Anyone who knows me knows I never wear jeans. I might wear them once a year. I’ve always hated how I look in jeans. It probably goes back to my childhood where I never found any that fit right. I had woman hips even as a kid. Looking back, they probably looked good on me cuz I had the shapelier hips. But everyone else was straight as a rail, so I wanted to be too.
About a month ago, I decided to buy myself a pair of jeans. I’ve only had one pair since being in Houston and they were like size 28s. I looked terrible in them, but, for whatever reason, Scott loved me in jeans. I just could never make myself wear them. I feel awkward. Anyway, I decided to get over that and just get some.
I had been fitting into some size 20 clothes, but I decided to pick up a pair of 22s at walmart and just bring them home. Well, to my dismay, I couldn’t get them close to buckling. In fact, it was a struggle to get them over my hips. I vowed to take them back. Scott said to keep them – I would fit them in no time. I just didn’t want to have to work to squeeze into 22s when everything else is getting smaller.
I never got around to returning them. So, they sat in the guest bedroom. On Wednesday, I was feeling good about my 5.5 pound weight loss this week, so I thought I’d see how close I was to them fitting. When they slid over my hips and buckled, I about fainted! I cannot imagine that I lost that many inches in just a month! I decided to wear them to work.
Well, my "victory" jeans were the hot topic. Haha Nobody had really seen me in them. Plus, it totally showed off my weight loss. Everyone was talking about how hot and sexy and small I look! It’s funny cuz I am really still struggling to see it. But, I just go with the flow.
The best reaction of all is when I got home and Scott saw me! He was so happy and thought I looked amazing! He kept telling me how hot I looked in them. Man, it made my week to hear him talk about how I looked in those jeans. It was then he too realized just how much my body has changed.
For the record, I am embracing my curves much more this time around. :-)
Biggest freaky weight-loss moment thus far….
Ok it finally happened…one of those undeniable ‘freaky weight-loss moments” that happen with significant weight loss.
On Thursday, Scott went with me to the surgeon. We had been together at the doc's office for two hours together. Afterwards, he went to smoke and I said "I will be right here." I sat down on a bench and made some phone calls.
After a while, he walked up to me and we went to lunch. As we ate, I said: “Do I look ok today? I just feel like I don’t.”
He told me I looked great but he hadn’t recognized me earlier. I said, “huh?” He said that when he came up the escalator after smoking, he couldn’t find me. In fact he even walked past me but I had my head down. He said he even noticed the blonde lady on the phone and kept on walking. That blonde lady was ME! HE DIDN’T RECOGNIZE ME!!
He walked all over that floor looking for me – through the deli, by the elevators, all over. When he re-approached my area, we made eye contact and he recognized me.
Hearing that was the weirdest feeling! I’ve had people see me and be surprised at how different I look – but for my own hubby not to recognize me in public was definitely a wild thing to hear. Too funny!
Today I got on the scale and I weighed…drum roll please…235 pounds! I cannot even believe that number as I type it! Compare 235 to 324 – oh my …it’s incredible! That puts me at -89 down!!! OMG! I never dreamed I would see that kind of loss – especially before six months. I mean, I hoped to but you know how it is – you fail SO MANY TIMES at weight loss that you cannot even imagine anything this great happening to you!
Tomorrow is my five-month anniversary. I can’t believe it. Even if the scale is back up a pound tomorrow, it’s all good. This is such a wonderful journey. I am appreciating the freedom I have from food right now. I know down the road it will become more of a struggle again, but for now – it’s just such a fabulous feeling not wanting to gorge all the time.
And, when you do find that rare food that actually tastes so good and you want more of, you can’t have it! Sure it’s frustrating at the time because your instinct is to stuff your face. However, you can’t help but be thankful that you can’t shovel it in any longer.
Thank You God for this miracle tool!
Visit with the new surgeon
On Thursday, I went to Houston’s world-famous Medical Center. I met with Baylor University Ears Nose Throat Surgeon Dr. Richard Parke. Below is the letter that I sent to my friends and co-workers on Friday:
Hello everyone -
I wanted to give you all an update on my visit with the Baylor surgeon yesterday.
Well...he seemed confident that it wasn't cancer. After feeling the tumor and looking at my MRI results, he thought it seemed like a pleomorphic adenoma in my parotid (salivary) gland, which is a benign tumor. He said he is right about these things 95 percent of the time. (He was cocky and self-assured - which I want in a surgeon!)
He said I will still need surgery regardless to get it out. If it stays too long, it can get severely entangled in my facial nerve and/or turn malignant if it is currently benign.
The doctor said he wanted me to get a Fine Needle Aspiration (biopsy) to 1. find out how quickly he needs to get it out and 2. hopefully put my mind at rest by letting me know what exactly it is we're dealing with.
The surgery will be detailed as it is a delicate area obviously, but he's never had left anyone with permanent facial paralysis. He said he has done about 2,000 of these in his career, and he trained under the man who wrote the book on this surgery. He told me I just have to trust him that he will get me through it without lasting damage.
He then sent me to get a biopsy on the area. The pathologist who did it was SUPER nice. I told her how I am so tired of stress and surgeries (three in less than five months), and now the thought of waiting the long weekend to find out if it's cancer was an overwhelming feeling.
The biopsy hurt, as they stuck the needle through the gland with no numbing.
However, I know it needed to be done. It was just so wonderful in fact that I got to feel it again. Haha
But the great part about it is that, as she checked it under a microscope to see if she got what she needed for her labwork, she said cheerfully: "Well it's looking like a pleomorphic adenoma to me!"
I was stunned.
I said, "Really?"
She said, "Yup - I can't tell you officially until we review it in the lab, but it sure looks benign to me! I'm not supposed to tell you that, but I don't want you to spend your whole weekend scared you have cancer when it looks like this."
I was so relieved!!! She looked at the other slide from the second needle and said it too looked benign. She had another pathologist look at it. She too said it looked benign. I felt like the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders. I had told myself I can get through the surgery just fine and won't stress it if I learn it is benign.
So I am again cautiously optimistic. Of course, I will hold all celebration until it's official. I should know something by Tuesday. I will let you know the official results then.
Thank you all for your positive energy and prayers. It means the world to me. I know I couldn't have gotten through a fourth of this if it hadn't been for your support.
With that said, I also want to tell you that, as of today, I am down 88 pounds! Not bad for 21 weeks. I feel very blessed to have had such wonderful results thanks to my awesome surgeon Dr. Adam Naaman. I appreciate your support and encouragement with the bypass as well. I am so blessed by each one of you.
Ok I am done rambling. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
THANK YOU!
Melissa
Of course I was hoping to get my results yesterday. But, alas, they didn’t come through. While the pathologist did comfort me with giving me the inside scoop, I still have lingering anxiety. However, I keep pushing through and believe God will protect me through it all.
Coping
In this five months with my myriad of health issues – coccyx problems, strep throat, gall bladder, tumor – combined with stress from work and life, I’ve not been able to fall back on my best coping mechanism: OVEREATING.
This definitely has been a crash course on how to not rely on food for comfort. I have been stressed to the max on so many things and I’ve not been able to fall back to the old “stuff my face” routine. Now I find I don’t eat much at all. In fact, it’s something I have to overcome because I can’t neglect myself this way either.
Jeans
Anyone who knows me knows I never wear jeans. I might wear them once a year. I’ve always hated how I look in jeans. It probably goes back to my childhood where I never found any that fit right. I had woman hips even as a kid. Looking back, they probably looked good on me cuz I had the shapelier hips. But everyone else was straight as a rail, so I wanted to be too.
About a month ago, I decided to buy myself a pair of jeans. I’ve only had one pair since being in Houston and they were like size 28s. I looked terrible in them, but, for whatever reason, Scott loved me in jeans. I just could never make myself wear them. I feel awkward. Anyway, I decided to get over that and just get some.
I had been fitting into some size 20 clothes, but I decided to pick up a pair of 22s at walmart and just bring them home. Well, to my dismay, I couldn’t get them close to buckling. In fact, it was a struggle to get them over my hips. I vowed to take them back. Scott said to keep them – I would fit them in no time. I just didn’t want to have to work to squeeze into 22s when everything else is getting smaller.
I never got around to returning them. So, they sat in the guest bedroom. On Wednesday, I was feeling good about my 5.5 pound weight loss this week, so I thought I’d see how close I was to them fitting. When they slid over my hips and buckled, I about fainted! I cannot imagine that I lost that many inches in just a month! I decided to wear them to work.
Well, my "victory" jeans were the hot topic. Haha Nobody had really seen me in them. Plus, it totally showed off my weight loss. Everyone was talking about how hot and sexy and small I look! It’s funny cuz I am really still struggling to see it. But, I just go with the flow.
The best reaction of all is when I got home and Scott saw me! He was so happy and thought I looked amazing! He kept telling me how hot I looked in them. Man, it made my week to hear him talk about how I looked in those jeans. It was then he too realized just how much my body has changed.
For the record, I am embracing my curves much more this time around. :-)
Biggest freaky weight-loss moment thus far….
Ok it finally happened…one of those undeniable ‘freaky weight-loss moments” that happen with significant weight loss.
On Thursday, Scott went with me to the surgeon. We had been together at the doc's office for two hours together. Afterwards, he went to smoke and I said "I will be right here." I sat down on a bench and made some phone calls.
After a while, he walked up to me and we went to lunch. As we ate, I said: “Do I look ok today? I just feel like I don’t.”
He told me I looked great but he hadn’t recognized me earlier. I said, “huh?” He said that when he came up the escalator after smoking, he couldn’t find me. In fact he even walked past me but I had my head down. He said he even noticed the blonde lady on the phone and kept on walking. That blonde lady was ME! HE DIDN’T RECOGNIZE ME!!
He walked all over that floor looking for me – through the deli, by the elevators, all over. When he re-approached my area, we made eye contact and he recognized me.
Hearing that was the weirdest feeling! I’ve had people see me and be surprised at how different I look – but for my own hubby not to recognize me in public was definitely a wild thing to hear. Too funny!
posted by Melissa :-) @ 3:16 AM
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