First night of 20 Year Reunion..

Well Tonight was the Alumni Social at the High School in Bountiful. (Bountiful High School)
I still can't believe that that is has been 20 years. I have posted just a couple of picture from tonight. These were my dear friends growing up. I'm still having a hard time looking at pictures if my self.. And next to these skinny minnies makes me look even larger and this is when I dont see the weight loss as much. Aaah just kills me.
Anyway had to do a shout out about these wonferful woman.. Oh and YES I am the only one that is a Grandma (Grandparent) of the whole class. : )

From Left to Right
Tracy (Pledger) Clemmons, Me, Sandi (Christianson) , (Jaymi Ranck) Vocual, Carolee (Flygard)



This is Peggie Hall, her and I hung out together the whole time. I would consider her my best friend in High School. This is the first time seeing and talking to her since High School. Isn't that sad that we lost touch with each other. I could just hit my self for not keeping better in touch with her.

My Full length Image for July 2009

July 15, 2009 I did this shirt because it use to me tight on my arms and around my belly, but now it is getting to big for me and just hangs on me. And the pants use to be stretch pants on me and are now loose. So for me this is a huge improvement. Kinda Fun to see and feel.

And look I am smiling.. Are you proud of me? : )

My 20 year Reunion

Well, I am coming up on the date for my 20 year reunion. I had a goal to be down 50 pounds before Friday the 17th so I weighed my self today and I am at 281 I have 2 more pounds to go to hit my goal and I have 2 days left including today. So I am going to aerobics tonight and hope to loose those last 2 pounds. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I have really been struggling with even going to my reunion, because I am not at the weight that I want to be. But I have had to look at the challenges that I have been faced with, and recognize the achievements that I have done so far. loosing 48 pounds in 2 months (three if you include April pre-surgery diet phase) I just have to deal with it and know that I will be that size 10 this time next year.

Another month Gone!

Well, it is July and I am a looser for not keeping up on this blog. I need to be better at this.

Well I thought I would post my progression images that I have. I just got a new hair cut today and so I took the time to put the images together. I am still working on the Full length images. I have really been having a hard time seeing my full length image. It has been a slower noticeable progression.. I know and feel different and do see a difference, but not as much of a difference that I can see and notice. So here are my face images, you can really see a difference.. I don't have a second chin anymore and you can see that there is a neck there. : )

This first image is from Jan 2009 which is my highest weight and then me today July 2009.


This image is the progression from Jan 2009, and all the other months there after.

Doing better today..

So I went to CJ's Baseball game last night and then after the game, the whole family went to the aquatic center to go swimming. And Steve and Kaeslyn joined me for the 8-9pm Deep Water Class.

It was great, they had in there minds that it was going to be a piece of cake and easy to do.
And as we continued through the class it got harder and harder and they were breathing harder and harder and I just smiled.

Steve was having a hard time with the legs and was using his arms more then his legs, and Kaeslyn was taking breaks every now and then.. to be honest I had a sense of great accomplishment because I was not struggling like they were and stayed at the same pace through out the whole 60 min's. I am loving the water aerobics more and more each day.

This morning I am not as sore and I think if I just keep up the classes everyday I think I will get more strength. I know I can do this and I just have to keep pushing along.

Feeling it today...

So I woke up this morning, to find my self very nauseated lightheaded and extremely dizzy.
My headache is at a 7-8 today so I wasn't sure if everything has something to do with my headache or the fill...

Well, I went to drink some water this morning and my nausea got worse and it kinda came back up a bit. So I think it has to do with the fill. Along with me over doing it last night to. I think my headache increase today has to do with my exercise last night.. I might have over done it, Because I went to the Deep water class and the aqua fit class... so, I worked out from 8 - 10 pm.. I think it just might have done me in today.... So now I know, I can only handle 1 class at a time. LOL.

Looks like it will be a lazy day today, until the headache subsides and I can walk with out spinning. I am laying back in bed as I type this..Gotta love Laptops.

Exersice...A love hate relationship

Ok, Ok so my Dr says I need to do 30 min's of exercise per day, I have only been doing this faithfully for the last 2 weeks..(I used the excuse that I was still recovering the first 2 weeks).

So, what have I been doing? well, each day has been differant, as I try to find the right amount, and a routine that works for me. With Lupus I get tired very easy so, I still have to be very carefull so that I don't cause a Flare. I reasearched and the lowsest impact exersice is Water Aerobics so I have been going to a water aerobic class every Mon & Wednesday Night from 9 - 10pm.

Now, I have to say the first time I went, I went to the Arthritis class and it was a little to low impact for me..So, I went to the Aqua fit class and it kicked my butt the first night.

Last night was Monday, and I thought I would try the earlier class, it is the Deep Water class.
I thought the aqua fit class was bad. I got my butt royally kicked with the Deep water class.
That was a major workout. So it looks like I need to change my routine and add this class into my week. and as for the other days.... I have been doing the yoga ball and band stretches in the mornings. Now with summer I think Kaeslyn and I will be going to the gym and I will be adding some treadmill walking and some weight training to my weeek. But as for now I think this month I will stick to the ball, bands and water aerobics.

This is what my June exersice routine will be for now..

Monday - Yoga ball and bands ~ Mornings for 30 mins
Aqua class ~ 9-10pm

Tuesday - Yoga Ball and bands ~ Mornings for 30 mins
Deep Water Class - 8-9pm

Wednesday - Yoga Ball and Bands ~ Mornings for 30 mins
Aqua Class ~ 9-10pm

Thursday - Yoga Ball and bands ~ Mornings for 30 mins
Deep Water Class - 8-9pm

Friday - Yoga Ball and bands ~ Mornings for 30 mins
Evening walk with my Husband or Kids
(starting with 1 mile and will increase)

Saturday - Morning Deep Water Class 8-9am

Sunday - Evening walk with Steve and or Kids

Well, that is my plan lets see how it plays out...

Total Weight Loss and Measurements

I have to say this is going to be the hardest things to post...
My actual starting weight and totals.
I am so disgusted with my self, and that I let my self get to this point..
But I can't look back and I have to be honest and forth coming with my self so here it goes..

Kari's Weight Loss total = 48 lbs

Starting weight - 359lbs 4-30-09
Surgery Weight - 317lbs 5-06-09
Currant weight - 235lbs 2-25-11
Goal Weight - 165lbs Pending 70 more to go

Kari's Measurements
Neck = 16 - 5/06/09 * 14 - 6/06/09 * 13 - 7/15/09*12 - 2/25/2011
Chest = 56 - 5/06/09 * 52 - 6/06/09 * 50 - 7/15/09 *44 - 2/25/2011
Waist = 50 - 5/06/09 * 48 - 6/06/09 * 45.5 - 7/15/2009*38 - 2/25/2011
Hips = 59 - 5/06/09 * 56 - 6/06/09 * 55 - 7/15/2009 * 42 - 2/25/2011

So, I will update this post as new weigh in's and measurements occur.
But this is what it is so far. Boy, it is hard to post this,
but I know that it will be getting smaller smaller each month.
I am working on 165 by my 40th Birthday in July 2011.

1 Month Out

So, It has been 1 month and 2 days since surgery. And I have had my ups and downs.
Headaches are still there, some days are better then others. But I am off my Diamox med and things have been going pretty good. The headaches without diamox are manageable.

Today is was my first follow up appt with my Dr. and he gave me a what is called a fill today.
I have a 11cc band (meaning it will hold 11cc's of fluid) after surgery there was no fluid in the band so they added 5 cc's of fluid today. I am have more restriction today. What this means is when I eat now it sits in my small stomach longer and keeps me full for longer periods of time.

The fill went pretty good. I was starving before I went in for the fill today.. Needless to say I was looking forward to getting the fill and having that restriction again. And after having the fill I fill that restriction again. I had some tuna fish for lunch today and before I could eat 4 oz of food and still feel hungry today I had 1 oz of tuna and I was full. So it looks like it is working.

The process was not to bad, but I can't lie there was some pain more then I thought there would be when my Dr. put the needle in to find the port. The needle was really long and thin and once he finally found the port fill spot it went really fast.. But the poking around and missing was painful can't lie.

Well I thought I would post some before and after images these are 1 month out. The images are not the best but it gives you some Idea of what kind of progress I am doing. I know I am wearing black. But I wanted to have the same pants and color from the before. next month I will try to change it up... My family says I am doing really good. And that they can see such a difference, But I am still struggling with not seeing much success.. I do feel the clothes being looser, and I do see some difference but, in my eyes I wish there was more of a difference and more success.
But here is the pictures... Keep In Mind I still have my Lupus and so my skin is always going to be red with sores. It sucks.. I can only wish that the Lupus would go away with all this..

Here is close up of my face, the before picture on this one was the night before surgery, and I promise going forward I will smile more in my pictures. But for now I have a solemn face. I always have a headache so my skin shows that all the time..Steve always uses it as his gauge to how bad my headaches are.. Like, ok she is only slightly red today, or oh she is fire engine red better watch out. : )

3 weeks Post Op

Well I am now coming up on my 3rd week post op.
Things have been going pretty good ok, I have to say this last week has been very hard on me. Harder then I thought it would be... But I have been noticing that my clothes are looser.
I don't go see Dr. Smith until June 8th so I am going to wait to weigh my self until then.

I have been having a hard time with feeling full. the swelling has gone down and I am healing which is a great thing. But I don't have restriction anymore and so my 2 oz meals are not keeping me satisfied and I am having a hard time. I talked to my Dr.'s nurse today and she said I can add snacks in between meals.

It has really been stressful and therefore I have had a flare of Lupus hit me and that has not been fun, my energy is low and since I am not getting as much food it makes it worse.
We will have to see what the 2 snacks do to see if this will help.

Monday May 11th - 1st week after

Well, it has been 5 days since my surgery and things have been going pretty good. I am finally able to add cottage cheese, skim milk and creamy soups to my diet. My first serving of cottage cheese was such a treat..and having soup and string cheese has also been a treat. It is still a HUGE adjustment to eating only 2 oz. of food per meal. I have been reading up on new soup recipes that I can make, and enjoy which has been fun, But also has been frustrating because I have been finding other recipes that I just can't ave yet and they sound SOO good.
(still working on the brain hunger)
I am still really sore on my left side.. I have been trying to sleep on my side but so far my right side is the only one that doesnt hurt when I turn. It still hurts to sit up and sit straight up for long periods of time. Headaches had increased some since surgery, but I have been managing. I went to church yesterday, C.J was giving a talk he was asked to talk on Mothers..For Mother's Day... so how could I miss that.! It was a wonderful talk I am so proud of him.. I felt very loved.

I am dragging a little bit today, think I just did a little to much yesterday with it being Mother's Day and all. But I plan on taking a walk tonight with Steve and the dogs and hope to go to the Aquatic center tomorrow to start doing water aerobics.. I am looking forward to that.


I also weighed my self last night since the surgery and I have lost another 17 pounds so I am at a total loss of 29 pounds. So that is great news. I know that weighing yourself is not a good thing to do all the time so I will only be weighing in once a week and doing measurements once a month, for starters and hope that will keep me motivated to loose. I am looking forward to next sunday and see how things go.

I hope to manage my headaches better this week. Today has been a doosy thanks to the Liquid Lortab.

Happy Monday!
Karianne

Surgery Day - May 6th 2009

Well I know that it is past my surgery day, but I wanted to just jounal how that say went.

We were to be at LDS Hospital by 5:30 am in the morning, That was a shock when the alarm went off at 4:30.. I didnt feel nervous I was really calm. I had received a blessing the night before and I knew it help with my nerves that morning. I got checked in and they took me back to be weighed I had lost 12 pounds during the pre-op diet..Whoo Hoo I was so excited I wasnt sure what I had lost but I knew I felt a little bit of a differance in my clothes.

After that I went to the surgery prep room, where they went over the surgery and medical history..Can I just say I know that it has to be done, but I have never repeated my self more than that day, it was like 20 questions played 3 or 4 times, administered by differant people. Anyway they started my IV and took a bunch of blood and then they gave me a heprin shot. (that hurt so bad, when they tell you it will feel like a little bee sting they are lying) I have a huge bruise from that little bee sting. : 0

I then did the 10 question and answer with the surgucal nurse and anesthesiologist. They were a bit bugged I think since I have med allergies, Even the Doctor came over and teased me, saying "ok if I had known you had all these allergies we would have ordered a new DR" he laughed as I did to and then we were on our way to the operating room. it was about 7:30 am ....

All I remember was moving over to the table and then I was out.

I woke up in the recovery room around 9:30am and was in my Room by 10 am, I felt pretty good they wouldnt let me drink anything yet they said I needed to wait an hour or so. But I had so much IV fluids going through me I had to go to the bathroom really bad, So I got up and went to the bathroom about 45 mins after surgery. When I went to the sink to wash my hands I noticed that I felt a wetness down my legs and I thought I wet on my self....But I looked in the mirror and noticed that there was some blood on the front of my gown so I lifted my gown and I was bleeding out on my large incision. I called for Steve and he helped me to the bed and put pressure on it and then called the nurse in. They were able to get it to stop and also clean it all up but I wasnt able to get up after that for a while. : )

I was doing pretty good, but was having some problems with my oxegyn it would not stay above 90 so they increased my oxegyn and said I had to stay the night instead of going home that day.
I was sipping water pretty good, and for dinner I had a tsp of Jello and 1blsp of beef broth.
I had a reastless night and was awaiting the release to get home and be able to sleep in my bed and be with my kids.

The Morning came and I was excited to go home. I got home around 11:30 am and was able to rest for the rest of the day. I was still doing pretty good on sipping water, eating slowly my Sugar free jello and chicken broth that Steve made me.

IT WAS A PRETTY GOOD START..
Love, Karianne

Preparing for Surgery

These are my thoughts as I prepared for this next step in my journey to a better life.
Back in Aug 2008 Dr. Katz set out to get me qualified to have bariactric surgery and we went through appeals after appeals, finally in mar 2009 We recieved notice from the insurance company that I was approved.

On April 15th I went to see the Surgeon Dr. Sherman Smith We decided to go with the Gastric band, Dr. felt that this would be the best route for me.

Gastric banding surgery involves the following:
Using laparoscopic tools, the surgeon places an adjustable silicone band around the upper part of the stomach. Squeezed by the silicone band, the stomach becomes a pouch with about an inch-wide outlet. After banding, the stomach can only hold about an ounce of food. A plastic tube runs from the silicone band to a device just under the skin, Saline (sterile salt water) can be injected or removed through the skin, flowing into or out of the silicone band. Injecting saline fills the band and makes it tighter.

In this way, the band can be tightened or loosened as needed. This can reduce side effects and improve weight loss...

Well, we scheduled my surgery date for May 6th. and I had my pre-surgery appt on April 29th 2009 and had my before picture taken and was weighed in. I Started my 10 day pre-surgery Diet which consistated of 3 protein shakes a day and 1 high protein low carb meal per day not to exceed 900 calories for the whole day (including shake calories)

I took this time to also do portion control and get use to eating smaller amounts and with smaller plates ext.

Don't get me wrong it was an adjustment, and I had some cravings like no other, but I didnt cheat my self, when the kids had some cake for Keegan's and Steve's Birthday I had a bite but I stopped there and didnt have anymore. those 2 weeks were really hard I am not sure I would have been able to maintain that for much longer. It was a difficult 10 days.. But it did jump start my weight loss. I had faith that it would.

So, that is in short some thoughts on the first few steps in starting this journey. And also understanding what I had done.

Karianne

pseudo tumor cerebri - My Story

Hi Family and Friends, Well I am starting this blog mostly to help me focus on what I need to do and help me keep track of my progress and accomplishments. I want to also be able to provide help and information on my experiances, and hope that it could help someone else that might be going through the same thing.

Well, first I want to share with you why I am going on this jouney and what I have been faced with and the challenges that I have been trying to over come. So, here is a little bit of history and details about my WHY...

Well in 2006 I started a journey that I never thought I would ever go on. In December of 2006 I woke up in the middle of the night not able to see anything I was blind, my vision came back shorlty after but it was not the same.. I had to go see a Neuro-opthomolist (Dr Bradley Katz of the Moran Eye Center) is my Fabulous Dr. He helped me find out what all my symtoms were meaning. he became more then just an eye Dr. Through many visits and Test I was Diagnoused with pseudo tumor cerebri ...

What is Pseudotumor Cerebri?

Pseudotumor cerebri literally means "false brain tumor." It is due to high pressure within the skull caused by the buildup or poor absorption of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The disorder is most common in women between the ages of 20 and 50. Symptoms of pseudotumor cerebri, which include headache, nausea, vomiting, and pulsating sounds within the head, closely mimic symptoms of large brain tumors.

The disorder may cause progressive, permanent visual loss in some patients. In some cases, pseudotumor cerebri can reacur. In my case I have lost 30% vision in my left eye and live with a consistant daily headache that has never gone away and increased in severity depending on the day. Some days are better then others and some are worse then others.

I was put on several medications to reduce the fluid on my brain when I was diagnosed I had a procedure called Spinal Tap which is when they take a needle into your spine and measure your pressure normal Pressure is 5 - 12 but mine was 39. I have had several of these procedures since diagnosise to help releave pain from the pressure..

When conventional medical therapy fails to alleviate the symptoms and prevent pathologic decline, surgical intervention is the only treatment. Cerebrospinal fluid shunting procedures are commonly employed in PTC patients, but are successful in only 70 to 80 percent of cases.

The other surgucal treatment that has been found to benifit is Bariatric surgery it is now being consider another long-term procedure of choice for with PTC paitent and is shown to have a much higher rate of success than CSF–peritoneal shunting, as well as providing resolution of additional obesity comorbidity. Increased intraabdominal pressure associated with central obesity is the probable etiology of PTC,

So through much research, doctors assistance and many prayers, we choose the Bariatric surgery over brain Surgery. Now there could still be a chance that I might still need the shunt, but having the weight loss first will decrease the risk if a shunt surgery if it is needed in the future. So this is where the purpose of this blog starts now. This blog will stand as my journal and days going through my journey to a new life. So I know this was long but I wanted you to see and understand my story first. And Understand My WHY!

With much love,

Karianne