The Taylor Family

People Noticing

Michelle — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:30:00 GMT

Well, here's something weird (but very, very nice!)

In the past week I had 4 separate people ask me if I am losing weight. YAY! It has gotten to the point where it is noticeable!

The weird part is, though, I'm still stuck at that 112 number on the scale. But, my pants are feeling loose again (those 16s that I finally got into - maybe this means I'll be able to get into a 14 before too much longer!!!) and I really cannot eat the same amount of food that I was 4 months ago. It seems my stomach pouch has "destretched" or bounced back from the extra food I was putting in before. I almost feel like I did right after the bypass.

Which includes vomiting unfortunately. I'm having to re-learn my "fullness curve" and learn how to eat slowly again (and not in front of this darn computer - my worst habit!!!)

My back is still in bad shape, so still no exercise for me - doing some slow walking, but nothing that gets my heart rate up. I figure I can start dropping the weight again when I can start that back. For now I'm working on stretches and the slow walking - so at least I won't die when I finally do get back to the real exercise.

Well, that is it for progress for now - not a whole lot to report, but it was still neat. 'Til next time.

24 Oct. 2009

212 Lbs.

Plateaus

Michelle — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:37:00 GMT

Whooops! I let a month go by with no blog - sorry!

This past month has been insane. Unfortunately there is not much to report.

Plateau...it is such a pretty word. Plateauuuuuu, it just kind of rolls off the tongue. Plateau - makes you think of rolling green hills going on forever into a blue sky.....

Unless you are trying to lose weight! Then plateau becomes an evil word the equivalent to the "F" bomb.

Yep, I've hit one. I was losing weight very steadily and was so excited, and now I'm stuck at 212. (Of course that is better than being stuck at 250, but I was really shooting for less than 200!)

I know *why* I've hit a plateau, but unfortunately I can't do anything about it just yet.

I need to start exercising. I can diet all day long, but until I start exercising to raise my metabolism, my body is going to continue to slow down to conserve energy. It thinks I am starving so is slowing down the fat-burning in my body (metabolism). If i start exercising, then I can boost that metabolism back up - because my body will be *forced* to use that fuel.

However, my back is in bad shape right now. I am seeing a chiropractor (Dr. Tanya Turner who is fantastic!) Somehow I have managed to pop a rib out of place (ow, ow, ow!) So until that gets fixed I'm kind of on restriction. She says I can do some stretches right now, and can start some easy walking soon. SO those will help get me ready to start the big stuff again, hopefully.

So not much to tell you guys right now. Food intake is still pretty good. I had a couple of bad nights when I forgot and ate in front of the computer again while working - yes I threw up. You'd think I'd learn by now. {sigh}

Until next time!

10/17/09

212 lbs

The Flu & Getting My Vitamins

Michelle — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:13:00 GMT

Before you panic - no it isn't the Swine Flu (much as people like to make fun of us overweight folk).

My enitre family is down with the flu; me, my husband, daughter (she's been out of school for an entire week, and my youngest son.) OK - not my entire family. My oldest son is not sick. He neve gets the flu. It is so strange! Michael has Asperger's, it is on the the spectrum of Autistic disorders for those of you not familiar. He's very high functioning. But he has the most amazing immune system. He has never had the flu - and he has been on antibiotics, like 5 or 6 times in his whole life (he just turned 18). One of those times was when his appendix burst! It is like God said. "OK, your son is going to be Autistic, but to make up for it - I'll make sure he never catches the Flu." Weird, huh? I'm not complaining. But for the rest of us the week has been pretty miserable.

For me in particular, it is almost dangerous. It is for anyone who has had WLS - especially the Roux-en-Y. I have not felt like eating anything, and what little I have been able to eat has just made me extremely nauseous. This is not a stomach flu, but my head hurting and spinning and the high fever have just kept me feeling really ill. Also, I have felt more like sleeping than drinking - so I have gotten a little (maybe more than a little) dehydrated. Which is really dumb when you consider how much I've been pushing gatorade, water, and chicken soup on my kids. But I fell into Mommy mode of taking care of them and kind of forgot about me.

This IS one of the dangers of gastric bypass; you don't feel hungry. Which makes it great for losing weight, but on weeks like this past week when i could have really used the hunger pangs reminder - well, it wasn't there. And since I have been back on the gastric bypass diet, it really wasn't there. I wasn't even starving at night by the time my husband got home from work. All I wanted to do was to collapse into bed and sleep and let him take over nursing duties.

So, do be careful when you get sick. Your body needs nutrients more than ever so that it can heal, but depending on where you are in your post-op recovery, you may not feel the urge to eat. And you especially need fluids. This was my biggest mistake.

Now on to the vitamins and supplements issue.

Last week, before any of this Flu stuff came up, I had my annual physical with my doctor - full blood work, EKG, the works. He was very pleased to see me back on my diet and that my weight was already coming down.

Well, I got the call yesterday that my Potassium level was too low. I completely forgot about the fact that when you start eating the way you are supposed to on the GBS diet, that you do not get all the vitamins you need - so that you do need to take supplements. So my doc wants me to start eating foods high in K (like bananas - but those are high in sugar, so I'm going to go do some looking up today) and he prescribed me a supplement, because he said what I could gete over the counter is not high enough.

My husband picked up this prescription for me last night and had this srange look when he handed it to me. OMG! I have never seen a pill this big. Hve any of you ever seen "The Matrix" ? (If not we need to have a serious talk.) These pills are about the size of that thing they put in his stomach. I'm not sure I could have swallowed one of these before my surgery. But I gamely attempted. uh-uh, no way - I threw it up. To make things even worse, there is no coating on this thing to make is slip down easier (who are these manufacturers, sadists?) Cutting it in half is just as bad, because it has jagged little edges. I'm going to have to talk with my doc about some other alternative - 'cause these ain't happening!

This experience did remind me that I need to pick up some vitamin supplements; a multi-vitamin, calcium, B-12, and for me (obviously) a K.

But guys, I am excited! I was in a size 20 jeans that are now too big, so I went and picked up a size 18. I didn't try them on in the store, and when I put them on at hom - they were baggy! So went back and proudly exchanged them for a 16. Of course these are Gloria Vanderbilt stretch Women's jeans, so they are a little more forgiving than say Juicy Couture - but they say 16 on them so I don't care!!!!

9/19/09

212 lbs.

Slowly Eating Better

Michelle — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:05:00 GMT

Hey Guys!

I bet y'all thought I would disappear for months again at a time; well Surprise! Here I am!

I told you I was going to try to do this again, that means being accountable - and this is one of the best ways to do it.

I'm not totally there, yet. I haven't made the time to start exercising, but I am trying to do better with my food and am mostly succeeding. It is not as easy the 2nd time around - so if you haven't started getting into bad habits, yet - stay away from them!

I found this really cool food log thingy on ObesityHelp.com

It helps you track all your food and water for the day. It also tells you how much protein/carb/fat % you have eaten. That is what killed me.

Don't get me wrong, a food log is great - almost essential for getting back on track. And you need to be brutally honest with yourself. But I worked really hard that first day. The only thing I had with carbs was a morning cup of tea with sugar ('cause I forgot I was starting over) - then everything was mainly proteins or veggies all day.

But, that darn trakcker at the end of the day said I had eaten 23% protein, 21% carbs, and 56% fat!!!!! That killed me. I was so depressed I went and ate one of my husband's M&M ice cream cones (pretty dumb, huh?)

I started over the next morning and have been pretty good since then; not perfect, but pretty good.

Today I had to bake sugar cookies for my daughter's class tomorrow. Do you know how good sugar cookies smell when you aren't supposed to have them? I was weak, I had to have one. Last week I would have said "well, I've blown it - let's binge". A friend consoled me by saying "tomorrow's another day". But I thought about it and decided, I don't have to wait for tomorrow. So for dinner I had shrimp and water. Instead of letting 1 mistake be a reason to binge, just let it be a mistake. (And ask another Mom to make the sugar cookies next time - I'll send in the Capri-Suns!)

9/7/09

218 lbs

Getting Back on Track

Michelle — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:40:00 GMT

I have been sent an angel, and her name is Mary (rather appropriate, huh?)

She is one of the editors on BellaOnline.com with me and she has also gone through gastric bypass. Except she has done tremendously well and has fantastic advice. We e-mailed back and forth several times last night. Her advice made so much sense and she has such a great sense of humor I told her "You are my new accountability partner!"

And she said "let's do it" and immediately asked me what I was having for dinner, LOL!

So I am not going to let her down. This morning I woke up and had my Earl Grey tea as usual with sugar in it without thinking about it - and cringed when it hit me (after I finished the cup). So I am now having a protein shake for breakfast. I haven't had a protein shake in almost a year.

I will get back on track.

Gastric Bypass is a tool, and unless I use it correctly - it can't work. It is kind of like using a wrench to bang in a nail. You get *some* results but not nearly the ones you could achieve if you had used a hammer.

So it is back to the hammer y'all!

Oh - and I have a couple of goals to work towards; an awesome costume ball on Nov 6th and a gathering of lots of old friends around Christmas who will be flying in for the holidays. I may not be a size 10 by then - but I can at least NOT be a size 20.

Sept 1, 2009

222 lbs

So - How Am I Doing?

Michelle — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 01:47:00 GMT

I have been getting so many emails asking me how I am doing and what my progress is, probably because I have not been posting. (You think? Duh.)

But it has really surprised me how many people want to know about me. I told y'all I would keep you informed, and I haven't. I apologize. I have not wanted to post, because I have not been happy with myself. But I also promised you guys "the good, the bad, and the ugly". So, you have a right to know my failures as well as my successes. This surgery is a huge decision. I do not want anyone ever to go in blind. I still believe in this surgery, if you read this through all the way to the end you will understand why. But it is not the easy route to go by any means. Don't be fooled by the haters that call it "cheating".

I am holding kind of steady at the halfway point. I feel very unhappy about my weight loss - because I was doing so well, and then got off track. I keep forgetting to look at what I HAVE lost.

I initially lost 90 lbs, then gained about 50 back - so have a net loss of 40 lbs. That's still 40 pounds that I lost and have kept off. Which is more than I was ever able to do on any diet I did. (But we women always are so hard on ourselves aren't we?)

For me, some of my biggest obstacles are that I suffer from Clinical Depression and am treated for it. The medications for Depression often have a side effect of causing weight gain. Which is plausible, but I exacerbate it. On my really down days I do not want to leave the house and face people, and sometimes I do not want to get out of bed. I am not exercising regularly. The thing is I *know* that (in my brain) being outside in sunlight and exercising will actually help my Depression, but when I am deep into it - I cannot convince my heart that it is true.

Also, I have always been a very bad "grazer". I snack throughout the day. Having my stomach cut down to small size doesn't really have a "penalty" for this. You know when we eat big meals or eat too many carbs we either throw up or go through dumping syndrome, so we get that negative feedback. But if I snack on little snacks all day, then I can take in lots of calories and can manage to not get sick.

So basically I've found all the ways to cheat around my bypass. I need to kick my butt back into motion.

All my progress really started going downhill when I stopped going to my support group. I had to because of personal reasons dealing with my oldest son who is Autistic, but I never made the effort to get back into it once our crisis was over. I thought I would be fine on my own. That is the biggest mistake I made. Then all the other mistakes followed right in line. Having that support and accountability is so, so, SO important. I never realized how much before.

My father had this surgery about a year ago, has lost 125 pounds has had his 1st full knee replacement fully healed and has his other knee scheduled for next month. This is the first time in 15 years he has not been in total pain. There are great successes out there. Mine is just a little one, and maybe just a little stalled. I'm not going to give up on this. I have the tool. And that is the thing that I forgot. Weight Loss Surgery is still just a tool to be used for weight loss. True it is like the Bulldozer of tools compared to diet pills being a hammer; but if you never turn the Bulldozer on, it still won't tear anything down. You have to use WLS the right way. You have to exercise, you have to eat three meals a day with no snacking, you have to take your vitamins - you have to do what the doctors told us to do before we ever started down this road.

So I guess I better go eat a little crow at a support group meeting, and get back in this for real. Y'all are free to start pummeling me with emails if i do not update on a regular basis from here on out.

So here we go (again)

18 July 2009

223 Pounds

Sorry for the Looooooonnnnnnnnggggggg Wait

Michelle — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:43:00 GMT

Oh boy - have I been putting off writing this post.

Let's see my last post was in July of '07, it is now March of '09 - huh, can you say "procrastination?"

A very large part of it is shame, and another large part of it is that I do not want to be the bad example that keeps others from getting this surgery, because despite my set-backs - over all I have done pretty well.

So here's a basic recap:

1/25/06 I started ou right at 270 lbs (267 to be exact - I had a huge cast on my leg which I figured is what took the weight up to 270).

1/28/06 After a week in the hospital I was down to 261

1/31/06 - 251

2/6/06 - 251

2/12/06 - 245

6/16/06 - 204

9/1/06 - 189

7/1/07 - 206

Now, (Ugh, I hate putting this) 3/3/09 - 220. it is still 50 lbs less than when i started but it is about 30 pounds more than my lowest weight ,and about 50 higher than my target wieght.

The really bad things is that I know EXACTLY where my mistakes lie, and I've just got to get up the guts to re-change them again. (I had made these changes, and slowly slipped back into the bad habits).

My mealtimes are not bad. The only real "no-no" I do at mealtimes I do is that I drink *with* my meals. GBS pastients are urged to keep liquids and foods separate, becuase the liquids help move the food throught the digestive tract more quickly. Without thos liquids to puch the food throug - we stay full longer (and also our bodies get more nutrients out of the foods we eat.)

Drink mistakes; I love coke zero - which is two bad things, caffeine and carbonation. Caffeeine helps cuase the body to become dehydrated and also cuase the body to think it is hungry - not thing we want after GBS. Carbonation can actually swell and stretch the pouch back out. Ifi it gets too swollen, sometimes it can stay distended, and then we have negated having the surgery done in the first place.

The other thing that I am bad about, is now that I am doing a lot of writing from home (working on article and on a couple of books) I am "grazing" again. Our small stomachs are great at keeping us from eating large meals - but they don't really get in the way of us having small snacks throughout the day. So if I sit here and graze all day (even on healthy stuff) the weight is gonne stay on. I've got to keep my bottle of water next to me at the computer desk and NOTHING ELSE! And then get up and get away from the computer for meals. I HAVE to get those two areas separate in myt mind. This is for work, This is for food - and never the twain shall meet! That is a mind-block that I must work on.

I am back into Physical Therapy, for my back this time, and I intend to keep up with it. I have a little extra motivaviont this time, LOL! My high school 20 yr reunion is this Aug. - I gotta look at least a little good.

On the really good front, my Dad had his GBS done, HE has lost over 125 lbs and was able to get his 1st total knee replacement done, yea!!!! The other knee will be done in 2-3 months. I know he is going to feel like a new man once he finishes recovering from all of this. He has been in pain for so long. But he is being dilligent about his PT - most of it in the water because of his knees. But he's working hard and enjoying it. It will be great to see him play with the grandkids.

I will do my very best to update you guys weekly on what is going on - and now leave everybody hanging so long this time:

Good snacks: Almonds, cheesesticks, edmame, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes

Good Breakfast: egg in a hole using whole grain toast and low fat cheese

Good Lunch; spring mix, chopped chicken, apples, crasins, pecans; honey balsamic vinaigrette

Good Dinner: Fried Rice: take brown rice(cooked), brocolli slaw mix, finely chopped up chiken, sliced mushrooms, sesame seeds, sprouts, low sodium soy sauce, 2 eggs beaten in small bowl

1. In large skillet heat 1 Tbsp dark sesame oil, add broccoli slaw mix, sprouts, mushrooms, & sesame seeds - stirfry until veggies start to give a little

2. Add chicken - stir fry for 1 minute

3. Add rice & 2 Tbsp soy sauce - mix well

4. pour beaten egg over rice& veggie mix - let stem for a minute. "Scramble" into rice, add more spy sauce to taste if needed

OR for a similar version with almost no carbs whatsoever, try this:

This came from Good Housekeeping:
Warm Quinoa Salad with Toasted Almonds

Quinoa is often called a supergrain. Because it contains all 8 essential amino acids, it is considered a complete protein. It has a delicate flavor, but some people don’t care for it because they find it has a bitter aftertaste. Toasting quinoa helps reduce the bitterness and bring out its tasty nutty flavor. Look for it in health food stores and some supermarkets.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cup(s) quinoa
2 1/2 cup(s) (plus 1 tablespoon) water
1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
2 tablespoon(s) reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon(s) rice vinegar
1 teaspoon(s) Asian sesame oil
1 teaspoon(s) grated peeled fresh ginger
2 green onions, thinly sliced diagonally
1/4 cup(s) sliced natural almonds, toasted

DIRECTIONS
1.In 12-inch skillet, toast quinoa on medium 5 minutes or until fragrant and golden, stirring frequently.

2. Stir 2 1/2 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon salt into toasted quinoa; heat to boiling on high. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 15 to 17 minutes or until all water is absorbed.

3. Meanwhile, in small bowl, stir together soy sauce, rice vinegar, oil, ginger, green onions, and remaining 1 tablespoon water.

4. Transfer quinoa to large serving bowl. Stir in soy sauce mixture until quinoa is evenly coated. Sprinkle with toasted almonds to serve.

I served this with shelled edamame (soybeans) sauteed with baby bella mushrooms and chopped garlic in 1 Tbsp salted butter.

These are both quick, are high in vitamins and protein, and very filling. Also are not too bad on the wallet either.

3/3/09 Current weight: 220

Over a year and backsliding

Michelle — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 00:41:00 GMT

Wow! I did not realize how long it has been since I posted...

My weight is about the same as I posted last time. Not because I didn't lose anymore weight, but because I have gained some back! This is the biggest reason why I haven't been posting, because I have been embarrased. But then I realized that I said I would share everything, so I can't leave this portion out.

My lowest weight was 189. I was doing really well with my exercise and losing weight, but then I had a set-back that I have not been good about getting over. Last November I started having terrible pain in my right side, and lots of vomiting and diarreah - not associated with the gastric bypass. My family has not had much luck with the appendix (3 family members in a 6 month preiod had to have their's out - including my son) so we thought it might be that. But it wound up being my gall bladder - which is a very common problem after gastric bypass (plus a lovely family history to go with). Also, when the doctor did my gall bladder surgery (Dr. Richard, the ame doc who did my gastric bypass) he found a very large hernia - which is also a common occurence after GBS.

I had that surgery done, and of course had to take time off from working out to heal. The problem is I haven't gotten stared back, yet! And it makes a huge difference. All the muscles that were finally tightening up have gone to flab again. My doc and the nutrionist had told me how important exercise is after GBS, but I guess I kind of blew it off - and now I'm going to have to have to struggle to get going again.

The other thing that has been bad, is I take Ambien for chronic insomnia. Love the fact that is helps me sleep, but my husband told me that I am very bad about snacking after I take it. The problem with Ambien is that I don't remember anything I do while I'm taking it. So here I am eating stuff, and don't even know it the next day. I am going to check with my doctor about switching meds, because this is a bad problem.

All in all, I am very discouraged, and know I have no-one to blame but myself. Everthing that is going wrong are things the docs warned me about ahead of time (well, except the Ambien - but who could have guessed that?!) I need to get myself back in gear. To have gone through this surgery, and all that went with it, and still be overweight is not an option!

I'll be back to let you know how my "renewal" is going.

weight: 206

IPv6 - updates and topics

David — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 02:36:00 GMT

Sorry for the long gap in time, but many other pressing issues came up, not the least of which were medical in nature... But, back to the topic at hand…

I finally managed to get the financing for the public IPv6 address space taken care of at work (it wasn't the amount mind you, just the paperwork which is the real pain as anyone in a large corporation will tell you). I'm currently working on an education plan for our Network Engineering and Network Management group to get things rolling. I've written a reasonable overview doc (see my earlier post for a link to a generic version of it), but I need to present it in a classroom format so that they can ask questions and get a discussion going. Plus I need a bit more time on the 4 to 6 transition mechanisms like Teredo and ISATAP as I have not had much opportunity to work with them.

One of the most important items is coming up with the allocation scheme. IPv6 subnets are, for all practical purposes, infinitely large, so you don’t need multiple subnets for sizing reasons, but for segregating traffic, it’s important to lay them out carefully. My company has separate networks for VoIP, Wireless, Wired, Industrial equipment, etc. So we have at least 7 subnets in most sites today. We do break things up on reasonable boundaries so that we don’t have too many routes being advertised at a given site, but with v6 we can bring it down to a single summarized route per site. We’re looking at about 16 network ranges per site which will include the previously mentioned networks, plus the serial link network and a single network range for loopback addresses (broken into /128 host addresses). This will make it a bit cleaner for route advertisements than we are able to accomplish today.

BTW - For those of you who are interested, especially in larger organizations, you can receive a /48 allocation direct from ARIN (North America) IF you already have a direct IPv4 allocation. A /48 is a no questions asked allocation if you already have a IPv4 direct allocation of any size; if you want a larger block, you'll have to justify it. They are currently waiving the annual fees (nothing new for you more recent allocation recipients, but for those who have had their v4 allocation since "dirt" you may have to pay a fee, see www.arin.net ) since you already pay them for your current v4 allocation. You will, unfortunately, have to cough up $500 US for the "registration" fee. Seems rather petty to me since they're really trying to encourage v6 adoption, but for the moment, at least, that's the deal. Most folks will probably get their allocation from the upstream ISP which is the better way to go if you aren't multi-homing. If you are multi-homing, you'll definitely want to look into a PI allocation (provider independent a.k.a. portable address range like direct v4 allocations from ARIN) as it makes multi-homing significantly less complicated to deal with.

I would like to emphasize the importance of setting up a lab and playing with IPv6 before even thinking of deploying it. I have been tinkering about with IPv6 for over a year now, and I’m just now getting a real comfort level with the details (I’m not a slow learner, mind, but as this is personal time stolen out of 50-60 hr work weeks, so it’s sometimes hard to explain to the wife about the extra couple of hours spent in the lab especially in my home lab).

I posted the contents of my home network in a prior entry, a few changes have happened since then (gee that never happens in a lab :), so I figured I’d post an update to the inventory (and yes, I’m a big B5 fan if you couldn’t tell from the system names):

HomeLab

Servers:
7 Win 2003 R2 Servers
2 Win 2003 Servers
2 SuSE 10 Servers
1 SPLAT Firewall manager
1 Nokia IPSO Firewall

Workstations:
2 Win XP Desktops
1 Win XP Laptop
1 Vista Ultimate Laptop

Network:
1 Cisco 3640 router
1 Cisco 3620 router
1 Cisco 3750 POE switch
2 Extreme Summit 200-48 switches
1 TrendNet Wireless AP
1 3Com TR Hub

Other:
Avaya VoIP Phone

WorkLab

3 HP DL380 servers (scratch boxes at the moment)
2 WinXP desktops
1 Nokia IPSO Firewall
1 Nortel 1750 Contivity VPN Router
1 Cisco 3620 router
4 Cisco 3750 (2 x 2 switch stacks)
1 Cisco 3750 POE switch
1 Extreme Summit 200-48 switch
Avaya VoIP Phone

I have these two labs tied together via a VPN connection over IPv4 as mentioned earlier. I have also connected a work peer’s home network via VPN connection as well. All three lab networks are using IPv6 over IPv4 tunnels with BGP between them for peering. The work lab also has a connection to a remote Linux server using a 6over4 tunnel as well. The Cisco 3620 work lab router connects to the SIT virtual interface on the Linux system. I’m not running any routing over it, so I had to include a default route on the Linux side pointing back to the 3620 in the lab. All three lab networks can reach this remote server via IPv6. If you want to learn how to setup the SIT interface, check out the man page on ifcfg-tunnel. The Cisco side is configured just like any other 6over4 tunnel and the Linux box is configured with a static SIT tunnel using its local Ethernet IPv4 interface.

Next steps for work include the aforementioned lunch-and-learns, some high-level marketing to the technical managers, and getting the official data center lab rigged with IPv6. The data center lab has a much larger variety of hardware available including IBM P-Series servers, E-Series servers, z/OS system, Cisco chassis switches, Cisco VoIP equipment, and other expensive toys that I’m not able to “acquire” for my little test lab. My current expectations are to have a formal lab environment setup by year end, and possible pilot deployment overlaying the IPv4 environment in a small number of sites by Q2 2008. We’ll have to see…

Until next time.

The story I referenced in an earlier post...

David — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 15:26:00 GMT

I mentioned that the TR hub in my network had a story behind it... Well, here it is.

My network is made up of castoffs and other people's junk, so I don't have the most up-to-date hardware to run things on (like the TR hub :). Well I was trying to install the MS Vista Beta 2 on an old Compaq Armada E500. Unfortunately, there were no drivers for the ethernet card with the Beta2 distro. So, I looked around and found an old IBM turbo token ring PC card and yanked down an XP driver for it. I got this to work so that I could get to the MS Update page and pull down a driver for the Ethernet card in the E500. So, I had to use TR to jumpstart the Ethernet (gee that sounds historical doesn't it). At any rate, without the TR hub and such, it would have been much more difficult to do as I don't have a wireless setup at home yet.

Hope you get a chuckle out of this too.

IPv6 Presentations

David — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 15:09:00 GMT

I created two presentations for work. I've included an edited version of them here...

A technical overview and a short management presentation.

Feel free to peruse them.

IPv6 and DNS PTRs

David — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 22:00:00 GMT

Haven't posted for a while, been busy with other more pressing issues... I finally had a bit of time to figure out one of the little niggling details that I wasn't able to get around to earlier on. PTR records for v6. Unfortunately, PTR records are a bit ugly, actually a lot ugly especially the way that Microsoft's snap-in for DNS presents it. Microsoft's IPv6 stack won't post a dynamic DNS PTR record for v6 like it does for v4. If you want one, you have to do it by hand, which is a pain (so much for DHCP and DynDNS saving the day here). It's not even real consistent with forward lookup registration either. I had a few systems that did, and some that didn't.

At any rate, the documentation on Microsoft's site is pretty good, but they do lack for examples on certain things. Creating the zone for the v6 reverse can be done two ways, the recommended way is to use the dnscmd on the cmd shell to create it. If you use the snap-in you end up with this gobblygook hierarchy since it creates a sub-level for each nibble. You can use the now deprecated INT format, or the preferred and accepted ip6.arpa format. I went with the ip6.arpa format since I didn’t have anything done yet anyway. It took me a while to figure out how to create the zone since there’s not much in the way of any examples for how to use the dnscmd. A couple of things. The server wants things in nibble format. There’s supposedly a new format out that ISC BIND 9x works with that’s a bit string which is easier, but MS hasn’t gone to that (yet?)… Nibble format is simply putting dots between each of the hex characters. You can’t abbreviate here, though, it has to be the whole deal. For example: f:1:f would be equivalently 000f:0001:000f which would be 0.0.0.f.0.0.0.1.0.0.0.f in nibble format. You’d then take this address and reverse it. For the lazy (myself included) I found a site that will take an IPv6 address and put it in nibble format and reverse it for you: http://www.ipv6.logix.cz/tools.xp

Now on to the DNS bit…

First, here’s one example system I want reverse entries for:
bridge.the-taylor-family.org (my dns server). It has an IPv6 address of: fd15:a9b8:480d:1:2d0:59ff:fe2d:62fe
The full PTR record for this would be: e.f.2.6.d.2.e.f.f.f.9.5.0.d.2.0.1.0.0.0.d.0.8.4.8.b.9.a.5.1.d.f.ip6.arpa

So, here we go. First, have to create the zone:

Network fd15:a9b8:480d::/48
Zone Name: d.0.8.4.8.b.9.a.5.1.d.f.ip6.arpa
Command to create it:
dnscmd bridge.the-taylor-family.org /zoneadd d.0.8.4.8.b.9.a.5.1.d.f.ip6.arpa /dsprimary

Here’s the breakdown:

bridge.the-taylor-family.org is the DNS server I’m creating the zone file on
/zoneadd – add a zone
zone name – 5.6.4.4.0.f.d.3.0.a.d.f.ip6.arpa (from first example)
/dsprimary – Directory AD enabled – you don’t have to do this, but it makes it easier for me since I’ve got an AD infrastructure and my DNS lives on it.

Next since I was already scripting things, here’s the command to add a reverse lookup:
dnscmd bridge.the-taylor-family.org /recordadd d.0.8.4.8.b.9.a.5.1.d.f.ip6.arpa e.f.2.6.d.2.e.f.f.f.9.5.0.d.2.0.1.0.0.0 PTR bridge.the-taylor-family.org.

That’s actually one long line so don’t split it when you’re doing your own. Once again:
bridge… DNS server
/recordadd – adding a record (PTR in this case)
d.0.8.4.8.b.9.a.5.1.d.f.ip6.arpa – is the zone I’m dumping it in
e.f.2.6.d.2.e.f.f.f.9.5.0.d.2.0.1.0.0.0 – this is the reversed host portion with subnet of the address in nibble format (see link above for lazy folks like me)

Unfortunately, the records get added as a long list of sub-networks in the DNS server due to the way that MS does their bit. Oh well, maybe Longhorn will fix that. Hope this helps somebody else as I would have appreciated this information the easier way rather than having to trial-n-error myself through it…

IPv6 remote connectivity...

David — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 00:32:00 GMT

I set up a remote connection over a IPv4 VPN connection to a remote lab. It took quite a bit of tinkering to get things to work correctly, so I figured I'd share the effort in case somebody else tries to do it.

I have a connection with my work lab set up so that I can do testing on remote networks across a slow speed link (as compared to the LAN). I have a Cisco 3620 on the remote side attached to the lab network with a few workstations behind it. A VPN connection gets me up to the network that the router and lab equipment is attached to (this is a IPv6 only forwarding router the way its set up). I created a tunnel interface following Cisco's documentation for a v6 over v4 tunnel and had no problems with that. Originally, I set up RIPng to make sure that the connection works, which it did, but I wanted to create a BGP connection as it was more of a challenge to do.

BTW, just a little side note, the 3620 is running 12.3 code which is the latest Cisco made for that platform. The config allows you to enter ipv6 router ospf 1, but it doesn't actually do anything. It doesn't show up in the running config and it won't let you enable it on any interface, so when running the 12.3 code, you have to run RIP or static (I don't do ISIS, so I am uncertain about setting it up with IPv6)..

Ok, BGP is a bit trickier to set up as you have to set up the multi-protocol pieces to make it work correctly. This was a new one for me and I had to actually get the docs out to do it rather than just whipping it out from previous configs. It's pretty straightforward once you get the where things go... The first section is about normal except for the no bgp default ipv4-unicast statement for creating a pure IPv6 BGP setup. Next after configuring the main section with your neighbor statements, you have to create a section for the IPv6 address family. You actually activate your neighbor here and add your network and redistribute statements in this section rather than in the main router bgp section. Below, I've attached the config for the my core router (minus a few extraneous details like passwords :) I did leave one item in for illustration, the name server address. The DNS server is a Win2003 server and it listens on IPv6 for resolving addresses. Cisco does the DNS over IPv6 just fine too.

A couple of items. BGP, in the configuration below only talks on IPv6 (over the tunnel), but BGP v4 has a couple of limitations:

The router id is a 4 byte number. If you set up a completely IPv6 network, you'll need to give the router-id some unique IPv4 address for its identity.
The cluster id used on route reflectors is a also a4 byte number, so the same limitation applies here too.

Have fun with the configs...

Here's the local side network config
hostname Core
!
ip cef
!
ip name-server FD15:A9B8:480D:1:290:27FF:FEA1:7F81
!
ipv6 unicast-routing
ipv6 cef
!
interface Tunnel1
description Connection to RemoteNet
no ip address
ipv6 address FD15:A9B8:480D:FFF1::1/64
tunnel source FastEthernet0/0
tunnel destination 10.254.54.34
tunnel mode ipv6ip
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 10.255.1.1 255.255.255.255
ipv6 address FD15:A9B8:480D:FFFF::1/128
ipv6 enable
ipv6 rip 1 enable
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
description Primary Ethernet Network
ip address 172.30.255.1 255.255.255.224
ip route-cache flow
duplex auto
speed auto
ipv6 address FD15:A9B8:480D:1::1/64
ipv6 address autoconfig default
ipv6 enable
ipv6 rip 1 enable
!
router bgp 65011
bgp router-id 172.30.255.1
no bgp default ipv4-unicast
bgp log-neighbor-changes
neighbor FD15:A9B8:480D:FFF1::2 remote-as 65010
!
address-family ipv6
neighbor FD15:A9B8:480D:FFF1::2 activate
neighbor FD15:A9B8:480D:FFF1::2 route-map remotev6 in
network FD15:A9B8:480D::/48
redistribute static
redistribute rip 1
no synchronization
exit-address-family
!
ipv6 route FD15:A9B8:480D::/48 Null0
ipv6 route FDA0:3DF0:4465:FFFF::1/128 FD15:A9B8:480D:FFF1::2
ipv6 router ospf 1
router-id 10.255.1.1
log-adjacency-changes
!
ipv6 router rip 1
!
ipv6 prefix-list remotev6 seq 5 permit FDA0:3DF0:4465::/48 le 128
ipv6 prefix-list remotev6 seq 10 deny ::/0
route-map remotev6 permit 10
match ipv6 address prefix-list remotev6
!

Here's the remote side network config:

hostname remotelab
!
ip cef
ip name-server FD15:A9B8:480D:1:2D0:59FF:FE2D:62FE
ip name-server FD15:A9B8:480D:1:290:27FF:FEA1:7F81
!
ipv6 unicast-routing
!
interface Loopback0
no ip address
ipv6 address FDA0:3DF0:4465:FFFF::1/128
ipv6 enable
!
interface Tunnel1
description Connection to HomeLab
no ip address
ipv6 address FD15:A9B8:480D:FFF1::2/64
tunnel source Ethernet0/1
tunnel destination 172.30.255.1
tunnel mode ipv6ip
!
interface Ethernet0/0
no ip address
full-duplex
ipv6 address FDA0:3DF0:4465:D200::1/64
ipv6 enable
ipv6 rip 1 enable
!
interface Ethernet0/1
ip address 10.254.54.34 255.255.255.224
full-duplex
!
router bgp 65010
bgp router-id 10.254.54.33
no bgp default ipv4-unicast
bgp log-neighbor-changes
neighbor FD15:A9B8:480D:FFF1::1 remote-as 65011
!
address-family ipv6
neighbor FD15:A9B8:480D:FFF1::1 activate
neighbor FD15:A9B8:480D:FFF1::1 route-map homev6 in
network FDA0:3DF0:4465::/48
no synchronization
redistribute static
redistribute rip 1
exit-address-family
!
ipv6 route FD15:A9B8:480D:FFFF::1/128 FD15:A9B8:480D:FFF1::1
ipv6 route FDA0:3DF0:4465::/48 Null0
ipv6 router rip 1
!
ipv6 prefix-list homev6 seq 15 permit FD15:A9B8:480D::/48 le 128
ipv6 prefix-list homev6 seq 20 deny ::/0
route-map homev6 permit 10
match ipv6 address prefix-list homev6

Enabling IPv6 in the Lab

David — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 21:29:00 GMT

I have a fairly extensive lab that I built to help me simulate a small business environment. I've rebuilt it so many times that I don't even remember the count. The network lately has been, more or less, stable as far as the systems themselves go, but I have reworked the network a couple of times recently. In fact, as I was trying to rewire the network and migrate to a upgraded firewall platform, I spent about 12 straigt hours (skipped sleep on a work night) trying to get things to work before I backed out. I finished the network redesign, but still pending on the firewall. To provide a perspective on things, here's the system count:

7 Windows 2003 Servers
2 SuSE Linux Servers
2 Windows XP desktops
3 Windows XP laptops
2 Linux based FW managers (one destined to go away soon)
1 Linux based FW (destined to go away soon)
1 IPSO based FW
1 Avaya 4620 IP Phone
1 Cisco 7960 IP Phone
2 Extreme Summit 200 48 port switches
1 Cisco 3500xl 24 port switch
1 Cisco 3750 24 port PoE switch
1 Cisco 3640 router
1 Cisco 3620 router
1 3Com TR Hub (yes, I know it's a museum piece, but it still works - there's a story here too)
1 Netgear 4 port mini switch

All this, plus associated KVM and related items, probably contributes something like $70-$80 to the power bill every month.

I've managed to get IPv6 running on most all of the equipment. The exceptions are:

The Extreme switches won't do it with the code that's available for them.
One of the XP laptops needs to be rebuilt as it won't install the v6 stack properly (and has a number of other issues).
The 3500xl isn't worth the effort to try and do.
Cisco apparently doesn't support v6 on TR, so I can't get the TR network set w/IPv6.
Both IP Phones are IPv4 only at this point, not sure when (or if on these models) they will support 6.
The Netgear switch is unmanaged, so nothing there (a remote drop for the kitchen - haven't had time to do the hardwire bit and don't have wireless rigged yet).

Other than those, everything else has a IPv6 address and works ok. The Windows DNS is a bit of a problem and I've had to figure out quite a bit about how Microsoft did their IPv6 implementation, but I'm getting there.

More on things later, including the Cisco stuff and v6 over v4 tunnels...

IPv6 - My Beginning

David — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 20:18:00 GMT

I've known about IPv6 in the back of my mind for quite some time. Every now and again I'd go out and take a look at the various sites and blogs to get an idea of where v6 stood in the world of IT, but I never spent much energy on it. Lately, I've been seeing more articles in trade rags about v6 and related items, so I figured it was about time to go take a harder look at what an implementation might look like inside my company.

I plan on putting up a number of articles on my blog about where my research goes and what I learn. If nothing else, it will give me a place to go back and see what I was thinking about, but hopefully, if anyone else reads it, they might find a helpful tidbit here or there.

Case gone badly

Michelle — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 20:55:00 GMT

As I said in my las post, someone who had been reading my blog wrote to tell me of her sister who passed away due to complications from surgery. I wanted to share this with you all, so that everyone understands it does not always go perfectly. One thing I would like to note is that when choosing a Dr., ask his/her patient's what the follow-up care is like. Gastric bypass or any other WLS is a life-long medical change; and your dr, ad well as yourslef should be prepared to handle it! (BTW, many bypass patients wear bracelets identifying them as such - because in the case you are unconcious and should need to be tubed for air by a paramedic - this info is important!)

(Here are the e-mails)

My sister-in-law died yesterday, March 18th, after being on
life-support, and being brain dead, after gastric bypass surgery on
March 7th. The risks of dying after surgery are 1 in 50, and five times
that is the surgeon is inexperienced. This surgery was from an
experienced, board certified surgeon. Please inform people of the
dangers of gastric bypass surgery. There are other option. Thank you.

----------------------------------

I am so sorry for your loss.

Yes, there is a higher risk for this surgery than others. Mainly because
those of us going under the anesthesia are not in good health to begin
with. I had my living will filled out and ready, just in case. Because I
did not want to leave my husband with hard-to-make decisions on his
hands.

May I post your e-mail on my blog? I would post it anonymously. I do
feel people should know both sides of the story.

Once again, my condolences to you and the rest of your family.

Sincerely,
Michelle Taylor

Michelle,

Thank you so much for your reply, and I'm glad that you made it through your surgery without any problems. My sister-in-law did have other health issue (diabetes and high blood pressure), but we know that her death could have been prevented due to the fact that she had a rupture that was not corrected surgically for almost 2 days. Her physician did not take her concerns seriously, even though her water, and her pain medicine was coming out of the drain hole on the left side of her body. She was in unbearable pain, and not able to get any relief. Her tragic death could have been avoided. Her left lung was full of fluid for several days, yet the physician did not drain off the fluid or put in a chest tube. It was not until after she went into cardiac arrest that they inserted a chest tube. By that time she was brain dead. She left a great husband and 3 children who miss her very much. It's very tragic. Yes, you may post my email, anonymously, as we have arranged for an attorney to look at the case. The physician was board certified in bariatric surgery. He had all of the credentials necessary to perform the surgery. His lack of follow-up on the signs and symptoms of a leak cost my sister-in-law her life. Thank you for posting my email, and I pray that all will continue to go well for you and all that read about your journey.

Sincerely,

grieving sister

Long time, no post: Big Difference!

Michelle — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 20:18:00 GMT

Well, I didn't realize it had been this long since I had posted. Sorry to all of you who had been trying to follow along. We have had some major family issues come up, and blogging just hasn't found its way into my schedule lately.

Well, first off - I am down to 204 lbs, which is about a 63 pound loss since January 26th! I have gone down 2 clothing sizes (I don't count them like the commercials do - they would say I've gone down 4, since women's clothing is numbered only in even sizes) And I have come off of all of my blood pressure medications. The only meds I still take are those for my depression and migraines - and since that is not tied into my weight, it's possible I may never come off of them. But I'm glad to be off all the rest!

Also, I have a neck! And its long and I can wear necklaces and they look good. And I only have 1 chin. And nobody asks me if I'm pregnant or when I am due (that one always hurt the worst, because people did it innocently.) My wedding rings fit again, too. I haven't been able to wear them for 4 years!

Yesterday was really exciting! We took the kids to six flags for the day. The last time I went I couldn't ride many things, because I was so big - I didn't fit in the seats, or the seatbelts wouldn't fasten. my most embarassing moment was when I went to take my 2 yr old on the tractor truck ride. He was going to ride in the cab and I'd be in back. The girl wouldn't start the ride until my belt was fastened (it wouldn't stretch). I mean, it was a kiddie ride!!! So i was going to get off and let Seth ride it with my 7 yr old daughter, Jordan, but he was terrified about me leaving. Everyone was staring at me! I finally sucked in my breath, sat up as tall as i could, and held the set belt "closed" with my hands. The girl had to see it was actually fastened before she would start it. I unbelted as soon as we turned the corner. It was humiliating!

But , yesterday I could ride everything - and even could tighten some belts up! And I wasn't gasping for air after walking up a hill. My feet did hurt at the end of the day - but they weren't swollen, and my knees were just fine. David (hubby) was actually ready to go home before me!

I'm still vomiting if I eat the wrong thing. (I really miss my salmon). I goofed and ate a sushi roll - the rice didn't make me sick, but the seaweed wouldn't go down - so came back up. So now it's just sashimi for me (and I can eat salmon raw I've discovered.) Steak is still too much, but I can get thinly sliced roast beef from the deli, and it goes down well. Pork - that just depends on whether it is still tender, or if it is too dry. I did get an urge for spaghetti one night (watching my family eat) so thought I'd try a little bit - BAD MOVE!!! I was sick all night and the next day. I also tried to drink a cocktail - my husband made me a kahlua and cream - and I guess between the sugar and the alcohol, I was blitzed. But it was not happy! I felt horrible.

I've had a couple of people write into me to say they've either had WLS, and are doing great, or I had one reader write and say she lost her sister due to complications arising from WLS.

I never want to give the impression that this is an easy surgery, or a decision that should be made lightly. So I asked her permission to post her e-mail to me for all of you to read. I'll blank out the names for her privacy, but I do want everyone to be aware that there are serious risks associated with this surgery. The simple fact is, most surgeons do not like doing surgery on the obese because so much can go wrong anyway. Putting an obese person under anesthesia is always risky. But for some of us the benefits outweigh the risk. Only you can make that decision, however.

So be sure if you are considering this to do lots of research, and if your doctor doesn't require a psychological exam, try to find a counselor familiar with this anyway, to see if you are prepared for the changes. Because as happy as I sound, there have been some rough moments (vomiting, fighting food cravings - the mental kind, stomach cramping). And you really need to be sure you are ready for this - because this is kind of like a hysterectomy; no going back to undo it once its done!

Weight: 204

Easter...

David — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 23:14:00 GMT

Took a brief moment to upload some pictures... have to finish filing the taxes, and oh, yeah, I think I have a few minutes left for some sleep before I have to go to work tomorrow.

Enough grumbling, though. I am thankful for my Lord sacrificing himself for me, unworthy as I am. May he bless my family and I and watch over us all. I hope everyone else had a good Easter Sunday. Remember, the reason for the holiday has nothing to do with cute white rabbits distributing candy to children, rather that Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for our sins and gave all of us sinners a way to come home.

Yours in Christ...

No Salmon for Me!

Michelle — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 02:19:00 GMT

I love seafood, which would normally be a good thing - because it is one of the proteins I can eat right now. So Friday I got a small piece of salmon, marinated it and sautéed it up; trying to keep it very moist. Even though it was a small piece, I was only able to eat about half of it, so I put the rest up to eat later. I reheated the other half yesterday for lunch in the microwave.

I'm not sure if reheating it dried it out too much, if I ate too fast, or if I just didn't chew it well enough; but I got violently sick. I know I didn't overeat, because I had only had a portion of what I had eaten the day before. But while I was eating I had this horrific pain somewhere between what I consider my chest (kind of between my left breast and my sternum) and my esophagus or throat. It felt like someone was trying to tear it in half. It was finally a major relief when I was able to vomit, but by that time my entire body hurt - chest, throat, shoulders and back. Plus I just felt weak and horrible after throwing up (did I mention I hate doing that?) Needless to say, I think I'll wait a while before I try salmon again, LOL.

On the brighter side, I went to my first support group meeting post-op last Tuesday. I asked the group if I was the only one that felt wiped out after surgery, because everyone's blogs that I had ever read all talked about this amazing amount of energy! Nearly everyone said they were wiped out for the first month to 2 months. Chris - the nurse practitioner for Dr. Richard's group, said to keep in mind that the body is still healing from the surgery itself as well as adjusting to many fewer calories; so it’s natural to have a much lower level of energy. That made me fell a lot better! They also told me that once I started on my vitamin supplements regularly and exercise I would start feeling better.

I did start back to physical therapy - very easy - Brendon is taking it quite slowly. We're going to try pool therapy for a while and see how that goes. I had hoped to stay out of a swimsuit until I'd lost more weight, Oh well... After last week's easy day, I was about wiped though!

So for now, I'm enjoying my sugar free popsicles (because they are the only thing I truly like), and I’m trying to ignore Valentine's Day. Although my husband offered to go buy me one piece of sugar free Godiva, LOL. [<:o)]

Weight: 245

I can EAT!

Michelle — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:33:00 GMT

Woo-hoo! I went for my 1 week post-op visit on Friday (should've posted then; sorry.) Dr. Richard cleared me for starting on soft solid foods; scrambles eggs, cottage cheese, very well chopped chicken or tuna salad, etc. Which is very good for me, because the solid foods have been much less nauseating than the liquids.

But I did make another boo-boo. I was supposed to eat a soft scrambled egg before seeing him on Friday, well I sat down to eat it in front of my e-mail. Yep, I did it again! Man, that is a hard habit to break! I don't have nearly as hard a time at lunch, but I am so used to 1st thing in the morning, eating breakfast while checking e-mail. I ate almost the whole egg before I realized I was really hurting. And then to top things off, after I'm hurting - I look at my plate and think "I hate to waste that..."

That little piece of brainwashing has been with since age 2! LOL, I'm sure you guys know what I mean - starving kids in Africa? or China? I didn't eat those last few bites of egg, because I would have thrown up if I had of, but before surgery it would have been gone. It is still amazing to me thought that I can't finish 1 egg! I used to be able to eat a 2 or 3 egg omelet with cheese and mushrooms and bacon, throw in a little cinnamon toast on the side, some coffee, and maybe juice or fruit. Now I'm thinking about buying small eggs so I won't waste as much. [:D]

I am having a few problems still, not major, and actually more related to the peripherals of surgery. Where I was taking so many IV antibiotics - I have a very annoying yeast infection - not fun! And also my IV site seems to have a minor infection in it, phlebitis. Luckily nothing that requires any more antibiotics (seeing as how I'm allergic to half of them now, and I get yeast infections from the other half. LOL)

On a much more serious note; a friend of mine just lost her husband to a heart attack this weekend. They are in their mid-30s just like me. He had been overweight, but had recently lost weight and was working out and eating better, he had not had WLS, just done it on his own. But apparently the damage had already been done, his arteries were clogged. He had gone to sleep on the couch with a bottle of Rolaids because (apparently) he thought he was just having heartburn.

I write this for several reason; to ask y'all to pray for the Cooper family. It is not easy to lose a spouse (they have a 4 yr old son) at any age, but no-one ever expects a heart attack this young! Also to urge any of you, if you have chest pain, don't just dismiss it as heartburn, pay close attention - it could be something more serious! Is there pain in your left shoulder? Is your left arm numb? Are you haveing any trouble breathing? Is it easier to breathe sitting up than lying down? These are signs and symptoms of a heart attack - DO NOT blow them off! Especially if you are overweight w/ high BP or high cholesterol. Finally, it made me wonder how close I have been to death myself. We always think "It can't happen to me" - that's not just a teenager saying. If I had put this surgery off another year, if I had tried any more diet pills- would David be the one to wake up and find me? It is a frightening thought. And it breaks my heart to try and imagine what my friend is going through. It honestly scares me to try and imagine it. I pray God will help ease her heart's suffering and give her some peace and rest in the coming months.

Everyone take care.

weight: 251 lbs

Feeling blah

Michelle — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 18:33:00 GMT

I am beginning to wonder about all those other people's blogs I read that just had tremendous amounts of energy as soon as they got home from the hospital; cause it ain't happenin' here!

It's nothing major, but I just haven't felt real great. I should have known that when ice chips made me nauseous in the hospital that it was going to take a little longer for me. Oh well. I haven't had any vomiting (thankfully) but a good bit of nausea. Also my inner workings still were sounding like a rusty factory everytime I drank something. Top everything off with I was constipated with what I had eaten.

So I called my doc over the weekend, he was not on call a partner was (This was Sunday evening). He said as long as I wasn't vomiting to try to make it thru the night, because the only other option was to put me back in the hospital. (NO HOSPITAL - got to go to the Collective Soul premiere. You know doctors, once they get you in, they won't let you go!) So I call back yesterday, and my Dr. Richard prescribes a med called Reglan for me. I looked it up, it helps the peristalsis in the digestive tract so that you don't stay as nauseous, and in my case also helped with the constipation. It used to be used for people after chemo (until they found some wunder-medicines!) and for people with severe acid reflux to keep things moving down instead of up. The only problem is one of its main side effects is depression - and it says right on it, top of the warnings- if you suffer from depression, this is probably NOT the best medicine for you. But, I go to see the doc on Friday, maybe my stomach will have healed anough by then to do its little wavelike movements on its own.

weight: 256

My First Mistake

Michelle — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 23:19:00 GMT

Well, it didn''t take me long to make my fist mistake. i actually did it while I was wrting the "I'm Home" blog earlier.

One of the major rules of "eating" post surgery, is that you should never eat (or drink your protein supplement) while doing something else. Because then you don't pay attnetion to how much food you are putting into your body, and you tend to oevereat. - Which is something a lot of Americans do on a regular basis.

Well, remember that chocolate protein shake that I said tasted so good? It was an 8 oz cup and I was drinking it while writing. The next thing I new, I had drank the whole thing, and felt horribly sick. It took about 2 hours before I felt halfway decent again.

Didn't take long to screw up! But I guess it makes sense that I would make mistakes in the begininning.

I'm Home

Michelle — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 19:35:00 GMT

I got to come home this morning. And I swear, having the drain pulled out of me was the worst experience of the whole surgery. It took everything I had not to throw up. It's not that it hurt tremendously (although it didn't feel good) but it felt like she was pulling all of my guts out through this one tiny incision. Blauuughgh! She said my drain was very long...I don't know why it was that long, or if everyone'e is that lone, about 18". But I came home, took some liquid Lortab, crashed out and now am feeling pretty good.

I checked the scale, 261! I've already lost 6 lbs. I would normally blow it off and say< "Oh, water weight." except they've had me on IV fluids, so I don't see how I could have lost water weight. Of course all I ate nothing on Thursday and Friday's meals were made up of 1 cube of sugar free Jell-O, half of a sugar free popsickle, and a 1/2 cup of chicken or beef broth. That's all I could eat before I got full. I would swipe the crystal light lemonade to keep with me to drink on during the rest of the day (0 calories).

I'm trying my first protein shake - chocolate, it's Wonderful! LOL Just something different's great.

Well, i'm still kind of tired so I'll keep it short.

weight: 261

Post Surgery

Michelle — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:52:00 GMT

Well, it’s Friday. I wasn't much up to writing yesterday. The surgery went fine and there hasn't been too much pain, but I had a tough time shaking the anesthesia. It was also keeping me pretty nauseous. They let me have ice chips, but they kept making me feel slightly ill. The only real pain I've had is where my drain is, just over my left rib cage. It's hard lying on my left side. Oh, and I HATE the Foley catheter. I got up and walked twice, and haven't had any trouble breathing into the incentive spirometer.

This morning I went for my leakage test. They took X-Rays while I drank dye. The dye was nasty, but no leaks. So some time today I'll get to start on clear liquids again. AND they'll take the catheter out. Yippee! But I have to walk LOTS today. As long as everything goes OK though, I'll go home tomorrow.

Oh, yeah... Dr. Richard brought me an adorable teddy bear! I've never had a Dr. do THAT before, LOL!

The night before

Michelle — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 04:23:00 GMT

Well, its almost here.

I should have posted last week about my pre-op, but i got a little distracted by everything. (I'll go back later and describe)

But as for today, i have been on a clear liquid diet (luckily Jell-O counts as liquid). I had my last hurrahs as far as food went yesterday. Nothing major, just a few things I know I won't be able to eat after surgery - corn on the cob, chocolate ice cream (the real stuff), biscuits & gravy.

Today I also have the joy of cleaning out my system, which is why the clear liquid diet. I do nothing but clear liquids all day, then starting at five I had to start drinking this nasty stuff called phosphosoda which is a saline laxative which works very, very well. Since they will be operating on not only my stomach but my intestines as well, it is very important to be as clean as possible. Need I say more?

Anyway, I'm tired, my head hurts, I'm nervous, and I'm stressed. So I'm not going to post anymore tonight.

Hopefully David will be able to post tomorrow to let everyone know how the operation goes.

Starting weight:267 lbs