Paul's Journey

Well I have made it to day six. This has been quite a challenge for me. I seemed to be ready for the surgery finally as we got here in San Diego. I was quite nervous the night before but was pretty calm when Beth and I went to the hospital on Monday morning. The staff at the hospital was just fantastic. As far as I was told by Beth after the surgery, I was a "text-book" patient. My surgery only took about 1 and 1/2 hours and I was in and out. Everything went well. I was back in my room by about 12 noon. By 8 pm I had been up and walked 3 times. I did not have too much pain.

Day 2: I was up early and went for a walk in the halls. I had very little pain but took pain medication once in awhile to keep ahead of any pain. I even had my first meal, broth, jello and water. Felt pretty good. Found out that Beth's surgery went well, got to see her when she got back but she was out of it mostly.

Day 3: Things going better. Up and moving well. Resting as needed. Very little pain. Eating my "great" meals. Beth is doing good.

Day 4: Out of the Hospital today. Was great to get out and get back to the hotel. Then slept. Started our Nectar for Protien.

Day 5: Bad day. I ended up violently ill all morning. Seems the nectar was making me sick. Quit the nectar. Felt bad all day. Was asking myself "why did I do this"??

Day 6: Much better today. Went for a walk around the hotel. We went a did laundry. It's the little things in life. Anyway, hopefully we are and the road. Looking forward to Tuesday when we get to add solid food.

A Bit about the Bloggers & This Blog

We are two middle-age professionals, happily married to each other, parents to five children, and grandparents to four beautiful babies. We both hold master's degrees in our areas of employ. We reside in Anchorage, Alaska, enjoy spending time with family, reading books, and gardening -- and, who have struggled with weight issues most of our adult lives. Between the two of us, we have tried most of the weight loss options available to the average U.S. citizen including Weight Watchers, Calorie King, prescriptions, Slim Fast, nutritional classes, personal trainers -- in other words, "been there, done that."

Needless to say, at least in our opinions, we are not people slogging through life without knowledge of how to properly care for our minds and our bodies. Yet, still, we find ourselves at the ages of 47 & 48 respectively, struggling with high cholesterol, diabetes, and, in Paul's case, high blood pressure. We both exceed our suggested weight for our age and height by at least 100 pounds which makes us, per the national BMI index, morbidly obese. Our quality of life is rather limited due to our increased size and the ensuing lack of energy that accompanies it. Everything from our love of traveling to our sex life has taken a severe nose dive as our weight has climbed.

Today, we have chosen to take a step which brings with it an incredible variety of opinions for those around us -- we have decided to have gastric bypass surgery. Our surgeon is Dr. Alan Wittgrove of Wittgrove Bariatric Center & Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California. Paul, age 48, had surgery earlier today and I, Beth, will have the same procedure done tomorrow. This decision has been a long time coming and is not one we take lightly. Our hope in doing writing this blog is to provide an intimate level of insight and comment from a couple who are making a life-changing decision and undergoing serious abdominal surgery in order to, hopefully, regain the quality of life we had in our early 20s and to prolong our lives absent of the current medical conditions we currently struggle with.