Here is the only female. She is a light colored calico. She has had one set of shots and is ready for the second. She is litterbox trained and very affectionate(as long as you do not hold her). She was born in the middle of April.
The last 3 are males and were born the first week of May. They have not had any shots yet. They are litterbox trained and used to be being drug around by a 3 yr old.
Wow! Can't believe it has been so long since I posted. Weight loss is going great. I have now lost 52 pounds since my first appointment with the surgeon. At my last appt in May, he wanted to see me in 3 months for my next band fill. On June 25, the day we were leaving to go to Country Stampede, my husband left for Florida. We had a huge fight over the animals. He called the police and made an SRS report for abuse and neglect on my 3 kids. I called to see what I needed to do to get a restraining order to stop the verbal abuse against my kids and he got really ticked. After all was said and done, his brother bought him a one way ticket to Florida. Caleb took him to the airport and I have not talked to him since. On June 29th I had endometrial ablation. That simple procedure(supposed to have it done Mon and go back to work Wed) turned into a week of hell for me. After I got home on Monday, I was hurting really bad and the pain meds were not working at all. Tuesday afternoon I was chilling and decided to take my temp. It was 101.8. So I had to make the trip to the ER. I got labs, an abdominal x-ray, 2 IV antibiotics and went home. The next morning I had labs drawn before seeing the GYN. Once the GYN saw the labs, she admitted me to the hospital and ordered a CT of the abdomen and IV antibiotics. The CT showed that my cervix was swelled completely shut. So at 2:30 Wed afternoon, I went back to the OR for a D&C. After I woke up, I felt great! Until later that night when I started chilling again. I was discharged Thursday afternoon even though I was still hurting and chilling. My temp was not spiking and my white count had come down a little. I spent the rest of the week in bed hurting and chilling. Went to a friends house on the 4th for several hours even though I just wanted to stay home in bed. On Sunday night, I was starting to run a temp again and called the GYN. Had labs drawn again on Monday and went back to see her in the afternoon. That is when I learned that my culture had grown strep and the antibiotics I was on were not working. Got started on 2 new meds and a week later I feel great. Thank God for antibiotics.
My heart broke this morning as I learned that little Kayleigh has gone to see Jesus. Kayleigh has been through so much in her short life of 10 months. She never went home from the NICU and spent the night in her own bed. Her parents will never get to snuggle up with her in their bed or celebrate the many firsts that our children do. My heart aches for Adam, Amy, Allyson, and Brandon Freeman as they mourn the loss of their baby sister and daughter. The miracles of God were seen in Kayleighs life several times over the past 10 months. I have followed Kayleigh and her family since shortly after her birth and have become quite attached to her through her blog. To read more about Kayliegh and her family, visit their blog by following the link below.
Friday, May 1st was my second band fill. In hopes to keep Dr. Opie happy, I refrained from using my topical numbing cream prior to my appointment. I was telling the lady that did my vitals how I hoped that Dr. Opie was in a good mood today. She said "He is always in a good mood. Of all the docs here, he is the only one I have never seen get mad." She should have been in the room with us last week and she would have seen him ticked. I had her laughing at me as I was telling her the things he said to me. The fill went great! Dr. Opie came in and numbed the site with lidocaine and let it sit for a couple minutes prior to accessing my port. Never felt the poke, just the pressure from the band filling. Didn't hurt, just felt weird. I now have 4.6 ml of saline in my band. Dr. Opie was very nice this time. I have a noticed a difference in the amount I can eat now. My attempt at breakfast Saturday was kind of funny. I started off getting a breakfast sandwich form the cafeteria and the English muffin was soggy. I was putting the ham, egg, and cheese on another plate when it slipped off and fell to the floor. Next I thought would just make some cream of wheat, but that boiled over in the microwave and I only had a tiny bit left. I ended up eating 2 BIG strawberries and drinking OJ. Believe it or not, I was full. For lunch I had 1/2 of a turkey burger on a bun and a few dill pickle slices and was full.
My baby is growing up!!! I can't believe he is almost a SENIOR. I remember when I was his age and I went to MY Junior Prom...I did NOT like my date and after spending the afternoon at the beauty shop, I did my own hair! I could not wait for my prom to be over so I could get home. Caleb actually liked his date. Unfortunately, she just used him to go to prom and broke up with him the next day. His friends date decided she liked Caleb and is now trying to go out with him. Sending him off to prom sure brought back the memories and made me realize how fast time has gone by. It does not seem like I have been out of high school for 17 years. I am starting to feel OLD~
Yesterday was the day I had my first fill for my lap-band. I am a HUGE chicken when it comes to poking me with needles in non-traditional places such as the arms, hands and butt. I had asked my surgeon for some Emla cream (a topical numbing cream used frequently on kids who get IV's or need a port-a-cath accessed) at my one week post-op appointment and he refused to give it to me. Being the clever girl that I am, I went to my primary care physician two weeks ago and he gave me a script for my numbing cream. I was so smart to think of that, at least thought so. When we got to the surgeons office, I went to the bathroom and took off the dressing and wiped the cream off and prayed the surgeon would not notice the discolored area on my abdomen where the cream had been for 2 hours. When we got into the exam room, the tray had the supplies needed to access my port. There was some lidocaine, an insulin syringe, a 10ml syringe with a 22g needle and 2 ml of saline and a LARGE(looked like it anyway) 2 inch and at least 20g port access needle. When the nurse took my blood pressure, it was 156/93. I was really nervous at this point. The port sits right below my ribs on the right when I am standing up and I can only imagine how bad that will hurt being poked there. Being the honest person that I am, I told the surgeon what I had done. The response I got from him was not what I expected. He was totally ticked off and went on and on about how leaving cream on the skin makes a perfect breading ground for bacteria. He then said because I had done this, he was NOT going to fill the band that day. I was shocked at how upset he was, afterall, we use this stuff routinely on pediatrics before they get poked with needles. Dr. Opie was starting to calm down and decided to take a look at my scars from the surgery and see how things were progressing (thank God!)and decided that he would go ahead and fill the band. I was given STRICT instructions to call HIM for anything related to my band. I was more than happy to agree at this point. In order for Dr. Opie to access my port, I had to lay on 2 pillows rolled up under my back and lean forward slightly with my hands behind my head. I was marked with a sharpie and prepped with betadine before getting the lidocaine injection. That wasn't so bad, now onto the actual port access. With my hands behind my head and leaning forward while the pillows remained under my back, Dr. Opie poked and prodded for what seemed like forever. I know he had to poke me at least twice with the access needle. It didn't really hurt, but was uncomfortable. I felt nauseous and had some chest pain but not sure if it was from nerves or the position I had to hold. After 30 minutes, I was given a small cup of water and instructed to eat soft foods for the next 24 hours or so. When I got home, I looked in the mirror and decided that my attempt of numbing my skin failed because the mark where I was poked was well below the port when I am standing. Lesson learned...
This is a picture showing placement of the band
This is a picture of the band and the port
This shows the pillows on the inside of the band that get filled
I can't believe that I am already seeing results from my lap band. I have gone down a size in jeans and bras. I can't wait to have the band filled on April 3rd. I hope the weight will really start falling off then. Since I started the journey on Aug. 5, 2008, I have lost a total of 29 lbs. Here are some pictures of 2 weeks before surgery, the morning of surgery, and 3 weeks post-op (today). I stopped by work and everyone noticed that I had already lost since the week I had surgery. It is totally amazing how this works.
