The pics are from before the surgery.  I plan to update pics on Fridays and Update progress on Tuesdays.

Well, here goes.  First report after Lap Band Surgery.  Easier than I thought it would be and harder than I thought it would be.  It is not hard to get full and stay full for hours.  A little liquid does a pretty good job.  I am able to go all day long on less than 250 calories and not be hungry at all.  I have been told not to go that low because I need ot be around 600 – 800 to maintain good health.

Today I had 20 oz of G2 (Gatorade2) for breakfast about 8:45.  I was full until after 1:00 pm.  At 1:30 I had a 12 Oz cup of black coffee and was full until 7:45 pm.  I was not hungry for supper, but had to get some calories so I blended 500 calories of chili with water and ate it.  I am stuffed right now 2 hours later.  I also have had 1 – 20 oz zero calorie drink mix 1 hour after supper.  Finished of the day around 700 calories and not missing food one bit.

When I began this process I weighed in over 310 pounds.  I weighed right now and I weigh 294. 

I have my first Post-Op session tomorrow.

Enjoy the ever shrinking Jimmie, I know I will.

On Friday October 30, 2009 at 11:10, the surgeon began the process with his first incision and 2 hours later, I am in surgical recovery.  Last night was tough, my “cuts” itched and tickled all night long and I did not get much if any sleep.  I will be posting pics in a day or two when I start feeling like a human being again.  THe surgery is the easy part to get over, but I am still battling this unknown virus and right now it is keeping me tired and worn out.  Just weighed, 299 down from 305 yesterday morning.

I have already won the battle for day one!

I will be having the Surgery within the next 2 weeks if all goes well with my health and the flu.  Still couching and running a slightly elevated fever.  I have my first pictures ready, now I am just waiting for the surgery to post the first pictures so that there is a baseline upon which to measure the statistics.  I will be answering any questions anyone has after the surgery.

What a crazy week I have had.  I developed Flu symptoms on Wednesday and unintentionally spent all day Thursday in the hospital.  My PCP’s day off is Thursday so the staff told me to go to ER to get checked out and get scrits to be able to be healthy enough for the upcoming surgery.  I was sent to ER because of various other underlying health issues that cound not be accounted for by a walk in clinic.  Needless to say Flu symptoms turned into CYA medicine and after thousands of dollars worth of tests and 10 hours in the ER I was sent home with the determination I had a virus of unknow type and that I would be ok to have surgury as long as I was not running a fever.

I am so excited about Lap Band.  I have many pre-concieved notions about how I will look after losing over 100 pounds.  I am more excited about wearing a size XL for the first time in 3 decades.  Now if I can just convince my shoulder that it is ok to feel good about life again, I would feel great physically. 

Less than 14 days to Lap Band and I am stoked.

Over the next year, I will be documenting a miracle that is about to change my life.  I am about to experience bariatric Lap Band surgery within the next few weeks.  Each week, my sons and I will be documenting my weight loss and inches lost.  We will be taking pictures of me in a pair of shorts in front of my front door to give a point of reference for the weight loss.

I am currently at 312 lbs.  My first goal is 212 lbs, my weight at graduation from high school.  My second goal is 199, first time below 200 since 11th grade.  My final goal is 184, first time under 185 since 10th grade.

We plan to document all doctor visits, surgery, fills and total weight loss each week.  We will also be documenting other underlying health problems and how they are affected by the surgery and weight loss.

We will begin documenting the surgery after the surgery which is to take place over the next few weeks.

Madison and Jefferson were clear in their original meaning of the word “REGULATE.”  Their use of the word “REGULATE” was by definition to make “regular.”  In Federalist 42 Madison clearly demonstrates his understanding of Jefferson’s use of REGULATE to be that of making the laws regular or of likeness between the states, not for the Federal to have REGULATORY power over commerce between the states.    To make regular is to make sure taxes, tariffs and prices were the same between the states.  This was to regulate Georgia from taxing companies from Massachusetts one fee while charging Virginia companies another fee for the exact same item because they showed favoritism between differing states.

To Read the following and interpret it other than by the thoughts and intents of its writers is to bastardize intellectual honesty and integrity.

Article 1 Section 8

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; 

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;  

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

From Federalist 42

The powers included in the THIRD class are those which provide for the harmony and proper intercourse among the States.

Under this head might be included the particular restraints imposed on the authority of the States, and certain powers of the judicial department; but the former are reserved for a distinct class, and the latter will be particularly examined when we arrive at the structure and organization of the government. I shall confine myself to a cursory review of the remaining powers comprehended under this third description, to wit: to regulate commerce among the several States and the Indian tribes; to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin; to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the current coin and secureties of the United States; to fix the standard of weights and measures; to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws of bankruptcy, to prescribe the manner in which the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of each State shall be proved, and the effect they shall have in other States; and to establish post offices and post roads.

The defect of power in the existing Confederacy to regulate the commerce between its several members, is in the number of those which have been clearly pointed out by experience. To the proofs and remarks which former papers have brought into view on this subject, it may be added that without this supplemental provision, the great and essential power of regulating foreign commerce would have been incomplete and ineffectual. A very material object of this power was the relief of the States which import and export through other States, from the improper contributions levied on them by the latter. Were these at liberty to regulate the trade between State and State, it must be foreseen that ways would be found out to load the articles of import and export, during the passage through their jurisdiction, with duties which would fall on the makers of the latter and the consumers of the former. We may be assured by past experience, that such a practice would be introduced by future contrivances; and both by that and a common knowledge of human affairs, that it would nourish unceasing animosities, and not improbably terminate in serious interruptions of the public tranquillity. To those who do not view the question through the medium of passion or of interest, the desire of the commercial States to collect, in any form, an indirect revenue from their uncommercial neighbors, must appear not less impolitic than it is unfair; since it would stimulate the injured party, by resentment as well as interest, to resort to less convenient channels for their foreign trade. But the mild voice of reason, pleading the cause of an enlarged and permanent interest, is but too often drowned, before public bodies as well as individuals, by the clamors of an impatient avidity for immediate and immoderate gain.

The necessity of a superintending authority over the reciprocal trade of confederated States, has been illustrated by other examples as well as our own. In Switzerland, where the Union is so very slight, each canton is obliged to allow to merchandises a passage through its jurisdiction into other cantons, without an augmentation of the tolls. In Germany it is a law of the empire, that the princes and states shall not lay tolls or customs on bridges, rivers, or passages, without the consent of the emperor and the diet; though it appears from a quotation in an antecedent paper, that the practice in this, as in many other instances in that confederacy, has not followed the law, and has produced there the mischiefs which have been foreseen here. Among the restraints imposed by the Union of the Netherlands on its members, one is, that they shall not establish imposts disadvantageous to their neighbors, without the general permission.

The regulation of commerce with the Indian tribes is very properly unfettered from two limitations in the articles of Confederation, which render the provision obscure and contradictory. The power is there restrained to Indians, not members of any of the States, and is not to violate or infringe the legislative right of any State within its own limits. What description of Indians are to be deemed members of a State, is not yet settled, and has been a question of frequent perplexity and contention in the federal councils. And how the trade with Indians, though not members of a State, yet residing within its legislative jurisdiction, can be regulated by an external authority, without so far intruding on the internal rights of legislation, is absolutely incomprehensible. This is not the only case in which the articles of Confederation have inconsiderately endeavored to accomplish impossibilities; to reconcile a partial sovereignty in the Union, with complete sovereignty in the States; to subvert a mathematical axiom, by taking away a part, and letting the whole remain.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/54620

No wonder Arkansas keeps driving away business to other states.

You have every right to expect and demand your religious rights as a Christian on a public school campus.  Any public school what discriminates against your Christianity in ANY form or fashion is in violation of the Constitution of the United States as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court.  You do NOT give up any right, liberties or freedoms when you take a step on a public school campus.

You have every right to meet, organize, pray, carry your Bible, read your Bible discuss your Bible and write papers about the Bible on any public school campus.  You have the right to hand out Christian pamphlets and information at your school if any other group has had such rights in the past.  You have every right to demand your Constitutionally protected rights from your public school.  If your public school principle refused to grant you your rights as a Christian, then you and your parents have every right to contact a nationally known Christian legal defense firm to assist you with receiving your rights as a Christian on a public school campus.

It is up to you to protect your rights and the rights of other Christian students to come up behind you by demanding your rights as a Christian.  The government does not have the right to disallow you the right to practice your Christian faith on the public school campus.  Stand up for your Constitutionally guaranteed rights and demand your rights from your government school.

After examining the Constitution to determine where real power lies, it becomes obvious after the third or fourth reading that the power lies in the hands of the people in their individual states.  It is the 9th and 10th Amendments that limit the power of the Federal.  Constitutionally, the ultimate power in this country resides in the hands of the people at the state level.

With this being so obviously outlined by the Founders and thus guaranteed within our Founding Documents, we must never forget power rests in our hands.  It is with this power that we must directly impact our power-base, our state governments.  Our state governments ultimately provide us our power over the Federal.  We directly vote for our state leadership and our power ultimately rests in our power over these elected officials.

The call to arms for reformation of the Federal must be a call to arms to take our power back in our own states.  Our states ultimately do have the power to transform the Federal in that our states when joined together CAN re-claim every power and authority usurped by the Federal and refuse to follow law which was illegally imposed against our states by the Federal.  When our states join together to refuse to have our power usurped, we take back our power entrusted to us in the 9th and 10th Amendments.

It is therefore essential to capture the legislative and executive branches of 34 or more states with men and women staunchly committed to reclaiming states rights over and against the Federal.  We must take serious the call for states to re-establish their authority over the Federal and thus allowing We the People to re-assert our power over the Federal.  It is with this in mind that I propose the following items for like minded patriots of the Constitution:

• Hold statewide Patriot Parties at each state capitol on Saturday February 7th at Noon
• Nominate and Elect only persons willing to vote to re-claim authority for the state
• Bring Home-made signs promoting States Rights and not a political party.

Yesterday my crepe myrtle was standing high and proud, full of its brilliant red blooms.  This morning though, each branch was prostrate on the ground as if it were giving thanks to God for the rain that had come during the night.  It taught me something I knew but had forgotten; beauty is best manifested prostrate on the ground thanking our savior for the manifest blessing He grants to us daily.  God, thank you for reminding me about you this morning.