Jessica A.

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 My new outfit from the junior's department.  

 I had my six month checkup a week and a half ago.  I didn't make my goal of 169 at my appointment but I was very close.  I am super happy where I am at.  I told my surgeon about the bikini story and he said "See, I told you so".  I discussed with my surgeon about what my goal weight should be.  At the beginning, I had made my goal 145.  I asked him if losing another 20 pounds was unrealistic?  He thought that it was.  I agreed with him.  I never had a set goal in mind.  I just put 145 out there for myself and was waiting to see how things turned out.  He said that I shouldn't lose more than 10 more pounds so we made my goal 160.  I think personally i'm going to shoot for 155 to give myself a buffer.  Regardless, I am so close to goal.  Who knew at only six months post-op I would be so close to goal.  These last few months have been agonizingly slow at weight loss and I really felt like there hasn't been hardly a change since my three month checkup.  Then I pulled up a photo of a dress I was wearing at three months and the same dress now.  There is a difference!  My last shopping trip took me into the junior's section and I was able to fit into those clothes.  I can't be happier.  

Six months post op!!  Wowweee!  Time flies.  So at my consultation with my surgeon before I had my surgery, I had a little discussion with him about scars.  At the time that I saw him, it had been sixth months since I had had my gallbladder out and I was asking him if he would be using the incision sites from that surgery for my RNY.  He said no and that he would be making new ones.  I joked with him that I wasn't really concerned about the scars themselves, that I was just curious and it's not like I would ever wear a bikini anyways.  He told me he couldn't see why I wouldn't be able to wear a bikini at some point.  At this point in my life, I have never ever worn one.  Always been a one piece gal.  When he made that comment, inside my head I was thinking "Yeah sure buddy, right.  Like that's ever going to happen."   Well as you can see, I was being a pessimist.  This is the second time I was wrong about something about my weight loss and I love having to admit that.  Things just keep getting better.  I have my sixth month checkup this coming week and I can't wait to tell my surgeon that he was sooo right!

 Four month surgiversary today!  Wow I cannot believe how the time has flown.  I am losing weight at a slower pace but i'm still losing.  I am only six pounds from a normal BMI and 28 pounds from my goal.  I have a job interview on Tuesday which i'm excited about.  I did a little shopping today (first of all because I love to shop for clothes now but also because I didn't have an outfit for my job interview) I decided to try the next size down of pants.  I fit into 10's now!  Wooohooo.  I have never been in 10's as an adult.  I'm exuding confidence, walking taller and feel great.  

I have been noticing that the thinner me is being treated differently.  I was taking a little offense to it as the fact that it's sad at how our society treats fat people.  Someone had to notate to me though that the flip side to that is probably because i'm more confident that I also act differently now.  I have to say that is true to an extent.  I am more willing to look people in the eye, I stand taller and don't avoid social situations like I used to.  So it does work both ways.  

I went to Kohl's yesterday and for the first time in my adult life enjoyed shopping for clothes.  For once I didn't leave the store with the thought "this will have to do".  I actually was happy with the way I looked in them.  No..... I was VERY happy!  My friend that was with me, convinced me to try some things on that I was sure wouldn't fit my figure.  She was right, I was wrong.  I still think like the fat me.  No more.  I have a whole new outlook.  I am just so happy, i'm beside myself.  I feel attractive!  Major confidence booster yesterday!!

So today is exactly 3 months since my surgery.  I have been feeling pretty awesome and find that most days I have a pep in my step.  I had my 3 month check-up with my dietician and my surgeon today.  They were both impressed with my progress and told me to keep up the good work!    I have been noticing lately that I bruise more easily than I have in the past and the bruises that I get take forever to heal.  I have one that is one week shy of three months old that still hasn't completely healed and another that is about two weeks old that still looks almost like a fresh bruise.  My surgeon ordered up a bunch of bloodwork including a clotting test which was interesting.  They made a small cut in my arm and they have you sit for up to 20 minutes while they let it bleed and put some paper kind of disc up to the blood every 30 seconds to draw away the blood and then see how long it takes to stop bleeding.  Other than that I am doing awesome.  I couldn't  leave today without giving my surgeon a big huge hug.  I am so thankful for the opportunity to have this done and turn my health around! 


235 Starting Weight                                                3 month checkup today 4-14-11 @ 179 

Oops I missed posting something at my two months but oh well.  Things have been pretty awesome lately.  I feel awesome and I can eat almost pretty normal foods now.  I had a lull in weight loss for two weeks but then I lost 4.4 pounds this past week so I think it was my body re-adjusting to the fact that I can eat now.  Yesterday I hit 50.6 pounds lost.  I was pretty psyched about it.  I have reversed 17 years of weight gain so far.  That averages out to almost 3 pounds a year!  How did I ever let that happen?  I also have a problem with clothes.  I have had to buy new sizes of pants three times in the last 4 weeks!  I love it!!  I am officially down 6 sizes now.  I am wearing 12's now and haven't been in those since 1994.  In fact this is the smallest size i've ever been in since I was a kid.  I love my RNY!

Last week I had a followup to talk to my surgeon about how things have been going since my EGD and if the Reglan was working.  It didn't seem to make much difference so he decided to have me come off of it and see how things go.  I also found out that he did in fact dilate me some when I had my EGD.  He said he told me but I must have been out of it when he told me. :)  Anyways, this past weekend, all of a sudden I started feeling better and better.  I also decided it was time to start journaling my food and liquids.  I want to be careful that I am sticking to the plan.  I have to tell you it set me straight right away.  I was eyeballing measurements before and just guessing and that is no way to follow the plan.  I now have my measuring cups and spoons handy at home at all times and carefully measure and journal EVERYTHING.  It takes just a few extra minutes a day to do this but it's so worth it!  I can finally say that I feel terrific!  I can't wait for the snow to go away so I can get out and do things outside.  Life is wonderful!

Wow a little over a month out already!  So, I haven't been feeling the greatest in the past few weeks.  I started out with occasionally having abdominal cramps after eating or drinking.  It didn't seem to matter what it was that I ate or drank, it just would do it randomly.  Then this past week it got worse and I ended up waking in the middle of the night this past Saturday with unbearable abdominal cramps.  It lasted about an hour and then I was so exhausted that I fell back asleep.  On Sunday I had some pain and couldn't eat all day.  I finally called the hospital and they told me to come in to the ER.  The doctor there called one of the surgeons and he said to immediately go back to clear liquids only, sent me home with pain meds and to either come in the next day to see him or I could wait to see my surgeon on Tuesday.  (I had my one month follow up already scheduled on Tuesday)  I was able to wait until Tuesday. 
First I saw the dietician and got my official weigh-in.  Down 20 pounds since surgery and down 40 pounds total!  I am also down 3 pant sizes!
I saw my surgeon and he decided that I needed either a CT scan or an EGD or both.  He decided to do the CT scan first and told me if that came out negative that I would need the EGD.  I had to drink two large cups of barium as I had at my one week followup.  It was way harder this time to get it down.  My stomach/intestines hurt.  After 1 1/2 hours I finally got it all down.  I also had to get I.V. contrast and I am a difficult stick.   This time it took four people to find a vein.  I still was healing from my vein blowouts from last time so there was slim pickings.  Anyways, got the CT scan done but by the time I was done it was past 5 o'clock and everyone was pretty much gone.  I went home assuming that I would get a call the next day.  My surgeon ended up calling me that night at 7:30pm and told me that my CT scan didn't show any blockages and that type of stuff but that I had an enormous amount of air inside my remnant stomach.  He had never seen someone with as much as I have.  He told me you can get a little after surgery but not the amount that I had.  He couldn't explain how it got there and we know it wasn't there before because it didn't show up on my CT scan from a week after surgery.  This however wasn't necessarily the cause of my problems so I needed to still get the EGD done to rule out ulcers, strictures and things of that nature.  He didn't want to say "oh you've got air in your remnant stomach and it should take care of itself and then leave me hanging."  The following day the hospital called and scheduled me for my EGD for Thursday which was yesterday. 
By Thursday I was pretty shaky after not having food since Sunday.  Even protein drinks are causing some issues so I had a really difficult time getting protein or any calories for that matter in.  I got the EGD done and my surgeon told me that my insides looked good and that he'd like to prescribe me Reglan to see if that helps.  It supposed to be for a slow stomach and it helps it get moving.  He thinks it may help my remnant stomach.  If the air cannot escape on it's own after a while, he said he might have to go in there and put a tube in to relieve it. 
So for right now, I was told to go back to the pureed/soft food stage and slowly work my way into foods again.  I have a followup appointment in two weeks to see how it's going. 
I just want to note that between my one week followup and this whole scenario, that I absolutely do not regret my surgery.  I am a pretty positive person and haven't let this get me down.  I knew that there could be some bumps in the road and yes it did happen but I have absolute confidence that my surgeon is taking care of me and it will all work itself out.  :)

So I got on the scale today and to my surprise it read 199!  I had no idea that I would reach onderland this soon.  What a surprise.  I am trying to remember the last time I had a 1 in front of my weight at it has to be at least 14 years.  I am one happy camper today!