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Boy its so hard to believe that I had surgery 17 months ago. I do not weigh byself very often I think its been over a month. But, I know that I'm down at least 150 lbs. I'm happy with this loss how could you not. I still have more to lose but, I'm pleased with how things are going.

Life has been so busy lately that I have just not time to get on here as much as I would like. I do feel so disconnected. Support is so important regardless of what stage of this journey you are on. I sure hope that I can make this more of a priority moving foward!!

One thing I learned yesterday is that people see me differently than I see myself. My example is that I was wearing a pair of pants that I think are not flattering at all. But I receive 2 comments from two different people at 2 different times about how thin I looked. I was shocked by the comments because I just did not see it!! The day before I was wearing something I thought was so slimming and no comments at all. I was just amazed at how I see things so differently. But, it was so good to hear whether I saw it our not. If feels great to receive positive feedback from others!!

Well, wanted to let you all know I'm still alive and thinking of you all!! Hope to get on here more often.
Take care and God bless!!

Hello my friends! This month I celebrate my 1 year out since my surgery. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year. It has been an amazing year that I’m so thankful for. I’m so happy that I made this decision to create a better healthier life for myself. In this year I have lost 140lbs but I have gained so much more:

• Friends~ who I have made through this journey that will forever be in my hearts and many that I can say will truly be life long friends.
• Vest for Life~ I enjoy getting out there and doing things. No longer do I just watch.
• Confidence~ I think I have always had confidence but boy has it grown tremendously.
• Courage~ trying things that I would not have done before as I hid behind my weight often. I tended to use my weight as an excuse for things.

During this journey I have found that the little things that others take for granted I have cherished such as

• Fitting into a ride at Valley fair (I think I tested all of them this summer)
• Fitting in to a chair at the movies or anywhere really (excel center)
• Collar bones
• Fitting into something that does not say plus or W behind the number
• Fitting comfortably in the bath tub!
• Running

I could go on forever with this list.

 

My husband gave me a congratulations card today to celebrate my success this year. In the card it says “It took your persistence and God’s assistance to make it turn out this way!” How true that is. This is a journey we fight to have and fight to succeed. This is not by any means an easy way out. It is harder than I thought but thankful for those struggles to help remind me why I choose this surgery to improve my life.

There are times that are difficult in our lives that we just don't understand why or where to go. I love this song as it helps me put things into perspective. I wanted to share with others.

Natalie Grant
Bring It All Together lyrics

I hear you say
That you can't go on
Cause you had it all and watched it fall away
You feel betrayed
Cause everything's gone wrong
Can't find the strength to hope for a better day
You may not understand the reasons
But His promise will never change

(Chorus)
He's gonna take your pain
He's gonna take your doubt
He's gonna bring it all together, bring it all together
Gonna make you happy
He's gonna make you laugh out loud
He's gonna bring it all together
Bring it all together for good

You say you live your life
Doing the best you can
Wondering if the struggle means anything
If you realized that it's in His hands
You'll find the peace that surrender brings
We may not understand the reasons
But His promise will never change

He's gonna take your pain
He's gonnna take your doubt
He's gonna bring it all together,
Bring it all together
Gonna make you happy
He's gonna make you laugh out loud
He's gonna bring it all together
Bring it all together for good

There will come a day of healing
We will see the master plan
We will celebrate His faithfulness
And we'll sing (sing) and we'll shout (shout)
Praise His name

If you want to actually hear it click on the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M1I8MWnxXI

I can not believe that its been a little over 6 months. Geez, does time fly! As of yesterday I'm down 114lbs.. WOOOHOO thats alot of lbs don't ya think?? Well, I have been stalled for a while. But finally things are moving. I was telling some ladies at coffee how hard this journey really is. For many of those that really don't know about this surgery it certainly is not the easy way out. Its even more difficult than that! Its hard to get the mindless eating and the want to eat out of your head. For a while I had been snacking on crackers and eating more carbs than I really should. Last week I cut that out completely and it certainly has paid off. I lost 5lbs!! I do think about snacking or that evil vending machine at work often. But, I have managed a week and 1 day with out snacking. If I need something to fill the void I grab fruit or something with protein. I have been chewing alot of gum. The longer I go without I think the easier this will be to completely avoid.

Right before my 6 month date I made it into a size 18. YEA!! I'm able to wear clothes in the teens!! How fun. I love shopping. This is nothing new but now I love to shop for clothes. Its fun to look at things especially on sale and say "that is too big" especially prior to surgery I could not even wear the largest size pants at Lane Bryant. I could wear the largest top. Now I'm not the largest size and closer to the smallest size at Lane Bryant. I have managed to purchase some tops from the Non-Plus size section of some stores. That is super exciting. 

I find that I talk abot about this surgery and my progress. Perhaps I'm so vain. LOL But, I'm finding so many new things about me that its hard to keep quiet. Luckily I have an awesome husband and wonderful friends who are happy to find joy in these wow moments with me. This is truly a journey but, an amazing one at that. 

I wish you all the best as you move through your journey whether you have been on the journey a long time or just beginning.

I have not been on the board that much lately. Life is just crazy lately!! I wanted to take some time to update you all a little bit about me and my journey.

 

Well, this week was 4 months since I have had my surgery. Oh how things have changed so much. The biggest change has been all the wonderful people who have entered my life and now are my friends. I feel like I have a second family a little less dysfunctional HA HA! Truly, I have found so much amazing support and encouragement from this board and the many friends I have made.

 

Yesterday I was preparing to get all my documents in order to get a passport (I have to go to for business nothing fun)! Well, I was looking at my driver’s license and in the past I have always lied about my weight. Haven’t we all! Well, when I looked at the weight I was amazing that I’m actually 40lbs less that what it says!!! WOOOOHOOO Boy did I lie big time! I thought that was fun!! I know many of you will understand. The husband not so much.

 

I am about 2lbs away from the 100lb mark and so hoping that this will happen this week. I will be seeing my parents this weekend and have not seen them since I was just a few weeks out from surgery. This will be fun to see their reactions to my weight loss.

 

A few weeks ago I was at Kohls looking for dress pants and tried on a 22 and they were a little too big but fit. I tried on the 20 and to my amazement they fit better. I do not ever remember being a size 20 in my entire life. This was an amazing feeling. I’m still kind of floored by it. I do get frustrated at times because I can now wear a 20 in dress pants but still fit fine in the 22 jeans. Why can’t everything be universal??

 

I’m officially about the same size or a size smaller than my sister. This was one of my first goals. My sister has always been smaller than me. I’m officially not the biggest one in my department anymore!! WOOOHOOO…

 

I’m so happy that I made this decision to have weight loss surgery. It sure has changed my life for the better. Although I struggled a lot in the beginning I know that I would do this all over again even with the struggles. I have a long journey still ahead of me but, I am looking forward to all the great opportunities life has to offer. It will only be better since I’m getting healthier!!

 

Thanks for reading. I hope that you have a wonderful rest of the week.  

Things are going great. I could not be any happier with where I am at. I have made some of the best of friends from this website. Without them I don't think I would be where I am today.  I am forever grateful!!. 

Well, as of today I'm down 89lb(30 from prior to surgery). Geez.. So close to 90 but I did not quite make it in the 3 months. This last month I have had has been the best. I have been able to keep down food since my scope test in Feb.  I now have my energy back and loving every moment of this journey. 

At times I get a little stressed out about what I'm eating. Concern that I'm not making the right choices or am I'm getting enough of certain thing. But, this will forever be a learning experience. I have my 3 month follow-up with the WLS clinic on the 27th and have plenty of questions lined up for them.

Last week I had my 3 month follow-up with my PCP and he was very pleased with my results thus far. All of my blood work came back as normal. 
All in all things are moving in the right direction. 

Thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement.

Well from month 1 to month 2 I had a really hard time with keeping food down. Matter of fact nothing would stay down. I was living basically off of water. Even at times water would not agree with me. On Thursday January 31st I went in for an upper GI test. Everything was fine there was no problems. I was a littel bummed that nothing was wrong as I was hoping to find a solution to this problem. So I called the nurse and she thought that the problem was due to my eating too fast or not chewing well enough. So we wanted me to stay on pureed foods and take 5 mins between each bite. I knew this was not the problem but I said I would do it. Well, I was fine for a few meals (2) mashed potatoes. Then it all started again nothing would stay down. I really felt during this month time that I was slowing dying. I was not able to take pills because they were not staying down. I was getting no nutrients.  Well, I called the nurse again on Feb. 4th complaining of still not keeping anything down. So she wanted me to come in for IV fluids 3hrs a day for 3 days. Then she wanted me to have a scope test done. Well, the soonest I could get in for that was Friday Feb. 8th. So I went in for my IV fluids as requested. Well, the third day of the IV fluids I got really sick sitting there getting the fluids. I felt sick, weaker than normal, and just uncomfortable. The nurse said I should not feel those things because of the IV fluids. Well, I got back to work and went to the bathroom and began to throw up a little blood. Not alot but enough to be worried a bit. I called the nurse and explain to her what had happend. Lucky for me my surgeon was in the office. She asked me to hold on while she spoke with him. When she came back on the phone she told me that the best thing to do would be to go to the ER in the morning as Dr. Benn did not want me to wait another day for the scope test. I agreed with the plan.

Wow the visit to the ER was such an adventure. The plan was to go in for the scope test and then go home. It did not go as planned. We got to the ER at about 8:45 and right away they put in an IV for fluids. I had just finished my 3 days of 3 hours of IV Fluids and still dehyrdrated. So all in all I think I have had 10 bags of fluids this week.  Then I went in for a C-T scan to see if they could find out anything there. All the found was gallstones. I guess that is something we will have to deal with later. 

My surgeon came in before the CT scan to inform me that they will be admitting me for the night. Oh geezz. I did not sign up for that. 

Well, about 3:30 or so I finally had the scope test and I had a very narrow opening. They like the opening to be between 10-22mm and I was not even close to that size. I must say that I did not like this scope test. Its so uncomfortable today my throat still hurts and it almost feels like the scope is still sitting in there. They also found a small hernia another thing to look at later.

That night I was on a clear liquid and the broth I had seem to go down well. The following day and weekend I was on full liquids to help calm things down. Well, I am now on soilds and have had no issues with eating at all.  I feel like a new women. I'm even starting to feel like myself prior to surgery! Its so nice to have an answer to my problem and be on the road to recovery. I think I will begin to start exercising this week. I have not had the energy to do so. I will have another scope test down in about 3 weeks just to make sure everything is good.

I'm down 78 lbs since August. 30lbs before surgery and 48lbs since surgery.  

Well, today marks one month post op for me. I'm not really sure what I'm down as I have not weighed my self in a while. I know for sure that I'm down 58lbs from the start of my journey. I'll take that! I'm down one size in my tops and about 1-2 sizes in the bottom depending on the pant. 

I'm currently on the pureed stage which has not been to great for me. A little over a week ago I got sick for some reason I'm still trying to figure out. Ever since then I had not been able to get anything down not even water. On Thursday of last week I went on IV theraphy which is IV fluids 2.5 hours a day for 3 days. Oh my gosh did that help. After the first day I was able to drink and take a few bites of food with no problems. So no matter what you do stay hydrated!! I'm taking things slow with eating and making sure that I get plenty of fluids in. 

All in all its been going pretty well. I think I will be the happiest about all this when I'm 3-4 months out. I have no regrets at this point! It is amazing how after surgery you are just never hungry and really you are eating to live not living to eat. 

Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement as I travel this journey to a healthier me!!

Not quite 2 weeks yet. More like 13 days. I'm down 42 lbs since the beginning of my journey. Down 13lbs since surgery. I'm pleased with those results. I'm still on a fulll-liquid diet. I wish that it was time to move to the pureed. But, I will have to wait until Jan. 3rd. I'm beginning to really feel much better. The pain in my left side is pretty much gone. It does come back from time to time but, I'm sure that will pass. I was told no foward bending and quick jerking motions until at least 1/14. This will give my stomach more time to heal. I can begin to exercise slowly and bring it up to 60 mins/5 days a week. I think I will head out to the Gym tomorrow. I want to prevent plastic surgery as much as possible. Although its probably going to be needed. 
All in all I would say that things are going better than expected. I really thought I would be laid up longer. I go back to work on Jan. 2nd. I am pretty excited about that I kinda miss work. But, I do love my job so that helps. 

Hope you all had a great Christmas and have a better New Year!!

Well, I'm home from surgery. I actually came home on Sunday the 16th. Boy, the first day for me was tough. I slept alot or at least as much as I could considering I was interupted often for my vitals. I became nauseated (Sp?) often on the first day. Seemed like everytime I moved I felt like I need to throw-up. But, when you have nothing in you there is really nothing to get rid of. It was painful on my new incisions. All of the nurses at the hospital were wonderful and very helpful. My surgeon well he is simply amazing at what he does. 

I was so blessed to have met a wonderful lady by the name of Marsha who had her surgery a day before me. We have the same surgeon. We have been able to share our experiences and it has been truly a gift. 

Well, today is day 5 and I'm feeling pretty well. I still have some pain in my left side. Which I'm told is where most of the work was done. But, I think this is getting less painful with time. I try not to take the pain meds unless only needed.  I try to be very careful in everything that I do in hope not to aggravate anything. 

I'm glad that I have begun my new life and look foward to the future. 

Thank you everyone for your support and prayers. I could not have gone through this with out all of you.