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@fatchickprogress
I realized today that I am now down 90 lbs! . I haven't lost a single pound in a month. I weighed myself this morning and I lost two pounds! Wohoooo I have 25 lbs to my goal weight, and then I'm good to go! . Anyway, last year at this time, I was squeezing myself into size 20-22 clothes.... today, this is a size 8 dress. I put it on and I had one of those - "holy crap, I am not fat anymore," moments! . I have to say, I am freakin proud of myself! Previously when I have "dieted," and I would plateau, I would just give up and go back to my old eating habits, but NOT THIS TIME!!! . I was consistent with my meals and no snacking! As someone who eats out of boredom or trying to avoid feeling stuff, I have conquered my Mt. Everest!
Just checking in...
Hi Guys,Ā
After I posted my bruises I got a number of concerned messages so I thought I would just post anĀ āI am doing a-okayā message.Ā
I had my 6 month blood work done mid-January and everything is PERFECT!!! My surgeon runs 19 different tests and my primary care doctor runs one (thyroid). Ā In total they take 5-6 vials of blood from me every three months.Ā
They check EVERYTHING, from vitamin levels to protein to a ton of other things too. Ā There was literally no concern about any of my results and my surgeon and dietician are thrilled with how well I am doing.Ā
I should be to my goal weight before my next appointment in April. That news has me thrilled beyond words.Ā
Today I am 156.4. I am almost down 100 pounds since I started my weight loss journey and in 6.5 pounds I will beĀ ānormalā instead of overweight for the first time in 20 years! So. Much. Excitement!!!
My surgiversary is in 5 days, so I will be posting my 6 month update then...Ā
Fishnets and booties... the shoes, not my buttšššš This week has been a great week. Each day I have looked in the mirror and didn't see my old fat set, but I see a healthy, pretty person. That may sound silly to some, but I have literally never seen myself as pretty. Ever. I lost 5 pounds while traveling last week but this week nothingā¹ļø hanging out at 163. I'm okay with that. I'm making progress and I feel healthier than I have in 20 years, or more. Next Friday is my 6 month check up with my doctor, so I will have blood work done this weekend to check my vitamin and thyroid numbers. My goal is to be under 159 for my appointment next week... we shall see....
My 5 month surgiversary was on January 8. Due to traveling this is a couple days late, but yayyyyy for being down 81 lbs since I started the process and 66 pounds since my surgery! I am a size 8 pants and medium shirt. I can go up 6 flights of stairs before I lose my breath and I can use my rowing machine for up to an hour before I die of boredom. I feel amazing, though I have been craving sugar and chocolate like crazy lately! I won't cave, but I would do semi illegal things to have a piece of cheesecake, but instead I will finish my orange and drink my water...š«š
I used to dread flying before I started getting healthy because it was so uncomfortable and the seat belts almost didn't fit me... now I get excited to see how big the seatbelt fits on me! šš¼šš¼šš¼šš¼šš¼šš¼
My 4 month surgiversary was Dec. 8th. I weighed 173 lbs! That's 57 pounds lost since my surgery and only 44 pounds to go... so freakin worth it!
I started my journey at 245 lbs. I was 230 lbs on my surgery date August 8, 2016. Today I am 174.8 almost 4 months out. The goal weight I set with my doctor at my 3 month appointment is 130-35. So I have about 40 lbs or so to go and then I will learn how to maintain, rather than lose weight. This morning I got a text from one of the few people who I have told that I had the surgery. They asked how I was doing with my weight loss and you can see the exchange from there. This person is 5'2 and about 135-140lbs. They have done weight watchers for years and even told me that's all I needed to do before I had my surgery. Now that I think about our conversations and her remarks about my lack of weight loss as being that "you're just not trying hard enough," among other things, I really shouldn't be annoyed by her encouraging me to stay overweight, but I am. People who enable obese or overweight people annoy the fire out of me. I never once had a doctor tell me I needed to lose weight or that I was unhealthy until about 5 years ago and I got a new primary care doc. I have been overweight, if not obese, most of my teen and adult years, yet not one person in my life pointed this out to me. I thought I was "normal." After all, everyone around me was fat... Anyway, I said all that to say, be careful who you let in your circle regarding having weight loss surgery. Some many see it as an "easy fix," or the "lazy way out," when it is nothing of the sort. It's simply a tool to get healthy. A tool I am thankful every day that I was able to use to my advantage... but gosh I miss soda and ice cream some daysš
My 3 month surgeriversary was November 8. I weighed myself that morning and I was 184.4. In order to keep this blog as real as possible, I have to admit to being rather frustrated this week. While the weight is steadily coming off, I want to be under 180. Why? Because then I am just overweight, rather than obese. But instead, I keep plateauing and that is annoying! But I still have NO regrets at all. I am wearing size 12 pants and skirts and medium and large shirts so that is just plain exciting! I still have trouble eating too fast at times and I still cannot have steak, which is just unfair! š I feel amazing health wise, though it's weird noticing people notice me. Not in an egotistical sense, but for example the lady who does my nails said "you're skinny, are you sick?" I laughed and explained that I was just working hard to get healthy. But I couldn't stop smiling. It made me feel really good that someone who I only see every couple of weeks noticed.
Potassium
So I had my first freaky weird thing happen since my surgery a couple weeks ago. I went out to Chinese food with my friends. I ordered broccoli beef. My food tasted weird and to be honest, the whole day I was rather miserable feeling prior to lunch. Not sick, just not feeling 100%. After lunch it felt like I had something stuck in my esophagus. I have learned that if that happens, I can drink a swig of water and generally make myself throw up to clear the blockage that is usually caused by my eating too quickly or not chewing my food all the way. I did that, and I threw up, but I still didnāt feel well. I laid down and ended up sleeping for several hours, but when I woke up I still felt rather awful. I tried eating a spinach salad with chicken for dinner, and I couldnāt. I ended up with that stuck feeling again and repeated the process I had done earlier. By this point I was getting a tad worried. I thought aobut calling my doctor, but who wants to interrupt their doctorās weekend⦠Instead, I made a fruit/veggie smoothie so I could at least get some vitamins in me, but I ended up getting sick without water this time. When I realized I couldnāt even keep liquids down, I decided I needed to go to the ER. So thatās what I did. I have closers hospitals, but I decided to drive to the one where my surgery was done, so I knew for sure they would have access to my records as well as doctors on staff that are knowledgeable with my surgery. I was seen right away, and immediately put on IV liquids. I was given a CAT scan and a ton of blood was drawn. The day before I had 7 vials drawn for my 3 month vitamin check, which actually worked out well for the ER doc to use as a comparison. Anyway, the ER doc didnāt find anything on the CAT scan, but called the on call doctor at 2 a.m. for advice (soooooo sorry to have woken you up, Doc) and I was admitted so my surgeon could see me the next day. Around 3 a.m. I was taken to my room and finally got a few hours of sleep before my surgeonās assistant came to see me. She relayed what we talked about to my surgeon and he came to see me on his way to do someone elseās surgery. He reassured me that it was good that I came in, and he thinks I may have actually had a stomach bug, meaning this whole throwing up thing, may be a side effect of the surgery for me and if I am sick, puking will happenā¦. YUCK!!!! He said he would be keeping me admitted until the afternoon because he wanted to make sure I could handle liquids okay, and then I was going start my diet over, liquids for a few days, then mushies, then working back up to having whole foods again. In the meantime, it was discovered that my potassium was crazy low so they would be giving that to me in my IV. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD I SWEAR THEY TRIED TO KILL ME!!!! For whatever reason when they give potassium via IV wherever the IV is burns like nothing I have ever experienced in my entire life. I didnāt even cry after I had my surgery and was in so much pain that night, but I was in tears because I felt like my arm was literally on fire! I couldn't press the call button enough times before the nurse came in and flushed my IV with saline and then they mixed the potassium with saline in the line so by the time it entered my hand it wasnāt so hot. They also wrapped by arm in an ice pack and then a warm blanket. This helped dull the pain, but unfortunately it didnāt end it. Thankfully they did more blood work between potassium bags because we were going to do that all over again if my levels had not risen⦠they did! Thank God!!!! Once my levels were good and I was okay with liquids my surgeon came by and kicked me out. I had my three month follow up the following Tuesday and was feeling back to normal. With a little adjusting of my vitamins, I am doing great⦠though so sick of protein drinks!
What to expect in the days after RNY Gastric Bypass Surgery
ā I recently found out that someone I know is having gastric bypass surgery soon and that made me think back to all the things I wish I had known going in. So that is what this blog is about. Since these are based on my surgery, if you think of something that I miss, please feel free to let me know so I can include it. Drinking after surgery. A ānormalā person just drinks, they donāt have to think about it. After surgery however, not only do you take sips at a time, I learned you have to exhale, and then drink at the same time that you inhale. This helped me avoid my digestive tract being mad at me as if I drank too much at one time. Sleeping lying down is a no go for a few weeks. I wanted so bad to sleep in my bed, but I kept waiting up in horrible pain, or I wouldnāt be able to sleep at all. I learned that you have to sleep propped up for a few weeks, which leads to insomnia (see #3). I do not have a recliner, but thankfully I have a wedge pillow from when I had pneumonia a few months prior so I took every pillow in my house into my living room and with trial and error, I learned how to stack the pillows under and over the wedge pillow so I could get some rest. Insomnia sucks!!!!! but it will pass. On about my 5th day home from the hospital, I finally called my doctor because I was only sleeping a few hours at a time and I seriously felt like I was going crazy. My nurse practitioner told me it was completely normal, which was oddly refreshing, but didnāt help me get any sleep. She told me to try taking a sleep aid, which I did, but it didnāt help. I still was only getting about two hours at a time. I learned to just embrace my lack of sleep. Going from ālaying down (even while propped up) to sitting up, or getting off the couch was a learning process. I didnāt know how to get up without causing a ton of pain. I learned that I needed to sort of roll off the couch on my left side to get up, doing so, I was able to get up with little pain and without my main incision feeling like it was going to rip open at any moment. There is no need to take clothes and tennis shoes to the hospital with you. My pre op instructions said to bring walking clothes and shoes. I never once used any of that stuff. The hospital had non-slip socks I had to wear any time I was out of bed and I just stayed in my hospital gown until it was time to leave. I just put my clothes I wore to the hospital back on. The day of surgery is a pain like no other. When I was being wheeled from post-op to my room all I wanted to do was scream because every stop, go, turn, bump, anything made me hurt so bad, but I was so drugged up I couldnāt say anything. Once I got to my room and was allowed to sleep for a bit. I was woken up by someone wanted to check my vitals, and I needed to go to the bathroom. I tried to sit up, but was instantly nauseous, and my stomach felt like it was lurching, for lack of a better word. This was the only time I regretted my surgery. I wish someone would have told me to expect this. The nurses gave me one of the throw up things, but of course, I hadnāt eaten anything in more than a day, so there was nothing to throw up. This reaction happened for about the first 12 hours after surgery, if that. I use 12 hours, because I donāt really remember, but I donāt want to lead anyone to think this only happened one or two times. After this first day though, I was feeling much, much better. If your surgeon gives you an On Q pump, which most are doing now, and if you have the pouch bag like I did, the easiest way to wear it is like a cross body bag. I had a nurse assistant try to put it around my neck while I was up for a walk, but that caused a lot of pain. I was pretty stressed about taking my On Q pump out, but it was actually super easy and I didnāt even feel it. My surgeon had about a foot of the pain pump lines in my belly, so that was weird to see the never ending lines coming out, but other than that I didnāt notice any increased pain once it was removed. I left it in my belly for 5 days and only removed it because it started leaking where it entered my belly incision. The vitamins and meds crushed taste awful!!!! I tried everything I could think of to make taking the drugs easier, including putting them in my protein drinks, thereās no easy way to get them down. I did find when I was able to drink vitamin water zero (lemonade flavor) something about the consistency of the drink made the pills cut in half and in quarters easier to swallow. When riding in the car once I initially came home from the hospital, I had to sit with a pillow between my back and the seat for about 3-4 weeks when driving or riding to go somewhere that was more than a few minutes. I still use a pillow when sitting in my office chair at work, because I have noticed that my office chair isnāt very comfortable anymore. Have the person taking you home from the hospital bring a full size pillow with them to hug while driving. I wasnāt terribly uncomfortable while riding, but it definitely was good to have when we hit a random pot hole.
I was going through my closet this week getting rid of my "fat clothes" and came across couple of dresses I have not been able to wear in several years because I was too fat. They fit now!! I kept these because my goal for 5 plus years was to get healthy... I can't wait to wear them out in the new future. Today's weight is 190 lbs, down from 230 on surgery day and 245 when I started my journey.
I just need to vent...
I have been perusing Instagram, looking at different weight loss stories and I am absolutely disgusted by the number of people who have lost massive amounts of weight and are now selling "lose weight quick" diet plans. Shame on you!! You didn't lose weight overnight and now you're misleading people to make a quick buck. You're disgusting!
When I started my journey I was a size 18-20, 245 pounds and couldn't walk much without losing my breath. For the past 6 weeks I have slowly been running out of clothes to wear to work because everything is getting too big. Last night I decided to grab a new pair. These are a 14!!!! A freakin 14!! And I weighed 192 pounds this morning They are a little snug around the waist, but I took these pics like this so I will be able to compare them to pics when I am at my goal weight. I still can't get over that I can walk for two miles without losing my breath or take a flight of stairs without my knees "clicking."
194.4 today!!! I can't believe I am down 51 pounds since the start of my journey on March 13, 2016. And 34 lbs since my gastric bypass surgery on August 8. I only have 65 pounds to go until I reach my goal weight! Since I stalled at 201 for two weeks I doubled my walking from 1.2-1.5 miles a day to 3 miles a day and that has greatly improved not only my weight loss journey, but my energy levels as well. I was already feeling so healthy, but now I feel even better, if that's possible.
I FINALLY GOT THERE!!! I'm under 200 lbs!! Down 47 lbs and only 68 more lbs to go!
Still learning to eat again
I am still learning how to chew my food all the way... the result of not doing so is throwing up. It's not like when you have the flu, but instead you just lose everything you just ate. Note to self.... chew your freakin food!!! š