debtfree's Profile

Username: debtfree
Location: OK
Member Since: 3/17/2008
BMI: 57.1
Surgery date scheduled
Surgery Type: VSG (07/02/08)
Surgeon: Toby Broussard, M.D.

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Friends

debtfree has 58 Friends

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Goals

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Surgeon Testimonial

Toby Broussard, M.D.
I have been very impressed with Dr. Broussard so far. At this point I have only met with him once individually but have heard him speak at the seminar and at a support group meeting. I'm from Louisiana also so I liked his accent.

**update** My surgery was 8 days ago and I am convinced more than ever that Dr. B. is the very best at WLS. He is so down to earth and funny. I love the aftercare that Weight Wise gives. Awesome.

Member Interests

Christianity - I would be lost without my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Education - Working on my MBA
Talk Radio Listening - I'm a Dave Ramsey freak! No debt for me!
Gardening - Can't wait to be able to garden again
WLS in your 40's - The 40's are going to be my best yet!

Click here to see interests of other ObesityHelp members.

Latest Surgery Support Comments

Comment by Heather R. on 7/1/08 11:32 am

Good luck on your surgery Wednesday. You will be in my prayers.

Comment by PAMMIE754 on 7/1/08 7:43 am

Amy, wishing you all the best on your surgery. Prayers go with you. All the best. Blessings & Huggs, Pam

Comment by soldiersxbabygirl on 7/1/08 6:02 am

Amy~ I know you are going to do great and pull through with flying colors! You'll be on that loser's bench before you know it! I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. **hugs** Renae

Click here for the surgery support page

Who am I? I'm a Christian first and foremost. I'm a wife and mom, student (working on MBA), work full time at a job I love, and I am a survivor of the 1995 OKC Murrah Building bombing. I love my life even though I gained weight at age 22 and became morbidly obese. I've been happy until this past year I have had some health issues. I want live a long life so that I am there for my husband and son.

I choose the VSG (sleeve) because of the low risk and complication rate and no malsorption issues with meds or nutrients. I am starting out with a higher BMI than most (58.2)and hoping that I will be successful and will hopefully encourage other high BMI'ers in their journey.

debtfree's Blog

4 months out!
on November 2, 2008 7:23 am

I'm 4 months out and 98 lbs lighter! (45 were lost pre-op) Dang those 2 pounds, I so wanted to say I had lost 100 lbs!! There are so many changes in the past 4 months. Here are just a few:

*no more seat belt extender in my car
*can fit into a booth now and its comfortable
*from a 5X to a 1X (32/34 to a 22/24 and some 18/20)
*love to cook now and never did before
*tons and tons of energy
*couldn't walk for 5 min and now do jazzercise
*lost that vicious cycle of dieting and blowing it
*met so many wonderful people on OH
*can fit on rides at the amusement park

When I first decided on the VSG, I couldn't picture being truly successful and in my mind thought if I could just loose 100 lbs and maintain that loss that I would consider the surgery successful. Well here I am on the doorstep of losing 100 lbs. Now I wonder what I can achieve? Is it possible to actually lose down to 150?!!! I'm starting to have hope now!

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95 lbs lost!
on October 19, 2008 6:38 am

I have almost lost 100 lbs!! I feel great. I get compliments every single day. I look in the mirror and can't believe it sometimes. I keep changing sizes and have to buy more pants right now. My 24s are all mostly too big. I can fit into my 22s nicely and the 20s fit but are snug. I started out wearing a 34!!!!!!

I am very excited about going to Branson next weekend. I plan to ride all the rides with my 8 year old because I should be able to fit now.

I went to the civic center for a broadway play last weekend and fit in the seat! Also we ate at a nice restaurant before hand and they sat us in a booth! I slid in just fine and was very comfortable.

I can eat more now that I am almost 4 months out. I have to work it a bit more by making healthy choices. I am tempted by those dang whole wheat ritz crackers and SF fudgesicles!! Oh and honey roasted peanuts!! So...old habits die hard.

I am exercising at jazzercise three days a week. I know I should be doing more but right now I am doing good to get that in. I really hope to have lost 100 lbs by the first of November but it is slowing down quite a bit so we will see.

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85 lbs lost and size 22!
on September 17, 2008 4:51 pm

The scale hasn't moved in the past week but that is okay. I am happy to be down 85 lbs. I went to Dillards today and tried on pants. I have so many awesome jackets thanks to my weighwise support and OH friends. I needed some pants because mine are just too big...again! I now wear size 22 pants!!! I can't remember the last time I wore that size. And....I saw a really cool outfit that was size 20 and it fit!!! Now it was tight so I will wait a couple weeks probably to wear it but it looked so good!!!

Randy is gettting back to normal slowly. He jokes that he didn't realize he was getting WLS. He can't eat much more than me right now and has lost 23 lbs. He had reflux surgery and they take part of his stomach and wrap it around the esphogus which ends up making his stomach a little smaller.

I can say that I would do this surgery again in a heartbeat! Best thing I have done for myself! I am loving life!

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life hands you lemons..sometimes you just have to suck on them
on September 3, 2008 3:41 pm

The past 9 days have been a roller coaster of emotional ups and downs. Randy went in for a simple laparoscopic procedure to fix his reflux. He was supposed to stay one night at the hospital.

Then the rug was pulled out from under us...his procedure was converted to an open surgery. So that changed things to a 3 night stay. However by the second day his breathing was very labored and very sick. He had pneumonia. It got bad fast and he ended up in ICU for three nights. I was so scared. He ended up in the hospital for 8 nights.

We brought Randy home last night. He still doesn't feel well yet but is glad to be home and on the mend. I could have never handled the hospital stay as well if I had not lost 80 lbs. Yep, I am up to 80 lbs lost now. I was able to walk all over the place and sit in those uncomfortable chairs with no problems. I even pushed him around in a wheel chair on his last day.

So, now I am happy and thankful for Randy being home and for losing 80 lbs!! I guess those lemons didn't have too many calories!

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never make 3 big life goals at the same time!
on August 18, 2008 5:35 pm

I've always been a list maker. I love striking things off the "to do" list. It gives me some sick sense of control I suppose. Well this year I made some life goals. I don't call them New Year's resolutions because those are often forgotten. No this is different. My boss introduced me to an exercise called a "painted picture".

So here is what you do. You write a paragraph in each of your major life areas (social, physical, finances, spiritual, career, family, etc) describing the area of life as you wish it was. Sorta prophetic I guess. So I did this only I also wrote a realistic picture of where I percieved myself to be at the time I wrote it. Well....this little thing was powerful. I saw how much my weight was connected to several goals of mine and this pretty much pushed me over the edge to WLS.

The problem with all of this is that I didn't just stop with the goal to lose weight. NOOOOO I had to over do it just like I do with everything and choose THREE things I wanted to change about my life immediately. There are many more trust me but three that I will focus on right now and boy are they doosies.

1. Weight - okay the obvious thing here and I had my WLS on July 2nd so that one is slowly being marked off the list although I know that even with my new tool I will battle this demon the rest of my life. Thank God for the sleeve though to help me stay the course. (cost of $11,000)

2. Finish up becoming debt free - We began in December 2006 seriously paying off all debt and so far we have paid off $85K in debt. We should have been debt free by now but alas my goal #1 and goal #3 got in the way of how much we should pay off.

3. Get my MBA - I really want to be the CEO of my organization one day. That means in this day and age I need a masters in business to be taken seriously...or at least that is what I thought I needed since my image was lacking...fat people are all lazy, right? Of course by the time I finish in Aug 09 with this $28K MBA I should have a different image!

Okay so why am I writing all this to cyber world. I dunno. I guess it helps me focus on what I am trying to accomplish and also so warn anyone who is trying to tackle three things at once to just focus on one because this is about to kill me!! LOL!! I think my goals will all be fun things when I am done with these three buggers.

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