ObesityHelp

Wow...what a great two years it has been. I really get it now. I wondered why everyone stays so faithful to Obestiy Help for a few months or even a year or two. Then they seen to fall off the radar. Well, I think I have it all figured out. People head off to start living life. I've gained a few pounds and I'm in the process of getting those off. My lowest was 191 with a realistic goal of 195. I'm hanging in at about 206 most mornings and I plan to be below 200 again in several weeks. I'm focusing in once again on protein and veggies. I was being strangled by the carb monster and I took my sword and I'm pushing him back....back....back I say.

It is so hard to believe that just two years ago I was so scared to death of having this surgery. That was really scary, but it was a time in my life that I cherish and look back on with many fond memories. The friends I made here were so valuable to me...too bad so many have gravitated so far away.

As an update on Christine, my dear wife who had the surgery just a year after mine, she has managed to drop over 90 pounds and I call her my new girlfriend. She is such a hotty now. I need to get some cute pics of her up on my profile to prove what I'm saying. She got a new job and there are a half dozen people where she works who are getting the surgery. They seem totally supportive at her work for those who want to better their life. What a blessing a good employer is.

Anyway, that is the latest update.

Thanks for checking in...

John

Starting Weight: 347 lbs.
Total Pounds Lost: 151

January 2007     12.5 lbs.      Wt.: 334.5
February 2007     5.5 lbs.      Wt: 329
March 2007          10 lbs.      Wt: 319
April 2007              4 lbs.      Wt: 315
May 2007              15 lbs. (Surgery date May 31st - Wt 300)
June 2007             23 lbs.       Wt: 277
July 2007              13 lbs.       Wt: 264
August 2007          17 lbs.       Wt: 247  (100 lbs. off in < 8 months)
September 2007   10 lbs.     Wt. 237
October 2007       12 lbs.     Current Weight: 224 (227 = no more obese)
November 2007     4 lbs.      Wt. 220
December 2007     5 lbs.      Wt. 215
January 2008        9 lbs        Wt. 206
February 2008       1 lb         Wt. 205 
March 2008           7 lbs        Wt. 198
April 2008             0 lbs        Wt. 198
May 2008              1 lb         Wt. 197
June 2008             2 lbs        Wt. 195
July 2008              0 lbs        Wt. 195
August 2008         0 lbs        Wt. 195
Sept. 2008           3 lbs         Wt. 192
Oct 2008              1 lb          Wt. 191
Nov 2008            +4 lb         Wt. 195 (Time to get back to basics)
Dec 2008            +1 lb         Wt. 196

View the slide program...takes just 2 minutes

http:/tinyurls.com/Jonoba07



It has been a couple of months and I thought I would check in with some of you who have been following our progress. I say our progress because my wife, Christine, had a RNY on June 19th of this year. She has done just so well with her surgery and has dropped just shy of 60 pounds from the time she started the liquid diet just 10 days before and now here in the middle of September. As a husband of a newer RNY patient, it is just amazing to watch the transformation. Being on this side of the fence is remarkable too. It seems like every week she seems to just melt away more and more. She is just 10 pounds away from her all time (married state) weight when she got down pretty low using the Weight Watchers program back in 1999.

There was a time that I thought that the RNY was a mistake for her. Everything had gone so smoothly for me that I just thought that it would be the same for her. She had "food issues" right from the start. She didn't really follow the guidelines like I did during those first few weeks. I was not perfect by any means, but she was really paving a new path. One night we were both frustrated with her progress so we just sat and talked and talked. What it came down to was that she needed to get more focused on using the slider foods that would not make her sick. Once she started using more applesauce and pudding type foods with her more solid foods, things really started picking up. She also did not like ANY protein drinks for the first month or so, which really made it even harder.

She still struggles to get more solid foods in and would prefer to just drink her shakes as her meals. I think that we are making progress as she tries more things like chili and has better luck with them.

I know that we need to get some photos of her up on my site. Several of you have expressed an interest in seeing her progress in real-life. I'll try to get a few shots of her and get them posted.

As far as me, I'm still hanging in there. I manage to keep my weight the same, but I can't seem to get any additional weight off. There are just too many temptations that I'm glad I still have the restriction until the urge to eat has passed. I sure don't eat what I used to, but I still work at it. We go out to eat and it is amazing that we never seem to go over $10-15 for our meals and that includes a pretty generous tip.

School is started for me again and I have a very nice group of students. They are a lot quieter than any class I've ever had in my 8 years of teaching. They don't know quite what to think of my humor and seem a bit on guard. I rather like it that way since they are not coming out of their shell as fast as other classes have. Each class seems to have their own personality.

Thanks for checking in on our progress.

John

Where does the time go. This postop life seems to be moving on a conveyor belt that keeps speeding up. I'm involved in more things and enjoying life like never before. The most exciting thing happened this weekend; Christine was approved for her RNY weight loss surgery. She has a date of June 19th and that is when her new life will begin. She will be in Onderland within the first month or two, so this should really be great for her. She is nervous like all of us were when facing the surgery. Things were at such a standstill for such a long time and when her paperwork finally got submitted it was less than 5 days later that she was approved. We are so blessed to have Blue Cross Anthem (formerly Blue Cross of California until last year). Now we can begin planning for our summer and making our plans. Christine was on the edge of whether or not she could have the surgery. She was right at the 40 BMI or just slightly below. 

I am also taking my shot at coaching intramural basketball. I have my son's team and some other decent players. We had six games scheduled for the league and we will play the last game this evening. I met my objective to win at least half of the games. This really is more of a mind and strategy game than I thought. We have lost one game and won the other four. The game tonight will be a toss-up. We have a good chance of winning if we play like we have the last two games. I'm pushing my son to pass it off to the other players since they have put their focus on covering him. In the 8th grade he is 6 feet 1 inch tall. I think I could get into this coaching thing. It was most amazing to me to see how difficult it was to coach for the first three games. Once we had that loss (3rd game) the boys started listening a bit more and staying more focused.

School has gone very well this year. I've had a good bunch of students and now that I have them where I am successful with then, I have to hand them off. It takes weeks to get a new group into shape. We will start it all over again in September.

I'm walking again and enjoying those 5 am two mile walks. I really don't like the winters here since I can't walk. Now that I am exercising again, I feel like things are heading in the right direction. When I had my March appointment with Dr. Steward and he said that I was a success with the surgery. I just couldn't seem to get things moving on the scale again after that. The situation with Christine trying to get approved was more stressful than I thought it would be. Now that she has been approved, I feel that a major burden has been lifted. She was stressed, so she ate, and when she ate, I ate. It was a bad cycle that I'm getting a handle on. I can't believe that I didn't gain more than I did with all of the food I was eating. I HATE carbs. They just have too much control over me once I let them into my life. If I just stay away from them, I enjoy my life so much more. I'm starting to understand why people who had lost their weight said that it was far harder to keep the weight off than to lose it. I have to agree. The early weight losses seemed so easy. It is so easy to trick your mind into thinking that those early weight losses and your motivation would always be like that.

I will try to do a better job of updating. I know that several of you have been wondering what has been going on, so I decided to give a short update. I know how frustrating it was for me being a new WLS patient and then seeing people's profiles just suddenly stop. The reality was that they were just moving on with their life and just had not really needed Obesity Help as much anymore. I had made a commitment to try to do a better job than that. We must keep our profiles current to help those that come after us. I'll try to be better...but I have a REAL life now...so it really is harder.

Thanks for checking in.

John 

Starting Weight: 347 lbs.
Total Pounds Lost: 144

January 2007     12.5 lbs.      Wt.: 334.5
February 2007     5.5 lbs.      Wt: 329
March 2007          10 lbs.      Wt: 319
April 2007              4 lbs.      Wt: 315
May 2007              15 lbs. (Surgery date May 31st - Wt 300)
June 2007             23 lbs.       Wt: 277
July 2007              13 lbs.       Wt: 264
August 2007          17 lbs.       Wt: 247  (100 lbs. off in < 8 months)
September 2007   10 lbs.     Wt. 237
October 2007       12 lbs.     Current Weight: 224 (227 = no more obese)
November 2007     4 lbs.      Wt. 220
December 2007     5 lbs.      Wt. 215
January 2008        9 lbs        Wt. 206
February 2008       1 lb         Wt. 205 
March 2008           7 lbs        Wt. 198 (Total lost = 149 pounds)
April 2008             0 lbs        Wt. 198
May 2008              1 lb         Wt. 197

(Note: weekly weight detail in my story at the very bottom of this page)
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I recently saw a post about someone who was trying to anticipate what after WLS would be like, so this post is really more for the newbies. When getting ready for WLS, I encourage you to avoid thinking and acting on the last supper syndrome type of eating. You will eventually get those foods back that you REALLY want. Maybe some will disagree, but many of the foods I loved pre-op are no longer interesting to me. I also find that the more I stay away from carbs, the better I feel in general.

Now when I go out to dinner for an evening out, I enjoy visiting with my wife way more than I did before. It used to be the food and then her company, and now it is about the relationship with the food coming secondary. I still enjoy the first bite and I still enjoy that feeling of being full when I am finished. I just don't need to eat that other 80% to get to that point of being full...and I REALLY don't miss that extra volume like I thought I would. Since I still DO enjoy the food, when I go out to dinner, I may even sip a bit more water so that I can enjoy a bit more of that food. If it is food that I REALLY enjoy, I know how to work past the tool "just for the evening". I'm not so crazy as to work past my tool each day; that would defeat why I went through this in the first place. I get back on track the day after and I find that success again.

So, for those of you who might be feeling that you must give everything up, I say that it is temporary as you can have your foods back....just not in your current portions.

Now I look back to the days of Mid-May of 2007 when I had planned my final meal before I went on the 10 day liquid diet. I had gone out to dinner with Christine the night before the night of our actual planned "last supper" meal. I had planned to take my her out again the next night for the real last supper....if that makes sense. Well, we were on our way home and I just became overwhelmed with emotions and tears began to roll down my cheeks. For weeks I had planned this meal out with Christine for this final meal to our favorite restaurant. Then, it occurred to me that if this was really going to be the "last supper" meal, I wanted it to be with both my wife and kids. All of a sudden I was feeling so selfish for not including them in this meal. That was the only time I really got emotional over this surgery as I was completely calm on the actual day of surgery.

Well, we ended up having steak and shrimp and all kinds of good stuff...all of the stuff that we rarely can afford to feed five kids. It was one of the most memorable meals of my life. This surgery process plays tricks on your mind. If you are just starting the process, I say just enjoy the moment. It is such a magical time and you will likely look back on it with fond memories. The reason is that you will begin to see that it was at that period in time that you begin to get your life back.

Thanks for stopping by and checking in.

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do not have the study that it came out of but it was on MSN, so I believe that it was reliable. The point that I pulled out wasn't actually the key point that the article's author was trying to make, but buried in the text. It was a key piece of information that I wish that I had found prior to surgery.

In a nutshell, the study actually said that the mortality rate for morbidly obese people is the same for people who have the surgery as those who don't. The statistical line crosses at almost exactly the one year mark. For those who have surgery, the mortality rate is higher for that first month or so and then gradually goes down at a very steady decline. For those who elect not to have the surgery, the mortality rate stays relatively constant and is the same at about the one year mark. Those who are morbidly obese STILL have about a 1 in 200 chance of dying at that point. The difference is that after the first year, the post-op WLS patient continues to see a major decline in the mortality rate, while the non-surgery person stays at that statistical rate. I'm guessing that as age goes up, the mortality rate gradually and obviously goes up too.

As a somewhat funny sideline to this the study, they also found that a side effect of post-op life is that they are more likely to suffer a sudden death than those who do not have the surgery. Well, let's think about that. Doesn't it make sense that now that we are actually living life and going places all of the time instead of being stuck in the house all the time that the likelihood of a car accident or something might increase? Of course it does. Does it mean that the risk is anymore than for a person who lives a normal life? Absolutely not. Statistics are a funny thing...sometimes we need to stop and think in a logical manner why something might be occurring.

Here is a real-life story to support this. When I was in the main chat room during my pre-op days I was talking about how I had been approved for surgery and had elected to wait until school was out (late May) instead of March 2nd for my original approval date. One of the men in the chat room virtually began to chastise me for waiting the extra 3 months. I began to quiz him about why he was taking on such a strong opinion regarding this. It turned out that years before his mom was scheduled for surgery and when she was AT THE HOSPITAL about to get the surgery, she backed out. Just nine months later she died from obesity related causes. 

I don't include this to scare anyone, but this is a very sad real-life story. In my mind, I could visualize this man with tears running down his face having to tell me why he felt so strongly about that. It hit me pretty hard at the time. Even though I had good reasons for waiting until May, it did make me rethink my position on waiting.