Post Date: 7/25/07 4:57 pm
I think I'm doing pretty good. Most of my incisions are healing well - there are 3 spots that have the yellowish stuff that shows it separated - right above my butt - it's not huge, but, still.... another spot is from the right of my bikini line as it goes up towards my hip, and the third is inside my belly button. I guess keeping it covered is the best policy for the fastest healing. 

I'm wearing my compression garments all the time still and my ted thigh stockings.  Some of the worst pain, still, is right at the inside of my knees where they did a lot of lipo - for some reason, that spot gathers fluids like nowhere else, and it was that way before surgery, too. It's firm with all the fluids in it. I know I'm still retaining a lot of swelling there. 

I'm pleased with the way things are going for the most part - already have a game plan for the next surgery and revisions of the Belt Lipectomy bikini line scar - also, I think he'll be giving me a vertical cut in order to get rid of an ugly scar I had before. 

I have another week here in Iowa City. The time has gone MUCH faster than I expected. I hope I'll be able to get my last drain out by next Wednesday, but it's still putting out A LOT of fluid, so who knows (I had 3 drains originally). 

The coolest bit has been fitting in a size 10 skirt already and I was able to get size 12 cropped pants from the Gap zipped. Forgive me if I already posted about this as I have been fuzzy about to whom I've posted what. 

Jill 
revision from band to DS 3/10/05
www.picturetrail.com/kilaani
Belt Lipectomy 7/11/07 with Drs. Aly and Cram, Iowa City Plastic Surgery

Post Date: 7/21/07 8:39 pm
Last Edit: 7/22/07 11:50 am
Today - I overdid. I will probably pay for the next few days but it was really pretty incredible. 

PattyL and Dan and I drove out to the Tangers Outlet Mall which is about 25 miles from Iowa City/Coralville.  Patty insisted I spend some time just shopping - at my pace - and Dan was a jewel about being along for the ride. Patty got a few things, too, at least. :)

I bought a black dress at the gap which is awesome (a junior style large)- it looks like this but it is slightly longer and a little different on the collar - other than that, it's the same: 

I also found a shirt that is a super cool updated style - but I can't find a picture. 

I tried on a pair of these Gap pants in a 12 and they fit! Barely, but they fit..... 

they were too tight in the knees, though. 

I found another shirt at the Dress Barn that is so sexy as all get out - it's also a Petite Small! It only was $9 on sale!

All that showed me that my bras were sadly not helping the sisters at all, so I spent the last two hours of the afternoon getting fitted for bras at the Bali's store.  I'm now a 34DD in a Bali, here's the one I got in both black and white: . Just think... 29 months ago I was a 54DDD.  I think this is the one Playtex Secrets bra that  I bought in a 36D - I got it in cream.  They still aren't ultra sexy bras, but... better than the old playtex 18 hours I used to have to wear, that's for sure!!!!!!!
 

I fit a pair of size 12 pants at the Gap. I fit a size 12 petite straight skirt at the Dress Barn. I comfortably fit (which means they'd be too big in a few weeks) a pair of cargo type pants from the Gap, too. AMAZING!!! ALL JUST AMAZING.  29 months ago I was in a 7X or size 40.

I remember I said to Patty - is it even possible to zip up this (size 12) skirt for me? And she just slid the zipper right up - WOW.  It looks like I may end up a size 10 eventually - who knows after more lipo and thigh work.

I spent way too much time on my feet - probably 5 hours all in all. I was pretty hunched over by the time we were going home, but my meds and a half hour later, I was ready to head back out to dinner with them to the Outback - yum! 

They were sooooo awesome - I've not felt so cared for and pampered in ages!  I'm definitely going to be taking it easy tomorrow as they'll be gone before I get up in the morning. 

Jill 
revision from band to DS 3/10/05
www.picturetrail.com/kilaani
LBL 7/11/07 with Drs. Aly and Cram, Iowa City Plastic Surgery

A wow moment for me, my friends.

Tonight, Patty L and her husband Dan (who had the DS with Dr. B.) came to visit me - they drove 8 hours from Minnesota!!!!!!

We went out at around midnight so that I could get the Harry Potter book, and while we were shopping, I saw a skirt that looked really cute. Patty urged me to try it on. It was a size 12.

I put it on and it looks great!!!! It actually will be big once the swelling goes down, but... wow.... a size 12 skirt - on me! It went great over my hips and is a very flattering style. I bought a size 8/10 t-shirt to go with it - the t-shirt was roomy - I like the 8 because it fits better in the sleeves.

Whoo hoo!  I also hit my lowest weight so far - 171lbs. As it stands - I was 177 the day of surgery and they removed 14lbs skin from me, and 6lbs lipo (from my thighs). Potentially, that could bring me to 157lbs. Realistically, though, it'll be a while before I see that as I'm pretty swollen and retaining fluid like crazy after surgery.

Just thought I'd share.
Jill
revision from band to DS 3/10/05 Dr. Baltasar
440/435/171/165
hw/sw/cw/gw
www.picturetrail.com/kilaani

LBL 7/11/07 Drs. Aly & Cram, Iowa City Plastic Surgery http://www.icplasticsurgery.com/
UBL pending 12/21/07

Post Date: 7/19/07 11:12 pm
I went in today and saw the nurse Claudette. She said my belly button was completely normal, as is the spot on the middle of my back which is a bit moist. That's a common spot, evidentally, for it to take a bit longer to heal since there's always so much pressure there. 

They are all very pleased with my recovery so far and that I've been walking a good bit and keeping up and around. 

Really, all in all, the recovery from the belt lipectomy has been MUCH better than I expected. I've gotten rid of one drain, but the other two won't likely be for a while yet. I'm now at one week 2 days out from surgery. 

I'm sooooo happy with the way my rear end looks and the hourglass shape that I'm turning out to be -  it's so cool! And the rest... well, the things we'll have to fix are doable and it's great we already have a game plan.

As I've said previously, going from 440 to where I am now is a heckuva lot of weight andthe fact that I had several scars in nasty spots didn't help. 

14 pounds skin gone from the belt lipectomy + 6lbs lipo off my legs = happy Jill! 

Jill 
revision from band to DS 3/10/05
www.picturetrail.com/kilaani
LBL 7/11/07 with Drs. Aly and Cram, Iowa City Plastic Surgery

I won't take long to post because I need to get back to my room and rest - but today I'm down to 171 pounds. This is my lowest. 



How awesome is that!!!!?????

I'm a week and a day out from my belt lipectomy and really have been surprised how well my pain has been managed and how good I feel. A+ score for Dr. Aly and Dr. Cram that's for sure. 

Had a follow up appointment with them today because I had been worried about my belly button oozing a little - Claudette told me this is normal. 

Fantastico! :) I also found out I'm eligible for the Restlyn study they are doing - more about that later. Whoo hoo! 

Post Date: 7/17/07 5:26 am
Hopper - I'm excited to see that you are a VBG to DS revision wanna be. My best advice to you is to research your surgeon and then research some more. Revisions to DS can be any number of animals and you want the best one. 

Some will do a complete "take down" of your initial surgery .. basically trying to put everything back to the way it was, then do the DS. This is the optimal way of handling things. This means you're more likely to incur the benefits of the full DS. Some other docs basically leave the pouch or whatever it looks like and then just add the DS switch part - to me, this is not so good. You still can have many of the original problem issues that way. 

DS revision surgeons who are expert are a handful. Dr. Rabkins, Dr. Husted, Dr. Baltasar, Dr. Gagner - they are all ones who I know have been successful doing full takedowns and redoing the DS. 

There are folks out there in the DS revisions who are looking at a DS to DS revision because they did not have the best stomach size - they may have been able to out eat the surgery. All the malabsorption in the world might not help if you started with a 6 or 8 oz stomach and it stretches to 12-16 oz eventually. I recommend looking at what sort of stomach size does the surgeon do on top of the whole common channel thing. Additionally - how the surgeon decides on which method to do the alimentary and bilio limb and the common channel certainly can make a difference. I've heard of folks with 150 cm common channel who aren't able to lose enough because they just aren't malabsorbing enough. Just having a short common channel, though, isn't an instant guarantee, either. Mine is 65cm and I definitely wasn't one of the super speedy losers although it has been steady and I have continued losing even to almost 3 years out. 

It seems to me a lot of the folks who might have problems really believed a lot of the hype that the DS becomes a free pass to thinness, that they can eat whatever they want and still lose weight. I know, I know, it has been true for many, but it sure isn't true for all. That's why sticking to low carb and low sugar is the best way to find out which camp you may fall into. If people get hooked on too much food and too much of the wrong kinds too early and they don't happen to be blessed with the ability to do that "eat anything" thing, they are in for an unhappy surprise with results. 

So.... bottom line: some of it may be choices, some of it may be surgeons' choice, some of it may be our body's inflexibility. It's really hard to know -because I know there are folks out there who do all the right things and seem to have all the right components in place and they still don't get to where they want to be. :( 

I forgot to mention in my original post that they took 14 pounds of skin from my belt lipectomy. I found out today that they took an additional 6 pounds of fat from the lipo of my thighs, so go figure - 3 pounds of fat off each thigh and that's without any skin gone yet!  I feel great about losing that 20 pounds of skin and lipo fat.

I will also have another bunch of lipo done in December, so hopefully that'll take it down even further. 

I was 177 the day of surgery so minus the 20 pounds of skin/lipo  ... that should bring me to 157, but, lol, when I weighed the other day on a different scale, it said 183lbs. I completely believe that I could easily have 26lbs of fluids and swelling on me! 

There already is a difference in trying on pants, so that's kind of freaky! (In a good way!) 

It was so cool washing in the shower the first time and reaching down to soap under the panni and remembering that "Oh! It's not there anymore!"

 I'm definitely full of gratitude to the Lord for bringing me through this with flying colors! I'm determined to be an easy heal! 

Time to rest again. 

Post Date: 7/16/07 12:12 am

I'm staying for either 4 weeks after surgery which is August 8th, or I have another super cheap ticket I found that would let me go home a week earlier on August 1st which is what I'm shooting for. 

I'm super happy with the way my silhouette looks straight on - I can see already that I have a bit of the hourglass shape again- I'm going in at the waist so that is cool. The other thing I'm very delighted with is looking straight on (in a mirror) at my backside - they did a fantastic job in pulling my butt up and my saddlebags look completely gone. I also really like how symetrical my incisions look on my backside and I think they will eventually be very nice. 

I'm not happy with the frontside when looking at my old horizontal scar. I had hoped it would go away, but it was just too high to start with. Because of that, it's now along my waistline, but, that scar has always puckered along the right end of it, so I know that will be the case along my stomach there. I also hung way lower on the left side of my panni and mons, and I still have just a little extra pooch/pucker along there. There was just too much skin. My mons also hangs lower a little on the left side, still. There's only so much pulling they could do and because they had to start higher in trying to deal with my original horizontal scar, they couldn't go as low as they would have liked on my mons bikini line incision which I think leaves a little higher scar. It will still be at a lower than waistline which means I imagine I'll be able to wear some undies that will hide it and won't have to wear hipsters, but it'll be a while before that all settles and I can finally see how it ends. Dr. Aly is not happy with that horizontal scar either, and may do something he never does which is do a revision by making a vertical cut and taking the wedge of the scar out, and then possibly revising the bikini line and maybe taking a wedge along the sides of the mons, too and defatting that area even more.  I'm also a little scary (to me) when I look at myself from the side - I don't have the nice lines I would like -but again, I know a lot of that is swelling and my backside will settle more, additionally with the scarring, too. 

I'm so happy that I went with Dr. Aly. I believe that my results would not have been nearly as good with other surgeons who don't have Dr. Aly and Cram's expertise. They reportedly spent a lot of time on me extra in planning the best way to handle all my issues once they got in. It took them an hour and a half longer than their usual belt lipectomy and Dr. Aly did state that I was one of the most complicated they have done. My skin is also in pretty poor shape, which doesn't help with the elasticity issues. 

All the revision stuff will be easily addressed when I go back for my next surgery - which is hopefully December 21, 2007 for the upper body lift/arms/breast reduction/lift with more legs lipo. 

My final surgery should be June 2008 for my thighplastcy which is going to require some major creativeness on Dr. Aly's part. I may also revise my breasts at that time for an implant if I need it then. 

I LOVE Dr. Aly and Dr. Cram! 

I got some initial pictures on my phone of me in my compression garment, but you can see the basic silhouette and lines. I'll have to figure out how to send them to myself.

Post Date: 7/15/07 6:18 pm
I can't post a long post right now because I need to go back and lay down, but I'm back! I'm at Walden Place, at least. 

My experience was positive with Dr. Aly and I'm so glad I had his expertise. I didn't have the best best best results - but - considering my starting place, it's better than he expected. I have things I'm really happy about and things that are not so much - but we'll see how it goes with time.  A lot of that is swelling and we won't be able to tell how the scars flatten out until they heal. 

Jill 
revision from band to DS 3/10/05
www.picturetrail.com/kilaani
LBL 7/11/07 with Drs. Aly and Cram, Iowa City Plastic Surgery

Post Date: 7/8/07 10:27 pm
This is my last post this side of PS. Prayers and chicken swinging very much appreciated for a painless, swellingless and easy surgery and recovery and for the best possible results.

Thank you, everyone, for all the great support during this loooooong journey. Tuesday will be my 28th month anniversary - and I've lost 263lbs during that time.  It's pretty cool that I'm going under the knife the day after that.

Here's the handy dandy weight loss chart once again for all the noobs :) 

2005
440 high weight 3/7/05
435 on surgery date 3/10/05
1 month April 10 395 –45!!
2 month May 10 387 -8
3 month June 10 375 –12
4 month July 10 354 -21!!
5 month Aug 10 344 –10
6 month Sept 10 329 –15
7 month Oct 10 311 –18
8 month Nov 10 300 –11 Skied!
9 month Dec 10 292 – 8
2006
10 month Jan 10 283 – 9 Skied!
11 month Feb 10 274 – 9
12 month Mar 10 259 –15 (-181 in one year!)   Skied!
13 month Apr 10 259 – 0 L
14 month May 10 250 – 9 skied! –190lbs 65% EWL
15 month June 10 248 – 2
16 month July 10 232- 16 (-208lbs)
17 month Aug 10 230– 2 (-210lbs)
18 month Sept 10 228 – 2 (-212lbs in 18 months)
19 month Oct 10 211 – 16!! (-229lbs)
20 month Nov 10 214  +3 (-226lbs) L
21 month Dec 10 202 – 8 (-238lbs)
2007
22 month Jan 10 214 + 12 (-2261lbs) L
23 month Feb 10 195 - 19  (-245lbs)(84% EWL, 32.4 BMI)
24 month Mar 10 188 – 7  (-252lbs in 24 months)
25 month Apr 10 184 – 4  (-256lbs) 30.6 BMI
26 month May 12 184 - 0  (-256lbs)
Projected:
27 month Jun 10 190 +6  (-250lbs)
28 month July 10 177 –13 (-263lbs) (29.5 BMI)
PLASTICS July 11, 2007 Lower Body Lift!

29 month Aug 10 157 –20 (283lbs)
30 month Sep 10 157 –0 (283lbs)
31 month Oct 10 156 –1 (284lbs)
32 month Nov 10 155 –1 (285lbs)
33 month Dec 10 155 – 0 (285lbs)
PLASTICS December 21, 2007 Upper Body Lift?
34 month Jan 10 150 –5 (290lbs)
35 month Feb 10 149 –1 (291lbs)
36 month Mar 10 149 –0 (291lbs) GOAL in 3 Years! BMI 24.9 100% EWL lost

My goal on my ticker and on my signature is 165 pounds, however my ultimate goal would be to make 24.9 on my BMI which is 149 pounds. We'll see if it happens. :)

Jill 
revision from band to DS 3/10/05
www.picturetrail.com/kilaani
LBL 7/11/07 with Drs. Aly and Cram, Iowa City Plastic Surgery

This will likely be my last post before plastics on Wedneday - unless I have some down time which is unlikely. 

I'm not feeling quite ready to leave, but I'm getting things in order. 

I'm not nervous - actually feeling quite peaceful about it. I have great expectations for the results, even though I know those good results could take a long time to manifest after drains and swelling and what have you. I can't wait to look down and not see the huge amount of hanging skin. Okay, so my breasts will still look terrible, but, one thing at a time!

It was so cool to hit 177 yesterday. Today has been weird because I ate before bed (at 4am - long story) and I still haven't had a BM today. That's pretty unusual for me! I hope my body isn't going to get all jacked up with the schedule and flying and all that! 

A friend told me today that narcotics can cause constipation -I haven't had to even think about that C word for so long it's hard to remember. Frankly, there hasn't been much time in my life when I have suffered with constipation, thank God!

Anyway, I think I'll eat breakfast with the Tammy's on Tuesday morning and maybe not eat any more that day - I want everything to be nice and cleaned out for Wednesday morning! Of course, I'll get lots of protein in! Speaking of which, I have to go make a shake and get moving. 

Today, all I've been craving are onion rings, so I stopped by Sonic and got some - they were so good! But I've been terrible with food today - that's all I've eaten! Time for that shake, and then to Frye's. 

Bless y'all
Jill 
from 440 to 177lbs 
from 73.2 bmi to 29.5
from 65% bodyfat to 23%

HAVE to share - as this is just a little too cool. 

I just got on the scale, and now I'm at 177.0 ... 

Lowest I've been since 1983 - I know, you guys are going to get tired of hearing me say that, but I graudated at 180 pounds in 1983, and the lowest weight I think I hit in 1983 was around that as I reached 180 pounds on my birthday in January 1983. I was about 152 pounds in the fall of 1982.... so anything 160 and under is from 1982 back! 

Hopefully after the LBL next Wednesday I'll be able to say I had an additional ____ come off from the skin and fat.  Dr. Aly says "it's not about weight loss" with the PS, but, when pressed said he thought I'd get off about 6 kilos (14 pounds) of skin/fat. I've heard he's very very very conservative about these things, so I'm hoping for 20 pounds and would be really excited if it was double his estimate and I got 28lbs off including lipo or something. 

28lbs would bring me down to ......149 - my GOAL WEIGHT. That, of course, is if I stayed at 177 which doesn't usually happen when I hit my low. I usually hit the low, then bounce up a few pounds the next day, hang around that for a while, then bounce lower again eventually.  Additionally, I've heard a lot about after PS of a ton of swelling and water retention, so hopefully I'm mentally prepared for that and won't freak if the scale doesn't cooperate. Yadda yadda yadda on flying and all that stuff that also usually has me retaining water, too.

In any case, it feels weird to even say that I'm at 177 - so whatever the surgeon is able to take off after that is icing on the cake. I just can't wait to have these rolls of skin gone! 

Jill 
revision from band to DS 3/10/05
440/435/177/165
hw/sw/cw/gw
-263lbs, 12lbs to go
73.2 bmi to 29.5 bmi
65% bodyfat to 23% bodyfat
www.picturetrail.com/kilaani
LBL 7/11/07 with Drs. Aly and Cram, Iowa City Plastic Surgery

I'm not sure what's going on with me. A few weeks back I felt pretty stuck and wigged about surgery, but now, I've been going full speed ahead just having a good time.  Warning - post ahead is all over the map!

I finally finished the summer tutoring program yesterday, which was a great experience. I had the five best little girls ever in my class. They are all going to be fourth graders, but are all still very sweet and for the most part, all wanted to learn. We had a summer reading experience on Rome and I learned a lot about Rome that I really hadn't known, too.

I had a great time on the 4th. It was super low key but I kept busy enough which was fun. I went to the gym and then had lunch with my personal trainer, rushed home then made strawberries dipped in chocolate and went over to a friends house. He's someone I've gotten to know a little through one of my small study groups out of my church. We're all singles and have been studying the book "The 10 Commandments of Dating". I actually thought it was a pretty good read and helpful, but not anything new to me. 

Anyway, this fellow is a nice guy and we've had a few comments in common. It seems like we're both thinkers and a bit on the conservative side. I don't believe that we're destined for each other or anything like that, but he's a nice guy and I could see him becoming a good friend.   Since meeting him, come to find out that we grew up within about 5 miles of each other, and our high schools were about 2 miles apart. He was born on the 21st of January and I was born on the 31st (same year). It's been a lot of fun to talk about music, and we have  alot of the same music that we like - as well as Christian music, too.  

We've talked on the phone for hours - he can be a bit slow with getting stories going, but I like listening to talkers, so it's fine. So I was chatting with him and asked him what he was doing for the 4th and he invited me over to his place (he owns but has 4 roomates paying him rent) for doing some chicken on the grill.  I ended up bringing my strawberries, corn on the cob, and potatoes, and one of his roomates grilled - it turned out great. 

He's got a nice place, but a little (okay, a lot) cluttered with all the roomates. Not exactly my style - but funky and fun. We both seem to like the ocean and seashore pics, though. He's got some paintings of lighthouses, too. Of course, in the middle of his living room he's got a pool table. Typical bachelor! 

The next night I let him know about a movie on the lake event at Montelago and he ended up riding with me. We had fun, but the movie was HORRIBLE. Probably one of the worst I've seen that I can remember. Okay, you want to know what it was, huh? Ghost Rider - with Nicolas Cage. The only movie that I can think of that was worse than that was Me, Myself and Irene.  They were terrible on very different levels, though. 

Last night, we talked over an hour then I went off to my other small group. It was fun, it's a good group and we went to Carabbas for dinner afterwards. A good time!

I'll be going to get my hair done today at 12:30, then I'm going to have to take back my BRAND NEW PRINTER and get the bloody thing exchanged. The paper feed won't work correctly so it's useless!  Later on tonight, I"m going to church and hopefully will see the guy and my small group from lastnight - maybe we can all go out to dinner again, or, I even possibly offered my place to come over for a movie or something. We'll see.. that reminds me I'd better get it cleaned!

Tomorow the guy is going to come over and we're (he's!) going to look at my  shocks and see if I really need new ones. That way he can also see where I live - 

Monday morning, I have to get the cat into the vet to get her health certificate so she can fly, then at 11am I'm heading to the airport~!

That's it, all that I have time for - I'll be posting more about my PS experience to come, soon.

Someone posted on a parmesan crusted cheese sandwich and how good it was and it reminded me! I was just at Applebees the other day and I tried their parmesan crusted onion rings and they were so good!

Okay, this completely made me remember something I wanted to post on - food! 

I've found the greatest blog - and she's our kind of woman. When she cooks, none of that fake stuff! She has a regular blog and her cooking blog and she's so funny it makes practically ruin my keyboard when I'm drinking a protein shake. 

The best part of her cooking blog is that she does all the steps - shows all the ingredients in pictures and she is a great photographer. 

Anyway, here's the blog address - tell me if you like it!

http://www.thepioneerwomancooks.com/

I'm completely hooked. I read her regular blog http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/confessions_of_a_pioneer_/ every day without fail! 

Jill 
revision from band to DS 3/10/05
440/435/178/165
hw/sw/cw/gw
-261lbs, 14lbs to go
73.2 bmi to 29.6 bmi
65% bodyfat to 23% bodyfat
www.picturetrail.com/kilaani
LBL 7/11/07 with Drs. Aly and Cram, Iowa City Plastic Surgery

Post Date: 7/7/07 10:30 am
Well, last week was a big one. I exercised three or four days and dropped about 15 pounds, lol. I finally got something done about the water weight that had been plaguing me. 

As of today, I'm at 178.8 pounds - my lowest since 1983.  

Last Friday, I got a pinched nerve or something in my back - a kink in the muscle, maybe, and it's been slowing me down since. I only got to the gym one day this week, which bums me out. Maybe I still could have been doing cardio, but it didn't happen :(  Had 2 massages, though, in trying to get this muscle fixed.

Additionally, been just having a lot of fun PLAYING!  Went out on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so far - and will be tonight, and have another date tomorrow, too! But that all makes sense since I'm trying to shove in all the fun I can before leaving Monday for Iowa City. I'm going to be experiencing a lot of down time starting Wednesday next week, that's for sure! 

Goal for the next few days - 4-6 protein shakes per day...for my protein loading. I've been getting about 3 per day in the past week or so. 

Cardio - at least once before I fly out on Monday. 

Liquids - I've been doing pretty well - it's been wicked hot here in Las Vegas!

Jill 
revision from band to DS 3/10/05
440/435/178/165
hw/sw/cw/gw
-261lbs, 14lbs to go
73.2 bmi to 29.6 bmi
65% bodyfat to 23% bodyfat
www.picturetrail.com/kilaani
LBL 7/11/07 with Drs. Aly and Cram, Iowa City Plastic Surgery

Yesterday, I reached my lowest weight since 1983 - 179.8 pounds. That puts me at 29.8 BMI in the category of Overweight. Who'd have thunk I'd be so excited about being overweight, but when you figure I started at Super Super Morbidly Obese.... this is a big deal! 

Additionally, a week from tomorrow I'm heading to Iowa City for my first round of reconstructive surgery. I'm excited about it, but a bit nervous, too. Fortunately, the two Tammys will be there my first day to help me settle in - we're even all arriving at the airport around the same time! 

I got to spend nearly the whole day with TammyIAm from NYC yesterday. She and her husband are absolutely wonderful people! I couldn't believe how much we had in common, too. And..... her work from Dr. Aly looks absolutely marvelous! 

I'm sure I'll be posting more this week about the upcoming surgery - it's getting to be a little of the nervousness time. 

Jill 
revision from band to DS 3/10/05
440/435/179/165
hw/sw/cw/gw
-261lbs, 14lbs to go! 
www.picturetrail.com/kilaani