Good Mornin April Family! Well one year ago I was being preped for my WLS... I can remember it well. I was getting my legs wraped with ace bandages and the nurse ran out of them, and she was panicing that I was going to be late getting to the OR staging area... But, I actually got there early and got to see my surgeon before I was put to sleep... LOL! Well enough of that... This morning I got on the scale here at home and I am down -191 lbs. The week before I went in for surgery I was at 536lbs and today I am at 345 lbs. I have another 100 lbs to go til I am at my goal...Whoo whoo.. I feel so good these days.... I get out and do more activies out and about the city now... I go to the gym 4 to 5 times per week and work out for 2 hours ... Oh Thank you Dr. Todd at Alaska Bariatric Center for giving my Life Back! and also a Big Thankyou to all of my Brothers and Sisters here on the April Board. I don't know what I would do with out this board.. Thank you all! God Bless, Tom Aklestad

Thanks both of you. I've noticed one thing over my years here on Earth. If you give into the crap you wallow in crap. If you pick yourself up and just say ok it happened, now lets just dust ourselves off and go forward, you get through things easier. I personally am too stubborn to let something else run my life. I want the control not some other event. I know I wouldn't make a gambler since I am to cheap to put the money out to gamble. I would make a horrible drug addict because I forget to take the darn stuff. Insurance companies cower when I call, since I will win out against them. I may not win everytime when the crap happens, but my average is very very high. Attitude plays the most important part of life. This surgery we elect to go through is not easy. We have all gotten here due to one reason or another. We al had the courage to face the need to be proactive. It is not a miracle cure. We still have to work at it. We definately have to work at it long term since we can and will gain the weight back if we do no****ch what we eat. This is a major jump start with a new tool to allow us to feel good about ourselves. I've read profiles of people who have only lost 80 pounds the first year to those who have lost nearly 200. We are all different. We all have lost though. To me being a loser is a good thing. Take the steps, follow the path, stay strong, know that you are making it into the rhelm of good health, and as a by product good looks again. We are all beautiful people, we just have to allow ourselves to feel it in our heads. To think the nurse practitioner at my orginal surgeons ofice thought I had a rotten attitude. She even changed my psych evaluation without the psychiatrist knowing and submitted it in the chnaged form to the insurance company. That nurse has done more to hurt us than any of the bad feelings we develop about ourselves. To this date She is still dealing with patients. When you encounter one such as her, don't silently take it. Get in their faces and stand up for yourselves, and if you need help, call on the pit bull here and I will help you.

Hi Aggie and I hope that everything goes so well for you this week. Keep us posted and I love your attitude!!! hugs from down under Helen

There is my mate!!! Vicki, can you believe you have lost 178lbs???? You are so amazing. I agree with you about all the things that most people take for granted being now able to do, ie, fitting into a booth at a restaurant. I still dont see any difference when I look in the mirror either, and feel just as fat, so I must admit I do have a little panic when I go somewhere that I wont fit, or will break the chair. As for painting your toe nails, I would like to put a wager on the fact that you love to paint your toe nails PINK!!!! would I win??? love you lots, Helen

Heather that is fantastic!!!! 151lbs down, woooohoooooo, what a year!!! hugs from down under Helen