since we have a lot of new faces.... how about we do some intros

Actually I live in the burbs.  I live 25 miles north of Pittsburgh in Brackenridge.  Its close to the Pittsburgh Mills mall.

Hi All-

I'm Kate.  I just turned 39 on 6/29/09.  My gift to myself was RNY on 6/8/09 at UPENN with Dr. Dumon.  I have lost about 36 pounds.  My highest weight was 314, I am 5'11.

I lived with severe chronic pain from Lupus and Fibromyalgia for over 6 years.  Since surgery I have ZERO pain from this, it's been a miracle.  Also PCOS, which is common for us.

I have a 20 year old son who lives/goes to school in Portland OR.  I am originally from the West Coast.  I live in Ardmore.

I love my job, I am a Practice Manager for a large Dermatology, Skin Cancer Surgery Practice.  I am also an RN and use to practice massage before the Lupus/Fibro problems.

I have an extremely supportive man in my life who has helped make this process so
much easier.

We have a Lab mix named Charlie who we adopted 6 months ago, he is the love of our life.

I love the Phillies, live music, camping, festivals, beading and read like it's an addiction.

I hope to be able to practice massage again, even once in a while.

Thanks for all your support!!

Hello All!!  My name is Michelle I have been reading all of your posts for the past six months.  I completed my supervised diet and just had my RNY on Monday at St. Margarets hospital.  Dr. Quinlin was my surgeion.  I live in Pittsburgh, Some of us have to represent the Steeler Nation.  And don't forget about those Penguins.  

I am single and do not have any children unless you count my dalmatian, Dottie.  I do feel like her mother. 

I lost 49 pounds on the pre op diet and my surgery weight was 228.  I am holding off any weigh in until my first post op appointment.  It has meant a lot to read all of your posts.  You are all very inspiring.  

Liz, even though I can't make it to the cooking classes, keep those recipes coming.  the cramsicle pie was great.    Probably won't be able to have it again for a while, but it was excellent.  I made it for my family for father's day.  

Michelle        

Hi Michelle,

Here's another one from the city of champions!!!

 I am Lisa and am mostly an observer here, although I do post when I feel I have something to contribute.  I am 51 (July 19).  I had my RNY at Temple with Dr. Kowalski.  I feel jealous of all you BARIX folks.  You seem to have a connection with each other and a great community.  I don't feel that with my program.  I actually live about 2 miles from BARIX but my PCP insisted on the Temple program for me.

I am 10 months post op --- had a high weight of 240 and am now 158.  I consider myself a slow loser through this process but am still inching down so it really doesn't matter. 

I have been married for 9 years to a great guy I met on the internet. He is retired from the Army but now is an installer for the telephone company.   We were married on July 4, 2000.  We have 4 children between us, and 5 grandchildren.  I got the 3 older grandchildren (6 yo and 4 yo twins) and myself and Joe season passes to Sesame Place this year.  What a blast.  We head over there once or twice a week for a couple hours to just play ---- something I never would have done pre-RNY.

We love to cruise and I've been on 2 cruises post-RNY.  I was worried that the allure would be gone with the food restriction, but just the opposite is true.  I love trying different types of protein dishes --- one's I would never make myself.

I've worked for the same company for 31 years.  I'm a marketing manager for the mid-atlantic region.  I've managed to move out of my Philly office to my home office for the last 3 years and I do love working from home.

I keep saying that I am going to join the Barix folks at one of the support meetings but haven't done that yet.  I think I'll aim for the Saturday one in August :-)

Hi Lisa,

My husband also had his surgery with Dr. Kowalski. We don't find many that are active on the boards and had Dr. Kowalski.

Gene and I go to the barix support meetings on the first Saturday when we can get away from other obligations.
The Barix meetings are great! If you have a chance to get to one I highly recommend going!!!

We went to Jeanes support meeting this past Monday and did not come away from it with the same expreience we get at Barix.

Ida

Lisa,

Congratulations, you are doing a fabulous job!

The Barix support groups are open to anyone who is considering the surgery or has had the surgery, regardless of where you had it.  While Barix extends their space to be used for support groups, none of us (support group leaders) work for Barix and all of us do this on a volunteer basis, and basically share our personal knowledge and try to have groups that touch on issues related to the process of what is experienced in our WLS journey, though there is a nutritionist that works for Barix at the meetings and she can answer nutrition related questions, however, if someone has had their surgery elsewhere, we would never suggest you do anything against what you were told to do by your surgeon, but will share our experiences with you.  So come on down and join us.

Regards, Laureen

Hi I am Shilpa and I had my surgery thru the Barix Clinics in Langhorne and my surgeon was the incredible Dr Pupkova. I have been so blessed to have lost almost 110lbs so far on this WLS journey. I am happily married to my husband of almost 15 years. I have 2 kids an 8 year old son who btw is severely autistic and does not speak but love him to death and a 5 year old daughter who sometimes acts like 20 years old.lol. I have met some incredible people and made life long friends thru this forum and thru the support group meetings. I am incredibly fortunate that the Barix clinics are less than a mile from my house so I get to attend all the meetings for at least part of the times. lol. I think the most rewarding thing that has come out of this journey for me is the inspiration that I am told I give to everybody considering the WLS. I have spoken a few times at Dr Pupkova's pre-op seminars for those people considering the gastric bypass surgery. I am so grateful to have my life back and my only regret is that I did not do this sooner. What a great trend!!

Liz, what a great idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello, I'm Ida. I am beginning my personal WLS journey. I'm 51, I've been married to the most wonderful man for 5 years. I'm originally from Jersey, moved to Philly in 2003 when Gene and I decided to get married. I live in NorthEast Philly. We live on a quiet country road in the city, our single home sits on a ½ acre of ground. We bought the house just prior to our marriage, it's just enough country for me, and enough city for my city boy. I have two daughters ages 28 & 29. They live in NJ, the youngest is married for 2 years now. Gene does not have any children, we do have our 4 legged kitty named Hider. We do not have any grandchildren yet, but we do have 1 Granddog, 4 Grandkats, 1 GrandHamster, and 4 Grandhermitcrabs

I'm employed at KMHP currently as a Data Analyst. Our department is re-structuring so I'll be getting a promotion soon as well as the extra $$$ that go with the promotion.

I've been on OH since 2006. My husband had his lap RnY in Jan 2006, has lost 150 lbs, and has had all his plastic surgery and looks amazing. He had some complications after his surgery which caused him to be out of work for 3 months to recover. He is off all of the medication he was on prior to surgery for high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, gout, and has been off the CPAP machine since he came home from the hospital. He will tell anyone that having WLS was the best decision he's made other than marrying me that is

Due to all the research I did prior to Gene's surgery it almost feels like I've already had the surgery. I'm going into my surgery very prepared, well informed, and all the new medical problems that have cropped up I have all my information so I've made a very informed decision to have this surgery.

My highest weight was between 250 & 260 when I was still married to my abusive ex-husband back in the 1990's. In the early 90's I was employed in a sewing factory which closed down so unemployment paid for me to go to school for training to get out into the workforce. This was a struggle because my ex didn't want me out of his sight. During that time I realized that most employers would not hire someone as big as I was. I also realized just how big I'd gotten when I saw pictures of me as the matron of honor in a wedding. So at school all the women told me about this awesome doctor who gave you pills to loose weight. I decided to go see this "diet doctor" who gave me pills and I lost probably 100+ pounds. Since 1999 when I separated from my ex-husband, my weight has fluctuated anywhere from 130 to 204 which is where I am presently. I am 5ft 1in so anything over 150 on my frame is really debilitating and causes my entire body to ache and hurt to the point I don't want to move but force myself to.

When Gene had his surgery, I lost about 40 pounds with him, but have since gained that + back. I've worked with a nutritionist; I go to Curves 4-5 days a week. I've been tested for Thyroid as well as Cushings disease. My PCP cannot figure out what is going on that I keep gaining the weight which is causing my sugars to go out of control.

I have had diabetes for 13 years, all those years it was well controlled, until the last year. I have not been able to get my sugars back to their normal ranges in almost a year. I also have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, PCOS, arthritis.

I approached my PCP in October 2008 to see if he'd be onboard for me having lap RnY. He is very supportive of this. I had a few setbacks after my hysterectomy. I developed a blood clot in my left leg after surgery because no one told me to stop taking the birth control pills I was on to control the excessive bleeding. After the blood clot I've developed an allergy to heparin. So to have WLS my hematologist and surgeon have to work together to get me through this surgery safely.

I started out with one surgeon who flatly refused to do the surgery due to the heparin allergy. My hematologist disagreed with him. I had a second opinion with another hematologist at the urging of my hematologist, and they were in agreement that I can have surgery and it can be done safely. The second opinion hematologist gave me the name of a surgeon who he's work with, with other patients who have the same allergy as I do. I went to see this new surgeon and he is going to do the surgery. The allergy I have to heparin could never flair up again or it could kill me so they will have to use something other then heparin to do the surgery. There is talk of having a green filter inserted to prevent any blood clots that might form from going to my heart or lungs. The doc's can't say that I'll never have another blood clot so have to do everything to assure a safe surgery.

I am currently waiting for my pre-op testing schedule. As soon as I get that from what I understand I'll also receive my expected date of surgery. I was talking to the nurse practitioner last Monday; she alluded to me probably having surgery before the end of the year. Keep me in your prayers that this will happen. Surgery the second or third week of November would be perfect

I will be having my surgery with Dr. Dempsey @ Jeanes Hospital in Philly. He only does open RnY, but has assured me that he will have one of the other surgeons in his practice also in the operating room to evaluate me to see if I'll be able to have lap RnY. There is a possibility I will have to be cut open due to prior surgeries, praying that I will not and will wake up to find I've had the Lap.

Any questions please feel free to ask. I'm very open and willing to share my experience that I've had so far just jumping and getting over the hurdles that have been thrown my way. I've gone from thinking I couldn't have the surgery to researching and investigating all possibilities.

Thank you Shauna for lighting that fire under my tushie

What a great idea.  Hi all my name is Jenn.  And I am originally from the Philadelphia area born and raised all of my life.  I now live and work in the Norristown are of Montgomery County.  Yes not to far away from the King of Prussia mall.  I am currently divorced for the past 3 years but haven't been with my ex for the past 7 years.  I have finally started to take my life back and work on me first it was the inside and now it is the outside.  I have two wonderful boys from my marriage that I wouldn't give back for the world.  Yes, sometimes you will be hear me refer to them as my monsters.  And yes they can be monsters sometimes, but that are my monsters.  Joey is 14 and is moderate to severe mentally handicap with autisic tendencies.   Jason is 7 years old and is so funny because sometimes he wants to man of the house and then others he wants to be mom's baby.

I am 36 years old and live and love life right now.  I had my surgery May 14, 2009 at Einstein with Dr. Dallal.  I am very happy with my results so far and can't wait to more to come.  So far I have lost 49lbs and I am 8 weeks post op.  I started this crazy journey at 339 and now I am down to 290. 

I can't wait to go to one os Liz's cooking classes.  And I love all of your posts and information.  I always check it out.

My facebook is Jenn Tait Bowman.  And my personal email is jbowma*****@yahoo.com.  Please feel free to contact me if you would like.

Jenn