Been a long time, Update from some 3.5 yrs out. Long

Some of you may remember me.  I hardly frequent the main board anymore, I am mostly on the Preggo board but have been on OH since 2007.  I just wanted to update for  everyone who is new to your WLS journey.  I stopped posting here a while back, basically because I was sick of the ongoing “surgery war" that was going on.  Let’s face it.  We all had to get out insides surgically rearranged in some form or fashion to lose weight.  That is a less than ideal situation, so I really could care less if you can eat a quadruple cheeseburger and still lose weight.  That is not the way I chose to lose weight.  So I am not interested in any of that in this post.  I wanted to post being 3.5 years out.  Not all of it is rainbows and sunshine but I want to give an accurate account of my journey, so here it is.

I went to my surgeon, Dr Onopchenko, in August of 2006.  I was only 18 and weighed 363 lbs.  My doctor was leery, to say the least.  Actually, I had the highest BMI he had ever seen.  My BMI was 63.  He told me in order to proceed I must lose 40 lbs.  During that time I did all my pre op testing, which took about 6 months.  Now I think it takes much quicker because WLS is becoming more and more popular.  Losing 40 lbs took me over a year.  I had my RNY GBS on September 17, 2007 and 3 weeks passed my 20th birthday.  I woke up feeling like I was ran over by a cement truck.  I had to stay in ICU for hours because my BP was super high.  I was warned prior to my operation by my surgeon that in about 2% of patients you may require a blood transfusion.  I remember signing the consent form thinking “I don’t have to worry about it."  Well, the next day, after I had done my swallow test and was finally able to drink, I went to the bathroom to find my self (sorry TMI) bleeding when I tried to have a bowel movement.  I thought I was internally bleeding.  My surgeon was called, and what had happened was instead of bleeding out of my incisions DURING the procedure, I bled through my digestive tract and now all the old blood was coming out.  My hemoglobin was an 8 and I required 2 bags of blood.

For days I was completely out of it.  My IV had infiltrated and I was so dehydrated no one could stick me.  They had to open up a PIC line.  I was finally released a day later than normal.  The 45 minute long car ride home sucked.  Every bump in the road hurt.  I was hardly drinking and became extremely dehydrated.  But I pulled it together, started drinking my water and protein, and was back at school (my Junior year of college) 13 days after.  I was tired for weeks.  Initially I dropped 80lbs without an effort.

I kept losing, my BP was going down, I started feeling really, really good.  In one year I had dropped an astonishing 170lbs.  I am not saying it wasn’t hard.  I lost friends along the way.  I lost my hair (and it grew back curly?? What?? Lol).  I threw up a good amount.  I went through a phase where all I ate were carrots and oranges.  It was hard.  Then I started to stall, but I was happy with my weight.  I looked great and more importantly I was healthy.

In October of 2008 I thought I was having panic attacks.  They were scary and made me feel terrible.  I realized after one scary incident in wal mart that I was having episodes of reactive hypoglycemia.  My mother gave me a blood sugar monitor and the first time I felt low I tested.  My blood sugar was 30.  I called my mom to ask if that was low.  She got super scared and told me to find something with sugar immediately.  This is something I still have to manage very closely to this day.

On New Years Eve of 2008 I got married at the lowest weight I had ever been in my adult life (I weighed 190lbs) and fit into a size 12 dress, I looked and felt fantastic.  On the 6th day of my honeymoon I found myself doubled over in pain in the Jacuzzi tub in walt disney world.  With my new husband on the phone with my mom, for hours I was in agony.  Then, as fast as it came, it left.  Then 3 weeks later it happened again.  Low and behold it was my gall bladder.  I had it removed in February of 2009.  Good riddance!!

On August 10, 2009 I found out I was expecting my first child!  I was elated but obviously nervous about my weight loss and how it would effect the baby.  I had to be diligent about monitoring my blood sugar.  And to my dismay, I gained a total of 50 lbs (!!!)  My daughter was born at exactly 40 weeks, on her due date.  A happy and healthy baby girl weighing 6lbs 6 ounces.  My vitamins were monitored carefully and stayed within normal levels the entire pregnancy.

Now I am struggling to lose the excess weight.  I managed to lose 20, but am still holding on to 30lbs.  But when I think about this, I currently weigh 220lbs.  This is still considered obese.  But that being said, it’s a FAR cry from 363lbs.  That’s still 140lbs lost!  Even though I am still not considered a “healthy" weight.  I still took off a LOT of weight, and I still have my tool.

What my RNY has taught me is how to eat PROPERLY!!  Before my RNY I used to do weigh****chers.  I would take all my “points" eat McDonalds, in the late afternoon and that was all my food for the day.  I was still “on program" but I was eating terribly.

Now I KNOW how to eat properly.  I eat tons more foods than I did before.  I used to eat a typical obese persons diet.  Tons of fried crap, pizza, and I ate fast food once or twice a day!  I have practically been off fast food for 3.5 years.  I have the occasional wendys chili or salad but absolutely nothing like I used to eat.  I know it sounds like a total cliché, but ask any of my friends or family and they can see a 100 percent change in the way I eat.  I still love food, but now I eat and think totally different about it.  I have a WLS recipe blog, the link is posted on my siggy at the bottom (I used to post my recipes on the main board until I was verbally assaulted by a select few for posting a chickpea recipe?).  I have a daughter and I feel my main responsibility is for her NOT to have a bad relationship with food.  I feed her very healthy in hopes that she will not have to go through life being teased and ostracized about her weight.  And ultimately I want her to be a healthy, active young lady.  I truly believe had I not had my WLS, I would have never known what “eating right" meant.  Once I had it, my complete mentality changed.  Of course there will always be challenges (curse you girl scout cookies!!) but I honestly practice the “everything in moderation" policy now being almost 4 years post op.  And you know what, I am grateful I still have restriction, but now I find I can eat like a NORMAL person and eat NORMAL portions.  I am so grateful for it, and have never questioned my decision.  Not once.  There are times I really want some ice cream.  And I have a little bit (and I do mean little) then I am fine.  

I have more or less accepted that I am always going to be a bigger person.  I feel like chemically I will always be bigger.  But I am healthy, and plan on losing the baby weight.  My cholesterol dropped from 303 to 140.  I went from being pre diabetic to the exact opposite problem (not ideal but IMO I would rather have a manageable condition than diabetes).  My acid reflux has disappeared, asthma is gone.  And I was able to get pregnant fairly quickly, and have a normal, healthy pregnancy, something I am sure would have never happened before.

I hope that this little story has inspired or encouraged some of you.  I hope you see that WLS is not a perfect pretty picture, but can make your life have a much better, brighter outcome had you not chose it.



Pre Op- I'm on the right





my wedding day, 15 months post op




today--

You look fantastic...happy and healthy  And look at that little girl...she is a doll  :)

Thanks, i think she's pretty cute myself! lol

I totally remember you. Didn't you post lots of recipes? I missed those. Get back to it, girl!

You look fantastic! Thanks for the update.

Yep!  I am still posting them :)  plusizedbarbie.blogspot.com/

Congratulations on your success.  You daughter is beautiful.  I'm sure you can get back to the weight you want to.

I share your thoughts about Fast Food.  I haven't had any in 2 yrs (except Wendys chili a couple times).  I've been reading and found that the added sugar, fat and salt in fast food is disgusting, not to mention that the ingredients are so processed and invented to minimize chewing so the customer eats more.  It all about the $$ not about our health.

May you be blessed and have success.

Thank you so much!  The thing about the chewing....EWW

 Chills! Your life seems perfectly normal and healthy. And you and your daughter are so pretty!

It's great hearing from you again! Your baby is absolutely beautiful.....she looks like you but I haven't seen Daddy. I'm so happy you updated us and shared your pictures....awwwwww, so sweet! Come back, it's as fun as ever here!!       Connie

Thanks Connie!!  I lurk from time to time now that my cousin is getting RNY in a week and she is on here a lot now.

Here is daddy lol