Julia Z.

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HelpMeRhonda !! 22 years, 10 months ago

You are looking so wonderful. You are such an inspiration to me. ALthough i have lost 50lbs post-op 7/10/02, my mind still see me at my orignal size. I think it is great you are your own cheerleader, that is the first step to sucess is loving yourself. God Bless keep up the good work!!

Julia Z. 22 years, 10 months ago

<p>I'm one year, two days post-op and I've exceeded all my goals. I can wear size 4 jeans (I had hoped for size 10!), I can totally keep up with and even outrun my 2.5 year old, and my overall health is excellent. I had hoped to lose 150 lbs to get to 160, and instead, I lost 175 pounds and have settled at 135 for the past week or so. <p>I love the way I look now, and hope to lose a little more weight, but if I stay here, I will be happy. My lean body mass is 114 pounds (so only 21 pounds of fat!) and that same calculator puts me in the "athletic" zone with about 18% of body fat... I can hardly believe that but I do feel fairly skinny. <p>What they say is true, it takes a while for your head to catch up with your new body. I put on my size 4s or 6s, and my size small shirts, and I look in the mirror and see a 10/12. And I walk around and feel like a 14/16. But ANY of those are a huge improvement from the size 32 I was busting out of a year ago! It is truly amazing (and gratifying) when old friends and co-workers don't even recognize me, and it happens at least once a week now. :-) <p>I'm going to get a bit quieter in my very long profile over the next year... someone was very critical about me &quot;being my own cheerleader&quot; in one of the local groups here and that really stung... I guess I'm just too happy about the hard work I've done saving my own life to suit some people. Tough. I <i>am</i> proud of what I've accomplished and I'm not ashamed of the struggles I've been through. <p>I will continue to contribute to AMOS and will keep working &quot;behind the scenes&quot; as a moderator here. I love this community and the strength it represents! <p>One last thing... I have great friends and &quot;family&quot; here, but maybe even more central to my success are the folks that made my medical turn-around possible... my PCP, Dr. Paul Sandstrom, my gynecologist, Dr. Debra Chaput, my psychologist, Dr. Saul Breit, my sleep doctor, Dr. Pisani, my WLS surgeon, Dr. James Weber, my plastic surgeon, Dr. Sepehr Egrari, and my gastroenterologist, Dr. Bohorfoush, and all of their wonderful staff people, especially Teri in Dr. Sandstrom's office, Pam and Lisa in Dr. Weber's office, and Valarie and Maria in Dr. Egrari's office. When I think about all the referrals that Dr. Sandstrom had to write for me to see all those other docs, and then all the professional and thoughtful care I've received from these people over the past year, I'm overwhelmed and a simple <b><i>Thank you</i></b> is not enough.

Teekay80 22 years, 10 months ago

You look great. You are a true inspiration as to what hard work and dedication can get you. Thank you so much for keeping your profile so informative. COngratulations on all your success.

missi W. 22 years, 11 months ago

Julia - You look fabulous! You are such an incredible inspiration to those of us just joining the losing side. WAY TO GO!! ~Missi

Julie O. 22 years, 11 months ago

One eighth your size - you must be a "Mini Me" :-) you look great!

kylakae 22 years, 11 months ago

Julia, congratulations on reaching goal! I can't tell you how much you inspire me! Thank you for staying on and continuing to be a full member of this board. You inspire people on a daily basis! Blessed be!

Julie O. 22 years, 11 months ago

What an inspiration you are to us Julia!! The stories you tell are the ones a lot of us pre-ops are fantasizing about. Congratulations on reaching all of your goals and thanks for sharing your journey.

Julia Z. 22 years, 11 months ago

It's a week shy of my 11 month anniversary of my Open RNY, and it's been two and a half weeks since my plastic surgery... and ladies and gentlemen, I HAVE REACHED MY GOALS!!! Actually, I have EXCEEDED them!!! <p>I started out at 310 lbs in size 32 jeans. My dream was to get below 175 lbs and to wear size 10 jeans again (as I did in high school 17 years ago). <p>I am proud to say that I now weigh 145 lbs and I am IN those size 10s!! And they are comfortable, even if they look like doll clothes coming out of the dryer! LOL <p>My dear bariatric surgeon, Dr. Weber, says I should lose 15 more pounds to get to 130, his version of &quot;ideal&quot; for me; my fantastic plastic surgeon, Dr. Egrari, wants me to quit losing weight now as he thinks I look &quot;just incredible&quot;. Honestly, to some extent, it doesn't seem up to me... my body has a mind of its own these days and it does seem that the pounds are going to continue to trickle off for a little while longer. <p>Best of all is that all of my co-morbidities are gone... even my life-long asthma is VERY MUCH improved. The extensive abdominoplasty has given me back the body I had when I was 18, to the great pleasure of my lover and I... nothing like exploring everything all over again because it's all new... and it even fixed the most horrible and humiliating medical problem I've ever had, a rectocele... even I, queen of tell-all, will not tell you much about this and was deeply ashamed that it was likely that I was going to have to have special surgery (with only a 50% chance of success) to fix this problem... but it's no longer necessary, the extensive body lift that Dr. Egrari did has cured it. I am profoundly grateful for the dignity and respect that Dr. Egrari has shown both my body and my spirit, he is a very rare person, a true healer. <p>And finally, a shout-out for all my buds, co-conspirators, co-whiners, and just plain friends in <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EMOSS/join" target="_blank">EMOSS</a>, the support group I started last year that's grown by leaps and bounds and threatens now to take over my life. :-) <p>Watch for my new website, complete with all the gory details and lots of nekkid photos (clinical of course) of my plastic surgery, before and after... I hope to have it up and really running with lots of content by 08/20. <a href="http://www.ziobro.us" target="_blank">Julia's Web World</a>. Hang in there everyone and fight for your health!

Debbie A. 22 years, 11 months ago

Julia - Wow! I just finished reading your profile and surgery page (I sure do hope you have a copy of it backed up-in case it ever disappears!) and want to congratulate you on being such an inspirational role model for us pre-ops! There is so much good information that I gleaned from you and I've stashed away little tidbits to talk to my doctor about. I'm so happy for you and your major weight loss and rejoice with you in your new and improved health! May God continue to bless you!

kylakae 22 years, 11 months ago

DANG! You look INCREDIBLE!