Exciting Update! Life and All it's GLORY!

Jun 18, 2015

Well, it's been about 6 months since I've updated my blog.  It's been a crazy 6 months to say the least!  There have been entirely too many ups and downs for such a short amount of time.  But I've made it through relatively unscathed.  I won't bore you with the details on the downs...  It's all just a part of life; living and dying. 

 

For the ups, though!  Where to start!  I got a new tattoo.  I'm completely in love with it!  It was my Super Pi day birthday present.  3.14!!!

I tried the vitamin patches you see advertised from time to time.  Several of the DSers have been giving them a try since they bypass our malabsorption and absorb directly into the skin.  It seems to be working well for many of them.  I was not so lucky.  For some reason, the patches messed with my kidneys and my urine production decreased dramatically.  I began swelling and the weight was piling back on.  I was on the patches for 6 weeks and gained about 18 lbs during that time.  Once I realized it may be the patches, I discontinued use and the weight came back off within a few weeks.  I'm holding steady at 203 right now.  I'm not sure what made me react that way to the patches, but now I know that what I was doing before was just fine!  This whole journey is trial and error.  Keep trying new things until you find what works for you!!

 

Musings from the past are shaping the future...  At 425+, I lost so much of myself.  I was just the shell of a person...  Just existing and taking up space.  As I began to lose after the sleeve, I started to feel like myself again, but I could never quite reach her.  And regaining so much weight, I felt like the failure of a lifetime.  I lost so much time and all the progress I'd made seemed gone.  After adding the DS and losing the regain and taking this new body to new lows...  I still felt like something was missing...  An integral piece of the puzzle of what made me, me.  I knew I wanted to go back to school and finish my degree, but every option felt as though I was settling for what was convenient.  I don't want convenience.  I want a challenge.  I want passion.  I want a life that is exciting and worth every moment that I'm living it!

 

So, I guess the biggest news I have is that I'm back in school!!  But best of all, I am refusing to settle.  I spent 2 years working on a psychology degree that I didn't want because it was convenient.  But working in mental health for a state licensing board, I understand the ins and outs of credentialing and all the bureaucracy that goes along with the pissing contest that is the mental health field...  best whiny voice I can muster "My credential is better than your credential."   Not only that, it takes a special person to counsel people.  I am an enabler.  Enablers do NOT make good therapists!  LOL!  So... Going back to my roots.  Going back to my original hopes and dreams that drove me from kindergarten through my senior year of high school.  I'm now a 34 year old pre-med student!!!  I'm working on a biology bachelors in human medicine!  This never would have been possible 225+ lbs ago!  There's just no way.  With every pound I gained, I fell further and further from the life I wanted.  Goals no longer became attainable...  Just hopeless pipe-dreams.  But not anymore.  Way cool, huh!?!?

 

Some of the downs I've had during the year have driven me to make the pre-med decision even more.  Not only has it always been my dream to be a doctor, but I've always been compulsively drawn to helping people.  No matter the problem, I will fight tooth and nail to help figure out what's going on.  And of course, my most favorite pastime is researching.  Dealing with obesity my entire life, I'm curious about what causes it.  There's so much freaking data out there.  

 

I'll tell you, though...  The most fun part about being a pre-med student is the unlimited access to medical journals. A DS friend sent me on a researchers wild goose chase when he mentioned that there was a correlation between leptin resistance and obesity.  So a few weeks ago, I had my leptin levels tested... just for curiosity's sake.  My leptin level came back at 10.6 and my range should be somewhere between 40-125 based on my BMI.  If you don't know, leptin is the satiety hormone.  The opposite of ghrelin.  Leptin is produced and secreted by your fat cells.  This helps regulate your weight.  If you are leptin deficient or leptin resistant, you have a harder time losing weight because your body constantly believes it is in starvation mode...  therefore holding on to everything you consume.  No matter how healthy you may be eating or how much you may be exercising.  Your body doesn't recognize or doesn't produce enough leptin to make your body burn the calories for energy.  Instead the calories are stored as more fat.

 

So...  in researching more.  This was where I found information on not just leptin resistance, but congenital leptin deficiency.  I needed to understand why a person's leptin would be deficient.  If leptin is produced by fat cells, wouldn't an obese person have high levels of leptin.  There had to be something blocking the production.  But what is it???  LLLOOONNNGGG story short... I found a correlation between high levels of cardiovascular C-Reactive Protein and the inhibition of leptin production.  If a person is deficient...  and not just resistant, can't deficiencies be corrected?  By naturally lowering the C-Reactive Protein levels in the blood, the affect should be that leptin production will naturally increase. 

 

So I'm playing guinea pig.  The DSer's diet is extremely inflammatory. No matter how much we absorb or don't... it's fat and protein.  I'm changing things up a bit.  I'm balancing out my diet a bit better.  FRESH everything, more omegas, little to no processed foods. Few extra supplements to help reduce inflammation.  After doing this for a while, I'll go have my leptin levels checked again to see if there is an increase. Along with checking the CV C-reactive protein marker. Wish I had a baseline for that one... 

 

So that's been my last 6 months.  Lots of wonderful things.  Dreams, goals, passion...  I'm finding it all.  If there is anything that I've learned during this journey, it's that ANYTHING is possible!  It's never too late to change my fate.  And most of all... I AM ENOUGH!!!!

 

 

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About Me
Walker, LA
Location
36.8
BMI
DS
Surgery
10/11/2012
Surgery Date
Apr 03, 2007
Member Since

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