KMDominguez

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It has been a long time since I was on. I will keep this short, but wanted to give a brief update.

Things are good. Am a few pounds heavier after the winter, but looking forward to getting more active again as the weather warms up. Still about 100 below my heaviest weight and I am very happy with that. I live in a new state now, and most people here don't know that I was ever morbidly obese or had bariatric surgery. Not that I try to hide it, you just can't tell, and I generally don't bring it up. I think that is a statement as to my success. I am still very happy with my decision to have the sleeve and would do it again in a heart beat. No, I don't look great naked (still thinking plastic surgery might be nice at some point), but I look perfectly normal clothed, and even good in a dress.

Good luck to all those still considering surgery. It is soooo worth it.

Hard to believe its been a year! It has flown by. I can tell you I feel better than I ever expected. I look great (if I do so say myself), and get compliments all the time. This is the best thing I have ever done for myself, and I am very glad I did it. 

My labs are good overall, though my ferritin has been trending down. Still normal, but I don't like that its dropping. I have added iron to see if that will help. This most concerns me because donating blood is important to me, and I don't want to lose the ability to do that.

Obviously the easiest thing to measure is weight lost. At my highest: 228. Day of surgery: 208. Today: 121.4 Ihave been hanging out in the low 120s for a few weeks and fluctuating a little. It never even occured to me I would lose that much. I would have been happy to get down to 150. I guess I am pessimistic at heart. But everything else had failed, and studies show 50-80%EWL with the sleeve.  So this is amazing! I am normal. And really, it was easy. No, I can't eat like I did before, but that is a small price to pay for feeling so much better. And being off my BP meds, and rid of my CPAP. I can wear a size 4! I can run, ride my bike, exercise, whatever I want, and it feels good, not like my heart is going to explode. The simplist thing, like climbing on the counter to get something off a high shelf is easy now, and I struggled before. Work is easier because my belly isn't always in the way.

One of these days I will get around to putting an updated pic up. One thing that hasn't changed is my hate of having pictures of me taken. I am still very self conscious in that regard, though I know I look better. 

So... drawbacks. Nothing that would make me not do this, but I lost a lot more hair than I expected, and it is very slow to grow back in. Not a big deal. I never thought I would want plastics, but now I am pondering it. My boobs are gone. I know 70 year old ladies with less floppy breasts than I currently have, so some augmentation is tempting. My arms, which had batwings for a while, have actually tightened up quite a bit, so I am happy there. My biggest problem area is my stomach, which doesn't have a lot of fat, and not really a panni per se, but is just not pretty. A tummy tuck may be in my future, if I can ever afford it and be able to take the time off to do it. The only other problem area is my butt- I have developed bumflaps! But maybe some exercise will help tone that a bit. I'm not so concerned about that.

That's all I can think of to say for the moment. 

Yesterday marks 9 months since surgery. What an experience this has been! I am so glad I did this. 
I have lost nearly 100 lbs from my highest weight, 81 since surgery. My BMI is now normal, and I weigh less than I can ever remember weighing as an adult. I feel great!

I am planning on getting a tattoo to commemorate 100 lbs lost. Currently figuring out the design and scraping together the money to pay for it. Will likely have to wait for taxes, as I am still paying for my surgery. I would like to get a celtic knot, to symbolize my heritage, but also the way all things are connected in life. I will also somehow incorporate a staff of asclepius or caduceus to symbolize my profession. 

 Big crazy happy dance! I made my goal in 7 mos 1.5 weeks. I picked my goal pretty arbitrarily, and honestly wasn't sure it would really happen. Why should this work, when I've always failed before? But it worked. It has been amazing. No, it has not been easy. But this surgery gave me the tool I needed to get rid of that weight and become healthier. I feel better than I have in years.

Now, that I have made it this far, I want to go further. 130 would make me "normal", so that will be my next goal. From there, who knows?

Happy Halloween sleevers!

Obviously I'm not big on blogging, but it seems like I ought to update this...

6 mos surgiversary last week, and things are going great. 

I am within 10 lbs of goal (have lost 87.5 lbs total, 70 since surgery), and am thinking I may make my goal a bit lower. 130 would be "normal", and I like that idea. I have started to get a lot more comments about how good I look. Its really weird. I have someone stop me in the halls on a daily basis and tell me how good I look and ask me how I did it and how happy they are. These are often people I don't really know, and it surprises me they would still notice the difference.

I am back to a fairly normal diet, albeit small portions. Always have my protein first, then veggies or fruit and carbs if I have room. I drink a protein drink daily. I am usually able to get 64 oz of liquid in, but I am always thinking about it to make sure I don't get behind. On days where we have long cases in the OR it can be hard to get enough in. Lately I have been having some problems with nausea after my vitamins. Tried switching my PPI to night time and that seemed to help some. I did try to go off my PPI, but within a day I had horrible reflux, so back on it I went. 

I think one of the weirdest things is how I see myself. Sometimes I can see the difference. Other times I look in the mirror and I see the same me as before.  Sometimes when we are shopping for clothes I still gravitate towards the plus sizes before I realize they are humongous on me. On one hand I don't want to quit losing, but it would be nice if I could actually start getting some nice clothes. Not worth the money when they start to fall off in a month or two.

The one thing I am not the best about is exercise. I can't seem to get in a routine and do it on a regular basis. I was doing pretty well going for bike rides several times a week, but now its getting colder and gets darker earlier, so that is pretty much done until spring. Thankfully I do a fair amount of walking on the job, so its not like I am sedentary. On days that are long I am just too pooped to workout when I get home. Currently trying to do sit ups and some free weights every night before bed.

All in all things are going well. This is the first week I haven't lost anything, but I'm not about to complain. I've lost 75 lbs from my highest weight, which astounds me. 54 since surgery. I bought a pair of size 10 jeans yesterday! And they aren't even snug, actually a bit loose. I've had a couple people tell me recently I needed to stop loosing weight. That kind of floored me. They were both people who didn't know about my surgery, so I think it was more they were worried something was wrong, but still. I'm not down to a "normal" weight or BMI yet, and I don't plan to stop loosing until I get there. I'm increasing my exercise, and going to be a bit more careful with my diet.  I had an appt with Dr Teel today, and things look good. My lab work looked great. I am so glad I did this, and wound do it again in a heartbeat.

I am a bit late writing this since I have been on vacation the last week. Better late than never I guess.

Its been 4 months now. Things are going great!
I'm down 70+ lbs from my highest weight.
My BMI is no longer obese.

Vacation went pretty well in terms of my eating and water intake. I took a case of bottles water and green tea, and I think I managed to stay better hydrated than I usually am at home. Also had made sure I had all my usual snacks in supply and just kept a spare in my pocket wherever I went.  Only problems were eating at my sisters house, and when I went out to eat with my step mom. My sister is well meaning, but one who always forces her kids to eat everything she gives them. Not my style but fine. A little awkward for me though when I can only eat so little... Dinner with my step mom was okay, but I ate too much and ended up getting sick. She doesn't know about the surgery (we are not close at all), and I didn't feel like getting into that discussion, so just tried to not draw attention to my eating. Was family style chinese, so that all worked okay, just had too much too quick and blegh!

Everyone noticed how much thinner I am and that was nice. A real confidence booster to get all the comments from people I haven't seen in a year or more.

Had to make a trip to goodwill for some shorts before we left, as I have nothing that fits now! Now I have a nice assortment of summer things for when I am off. It is weird to look at my clothes now, because they seem to small to belong to me... I guess I will get used to that in time. I got all 12s for the shorts, and they are all comfortable loose. I don't think it will be long before I can start buying some 10s and that just totally amazes me. I can't even remember being that size!

Okay, I guess thats enough rambling for know. I am exhausted from my trip (road trip from Ohio to Colorado and back in 7 days) but had a good time and enjoyed seeing the family. I just wish I had had some more time to see some old friends.

Went to Kinds Island today and was thrilled to be able to fit on all the rides. Last time I went to an amusement park there were several I couldn't go on, and it is saddening and embarrassing to have to walk back out and wait while the kids go on without me. We had a great time today, and I fit with room to spare. I also have so much more energy now, which made the day nice as well.

Also happy because I went to the Gyn, and at least by their scale I am down 52 lbs now. Haven't checked at home yet, but it should be fairly close and that makes me happy to have gotten to that goal. Oh! And I bought a size 14 shorts. I can't even remember when I last wore that size,

On the down side, I finally caved and got my hair cut. I love it long, though I always keep it up. But with the amount of hair I've been loosing it was getting awfully thin. So now it is about shoulder length with layers. Hopefully the hair loss with slow down soon. I'm really making an effort to get in more protein,

So it has been 6 weeks now, and I feel the need to write a little about the experience. Easy? No, but not horrible.  I would go through it again in a heart beat. I've lost a total of 40 lbs now (including 18 on my preop diet). While that isn't exactly gangbusters, I feel so much better, and am immensely happy at how things are going. My weight loss has been steady, and it doesn't feel like I'm really working at all to do it. I could probably speed things up a bit if I started actively working out, increased my protein or water... but right now I am happy with how things are going.

The first few weeks were a bit rough.  I felt much better once the drain was out (in 6 days, seemed like a lot longer...), but still not great. Didn't really mind the liquid phase. Biggest problem there is I do not like protein shakes. I have tried a wide variety of different ones, and still have only found things I can tolerate, not really like. So I try my best to get it in through my diet. My tastes did change a lot after surgery, and even over the first few weeks. 

I am so glad to be able to drink fairly normally now. Having to sip sip sip just to get anything in was hard. Especially once I was back at work. I almost passed out one day in the middle of a case, and that scared the shit out of me. I can't exactly gulp things yet, but I can sit and finish a bottle of water in a reasonable amount of time. I don't have any big problems eating. As long as I chew everything well, it goes down okay. I don't eat much, but thats not really a surprise. I haven't been a perfect angel, but even when I eat things I shouldn't, I am satisfied with just a taste. I just don't crave things the way I used to. I did have some trouble tolerating milk after surgery (but not all dairy, kind of weird), but that seems to be getting better with time.

Things I wish I had known? The horrible breath. That my body odor would change as well. The horrible "war in my stomach" gas and rumbling that first week.How hard it would be to get in 64 oz of liquid a day. That despite losing 40 pounds, I still haven't gone down a clothing size in "real" clothes (though I am in smaller scrubs, and have tossed out some pants that kept falling off of me). I know it will happen in time. I'm happy and wouldn't change my decision for anything. Thank you Dr Teel, for helping me get my life back.

Its still hard to believe it actually happened. I'm 2 days out now, and starting to feel better. Its odd because my incisions arent bothering me at all, but the rest of my chest and belly feel like I've been used as a punching bag. Apparently I swallow a lot of air, and it does not feel good trying to burp that up. The first few times I thought was going to be sick, but nope, just air then felt much better.  I'm rambling.. probably the meds lol.