Lonye A.

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I've been gone for a while, so I'd thought that an update was needed. I'm 10 months out from my gastric bypass. I'm 193 lbs right now and wearing 10/12 tops and dresses and 14 pants. Honestly, I thought that I would have lost a little more weight by now, but I guess everyone is different. My doctor told me he would like me to lose 40 more pounds. I hope I can do it!

Oh, yeah I cut my hair really short. All the thinning of my hair after surgery (months 3-7) I needed to do something. I stopped using chemicals in my hair. I ended up just cutting all of the relaxed ends and wearing my natural hair. I'll tell you it feels so healthy now and is growing back wonderfully.

As some of you out there may know my number one reason for my having the surgery was because I was diagnosed has having PCOS. After surgery I was on birth-control from August until October. I went off of the contraceptive, because I was curious if my body was working, and sure enough it was! I have been having very regular periods with the exception of this month, which ran a little late. This is the first time every in my life that I have 6 consecutive cycles. My fear is that it's gonna end...But, I'm trying to have faith that everything is going to work out.

Oh well, I'm gonna stop my babbling. Talk to you guys later

Today I am 6months out from my RNY gastric bypass. I've lost a total of 74-78lbs depending on if you count total pounds lost from my highest weight or day of surgery weight. Lately, I've been stalling quite often. I'm thinking of just doing protein drinks for a while and see if that shakes things up a bit.

I went to a WLS support group last night. It was my second time going and it only meets once a month. Well, at my meeting the topic of "goal weight" came up. Some of the members where saying that having a goal weight is not a good thing to do, because everyone's body is different and what's important is getting healthier. Which I agree with, but I do think that goal weight when "realistically" given helps people know what to aim for based on height, weight, bone structure.

I forget how this came up, but I remember several members that were still on the heavy side saying that they are happy just being healthier. I know this may sound awful, but this is how I feel. Well, I'm four months out and have lost 67lbs. Which I am very grateful for and I know I must be a lot healthier, but I did not go through all of this just to get to 220lbs. Maybe, all the illness I went through and then the second surgery is making me feel like this. Honestly, I did not put my life at risk to still be obese.

I just wanted to know other people's thoughts. If you didn't lose anymore weight would you be happy with where you are even if medically you were still labeled overweight, obese, morbidly obese, super obese?

So, I've been seeing my collarbones trying to come out for the last few weeks. But, today when I got out of the shower I saw collarbones! And the best thing is that they didn't hide when I moved. They just stood there as proud as they wanted to be. In my mind collarbones are beautiful and sexy, now I have them! Go, me. lol

So, yesterday I jumped out of the shower and grabbed the first towel in the linen closet. Well, it happened to be a regular size bath towel. I wrapped it around me and it fit!  I was so happy! I tucked it under my arm and ironed my clothes and everything. And guess what?  My towel stayed in place! I haven't been able to wrap a regular size bath towel around my chunky butt since I can't even remember. I was so happy!

On a side note I am really losing inches. Pounds on the other hand are very slow to come off. I am wear size large shirts or 14/16 and size 16 or 18 pants depending on the stretch factor. For the last month I've been losing a pant size about every two weeks its a great thing, but very frustrating cuz my budget cannot keep up with my thinning waist.

So, this morning I woke up and looked at myself naked in the mirror for about 10 mins and I gotta say I look pretty damn good! Took a shower and got dressed and WOW! my waist looked so tiny. I love that I have curves like a "real woman" and not a little round ball.

Before I had surgery I was wearing a very tight 24. I refused to buy size 26, because that would just be admitting how big I really was. Now all of my clothes are falling off my booty. For the last month I've been feeling down right frumpy when I get dressed. Yesterday, I wore my favorite pre surgery outfit to work, and my shirt looked like I was wrapped in a blanket. My pants were saggy and nasty looking. That was it! I went to the store after work to try on some clothes to see what size I really wear I was shocked when I was able to put on size 18 pants and zip them up! I tried on a size 16 shirt and it was a little big on me! I haven't been a 16 anything since 10th grade. I was afraid to try on the 14 shirts, because in my mind I kept telling myself if you buy a 14 shirt and 18 pants and take it home it's not going to fit later. I have to work on that thinking. Anyway, I brought a really nice outfit I got the size 20 pants and size 16 shirt. I know I could have gotten the size 18 pants and size 14 shirt, but it's just a bit too hard to wrap my mind around.

This weekend I'm gonna go shopping for a couple more items. I need some clothes that  fit well and make me feel good about myself, and not like a big ole frump monster. Who knows, maybe I will buy that 14.

Tomorrow I will  be three months post op and let me tell you, I'm starting to loose my hair! Everyone says that it will happen and I didn't think it would happen to me. But who does? lol. Anyway, I was doing so good with holding on to my hair and then last week small clumps started to come out every time I combed my hair. I washed my hair this weekend and the amount of hair that fell out of my head shocked me. I'm use to seeing my fiance's hair all over the bathroom, not mine. I guess we will be balding together for a little while.

Today is my first day back to work. I wish I could have stayed out a little longer. I am still a little weak and my stitches haven't healed all the way. I do work a desk job for the most part, but I do have to do some heavy lifting every once in a while. All the crap I've been through, I am not trying to hurt myself in any way. I plan to take it easy on myself for a while.

So, on July 30, I got this really bad headache. I mean the worse headache that you have ever had in your life. I thought it was a migraine or a very bad sinus headache so I took some meds and stayed home all day. The next day I had to run some errands, because I was suppose to start back to work on August 3rd. Well, ended up at my mom's house on her couch most of the day. I made my way back home (about a 40 mile ride). I felt horrible so I stopped to go some flu meds because by this time my body was hurting something bad. I thought, "Oh my Lord, please let this flu pass cuz I got to go to work soon."

I made my way to my house climbed the stairs and started to hook myself up to my feeding bag. Now every time I hook myself up and unhook myself I take my temp. The thermometer read 99.1. Now, I was in the hospital two days prior to all of this happening for my vomiting. And the nurse told me at discharge if I should get a temp above 99.0 go to the ER. I thought okay it’s not that bad and I have the flu meds. I took the med and then promptly threw them up, because it's very hard for me to hold anything on my stomach. I finished getting ready for bed and tried to go to sleep.

I lay in the bed for about an hour and I started to shiver uncontrollably. My fiancé tried to keep me warm by holding me, but I was FREEZING and nothing was helping. I got up and took my temp. It has shot up to 103.2. I called my home nurse and she told me that I should go to the ER. So, we pack our grip and head to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital it was about 1 am and the ER was packed. I thought this was going to be one hell of a night. But they pretty much took me straight back, because my heart was racing. My heart beat was in the 140's. They hooked me to a heart monitor. I was having some abnormal beats when I moved around. They gave me Tylenol and took blood cultures. Every doctor thought that my PICC line (IV) had gotten infected.

I got up to my room about 6am. The next day all I could do was lie in the bed and moan and groan. I have never been in so much pain in my life! It felt like my brain was swollen and pressing right up against my skull. The pressure was unbearable. Also, every single bone in my body ached like I had the worst flu ever. The doctor's said they could not give me anything for pain because it could make my headache worse. They started me on antibiotics later that night and removed my PICC line. I was kind of sad to see my line go because it has been my life line for the past month.

The next day one of the surgeons (Dr. Wynn) came to see me and really couldn't tell me what was going on. She said that the infection probably came from my PICC line and since it got infected once they probably won't put another one in. I'm thinking well, how in the hell do they think I'm going to survive, cuz I can't eat I can't drink. How am I going to live?" Before the surgeon could leave the room my primary care doctor came in and said that my blood culture was positive for some kind of bacteria that comes from your digestive system. This usually comes from a UTI or your gall bladder. So, they took more urine from me and scheduled me for a test called a HIDA Scan.

The scan went fine, because I slept through most of it. Basically, they inject you with some radioactive dye that goes to your gallbladder and they take pictures every min for an hour to watch it fill up. Next they inject you with some meds that make your gallbladder contract. The whole test took about two hours and you could not move the entire time. This is why I went to sleep. After the HIDA Scan they took me to ultrasound. I could tell the tech saw something by the way she wished me good luck before I left her office.

The next day Dr. Wynn came and told me that my gallbladder was not functioning properly and while I had no gallstones it needed to be removed. She explained that it was my gallbladder that was poising me. I was shocked! After having my gastric bypass I never wanted to have surgery of any kind again, because of how sick I've been over the last two months.
I was also losing my faith in my doctors.None of the doctors have been able to figure out what is going on with me and fix the problem. I've seen all three bariatric surgeons at the practice and I swear they thought that it was a mental thing or something, because they could not explain what was going on with me. I looked Dr. Wynn in her eyes and said, "You see I haven't been making this entire illness up." She was couldn't believe that I said that to her. You could see it all over her face she didn't know what to say for a min. She went on to say that they never doubt that my illness was real and that is why they have been at the hospital with me every day. I think that was a bull! I know that they thought that it was in my head, due to different  things that were said throughout my many hospital stays this summer.

So, the next day Dr Irgau the same doctor that did my bypass took my gallbladder out. He told me afterwards that it was really inflamed and while it had no stones in really needed to come out. While recovering I was on two different IV antibiotics to fight the infection. I had another PICC line placed because I had to be on IV antibiotics for two weeks after leaving the hospital. I still have about four days to go on the antibiotics.

The day after surgery my nurse came into my room and told me that my labs showed my blood sugar was 300. 300?! Are you fucking kidding me! I have never had a problem with diabetes. The whole reason I had the damn bypass was because I didn't want to get diabetes like the rest of my family. I swear I cried and cried. The nurse came and took my blood sugar again and it was 127. The doctor came later and told me that sometimes when the body is injured as in surgery it will release a lot of sugar to try and fuel the body and help it heal. My blood sugar was monitored closely and it never went up that high again. So, that was great. I'm still worried about my sugar levels. I don't think 300 is a cool for anyone and anytime.

I still feel like something is going on. I've been getting very short of breath since the infection. I can't walk a flight of stairs without losing my breath. Going out in the heat makes my shortness of breath 3x's worse. Yesterday I went to the store and I walked from my car to my home and I could barely breathe. I've been talking to the nurses about it and I have a doctor's appointment with my surgeon tomorrow. Something has got to happen, because this is in no way normal for me.  Also, I've been very tired my body is just drained. I don't know if it is from the infection, the surgery, or a combination of both. I just can't wait to be whole and healthy again.

I am very happy to report that I have been able to solid food since August 6th! No nausea or vomiting!

As of last Wednesday I've lost 50lbs even. That's not bad for two and a half months, and really considering I only lost 3 lbs in July while I was on my food bag.

 I've lost 1/3 of my extra weight! I have 100lbs to go!