Laura H.
01/31/2007 Hello all. Time for an update. I just had my 18 month checkup and I am doing great. I am down 158 pounds! I have set a date for a lower body lift with Dr. Kessler. My first round of PS is on March 7th. Looking forward to a flat stomach for the first time in my life. Having trouble with kidney stones this last week. Went to urgent care on Sunday and they thought I had pulled a muscle in my back. They gave me a pain shot and meds, but on Monday had another round of extremely bad pain, I thought I had ruptured something and the pain was in my stomach as well. Went to the ER and they said I had kidney stones. They said to drink lots of water and it should pass. I don't think I want another round of pain. I have been trying to drink more then my usual 64 ozs of water everyday. I have been living on pain pills all week. Yuck.
03/15/2007 Hello all. Time to update. I had my first round of plastic surgery last week. All went well. I had an lbl done. It took nine hours and they took nine pounds of skin. Recovery is going ok. I am 8 days out and have only two drains left in. The last two should come out on Monday. One of the drain sites is a little red and the area around it is hard so I am back on antibiotics for it. I have been messaging the area around it a little and it seems to help. I will keep an eye on it this weekend. My ps says to call him on his cell if it gets worse this weekend, Hopefully, I won't have to bother him.
So, I am not used to having a flat stomach. I seem to be emotionally distant from the whole thing. I don't understand why. Maybe once the first month or so is over and I can get back into my normal routine I will feel more emotion about the whole thing. Maybe because it has been such a dream of mine for so long that now that I have lost all the weight and I am starting to get a body I have always dreamed about, I am finding it hard to accept. I am still not used to people calling my pretty or beautiful. I am getting better at it though. ;-) I look in the mirror sometimes though and say to myself who is that person staring back at me. I just feel so blessed to have been able to lose all this weight and get healthy and to have been able to have the plastic surgery done. I know I am a changed person now because I miss the gym and can't wait to get back to doing my cardio and working on toning this new stomach of mine. I think I will wait a few months for round two. Hubby and I are still arguing about what size breast I should get.
05/29/2007 Hi again, thought I would update this profile thing. I am doing great. I am almost three months out from my lbl and am in the process of scheduling my second round of plastics. I am going to be having an upper body lift done and a breast lift hopefully in August. I am very happy with my lbl. I have a flat stomach and I have been working on my ads three times a week at the gym trying to build up the muscle the Dr. tighten in the lbl. I am down to 154, but would like to lose another 15 to 20 pounds. I am still considered overweight and would like to be normal for once. I need to weight about 135 to be in the normal range. Maybe once all the plastics are done and I work hard at the gym and keep true to my diet I will get there. Right now I am working hard at the gym to get as strong as I can for my next surgery. That's it for now. 09/18/2007 Day six out of PS and all is well. Kind of tired today as I didn't get much sleep last night. Part of the anesthesia effect. I had the same thing happen to me last time. Took a few weeks to get out of my system and back into my sleeping habits. (Which aren't good anyway.) I guess the B complex didn't help with that side effect. As far as the PS goes, everything looks really good. I am very happy I decided to have my ps do this procedure on me. All the drains are out and I am only having problems with one area under my armpit that is swelling a little and it feels like there is a lump there. I don't think it is fluid, maybe some scar tissue that needs to work it self out. I have been putting some Ice packs on it and it seems to help a little. I now have a nice waist and I can only image what it will look like once the swelling goes down. I like the way my breast look too. He did a good job.
12/11/2007 Hello again, well I am set to have my third round of PS on Dec. 28. I am going to have a circumferential thigh lift, some lipo and breast augmentation done. I think my arms and the revision they say I need to my tummy tuck will have to wait a year or two till I pay down some of this debt. Yikes, I have never been this much in debt before, but I figure I am worth it. I do have a new plastic surgeon and the difference between this office and my last ps is like night and day. I guess until you actually deal with a different office you don't realize just how bad the other one was. I am happy with my decision and look forward to just getting this over with and going on with my life.
04/26/05 Waiting for my Cardiac Consult. I can't get a surgery date until I have this consult and they clear me for surgery. I have to wait seven weeks for an appointment. I have called back to see if there have been any cancellations, I was able to move my appointment up a week so far. Still six weeks out though. This is pushing my surgery date way back. I'm not very happy about that.
05/12/05 finally got in to see the heart doctor. Everything went fine, but they want me to do a stress test. Its standard I guess. Will go for that on Monday. Hopefully, I will get a surgery date sometime next week. It looks like I won't have surgery till late July or August though. This is taking much longer then I thought.
5/20/05 Stress test went great. Finished the test without having to quit. They said my heart was normal and I was a low cardiac risk. Yeah. Got my surgery date today. I wanted Dr. Leport, but he was booked into Sept. I decided on Dr. Ali, he was my second choice and I got in at the end of July. They also scheduled me for my doctor talk, one on one and nutrition class. I'm on my way. July 25th will be here before I know it.
07/08/05 It has been a while since I have updated this. A lot has happened in the last few months. I lost my Father to cancer last week. We only found out about it two weeks prior to that. It all happened so quickly, I am just stunned. Maybe it is better that he did not suffer so much with the pain. He was in extreme pain the last few days. Luckily, I was able to grant his wish, to come home and die in his own home with his family around him. In this very difficult time, I thought about putting my surgery date off for a while, but my counselor said it would be good for me to go ahead with the surgery. It will make me focus on something other then my loss. So I have decided to keep my surgery date of July 25. I am grateful for having such a supportive family and my work has also been very supportive. I have finished most of my tests for surgery; I just have to go for an ultrasound and chest x-ray. Had my one on one with the doctor and all went well. I was afraid that the doctor was going to say something because I have gained weight in the past few weeks, but he said nothing. So a few more weeks and my life will be change again, this time hopefully for the better.
07/24/05 Well, tomorrow is the big day. Have to be there at 5:15 in the morning. I'm looking forward to getting this part of it over with and starting my new life. Everyone has been so supportive and encouraging. I want to say thank you for all the emails I have received from Obesityhelp.com. All the prayers and words of encouragement have meant a lot to me. My family, friends and co-workers are also very supportive. The only thing I'm worried about is something going wrong. After just losing my Father, I guess I'm thinking stuff I shouldn't, but I have two beautiful kids and I am a little afraid I won't come out of this surgery and see them grow up. Even though I am "low risk" I am still worried. I have to leave it in Gods hands and let him decide though. That's it for now. See you on the "losing" side. :-D
08/23/05 Wow, I didn’t realize it had been so long. Surgery went well. I was in the hospital 3 ½ days. Grateful to come home from the hospital. My husband has been a dream and stayed home with me for the remainder of the week. Helped me to the bathroom and did all the chores and took care of the kids. Got me whatever I needed and let me sleep.
Well, I am almost a month out and I have lost 28.5 pounds. I actually lost 30 pounds but gained some back. I don’t know how. I am getting a little frustrated. I lost a lot a weight in the first 2 ½ weeks and then nothing. I don’t eat half as much as the program says to. I’m not cheating or detouring from the diet either. I’m at a loss. I have tired to up my protein and exercise more, but so far nothing. I hope this isn’t it or it would not be worth all I have been through.
I guess I’m a little down right now. Still getting over the death of my Father almost two months ago. I took care of him for over 2 years and now I have lots of time on my hands. I still haven’t been able to bring myself to clean out his room yet. I keep saying I’m going to do it this weekend and the weekend comes and goes and I don’t do it.
I still have been true to the WLS through all of this. I have a few friends that have had the surgery done and they have told me that if I’m not eating enough, my body might be going into starvation mode and it will cling to the pounds. I have been trying to eat more, but the pouch only allows so much.
One of my WLS friends told me that 28 pounds was great for the first month and to not worry about not losing weight for a week or two. It will come off. So for now, I am just going to stick to the plan and see what happens.
09/13/05 Went for my six week check up last week. They said I was doing GREAT. 40 pounds down in less then seven weeks. I had my first bad experience with eating last week. Ate to fast and got this terrible pain in my chest. Felt like a gas bubble the size of a baseball. Just sat there. Finally I got it to come up. Was sore for hours afterward too. Not fun! Learned my lesson from that one. I know when I am eating to fast now and slow down. The doctor said to wait 10 minutes between bites. That seems a little much, but I am waiting much longer now. I'm starting to exercise more too. Was going to get on the Bowflex today, didn't get a chance with the kids and my husband being in a lazy mood. I walked though, so that will have to do. I find that some days I am very hungry and I think I am eating a lot, then I look back and think about it and I haven't really eaten that much. Other days I hardly eat anything. I'm not hungry at all. My blood pressure has been great lately, at the doctors it was 117/75. It has been running like that for a while now. They cut my meds in half and I don't think I will be on the high blood pressure ones much longer. That's all for now. Try to update more often.
12/18/05 Wow, I guess I have not been a good girl with this profile thing. Didn't realize it had been so long. Well, I guess you could say I have been busy. I took three classes at college this term. Finally got done with that. Yeah! Won't do that again. Too much stress and not enough time with work and kids and home.
Weight loss has been going well. I am down almost 80 pounds in little less then five months. I was hoping to make it to 100 by my six month date, but I have discovered I can have sweets and that is not a good thing. I gave in to a bite of See's candy and didn't dump on it. I wish I had. I will have to work on the will power. Sweets have always been my downfall. I am more aware of the food cravings now and I still have them. It is a mind thing and I need to work on that. I will fail if I don't.
My New Year's goal is to work on an exercise routine. I need to get going on it, I have been lucky to lose so much weight without a lot of exercise, but I know it will not last for ever. I need to get into a routine and stay with it forever if I want to lose the rest of my weight and stay healthy. My other goal is to work on the bad eating behavior that has pledge me most of my life. I need to face this head on and deal with it and find other things to do instead of eat.
Christmas will be hard this year. My first without my Dad. I miss him. I realize now how much I depended on him to talk to and support me. Watching football is hard without him. Well, at least he will be spending Christmas with Mom for the first time in over ten years. They are together again at last. God Bless them.
I will work on getting a picture on here soon. Till then, Happy Holidays to all.
02/07/2006 Well, it has been a long time since I last wrote. AGAIN. My how time flies. My six months came up on January 25th and I was down 94 pounds according to the doctor's office. I was trying for 100, but didn't quite make it. Doc says I am doing great. Off all meds and my blood pressure and sugar are great. As of today I am at 99 pounds, still shy of that 100. I will get there though. I joined a gym last week, working on trying to get there at least three times a week. I found I have slowed in the weight loss but the inches are now coming off more quickly. I will have to go out and buy new clothes soon as I am running out of all the smaller sizes I kept from way back when. I kind of don't want to buy a lot because I hope to lose at least 70 more pounds. I am still dealing with the metal issue of eating bad food. I find I can eat junk, although greasy or fatty food makes me feel bloated. I can handle some sugar, but not a lot, over indulging makes me dump which is a good thing. Keeps me on track. I am trying to make an effort to eat the right foods. That is what is going to make me thin and healthy for the rest of my life. If I go back to the old way of eating, I know I will gain the weight back. Well, until next time.
02/09/06 Weight myself today and I am exactly 100 pounds down from my highest weight. YEAH!!!
03/15/06 Thought I would give an update. Weight is coming off more slowly now. I am working out more at the gym though and have gone down a few more sizes. I am down to 211 as of this morning. That is 109 pounds down in 7 plus months. I have gone from a size 28/30 pants to an 18/20 or XL in sweats. I even tried on a size 16 sweats and they fit, though be it a little snug. I am in an 18/20 shirt or XL. Closer to an 18. It is nice to shop in the normal size clothes rack. My health has improved so much since the surgery and I want to remain healthy. Got to go for now, I will keep an update on my battle. God Bless.
04/04/06 Hi again. Well I am down 112 pounds as of today. Eight plus months out. I am trying to go to the gym three times a week now. Hopefully, this will jump start things. I want to lose another fifty pounds. The people at my work think I am crazy. They think I should stop now. I still weight over 200 pounds though and I want to get down under that. Into onederland. I am also trying to firm up the flab. My legs have a lot of loose skin. Especially the front and inner thighs. YUCK. I hate it. Baseball season started this week. My father loved baseball. It is bittersweet not having him here to watch the Dodgers or Angels with. I guess he is watching from above.. Miss him lots. Mom's birthday is coming up as is the anniversary of her death. Hard month for me. Hopefully, I don't get too depressed and eat. Still fighting with that bad habit. I do know I am eating better foods. Not all the sugary junk anymore. Craving carbs lately though. Not good either. Had to go clothes shopping again. My closet went from two and half closets full to half a one. My husband even commented that I needed clothes. I would like to get down to a 9 maybe. I can dream. Well got to go. By for now and God Bless.
05/08/2006 Hi all, Well, I finally made it to an important goal. One I have been trying to reach for over a month. I am now under 200 pounds. Weighed in at 198 this morning. Happy day. Would like to lose about forty more pounds. Working hard at they gym. I need to increase my cardio though because it takes a lot to get me to sweat, but when I up the machines my legs don't like it. Need to work at it more. Eating has been going OK. Working out the old habits better. I know I will always have an eating problem, I think that half the battle is won once you admit it and notice when the old habits come back to rear there ugly head. Then I find it easier to put a stop to them. Put the brakes on so to say. I am going on vacation in July, I would like to be in the 180's by then. I will let you know if I make it. :-)
06/27/2006 Hi there, been a while again I see. Well I have been busy at work and getting ready for vacation. My weight loss has slowed to a crawl as far as the scale goes. I am not going to let it bother me though. I am getting complements daily about how good I look and I am losing inches now more then pounds. I am working out at the gym twice a week, (wish it was more, but just can't seem to get there that extra day) I am up to 30 minutes of cardio and weights at each visit. I burned over 400 calories yesterday on cardio in 30 minutes. WOW! 11 Months out now and down 130 pounds. What's just as good is that I can shop anywhere now. Yeah!
07/25/2006 Well, it has been a year. I went to the doctor last week and they have me down 136 pounds. I show me losing about 130, but I wasn't going to argue with them. ;-) The doctor says I am doing great! I wish I could have lost about 20 more pounds by now. I can eat more now and I am a little scared about that. I want to lose about 30 more pounds and then have plastic surgery. I have worked out at the gym for the last several months and I have realized that I am going to need surgery to get rid of the excess skin. I even have skin hanging from my arms and they were never that big. All the muscle toning in the world is not going to tighten up the lose skin, so surgery it will have to be. Now, if only I could find that winning lotto ticket...... I do feel a lot better with all the weight gone. My health has improved immensely. My blood pressure is running about 118/70 and my sugar is usually in the 80's. I don't have to take medicine at all anymore.
I have done more this summer with my new body then ever before. I take my kids to Wild Rivers and go on the water rides now and I take them to the beach and am not worried about what I look like. It nice to buckle up in the car and not worry about if the seat belt will fit or not or if it is going to dig into my hip. I like having room between me and the steering wheel, and I have a lap now. I can cross my legs too. YEAH.
For those of you in the
11/19/2006 Ok, it has been awhile since I have posted. I am down 153 pounds in almost 16 months. Doing very well. I am still losing a few pounds a month. My goal was 150 pounds. I am at 167 right now. With all the excess skin that I have I figure that I have about 10 pounds to reach goal. I am researching plastic surgery and hope to start the reconstruction phase of this journey next year. Since I know that insurance will not pay for this we plan on doing a home equity line of credit to do it. I have three surgeons I am researching and plan on doing consults in January. Will let you know how that goes.
06/19/2007 Turned 42 yesterday. Hasn't been a good past 10 days. Only highlight was getting carded for booze at Sam's club on Friday. HA. That made my day. Girl must have needed glasses. ;-) Anyway, went to
7/22/07 Hello all. Sad news. My brother passed way on Thursday the 19th. I am luckily that I made it up to WA in time. I arrived at his house at 2:00 and he passed away a little after six. His family said he was waiting for me. I don't know about that. I know he suffered in a lot of pain for a long time and he is now at peace. He is with our parents now and in God's hands. He is going to have a full military funeral Wed or Thurs of this week. It will be a hard week. I am with family though and we will get through it together. As far as my weight loss, I am at my original goal of 150.
07/27/07 Just got home from WA. I held up well till the funeral. Fell apart when the played Taps. Then they did a poem called the "The Last Roll Call" (I think?) Totally lost it with that. It was a beautiful poem, but boy I sobbed through the whole thing. It all hit me at once. I was totally wiped out after that. I think I have been trying to stay strong for everyone else and I finally broke down. There is a lot of ugliness going on between my brother's four kids and his estate. It makes me sick. It's not like he has a lot of money, he had a house and a few assets but there are one or two kids that seem to care more about how much they are going to get then the fact that their father just died. I am glad to be home. I don't want to get involved in that mess. I will miss my brother very much and I am glad he is not here to see what is going on with some of his children. Gained seven pounds while I was gone. One of my nieces "other half" made it a point to get me drunk every night. He did a good job of it most nights. I ate too much junk too and didn't exercise. I am back to the gym this weekend and back on my diet. Need to lose lots before surgery.
08/18/07 Hi again, all is going well. I have lost the 7 pounds I gained from June and am working on getting ready for surgery next month. Getting the kids ready for school and me as well. My son starts high school the end of the month. Where do the years go? He will be 15 at the end of Dec. Jeez, it seems like only yesterday he was still playing with Thomas the Tank Engine and drawing dinosaurs. My little one (7) will start second grade in a few weeks as well. I am taking 2 classes this semester, both online. I am thinking of instead of transferring to CSF, of transferring to an online university. Several people at work are doing it that way and it seems to fit into there schedule better. With my daughter into sports and travel ball, I don't know where I would find the time to go to a class a few nights a week. I have bred it into my kids that they must go to college after high school instead of waiting like I did.
Went to my regular doctor on Friday, he says I am melting away. He is such a sweet doc. I love him to death. He is very happy with me. Did blood tests for my pre-op and my 2 year check up with Dr. Ali. I see Dr. Ali next week for that. Hopefully he will be as happy with me as my other doctor. I was told to take it easy at the gym for a week as I pulled some major muscles in my abs. PCP was very impressed with my hard work in that area though. I have been doing about 20 minutes of ab work 3 days a week. I have that flat tummy now and want to keep it.
08/23/2007 Saw Dr. Ali today. All went well. He was very happy with me and said I looked great. Said as far as he was concerned I am at goal. But if I wanted to lose a few more pounds that was ok too. The girls in the office took a two year picture of me and I emailed them one of my night before pictures. The one they had on file of me before surgery got lost in their computer conversion I guess. All blood test came back good so all is well. YEAH.
8/31/07 Feeling kind of blue the last few days. Trying to get off the anti-depression meds. I hate them and the side effects they cause.
Went for my pre-op appointment for my plastic surgery. The doctor went to a conference in
My plastic surgery is scheduled for Sept. 12. The doctor is going to try a new procedure on me that he learned about at the conference. I am having an upper body lift done with incisions on the sides as well as a breast lift. This will be the first time my ps has done the upper body lift with the incisions on the side so hopefully all will go well. I have faith. As long as I am in God's hands, I am good.
Wish me luck.
09/15/07 Well friends, ps went well. Was under for almost 10 hours I was told. WOW. I am doing very well for three days out. I have bounced back very quickly from the anesthesia. I think it has to do with the Super B Complex my ps had me take before surgery. I can really tell the difference. Of course, this surgery had more to do with skin instead of muscle and my pain is not half as bad as my LBL. Overall, my ps took 7 inches of skin from my waist and lifted my breasts. I am very happy with how things look so far. My breasts are much smaller, but nice size C implants will make them look good when I have them done next year.
I was going to put the rest of my ps on hold for a while and try and pay down some of the cost before starting back up, but one of my bosses asked if all my surgeries would be done within a year and I told her I could make that happen. I think they have plans for me at work. ( I hope.) They know I want to go places and I am always pushing to do more. They are sending me to more seminar classes geared toward payroll compliance and they see I am excited to be going. I think there is lots of change going to be happening at my work and I need to be there and ready when they happen. So my next surgery maybe sooner then I had hoped. I am just glad they are so supportive of me and all I have been through.
09/26/2007 Two weeks out of my second round of plastic surgery and all is well. I went back to work on Monday, a few days earlier than I had planned. I am glad to be back at work but I do get tired half way through the day. My weight is floating between 147 and 150. Need to get back to the gym, which the doctor just released me to go back with low impact exercise only. Nothing that will pull on the waist. So I will keep it to the treadmill or bike for a while. I have decided that I am not going to try and lose anymore weight. I figure with two rounds of plastic surgery still to go that I will be about where I want to be by the time they are done. Besides, my husband is not happy with me this thin. He wants me to put back on some weight and that I will not do. I just want to maintain now.
11/17/2007 Well, I think I have finally came to a decision regarding my plastic surgeon. I am going to change. I sent an email to the patient coordinator last Tuesday regarding getting some information about a medial thigh lift. To give her credit, she did email me back almost right away. She said she had forward my questions to the doctor since she did not know how many of them he had performed or what the outcome of the procedures had been?? I can't believe that the patient coordinator does not know this info, but ok. So here it is Saturday and do you think I have gotten any response from the doctor about it? NO! Nothing, not a word. So, I am to assume that they do not want my business and I am going elsewhere. I have an appointment on Dec. 3 with a PS that has been highly recommended to me by several people. He did a presentation at my wls support group meeting the other week. I just can't believe what I have put up with with this plastic surgeon over the last several month. I mean, he is a good surgeon and I am happy with the results except for a few minor issue. Which, by-the-way, he doesn't like to hear about when I bring them up to him. But the way this man runs his office is terrible. Eventually, his lack of professionalism in the front office is going to catch up with him and over shadow his surgical skills. I have had enough of it though. I am done and out of there. I don't need to be treated that way anymore. When a plasic surgeon office getts offended because you ask questions it is time to move on.
Weight loss is going good again. I have increased my cardio to an hour three times a week and have included the stairmaster into my workout. Working on one of the minor issues left over from my LBL. I had gained several pounds and got up to 152 again. I have managed to take it off and I am now at 146. My lowest weight yet. YEAH! Going back to these support group meeting has made me realize just how bad I had gotten with my eating again. I am back on track now and trying to keep up my protien and not drink while Ieat and take longer to eat my food. I didn't realize just how bad It had gotten, but when the lady at the support group meeting said I could ruin the whole tool I woke up real quick. Gotta go, will update later.
Weight is bouncing between 146 and 148. I am stressing as finals are coming up and I notice I tend to eat more and it has been so busy that I haven't been able to get to the gym as much as I like. Once finals are over it will get better. That is all for now. Till later.
