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Hard to believe it's been a few days shy of 20 years since my RNY bypass. I weigh 155 lbs (am 5'8") and feeling great. I've really never had complications from my bypass since day 1 and consider it the most positive act I have ever undertaken to improve my life. I just signed up to attend the 2023 Obesity Help Conference in Costa Mesa on Sept 15 and 16 and hope to see you there! 

Well, a lot has happened since 2012. My weight ballooned back to 244 lbs. Gallbladder trouble, work stress, you know the drill..but mostly bad choices. I have fought my way back down to 207 lbs and continue to lose. I do have an mportant note to offer others. I was never much of a drinker for most of my life. A glass or two and I’d switch to water. However...a few years after my gastric bypass, I found Chardonnay to be infinitely attractive. May be it was the food addiction transferring to alcohol; I really dont know. But I began to drink a lot. First, mostly bingeing on the weekends, but proceeding to daily drinking over the years. This contributed to both weight gain and declining health. I managed to stop entirely about three weeks ago. THAT first week was awful and clearly pointed out that my body had developed an alcohol addiction, as I experienced shakes, night sweats, etc. No fun. So do your best to avoid that outcome. I hope to be back on this blog in a few months with much better news about my weight loss! 

LOrd,almighty, this is hard.  Back up to 172 lbs.  Course its not the almost 400 pounds of 2003, nor is it the 227 pounds of 2010, but seriously...  whomever said it was harder to keep off than take off had that right.  Had made it down to 157 lbs, buck nekkid, now 15 pounds up from that.  eek.

Well, I'm under 160 lbs. Never thought I'd live to see the day.  All those pouch rules and habits you think you can ignore because the restriction from the gastric surgery is doing its job?  Ha.  Learn and fully integrate those rules and habits while you can---the feeling of fullness goes away ultimately, and all you will be left with is what you were able to indoctrinate yourself with...  I went all the way back up from 180 lbs to 230 lbs before I figured this out.   Don't teach yourself how to eat around your surgery! Self defeating.

Another routine update. Considering a bit of finetuning type surgery. Doing a second arm revision (the first surgery and revision were not particularly wonderful.) I must say--if you decide to do plastic surgery, PLEASE just do it with someone familiar with gastric bypass patients! Regular plastic surgeons are no where near as aggressive as they should be, since they are just not familiar with excess skin issues. There--you have by absolutely best advice. Anyway, considering another revision AND a slight neck tuneup.  Already sagging--damn, thats depressing, lol. 

1/9/07 Ending up going with a new surgeon and had a lower body lift. Much better result. Course, it was another $15K I didn't have, but what the hell. Dr. Robert Kessler in Newport Beach did mine, and I very pleased with him. He was aggressive, yet careful, and gave me his personal cell phone number which I appreciated.  Great guy and if I have any MORE plastic surgery (sheesh) it will be with him. I still need a medial thigh lift, but the idea of any more surgery at this point is exhausting. Feels like I've been recovering ever since my open RNY in August of 03.  I weigh about 180 lbs now, about 26% percent fat (need to be around 22%) but am back at the gym again. I wear anything from a size 8 to a size 14 depending on the manufacture. Mostly, I'm a 12, and I'm happy with that, given that I started as a size 32.

8/24/06 OK, well, its been two months. Tummy tuck still pretty unimpressive. Have a date to see the Dr. again late Sept and thats when we'll chat about doing this AGAIN. Sigh.

6/23/06 update: Had my tummy tuck on May 17th. Frankly, was a bit disappointed. It was more a panniectomy than a tuck, really. So the big "shelf" is gone, but he left quite a bit so I still have a prominent bulge. Also, while we talked about lipo, he didn't seem to do anything significant--lots of padding still left. So...my quandry is whether to simply go to another surgeon and pay the entire freight AGAIN (and I'm paying for all this myself) or schedule again with this Dr, given that I'll get a deep discount and probably only pay for the surgery center itself and the anesthesiologist. So...its probably a $5K to $8K question. Damn. Well, given that its off the table for a few months while I heal (and the scar runs hip to hip) I might as well spend the time getting in better shape. Only lost about 6 lbs during the surgery. I'm taking dance lessons now and have signed up with a personal trainer for two days a week, so time to stop whining and start working. I'm make the next plastic surgery decision in the October time frame--see where I am at that time.

1/17/06 update: Still whining about not exercising--I really need to do something about that. Still have the same 10 lbs that snuck back on, well now I think its 15. How could I have worked so hard to let it slip away? Need to get serious about this.

10/11/05 update: Had the arm revision at the beginning of October, and it came out much better this time. Not too much pain, and a fairly quick recovery. I still think I'll wait till next April or May to schedule my tummy tuck--with three operations just this last year, I'm sick of surgery right now. I've put on some 10 pounds--largely due, I think, to not exercisong as much as I need to. I've had a tendency to use my need to recover from my surgeries as an excuse...need to knock that off.

7/24/05 update: The breast lift worked out well, but the brachioplasty was a disappointment--still a lot of skin left hanging.
The Dr. said we could talk about possible revision in October or so.

Had my facelift on 4/19/05. Still a bit over goal weight (20# or so). The facelift was a wonder--I'm surprised with all the skin that was on my neck that they didnt have to tie my ears together at the back of my head. As of today (twelve days later) i look pretty good and will go back to work in a day or so. I have tentatively scheduled my brachioplasty (sp?) and breast skin reduction for June 9th.


3/11/05-Now I'm about 185 lbs. Could probably get down a bit more if I were more compliant with respect to what/when I eat. Dense protein is still a bit of a problem, but I do ok with limited amounts that I chew well. No problems--I'm about 1 1/2 years post op, all my blood work is good, my back pain is markedly improved, and I feel wonderful. I can eat basically anything, just have to be careful with dense protein.

8/23/04 My weight hasn't moved--I think I'm about where I'm going to be longer term. I can eat a lot more now (thats not a good thing, by the way.) I never have had dumping syndrome, just get a bit queasy, but I wish in some strange way that I did. I can now understand all those post-ops who talk about the greater challenges inherent in keeping the weight off. I'm back to my pre-op "hunger"--we'll just have to see how this goes...


6/26/04 Down 160 lbs in a little over 300 days. I'm under 200 lbs now, first time I can recall that in 30 or so years. Dense food still difficult, but extensive chewing is the way to go. Oh, and I look like a shar-pei (loose skin). Now I know why all those post-ops of a year or more were so interested in plastic surgery.

Weight loss has been stalled for the last few weeks. Probably has a lot to do with eating popcorn, lol. Its funny to me that the foods I need (dense protein) have the greatest difficulty in being accepted, while useless carbs can go in all day long. I feel wonderful tho, provided I don't try to eat any meat. Meat still feels almost indigestible and even small bits feel like rocks in my stomach.

1/20/04. Down 105 lbs in 154 days.

11/20/03. Down 64 pounds in 94 days.

10/25/03. Down 42 pounds in 67 days.

10/19/03. Down 39 pounds in 61 days.

10/07/03. Still losing. Down 35 pounds in 49 days.

10/3/03. Moving along. Down 31 lbs in 45 days.

9/30/03. Progress. Down 29 lbs since surgery 8/20/03. Had my first experience with overeating/insufficient chewing last night. Ye Gods. I called a friend on the phone so the last thing I heard would be a friendly voice. Nasty, painful overful tummy,close to vomiting, but couldn't quite do it. Luckily, as the food moved out of my pouch the pressure/pain/nausea backed off. I'm going to try really hard to not do that again.

9/19/03. I seem to have hit a small bump in the road. No weight lost for over two weeks. Seems awfully early for a plateau. Water, protein, exercise, vitamins,doing all I'm supposed to, but who knows...maybe I'm a medical miracle.