Celia S.

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Hello all!

I am officially 12 weeks post-op today and am down 58.3 pounds since surgery! This makes my total loss from my highest weight a whopping 102.2 pounds! Yay!!! My weight today was 282.8. I'm almost out of the 280's already... seems like it was just yesterday I was breaking out of the 300's :)

I have my 12 week followup appointment with my NUT and my surgeon on 1/25. I can't wait to see my surgeon and hear what he has to say about my progress. I  haven't seen him since week 2 post op so it should be interesting! :)

Not much to really say with this post. School starts again in a week. Not sure I'm ready for that just yet, but here we go! LOL

Here's a recent body shot and my "official" before shot (even though I was 15 pounds heavier than I was at my heaviest)! I can hardly believe the difference! :)

So here I am... nearly 3 months post-op. Up until recently I had tested the boundaries on fat and sugar content in foods and was failry certain that I was not a dumper. Well, I don't know what's changed in the past few days, but suddenly I am now starting to experience dumping syndrome. WTH?

Not that I'm proud of it, but I ate a chicken nugget happy meal from McDonald's a while back and it gave me no problems. But NYE my family had queso made with lean ground beef, beans, velveeta, and rotel and THAT caused me to dump. Granted, I didn't look at the fat content in Velveeta, but I'm pretty sure it's less than what's in a happy meal.

The other day I made rice krispie treats with my daughter. I've been bad and eating a small one here and there. Until today they've given me no problem, but as I write this, I'm sitting here feeling so nauseous and I have a heart rate of 100bpm and a little bit of a headache.

My dumping isn't terribly scary or very severe. I have nausea, my heart races, and I get a headache. That's it. Still doesn't feel good by any means, but it's not like I'm running to the toilet or vomiting or anything. It's still enough incentive to stay away from crap foods, though!

I'm just baffled as to why this is just now starting and why it's on random foods that, if history sets an example, shouldn't give me any issues. It's just weird.

I have no idea how many of you reading this right now have read my latest post about breaking down and buying a bathroom scale finally. Without going into a whole lot of detail, I had been putting it off for fear of suddenly becoming obessed with weighing myself and putting too much emphasis on the number displayed on my scale. But being on Christmas break from school and no plans to go to the part of town where my PCP and surgeon's office is to weigh weekly, I figured it would be easier to buy a scale for my house.

So I stepped on last night to set it up and weighed in at 295! I'm under 300 lbs! WOW...

Today I'm officially two months post op and I've lost 46lbs! I've been in a bad way of comparing my loss to others' lately and this practice has made me think I'm a slower loser than most. But when I look at the fact that I've lost almost 50 lbs in just two months??? That is by NO means slow! So I've had a change in the tune of my song and am so happy.

Hi folks! I'm officially 8 weeks post-op! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by... :)

Starting with the numbers, my highest weight ever was 385lbs, I was 383 when I started my journey, 341.5 on the day of surgery (42lbs lost pre-op), and today I am 301.2 (40 lbs lost post-op). So I've lost 82 lbs since May of this year and I'm simply ecstatic about that! :) I was really hoping to have been out of the 300's this week and since I weighed in at 303.6 last week, I thought that was pretty reasonable. So the pesky 1.3lbs keeping me in the 300's is KILLING ME! LOL

My weight loss is a bit slower than what I would like, but then again, if I had it my way, I would have woken up from surgery at goal weight even though I know it doesn't happen like that. It does get very hard to not compare my rate of loss with others. I have a friend who lost 24 lbs in her first 12 days post-op (which is FABULOUS!) but that beats my weight loss for the whole first month. I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining here, because I'm not unhappy with my results by any means... I mean I've lost an average of 20 lbs per month so far and that's nothing to sneeze at!

One complaint that I have is that I am an emotional wreck and have been for the last few months. I'm not sure what it is, though I'm inclined to blame it on hormone fluctuations from weight loss and trying another hormonal birth control a couple weeks ago. Point is, I can cry at the drop of a hat. Christmas is a big trigger for me right now... I think about Christmas and the warm, fuzzy memories shared during this time of year and I tear up. I see a pretty lights display and here come the waterworks. I hear one of my favorite Christmas songs and I'm bawling like a baby! TV shows, movies, thoughts... EVERYTHING sets me off. Part of me thinks I just need to sit down and have a really good cry and it'll solve the problem, but last night I watched an extremely sad movie and cried so hard I audibly sobbed and today I still feel like crying! What is the deal?

On a more positive note, finals week at school has officially arrived! Thank GOD! I need a break and a chance to catch up and gather my thoughts. I have been running non-stop this entire semester and I'm afraid my mistake in taking too much on at one time is going to reflect in my GPA as I'm going to fail one of my classes, but I am going to do well in the other 4, so hopefully that will balance things out a little.

So that's where I'm at now. I don't forsee me updating before Christmas, so many yuletide blessings to each and every one of you! Take care and God Bless!

Merry Christmas! :)

Well, after two days of feeling like complete crap and being baffled about why I was sick when I hadn't been around anyone with a tummy bug and I have an immune system as tough as nails, it dawned on me. Cramping, diarrhea, nausea, headache... ALL are side effects of the birth control patch that I had put on the Sunday prior. Yet another hormonal form of birth control that won't work for me.

This is not the first time a hormonal birth control has failed to impress me. I was on the pill for 4 months after my daughter was born. It turned me into a complete psycho! Mood swings, depression, uncontrollable anger, frustration, etc. I don't quite recall how I figured out that it was the birth control that was causing this, but after I quit taking it, my moods leveled out and I felt normal again. Last year, before starting college again, I decided it would be a bad time to have a baby. So I tried the Depo shot. That gave me 3 week long, EXTREMELY painful periods. I was completely miserable the entire time that stuff was in my body! Needless to say, I did NOT go back for a second dose. So I weighed my options again. IUD's are not a consideration for me. My doctor doesn't like to give them to women unless they are pretty sure they don't want anymore children, but not so sure they want to do something more permanent. This is because the IUD's do carry a risk of causing infertility. It may be a small risk, but when you have your heart set on more children, that small risk seems really big! I considered the Nuva Ring, but I feared I would forget it was in there and end up getting really sick because of it. Adhesive on bandages irritates the heck outta my skin, so I didn't think I would like the patch (BTW, I was right about that... it was only on for about 3 days before it was driving me absolutely crazy!). And then there was the Implanon that was the same medicine that's in the Depo and a surgical procedure to take it out if it didn't work for me (and I was fairly confident it wouldn't).

What a nightmare! So before surgery, DH and I were simply using the withdraw method, and it worked for the time being. After surgery, though, it would not be enough. So the hunt started again while I was healing.We tried condoms again, but they've never worked right for us (not sure why) and trying different brands didn't make a difference. I didn't want to discuss any hormonal methods with my doctor. I wanted to see about getting a diaphragm. Dr. pushed me into trying one more hormonal method... and that's where my adventure with the patch began. Sorry, but being constantly nauseous isn't okay for me since I can only get so many calories in to begin with I can't have anything keeping me from getting as much in as I possibly can.

So back to the doctor again and after she had discussed it with a couple of colleagues, they came to the consensus that my weight loss *shouldn't* affect the fit of a diaphragm which is what concerned her the first time I talked to her about it. So I got fitted for a diaphragm. It's strange and is definitely going to take practice to efficiently get it placed in the correct spot, but it's pretty much all I've got.

Just can't wait for the next 10.5 months to go by so DH and I won't have to worry about birth control and try for another baby! :) That, honestly, is the most exciting reward awaiting me after I've lost *most* of my weight! :)

Please don't condemn me to weight loss surgery Hell... but I must confess that I just ate a chicken nugget happy meal (the miniature fries and 4 nuggets). I figure it's okay since that's the only thing I've had more than two bites of all day. I don't know where I picked up this stomach bug, but I've felt like doo doo since yesterday. It's hard to get my water down because my tummy is just churning! It just ticks me off that all my healthy options that I've tried today haven't sat well with me but the greasy, fatty McDonald's food sits just fine. At this point, I'm fairly confident that I am not one of the lucky bypassers that experience dumping syndrome. At least not with fattier foods. I don't have much of a taste for sugar anymore, so I haven't even wanted to test my boundaries on that. At least I can be thankful that sweets don't really appeal to me.

This update is going to be short and sweet. Here are my numbers:

Highest recorded weight (2010): 385lbs
Weight at the start of my journey: 383lbs
Surgery weight: 341lbs (Pre-op loss: 42lbs)
Current weight: 309lbs (Post-op loss: 32 lbs)
                                     ----------------------------------
Total weight loss since 5/2011:         74lbs!!!  

I am feeling better about myself right now than I ever have in my entire life and cannot wait to experience all the wonderful things to come!

I got the green light to slowly start returning to my pre-op exercise routine! I'm so stoked! Watch out, world... now the weight's REALLY going to start melting off!!!

Wow, today was an amazing day.

First, today was my weigh-in day and after a slow-loss week the week before, I dropped 5.4 lbs this week, which brought my totals to 28.7lbs lost since surgery (I'm 5 weeks out) and 70.2 lbs lost since May of this year! I'm only 13 lbs away from being out of the 300's! I'm so amazed to think about how far I've come already and how far I still have to go!

To celebrate 70lbs lost, and in order to have something to wear that actually fits, I went to Lane Bryant today to get one pair of pants, a top, and a new bra. I thought today was the start of their 50% off everything sale and they just upped my credit limit on my LB card, so I thought what better time than now? LOL The sale doesn't start till tomorrow (11/23), but I still picked out what I wanted while I was there and had them put it on hold til tomorrow. Anyway, point of my story was I went in knowing that my size 28's are getting very loose on me and thinking I could probably fit in a 26. Tried on a pair and success! I fit into a 26! :) I didn't quite like the fit of the jeans, though, and really wanted some Right Fit jeans. Turns out they didn't have any size 26's in the Right Fit, but the girl who was helping me brought me some 24's. I thought "What the heck?" and tried them on knowing they wouldn't fit. But HOLY COW I was wrong! I'm in a size twenty freakin four!!! To top it off, the shirt I picked out is an 18/20!!! I'm floored and I know this is just the first of many moments like this!

So like I said, today was a great day!

I can't believe I'm already 4 weeks post-op! Post op life has been sometimes challenging, but nonetheless very good! I can't really complain a whole lot. I will say this: this can be a very emotional ride at times and sometimes it's hard to remember why you're doing this. That is where it is important to take measurements and photos and to document your journey! These things have saved my sanity.

As for numbers: My first month wasn't as productive as most I've seen, but it was still successful. Day before surgery I weighed 341.5lbs. Lost 5.4lbs week 1, 11.7 week 2, 4.6 week 3, and 1.6 for week 4. Total lost since surgery: 23.3lbs. This brings the grand total of weight loss (since May 2011) to: 64.8lbs! Not too bad if I look at the big picture! I was slightly disappointed in this week's loss, but I have to remember that I won't see a huge loss every week and every pound lost adds up! So my saving grace today was going back to the pictures. I can see a big difference in my body over the past 4 weeks!

I don't really have a whole lot else to talk about this time. See you soon with another update! :)

Hello all. Thank you for reading my blogs :) This entry is more focused toward my pre-op friends.

I have been reading an quite a few posts about the downside to this surgery, especially early experiences with gas pain, diarrhea, constipation, etc. And while I do believe it's important to know about these possibilities, it's also good to know that those experiences are NOT your sealed fate after surgery.

Now I may be a strange case, or I may have an exceptionally good surgeon (which IS true...), or maybe we can just chalk this up to good luck (which I've never had, LOL). But here's MY experience (Disclaimer: This is my experience and yours may not follow suit).

Gas pain? Never had any! I did get some uncomfortable gas in my tummy when I was learning the best way to swallow to minimize the swallowing of air, but absolutely no gas pain from lingering CO2 that was pumped into my abdomen. No shoulder pain, no back pain, no pain in my abdomen aside from the expected pain of just having had my insides rearranged.

Diarrhea? Never had any! I was fully expecting to bout with this issue through my full liquid phase, but never had an issue. Of course, though, I was told my pain meds would cause constipation. But...

Never had that problem either! Granted, I wasn't going every day as I was used to before surgery, but I was consuming next to no food, and as my food intake increased, so did the frequency of my BM's. But no constipation!

No blood clots, no incision site infections, no problems getting around, no problems healing at all! In fact, the only "complication" I can claim to have had is that the surgical glue closure on one out of my seven incision sites didn't hold and had to be stitched up by my surgeon later in the evening of my surgery day. I have had very little nausea (and now 2 1/2 weeks out it's practically gone altogether) I have had no problems getting liquids or anything on my moist and mushy list down. My tastes have changed a little, mostly with protein drinks. I can't tolerate any of the expensive Isopure powders I purchased before surgery -- not even the SMELL of them! I have not had a single moment when I thought "What did I get myself into?" or "What did I do?" The only time I've had any second thoughts about this decision is when the old me crept back in and wanted candy or something I shouldn't or couldn't have. Then and only then did I even have a fleeting thought of "Well, if I hadn't had surgery, I could eat that..." But those thoughts are only FLEETING. I already know at 2 1/2 weeks out that this is the best thing I have ever done for myself!

Is it too early to say that with such confidence? Maybe. But then again, everything in the last 2 1/2 weeks has gone more perfectly than I could have ever imagined, so why wouldn't it continue to go that way?

So there you have it: an Anti-Horror Story. Sure you may experience some of those unpleasant side effects from surgery, but then again... you may not! :)

Hope you all are well! I, for one, am doing great! I am down 21.4 lbs since I left the hospital on 10/20 after a first week loss of 9.7 lbs and a second week loss of 11.7 lbs! I have my 2 week follow up appointment with my surgeon on Monday (11/7) and will see how much I've lost this week! I can't wait to see him and see what he has to say about my recovery so far!

God Bless!