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It has been 6 months (on the 4th of June) since my surgery. I've lost 107 pounds and feel great. I go for my 6 month LABS next Monday and see my surgeon the following Friday. I'l mooking forward to seeing how my chems and blood readings are. I've gone from a 56" waist to a loose 42.  I haven't been on this board much as I've been working a lot. But I do check it every once in a while. 

I want to thank you all for the support the past 6 months and hope anyone getting ready for this journey has as much success as I did.

I'll post more pictures next week with my Doctors results.

It's been 5 weeks now since surgery. I had my 1 month post op appointment last Friday. The Dr Catania was happy with my progress. I've lost 50 pounds. 24 of that was the pre surgery liquid diet. He says 1 pound a day is normal. I'm having a hard time with getting enough liquids and protein in everyday. I plan on really concentrating on that overthe next few weeks. I can't wait to eliminate more of my meds. I hate crushing them up twice a day. They taste horrible.

Sure doesn't seem like it's been 5 weeks.  I've been very fortunate with not having any problems or pain.  I started on regular foods last week and sure enjoy eating. Just need to eat slow and chew, chew, chew. I haven't found any foods I don't tolerate (yet). But then again I haven't pushed the limit of what I'm suppose to eat. I eat a lot of shrimp cocktail, ckicken and refried beans. I tried a pot pie from KFC and it went well. Enough for 2 meals.

It's been 2 weeks since the surgery and this is what I know:

I feel pretty good. I've really had NO pain. Some discomfort and some nausea. I'm working on learning on how to eat and drink.  I've been eating too much and too fast. I get feeling pretty bad (nausea and hot/sweaty) after I eat.  I started measuring my food. 1/4 to 1/3 cup per meal and eat slow.  I found that a protein shake made with milk acts the same way as food in my pouch. I drink an 8 oz protein shake and get nauseous. I'm trying to get a handle on getting enough protein in and drinking enough liquids. It's hard to do.

My 6 incision points are healing well. The steri-strips came off 2 days ago.

One of the things I really hate the most is crushing my pills. Morning and Night. Really tastes nasty. I've lost 41 pounds now. That includes 30 pounds pre-surgery.

Until today I had no problems. Very little pain, everything I eat (yogurt, jello) or drink has gone down easy. I've been eating slow and in small amounts. If someone had told me that the DR didn't do the bypass I could believe them. .....Until today. My pouch has spoken. Last night I had 1/2 cup of cream of potato soup. No problem. Ate slow. Today for lunch I had the rest of it. About 1 cup. Didn't eat slow (it was so good). About 15 minutes later my pouch spoke up. I got hot and sweaty, thru up, felt really bad for 40 minutes. I don't know if I had a dumping episode or just the result of eating too much and too fast. I learned my lesson. Trial and error I guess.

I really dread taking my crushed meds. I have about 6 blood pressure and diabetes medicines that I need to crush and take twice a day. I can't stand the taste.  I try to hide the taste in Tang or other drink, but it's still there. 

Other than that, I'm feeling pretty good.  I have some occassional pain in a couple of my toes. Gotta call the DR to see if it may be a blood clot. Probably not, just me over reacting.

Well my Lap RNY is over. I'm now 3 days post op. I feel great. No complications. The Dr had some problems getting me reconnected so the surgery took about 3 1/2 hours, but all came out ok. I'm in no real pain. Some discomfort from gas (constipation), but that too shall pass. I know it's still early but I can't eat much or drink much yet. No problems, everything goes down fine but just no desire to eat or drink. I'm able to walk a lot. I feel comfortable walking. I sleept in the recliner downstairs last night. Laying on my back makes it a little hard to get out of bed from that position. No problem just standing up.

The hospital stay: Fantastic. Those Doctors, Nurses and corpsmen at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth were all just too professional. They made me feel so confident in every thing they did.

My biggest fear was going to be the catheter. I'm a wimp when it comes to that. But no problems. I was sure glad it was in so I didn't have to get up and it came out with no pain or discomfort. I still have my JT tube (drain) in, It won;t be taken out for another week.

I had my final Pre-Op appointment today (Tues 27 Nov). I did my admissions paperwork and talked to the anesthesiologist.  I lost 14 pounds on my 'slimfast' diet the last 10 days. I'm still scheduled for surgery on Dec 4th. Dr Catania puts his patients on clear liquids for 5 days before surgery. Bowell prep 2 days before. I'll need to keep up the protein to at least 60 gr a day. I'm able to continue my protein shakes only if they're made water... no dairy. But that's ok. I like the Unjury powder made with water.

I don't know if it's abnormal but I'm not nervous about the surgery. At least not yet. It may hit me this weekend. I'm just looking forward to getting it done and starting my new life.

I had my Pre-Op appointment today with Dr Catania. We set a surgery date of December 4th. He wants me to lose 25-30 pounds before surgery and put me on a high protein liquid diet from now till surgery. He said it will be difficult but will set me up for a better surgery. Only 3 weeks away. I'm very excited about getting this done. A little nervous, but that's to be expected.

The colonoscopy went well now I just have to wait for my Pre-Op date of Nov 15th.

Got cleared for surgery by the PSYC today. Only the colonoscopy to do on Friday then I will get my pre-op date.