131.2 lbs & doing fine!

Feb 27, 2011

I've been SOOO bad about not updating.  Sorry.  Really busy pretty much all the time.  That's life when you're the parent of 2 teenagers who are very active.  Etc, etc, etc.

So I'm still maintaining my weight just fine.  I used to freak out anytime I went over 130 lbs because my comfort zone was 125 - 130.  So 130.1 was time to freak out.  Well, in the last few months, I have gradually gained.  I know this is a genuine "bounce-back" or "rebound" due to my body adapting for the malabsorption part of the surgery and NOT due to me being lax with my intake.  I know this because I still journal every single think I eat/drink.  Since I'm not increasing my intake and I haven't adjusted my output/activity, it's internal (body adapting to absorb more of the calories I'm eating).  This makes sense because I am right past that 3 year mark where the body has pretty much completed it's adaptation.  Whatever you get at 3 - 3.5 years out (for RNY, more like 8 years for DS) with regards to absorption is whatever you get, you know?

I did NOT decrease my calories at all.  The gain has been very gradual over the last 6 months or so & has leveled off.  Now I stay around 128 - 133.  Since I have a thing about 5s, I have now mentally moved my panic threshold to 135.  So if I go above 135 now, I'll go into panic mode.  (If I'm honest, I'll start to panic at anything above a 134 though.) 

The LAST thing I want to do is excuse away any small gain (then excuse away the next one and the next one) - saying it's just 5 pounds, etc.  That's how a lot of us got fat to begin with, right?  BUT since I'm positive I'm not increasing my calories, I know that's not what I'm doing.  I mean, if I only eat 1650 calories a day, every day and never increase that - this gain should not happen again, you know?  But if something weird happens and it does, I'll get another Medgem test and adjust accordingly.  (I think that's what the test was called.  I don't really remember.  The one where you blow through the white metallic looking bullet thing and they tell you what you need to eat to maintain/lose/gain weight.) 

So anyway, I'm doing and feeling well weight wise.

So now to off-topic stuff.

My liver enzymes were elevated recently.  My PCP referred me to a specialist to look at my liver & the appointment isn't for a couple of months.  So of course, being my own health advocate, I started researching the devil out of elevated liver enzymes and found that people taking Lexapro should be regularly monitored for increased liver enzymes.  Who knew that?  I didn't.  Neither did my PCP apparently because he never mentioned anything about it.  It apparently is not something that happens often, but it can happen.  I found something on livestrong.com (and a few other sites) that said that anyone taking Lexapro who starts seeing an increase in liver enzymes should immediately start tapering off the Lexapro. 

So, since I have to wait until the end of April for the appointment with the specialist anyway, I decided to stop the Lexapro and get the liver enzymes retested between now & then.  What could it hurt, you know?  If they're still elevated, I'll keep the appointment with the specialist.  If not, I'll make another appointment w/ my PCP, tell him what I did to correct the problem & ask for something other than Lexapro.  (Because let's face it... me w/out Lexapro or something like it to control my anxiety is sort of like Bill Bixby when he's angry.  No one likes it.) 

I know you're never supposed to stop Lexapro cold turkey: you're supposed to slowly taper off.  Well, I'm a little more worried about liver damage than I am about side-effects of stopping cold turkey.  So I did NOT taper off and stopped cold turkey.  The only side effects I've had is the lower backaches which are actually pretty bad AND of course, markedly increased anxiety levels.  Duh....  The backaches I refuse to even take tylenol for.  Tylenol is a big no-no for the liver anyway.  In fact, if I knew how bad Tylenol was on the liver before I started all my liver enzyme research, I'd have NEVER taken a Tylenol in my life.  In fact, I don't think I'll ever take another Tylenol again.  But I can totally stand the backaches because I know they will go away.  Any amount of pain is more tolerable if you know there's an end in sight.  Besides, I don't want to take anything that could compromise my liver enzymes when I get retested.  Otherwise, I'll never know if it was the Lexapro or not, know?  As far as the increased anxiety, I'm taking a valium every once in a while.  (I had a Rx for it from when I hurt my back a while ago & the DR gave it to me to force the muslces in my back to relax because they wouldn't.)   So I'm taken 1/2 valium twice in the last couple of weeks since I stopped the Lexapro.  I don't think that'll be too hard on my liver. 

So in another couple of weeks, I'm going to go in & have my liver enzymes retested.  If they are back down to normal, I'll probably cancel my specialist appointment and just reschedule with my PCP to get on something more permanent to replace the Lexapro.  If they are NOT back down to normal, I'll keep the appointment with the specialist and still go back to my PCP to get on something other than the Lexapro.  (Since going off the Lexapro, my sex drive has returned with a vengence.  I can't give that up again.  I'm happier being sexually active and my husband is DEFINATELY happier.  LOL.)

Warning guys... female information ahead.  Warning girls... BLUNT & DETAILED female information ahead. 

Also, my period has returned.  I know, right?  I haven't had one in YEARS (not since after my endometrial ablation which permanently ends menstrual cycles for some women).  Somewhere between 70 - 80% of women DO eventually have a period again after an endometrial ablation, so it wasn't like I didn't expect to eventually have one again.  I didn't WANT to have one again, but I wasn't counting on that.  I even kept boxes of tampons I had from years ago left packed in the shelf on my utility room.  Glad I did.  It's BACK!  Although, like the 70 - 80% of women who do eventually have a period post-endometrial ablation, I appear to be in the 95 - 99% of those women whose period is MUCH lighter than a normal period.  In fact, I didn't even have to wear anything it was so light.  I had all the symptoms of a bad period - back ache, hip-joint ache and HORRIBLE stomach cramps that made my stomach rock hard to the touch.  But I didn't have a typical menstrual flow.  To be VERY BLUNT, it was like pieces of a dark brown balloon had popped inside me and the pieces of the balloon were coming out or something.  And it mostly only came out when I urinated - like I was flushing it out.  Don't worry, I definately know it wasn't blood in my urine.  This was definately a period.  I tried using one of those light-days / pre-teen tampons for extremely light flows.  I left it in for hours and it was still mostly dry when I pulled it out except for the brown tissue pieces, etc.  Oh well.  So the bitch is back.  Hey... maybe that's why I bloated up to 133 last weekend, then suddenly dropped back down to 131 today.  Who knows.  Even when I had my period in high school, my weight never fluctuated much even during my periods unless I bloated up really bad.  I did not bloat up really bad this time, just cramped bad.  We'll see how long before my next cycle - if it shows up again.

I've got to go now!  I'll try to fill y'all in more soon! 

Luv & miss u all!!!

Wen

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