Kathleen M.

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My friend of nearly 40 years is having gastric bypass surgery tomorrow. I'm so happy for her.  I have been at my current weight for well over a year now and am so very comfortable with my life.  I can't imagine any better.  I hope the same for her and for anyone who happens to read this.

I now weigh 180 lbs.  180 lbs! I haven't been this weight (with any confidence that I could stay at this weight) for many years.  And now I know I'm going to weigh even less before I'm through.  I also didn't believe I could have lost this much by Christmas.  I uploaded a photo of the current me to my photos.  Someone asked me today if I would do this again or if I had any regrets.  I said yes I would and no I didn't! 

Yesterday's weigh-in showed 30.5 lbs down and the scale said 200 lbs.  I paused to enjoy the moment.  I will, with God's help, never see these numbers again!  Hooray!

My eating ability has gotten better and I can drink better too.  All signs of more normalization of my life.  I have been to Goodwill once, and am gathering more clothes in a pile for the next trip. I'm down 2 sizes and had to get a new bra too.  

It has been 9 weeks and I am so glad I did this.  On the weekends for the last month, my husband and I have been building a fence on our retirement property and I have been able to help a lot.   It's so great to be feeling energy as well as to feel I can move on my feet without fear I'll tip over or trip. 

My husband and son keep making positive comments about the 'new' me that is emerging. It's very nice to hear. I've lost 25 lbs in these first 6 weeks. Sometimes I feel so good that I forget I had surgery to get to this place. I can walk better, and have more energy too.  Then I eat the first couple of bites too fast and I suffer for it by this pain in the stoma.  My nutritionist says this is the hardest part to learn.  I find that I do better if I'm eating alone because I fully concentrate, whereas if I'm eating with my husband, I think I unconsciously mimic his fork to mouth action.  Anyway, no regrets about doing this at all. 

I'm doing pretty well I think.  I went back to work last week, and looked and felt weak and tired all week.   This week is going better, I have more energy.  I had my post-surgery meeting with my nutritionist and my goal now is to get up to 60 grams of protein daily.  I notice that when I eat too fast, I get this pain in my chest and eventually start belching.  That seems to be my biggest reaction so far, and it's enough really.  I wasn't feeling 'full' in the sense I expected and the nutritionist gave me a chart which illustrated that the feeling I was looking for was way beyond the point where i should stop eating.  What a surprise to find that I'd been stopping when I am satisfied and comfortable instead!  I've lost 18 lbs and am very happy I did this.