A magical moment on the stairs...
This weekend I was at a conference in Chicago and on Saturday evening we took the El into downtown for dinner. We had a large group of about 20, so it made for lines and waiting...something I really hate. At one of the stations, everyone was waiting to get on the escalator and I noticed a wide open stair case, so, I took it. As I'm skipping up the stairs, I can hear people saying things like 'what is she doing' and 'don't be a loner'. I was really confused...was I doing something wrong by taking the stairs? Is that really people's view of healthy individuals? I brushed it off.
At the next station, we had to walk up a lot of stairs, no escalator this time, and again I climbed them with ease. As I got to the top, I passed a woman in our group who was probably about the size I was before surgery. She was really struggling. In fact, I sat not far from her on the train and she struggled to breathe for several minutes. But as I passed her, I realized that I was not huffing or puffing, nor had I on any of the other previous sets of stairs. I also realized that I didn't look up the stairs at the beginning of climb and loath what was about to happen. In fact, it didn't even register that I was about to climb a ton of stairs...I just did it.
These are the moments that I know some day I'll take for granted. These are the moments that I'll forget I ever had issues. And I can't wait for that. I'm excited now that I can see my progress through these types of things...but I cannot wait for the day when I'm not still astonished at my capabilities. That will be the day when I know I'm finally "normal".
Seven months later, I continue to be incredibly happy with the decision I made to have the sleeve. Everything I went though [and perhaps you may currently be going through] was completely worth it.
Surgery: 9/20/2013
Highest Weight: 276 | Surgery Weight: 238.6 | Current Weight: 164 | Goal: 150
