One Year Out!

Feb 05, 2010

Hi, there. I see I haven't been as faithful to blog as I should have been...there's that. Now, on to the meat of the meal, as they say!

It's been one year and one day since my gastric bypass roux-n-y surgery. I cannot tell you how happy I am that I took this path. I've lost 120 lbs in about 15 months. I lost the first 20 in the few weeks before my surgery. Surgeons like us to stop eating sugar and refined carbs (the white stuff, folks) for a few weeks before they go inside. Why? It shrinks our livers and they've got to manouver around that big, red thing to do their jobs. The other 100 just slipped away almost like magic!

Once I could eat solid food again, I fell into this routine and I haven't diverted from it: 

Get up...take pills. Set 30 min timer and then drink tea. Set 30 min timer then eat an ounce of cheese, sometimes with 5 or 6 bread and butter pickles. Set 30 minute timer and drink 2nd and usually 3rd cups of tea. BTW: I did not switch to decaf, either, and I only use a half of pack of the pink skinny sweetener per 18 oz mug.  I also add the Kroger or Wal-Mart equivalent to Benefiber in all clear liquids...if I don't drink the fiber, I get impacted. That's gross and embarrassing. (Have gone to emergency room twice for that problem, then I got on the fiber.) Set the timer (they get a little annoyed at work, but they deal with it) and it's time for lunch. I like soup. My favorite soup is Progressive Chicken and Wild Rice. I drain all the broth off before eating, though. Sometimes I'll have left-overs from supper for lunch. Time to set the timer - again - and I take the afternoon vitamins and switch to water and fiber for my beverage. A typical afternoon snack is a handfull of dry-roasted almonds. They are so crunchy and so yummy and fill me up so well, it holds me till supper at 7. On the way home, I take my evening vitamins and meds with water. I don't go in for those flavor packets for water, I just like it plain. When I get home, I start supper. I drink 12 oz of 1% milk during supper prep. Supper always consists of a palm-size slice of meat, a small portion of starch, usually as 1 or 2 new potatoes or a half a slice of french bread, toasted, and a 1/4 cup of salad or vegetable. That's it. That's my routine and I'm satisfied.

Cravings? Yes! I get cravings. Sometimes it's for those bread and butter pickles. Sometimes it's for kosher dill pickles. Sometimes it's for chips and salsa. The trick is to chew, chew, chew. With each chomp of a chew I say in my head, "baby food, baby food, baby food." That internal chant is new.

I had some trouble in October and then again in January. In October, they Y part of my modified small intestine decided to wiggle into a small hernia of scar tissue and my guts got all bound up and "dusky." Dr. Lindsay had to go in and untangle everything. Now I have a big old scar down my middle. Oh, goodie. In January I had an obstruction (it might've been scar tissue issues again) and spent another 2 days in the hospital. I realized as I was lying there in bed that I had fallen back into the bad habit of wolfing down my food without really chewing or tasting it. A big bite of food had probably caused the blockage. Luckily it passed on its own and I went home. Big WHEW! So in order to avoid another blockage, I chew, chew, chew all my small bites of food until they're the consistancy of baby food. The side-benefit of all that chewing is that I taste all of the flavors from the things I'm eating and enjoy them more. Who knew?

So now I'm at 131 lbs (with clothes on). My BMI has gone from a 44.7 to a 22.6. I've gone from a size 22 to a size 6 and I can wear really short hair again. 5 minute hair? Oh, yeah, I'll take that! I wear stylish clothes and can buy them in any store but Layne Bryant! I can keep up pretty well with those grandsons of mine and I'm more interested in intimacy with my husband again. Do I have sagging skin? Yes, loads of it. Will I get any plastic surgery in the future? Only time will tell. Am I sorry I did this? Absolutely not. Would I recommend the surgery to someone else? Definately so!

This is my story, this is my life. Jesus loves me and guided me to the people who helped me.

Bets

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