Intro - a little late

Sep 15, 2011

Hi guys.

It's six months post-op and I'm finally getting around to posting a profile.

I'll be 57 this year, and it's taken me all this time to finally do the thing that has changed my life so much - and so much for the better.

I've been overweight since I was 12. There were years when I was relatively good - hovered around 135 for several years - but I was always rounded and - hmmmm, what should I call it - LUSH.
Voluptuous.
I mean don't get me wrong - for many years, that was a bonus as a single woman who loved the nightlife.

But as I got older, it created its whole own set of health issues, and I commenced (at age 38) a whole series fo surgeries and illnesses that culminated in me becoming a fragile obese woman.
I would go on diets (all different kinds) and lose quite a bit of weight - my max was 47 pounds in 6 months - but it would of course always come back on.
At age 53 I experienced a mild heart attack. The week I spent in hospital undergoing many tests was a rude wakeup call.

Although I had always been an active fat girl, now I was a sedentary morbidly obese girl. I lost 20 pounds quite fast, but despite  a VERY healthy lifestyle from then on, could not effectively budge those pounds.
Then I met Dr. David Starr.

With the 20 pound weightloss, I began to experience pretty severe gallbladder issues, and after a six-month wait, Dr. Starr removed it. I was back at work 6 days later, and very pleased with myself.
Dr. Starr was not quite so pleased. At my three-week followup appointment, he order me to sit down so we could discuss my next surgery. 
"Huh" I said, "what surgery?"

After a long and very reasonable discussion it became clear that while I had always felt that bariatric surgery was an extreme measure I would never need, the time had come for me to think differently about it.
So Dr Starr, bless his little heart, performed the Roux-en-Y on April 4 2011.
(He really is a great surgeon - can't recommend him highly enough.)

Recovery was relatively uneventful, except that Humber River Regional Hospital was NOT on the ball when it came to my allergy against morphine - they had NOTHING lined up to deal with the immediate waking-up pain. That was miserable.
Not such great marks to the hospital for that - they had been told often enough that they would need an alternative ready, and didn't get the doctor's signature ready for a different opiate - I was in agony for way too long.

Once home, I turned out to be a Barfy.
Compared to my friends going through the same procedure at the same time, I was able to tolerate very little, both in variety and in quantity.
A barfy.

Six months out, I am definitely better, but not great yet.
I can eat about half of what my friends can eat - and then it takes a lot longer to chew and swallow and digest, and it's often a rocky road.

BUT - I am doing great.
I've lost 76 pounds so far, and have gone from a size 24 to a size 14 - and that's getting loose on me.
I feel pretty good - I'm not at 100% energy yet, but then I'm nly ingesting about 1000 calories a day, while working full-time and exercising a lot.

I look really great - everyone tells me so.
I've been lucky - while my hair is definitely thinning, I haven't lost near as much as my friends.
 

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