julia M.

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I am at 160.2 pounds and that means I lost 74 pounds after the RnY and 30 Pre-op. I still have belly fat and a lot of skin. I am aiming to lose 10 more pounds at least! My 1 year weigh in is on the 21st of January. It doesn't seem to matter what I do, I can't lose another pound. Maybe I can...I am trying harder. My son got me a fitbit for my birthday a couple days ago. Next year On my birthday I hope to be in the best shape of my life. I workout a lot. 90 minutes on my elliptical last night and I change it up with cardio, core, strength training. I feel strong but still have pain from my car accident problems. My feet hurt but they are great compared to how they were. Overall I have more confidence. Skin removal is hopefully in the cards for me this year. I want and need the total lower body lift plus inner thigh. I also want a breast lift and arms next year and the neck the year after. I had no elasticity...I look 80 naked. Yes I would do it again. This surgery IS A TOOL. Please don't think it is magic for everyone. I workout 10 hours a week or more HARD and count every bite that goes into my mouth.

I went in and everything went well. My back was somehow hurt on the operating table so the agonizing pain that I had was because of that. The pain wasn't too bad otherwise. Recovery would have been ok but...my body rejected the drain - worst pain ever...and day 9 after going to the ER twice, they pulled it and I was fine. Then I started to develop a painful Seroma. It was fluid building up at the surgical site which had healed at the incision site but then the fluid built up a tumor like pocket and ruptured finally at week 4 or 5 and then after that it healed and I was fine. Weight loss was slow. I felt like a failure already most days. Others would post losing 50 pounds in 2-3 months and I had lost less than 20. It was hard but I began to work even harder. I worked out 2, 3, 4 hours a day. I went on long walks and did water aerobics and did steps at the monument in Canton. I mostly WALKED...which I couldn't do before because my feet had caved from pressure. I had chronic plantar fasciitis unrelieved by two surgeries. I started using my orthotics again which hadn't helped before and something happened in MAY. I could walk...and walk...and walk. My feet (R. foot) hurt but the next day, I could go do it again! That was the beginning. All summer from May through August, I walked over 600 miles. I lost 7-8 pounds a month until August when I lost 6. September I lost 3. So far in October I have lost 3. I will say that I have only lost 3 pounds this month because I have started a mostly liquid protein diet + greek and activia yogurt. I hit my plateau or major stall. I am struggling. I don't know how much I have to lose.

Presurgical consult weight 264

Pre-op weight 234

Todays weight 161

So I lost 30 pounds before gastric bypass and so far 72 pounds since surgery 10 months ago. I consider my pouch a tool because I have no side effects from surgery and my capacity for food is 1.5 cups and that is what it is - I have not stretched or overate. I have always felt it was too much. I have consistently worked out at least 5-6 days a week since 5 weeks post op. My workouts are 1.5 to 2.5 hours on average. I do a lot of core stuff like planks, squats, leg lifts, and crunches but also lots of walking for cardio carrying 5 pound weights. I really want to buy an elliptical soon. I am trying to see how much I can lose before I meet with a plastic surgeon because I have a TON of skin. I want a total body lift but I doubt that I can get it. I will try to do what I can as soon as I can. I was totally unprepared for my neck hang, my whole body hanging and rolls. I knew there would be skin, but I had no idea. I have wrinkles and triple laugh lines and saggy face. My vagina, inner thighs, abdomen, butt, arms, neck are all hideous. I wouldn't trade it to go back to being fat and sick. No regrets.

I am 161 pounds, 5 foot 1, a size 12-14. 10 months out. I lost 30 before and 72 after surgery. Life is good.

The couple days before the surgery schedule, I started to get sick. By Saturday I had a fever and a little cough. It was memorial day weekend and I was starting to feel that getting sick was a superstitious warning that I would die on the table. I didn't realize at the time that I was letting anxiety control my decision and I am the type that believes things happen for a reason. I cancelled my surgery the day before. I felt like the biggest piece of crap for doing it. I was scared. I had started getting pnuemonia after my foot surgery and I was afraid it would happen again and kill me because I have asthma. I thought I would have a pouch leak...because I am a revision. The Dr. told me at my pre-op visit that I have a 1/3 chance for a leak because I am a revision...I had no idea my chances were so high until that visit. It freaked me out! Then I get sick and my mind and anxiety took over. I feel bad because my doctor thinks I just chickened out and doesn't believe that I got sick. He told me to my face that he didn't believe me and one thing I am not ever is a liar. I know anxiety took over and I thought being sick was a sign but, I DID get sick. This is the first time in my life when someone has not believed me :(    I didn't realize at the time, but I probably would have been fine. Dr. Dan has always been great and I feel bad that he doesn't believe that I was sick at all. After my sister had the surgery with Dr. Dan a couple of months later, my anxiety reduced and I went in. I was lucky that they even rescheduled surgery after my cancelling. I stayed indoors and made sure I didn't go around anyone sick because I was afraid of being sick during surgery though at that point, I would have had the surgery anyway. December 31st 2013 was my surgery date.

I was approved weeks ago and my surgery date is May 28th 2013 at 7:30 am. I started the 4 weeks of optifast today. I am having some cold feet issues at the moment which I think will pass. 

February 23, 2013

10 years have passed since I started a journey trying to get the gastric bypass and at the beginning, I was only overweight but really healthy and could do anything physically - within reason. After trying and getting insurance denial in 2006 after going through the ringers trying, I paid for and got my band done in Mexico which went well but I never had much restriction despite going in and getting adjusted and always had dysphagia. After having a baby a couple years after the band in 2006, I gained 40 of the 48 that I had lost and I kept it on. This leaves out a rear end accident in 2005 and shortly after that, WLS became very important as I did not heal much and I was left with permanent neck and back problems which now consist of herniated disc with sciatica, neuropathy and now foot surgery all from that accident slowly consuming my health in a negative way. In the beginning the back didn't bother me as much as the neck. I may have back surgery this fall or next spring. I had foot surgery 8 weeks ago after getting plantar fasciitis in the right foot because of the weight shift secondary to the neuropathy in the left. Then I got it in the left foot too. When I started losing my mobility, it was time and I scheduled with Summa bariatric in Akron, Ohio because I want a revision. I have completed everything - the 6 month diet, the tests, the band removal 9 days ago and I have lost 15 pounds weighing in at 244 and my United Healthcare Community Plan is being submitted to as of Wednesday (Not sure of the actual date the packet will be done but soon). The office seems pretty confident that I will be approved.  

So it's time, the right time, the right circumstances. I am afraid of the complications I could have and afraid of my eating addiction, afraid I won't lose enough, and afraid I'll gain it back. This is so opposite from when I was too confident when I got the lap band in 2006. This time is different - so much has changed and this is the only thing that can help me turn it around and I decided I could live dying slowly or live with possible complication issues but LIVE life.  

I have 5 kids now ages 4-19. I quit being a nurse in 2006 - I gave up because the pain was too much after the accident. I couldn't think in all that pain. I had always managed the depression and stress intolerance - with food and by totally falling apart after my work week ended so while I lost my identity - so I thought, I feel so much relief to just be what I am and take care of myself and my kids. I did graphic design for 4 years and it was good for the time but the pay fizzled out in 2009 and so now - I am a stay at home mom and I am ok for now with that title. I may go back to a form of nursing or who knows, lets see how healthy I feel when I have lost weight.  

My sister Mandy is doing this too, she is a lot sicker than me and has been for years aside from my accident stuff. I hope her life is revitalized and I guess I am glad to go first so that I can answer questions for her - she is a couple of months behind me in the process and will definitely be approved because she has all of the big comorbids.   Fingers crossed for the approval.