My job has been affected by the economy. Multiple people have been laid off. Others have been forced to take a 1-day unpaid furlough every 2 weeks. For a while I was scared to death that I would get laid off. I kept waking up in the middle of the night having panic attacks. After a while though, I stopped being afraid and decided I would deal with whatever happens.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Some more good things have happened as a result of my weight loss.Right now I’m 153.5 lbs. Woohoo! Still not at my goal of 135, but I still lose a few pounds every month so I believe I’ll make it there eventually.  The additional changes I’ve noticed at this point:

• My BMI is normal! I’m not overweight anymore. I’ve lost a total of 115 lbs. since surgery.
• Fungal infections on my back have gone away. I had them for years. Gross! I know.
• I have long nails now. For most of my life, I’ve had short nails. Those vitamins are working!
• People are noticeably a lot friendlier.
• No more restless legs. I used to have a problem keeping my legs still when I sat. I recently noticed that problem went away.
• People at work joke and say I’ve lost so much weight I’m going to float away like a feather.
• A guy on the bus said he barely recognized me because I had lost so much weight. I barely remembered seeing him before. It’s nice when someone you don’t even know  notices you lost a lot of weight.
• I’ve been called “cute” by a couple people at work. Hey, at 45 years old, I’ll take “cute” as a compliment.

The whole thing about people being friendlier is a plus and a minus. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it reminds you of the discrimination against overweight people.

I had to renew my driver’s license earlier this year and it was the first time I’ve ever taken a driver’s license picture with a smile on my face. The woman who took my picture noticed my weight went from 265 on my previous driver’s license to 165, and congratulated me and said, “You look 10 years younger!” Now I weigh less than my driver’s license weight. That’s a first. I usually weigh more than what it says…hehe.

Now that we have a president I like (Obama! Obama!), I am paying attention to politics for the first time in decades. Now we all just need to pray, chant or do whatever we can to help make this economy improve. These are scary times we’re living in right now, so it’s nice to have some kind of positive changes, and I’m grateful for that.

Tata for now!

80+ pounds ago, I had really bad knee pain. When I would step up onto the sidewalk or step up onto the bus, I would place my hand on my knee to keep it from buckling and try to lessen the pain.

A few days ago I went to step up onto the curb and out of habit, I placed my hand on my knee and Voila! No pain! What’s so funny about this is my knee pain went away quite a few months ago. Why I remembered it and thought I was going to have it when I stepped up on a curb, I don’t know. It’s funny how the body remembers pain even long after it’s gone.

It’s like my knees wanted to play a trick on me and make me think there was going to be pain when I stepped on that curb, but then… “Aha! I fooled you”, my knees said. There was no pain. Today my knees are singing “Hallelujah! No more pain!”

 The good news is I’m closer to having a down payment for another car, so there’s still hope on the car front.

Has life changed much in the 10 months since my gastric bypass?

You bet! Let me count the ways:

• I feel healthy.
• I have more energy.
• I’ve even have had the energy to do a little jogging a few times. Woohoo!
• I no longer feel like I’m being stared at for my size when I walk into a place.
• A man walked up to me on the bus and told me “You are a very beautiful woman!” At my age, that’s always nice to hear.
• My 3X’s are ridiculously big and I can’t wear them anymore. I wear somewhere between 14 and 16.
• I am 14 pounds into Onederland at 186 lbs. Woohoo!
• 82 lbs. total lost, 50 more to go. Yay!!
• People at work have commented on my weight loss.
• People at work are friendlier to me.
• I can fit in a bus seat without spilling over into the next seat.

Much to my surprise, I haven’t had any food get stuck since I first started eating solids. I guess you get used to chewing your food really well pretty quickly.

The fact that some people who have known me for years are now nicer to me is a sad commentary on our society and the treatment of obese people, but we already knew this. Even people who don’t think they’re getting discriminated against because of their weight, most likely are. But I won’t waste my energy being bitter. If people want to be superficial and shallow, that’s their lameness.

Up until about a month ago, sticking to my eating plan was pretty easy since I was not hungry and was, in fact, disgusted by sweets. I wondered if this loss of sweet tooth would be permanent. Unfortunately, I can feel my appetite coming back so I have to make more effort to make good choices.

Don’t worry though. My tool is still working. If anyone who hasn’t had surgery is wondering how it works, let me explain. About 15-20 minutes into eating, I lose interest in my food. I don’t feel fullness; I feel satiety, and boy is it fantastic! I almost never finish everything on my plate for dinner.  I used to feel bad about leaving food on my plate but now I realize it’s better for me.

I am very grateful for my surgery, every day. There is a very noticeable difference in my life now that I’m not carrying 80 extra pounds around. Now I just need to work on my car situation so I can have my free time back. That’s it for now. Take care!

Unfortunately, my car is kaput again. It overheated, and probably has engine damage, so I am riding the doggone bus again. Yes, it sucks!

At the 6-month mark, I was allowed to eat bread, rice and pasta. Thank goodness! I can only eat a couple of teaspoons of rice, but it’s nice to add variety.

No more vomiting since I first started eating solids. So much for those horrible tales about gastric bypass patients vomiting all the time. It’s good to know that’s not true for everyone. In fact, some people say they never vomited. I’m due for my 6-month bloodwork. We’ll see how that goes.

 Ta-ta for now!

I had my 3-month check-up today. My bloody blood tests did not get faxed to the surgeon so he had no lab results. Ay-yay-yay!

He did not seem concerned about my low vitamin D and said to take a total of 800 to 1000 units of vitamin D. That is about twice the US RDA. I bought Bariatric Advantage dry Vitamin D, but he said it is too high with 5000 IU. I’m sure as heck not wasting these bad boys, so I will take about a 1/5th per day.

Other than that, my visit was routine. I lost nothing this week. But I’m 1/3 of the way to the surgeon’s goal, so I guess I can’t complain.

The waiting room in the surgeon’s office was full today. I was the only one with a gastric bypass. Everyone else had the Lap-Band. And of course the two women I spoke to have lost more in 2 months with the Lap-Band than I have in 3 months. Pitooey!

One woman mentioned that her boss had had a gastric bypass and looked horrible and was hunched over with osteoporosis. She mentioned that someone hugged her and had broken her rib. Lovely! I just love being surrounded by Lap-Banders. It was just like being in the preop class all over again.

One woman said, “I like it because it’s reversible!” I wanted to say, “well, Yeah, until it erodes into your stomach causing permanent damage,” but, nope, I was the polite little RNYer. Wow! I can’t believe how easy it is to get caught up in the stupid “my surgery is better than yours” War. Thank goodness the battle was only in my head today. Heck, we’re all soldiers in the fight against obesity.

I had sushi this week. It was delish. I could only eat 4 small pieces, but I was happy that I could tolerate it at all, considering the horror stories I’ve heard about people eating rice.

At my 8-year anniversary at work, I was given a 8 GB Ipod Nano. Woohoo! That’s the best gift I’ve ever received. Now I got more music to shake my booty to. I was planning on buying myself the 4 GB one for Christmas. No need now!

Despite all the talk I see about mourning the holidays after RNY, I can’t agree. I totally enjoyed my Thanksgiving dinner.

Let’s see, I ate:

• A chicken drumstick with skin (I thought it was dark meat turkey, but later found it was chicken. It looked better than the white meat and was delicious! Didn’t miss turkey at all.)
• Stuffing
• Yams
• Corn
• Stuffed mushroom
• Macaroni & Cheese

Mind you, I had small portions, but yum yum! I put 2 pieces of chicken on my plate but had to put one back in the end. My eyes were bigger than my stomach….. hehe! Did I feel deprived? No, heck, I wish I could eat like that every day. Yes, I only lost half a pound this week but how many people can say they lost weight Thanksgiving week? Not many! I don’t think I’ve ever lost weight Thanksgiving week.

I am due for my 3-month follow-up with Dr. Khalili November 12th. I had my bloodwork last week. I got my results from my PCP’s nurse today. She said everything was good except my vitamin D was low. Aaaaaah! How can it be? A vitamin deficiency only 2 months after surgery? Geez!

I’m in shock.

I have been taking my 2 Centrum chewables daily, plus calcium and B12, religiously.

One thing I noticed maybe a month ago, however, is that Centrum chewables have the wrong kind of vitamin D. They have ergocalciferol (vitamin D2), when we get the best absorption from cholecalciferol (vitamin D3). Finding this out made me a little nervous, but I didn’t worry too much because the calcium supplement I take has 400 mg of vitamin D, and it is D3.

Another thing I must mention is I did screw up with my calcium early on. On 9/23/07, slightly more than a month after surgery, I realized I had misread my calcium bottle and was only taking 1 wafer (250 mg) when I should have been taking 4 wafers (1000 mg). Yikes! So for a month I was not taking enough calcium or vitamin D. Plus, I did not find out about the vitamin D in Centrum being the wrong kind until some point after that. At that point, I upped my calcium to
1250 mg per day.

If there’s a lesson to be learned here, it is:

Make sure you read the dosage correctly!

It appears that both of these issues contributed to my low vitamin D.

The nurse did not suggest I do anything about it. I assume they want me to discuss it with the surgeon.

In the meantime, however, I am glad I ordered Bariatric Advantage multivitamins and calcium 2 weeks ago. I started taking the Bariatric Advantage calcium 2 days ago, and I just ran out of the Centrum chewables today, so I will start on the BA multivitamin tomorrow.

I’m relieved that I’m not anemic though. That was one of my biggest fears since I’ve had anemia at least twice in the past due to stupid diets.

However, vitamin D deficiency is no joke. It can lead to osteomalacia (softening of the bones which causes easy fractures). Plus vitamin D helps calcium absorption, and I already know I screwed up my calcium intake for a month. I am going to discuss upping my calcium to 1500 mg per day with my surgeon. Vitamin D and calcium go hand in hand, so now I am really scared about my calcium intake, as well.

In a way, I’m glad I’ve had this slap in the face early on. Now I know little slip-ups, and even the fact that the surgeon’s office says Centrum Chewables are okay (when in fact its’ vitamin D is useless) can cause deficiencies. I will stick with vitamins for bariatric patients from now on.

I do have to warn people. What vitamin deficiencies people end up with is very individual. This doesn’t guarantee anyone else will have the same or any deficiencies.
Taking megadoses of everything is NOT the solution! There are certain vitamins, such as fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, & K), iron and calcium that can actually be very harmful in large doses, so I will be working with the surgeon about upping my dosages, and not trying to diagnose and treat myself.

Oh yeah, and I didn’t lose a single freakin’ pound this week. Boo hoo! I’m not going to go whining on the forum, though. Nope, not gonna do it. I’m not like those other newbies…LOL!

Ok, ok…I’ll admit it. I already did the whining on the forum thing a couple weeks ago…hehe!

Well, I am back to normal energy-wise. I have walked for 45 minutes and could have walked longer, but my lunch was over..hehe.

I have now lost 33 lbs. I realize I do not lose as fast as others, and I have accepted that. There are benefits to not having weight drop off you quickly, such as not having a lot of sagging skin. Even though 30 lbs. is not a lot, I CAN see the difference. Woohoo!

I am not hungry and am happy with small portions. I buy diet foods such as Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine, etc. but I stick to the ones with meat and veggies. I am satisfied with my meal about halfway through. I force myself to eat veggies because it helps keep me regular. I do enjoy my food though, just in smaller quantities.

I have eaten small pieces of cake a few times (not often), but I have also walked by cake without a single regret. In case you don’t know, cake is my favorite food, so this is a huge victory for me.

Despite the fact that I haven’t lost a ton of weight, I feel more confident and am doing more socializing. I feel healthier already. I haven’t had acid reflux since surgery. I don’t feel my knees hurting or back aching while walking anymore.

I am down 6 BMI points. I no longer qualify for surgery! Woohoo!

I am very grateful and feel very lucky that I’ve had surgery. I feel very bad for people who have to fight for it, especially when they have a higher BMI then mine was, and I keep them in my thoughts and prayers all the time.

One unfortunate thing I’ve noticed is in the past 6 months, the level of cruelty and meanness on the OH site. I think it has died down a little, but I still see it rearing it’s ugly head. I see the same people posting mean comments over and over again, and I have started blocking those people. I’m not here to read hateful garbage, and there is healing power in the Block button. Amen!

Why am I not happy? Limited calories and sloooooooow weight loss. After upping my calories a little after my last post, I lost 4 lbs. that week. Woohoo! That victory was short-lived, however, because the next week, I gained 1/2 a pound. This past week, I lost 1.5 lbs (2 lbs. if you count the 1/2 a pound I gained and then lost again). Geez! I can’t get over the fact that I’ve lost more on my previous diet while eating more calories than this. I just don’t get it! How can I be a slow loser when I’ve never been a slow loser before? Arrgh!!!

Well, my only comfort was at my 1 month follow-up, the nurse told me that I am pretty close to where they expected me to be – 20% weight loss after a month. Mine was 17%, close enough for their approval (but not mine). Dr. Khalili repeated what the nurse said, that as long as you lose 75% of your excess weight in the first year, you’re considered a success. When I look at it that way, I feel a little better.

Plus the nurse told me menstruating women’s bodies try to hold onto their fat. She said I will see the biggest difference at my 3 month follow-up. Okay, I’ll have to take her word for it and be patient.

What issues have I had? Well, since I was given license to eat meat a couple weeks ago, I have also had more food issues. The first time I ate steak tips was horrible, and had me wishing I had a DS. I had a stuck feeling, with vomiting which produced mostly foamies for about 1 hour 15 minutes.

However, determined not to let steak tips kick my butt, I had steak tips again two more days in a row. I cut them up to about half an inch and spent more time chewing, and, Voila! No problems this time!

I started eating bran crackers for regularity. While these are for a good cause, I’ve found that the usual junk food (crackers and chip-type foods) goes down smooth as liquid. I have to be careful about those because they also taste hella good. By the way, I am allowed to have crackers in limited quantities, so this is not cheating.

I got into an interesting debate with some long-term RNYers on a Yahoo group who are militant advocates of protein drinks. They state that not only do they still drink multiple protein drinks a day (with predigested whey) but they say it is necessary for all of us because we malabsorb protein from food and therefore can never get all our protein from food. Well, I bowed down to their experience (and I do have respect for it), but when I asked for scientific data to back up their claims (about requiring protein drinks), they got indignant and said they didn’t need any because their claims were based on life experience. Whatever!

Saying you have experience from being around lots of other RNYers and therefore don’t need scientific data to prove what you say is a cop-out. The whole reason these surgeries are available to us is because scientific data has shown them to give obese people a much better chance of losing weight and keeping it off than the traditional regimen of diet and exercise alone.

Sure there are doctors and nutritionists who give their patients crappy advice (such as: Don’t drink protein drinks. Take TUMs for calcium, and get all your vitamins from food.), and who obviously are not experts in bariatric nutrition, but you don’t need to do much research to find out why their advice is wrong and dangerous.

For example, you don’t need to search Google for long to find out why you need calcium citrate and not calcium carbonate. So I’m very leery of people who say “I don’t need data to back up what I say!” That’s B.S.! Bariatric surgery and nutrition is medicine and science; it’s not religion.

Research is what caused me to choose this surgery, so I’ll be damned if I’m just going to believe whatever someone tells me without any proof whatsoever. Research has also told me that my surgeon’s program is good based on their recommendations. That doesn’t mean I don’t think I need to research anything else. I’m an analytical person and a writer, and I love doing research, especially when it’s about something that directly affects me.

The reason I do need protein drinks now is I do have difficulty getting my protein in from food alone. If that’s the case for the rest of my life, so be it. I can live with it. But geez this is not about following rules. It is about doing what has been proven to be healthiest for your surgically altered body, and that’s where the rules from the best surgeons/nutritionists come from. And if someone is making a health claim that is true, they shouldn’t have any difficulty giving some sort of objective data to back up what they say.

Experience is very valuable but it can also be very subjective. Look at how many “diet aids” are sold through testimonials/experience that turn out to be pure useless crap.

Okay, end of rant…

Well, actually, I think it’s foolish to say “Gone forever”. Surgery doesn’t cure obesity. It only helps you win half the battle. The rest is up to you. Okay, okay. I know you’re sick of that cliche, but it’s true.

I have to say I’m not happy with my weight loss progress. Although I want to scream on the Gastric Bypass Forum, “My surgery is not working. I could have lost more on a diet by now!”, I’m not ready to do that just yet. I already know there are things you can do to try to speed up your weight loss, such as:

- More protein.
- More exercise.
- More water.

And I am working on those. Protein does seem to make a difference in my weight loss. I am struggling to make my 80 gm per day, and when I was losing faster, I was getting in more protein. Aha!

Although I am getting 60-64 oz. of water in per day, I know darn well that isn’t enough sometimes. When we were having the 80-90-degree heat wave, I still felt dehydrated, especially in the early part of the day.

Also due to the heatwave (and possible dehydration), I have not been able to walk for the past week at all. I have had no energy. But, finally, the heat has lifted. Yesterday it was in the 70s and I did walk. Today it is also pretty cool. I will walk again.

I should be glad for my 18.5 lbs. but most of it was lost in the first week and I have lost anywhere from 0.5 to 2.5 lbs a week since then. That really sucks because I am losing less weight than I did on my last diet in which I was eating more calories. Aha! Maybe that’s the problem!

But maybe I can’t complain because I did cheat. I ate about 1/3 of a small slice of cheesecake at work. I’m not sure if I dumped, although I did feel bad afterwards, maybe some slight nausea or dizziness — I couldn’t tell which. I did feel my heart beating fast for a few minutes, but no stomach cramping or diarrhea that I’ve heard others complain about. It wasn’t even worth it. It didn’t taste good! And thank goodness!

I also think I have not been eating enough. I have been eating only 3x a day. At work I had 200 calories all day yesterday. I know we are supposed to be on a very low calorie diet, but that’s crazy! I usually only eat 3 meals a day, but when I got home I ate 2 more servings of protein, and I’m glad because the scale moved down a pound today. Aha!

I ordered a protein pack sampler from bariatriceating.com. It should be here early next week. I’m hoping I can find a favorite out of one of those samples. I have to find a protein drink to supplement my protein. I can’t do it from food alone– at least not before I get to eat meat. Nothing has as much protein per serving as meat. And I can’t add protein powder to everything. I get to start chopped foods this coming Friday. Woo hoo! I’m definitely looking forward to it.

I have snuck small pieces of chicken a few times and chewed very well and had no problem. Yes, yes! I know what you’re thinking. 2 weeks out and you cheated already. Shame on you! What is your problem?!

Well, the cheesecake was a mistake, and I suck for eating it, but I’m sorry I don’t think the small pieces of chicken were. Many people get to eat some meat sooner than I am supposed to. Yes, I should follow the dietician’s and surgeon’s orders or I could end up the hospital. I know. I know. But no matter how I look at it, this graduated food diet sucks.

The good news is the worst is over in about a week. I get to eat chopped food for a week then I can try anything except lettuce. I can’t eat lettuce until 8 weeks out. NO bread, rice or pasta for 6 months. I will not miss bread or rice, but I will miss pasta. I think I was Italian in a past life…hehe! I know I can do it though. I’ve done it before multiple times.

Nonetheless, I will try to think positively. After all, I haven’t weighed what I weigh now since March of this year. Wow! When I think of it that way, I realize I am definitely glad for that. So I will just keep adjusting protein, water and exercise and hopefully I will continue to see results.

Thanks for reading. Thank goodness for blogs. We complainers can now gripe to a worldwide audience. LOL!