10

Jan

14 Things to consider when picking a Bariatric Surgeon

I will be adding to this as I go along, but I wanted to let you know my thoughts on this important lifetime decision you will make.

  • You must trust your surgeon
  • You cannot pick out a surgeon sight unseen
  • You cannot pick out a surgeon from a magazine
  • Your primary care physician who has treated you since you were born may try to talk you out of it
  • Your surgeon may have a private support group they want you to check out. These can be can helpful or pep squads.
  • Your surgeon may be part of a practice or alone, both has its benefits
  • Your surgeon must have experience, do not be their first
  • Your surgeon should specialize in this procedure. It has been going on so much, be wary of those dabbling in this complicated procedure that will alter your life
  • You may have to travel to the surgeon before the surgery, for the procedure, and for follow-up appointments
  • You may have a post surgery complication where having your surgeon close can be of great help and comfort
  • You may have an internal condition unrelated do bariatric surgery, but having your surgeon close can be of help to the treating physician in knowing what is going on inside your body
  • Some physicians do not agree with bariatric surgery
  • Some physicians are leary of patients who have had bariatric surgery
  • Almost no bairatric surgeons will take you after you have started treatment or surgery with another physician

What did you consider when you picked your bariatric surgeon?

1962 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

Weight Loss

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10

Jan

Obesity Health Conditions to consider Bariatric Surgery

If you are diagnosed with Morbid obesity, you are at a greater risk to die. Plain and simple. You are at a greater risk to die sooner, work your organs harder, under exercise, over eat, under do and under life the one and only life you get. I do not want to scare you into having Bariatric Surgery. I want to let you know the real risks of being diagnosed with morbid obesity.

Once you have morbid obesity, you are at a greater risk for many life-threatening health problems, known as co-morbid conditions. These conditions are by themselves very serious. Many of them will sneak up on you and do their damage silently over many years before they every begin to exhibit symptoms. For example, a co-morbid condition such as type 2 diabetes may be damaging your kidneys. You do not have to know that you have type 2 diabetes, but the damage is still being done each and every day of your life.

What are the common co-morbid conditions of morbid obese people:

  • Type 2 diabetes, which can lead to kidney and liver failure, heart disease, eye disease including retina detachments and blindness, nerve damage, problems recovering from wounds and difficulty healing, nerve damage and amputation of the fingers, toes, feet or legs
  • Heart disease, such as angina, hardening of the arteries and heart attack
  • High blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease, kidney failure, vision loss and stroke
  • Cancer
  • High cholesterol, which can lead to heart disease, kidney failure and stroke
  • Depression
  • Sleep apnea
  • Acid reflux/GERD, which can lead to esophagitis, esophageal cancer and Barrett’s esophagus
  • Osteoarthritis and joint pain which together with your weight can lead to loss of mobility
  • Stress urinary incontinence
  • All the above are for men and woman. Woman also have a co-morbid conditions of female reproductive health disorder, which can lead to infertility, and sexual dysfunction

If you are morbidly obese, or getting there and have any of the above symptoms, see your physician and get them under control or treated. Bariatric surgery can have an effect on all of these co-morbid conditions

As always, do not rely upon my success or posts to guide you down this lifetime decision. You must find a surgeon that you trust to help you make the right decision of whether or not surgery is right for you. But please comment here on your situation, I would be glad to hear how things are going for you and help you on whatever path you decide as a friend who has had to make the decision herself.

Do you have any of these health conditions now?

1962 days ago Short URL Comments

Weight Loss

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10

Jan

Qualifying for Bariatric Surgery

So you have made the decision to go ahead and have bariatric surgery. You are ready to undergo a lifetime commitment to transform your health and yourself? Do you meet the guidelines to have bariatric surgery? Knowing what the requirements are is the first step in the decision making process and putting you on the road to a new you.

Patients should have the following

  • 100 pounds or more of excess weight; or a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or greater
  • A Body Mass Index (BMI) of 35 or greater with one or more co-morbid condition

Other Common Guidelines

  • You must have an understanding the risks of bariatric surgery
  • You must make a commitment to dietary and other lifestyle changes as recommended by the surgeon
  • Your physician may require you to join a dietary program
  • Your physician may require you to join a support group
    • This may be a free or pay in advance group
  • Having a history of weight loss treatments having failed the patient
  • Be prepared to document this with receipts, dates, or exercise and diet logs
  • Undergoing a complete examination including medical tests
  • This initial tests are very important to get a complete set of tests to use as a baseline for your post surgery health

As with any surgery, there are possible complications and risks that are important to know and understand. As I have said many times, do not do this because of my success. This is a major lifetime commitment.

1962 days ago Short URL Comments

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06

Jan

Liberty Tree Tavern – Gastric Bypass Restaurant Review

One of our favorite Walt Disney World restaurants has always been the Liberty Tree Tavern.  LTT is an all you can eat, family style dinner that features several of the popular Disney characters dressed in colonial garb.  The meal here is all traditional American fare, hearty and homestyle.  This does not necessarily bode well for those of us who have had Gastric Bypass Surgery.

We attended Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party recently, and while we had booked an advanced dining reservation for LTT months in advance, we debated over whether or not we should go.  Of course this is a great restaurant if you come with a big appetite, but I do not have that huge appetite anymore, so dining here doesn’t hold the same appeal for me.  But, this is a great place for character interaction, and Granuaile is seriously into characters this trip, so we make the decision to go ahead to the restaurant.

It should be said that Disney really does try to honor your compromised eating capacity.  This is the second all you can eat Disney restaurant I have been to since my surgery.  I asked the waitress when we sat down if they offered a discount for gastric bypass patients, and she asked to see my card.  I know many of you have dining cards from your surgeons that tell them you’ve had surgery, but my doctor doesn’t give them out.  That didn’t matter here.  I explained to the waitress that I could show her my scars, my sagging skin, my droopy boobs, and my medical alert bracelet, but I had no dining card.  She sent a manager over, who very quickly and politely offered to discount my meal to the children’s price.  That’s a $15 savings here!  Woohoo!!

You start the meal out with the Declaration Salad.  This is a salad of mixed greens – all the stuff you wouldn’t eat as a kid and can block you up big time now – with a strawberry viniagrette.  I love this salad, and I think I ate too fast or too much.  You’ll learn why I think that in a minute.  The waitress also brings out a plate of rolls with a honey flavored butter.  You know I skipped the bread, but those of you who do not have issues with bread may be tempted to use way more butter than your stomach can handle.  It’s delicious.

After the salad plates are cleared away, the waitress brings a bowl heaping with piping hot mashed potatoes; a generous sized portion of macaroni and cheese; a bowl of vegetables; and a platter that held large portions of roast turkey with stuffing, smoked pork loin, and beef.  I helped myself to the pork, a small piece of the beef, and a little of the turkey, and a small scoop of mashed potatoes.  It wasn’t long into the meal when I felt that feeling – you know, when it feels like the food won’t go down, and may not ever come back up?  I don’t know if I over did the salad or if the mustard sauce on the outside of the pork is doing a number on me, or maybe even the bite of mashed potatoes is revolting.  I make a couple of trips up to the bathroom, hoping something will come up, but nothing does.  I’m not sure what to blame – maybe I didn’t chew something small enough – but this is certainly ruining the meal for me.

The meal continues for a while with me bouncing back and forth, up and down the steps to the bathroom (word to those needing assistance – the bathrooms are on the second floor here, and you will need to climb the stairs to get there.  If you cannot climb the stairs, you will have to leave the restaurant and use a facility nearby.), hoping to dislodge whatever I have stuck.  It finally starts to calm down, just in time for dessert – NOT!!  The dessert is to die for, but not sugar free.  Tonight, it’s a warm apple cobbler, covered with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream.  They are able to accomodate a special request, but you must contact them in advance to arrange for a sugar free dessert.  It doesn’t matter – I’m not going to try to put anything else in at this point!

There are certainly plenty of protein choices to be had here – especially if you have no trouble with things like beef.  The turkey was moist and tender, and certainly pouch friendly, but the smoked pork was a little tough.  That may have been the culprit in my incident.  Next time, I think I’ll stick with what I know will work, and avoid pushing my luck with the salad and tougher meats.

Liberty Tree Tavern is located in Liberty Square – Magic Kingdom

“Goofy’s Liberate Your Appetite Character Dinner”
DINING

Menu Date: December 2007

Characters are Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale

PRICES have changed since October, 2007

  • Adults $28.99
  • Adults with medical proof who ask at the hostess station are charged for a Little Patriots meal $13.99
  • Little Patriots (ages 3-9) $13.99
  • 2 and under are free
  • For those Guests not dining, a $5.00 entertainment fee will be applied to your bill.

Serving from 4 p.m. – closing varies depending on park hours

Admission into the Magic Kingdom is required.

BILL OF FARE

  • DECLARATION SALAD – Tossed Mixed Greens, served with our special Tavern Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing
  • PATRIOT’S PLATTER – A generous serving of roasted turkey breast, carved beef, and smoked pork loin, with mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables, herb bread stuffing, and Stouffer’s Macaroni and Cheese
  • Rolls and gravy also included
  • BEVERAGES included in meal price
    • Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Orange, Lemonade, Birch Beer
    • Coffee, Regular or Decaffeinated
    • Hot Tea
    • Hot Cocoa
    • Milk, Whole, Low-fat, Skim or Chocolate
    • Nestea Iced Tea
  • Cappuccino, Espresso, Bottled Water and Tavern Punch are an additional charge
    • Bottled Water (Still or Sparkling) $3.25
    • Cappuccino $3.69
    • Espresso $3.19
    • Fresh Orange Juice $2.29
  • SPECIALTY BEVERAGES
    • Patriot’s Punch – Enjoy a frozen beverage from our Patriot’s Punch Bowl served with a Liberty Tree Tavern Collector’s Mug — Take home a piece of the Tavern $8.19
    • The Spirit of ’76 – Take home the spirit of Liberty, one of the Tavern Keeper’s Collector’s Mugs from the top shelf $5.00
  • DESSERTS
    • Warm cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream included
    • Assorted fresh desserts from Martha’s kitchen additional $2.25 – $5.50 each

For your convenience, you may purchase film, disposable cameras, autograph books and souvenir mugs from your server.

1967 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Weight Loss

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03

Jan

Don Pablo’s Gastric Bypass Restaurant Review

Prior to having gastric bypass surgery, I might have LOVED eating at Don Pablo’s.  As with many Mexican restaurants, the portions here are large, generally covered in cheese, and served by request with a huge, fruit flavored Margarita.  Since having gastric bypass surgery, my success with finding things I can eat at Don Pablo’s – or many other Mexican restaurants – has been limited.

Today, fortunately, was a fairly successful visit.  To begin with, I have NO trouble eating the chips and salsa – not necessarily a good thing.  We were promptly seated at a booth in the nearly empty restaurant, and after taking our drink order, our waitress brought us a heaping basket of warm tortilla chips and two small bowls of salsa.  Jim quickly tucked in to one of the bowls, and I positioned the other in between Eilis and I, but soon found I was the only one dipping my chips.  The chips here are fresh, served toasty warm and pleasantly salted, and come with a mild, just chunky enough salsa. 

In my past experiences eating here, I have learned that the steak and chicken served with the fajitas is usually too tough for me to eat and digest properly, so I have to skip them.  The soups and the chilis are generally too spicy, and I was not a fan of spicy prior to gastric bypass surgery.  The surgery and the increased risk of stomach ulcers is a good enough excuse for me to skip the spicier foods here.  The guacamole shrimp cocktail the one time I had it proved to be tough to get down.  The shrimp was overcooked, rubbery and cold, and the guacamole reminded me of the gross green vomit from The Exorcist.  The fat content in the enchiladas and burritos frightens me away without even trying them, and on many of my other visits here, I have found myself eating just queso dip with more chips.  Today, I venture into Don Pablo’s world of salads.

Not being the adventurous type, I ask the waitress about the spiciness of the taco salad.  She says if I have no trouble eating the salsa, I should do fine with it, so I take a chance and order it.  The salad can be ordered with either the spicy ground beef or grilled chicken, but having struggled through chicken dishes here in the past, I opt for the ground beef version of the dish.  The salad – served in a crispy tortilla bowl (yeah, I had a bite or two) – is a very typical salad, but for my purposes, it was just perfect.  The lettuce was finely shredded, and all of the vegetables were diced small.  The dish is advertised with sauteed onions and peppers, but I only found a few strongly flavored onions and nary a pepper in mine.  I ordered ranch dressing on the side, in case the beef was spicy enough to need a ranch cool down, but the meat was mildly spiced – enough that you knew you were eating taco meat, but not so spicy you sat with your eyes watering down your iced tea as you gulped.  The dish also contains what Don Pablo’s refers to as “refritos” – refried pinto beans – although the portion in mine was limited to a thin coating on the bottom of the tortilla bowl.  It comes with one small scoop of sour cream and another of guacamole, but if you are watching your fats closely, you can either easily scoop those off yourself or ask that they be left off of the dish.  I mixed the guacamole in with my salad, while leaving the scoop of sour cream pretty much intact.

After eating about half of the salad, I was definitely full.  I recommend that you ask for a box immediately, and remove half of the salad for later.  If you eat your taco salad like I do, you mix all of the ingredients together to eat them, and that doesn’t make for good left overs.  Take half away before you mix the wet tomatoes in with the crisp lettuce, and you have a chance of making this last for another meal.

I cannot rave about Don Pablo’s restaurant because I find it difficult to find food there that works for me, however, by sticking with something simple and basic like the taco salad, I was able to eat a pleasant – although nothing spectacular – meal with my family. 

And for the record – the steak and chicken served with the two orders of fajitas WAS overcooked, and would have been virtually impossible for me to eat. 

1969 days ago Short URL Comments

Weight Loss

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11

Dec

Cafe TuTu Tango A Gastric Bypass Restaurant Review

As a person who has had a gastric bypass procedure, it can sometimes be challenging to find something on the menu at a mainstream restaurant that I can – or want to – eat.  As an overweight person, I didn’t realize how absolutely HUGE the portions can be at restaurants, so no matter where I go now, I end up taking most of my meal home with me – and even doing that, much of it ends up going to waste.  I try to steer clear of the things that are fried, things that have rice or pasta, anything with bread.  It really does wake you up to the fact that my options are limited wherever we go.

Cafe TuTu Tango was one of our favorite places to get a bite to eat when we lived in Orlando.  Jim even organized an office Christmas party there one year, and everyone had a blast.  While driving down International Drive in Orlando during our recent trip, thinking we might find a new restaurant to try, Cafe TuTu Tango popped up and a quick decision was made to revisit our old stomping grounds.

The “theme” of Tutu Tango is “Food for the Starving Artist”.  Everything here is served tapas style – or appetizer sized.  This keeps the cost of getting something to eat at a reasonable level, and it allows you to try a couple of things, or a table to try several things, that can be passed and shared.  This place is a gastric bypass patient’s dream come true!

On our lunch visit, we walked in to find the restaurant virtually empty.  We were quickly seated, and both girls given crayons and pictures of Backyardigans characters to color.  Granuaile LOVES the Backyardigans, and she was thrilled.  Jim and I browsed the menu, and quickly discouraged Eilis from ordering off of the children’s menu and allowing us to pick some things we thought she might like to try.  The kids’ menu at Cafe TuTu Tango is similar to every other children’s menu you’ve seen – heavy on the fried and fatty.  Any kid would be glad to have something – corn dogs, chicken strips, the usual fare.  But we’re emphasizing healthy eating, and the adult menu has a bigger variety of better for you choices.

The specials menu features a hummus with pita chips, and it’s only $3 for a good sized portion.  I order that, as I currently love hummus, but Eilis apparently enjoys it as well and is scooping up quite a bit of it on the tiny pitas and pita chips.  Jim orders a bowl of black bean soup for he and I to share, and I have to say, of all the foods we ate, this was the one disappointment for me.  There was an overwhelming citrusy taste to it, and very little of any other flavor.  I felt like I should add salt, but then didn’t want to add salt because it tasted so citrusy that I thought the salt would make it taste funny.  Jim ended up with the whole bowl after I braved a second bite to determine I really didn’t like it.

The kids practically devoured the shrimp and chicken potstickers, which you can order steamed like we did or deep fried.  Eilis didn’t even try the sauce until the very end, and then was dipping everything into it.  We also ordered a chicken pizza to give the kids something familiar.  The flavorful, thin crusted pizza had chunks of chicken, carmelized onion, and three cheeses.  The chicken pizza is a white pizza with a nice garlicky flavor.  Another big hit was the scallops – broiled to perfection and with a lime sauce that was really tasty.  Scallops are one of the foods I can easily eat, and after sharing one of the large scallops between Granuaile and Eilis, I ate one whole one myself and split the last one with Jim. 

With drinks – a very nicely flavored unsweetened ice tea for me, and sodas for the kids (Jim only drinks water), and a magnificent looking dessert of banana pizza (bananas, caramel, and ice cream atop a pizza crust), the bill came to about $50 for the 4 of us.  Because the portions are smaller sized, there really is no waste for someone who has a compromised gastrointestinal tract like we do after weight loss surgery, and you really can choose from a good selection of proteins, salads, the soup (there are two on the menu).  I would have been more than content with the scallop dish and a small salad (there are 5 salads on the menu, and 3 contain some form of protein) if I was there eating alone, but had PLENTY to eat even in choosing foods I knew the kids would like.  The pizza crust is thin enough that I could easily eat it without getting sick, which a lot of pizza crust can do to me, and there are many other options on the menu I could have tried with a table full of WLS patients that would have skipped any type of bread/crust at all. 

The added bonus to Cafe TuTu Tango is they feature art work throughout the restaurant from local artists.  You can purchase any of the pieces on display, and you really get a good sampling of local talent – in everything from sculpture to painting. 

This is definitely a must do restaurant for Gastric Bypass patients – and anyone who is looking for a menu filled with delicious surprises, international flavors and eclectic flair.

1992 days ago Short URL Comments

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09

Dec

CiCi’s Pizza Gastric Bypass Restaurant Review

CiCi’s Pizza, for those unfamiliar with the place, is a pizza buffet restaurant.  For a set price – around $6 or $7, depending on the CiCi’s you go to – you can eat as much as you want of their many varieties of pizza, macaroni with a red gravy or an alfredo sauce, and two or three kinds of pasta.  They also have a small selection of desserts – a dessert pizza, that is kind of like an apple pie on a pizza crust; cinnamon buns; and chocolate brownies. 

In terms of the gastric bypass patient, CiCi’s might not be your first choice.  Pizza is high in fat, after all, and fat is one of those foods we should avoid.  Pizza rests on pizza crust, and that is another thing that for many gastric bypass patients is not a safe food.  But I say go, my fellow WLS buddies!  Enjoy the pizza, have some salad, skip the pasta, and you’ll come away happy.

The pizza at CiCi’s is mostly thin crusted (although you will see one or two Sicilian varieties), and if you don’t eat the back of the crust, you really shouldn’t have any trouble at all with the bread part of the pizza.  You can skip the pizza with tomato sauce (although I do not know if CiCi’s uses sugar in their sauce, I always assume that any place that serves red sauce uses sugar), because you will find many options without red sauce.  But even the pizza with the red sauce doesn’t overload the crust with the sauce, and for most of you, it should still be a safe bet.

The cheese, as we all know, is chock full of protein, and some of the CiCi’s toppings are added protein.  There is a ham and cheddar, chicken, BBQ chicken, as well as the more traditional pepperoni, sausage, beef, and ham and pineapple pizzas.  You can make a good choice even at the pizza buffet, and they are really very accomodating, so if you want them to make you something, they will. 

The salad bar varies from restaurant to restaurant.  Some of them have two or three pre-made, pre-dressed salads, usually including a pasta salad, a caesar salad, and a mixed green salad.  Other CiCi’s have a regular salad bar.  This one we went to had the pre-made, pre-dressed salads, and I stuck with the mixed green salad with an Italian type dressing.  You can certainly skip the salad if you fear the fat content in the pre-dressed salads, but I had no trouble with it.  I even had a little bit of a bacon ranch salad that was offered – a mixed green vegetable salad with bacon, a little cheese, and ranch dressing.  It tasted good and I didn’t dump, so I was pleased with that.

If you’re craving dessert, this is not the place to find happiness.  Your options on the dessert buffet are limited to ooey gooey chocolately delicious looking brownies; ooey gooey sticky sweet cinnamon buns; and ooey gooey caramely delicious apple pie type pizza.  I would guess that the sugar content in any of the desserts is enough to send you into some kind of serious, laying on the floor, begging for mercy dumping situation, and if the sugar doesn’t bother you, the fat likely will.  But if you are the kind of WLS patient that can handle that stuff, they do cut the brownie pieces into small squares, and the apple pie pizza thing into thin slices, so you may be able to get away with a taste of either of those.  The cinnamon buns are much smaller than those you would get at the mall Cinna-Bon store, but they are the most generously sized dessert, so you might want to skip those.

You can add whatever kind of drink you want to the buffet, and they do have water at no additional cost.  I stick with unsweetened iced tea.

CiCi’s is certainly not gourmet pizza, but it is good tasting pizza, and it’s a great restaurant to take a family with kids.  For those of you who hesitate to go to a buffet with your family because you know you can no longer eat your money’s worth, CiCi’s is a reasonably priced enough option that even if you can only eat one or two slices and a bit of salad, you won’t feel you’ve wasted money. 

I highly recommend CiCi’s pizza to those of you who have had Gastric Bypass surgery – and to those who haven’t.  It’s enjoyable for the whole family.

1994 days ago Short URL Comments

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10

Jan

So Close, I Can Taste It (HA HA)

Okay, not literally taste it, because, frankly, most of what I taste is awful lately, and this is so darn good!

I reached my 5 month post-op mark on January 1st, 2007, and in 5 months, I have lost 109 pounds!   I am 21 pounds away from my original goal weight, and now I think I might possibly be able to get a little smaller than I thought would be possible. 

I am wearing a size 14 pair of jeans, and I own a pair of size 12 dress slacks, but I hesitate to buy more clothes because the joy of being a size 16 was so short lived, I barely got to wear those jeans before they became too big.  The 14s are comfortable, but I might be able to get into a size 12 stretch jeans if I tried.  Of course, being able to do that takes me out of my comfort zone a little bit – away from Lane Bryant and Roamans and into the stores where regular people shop.  I tried that once at Macy’s, and was so overwhelmed by the options.  Seriously, if you’ve been fat and shopped at fat lady stores, you know that they sell one or two brands of jeans (they are starting to sell more in some stores), and they only come in a couple of styles.  Well, let that fat lady loose in Macy’s, where it seems like every celebrity has a jean named after her or a company that makes jeans to her liking – you could pass out from the head spinning thing you end up doing!

 I still have most of my old tops, although I vow to dress nicer when I am at a more stable weight.  Right now, I could pass for homeless, as most of my old tops were baggy to begin with, but at 100 plus pounds lighter, they are truly too big. 

Today, and for the past week and a half, I am battling a UTI, and I am hoping that my inability to fight it off has nothing to do with surgery.  This is my second round of antibiotics, and fingers are crossed that it kicks in and gets rid of the infection.

That’s the latest from “Loser-ville”. 

2327 days ago Short URL Comments

Weight Loss

09

Dec

It’s The Most One-derful time Of The Year!

When I started my weight loss surgery journey, I hoped and prayed that I would be one of those one hundred pound losers before the end of my first year.  My second hope was that I would at least get below 200 pounds – which is pretty darn close to 100 pounds lost, since I was starting at 295.

Well, we came home from FL after a week on vacation last Sunday, and as soon as I found the scale, I was on it.  I am ecstatic to report that I am officially in “Onederland”!   I fell below the 200 pound mark for the first time in about 15 years.  I still have 3 pounds to go to get to my 100 pound loss mark, but this is so close, and in only 4 months.

I have to get in to see Dr. Nusbaum, but with all the confusion at home with the floors the paint the party the Christmas….. you get the picture – I forgot to get my blood work done.  I’ll be heading to the lab Monday morning so I can reschedule with Dr. N.

While I still see fat when I look in the mirror, I know that a lot of it now is the hanging skin that will eventually have to be taken care of.  My thighs look like two shar pei puppies huddled together in one big, wrinkled mass.  Not pretty.  Thank goodness for a bathing suit with a skirt.

2359 days ago Short URL Comments

Weight Loss

27

Oct

SWEET SIXTEEN!!!

I went to the mall tonight to pick up a pair of jeans.  I am wearing 22′s, but can almost step out of them without unbuttoning them.  I figured I would go down to a size 18 stretchy, and that way, even if they were a little snug now, I would still have them to wear for a little while.

You cannot imagine my surprise when I pulled up the 18′s and they buttoned and zipped without any problems!   I asked Jim to go get a size 16, just so I could try.  I figured even if I have to lay on the bed to button them, it’s going to be better than having the 18′s fall off in a couple of weeks.

THEY FIT!!   And I didn’t have to lay on the dressing room floor to button them :-)

This surgery has been such a miracle for me.  I love that I can play with my kids, walk without losing my breath, carry groceries without my knees and back aching.

When I think that just 3 months ago, I was unable to even pull up my 24′s all the way, this feels like climbing Mt. Everest.  Another milestone reached :-)

2402 days ago Short URL Comments

Weight Loss

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