Like a sack of potatoes.

1-31-12

I hate those commercials where the skinny lady says “Oh, I just had to lose weight, I took ‘such and such” and the pounds just melted away just like magic.’’ “Now I’ve lost 8 pounds and am back in my size 3 pants, being heavy just made me so uncomfortable…….”

Give me a break!!  If I had only to lose 8 pounds, I would jump for joy but I wouldn’t make a commercial about it.

I am proud of my weight loss, but if you didn’t know me from before or after I still look like a “heavy person”.  I have at this point lost 26 pounds. Now to round down; 20 pounds may not seem like a whole lot (and I have plenty more to go).

To look at this from another viewpoint  let’s say that I went to the grocery store to buy a bunch of potatoes, I’m in a hurry so I don’t get a buggy I just run to the produce section and pick up two ten pound bags of potatoes.  (one in each hand) then I remember that I need cheese and butter for the potatoes.( That is on the other end of the store) I have to carry twenty pounds of potatoes over there then up to the check out and stand in line, then walk to the car.  If I had to carry those potatoes with me everywhere I went I would be exhausted; and I am (just not as much).

I have about 120ish pounds to lose from where I started before surgery to be at my “goal weight”.   To be honest some times when I look at the BIG picture 120 pounds seems so very unattainable and distant not to mention foreign and weird to try and fathom loosing that much weight.  

I am trying to look at it more like five pounds at a time instead of one hundred twenty.  I’ve lost 26 of that total so far really that is great.  If I continue to keep things in perspective, then I can really feel good about my choice and my accomplishment(s).  I have gotten rid of two sacks of potatoes plus, that’s not too shabby.

A. Dawn

Is my nose getting longer?

01-29-12

Is my nose getting longer? 

As I am starting to lose weight my face is changing before my eyes (really) I was noticing that my nose is starting to look longer.  I know that my nose is not having a growing spurt, but my cheeks are getting smaller and that skin between my upper lip and nose is getting smaller as well, giving my nose the illusion of getting longer.

 I kind of like this new development, I have always had a little pug-ish nose that upturns on the end. For years I have wished for a more elongated more slender nose and now before my eyes I am getting just that.  Funny thing is, I didn’t appreciate what I had before, or notice that it had gotten worse as the pounds came on.  Only now that the pounds are coming off am I noticing that my nose is more like I had wished it was all along.  (However I still have fat nostrils but it could be worse.)

When I was a little girl I saw a ”made for TV movie” with Linda Purl in it (I don’t remember the name movie) as I was watching I became sort of fixated on the shape of her nose, the nostrils were so much more thin than mine. I wore a clothes pin on my nose for about a month trying to “reshape” my nose.   Just so you know, it only works for moments after you remove the cloths pin and do not have long lasting results.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we appreciated what we have when we have it, not when we are beyond having it again or on our way back to it?

A.  Dawn

You don't know me from Adam

01-23-12

A couple of weekends ago I was on my way to the gym, but first I needed to get a can of air for my computer, so I stopped at an office supply store.   I was feeling so good about myself; here I was in my favorite purple gym shirt my little Capri gym pants (a size smaller mind you) had my hair in a pony tail my bangs looked cute, I ‘m feeling better AND I’m thinking, I look pretty good plus I am heading to the gym, which always makes me proud of myself.  I should be at that point I was three weeks out of the surgery and already walking a mile in just a few more than thirty minutes comfortably on the tread mill.

 I made my purchased and then stopped   at this table to get a cup of coffee.  You see, they are trying to get people to buy this coffee maker by using a display.  I have had this coffee and knew I liked it so I was waiting for the little old lady to finish up. I had lost a little over twenty pounds at this point and I was feeling just so great and really proud of myself.

The little old lady was having trouble figuring out the coffee maker.  Her daughter was helping her; I started looking through the stuff on the clearance table just waiting for my turn when a man approached me.   He came up and said “ I know I don’t know you from Adam, but…”  as he is saying that he is getting something out of his pocket and his hand starts to move his hand toward me, At that moment I was thinking;  A. He is some religious nut about to invite me to “service.”  B. he is going to ask me directions to someplace.  C. he is some representative for the coffee maker and is going to try to sell me one.   I put on my friendly but cautious smile and wait for the “pitch” if there is one.  I’m good with B. directions but I don’t care for choices A&C, I really dislike people trying to push their “products” down my throat.  So I am also sort of bracing and trying to prepare an on the spot refusal of the proposal.

The man hands me a card with such and such herbal supply on the front (sales my brain registers, I’m thinking vitamins, minerals and such) the man continues. With his “I know I don’t know you   from Adam, but we are having a weight loss seminar this evening at the such and such hotel and I would like to invite you as my guest.

I was flabbergasted!!!  REALLY?  He just invited me to a weight loss seminar, why he doesn’t know me he doesn’t know me from Adam he said so himself.   I was just floored and rendered speechless.  I stumbled what happened to my beauty and grace and feeling good about myself?  Right out the automatic door that’s where?  I felt my head drop, my shoulders slumped it was awful, what made it worse is that I was nice to him after that.

I handed the card back to that man and said “Thanks but I just had gastric bypass about a month ago. “  he said “oh, well I guess you won’t be needing this then. “ and put the card back into his pocket and said pulling it back out, “you don’t have a friend that is also heavy do you? “ My mouth opened but before I could utter a sound he continued “This stuff is great it helps with….” At this point he started listing bodily organs and functions.   He continued with “ … and it’s all natural so there is no surgery involved” at which point he gave me a condescending look and finished with “but it’s too late for you, since you have already had the surgery. “  I blurted out “yes I have and I am already off my diabetic medicine and I already feel way better. “He said. “Well best of luck to you and went out the door.”

I just stood stunned, I got my coffee and went to the gym but my zeal was gone.  I felt fat and dumpy ashamed and sad.

 I feel quite certain that if my boyfriend had been with me that man would not been comfortable enough to approach me.  I also feel that if I were a man that man would have not approached me or if he did it would have been in a different manner, however given his demeanor I really don’t think he would have.

What is wrong with people that they think that they can just come up to someone that they don’t even know and say something like that to them?

A.Dawn

Gastric bypass one month

Gastric bypass one month

01-17-12
Hello,
I recently had gastric bypass surgery so I will be writing about that a  lot (especially at first.)
The good news is I have lost twenty pounds.

 WALKING:
The best thing you can do for yourself after surgery is walk (and walk some more) not only will you heal faster but it will help move that gas out (which makes your back hurt like crazy) 
For me, the pain after surgery is right under my shoulder blades in the mid-back area.
 Walking and Gas X will be your very best friend.  Start walking as soon as they will let you out of bed even if it's just a few feet down the hall. (Then go a little further next time)  Every time I got up to go to the ladies room I would take a little stroll down the hall with my walker. (The nurse will accompany you the first few time just to make sure you are steady)

There were times I would be out of my room walking up and down the hall in my pink Minnie Mouse pajamas and my baby blue velour robe; as I would make my way down the hall, I would see other patents in their various pajama/robe attire.  As I started getting around better, my since of humor started to come back as well. I thought (and told them as such) that we looked like mental patients wandering 'the grounds" in a movie.  I would always get a giggle, followed by a groan as we would both have to grab our stitches and laugh.  Oh well, "laughter is the best medicine" right?

EATING (and vomiting)
I am one month out and relearning how to eat at this stage. Re-learning to eat is a harder task then I had imagined. 
I am at the pureed and very soft food stage.  Funny thing is, you go through your life being told to chew your food better and if you are like me, you think you do.  Well, as it turns out, I have not done such a good job with that.  I (on more than one occasion) have had items get stuck in my esophagus.  It is a painful experience and the only option is to vomit.

I am one of those people that would almost rather eat a spider then to throw up; I will exhaust every avenue before allowing myself to barf.  However, when I decided to have the surgery, (well more like a two weeks before "go time”) I had a talk with myself and came to an understanding about that.
 You see, I have had the "luxury" to see several women at my place of employment go through this process.  One of the things that I have learned about gastric bypass is that you vomit, period (at least in the beginning).  So I came to an understanding that if I was going to do this surgery, I had to be prepared to get over it and puke when I had to.  The song I have heard over and over is that if it's going to happen just go on and do it. <sigh>  I will say, I am getting better at it and they were right, you feel a lot better sooner.  What is bad is when you get something stuck in your esophagus, once stuck there is no way to "push it down with water or tea and especially not a carbonated (If you are a woman you really understand that last statement, especially if you have ever had a child).

A. Dawn