I wanted to share this because I think it serves as a reminder that regardless the amount of weight loss you will never truly look like the person standing besides you. So having WLS should not be about appearance or wanting to look like someone else. It truly needs to be a decision that is going to be for the betterment of health. I also post this with the following disclaimer, because I hate when people who receive this surgery don’t just say it. So here it is: Though I have many health related issues. I want this surgery because I want to look better in the clothes I wear and be physically smaller, and sometimes I just hate being the fat girl.” There it is folks. It’s the first and quite possibly the only time I’ll be saying it because I am all about self worth and I don’t trash myself, but I do try and keep it real! Til next time… 😉

Body, Mind & Sol

70 kg is the current weight of the average Australian woman, according to a new study Marie Claire used for an article I was interviewed for. I roughly fit that criteria with my weight fluctuating a little depending on what’s going on in my life exercise and stress wise. Hence why I was interviewed.

While the feature wonderfully showed beautiful women of all heights, shapes and sizes, I wish it had included an article on body image. And not just a positive “isn’t-it-great-we-can-all-look-good-at-different-sizes” kind of articles but an honest, hardhitting one. One that would have taken a look at the comments made by my fellow models for the day  – about not being able to help comparing herself to the “real” model-  and – about constantly trying to lose weight or having been unhappy with weight in the past. I would have wished for an article that questioned what the…

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Support Groups and Telling Co-Workers

Not even an hour ago, something in my brain prompted me to share with one of my co-workers that I was considering or 99.8 % sure that I was going to have weight loss surgery. Let me tell you, I was so afraid of her reaction but to my surprise she was totally supportive! My job can be a “mean girl” environment from time to time so this is one of the main places that I don’t plan on shouting my news from the rooftops.

As for the support groups, I posted on http://www.rnytalk.com that I went to a support meeting regarding nutritional deficiencies and I was the ONLY person there. While it was nice to have all of my personal questions answered, it was really unnerving that something that is supposed to be such a vital step in my future was a bit of a flat line due to a lack of attendance. I asked them about how many surgeries they have performed and I was told that they are nearing 100. Then why is it that I haven’t met a single person that’s been through the process with them? I think it would be awesome to have some sort of patient advocate.

In case you’re wondering who I’m with I’m having my surgery with Dr. Chand at the Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery.

So that’s my rant. The staff is all very accommodating and knowledgeable, so I definitely like the center a lot.  Next week is my 2nd appointment with the dietitian  I was told if she clears me. They will be sending my information to insurance and I’ll be receiving my tentative surgery date. I’m so excited and I’m just really ready for this to be here. For another chapter of my life to begin, let me be clear not for my life to begin, because I haven’t spent the last thirty years doing nothing. My life has been and is meaningful, who I am now is a lot. But like one of my favorite bloggers on ProofWLSWorks on Youtube said. I’m ready to be me, but the super concentrated version…

Watch out world!

P.s. I’ll also share in the upcoming days, a few running post from my other blog: http://www.plussizerunner.wordpress.com

Weight Lost Surgery – First Set of Pre-Operative Appointments

Let me start out by saying this is going to be a VERY long post, if you are just here to hear about my DAY ONE of PRE-WLS  search this post for that phrase to start there.

If you’ve been following my blog you know that I’ve been trying to lose some pounds for the last year. I’m failing miserable I might say. At one point I truly was trying with all of my might to do so, but this is really really hard.  At one of my doctors appointments the nurse practitioner asked me if I had every considered surgical options. I looked at her with disgust and said, ” I think I can do this on my own, I’ve got this!” I mean I’m a big girl, but I’m pretty active. A great deal of people can’t keep up with me on the dance floor, and I walk and go hiking a lot! So me need WLS, no thank you..

But I have this little demon.. it’s like a ravenous little sugar and food creature that lives in my belly always asking for more. I imagine it to look a lot like the little creature from the Mucinex commercials. 🙂

But over the last few months there is something that has been rubbing me the wrong way, actually the last year or so it’s been bothering me and I couldn’t quite figure it out but I started to take a look at my life and I realized that I like my life, I have a lot of fun, people love me. I mean I love me, but I don’t love all of me, to be specific I don’t love the extra 125 lbs of me. For anybody that wants to not guess I weight 280 lbs.

For instance I love my spirit and my optimism. My eyes, my hair, my legs even. (edit: I have sexy legs ya’ll lol!) I do not like feeling tired all the time, or holding back because I’m worried about what other people are thinking of me. I’m tired of my friends inviting me to places because I can be entertainment for their dates but not good enough to be a threat to their dates. I do not like hurting when I wake in the mornings. I don’t like not being able to find clothes in my size. I love traveling, but its nerve wrecking to be afraid someone is going to tap you on the shoulder and tell you, “I’m sorry lady, but you’re going to have to purchase an additional seat.”

I want so much more for myself. I CAN have it all! My mom is one of the most beautiful women I know, she is classy, elegance, and sassy and men stop for her. I mean they STOP!  But in the end my mom is still overweight  and suffering the effects of that, including two minor strokes.  The kicker is I’m larger than her. It’s scary to just get a headache, thinking is this the day that I’m going to die from a stroke.

I deserve this. I deserve to be fit and healthy and in love with all of me! I deserve to be respected as an individual. I deserve to be treated like a person, and not the elephant in the room. I want to feel better…I want to feel good about myself.

I don’t know when the exact moment was that I thought WLS (Weight Loss Surgery) was a viable option, but for the last 2 months I’ve been researching it. I happened upon the Loyola Center Metabolic Surgery Center and I attended an online seminar and made my first appointments with a Bariatrican and with a Bariatric Surgeon.

This is where PRE -WLS –DAY ONE picks up

DAY ONE of PRE-WLS

Today I had my meeting with both the bariatrican and the bariatric surgeon. When making the appointments I wasn’t very sure which direction I wanted to go. I’ve since done lots of research with two great forums and books which I will link to and post about at another time.

Loyola offers two programs one of them being medical weight loss which used a multidisciplinary approach to weight loss, ie. exercise,diet, psychological, and prescription at times. The other program offers surgical assistance.

When I went into the appointments I was the usual subdued version of myself: “I don’t know what I wanna do, your the doctor, so tell me what to do!” Though I knew full and well that I was there to discuss surgical weight loss options.

Both appointments consisted of me having a very small exam and answering questions about my family and my personal health and medical history.

After my appointment with the Bariatrician  it took me until after the appointment to really realize what his job was, which is the medical weight loss program, which now makes sense.

The appointment with the Surgeon was like a mini meeting. Loyola is a teaching school so I had a resident, a surgeon and then the surgeons nurse. Their like the weight loss squad over there! I wasn’t uncomfortable, everyone was very nice and personable. They explained the advantages and disadvantages of all the surgeries very nicely and answered all of my questions.

Though he told me I didn’t have to answer at that moment I left pretty sure that I would go with the Rout-en-y procedure. I liked that they are making me decide which I wanted because I also said I was considering the sleeve, but this makes it evident to me that they want to make sure that YOU have made this decision not them and that you are aware of the implications of doing so.

So I’m choosing RNY due to my strong family history of diabetes and heart disease. I didn’t mention that I have sleep apnea and hypertension and arthritis. So in addition to helping with these current disorders I’m viewing this procedure as preventive medicine.

They drew several vials of blood for testing of deficiencies and such. He said he usually finds that people have a vitamin D deficiency. If I was deficient they would call and have me start on supplements.

(EDIT: I got a call this morning. My blood count is low and my iron. They are starting me on 325 mg of Iron 2x’s day and and over the counter Vitamin C supplement. This very likely explains part of unbearable fatigue that I’ve been experiencing.)

I left with additional appointments for an EGD upper GI tract test, abdominal ultrasound,and and EKG. There is also a sleep study component but I’ve been there done that. Just have to follow up with my usual doctor.

All in all I was really pleased. So my next appointments are for next week with my psychologist for the evaluation and then with the dietitian. Also the ABD ultrasound.

Busy, busy, busy weeks ahead.  In case anyone is wondering, at the appointments my insurance was not even mentioned. I have BCBS, I called them myself and asked if the surgery was covered and they said it had to be medically necessary and that there were requirements, which it looks like I meet them.  I think at my next appointment I’ll ask a few more questions of what to expect in regards to a time frame because it will calm some of my anxiety.

So this is it guys….D1…Subsequently the day before the end of the world, mwah, mwah, mwwwwahhh, hhaaa….cough! 😉

(EDIT: We Lived….*waves hand or did we? lol)