Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Week 25 Post Op

Week 25!  I can't believe it has been almost 6 months since I had my surgery.  It's been an amazing journey.  If I were reading this blog, I would want to know about the stats, so here they are.  My all time highest weight was a couple years ago at 277 lbs.  I would have to look up the exact date, and I don't even know if this was my highest weight, but it was one that was recorded.  I started this journey (as well as this blog) nearly a year ago, in June of 2016.  You can read all about that process on other posts, but in the end I had my surgery on November 15, 2016, with a starting weight of 247 lbs.  For week 25, I weighed in at 172.8.  That's a loss since surgery, of 74.2 lbs and a total loss from my highest recorded weight, of 104.2 lbs!  WOW!


What does all of this mean in the big scheme of things?  It means I am very close to be done with this part of the process.  My surgeon never gave me a goal weight to achieve, but I do meet with his office next week, so I am going to ask those questions to see when I should slow this rodeo down and start the whole maintenance process.  My guess is, they will want me to lose another 20 pounds, but maybe not?


I am wearing (comfortably) a size 8-10 in pants.  For shirts I am still at a large, although sometimes a medium works out fine.  As a comparison, I started out wearing a size 18-20 pants and 22-24 blouses.  And all of this is only in 6 months!


What is it like to lose this much weight, this fast?  Well, for starters, it's pretty amazing.  I feel amazed quite frequently at many, many aspects of being a smaller more normal sized woman.  My brain hasn't really caught up to the excitement of it all, however, so sometimes I don't "get" the comments made by others on how small I look.  Or comments such as, "You have to be about done losing weight now?!".  I still, for the most part, feel like the same person inside with the same insecurities and want to scoff at the compliments.  I am trying really hard to be gracious though, and accept them. 
Here is a list of positives:
  • I can run!  I completed the couch 25K and finished off running for 35 minutes straight.  whew!
  • I can walk up and down stairs all day!  I went up and down my stairs the other day just doing routine chores.  35 flights.  I didn't experience anything negative afterwards. No sore muscles, no joint pain.  Just normal stuff.
  • I can eat pretty much anything now, albeit a much smaller portion.  I am still trying to focus on protein first.  It fills me up the fastest and is better for me.
  • My diabetes seems to be gone or nearly gone!  I haven't checked my blood sugar regularly, but did the last 2 mornings.  103!  That's amazing!  I see my pcp next month so she will check my A1C again and we will see where I am.
  • I feel generally happier.  I still have bouts of anxiety at times and stress but these are usually unrelated to how I feel about my physcial appearance and health in general.
There have been a few negatives too...
I am going bald.  I have probably lost more hair than I still have.  It's terribly embarrasing and has brought on an anxiety that I had never experienced before.  I am working on solutions to this and hope and pray that all the experts are right and this is just a temporary situation.  I have found some little stray baby hairs, so am hopeful it will grow back even better than before.  Hope...hope....


So, that's my update!  Pictures to follow soon!

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