Where have the last 6 months gone?!

Apr 18, 2010

I can't believe I'm creeping up on 6 months post-op!  I no longer think of how many "weeks" have elapsed since surgery, but I'm still really surprised to see just how much time has actually passed.

For the most part, I'm still doing really good.  To date, the only "issues" I've had are trouble drinking water (getting better still, but a really slow climb back to normal unfortunately), constipation (unending and relentless until I discovered eating a banana a day does it for me!), and horrendous hair loss.  My hair's been growing back for the past month or so, but at a half inch per month, it's gonna take a long time to fully recover.  I'm hoping my hair comes back to its original thickness.  I really lost a LOT, I'd say at least 75% of my hair fell out.  I knew I'd suffer hair loss, but had no idea how truly horrible it would get.  :(

As for food - I'm doing pretty good.  I'm slowly introducing bread back into my diet.  The other day I had a whole slice of thin toast with peanut butter on it.  I ate it slowly, and it felt good.  I rarely eat bread of any kind, but it's nice to know I can maybe do half a sandwich by summer.  I have no problem with chicken, hamburger, or roast, and can even eat an egg now and then, but I no longer like the taste of fish at all.  This really saddens me, as my family used to eat a lot of salmon, which is SO good for you!  Oh well, maybe that will come back, too.

I've started experiencing the reactive hypoglycemia I've read about, whenever I eat starchy carbs.  I was doing really good with a little bit of cereal most mornings, but nowadays, even a half cup of Cheerios will make me feel shaky and weird (I think it's my version of dumping - never hardcore like I read about, but more like a half hour of slight nausea, a feeling of slight shakiness, and extreme fatigue and yawning.)  About 2 hours later, I'll have a really bad low blood sugar, so I've stopped eating cereal for the most part.  It's really hard for me to eat ANY breakfast, since everything kinda hurts my stomach first thing in the morning.  I almost never drink protein shakes anymore, because they make me nauseous now, and they never used to!  My safest bet is about 1/3 cup of cottage cheese, and a snack-pak of mandarin oranges or diced peaches...or a low-sugar yogurt and a small banana.

I still drink milk every day, but I'm not as addicted to it as I was the first few months.  Still no lactose intolerance, for which I'm very grateful!  Coffee has become my new bad habit, but I only drink a cup a day, and sometimes not even a full cup.

Before surgery, I was getting about 3-4 periods a year, and since surgery I only had one really light period about a week after surgery.  Well, recently, I started craving chocolate, and was eating a few little Dove chocolates a day, and was getting worried about wanting it so often.  I got my period the other day, and it suddenly made sense to me.  I've ALWAYS craved chocolate right before my period, and this one was a doozy.  Lasted 9 days, and gave me cramps so bad I couldn't sleep one whole night!  Sheesh...hope those aren't back for good.

I weighed about 335 a little over a year ago, and today I'm down to 231.  So, I've lost 104 pounds total, and 82 since surgery.  I plateaued at 240 for a full month recently, and was starting to think my weight loss was over.  Then we went to New York City for vacation, and did a LOT of walking, and I've been losing pretty steady since coming home 2 weeks ago.  Also, before we left on vacation, I kinda felt like I was snacking a lot.  Was thinking about food a lot more, and planning what to eat, and looking forward to eating, etc.  Since New York, I'm back to having to remember to eat, and struggling to get enough protein again.  Not sure if that's why I'm losing, or if I ramped my metabolism up again.  Either way, I'm happy to see I'm not done losing.  I still have 81 pounds to go before I hit my goal of 150!

Emotionally, I'm having a really rough month.  New York was WONDERFUL!  We totally had a good time, and I really needed that vacation, but almost the minute I got home, it's been downhill ever since.  The airline lost my luggage on the way home (I eventually got it back, but that was stressful!), my precious puppy was stolen out of my yard while I was on my way home, and I found out my oldest (24) is addicted to painkillers and stole a bunch of my stuff to pawn it.  I got most of it back, but I'm really stressed out about him, and trying to help him get into rehab.  It's painful to watch a loved one go through this, and I struggle with wanting to help him and still protect myself from him at the same time.

Luckily I have a month off from my college classes.  I would have a hard time concentrating on them right now, for sure.  But they start back up May 3rd, so I hope things are a little less chaotic by then.  I am happy to report that with all this stress, I haven't been eating a lot, or even wanting to.  I do have a new obsession with shoes, but since every pair of shoes I had is now too big for me, I did need to buy new ones.  I think I just enjoyed it a little too much, lol.

On my 3-month appointment, my nurse practitioner said all my labs were fantastic, my A1C was 5.5, my blood pressure was 102/64, and I was "ahead of the curve" for my weight loss.  I'm very happy with those results, and with my decision to have WLS.  I've never regretted it for a second, and I hope I continue to do well.  I started a WLS support group in my town, but haven't had many respondents.  Last week, no one showed up.  Oh well, I'll keep trying!

I hope you are all doing well, also!  Have a wonderful week and enjoy your Spring!  <3

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