Bariatric Betty at 1 month post op with pics

Wow, what a month!  Full of emotional highs and lows.  Some "it can't be this easy" moments and some "why have I not lost weight for the past few days" ones.  All in all, I have been pretty complication-free!

At 3 weeks I had my first post-op follow-up first where they said I had already lost the average excess weight (16%) they see in RNY patients at one month.  Good thing, because I've only lost another pound and a half since then.  Part of that is because of my journey with pureed foods and then recently soft foods (no blenders!).  You defintely lose slower once you are actually eating.  I have also slowed my eating, and now take 20-30 minutes to eat a meal (vs. that too-fast black bean soup puree moment).

Here a picture of me I took today

Most people say they can see the change since surgery most in my face.  I also have to show this other picture I took of my new furry friend, "Bearyatric Betty" - a great recovery gift from my friend and WLS mentor, Jo.

Jo's the best - other than the fact that reading Bearyatric Betty's name made me laugh so hard it pulled my stitches. 

So, I had a little scare last week when I worried I was becoming intolerant to dairy.  Being ovo-lacto vegetarian, that was concerning.  I get 1/3 - 1/2 of my protein daily from dairy.  After 2 rough stomachs with Greek Yogurt and 1 horrible one with pureed cottage cheese,  I tried to take Lactaid with dairy and that seemed to help.  In fact, it helped so well a couple times, I started to wonder whether I even had a problem.  So I stopped taking the Lactaid, and what do you know  - I'm fine with dairy!  Huh.  Don't know what happened, but I am glad it stopped!

I went to our community garage sale yesterday and got a bunch of things.  I needed some size 16 pants (my 18s are starting to fall off) - so I got two pairs of jeans, 1 white tailored blouse and 1 pair of shorts that fit right now for a total of $17.  I also bought some khakis that will fit in another 10-15 pounds, ditto 2 skirts, and then two blazers I can wear with pant/ shorts or skirts when I'm down another 20.  I'm going back Tuesday for "bag day" - when you can get anything you can fit in one of their good size bags for $5 - and stocking up on lots of shirts and shorts for the summer in various sizes. 

So I started my "soft foods" the other day!!!  So far I've enjoyed 2 ounces of fresh mozzarella with a slice of tomato, 1/2 cups of scrambled egg beaters with 1/4 cup shredded cheddar, 1/2 cup of morningstar veggie crumbles with a little spaghetti sauce and 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella, 1/2 cup of low fat cottage cheese with unsweetened mandarin orange slices - all with no dumping, no overeating, and chewing well. Then came lunch today.  I thought I would try the morningstar veggie meatballs with spaghetti sauce and mozzarella (similar to the crumbles).  Unfortunately, on my second bite, I didn't chew long enough and got a piece about 1/3 inch long stuck in my pouch.  OWWWWWWW!  First came the drooling, then the pain - kind of angina-like.  I tried to swallow some water to see if it would push through - I FELT it move up and then wedge right back in there.  Owwww. So I spent the next 15 minutes trying to throw it up - finally did, whew.  I know I'm lucky that I haven't had to throw up since surgery until now - and it wasn't that bad since I've had all this time to heal - but I'm in NO HURRY to experience anything like that again.  Latest lesson - THINK about the chewing EVERY bite.

During a spell where there wasn't any change going on with the numbers on the scale, I measured myself.  This was very cool - because I hadn't measured myself since November.  In November I was halfway through my pre-op 90 day medically monitored diet, and since then I have lost 5 inches in my waist, about 4 in my hips, and about 3 in the band around my chest.  I also lost 1 inch off my biceps, and almost an inch off my thigh.  I'm pretty happy with all of that.  My only disappointments is that some of my weight has come off my butt - which was fairly small to begin with, and that none of it seems to be coming off my cup size.  I know that I will have less "sagging" pants moments when I have a more defined waist, and that will come.  I also expected that my bountiful chest wouldn't reduce much (if at all) based on past weight loss, but I was holding out hope.  Maybe it will change later, but probably not. 

This brings up the ghosts of discomfort of being looked at like I'm a waitress at Hooters... but I will deal with that if/ when it comes.  At least I won't be dealing with diabetes and morbid obesity at the same time.  It's hard when people assume that the only reason you have a large chest is because you WANT that type of attention, and that it must be implants.  As the rest of my body gets smaller, they become more apparent.  But, right now, I have enough to focus on with sticking to the plan.  Tomorrow will bring what it will.  And I'll do my best with whatever that is.

One last thing - I now live in Onederland!  Translation for those who have never struggled with their weight - I'm under 200 pounds.  I actually got there a while ago but was nervous about announcing it.  Not because I thought I would gain it back (NO way), but because for many WLS patients, it takes a year or several to reached this promised land.  By the time I had surgery I was only at 213, so I didn't have that much to lose to get there.  It definitely doesn't compare to the achievements of those who started much heavier, and I didn't feel right about "bragging" about it because it could make some of my fellow WLS patients feel like I was diminishing their accomplishments.  So I haven't announced it on my private facebook groups, but I figured if you are reading my blog, first of all THANK YOU, and second of all - you probably know me well enough by now to know that I'm not comparing this landmark of mine to anyone else's.  Everyone takes their own journey.  But I'm not going to hide successes or setbacks on this blog - so there it is!