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I want to offer a special thanks to
Marisette Edwards for an update of her original weight loss surgery
story. Here is her update:
Dear
Barbara,
The last time I sent you my weight loss surgery journey story, it
was roughly a year after my RNY procedure on April 9, 2003. Now
more than six years have passed and since you are looking for
success stories, I thought I'd send you an update. I hope you can
put a link to my original story in this one.
People may wonder how easy it is to maintain the new lifestyle and
eating habits in the long term. I know when I was doing my original
research for my surgery I was scouring for long-term information and
it was not easy to find. So I'm focusing on that in this update.
In
the second year after my surgery, I achieved my lowest weight in
more than 20 years: 147 pounds (down from 266 and just in the normal
weight range for my 5' 6” frame). I stayed there for one
day. Since then it has been a struggle similar to my high school
and college days, where I always want to eat more than I know I
should. I always track what I eat – I have a little program on my
smart phone that tells me if I'm meeting my protein and calorie
targets, and it adjusts those targets based on my exercise levels.
That's good, because my ability to exercise has been sporadic. This
is not due to lack of desire or commitment, but to life getting in
the way: shoulder surgery (you don't realize how many great
exercises involve shoulders until you can't use them), other
injuries, work obligations, travel. Sometimes my tracking only
serves to show me that I am indeed eating more than I'm burning
which explains gaining weight. But other times it really is helpful
to know where I am at the end of the day and show a little restraint
to keep from going over the limit. It's also helpful to learn the
connections. If I have a day of eating refined carbohydrates,
especially if alcohol is in the mix, I can expect to gain up to
three pounds by the next day. Now that I've noticed that, I don't
panic so much if that happens, and just focus on eating by the rules
again for a couple days to get the weight back off.
If
I'm in a period of not exercising, I have to watch very carefully or
I will gain weight. I maintained a weight between 152-157
for several years, but in the last two years I've had more injuries
and stress than normal, and I'm now bouncing between 165-170. I'm
back to the constant struggle. Yet somehow this struggle feels more
manageable. After all, I am still 100 pounds lighter than I was 6
years ago (today, anyway). I think about the new procedure that
resizes the stoma (Stomaphyx), and I wonder if I should try to get
that before things get out of hand. Technically I'm still a
success, but I can eat so much more now and sometimes I feel like I
need to.
Weight management has been the most successful when I have had the
time and ability to combine weight training with my favorite sport
of rowing. Rowing by itself is the next most successful approach.
If I'm able, I row 2-4 days a week for 1-1.5 hours, as part of a
team. For me being part of a team makes it fun and gives me the
incentive to leave work on time or get out of bed early on a
Saturday (not my first inclination). After I had shoulder surgery
and couldn't row, I tried spinning and walking, but didn't have the
same level of dedication. It's really important to find something
(or multiple somethings) that you like to do, or at least that
motivates you. I worked with a trainer on and off, and participated
in a bootcamp last summer, and both of those were very motivating.
Right now I'm happy to be back to rowing, and hope to add in some
weight training slowly as my shoulders become stronger.
As
far as the other aspects of being roughly normal weight, my health
is really good. Any health problems I've had have been exercise
related or "female problems". My blood pressure remains in the
low-normal range, my cholesterol is great, I only use my asthma
inhaler once a month if that often, and my joints and back generally
don't hurt. I sleep well and feel energetic most days.
Many people don't know that I'm formerly obese and sometimes say
things they wouldn't if they did know. Sometimes they're funny,
like how I should go ahead and eat that donut because I'm so skinny
anyway. But sometimes they're distressing, like a comment about
someone else's obesity. I usually will tell them the story of my
surgery at that point. I find that being “normal” feels normal
these days. In the first few years I would still go to the bigger
size racks in stores and was sometimes shocked recognizing myself in
a mirror. That doesn't happen anymore. I feel like I “am who I am”
nowadays.
I
did have plastic surgery in 2005. I had a lot of loose skin on my
arms and belly, I got rashes in my bellybutton and under the skin
overhang, and my breasts were like tube socks. I had all of that
done in one surgery, spent one night in the hospital, and the pain
was slightly worse than the RNY, but manageable, Recovery took
about 6 weeks, and I didn't take anything stronger than my best
friend, Extra Strength Liquid Tylenol. I had to pay for the surgery
out of pocket, except for the panniculectomy which was covered by
insurance due to the rashes. I have mixed feelings about the
results – they are not perfect, and I have an odd lack of feeling in
my stomach that persists to this day. There are a lot of scars
(six feet of them), and on the arms they can only be hidden with
elbow-length sleeves or keeping the arms down. On the other hand, my
stomach is flat and my breasts are like before I had any children.
I would do it again, just with the knowledge that the results will
never be perfect. I didn't have my legs done and sometimes the
contrast between the firm stomach and the flabby legs is a little
distressing. But I'm done with cosmetic surgeries.
I
still take all the vitamins the surgeon prescribed and mostly follow
the eating rules by eating protein first and eating 4-5 small meals
a day. I don't dump and my sweet tooth is still a problem. I do
notice that I just don't feel good if I have too much sugar, but I
can certainly get away with some. I wish that weren't the case,
because often my desire for sugar overrides the knowledge that I
will not feel good after I eat it. At least I have gotten better at
eating just 1/4-1/2 of a serving, and once I have had the taste I
can throw out the rest (sometimes).
The
one side effect from the bypass surgery is episodes of
hypoglycemia. If I eat too many carbohydrates or exercise too much,
I'll get dizzy and light-headed and may even feel like I'm going to
faint. The surgeon explained to me that it's an insulin rebound
effect. The sugar in my system causes insulin to be released and my
pancreas overshoots the necessary amount, using up all the sugar in
my bloodstream. Ironically, he suggested keeping candy on hand to
combat those events! I try to keep a mixture of raisins and nuts
instead – the raisins give an instant sugar boost and the nuts level
out the blood sugar for the longer term. I've actually had to get
up in the middle of the night to eat a couple of times.
All
in all, six years after the RNY gastric bypass surgery I am healthy,
happy, and focused on living my life more than on what's wrong with
it. As other people have said, losing weight does not make you
happy, but it does take some barriers away from the pursuit of
happiness. It was one of the best decisions of my life. And I
still have to work on my eating/weight/exercise issues every single
day. It is not an easy solution, but it is a challenge worth
facing.
Marisette
marisette.edwards@gmail.com
This was Marisette's original Success Story:
http://www.wlscenter.com/NLArchive/May_1_2004.htm
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Congratulations Marisette |
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