Hippy Shake

I think it is time to say "Hi"! My name is Lisa, and I am in Victoria, BC, Canada. I am a single 44 year old woman. I have two amazing daughters (23 and 19). The older daughter, who is getting married next month, has a 4.5 year old daughter who is the light of my life.

I had RNY surgery in February 2005. In Canada, the wait for WLS can be very long. I finally went to a doctor to ask for a referral for WLS in 2002. I had never met him before, as I had recently moved to a very small, Northern town. He suggested I just get my jaws wired shut. Funny thing was, as backward as that seems, I had already tried it. He gave me a referral (to a local appendix doc). I went online that evening, found a provincial WLS group, figured out who he should REALLY refer me to, and the rest was history. My own personal history.

I will never know what I weighed at that time. The scales I had access to didn't go over 300lb, and it had been a long time since I weighed as low as that. One of the biggest life altering changes for me were finding the online community (a very active and strong community) and eventually meeting many of these people in person. Up until then, I felt utterly alone in my humiliating and debilitating fatness. I also realized that if there were others out there who weighed 500 lbs, and were taking steps (literally) to be more active and to eat better, I really had no excuse. I began to take an active role in my health before even getting in to see the surgeon. When I had lost so much that I could really see the loss, and my clothes were hanging off me, I finally found a scale to weigh myself. I was at 308.5lbs at that time.

I was 290lbs when I had open RNY in 2005. I could have walked out of the hospital that night. I had all the energy in the world, and no complications. I lost slowly, but steadily. I followed the rules, and exercised daily (although it would always remain a push to do so – I never became one of the people who became hooked on exercise, much as I wish I did!) I was a poster child for sailing through, until about six months out.

That’s when I developed strictures. They became progressively worse over time. Eventually, I had to have only liquids, and then only strained liquids. Milk based drinks or protein shakes would curdle in my pouch and make me very sick. The opening was so small that any stress (physical – what I ate- or emotional) would cause the stoma to swell completely shut. My own saliva would need to come back up, and I would retch until I burst blood vessels, threw up blood, and eventually collapsed, dehydrated and exhausted.

I was a quite a trooper, and never one to complain. Because of my stoic attitude, my surgeon did not give it the attention it deserved. He thought I was chewing too quickly, or something. Eventually, he went in for a look-see scope without anaesthetic (never again!!!!) While he was in, he saw the scarring, and decided to do a little stretch. Unfortunately, the instruments got caught in the scarring. That was the worst, most physically traumatic experience I can imagine. I couldn’t breath, I was crying and panicking... I still get shudders.

That first stretch helped for a bit, but the scarring grew back. I was so freaked out from the stretch that I preferred to strain broth, dissolve Nexium in my mouth, and live on that than to go for another one. At least for a long time. I just became adjusted to the few things I could eat. With trial and error, I figured out some semi-solids I could tolerate on a good day. They included cheddar cheese dissolved in my mouth, rice crackers, salmon pate, smooth yogurt, cookies (of all strange things) and Cheese Puffs. Not exactly healthy, but at least they were calories, and gave me some energy and gave my mouth some texture and flavour.

And then I made a discovery. If I had a glass of wine before I ate, I was able to tolerate food better. It relaxed everything. And if it didn’t work to keep the food down, the wine helped me not care so much, anyways.

I eventually had a couple more stretches for my strictures, and my body adjusted on its own, as well. I am now a lot more restricted than other post ops I know, but there is a healthy range of foods I can eat, chewed well. I have slowly broken some of the bad habits I developed during that couple of years. I guess I went into starvation mode over that time, and as soon as I could keep food down, my weight went up. I went from a low of 160lbs to the 175lbs I am at now. The wine is an ongoing problem. I developed quite the transfer addiction. I am sober now, but still struggling.

With all that going on in the background, in the foreground was and is my delight with my new life and body. I would do this again in a heartbeat!

Phoenixfire

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Open Roux-en-Y on October, 2002 - 7 year anniversary is right around the corner
Height: 5'8"
Highest weight: 300 lbs. with a BMI of 45.6
Current weight: 140-145 lbs. and a size 6/8 with a BMI of 21.7
Total weight lost after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass: 160 lbs. POUNDS!

Hippy Shake

Thanks for the greeting! Lol, just to be clear, I do not eat like that any more! As soon as the restriction lessened I began to work on dropping the pouch defying foods. I think my eating habits are generally very good, now. Now, just to stay away from the wine and make sure I workout pretty close to every day... And to get onto whatever it is in there that led me to MO in the first place, and then on to drinking... Still work to be done!

Phoenixfire

__________________


Open Roux-en-Y on October, 2002 - 7 year anniversary is right around the corner
Height: 5'8"
Highest weight: 300 lbs. with a BMI of 45.6
Current weight: 140-145 lbs. and a size 6/8 with a BMI of 21.7
Total weight lost after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass: 160 lbs. POUNDS!