Squishy

Hello all! It's been a while since I checked in here, but thought I would say "Hello"! I had a gastric bypass in 2007 and spent considerable time here. Great support from this community! Glad that it is still alive and vibrant. Actually, my wife had the surgery the same year. We are both doing well. I think my lowest weight was 242. Top was 450. I have hovered between 245 and 250 for years. I have a rule that I will NEVER hit 260, so if I start to approach that, I kick into emergency mode. I am there right now. Weighed myself On Tuesday (Noticed my belt felt a little tight) and found that I was at 259! When that happens, I start working hard to use the tool and don't stop until I hit 250 or lower. I find that I can "diet" for a week or two to drop the weight and it does not seem so insurmountable. If I let myself gain 15 or 20 pounds it seems like a huge effort to lose it. So, I only allow myself 10 pounds before I deal with it. As of this morning, I was at 252. Probably won't stop until I get to 245. So... all is good! I think I gained the weight because I have not been walking. I normally walk my dogs 3 miles every morning. I left my job for a new one after 31 years with the same company and moved to Minneapolis. (Final straw was when my boss told me that even though I had saved $6M that year and that they did a benchmark with an external company to see if they should outsource my area and found that if they outsourced it, it would cost the company an additional $15M a year, that I had a "carreer-limiting flaw". That flaw was that "I cared too much about the employees.") It was time to go. Two applications later, I had a new job and I am LOVING it!!! I am now working for Caribou Coffee!! Woo Hoo!!! I had to sell the house and that has taken a while. Jane and the dogs stayed in SW Minnesota and I have been living in Minneapolis and driving home on the weekends. No dog walking for 4 months. We have now sold our house and are buying a new one in Minneapolis next week! Can't wait to get back together with Jane and the dogs!!!! One problem, though... I don't know how but I seem to have torn the cartilidge in my knee, so I still might not be walking the dogs for a while. I have to get in to get the knee taken care of. Just to busy with the new job, etc. Soon though! Jane is doing great! Those that know me know that Jane was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2013 and went through hell for about a year, but we beat it! She continues to do great and there is no sign of the cancer at this point! Her last day at her job was last Thursday and she is going take some time off when we move. Might be permanent. We will see. She deserves it after what she went through. (They recently wrote a story about her in the Avera Cancer Center magazine [picture attached]. If you want to read the story, here is a link: http://issuu.com/averauser1/docs/avera-cancer-institute-high-tech-ca?e=9904066/11149001 Anyway... that's our update! I hope you are all well!!! Gotta love new adventures! Best wishes to each and every one of you! Live happily ever after! -Mike-

CURED!!!!!!!! PET scan was completely clear! Thank you all for the love and support!! And they lived Happily Ever After

Thanks everyone! PET scan approved for November 5th! Can't wait to begin our Happily Ever After !

If anyone wants to read the whole story, we have a Caring Bridge set up for her. If you start with the "my story" tab, that is the starting point. Then the Journal Updates were the updates we added as she went through treatment. If you have never been to the Caring Bridge site before, it might have you enter your email address, but don't worry, they don't send you any spam or anything like that. There is no password required. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/janespeer Thanks again! -Mike-

Hello all! Not sure who here might remember us, but my wife and I both had Gastric bypass in 2007. Everything has gone pretty well. We both gained some weight back and I was able to lose it again. Jane struggled a little with losing the weight she gained back, but was still tremendously healthier than she was pre-bypass. In May of this year, Jane had, what the doctor thought was, a swollen gland in her neck. The doctor suggested waiting a few weeks to see if it goes away. Probably a virus. It did not go away and an ultrasound and subsequent MRI identified what was thought to be a salivary cyst. They did a needle biopsy and it came back benign. The doctor said she could have it removed right away or could wait until it bothered her more. She decided to have it removed right away. The surgeon is a throat and neck cancer specialist and successfully removed it. We received a call a couple days later telling us to come back immediately to discuss her pathology. (That didn't sound good) As feared, the "cyst" turned out to be a cancerous tumor. We were shocked to learn that her cancer was in stage 4! They laid out a really aggressive treatment plan of radiation and chemotherapy. It was really rough but she completed the treatments on July 12th. Her health continued to diminish for the next month and a half because the chemo was still working in her system and the radiation had also worn her out. The gastric bypass became a bit of a complication because she could not eat much at all and what she did eat was minimally absorbed because of the bypass. She ended up needed daily IVs and lost over 60 pounds. September began her return to health. She has been regaining her strength and we have recently reached two major milestones. She attended our daughter's wedding on September 21, and returned to work part time this week!! I am attaching a photo of Jane and our daughter on her wedding day. Waiting for the next PET scan to prove that she is cured, but everything is going great at this point. I had posted about this before and many of you offered prayers and support. Just wanted to thank you all and let you know that she is doing very well now. Thank you all! -Mike-

Hello everyone! Time for an update. Jane finished all her radiation and chemotherapy toward the end of July. She has had a very rough go of it, but we are making progress. She has had daily IVs since this started because she needed fluids and also her labs were poor. They added magnesium and potassium, which were very low. She needed a blood transfusion a week ago because her hemoglobin was very low. Yesterday, the oncologist cut back the IVs to 3 days a week instead of 7! That made her very happy. Also, I asked him how confident he was that "we got it" and he said that he is "extremely confident" that we got it!!! Woo Hoo!! We won't know for sure for a couple months until she has a PET scan, but the prognosis is good! From stage 4 to cure would be a beautiful thing. She is still very weak. One of the challenges in her recovery has been that the radiation to her neck made it very difficult for her to eat and the chemo made everything taste bad. I would estimate that she was getting no more than a couple hundred calories a day. With the gastric bypass, she was only actually absorbing a small portion of those few calories. She lost about 50 or 60 pounds over the past two and a half months. One one hand, she is happy to have lost weight, but really didn't want to do it this way. So, things are going better. We see the ENT specialist tomorrow. We are going to have to extend her short term disability for another month or so, she is too weak at this point, but if we really have a cure, we will take as long as needed for her to regain her health! I hope you are all doing well! Thanks again for the support, thoughts, and prayers! -Mike-

Good news at the doctor today. No feeding tube required. He estimates two weeks of continuing to feel terrible and then we can expect slow progress. He added glucose to her IVs to get some calories in her. He said that she is actually doing really well because most people need feeding tubes with this chemo very early on. He thinks we can get by without adding one now, since she is so close to feeling well enough to eat more. Jane is pretty happy about that. She was really worried about the feeding tube. So, we are going to stay the course and keep trying to eat what she can. The glucose should give her a little more energy. I'll let you know if anything changes. -Mike-

Hello again! OK... a little progress today. I found out what TPN is and we talked to the nurse and the pharmacist about it today since we were at the infusion center so Jane could get her IV (she has a port). We told them that we may need a feeding tube and asked about the TPN. The pharmacist was really good about explaining it. She said that the feeding tube will probably be preferable if needed, but that TPN could be an option if the others were not appropriate for some reason. It will be the doctor's call, but at least we are informed enough to ask some questions. The good news is that she was able to eat a little today. I think the talk of feeding tubes up her nose motivated her to push through some of the gag reflex and get some down. I would estimate that she got a couple hundred calories in, which is way better than the last couple weeks. Still not enough, but a start. We see the doctor tomorrow, so we will know more then. Thanks again! -Mike-

Thanks again, I don't know what TPN is. ( We got a doctor appointment for tomorrow to see what they say we should do. She managed to get a few ounces of chicken broth down yesterday and a popsicle (at least got a little sugar from that). I was surprised about the popsicle. She had tried that before with no success. She lost her voice yesterday but was able to walk into the hospital. I'll let you know what the doctor says. -Mike-

Thanks everyone. Thank you for the research you have done She definitely cannot get milk down. Were not too worried about the fat at this point. Shes dropping about 10 pounds a week so i am thinking a feeding tube is going to be needed...

My wife, Jane,had a gastric bypass in 2007. She has throat cancer and has undgone chemo and radiation. The combination has left her unable to swallow much, everything tasts bad, and the slightest texture makes her vomit. The radiation shut her salivary glands down, so she gags on almost eve everything. She is very fatigud from thh treatments and now from not eating. When i brought her to her IV infusion today, i had to find her a wheelchair because she was too weak to walk. She is losing too much weight and neds to get some calories in her to heal properly. Yesterday she ate a bean and two pieces of chicken, each the size of the bean. Not good, even without a gastric bypass. I just found a product called "Benecalorie" that has 300 calories in 1.5 ounces. It is supposedly tasteless. Has anyone tried it. Is it really tasteless? What is the texture? Those two will determine if she can get it down and keep it down. If this doesnt work, i think we are going to have to go to a feeding tube. Anybody know about this product. -Mike- P.S. Dont bother suggesting Ensure or protein shakes. Tried them all with no luck.

Jane will hit the half-way point in her treatment next week. She also has her second chemo on Monday. Thank you all for the support!!! -Mike-

Thank you all for the support!!! Jane and I received a lot of support here in the past and it is nice to see that it is still here for us. Our best to you all!!! -Mike-

Hello all! Some may remember us, but my wife Jane and I had gastric bypasses in 2007. Overall it has been very successful. Both lost a lot of weight, both gained some back, and both lost it again. We are both currently at about the low point in our weights, so the gastric bypassed have been very successful for us. 6 years out. Life took a twist a few weeks ago when Jane was diagnosed with stage 4a cancer. It started as a lump in her neck. They thought it was a salivary cyst and did a biospy of the fluid. It came back as benign. As a result the specialist told her that she could have it removed now or wait until it bothers her more. She decided to have it removed. That was on a Thursday. On the following Monday we were called to return to discuss the pathology. Turned out that the cyst was actually a huge lymph node. Technically a tumor. There were 6 other lymph nodes that came out with it when they removed it and one other had cancer. It is a fast-growing cancer, which is in our favor because the chances of curing the fast ones is better than the slow ones as long as you catch them early. If she had waited to have it removed, our outcome would not have been very hopeful. Jane is undergoing daily radiation and periodic chemotherapy. We are living in a cancer treatment center's residence facility during the treatments. We are accepting nothing less than a complete cure and we are optimistic about the outcome. The gastric bypass improved the quality of our lives dramatically. We are not going to let this reduce the quantity. Please keep Jane in your thoughts and prayers. Whatever your personal beliefs, I believe that putting positive energy out into the world is powerful. Call it faith, call it religion, call it spirituality, or call it whatever fits your belief system... it is all good and we welcome and appreciate every contribution to her healing. Thanks! -Mike-

Heck... I jogged home from my vasectomy! Ha Ha! Judging by the date of your post, I'm sure you have already found the answer to this question, but for anyone else that reads this... no, there should be no impact to the weight loss and you will be back to your normal exercise routine pretty quickly. -Mike-