4 month update

[Guest guest]

Hard to believe that 4 months ago this morning I was all dressed up in my

hospital gown, wearing my epidural and IVs and all set for my DS. I was

calm and happy, knew that this was exactly what I wanted. I had much faith

in Dr Welker and in my body to recover.

My surgery went flawlessly and my recovery has been pretty uneventful.

After the early nausea, pain and fatigue, my energy and eating comfort have

increased. The weight continues to drop off effortlessly. I have been

gradually unlearning my old habit of eating too much too fast. Food rarely

tastes as good coming back as going down. My bowel habits are stable and

boring.

I can sit comfortably in a restaurant booth, walk the vast hospital

hallways rapidly and without gasping for air, grocery shop pushing a cart

instead of riding on an electric one, and fit into clothes abandoned several

years ago as too small. No asthma attacks since surgery. My energy is off

the scale. And people at work are starting to notice and comment on how much

I've lost since surgery.

I've calculate that I ought to lose about 140 lbs. And My goal was to take

50% (70 lbs) of that off in 9 months. At 4 months I have lost 65 lbs. My

loss is now a steady 10 lbs a month. My hair is intact. I am grateful on a

daily basis for my health, weight loss, this incredible surgery, and the

inimitable Dr Welker. I owe much to who posted the dangers

of the MGB when I was out there gathering information, and to M

whose post about the DS caught my daughter's eye and sent us both scurrying

to research the " ideal weight loss surgery " we had used our medical

understanding to invent in our minds before we knew it was had a name and

was being done. My daughter t had her DS with Dr Baltasar in December,

once again proving that children are often way ahead of their parents in

important ways. LOL. And I'm thankful for all of you who are reading this

and are a part of my support and information system.

I keep hearing the old Beetles song in my head.. " it's betting better,

better all the time... "

in Seattle

DS 1/5/01 295# BMI 47.6

3/5/01 230# BMI 37.1

Dr Welker - OHSU