Today is my 2 year anniversary for my gastric bypass surgery. I am feeling so great, I just wanted to share my happiness.
2 years ago today, I was in surgery having 100cm of my intestines removed and my stomach reduced to a 1/2 oz capacity. I weighed in at 325 lbs (I am 5’3") and wore a size 5XL top and 34 pants. I had high blood pressure, extremely severe sleep apnea, GERD and was starting to get arthritis in my knees.
Today, I weighed 123. I wear an XS/S shirt, size 0/1 pants and have no health problems. Well, I still have to take synthroid, but that is for life and I have gout, but take allopurinol that keeps flare-ups at bay. My BP is back to normal at 90/45, no GERD, no sleep apnea. I can walk miles before being tired, heck, I can run 2 miles without dying! Oh, and the arthritis? No sign of it at all – my knees are in great shape!
My husband, ever the thoughtful one bought me some new Spiderman pajamas for my anniversary. He got them in the little boy’s department at Wal-Mart. How cool is that?
I love being healthy. I love being me again. I love looking in the mirror and recognising the person there. I was missing for so long. I love being able to race my kids to the car or jump on the trampoline with them without being afraid of the thing collapsing! I love being able to climb my husband like a tree and not be afraid of breaking his back! Today is a good day. Everyone enjoy it!
GERD is (for those too lazy [like I] to look it up and don’t already know) reflux disease. It’s like heartburn but on a massive scale. Mine was caused by a congenital hiatal hernia (where the lining of the stomach pushes up through the esophageal sphincter [heh, I said ‘sphincter’], causing it to not close completely). Basically, what happened with me is that if I would lay down within 6 hours of eating, I would have stomach acid and undigested food back up into my esophagus. This usually happened while I slept. I very easily could have died from this stupid thing if I had ever aspirated the crap. While the GERD was not a direct cause of my weight, the weight definitely did cause it to be worse than it was when I was a normal weight. Fortunately my surgeon fixed the hiatal hernia when he did my RNY, so I should not have that problem ever again
FWIW, in this thread, I posted links to before/after pictures on my picturetrail and myspace pages.
Of course, if anyone has questions, please ask away. Consider this one of those “ask the girl who has had Lap-RNY surgery” threads.
