Valentine's Day -- A Year Later

One year ago, we took some pictures of Master and T on Valentine's day. They were glowing and wonderful, and so clearly in love -- but they were also, clearly, two people who had lost the battle with obesity...

Then, on March 23, 2009, they both had bariatric surgery for weight loss. Master had rouen y gastric bypass, and T had sleeve gastrectomy. They each recovered -- T quickly and easily, and Master with great difficulty and terrible pain. We learned our way along the path to a brand new relationship with food and eating and exercise and a whole host of new body-image issues and understandings. We went through an enormous pile of discarded, too-big clothes. Master joked that He was renting clothes from Goodwill as we purchased and then donated back bags and bags and more bags of garments.

As we moved through the year, Master lost 142 pounds and T lost 80 pounds. They are, today, both much lighter and much healthier.

And so, we come around the year to another Valentine's day, 2010. So, we got out the camera and took some more pictures -- and here they are. My lighter, but and even more beautiful Valentines... swan

"After" Photos -- Nine Months

We have passed the nine-month mark since the bariatric surgeries (which happened back on March 23). It has been an amazing and wild ride to this point, and I don't think we really ever quite had a picture of where we would be at this point.

One of the things that has characterized our passage through this transition has been the sheer size of the physical change. Both Master and T have gone through many, many, many wardrobe changes as the pounds have fallen away. We've hauled bags and bags and bags and bags of discarded, too big clothing to our local Goodwill. Too, we've bought our share of "replacement" items from Goodwill. Master has laughingly remarked that He mostly just rents clothes from Goodwill -- keeping them for a few weeks and then returning them to rent others. Whatever we call it, that process has kept them both looking pretty decent, and has saved us a small fortune.

One bit of foresight on my part was that, as He began to shrink, I put away a pair of the largest size pants so that "someday" we could take one of those amazing "after" pictures that you sometimes see -- the skinny new body in the former fat pants. We also managed to hold onto the shirt jacket that He wore home from the hospital right after the surgery -- mostly because He just liked it so well that He was never quite willing to turn it loose. T manged to hang onto a couple of great big shirts (one of which was too small for her when she had her surgery), to help remind her of the size that was.

Today, we pulled out the camera and took some of those "after" photos. Perhaps as clearly as any other images, these photos give a clear impression of the radical change that has happened in our lives in 2009.

Here is Master --

And Here is T --

Frankenstein?

This was our first day at home. Our alarm clock went off first thing this morning, at 5:45, just as it does every single school day. That was an opportunity to "sleep in" actually since my usual get-up time while we were staying in the hospital was 4:30 AM.

Generally, here at home, I pile out of bed first and head off to shower and get dressed. Then I scramble out to the kitchen to make breakfast, lunch, and get us both ready to go. Of course, today and for the next bit of time, He doesn't need His lunch packed, and He isn't getting ready to "go" anywhere. So, this morning, as I was in the bathroom getting ready to go, He came in to pee and weigh and survey the damage. There were no full length mirrors in the hospital room -- just the one small mirror over the sink.

He is a "sight." He has a fairly long mid-line incision and 10 trocar incisions that were made to allow attachment of the mesh for the hernia repair. There are also two punctures where the surgical drains were installed in His abdomen. He has a pretty impressive hematoma on His belly, and enormous and ugly bruising on His hips that is the result of the heparin injections that they gave in the belly every day as a preventative for blood clotting. Standing there in the bathroom, checking it out, He said, "we ought to take some pictures of this."

So, bleary-eyed and sleepy-headed, I wandered off to find the camera and snap a few shots of the damage. They are not terrific -- I wasn't entirely awake yet, but perhaps they will give you some idea of what it is He's been through this last 8 days.

swan

One Year Later

A year ago, as our family dressed up to go to the major fund-raising dance for Master's agency, we took some photos...















Last night, we were, once again all dressed up, ready to go out for an evening of fund-raising. Himself was slated to be the Master of Ceremonies. Once again we took some photos before we left for the evening. They pretty well speak for themselves...

Pictures at Six Months

Here are the photos to mark the six-month anniversary of the surgeries:

Watch This Space!

I know that Master promised pictures. And it is true that our 6 month photos should be here, but our lives are just crazy this week. It may very well be the weekend before we can get us altogether in one spot with enough energy and time to take some pictures. So, be patient. We haven't forgotten. Honest.

swan

Five Months and One Week

We didn't ever find time last weekend to take the five-month photos. Life was just too crazy. So, one week late, here is the latest set of photos of my very skinny spice :-) The before pictures are on the left.

That was Then, This is Now

I am continually fascinated by the incredible changes that have come about as we've progressed through this process. Just the other day, Master had occasion to "dress up" for a photo shoot at His office. We got Him all gussied up and on His way, and as it turned out, the photo ended up being a really good one. Then we got to talking about the event that we attended last October -- another one of those "dress up" occasions. We took some photos then, too. Just in case you were wondering, this is a really good illustration of the benefits of bariatric weight loss surgery...

This was October, 2008:And this is August, 2009:

Pictues at Four Months.

It has been four months since the surgery. Here are pictures, taken today. On the left, are pictures that we took in the days just before the surgery -- for comparison with the newest photos on the right...

Pictures at Three Months

As we mark the three month anniversary of the date of the surgeries, the weight loss we are seeing is amazing. As Tom reported, He is 81.5 pounds less than when He started, and T is down 59 pounds. They both look fantastic!