We are Ten Weeks Today!

Here are some photo "collages" that give a sense of where we are with this process. Today, Master and Teresa are ten weeks post-operative. These picture sets show them at 4 weeks, 6 weeks, and 10 weeks.

swan

Yesterday's Endocrinologist Visit

Yesterday I had my first post-surgical visit with my "endo." The result is I am now off all diabetes medication and have ceased the small remaining does of diuretic I was on, and the requisite potassium dose I had to take along with the diuretic. That means three more prescription meds I was taking have been discontinued. When I take my morning and evening pills now, it is an experience that is laughably simple compared to two months ago. She hypothesized that my monthly drug expense is reduced well over $2000.00. This should quickly enable my insurer to make up the cost of the surgery and post-surgical care I had, and to have a large net savings over time.

She said that my blood sugar numbers are in a range that would be classified as "pre-diabetic": not even high enough to support a diabetes diagnosis:)

My weight is holding at the level I had last weekend. That is fine. I am confident it will go down as the week progresses.

Thank you for your interest and support.

All the best,

Tom

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

We are eight weeks post-operative and feeling better and better. Life is beginning to resemble what will, eventually become "normal" for our household, and we are making strides toward learning how to live this new life we've been given. Holidays, like today (Memorial Day) which used to be for big cookouts and serious feasting do present some emotional/intellectual challenges, but we are figuring it out. Today, we went to the Cincinnati Reds baseball game, and with a few appropriate snacks that we carried to the park with us, we had a very nice, very comfortable time... Life is good and getting better!

swan

Living in the Closet

About three years ago, I spent a chunk of my summer vacation time sorting out all of the accumulated clothing that Master had accumulated as His weight fluctuated up and down ... shorts, shirts, pants, sweaters, and jackets ranging from size 38 to size 50. By the time I was done I had four gigantic Rubbermaid bins full to the very top. The bins are equipped with wheels which is a good thing because when the bins are full, they are too heavy for me to move.

As we've gone through the rapid weight loss of the last couple of months, I've begun to drag the giant bins back in from the garage, and start wading through them and restocking His closet with clothes that fit. From 52's to 50's to 48's to 46's, His pant size has steadily dropped. That has also been true with shirts as He's come down from 3X and 19-1/2 inch neck sizes to 2x and size 18 necks. This weekend, once again, I've been in the closet, pulling out all the things that are too big, and replacing them with things that do fit. I've removed every pair of pants larger than size 48, and all the shirts that are larger than an 18" neck. I have 13 trash bags full of items to haul to the local Goodwill donation center -- and there's more to do!

They never told us that we'd spend the first year after surgery living in the damn closet!

swan

Memorial Day Weekend Update

As we begin the three day long Memorial day weekend here in the states, I thought I'd check in with the latest update.

My weigh in today featured me at 235 pounds meaning I have lost a total of 66 pounds since March 9. T is down 50 and Sue down 12 for a total now of 128 pounds lost between the three of us.

t is not happy her weight loss is slowing. This may well be our seeing the differential effects of the gastric sleeve procedure the surgeon was forced to choose for her mid- procedure because of her medical history, and my rouen Y gastric by-pass which is more invasive and "radical." She has undergone a procedure which significantly reduces her stomach capacity, where as I have undergone a procedure which not only reduces my stomach capacity (to even a greater extent than hers), but also the removal of 35% to 40% of my intestine creating malabsorption of nutrients I eat. Her results may be as great as mine, but they will likely be achieved more slowly than I will reach mine.

Our t is doing what she needs to do to take care of herself, and she needs to remember that we love her now just as we did before the surgery, and as we will when she loses oven more. This was never a competition, but a quest for better health for us both (and our swan).

So the saga goes on. We have decided to go to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game Monday afternoon so that we will not be sitting around here mourning the absence of our traditional Memorial Day cook out feast, which were we to prepare it, we could never eat.

Thank you again to all of you who have supported us through this process. We are well and well- along:)

All the best,

Tom

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.

Yet More Progress

I wrote yesterday that I had reached (barely) the 230's range for my weight. I talked about how I had been stuck in a weight loss plateau in the low 240's range. I awakened this morning to get on the scale thinking, OK I'll be glad if I simply haven't regained weight (my weight has been so labile lately). I stepped on the scale and low and behold, I weighed 237.5 pounds. I am down a whopping two pounds from yesterday, without my having done anything exceptional yesterday. Thus I am now down a whopping 63.5 pounds from my baseline. Interestingly my work schedule yesterday got in the way of my exercising, beyond my regular daily activities. I guess we can hypothesize that the weight loss plateau is past. It will be interesting to see if my weight loss continues in this accelerated fashion.

Thank you again everyone for your support.

Tom

One Further Minor Step Froward

This morning I weighed 239.5 lbs. Now this is only 1.5 pounds less than I weighed a couple days ago when I was touting that I was 60 pounds down from my starting weight, but it is a milestone. It is in the 230's (just barely) not the 240's! It seemed earlier on that the weight just flew off me, but this last 10 pounds has seemed to just drag on. I felt like I would never slog my way through the 240's, so this morning when a number with a "3" in the second digit place appeared, I gave a mild yahoo ( a very mild one...I'm neither very enthusiastic or vociferous at 5:45AM.)

Anyway I am down to the 230's and feeling way glad to have the 240 range in the rear view mirror of this experience.

All the best everyone and thanks for your support,

Tom