September 21, 2011
Another tiring day is in the books. I decided not to go to the honorary meeting after class this evening, I was just too wiped out. Work and class were good, I managed to shove an hour nap in between them, it felt good to take a nap with my husband. Now, I am home relaxing and blogging for the rest of the evening. I am excited for tomorrow, I get to see my best friend and soul sister! It’s been about a month since I saw her last. We both work and go to school, plus she has kids, so it is hard for us to see each other often, but we text and Facebook daily. The part I am not looking forward to tomorrow is doing my practice counseling session with my class partner that is being videotaped! I hope I don’t suck at it. We have to do this four times, tomorrow is the first time, so I’m a little nervous. Friday, the final day of the work week, should be okay, I have work, I am also going to see my chiropractor for an alignment, and a trip to the gym with Patrick and probably my parents.
Tonight, I thought I would share my journey to the decision of having weight loss surgery. I first considered weight loss surgery in 2007 when I was 23/24, I went to a consultation appointment and decided against it at the time, I didn’t think I was ready at that time, I was too worried about losing my hair and things like that, which can happen, but if you take Biotin you can help prevent hair loss. In 2007 I weighed about 330 lbs, I do look back and wish I had done it then, I probably would have never reached 418 pounds if I had it then. However, that doctor wanted to do gastric bypass on me with is much more invasive the what I had done in 2010 with the gastric sleeve. Would I have had more problems handling the bypass? I had a lot of mental problems handling the sleeve, would a bypass been worse? I will never know. Once I reached 400 pounds in 2010 at age 26/27, I decided I need to get serious and do something to save my life. I met with a different surgeon this time, who I liked better too. He suggested the sleeve because of my large size and my mental health issues, I would have less problems absorbing my medications with the sleeve. At the time I was on 7 psychiatric medications. I ballooned up to 418 after being accepted for surgery, because I pigged out on all the foods I thought I would never have again. I was put on an 8 week pre-op liquid diet called Opti-fast to shrink my liver for surgery, I lost 23 pounds before my surgery. I was sleeved on July 12, 2010 in the early morning hours at Akron City Hospital in Akron, Ohio under the careful hands of Dr. John Zografakis. I would suggest him to anyone considering weight loss surgery, he is amazing and has awesome bedside manner. I even got flowers him and the other doctors there the next day in the hospital. Actually everyone at the Summa Bariatric Center is fantastic, I owe my life to them.
I thought the surgery would solve all my problems immediately, it didn’t. Five months later in January, I was hospitalized in a psychiatric unit because of severe depression and suicidal ideation. I was hospitalized again in April for the same thing. I was miserable and regretted my surgery greatly. I was only down 42 pounds total from my original weight before the pre-op diet, I have only lost about 20 pounds from the surgery, I was so depressed about that. Finally after an intensive outpatient psychiatric problem I slowly was getting back on the right track mentally, that’s when I decided to go to counseling school and applied for that in May. I was accepted into the counseling program at Kent State in June and I was very excited, but still not losing weight. I had even be weaned down to 3 psychiatric medications. Then in August, my personal trainer and my family got me to take on a new challenge in life. That’s when I started this blog to document my journey. Since then something changed in me and clicked in my head, I have managed to lose another 16 pounds since the beginning of August and will continue to lose (I hope!) I no longer regret having my surgery like I need in the beginning, even though I am only down 58 pounds at 14 months out, that is probably 58 I couldn’t have lost any other way. Even if I never lose anymore weight, I am so much happy and can do things that I couldn’t do before, such as cross my legs, tie my own shoes, and dry myself off after a bath. Those are all non-scale victories in my book. I can’t wait to add more non scale and scale victories over the next few years. I also remember that I am beautiful no matter what!
Daily Inspirational Quote: ”Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Posted by Bariatric Beginnings in Bariatric Beginnings Tags: Akron City Hospital, Akron Ohio, bariatrics, biotin, chiropractor, Dr. John Zografakis, gastric bypass, gastric sleeve, inspirational quotes, motivational blogs, non scale victories, Opt-Fast, psychiatric medications, psychiatric problems, psychiatric units, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Summa Bariatric Center, tomorrow, weight loss, weight loss surgery
