Inches, inches and more inches....

Hi Everyone:

I'm not sure how many pounds I am now because I always forget in the mornings to get on the scale before eating anything and wearing only my undies, so I have been skipping it for a week or so, but last Saturday I went to buy a nice blouse to wear on my friends birthday party and even I was surprised of what happened.

I was looking for a sexy one to wear and I came across of this cutie I'm wearing, the only problem was the sleeves, no sleeves at all and with my ugly floffy (is it a word?) arms I needed something to cover them, so I tried size 22/24, no no, too big, I tried size 18/20, still too big, so I tried 14/16 thinking that it was too small, and VOILA...!!! it was perfect....

I came out of the store, feeling soooo great, that I would like to go shopping again soon, I can still remember those times when my Mom used to go shopping for myself, yes, believe it or not, I was so fat that I couldn't find any clothes to fit, because in Mexico we don't have special sizes stores, it's just regular sizes like the XXL and that's it, so my Mom used to go to the store, buy a bunch of shirts, a few leggins, came home where I was waiting for her, tried the clothes on and some of them fitted.

Every time I went to a store, I came out upset and sad, and of course I didn't like to go shopping, so for me this feeling is totally new, if you know what I mean.

Another Surgery

Yes, another surgery, but this time related to my heart. I had a ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) about 6 years ago and the battery ran out, so they replaced it. I was an outpatient surgery but I ended with an awful bump below my left elbow, I was so scared of it staying like that forever, I called Dr. Soldo, and showed him a picture of it, and he as always calmed me down. He said not to worry that it was full of fluids inside caused by all the scraping of the tissues but it will go back to normal soon, and it is, I can still see it, but it is a lot smaller.

Anyway, after this surgery that was about 3 or 4 weeks ago, something happened that I couldn't eat much, and I started loosing weight again, before it, I was kind of stuck, loosing one pound a week and gaining it back the following week, fluctuating between 248 and 255, I was feeling fine and my clothes were a lot smaller but the scale just said "NO, I'M NOT MOVING DOWN"

And since the surgery I have lost about 14 lbs and I'm like WOW...!!!! What is going on???? I'm not sure, but I'm so happy that I could jump....!!!!




Thanks for stopping by

Chris

Even more inches...

It is amazing how things can start changing from one day to another.

I have been stuck on the same weight for a few months, well that is what I think, going one pound up, one pound down, but I know that is not the weight, but water and all of a sudden I started shrinking, don't ask me how.

The thing is that not even my clothes are big for me again, Yay!!!! but I also started looking thinner and that makes me feel so good.

Even my husband that usually doesn't say anything, started to look at me and say, "Wow sweetie you look hot" and I can tell you that when you start getting comments like those you feel so good.

I even walk in a restaurant or a bar with my husband and other guys are already looking at me (he doesn't like that) but I do. LOL.

So even if the scale say the same weight, I know that something is happening and my life is still changing.

Thanks for stopping by,

Chris

Getting Smaller

For the first time in a long time, I was able to go shopping and had a hard time finding my size, yes it happened, but this time the sizes were going down, and down, and down.

It was so much fun to see the face of the girl that helped me in the store. I'm a regular client there, and she has always been the lady that helps me, she even know my sizes and my likes and dislikes, her name is Tina by the way.

I was in the dressing room and she was like "What? did it fit?" The feeling was great, and I left the store feeling beautiful and sexy.

Things like that give me the strenght to keep going, and every time I feel the urge to eat something that I shouldn't I think on those moments, and the faces of the people that haven't seen me for a while and then they go like. WoW!! That makes my days great.

I haven't get on the scale for two or three days, I don't need to, I know I'm looking good and I need my plastic surgery, soon I will have one and then I will stop seeing Tina, I will miss her, she is a very nice lady.

I'm already buying stuff at stores like Macy's, Nordstrom, I couldn't do it before, I was way too big to go shopping over there, now I can, on some clothes not all of them though.

Another thing that I'm doing lately is wearing high hills, my feet can resist them again, I used to work 8 hours on those 3" hills without a problem, then I got so heavy that my poor toes were bad, now I'm not on the 3" but in the 2" high, and as happy as I can be.

Thanks for stopping by,

Chris

Thinking on a Plastic Surgery

I'm still about 40 pounds above the weight that I want to reach, but I'm seriously thinking on having a plastic surgery soon, why? because I think that at least 1/2 of that weight that I still need to loose will go away with the skin that the surgeon will remove.

It's getting really hard to see myself naked on the mirror, I don't even want to think what my husband sees, I use spandex all the time and they don't work anymore, it is just too much skin hanging down, I tried walking and doing as much exercise as my heart allows me, and the skin is simply not going back to where it supposed to be. LOL

Yes I know, I should wait a little longer, and I will but every time I look at my mirror even wearing clothes I get depressed.

I will also encounter another problem, maybe the worst in this adventure... My heart, is it going to let me have the plastic surgery???

Dr. Soldo, my cardiologist, told me "One step at a time" I'm hoping that the meaning is... "Yes but loose the weight first", he also said my heart is doing a lot better, but I'm not sure if it is ready for a set of new surgeries, because I want to fix everything, belly, back, legs, arms and of course boobs, if I have been going through all this I want to look like a princess, so pray for me and for my good luck to show up.

Thanks for Stopping by

Chris

New Year, new look and new attitude, that is what I have been trying to do. I feel very good, loosing weight slow but constant and getting happier every day.

I'm walking every morning with one of my best friends, I just miss it when I have therapy for one of my elbows, and believe it or not, when I can't go, I feel a lot different, like I miss it.

This is my new look I cut my hair right before New Year's eve, I wasn't sure about my big chicks, but everyone loved it, what do you think?

Thanks for Stopping by

Chris

Some pictures

Wow! now the holidays are here, It's been hard to keep loosing weight or better sizes, I need to keep going, I get so excited to go shopping now and I'm starting to like the way I look in the pictures.

As I promised here you have some pictures that I found on my albums and some new ones so you can see the difference.

Have a Happy Holiday Season everyone, and I'll be back on January, cross your fingers so I can stay light.... LOL

Chris

Wow almost at the end of the year and I'm still struggling with my weight, I'm not getting desperate, but I wish I could be a size 10 at least, I'm still on 18, the weight is almost the same, but I'm happy about it because even if the scale is not moving much, my size is going down, my stomach is getting smaller and smaller every day and I feel sexier. LOL

One thing that I hate, and I know I just have to be patient is the extra skin that now is hanging everywhere, even on my neck, it makes me feel and look older, I will wait until I get at least to 200 to even start thinking on the plastic surgery.

still 40 more pounds to go and with the holidays coming ouch! what is going to happen, only God knows, but I will do my best. I'm working really hard now to loose as much as I can before Christmas, that way if I don't loose anything during the Holidays on January I won't feel as guilty.

I need to take picture of my hole body, I will and will post them with one of before the surgery so you can compare, but I'm still pro the gastric bypass, it is the best thing that ever happened to me and I will strongly recommend it.

Thank you so much for following my blog and have a safe and happy Holiday Season.

Chris

Still doing good

Wow! This time it's been a little harder, I have been doing great but if you ask me, yes it's been harder, I don't know why but my brain seems to be stuck in the I love fried foods,LOL, so yes it's been hard to fight against it, besides with the kids off school, my brother visiting and so many friends coming over for dinner, bbq's etc, etc, it's hard to follow any diet, but I did it, ok almost all the time, I have to recognize that I sinned a couple of times, but it was only for brain sanity.

I've lost 20 pounds or more so far, I saw Dr. Pehrsson yesterday and he said I'm doing really good, he said that after a revision surgery, people loose weight slower, so I'm doing good, I'm on solids now, phase 5 and I'm really afraid of messing my pouch again, so I'm taking it easy.

I've also been doing a lot more exercise than the first time, I've been walking a lot and I started dancing Zumba, oh and also riding my new bike, so that should also help.

Wish me luck..!

Thanks for stopping by,

Chris

3 weeks after the surgery

~o~

Finally I had my second Gastric Bypass, or as they call it the Revision Surgery, whatever it is called it has been helping me to loose weight again, so far and since June 24th the surgery date, I've lost 12.4 lbs, pretty good ah?

It hasn't been easy, maybe even a little harder than the first time because my brain was used to big meals again and to all that yummy food, and to go from that to clear liquids again, it's been a pain, but this time I'll do it.

I stayed in the hospital for two nights, one more than the first time, the doctors wanted to be sure that there wasn't any liking from the stomach which could cause a mayor problem, he said it is dangerous because they staple on top of the staples, but I didn't have any problems, I was ready to go home the first night.

I have been weighting myself every day, sometimes the numbers go down, sometimes they don't and I know that I shouldn't be doing that because when I don't see it moving I get frustrated and I get anxiety and my day is harder, but you know how we women are, I love to see when it goes down a pound or two in a day.

I will try to post more often, stay tuned.

Thanks for reading, and if you are, please leave a comment, I would love to hear from you, also if you have questions or you are planning to have your surgery soon, I would love to hear from you.

Chris

A revision surgery

Finally and after gaining some weight, and fighting with my surgeon and waiting and waiting, I got the date for my revision surgery, I'm just waiting for my cardiologist approval and that's it.

They need to re shape the stomach and close the esophagus and the canal that goes to the intestine so the food stays in the stomach and makes me feel full instead of allowing me to eat, and eat and eat, without feeling that I had enough.

In the meantime, I need to loose some weight! Can you understand that? If I could loose weight without the surgery, what would I want the surgery for?????

Anyway, they told me I need to loose as much as I can before the surgery that is set for June 24, 3 days before my youngest son's birthday, I know poor guy he is going to spend the day in the hospital with mom.

They told me that this surgery will be a little more risky than the first one, because they will staple the stomach on top of the other staples, and if that happens, then they will have to go back in and fix it. They will keep me in the hospital for at least 3 days this time.

If you are planning to have this surgery, make sure you ask all the questions, even the most absurd ones, like if the stomach will regenerate and got together again, that is something that my endoscopist Dr. Patel told me, I didn't know that was possible, but he said that they have seen cases where the stomach gets back together again....

Also it is very important that in your first year you loose at least 100 pounds, that and I don't know exactly why it is the clue to the success.

One of the reasons that my surgeon told me my second surgery wouldn't be worth it is that I "only" lost 70 lbs on the first year, and he said that doing the second surgery would only help me loosing another 20 lbs or so....

Isn't that silly? well even for another 20 lbs it is worth it for me. Now and after my cardiologist Dr. Soldo, talked to him, he agreed to do the surgery and told me that it should help me loosing the rests of the weight I need to loose, I'm calculating another 80 or 90 lbs.

I will start with my tests again, the only thing that I will skip is the endoscopy, I already had two, so they don't need to see my insides again.

Wish me luck for the Eco Cardiogram that I'm having on 4/13/10 everything depends on that.

Chris

After the Holidays

The Holidays went by and I gained 5 pounds, some of you will say, well I also gained 5 pounds, but not with a Gastric Bypass, I should have not only not gained any but lost a few.

The truth is that I didn't behaved, my family came over and I chowed, why? Well first of all because I have had always a will power problem and second of all because there is something wrong with my pouch.

Yes, I think that either it's enlarged or the entrance or exit from it is wide open or something, but I can eat the same amount of food that my husband does and I'm ok, I will say full, but not vomiting, and it shouldn't be like that.

I'm now like just before the surgery, the same capacity, why I don't know but I'm like that.

My doctor said that it wouldn't be worth it to do a revision surgery cuz that will give me an extra 20 pounds down, and doesn't consider that enough. I really think that the insurance won't pay for the second or "revision" surgery and that is why he doesn't want to do it.

The reason that I'm saying this to you, is so you make sure that if you are planning to have this surgery, make them explain to you that in some cases the surgery just doesn't work as it supposed to. That is what he told me, can you believe it? after 1 year and a lot of effort and money, he said sometimes it happens, and why he didn't tell me that in the first place?????

Anyway, I don't want to quit form your decision, most of the time, it does work, with me worked a little, and I'm planning to go for those 20 pounds, I'm not sure how, but I will.

In the meantime what I'm doing and it seems to work, is I fill my stomach with turkey slices and strawberries, with one bar of light string cheese and my shakes, and water, oh and some coffee (I can't live without it), I'm loosing some pounds, slowly and not very many, but at least I'm not gaining, the effort is double, cuz my stomach is always hungry.

Wish me luck, I will keep you posted.

Chris

What is going on?

The Holidays are just around the corner an I'm freaking out. I'm still not loosing weight and I even think I'm starting to gain ounces.

I have to confess that I'm a little depressed, I do have some personal issues an that has always affected the way I eat, or I behave, today I saw myself on a video from Thanksgiving and I realized that not only I'm not looking thinner, but I'm getting bigger, so I need to do something.

Starting tomorrow (because it is already 9 p.m.) I will do my best to start again the liquid or soft food diet. I need to loose at least 10 pounds before Christmas, so wish me luck.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be posting soon.

Chris

And now what???

Hello Everyone:

It's been a while since the last time I posted on this blog, to be hones I have been very busy with my business and trying to take care of my family.

My diet has been the same, I'm still in a kind of a plateau, but let me recap so you know what's going on.

I haven't lost the weight as it was supposed to, why I know that? well when I saw that I wasn't loosing weight, not as I did at the beginning I went to see Dr. Phersson, he sent me with the nutritionist, she gave me a bunch of advises and clues to get to eat whatever was very healthy, don't miss understand me, I was following the rules, at least I thought that, the problem was according to what she said, the way I picked the food and dressings and stuff.

She told me I need to check the labels, I didn't know how to read them, I used to see the calories, or carbohydrates and that was it, but she showed me that what is important to check is the calories, against the calories from fat.

When you pick a salad dressing for example, and the label says that it has 90 calories, the calories from fat can't exceed more than 20 or 25, because if it does, then it is not good for you.

But who told us that???? NO ONE! After I left her office, I was feeling so good, I thought, "Ok my problem is solved"

I stopped at the market and bought all kinds of new stuff and when I got home I toss in the trash every single item that I thought it was "BAD"

The time passed by and the things didn't change, and little by little I realized that I was hungry all the time, I ate and half an hour after or even 10 minutes after I was hungry again, and it wasn't anxiety, trust me I can recognize that, this was real hunger.

So I panic and call the doctor, he asked me to go and see him and I did, he ordered a third endoscopy, he said that my gastric bypass could have stretched open, that was so funny, now after all the problems and years of waiting to have something to help me to loose weight I was sitting at the doctor's office and he was telling me that my surgery was messed up, one in a 100, and that was me.

Anyway, another of the things that made me take the step of going to the doctor was that my diabetes was coming back, so I finally got the appointment with Dr. Pattel, the endoscopist and before I got in, he told me off the record, that he has seen cases where the stomach just gets attached by itself again to the pouch. That wasn't my case, but he has seen these cases, so, I went in and the results were, Yes, the conduct between my stomach (pouch) and the intestine stretched open.

Great! and now what? Well Dr. Pehrsson told me that he could have fix it if in the first year I lost 100 pounds or more instead of 70, and that fixing it will only give me an extra 20 pounds, so what is that, am I done?

On the other hand, he asked me to take care of the tumor first, I have the appointment in two weeks, and after that, he will think on what we can do with me and my gastric bypass.

So, I'm here loosing a few ounces a week, and kind of soooo disappointed, I will be posting as soon as I get news, but if you are in my case or planning to do the surgery, make sure your doctor tells you all the possibilities, because it is not fun to have surprises.

Thanks for stopping by

Christina

Recent Picture

Just a quick note to post my most recent picture, look at the door behind me, the old picture is from the morning of the surgery.

Love
Chris

Struggling with food

I have been having a lot of trouble with the things I eat. I 've been anxious and usually I cope anxiety with food, that is a big problem when you are talking about loosing weight. I went to see Dr. Pherrson and he sent me to the Nutritionist and she helped me with what should I eat and how to read the labels. She taught me a lot of tricks which I'm working on but I'm still struggling with the anxiety. I won't give up though, I will be a year out on April 15 and for my first birthday I'm planning to celebrate at least 100 pounds, I'm on 70, so I will need to work really hard.

Wish me luck!

Chris

Bad writer

I just realized than I'm so bad writing, I was in bed with my bad back pain when I posted the last one, that is why it is so bad. I'm still home, but not that bad and now I can write a little tiny bit.

I've been good, the scale is still not going down, but you know what my inches are, besides everyone is always telling me that I look smaller. I need to consider that I still have all that skin that the surgeons will need to fix, and that weights too, so I'm not worry about the scale, I just keep going and trying to walk and do what I have to do.

Last week I went to see Dr, Soldo and he said something that I liked and made me feel better. "You didn't gain the pounds in one day, so it will take some time to get rid of it" and he is right, I need to be patient.

The Holidays were really fun, we spent them with some friends, we made a New Year's Party here in my house and we stayed up till 4 a.m. on New Year, so this year we missed the Rose Parade on t.v. LOL (we were sleeping)

Now we are getting back in track, with the food and with work and school, it is hard though, we got used to pleasant, lazy days so easy.

I can't wait for the summer and to be able to get in the pool again, I really miss those days, and I really need to exercise, in the meantime I'm trying to walk, not much because it is so cold outside, but I will start walking with my friends, that way it will be easier.

Thank you all for reading my blog, I hope that if you are following it, it is because you are planning to have or had a surgery, and that my blog will be a good advise for you. Good Luck! and Happy New Year.

Chris

New Pictures

Hello:

Happy New Year to Every one. I was reading a little about my own process and I thought it would be a good time to post some pictures. I hope that you will see the difference.


Thanks for stopping by.

Chris

65 lbs less and a New Life

Wow! It's been a long time since the last time I wrote on this blog, I lost the login password and of course I couldn't access it, but I'm back.

I haven't loose much weight, I'm really taking it easy, I feel so healthy though, I have lost a total of 65 pounds, and my life is a new one.

Now I can run with my kid, I can walk again for hours on the mall without sitting down every two steps, or running out of breath, I can sleep through the night, without waking up because I couldn't breath.

Of course the relationship with my husband is a lot better, and one of the things that I like the most is that now I can sit on the floor. Yes! for some of you, this could be something simple, but for me it is a big deal, I can tie my shoes, put on my socks, etc.

I'm not in a hurry, my heart is doing really good, I feel it, my diabetes is gone, I'm eating a lot healthier and being a lot happier.


This is the new me, 65 pounds less and a long life ahead, but now it is a happy life.

This is a picture of me, I took it two weeks ago.

Thanks for Reading

The Plateau is Over--- Yippee!!!!!

Great!!

 I think at last I start loosing weight again, I was 267 lbs and now I'm 262lbs. Hopefully this will be the end of the problem.

I went yesterday to buy an outfit for a party that we have on Saturday and I was soooooo happy, because from  size 5X I went to 1X. I couldn't believe it, the lady at the big sizes clothes told me, "Yes Mrs. Kaplan, you should start believing it, you drop down almost 50 lbs, you are thinner now" 

And you know what guys, it felt so good, that I would do it again 100 times.

I push the plateau off of my life I think, I started again having cream of wheat for breakfast, and lots of water, oh and also started taking again religiously my water pills.

I think that it really was water retention, because even my face looks smaller.

Whatever it was I feel awesome, and renovated to keep going.

Wish me luck.

More soon 

Chris

p.s.  If you read my blog and are having or had a similar surgery, please let me know, I'm doing this for you guys, and the feed back is encouraging.