I had my surgery on December 8, 2003 and proceded to lose 110 pounds total (including my pre-surgery loss).  I stopped losing weight at about 12 months post-op and stayed at my low weight of 193 for a nanno-second.  I did not have any major regain though and remained at about 195 pounds until around my two year anniversary point.  I then had regain over about six months that had my weight ending up at about 212.  I could see many contributors to the bounce back of weight lost, but not gone forever, and will try to share some of my experience here to hopefully help others as they begin this journey. 

First, I noticed my TSH levels going up and that indicated that  my thyroid was not functioning well.  This is where tracking my lab trends has been very helpful.  In fact, it indicated it was going hypo on me.  I proceeded to get a number of lab tests done and determined that my thyroid problem was most likely related to an iodine deficiency.  It does not surprise me since the surgery is a malabsorptive surgery and my post-op diet contains a lot less iodized salt.  I have taken up the practice of painting iodine on my stomach and thighs to help reverse some of this and my most recent lab work indicated my TSH number was coming down., so I am hopeful that I can avoid thyroid medication.  I wish to avoid the medication if I can because I have had an allergic reaction to the natural thyroid medication Armour and am not sure that I wish to add a thyroid medication to my life needlessly.  So, I will try the iodine replacement process to see if it helps enough to avoid medication.  BTW, before I began the iodine painting I made sure that I did not have any thyroid antibodies as part of my testing.

Next, and this is the biggie in my mind.  I have been grazing and grazing.  Meaning I am taking in less food at a time, but I am taking in a LOT of food (calories) each day.  My body has adapted to the surgery and now is making sure to use all the calories that I send down the tube.  I am addressing this proactively and you will be able to follow my progress on the next web page.

Also, a problem for me has been that I have not felt well most of the time since gastric bypass 2 years and 7 months ago.  What this translates to is I am not nearly active enough to help burn calories.  Since the February after my surgery I have had what I refer to as my "right side buzz" and it has been a very annoying under the skin itching, creepy crawly feeling that has flared up frequently since 2004 and affects my right side.  This past February 2006 I had a bad allergic reaction to a nutritional supplemental product called Vibe (recommended by a new doctor) and it flared up my buzz without mercy.  I remember the immediate week after the incident as being very DARK for me.  I had thoughts I have never had in my life and hope to never have again.  At the time of the incident I remember unlocking the front door in case I had to call 911 and frantically looking for an antihistamine to take.  It was most frightening.  Anyway, long story made short is I was finally diagnosed as having angioedema by a doctor who had recently gone through something similar.  He had not recognized my symptoms earlier, but his personal experience benefited me.  I admit that I feel badly for his experience, but grateful too.  I would not wish angioedema on anyone as it is insidious and when it is flaring it robs me of my smile and my optimism.  I am currently working with an allergist to see if we can rid me of it.  At the moment I am on an H1 and H2 inhibitor (Zantac and Zyrtec) and they keep it somewhat tamed, but it still manages to reach it claws out of the cage and scratch at me.  I will see the doctor in a few weeks and we will discuss the next step.  I will have to evaluate risk vs how I am feeling.  I would love to have this permanently gone.  We can only figure that I ended up with it because of my body fighting many infections over about a year period (gallbladder and appendix) and that the physical stress of that is what started this.  

I think what most troubles me is that I feel I am complaining most of the time now and feel that people probably would rather avoid me because of it.  I know it does get tiresome to hear someone always complaining about how they feel.  I remember as a child hating the fact that my mother always complained and here I am blessed wtih things to complain about.  I am trying hard to not complain, but it does seem that I keep getting new banana peels tossed under my feet.  At the moment I have a UTI and the idiot urogynecologist that I was seeing for a different problem says she can't help me with medication since I had a reaction to the Macrobid that she put me on.  I now have an appointment with a urologist and hope that I can get this resolved before it becomes a BIG problem.  I also know that I have surgery in the future for a rectocele and now have to find a different doctor to do that because I am not allowing that insensitive jerk touch me.  She actually said that since I had an "elective" surgery (my bypass) she could not help me with medication.  In other words, I was taking too much of her time to research what would work.

So, for the moment, on my plate I have:  UTI, rectocele surgery, and angioedema.  All pesky, but all fixable - I think.  Oh, I do have elevated liver enzymes that have been with me since surgery and I need to determine why and what to do about them so will be asking about that on my next doctor's visit.  I do count my blessings that I have not had really horrible health issues to deal with. I know many who are dealing with some truly terrible stuff and feel so badly for them.  My problems pale in comparison.  I am working on keeping my focus on my fortune rather than my niggling little pesky stuff.  I am choosing to move forward in a positive way and begin to look beyond my current situation to the fun things that I plan on doing.  An example is I am getting a new puppy in early August.  He is of an active breed and a breed that I dearly love.  I plan to do obedience with him and hopefully we will be successful in earning his titles and I hope to do conformation with him and earn his Champion status.  He comes from show/herding/obedience dogs so should have the potential to achieve all.  I have us signed up for his first obedience class in September.  Anyway, an active Australian Cattle Dog puppy is just what the doctor ordered and he will indeed be keeping me much more active and involved in the positive side of life.  I am looking forward to the challenge and perhaps a bit apprehensive about the responsibility of training properly to achieve our goals. 

As I mentioned previously, I am working on dealing with my weight gain and the mental reasons behind the grazing.  The next page will follow that journey.  I am having some success, but I must be able to be more physically active if I am to be able to actually lose the pounds that I wish.  I never got close to my goal weight and I have no idea if I will.  I have reset my goal to something that I feel should be achievable, but will feel satisfied if I  (1) do not gain, (2) can lose my regain  and (3) can lose below my  low weight.  I do not have to achieve all three to feel satisfied and will accept graciously just accomplishing the first if that is what my body decides it must do.  My body wants to be obese in the worst way and currently my BMI has me in that category.  This is going to be WORK.

The one thing that I can say is that every time I hear a new post-op say "POUNDS LOST FOREVER" I just want to throttle some sense into them.  With gastric bypass the pounds are NOT lost forever for most of us WITHOUT a LOT of HARD work.  I know too many like me and too few who achieve that dream body as the result of WLS.  I hate the commercials for the various WLS programs because they only show the perfect bodies and do not show the reality of this surgery.  This is a LOT of work.  A gastric bypass post-op MUST do protein in the form of whey protein shakes  to keep their protein numbers up for the rest of their life (a few get away with not doing so for quite some time, but most who do not do the shakes end up in serious trouble), they also MUST do a LOT of vitamin and mineral supplementation.  I take about 50 capsules daily right now to meet my nutrtional needs.  They MUST also do extensive lab testing to make sure that they are meeting the needs of their body.  I do extensive labs and I t rack my labs to know exactly what I must add or change as best as anyone can do.  My lab work requires 12-15 vials of blood every 4-6 months.  I review trends and adapt my supplements accordingly.