It's hard to believe that it has been over 6 months since my last post. My life has been crazy hectic, and I haven't been able to find the time to write anything, but lately I find myself wanting to return to this more and more. Finding where to even start is going to be difficult, so let's just start with a refresher.
On November 9, 2015 I underwent a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy, otherwise known as Gastric Sleeve surgery. Here is a picture of me that my Mom took right before they wheeled me back for surgery:
On the day of my surgery I weighed 354 pounds, which was down from my highest weight of 375.6 lbs. Now I am no stranger to surgery, having had 5 surgeries in my life before this one, but usually I am a nervous wreck the day of any surgery. This time, however, I was extremely calm. My Mom, who brought me in, was more nervous than I was.
I spent the night at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, WA and the first 12 or so hours after surgery were not fun at all. I experienced some intense nausea and came close to getting sick a few times. The first time they had me get up and walk one of my incisions (I ended up with a total of 6 laparoscopic incision sites) started bleeding pretty good, which was a little bit scary, and pretty painful. Walking at all that first night was painful.
The next morning I started feeling a little bit better, and was able to get up and walk around by myself. My ticket out of the hospital that morning was a swallow test with contrast. I had to swallow a radioactive syrup (that was one of the worst things I have ever tasted, tasting like a combination between lemon Pine-sol and Bleach) and they took images of my stomach to make sure that there were no leaks. This test almost made me throw up, but the images came back clean and I was discharged. I took a week off from work, and went back feeling great.
I am almost 6 months post op now, and as of this morning I weigh 281.4 pounds (down a total of 94.2 pounds from my highest weight).
The left hand is a picture taken at my birthday last year by a very good friend of mine. She doesn't like that I use this picture as my before, but It is really the only picture of myself that I let anyone take at my heaviest. I felt so insecure with how I looked. I never smiled in pictures, choosing to make weird faces instead because I wanted any excuse to draw attention away from my weight. The Right hand is a picture taken this morning (wearing my fabulous Cinco de Mayo hat). I still have over 100 lbs to lose, but I am taking my progress one day at a time.
I promise that I am back now, and will continue to write on a regular basis.
Jenelle
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