Before And After RNY With Michelle J Down 145 lbs!

November 1, 2022

Why I Chose to Have Weight Loss Surgery

Before And After RNY With Michelle J: I had been overweight pretty much my whole life. But that last few years before I decided to have surgery I pretty much became a hermit. I didn’t like going anywhere. Especially if I hadn’t been there before. I was afraid of not fitting into the chairs. Or lord forbid broke a chair because of my weight. Didn’t like the stares or overhearing children say “look how fat that lady is”. I could even see the way my nieces and nephews treated me compared to my skinny sisters.

 My daughter, where do I begin talking about what my weight did to her. I wasn’t there to take her camping, amusement parks, outings, play games outside with her or go bike riding with her. Her dad, aunts, uncles and a friend's parents took her to do all these things. She never said a word about it bothering her until she was an adult. That really broke my heart.

 I also wanted to better my health as well. I had high blood pressure and was newly diagnosed with diabetes. I couldn’t walk more than 10 minutes without having to sit down. Going anywhere walking, even grocery shopping, I would be sweating like I’d ran a marathon. I knew about WLS many years before I decided to do it. But I knew someone who died a few years after surgery and it scared me.

 Many years later quite a few people I knew had WLS and they were all fine. I was on my computer one day and an ad popped up from a local hospital about their weight loss surgery program and I knew right there, that was the sign I needed that it was time. I signed up that day to get my weight loss journey started.

Before And After RNY With Michelle J

Name: Michelle J
Total Weight Loss: 145 lbs
Surgery Type: Roux-en-Y
Surgeon: Dr. Michael Russo
Surgery Center: Surgical Weight Loss at Fountain Valley Regional

My Surgery and Post-Op Life

My surgery went well. No complications, pain was very minimal. For me anyway. Everyone is different. My surgeon, Dr. Michael Russo, was amazing. I have never had a doctor so concerned for his patients. He would sit and answer all the questions you had, even if it was going to take half an hour. He never came in the room and spent less than 20 minutes. He even called me at home one day when the PA forgot to have him come in after she saw me. We talked for thirty minutes. You don’t hear about doctors doing that anymore.

After I got home, thank goodness I didn’t have the awful gas pains many have after WLS. Only trouble I had was trying to sit and then trying to stand back up. Especially from the toilet. That was probably the hardest part for me personally, right after surgery.

First few days the protein drinks were extremely sweet to me. I was so thankful for the strained cream of chicken soup with unflavored protein powder added to it. After the sweet protein drinks, this was a wonderful addition to my daily routine. Not guzzling water was another thing I had to remember not to do. Even to this day 5 years out, my pouch lets me know when I have drank too much water.

The liquid stage wasn’t too hard, since I had started doing shakes, two weeks before surgery. My choice, not my surgeons. So I was already used to being on full liquids. Eating jello or unsweetened applesauce was good. No issues. Wasn’t afraid to swallow it. But taking my vitamins?? That was a whole other story. I was scared to death. I was afraid they would get stuck. So I cut them in half. I’m taking them whole now.

Moving on to puréed and then to regular food was a bit scary. I was again afraid of the food getting stuck. So I’d chew like crazy. But in the beginning when I moved onto regular food, if something was going to get stuck, it was chicken. Mind you, I chewed really well. My body gave me a signal fairly quickly when something was stuck. My mouth would start watering a lot. Then a little bit after that I would get what I was taught was called the “foamies”. It was a lot of foam your body produces to try to get the food unstuck. Then the smallest piece of food would come up, and I would be ok. I never traveled without a small disposable cup, for just this reason.

Then I had my first case of “dumping” from eating too many carbs. I thought I was having a heart attack. My heart was beating so fast. I never knew what would trigger dumping. I could eat a protein bar one day and be fine. Could eat the same exact bar the next day and dump.

Before my surgery date I lost 47 lbs. After surgery the weight loss was fast. I would hit stalls and get frustrated. But then the weight would start dropping again. The first time I could walk from my apartment to the small park down the street and not have to sit down as soon as I got to the park, was such an amazing feeling. I couldn’t believe it. I am no longer on blood pressure or diabetes medication. I’m no longer sweating like crazy while grocery shopping or anything else. I’m not afraid to sit on chairs. I’m not afraid I won’t fit in a booth at a restaurant. I’ve truly gotten my life back.

I started out at 403, lost 202, but have gained back 59. I am a people pleaser, and hate telling people no. I haven’t had many friends in my life. So when I get a new friend I don’t want to lose them. So for a few years now, whenever they would say let’s go get ???? I would say sure. Knowing full well, I shouldn’t be eating it and they shouldn’t either. They had WLS also. But, I don’t like disappointing people, so I’d always say yes.

I’m not going to say I have followed the right path along my journey. I believe in being truthful with others about my hiccups during my journey. I have gone back to eating foods I know I shouldn’t be eating. I don’t exercise or walk like I know I should. Most days I get all my water in. I’m good at taking my vitamins. Most days I get enough protein. But more days than I’d like to admit, I eat way too many carbs. That’s where the bully comes in.

The bully I have living in my head, gets his way a lot. I need to get new health insurance, so I can start seeing a therapist to help me evict the bully from my brain. Or I’m afraid I’ll be 400+ pounds again, and I don’t want that to ever happen. I wish I would have known about the mental side of WLS. I probably would have dealt with that first. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret having WLS. Weight loss surgery has saved my life and brought some amazing people into my life. I have more friends now than I ever have. It is a true blessing to have such amazing friends in my life.

I haven’t reached the weight I want to be at, but I won’t ever stop trying to reach that goal. I know someday I will finally reach it with the love, help and encouragement from my family and amazing WLS family.

Some Non-Scale Victories!

How ObesityHelp Has Been Part of My Journey

I heard about ObesityHelp through my support group one evening. Many of them have been to their conference that is held every year. They all had such wonderful things to say about it. So that evening when I got home, I looked up ObesityHelp and joined their website. When Rusty came and talked to our support group about the OH conference, I knew I had to go. It looked and sounded like it would be fun, but also very helpful in my WLS journey. I was scared to death to go, even though my husband was going with me. Thank goodness some of the people from my support group were also going. I followed them like a lost puppy. I was so scared. Because of being overweight my whole life and I had no self esteem.

I was very shy. I wasn’t good at walking up and talking to strangers. That was so far out of my comfort zone. I’m not sure I met too many people the first conference I went to.

Now let’s talk about the swag bags. What an amazing idea to introduce us who have had WLS to products and companies we may have never been introduced to, if it weren’t for OH! The vendors at the conference also have many wonderful products and services to help us. Most of the vendors they have had over the years, I wouldn’t have known about their products if it weren’t for OH and their conferences. The wide variety of speakers and many different topics is wonderful. Everything from arranging your kitchen, to skin removal, gut health and many more amazing topics to help us on this sometimes hard journey. We learn many tricks and tips on how to navigate through the most challenging and difficult situations. To quick and easy tricks. I have now gone to three conferences and with each one I’m learning more and more.

I’m stepping out of my comfort zone more and more with each conference.

The amazing friendships I have made through OH. I know I will always have someone who I can reach out to when I stumble and need help to get back on track.

The newsletters ObesityHelp emails out, always have wonderful articles to help us out. New recipes for us to try. Wonderful and inspiring stories to read. Lots of past articles you can look up. Just an amazing site to help those that are just starting out or us veterans who need help.

My journey has had many challenges. I’m not perfect and I make mistakes. But with OH and my WLS family I know I can finally change my life for the better. Some reach their goals quickly and maintain it till this day. And there are others like me who struggle daily, but continue to fight. I need to start reminding myself WHY I had WLS!

Thank You ObesityHelp for all you do for us!

Like this Before And After RNY With Michelle J, you too can celebrate your own Before & After WLS Success, milestones, non-scale victories, and inspire others! The OH team wants to hear from you to share your weight loss surgery journey. Visit our Before & After Submission page for details.

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