Introductions in order with 1 yr behind me!

Hi everyone.... I had RNY on 2-26-07 with Dr. Pennings in Post Falls, ID. I weighed in at 433 when I had my consult. I had lost about 35 pounds right before that on my own. My highest weight that I know of was 468. Dr. Penning's asked that I get off 50 pounds prior to surgery. I managed to do so but not an easy task when you havn't had the surgery yet. My husband and I actually had RNY the same day and were in the same hospital room together. We both weighed in at 380 on surgery day. We didn't have any complications from the surgery and recovery was about 2-3 weeks. We are both doing well now. I have lost down to 252 which is a 181 loss from my consultation weight and a 216 pound loss from my highest weight. My husband has also lost similiar weight. We feel great and can't believe how much being overweigh impacted our lives and mental stability. Life is new and we feel like we are getting a fresh start. I would say at one year out my biggest struggle is stress eating and grazing. I can eat more and do not have many food limitation. It's more responsibility pn me to make the right choices. a recent hurdle has been that I found out I had cancer of the thyroid and had it removed this last month. I'm looking at some radiocative iodine therapy and possibly more surgery. It's a very stressful thing to deal with and eating is how I have been coping. I found out about the possible cancer in 11-07 and ever since have been so stressed out. I had been religous with all the do's and dont's of gastric dieting but have managed to neglect everything I've learned for the past few months. I've only lost 20 pounds since 11-07 and that's discouraging. Thats only 5 pounds monthly. So, I'm going to get through the radiation then try to pick up the pieces again! Not sure how but I'm hoping summer will inspire me too. I really want to get down to any number with a 1 in front of it!!!! Leaving you on a positive note....I would like to pass onto anyone reading this that I am so very happy at the choice I made and never one day since surgery have I regreted my decision. Both my husband and I were on sacks of medicines and our health was failing quickly. Now he's on no meds and I'm not on very much. We want to do things all of the time, our romance has been kicked up several notches and we see each other in a swing together when were 80. We certainly couldn't do that before. I'm grateful to my surgeon and his office staff who I would recommend even to people that are way out of his area. Sometimes you need to travel further to get quality!! Thanks for listening.... Leslie

Congratulations to you on all of your weight loss success! (and your hubby too!) I had RNY on 2-20-07. I recently passed my one year anniversary and have similar situations to yours. I have very little food restrictions and I feel like I tend to graze at times too, which is very scary as I do not want to slip back into old habits. I'm hoping not. My weight loss has slowed as well. I'm down a total of 177 pounds. My highest weight was 362.. 349 day of surgery. Now I've been sitting at 172-174 for about a month and a half.

Hi Melanie... Thank you and congrats right back atcha! It's a constant struggle to keep things moving in the right direction. Especially after that one year mark. I have only lost about 25 pounds in the last 4 months. I'm about 14 months out now! I've been struggling with the mental and physical issues that come with having cancer. It's been one of the biggest challenges in my life besides weight loss. I feel grateful that I'm maintaining my currect weight but wish I could start losing again. Hopefully after my radiation coming up in May I will start turning a corner again and get back on track. I really want to get down to 168, that would be a 300 pound total loss from my highest weight. Right now I'm at 247. My highest weight was 468 and I feel so grateful to have gotten this far but would love to keep going. The issues I'm dealing with right now as I mentioned is the emotional eating and the fact that I'm not very limited to the kinds of foods I can eat. That makes it tough! I actually envy the people who can't eat candy, ice cream, cake etc...Cuz I can and that makes life much harder. You have to rely on willpower alone and if I had that to start with I wouldn't have needed the surgery. But, I am trying and will continue to do so.