In exactly 3 weeks I will have the one-year anniversary of my "re-birth!" I am 10 pounds from my goal of 136 and I SO wanted to reach it by September 20. I woke up this morning with a wild idea. Here it is: Before my surgery my doctor required 3 weeks of a liquid protein diet AND also for 3 weeks after surgery! So I managed to maintain it for 6 weeks! I think I'm going to do another 3 week liquid diet til my anniversary date or at least until I can drop this last 10 pounds. I know it's just a date on the calendar but it's so symbolic to me. I'll make sure I get enough protein and of course my vitamins as always. I do wonder if I have the self discipline to do it again? Am I nuts? XO, Sandy 268/146/136 (So CLOSE yet so FAR!)

wow. i am so glad he's ok. what a blessing! take care of each other!! -katie

I started out at 381 and have lost 134 lbs. i'm at 247. I know I could be losing more by exercising more. I sort of got out of the exercise thing with the crazy summer I've had running kids everywhere. I'm getting back into my water walking and that is helping. I'm 11 months out and I was hoping to be at goal by the one year mark but it won't happen, unless I can drop 97 lbs in the next month. For now, I'm just pleased with what has happened so far. If you figure it out, 134 lbs is 69% of 231 which is what I wanted to lose. So, I've already lost almost 70% of what I needed to lose. The rest is probably going to take some old-fashioned hard work to lose. So, I'm gearing up for that.

My husband, Scott, had surgery March 8th. I posted at that time that he had complications, when his remnant stomach began to hemmorhage and he had to have 14 units of blood products transfused. Well, he began having stomach pains around a week and a hal*****hese cramp like pains were up high in the stomach area and they only followed eating and drinking. He would cramp hard for several hours after each meal. On Wednesday of last week, he stopped eating (and pretty much drinking too). He asked me to take him to the dr on Friday, and when I called the surgeon, he said just to go right to the ER. The ER doctor ordered an upper GI and bowel test. They said it would take about one hour. . NOT. It took six long hours! Scott had a narrowing in his intestines. At first, it looked like a total blockage b/c the dye stopped in one spot. But after three hours, it began to trickle down through his intestines. He was hospitalized and given IV fluids. He didn't feel the need to pee until his FOURTH BAG of fluids. They said he was dangerously dehydrated. In all, he's lost 85 lbs really fast. His waist dropped from a size 42 to a size 34. Anyway, Dr. FLoyd said about one in ten people have this complication of the narrowing in the intestines. I thought that was an interesting statistic. Anyway, after several days of clear liquids, he is better and doesn't appear to need another surgery.

I don't do one consistently because I'm a bit of a cheapskate. It also took me a long time to find a protein drink I could stand. Lately I've been using Jay Robb's Whey protein. I prefer the chocolate but the vanilla isn't bad. I like to mix it up in the blender with half a frozen banana and some lite soy milk. Yummy! Its also good in yogurt topped either with granola, your fave cereal, or mashed up protein balls (peanut butter, protein powder, powdered milk, and a few rice krispies.) But to each his (or her) own.