Morbidly Obese!!

Hi, All! For about a wk. now, my BMI has been low (?) enough to qualify me as being morbidly obese. Good-bye forever, super morbidly obese! Today I'm 7 wks. out from surgery and I've lost 40 lbs.!! That's using my adjusted day-of-surgery weight. What's "adjusted day-of-surgery weight", you ask? I know that when I weigh myself at home in the morning (wearing next to nothing) I weigh 8 lbs. less than I do fully dressed (including shoes) at Dr. A's office, so I mentally add 8 lbs. to what I see on my home scale to get a number that I can compare to what I weighed at Dr. A's office. But I didn't know how the scale at the hospital compared to the other 2 scales until I was at the hospital a couple of weeks ago to have my IVC filter retrieved. While I was sitting there in a johnny coat (dressed just like I was before surgery), I asked if I could weigh myself and was led to the scale. This time I was able to compare it to my home scale (I had forgotten to do so the morning of surgery) and found that I weighed 3 1/2 lbs. less on the hospital scale than I did at home several hrs. earlier (after adding the 8 lbs.). So my day-of-surgery weight was really 322 lbs., not 318 1/2 lbs., and so as of today I've lost 40 lbs., not 36 1/2 lbs. That was probably the 1st time I've ever been happy to have weighed more, not less. But it's not just the weight loss. For example, yesterday I went bowling for the 1st time in 11 yrs. Part of why it's been so long is that between my weight and my lymphedema, my feet have been so swollen that I couldn't fit into the shoes at a bowling alley. Yesterday I barely got into the shoes and, after 2 hrs., it was a relief to take them off, but before surgery I would have missed out on a fun time with friends because of not being able to wear the required shoes. (And I wouldn't have been there wearing pants that are 2 sizes smaller and a sweater that's a size smaller.) Today was another example of how much better life is after surgery. I can remember weighing about 60 lbs. more than I do now and going to visit my husband in the hospital when he broke his leg almost 2 yrs. ago. Then I barely dragged myself all the way from the parking garage to his room. Today I went to visit him in the same hospital (he had some surgery last wk.) and had no problem at all walking the same distance, even with the additional weight of a bag of stuff he wanted, plus my umbrella, pocketbook and, of course, bottle of water. While writing this, I just remembered a reply to a post that I saw on the main message board. Someone was talking about how each person loses weight at a different rate than everyone else, but it's still hard not to compare yourself to others who may be losing faster than you. She wrote about something that her dietician had said to her when she complained about having lost only (!) 40 lbs. in 2 mos. The dietician asked her how much she intended to lose in total. She replied that since she was 100 lbs. overweight at the time of surgery, she wanted to lose 80-100 lbs. The dietician then told her that she'd lost 40% of that weight in just 2 mos. I think that's a more positive way to look at our respective weight losses. Someone else may have lost more weight than me in a similar time frame, but if they weighed more than me to start with, we may have both lost approximately the same percentage of our respective weights. So when I think of where I am with respect to my goal weight, I've lost over 25% of what I want to lose, in only 7 wks.! Debby 340/322/282/194/174 start/surgery day/now/Dr. A's goal/my goal (BMI overweight, not obese)

To my Angelette Debby- You have done a great job girlfriend! You bowled awesome yesterday..she forgot to mention she almost won the third game--lost by two pins. My darn..over achieving husband! Keep up the good work..you are well on your way! Love Joanie

Congratulations Deb! I'll have to remember to look at my weight loss that way. It is hard not to compare yourself to others. I'm always doing that and it gets a bit depressing @ times. I'm glad everyone had fun bowling! Enjoy your evening! Kelly

Hi Debby Thank you for sharing wonderful news with me! SMILE! Congrats for enjoying yourself with everything!!! I agree with you about to not compare other person about weight loss. The most important are we lost inches from our bodies, wear smaller pants and remember gain gain from our muscles not fat. I have no idea how much I weighted since I have not weighted myself since Jan 2nd but I will weight at Dr Aranow 's office on Feb 25th and will tell everybody how much I lost percent of my body. Hugs Kathy K

Debby, Despite being a "baby" I had a great time bowling and must say, you look incredible! Keep up the awesome work! I figured out my numbers and I have lost 30% of my origional weight and 59% of what I want to loose total! What a great way to look at it!!! Hugs, Carmen

Debby, WAY TO GO!!!!! I am so happy for you and the positive attitude you have about the personal weight loss percentages as opposed to what others are doing is wonderful. Keep up the good work and hope to see you soon. NA

YEAH, what a great story! Congrats on your success! Phyllis

Debby- I just can't tell you how truly happy I am for you! I'm so proud of your progress and thrilled that you are reaping the wonderful benefits of this surgery. Keep up the excellent work my friend. hugs, lisa C

Debby, I want to Congratulate on your accomplishments, especially the great attitude about comparing yourself to others. The percentage of weight loss is a great way to look at it. I am so happy everything worked out for you. Hope to see you in the future.. Nancy K