It's my re-birthday today!

Hi Gang! I can't believe it's been a year. It has gone so quickly. All of the bad stuff is merely a small memory in the back of my mind. By the bad stuff I mean the hospital stay and the first few weeks after surgery, choking up big pieces of meat that weren't so big, but just didn't want to stay down. Or that piece of barbeque rib I tried to chew to eternity three weeks after surgery and it just stuck somewhere down below until I had to stick my finger down my throat to cough it up. The hours in the hospital waiting for a sip of water, thinking my throat was going to close completely due to the dryness. Being wheeled down to the basement of the hospital to be scanned by some weird, giant machine to find out if I had any "leaks" -- wondering if I did in fact have something wrong and that's why I couldn't even have an ice cube to suck on. I don't want to scare the newbies -- I don't even know if anyone else went through these things. The good news is, I would do it all again. In a HEARTBEAT! I was a size 32 -- stretched to the max. Now, I'm in a big 18 -- I like to consider myself a size 17, 18's are too big, but 16's are too small. I'll get there someday. I am still losing about a pound a week, sometimes two. I've lost 158 pounds and I am a new person. I will never go back to the old me and this surgery is literally a God-send. I wanted to share my story with the Delaware board for some time, but keep forgetting to add this link. I'm an editor for the Middletown Transcript newspaper and I recently wrote an update when I lost 150. My family members cried and I got rave reviews for this column from the community. People love to read "personal" stuff and I really got personal here. It was picked up by the Dover Post, our parent newspaper, so here's the link to check it out. http://www.doverpost.com/PostArchives/01-04-06/index.html I would do it all again, for anyone out there who isn't sure. Take the chance. It's scary and you will be very unsure about yourself for about three months, but the rest is a ride like you've never been on before. As always, if anyone has any questions, I'd love to help! I love you all! Kristen

Kristen...congratulations on your weight loss.....maybe, someday, this year, I will be a loser too!!!! I read your article and it was great....and you look great and much healthier in your after picture! Keep up the good work.....shaughnessy

Kristen, Congradulations on your weight loss and Happy ReBirthday !!!! I will be celebrating on Apil 5th my 1st rebirthday. Can't wait !!!!! So glad to here you have done so well. Everyone I know enjoyed your story. Please keep posting for you may help one person or millions I hope to see you this month at our Harrington meeting. We will be meeting the 3rd Thursday of the month at the firehall, See you lighter. Joanne