18 month check-up yesterday...a little late, but....

I was actually 18 months out in August.  Appointment was originally scheduled for September, but I had to reschedule twice because I kept missing my two-week window to get my labs drawn in time prior to my appointment.  Finally got 'er done, and glad I did.  I weighed one pound less than I did when I went for my one year appointment back at the beginning of March.  This is probably one of the biggest shockers to me - even though I know in my head that I haven't changed sizes or anything, to have someone say that I've basically stayed the same weight for all of these months is still amazing. 

Now, to get up on my soapbox for a moment and give all of you newbies an early-morning PSA:
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, always get a copy of your lab results and track them yourself at home.  If you don't have a spreadsheet already set up to do this, just message majormom - she has a great one that she'll send you (sorry for volunteering you Gina, but I know you'd rather have healthy DS peeps!). 

Here's the thing about labs:  my PA told me yesterday that mine looked great and to keep on doing what I'm doing.  Sounds awesome, right?  Well, I get home and start plugging the numbers into my spreadsheet.  Whoa!  Vit. D has dropped...again.  Iron/ferritin numbers don't look so hot...again.  Potassium is low.  My platelets dropped A LOT (I don't know yet what that means, but you better be damn sure I'm researching it and trying to figure out what I need to do).  I would have never known these things if I hadn't gotten copies of my labs and had been tracking my results all along at home.  The dr. sure as hell didn't tell me!

You might not know what all of those lab values mean, and what labs relate to each other.  That's okay - you learn as you go along, and as long as you haven't burnt bridges here, there is usally always someone who knows a lot about labs that is willing to help you figure it all out.  But relying solely on the word of your surgeon/doctor/PA is NOT AN OPTION.  Don't let yourself fall into a hole without knowing it.

Other than those things I need to work on, everything else looks great.  I feel wonderful - in fact, I feel like a totally different person, and I get told that I look like a totally different person all of the time.

Fun part (because even this far out, I still LOVE to see people's before and after pics!):

About two weeks before I started my pre-op diet (I am on the far right:


These are pictures of me and my son when we went on our Spring Break cruise:





I love my DS.  I wouldn't change the type of surgery I chose for anything in the world.

Congrats, Heather! You are just so darn cute! You have done awesome and I have loved sharing in you journey! LOVE the smile!


Ruby

Thanks so much, Ruby!

 You've done an amazing job, Heather! You look fantastic and very happy!

Thank you, Renee!  I AM very happy!!

Looking good Heather! Congrats on your success!

Thanks, Eileen!

Thanks for the pictures.
I probably will always love the before & after pictures and know when I was a pre-op they really inspired me.
Great job!

Thank you.  I was talking to the nurse yesterday, and she said the before and afters was her favorite part of her job, aside from listening to the patients talk about how much better they felt after losing the weight.  I would think that would have to be very, very rewarding.

You're doing great, babeee!



--gina