ROLL CALL!!!

Hello hello......... This is Judi, clear up in Osage, lol. I had my open gastric bypass 5/15/03 in Grinnell with Dr. Eibes. at that time I weighed in at 360 (yikes) Now, its just about exactly 8 months later, and the scale this morning says 235. Thats 125 lbs gone so far for good!!!!! (I even made it thru xmas season without gaining a single pound back, I didnt lose much, LOL, but I didnt gain it back darnit! hehe) I am 25, work full time at a nursing home, going to college 3/4 time, to be a RN. I still have about 2 1/2 years to go on that *sigh* oh well. I have a 6 yr old boy monster, oh I mean matthew, lol. Somedays are tougher than others. I need to get my weight loss jumpstarted again, my doc says about 155 would be a good goal. at this point, I would be happy still just to get under 200. Its in sight though! I will be getting my taxes done in a week and my first big purchase will be a tread mill. then I dont have to worry about a sitter so I can go up and work out somewhere. Its just too hard to get out of the house without him. ya know? well, I gotta get off to school, its still so nervewracking, to start new classes, lol. keep your fingers crossed for me, I am sure it will be fine! Judi

hi! my name is mary jo. i had surgery may 16, 2003. i have lost 126 pounds. starting weight was 307. my dr wanted me to have a goal of 95-105 ,but i would be happy at 125-135. i went from a 5x to a 16 in 8 months.i have 4 grown children, 5 dogs, 4 are mini dachsunds. 2 very old cats. life is wonderful!

Hi, my name is Lisa Young, I am from Marshalltown, Iowa, but now living in Des Moines, due to work. I had my surgery December 22, 2003, and weighed in at 347 and now I'm 295. My parents have a blue heeler, who goes after our heels, since we don't have any cattle for her to work. I had my surgery in Grinnell, with Dr. Eibes. He is hoping for me to get down to 150. I am still having problems eating 6 times a day and getting my water and protein in. Otherwise the pain is not so bad, and I'm going to try to go back to work Monday, January 19, 2004. If anybody has any ideas on how to get my food intake in, the water and the protein in, please Email me or post. Thanks! Lisa Young

Hi my name is Theresa, I am 8 weeks post op. I started at 271 and this morning I was down to 232. I hope to end up at 150. I have 5 grown childern but one that still lives at home, (we keep hinting that he needs to get a place of his own, but he doesn't get the picture). I am married to a wonderful man, who has been very supportive thru all of this but I do believe that he worries to much about me because I have a very sensitive stomach and never know when something is going to agree or not. We own a cat and a pomeranian, who thinks he is boss and we don't have to heart to tell him different. I will be starting college tomorrow for computer sciences and am very excited about it. Theresa

I am Dixie, from Tripoli. I had my surgery 5 weeks ago. I am down approximately 45 lbs but have a long way to go. I don't have an actual goal. I just want to get to a healthy weight. I have been struggling with getting in my protein. All shakes come right back up & protein powders added to food aren't any better. Today I will start experimenting with soy protein. Hopefully Boris (my pouch) is a vegetarian & will like soy better.

Hi, I'm Julie and I had my surgery in July 2002. I have lost a total of 188 pounds, down from 323 to 135. I am trying to gain about 5-10 pounds right now. I wear anywhere between a size 7 and a 3. I had plastic surgery in November of this year, when they took 4 1/4 pounds of skin off my abdomen. My insurance paid it 100%. Dr. Stoner did my RNY and Dr. Eckhardt did my abdominoplasty, I had no complications at all. I need some ideas on how to maintain and even gain a little weight right now. I already try to eat about 5-6 times a day. I hope everyone has a great day!!!

Hello - Sunny here! Well hopefully I will find out tomorrow when my surgery date will be! Second consult with surgeon is at 1:30 tomorrow! It has been very hard waiting - the last two apts I had set up got canceled due to different reasons on the surgeons behalf! If tomorrows gets cancelled I will be very upset! I have been trying to get this going since last May! So its been a long wait! Dr. Myrie in Des Moines is doing the surgery. I have two girls ages 5 and 3. Thanks to everyone who post on this site! It has been very helpful to learn about everything!

This is Janie from Independence. I've gotten most of my testing done, but have a monkey wrench thrown into the mix. A growth was found on my kidney and I'm having surgery on that next week. Without Dr. Glass**** and all the testing we go through I would never have known about this. In a round about way I can thank him for that. Once I'm healed from that I'm ready for my lap rny. Still hoping to see surgery by the end of March. Woo Hoo!!!

Hi Elizabeth, and Iowa friends, I had open RNY at the Genesis Center for Bariatric Surgery on 12/8/03. Started at 326 and am down 26 pounds as of last Friday. I hope to end up under the 200 mark and I think that I will be happy. Can't lose too much, because hubby likes chubby women and would hate to scare him away!!! I have 3 kids - a 17 year old son, 7 year old daughter and 18 month old son. Yep - that's quite a spread between them all and only the first was unplanned. News brief - not sure that we are done yet. Just wanted to get Momma healthy before having any more. Working hard to get protein and liquids in, but it is work. On a fun note - I taught Lisa Gomez's daughter when she was in second grade!!! Hi Lisa!!! Thanks for doing this Elizabeth! God bless, Andrea