TOP 10 THINGS I DISCOVERED SINCE WLS

10.  Able to buckle my seat belt with out an extension and not have the steering wheel rub my stomach when I drive.  Haven’t driven into one ditch lately, compared to before, trying to turn a corner as I sucked in my gut as much as I could, and figure how to turn the steering wheel with my stomach in the way.  Gez, that can get a guy confused, trying to do all that at the same time, then it can make you dizzy, trying to suck all that in!  Those ditches really jump up at ya!

9.  Am able to actually sit in a booth.  It is weird because I would have to make my family wait for a table to open up.  People looked at me strange that first time I tried a booth and fit because I kind of was bouncing up and down a little in the seat of this booth (the seats are softer than the wooden chairs at the tables), had a huge grin on my face, just looking around.  When I locked eyes with someone, I mouthed to them, “I’m sitting in a booth!"  They didn’t seem as excited about that as I did.  PEOPLE! Who can figure them out.   

8.  Am able to walk without feeling like I am about to drop dead of a heart attack, and able to walk without falling because my legs would just give out on me, then taking 10 minutes to try and get up off the floor.  One time when I fell, I landed on my back and rocked myself asleep trying to get up!

7.  Am able to see these things at the end of my legs while I am standing.  Been so long that I have actually seen my feet in “action" (i.e. moving).   I forgot how awesome it is.  Used to only see the puffed-up things when I was sitting.  In relation I found out I have “ankles" right above the feet.  I saw them one time in a book, but thought I had missed out.

6.  Boomer (my Boston Terrier) is able to lay on me when I sit.  There is room!  I  had to look it up, because I don’t have long term memory anymore, and I found out the medical name is a “LAP".  I’ll be darn, I have one now.  Used to be my stomach just touched my knees when I sat, so this new found “LAP" thing is amazing!

5.  My dreams have gone from what I can stuff down my throat next, and how to get out of “moving", to going to an amusement park, walking around, and being able to ride the rides, especially a roller coaster.  Now recently, I’m wanting to parachute out of an airplane.  Amazing since the last time I tried to fly, the wheels wouldn’t turn and we couldn’t take off.   It was really strange, because they worked after I got off!

4.     Having a belt that is shorter than I am tall.  Anybody hold up their belt even with the top of your head, and it drags the floor?    

3.  Able to save a year’s salary on clothes.  Big man shops are HUGELY expensive (pardon the pun), and a shirt costs more than a small car because of it taking a BOLT of material to make the darn thing.    I love that I can now buy clothes at Wally World, and even cooler, I was able to find some shirts at a thrift store dirt cheap.  Love dirt cheap!   

2.  In relation to #3, I can get more sleep, because I don’t have to get up an extra hour early to iron my clothes!  Takes a lot of time to iron the same amount of material they make a family tent out of!  One time my wife found an ad from a woman who ironed clothes.  She tried her out, but when we picked up the first patch, she said she was going to have to charge DOUBLE for my clothes because of the massiveness!  Told her , “FINE,  don’t need you, I can iron my own tents". 

1.    And the No. 1 thing I’ve found out during my year since WLS, is, what I thought was a big downside to WLS.  I had discovered these “hard" things all over my body under my skin.  I started to panic, and got on the net to do some medical research on them.  I found out that they weren’t a cause of WLS, but supposedly had them all the time!  It’s these things called BONES!  Who’d thunk!  Again that lack of long term memory had caused me, I guess, to forget about these bone things.  All I could feel before was “softness".   Found some of these things right along my shoulders.  That one is called a collar bone.  Down just a little further, was a bunch of them lined up.  Found out those are called ribs.  Just goes on and on all the way down to my feet.  Also during the research, I found out the long thin “bluish worms" on my hands and arms are called veins.  Didn’t know I had those either.  At first I thought I had been swimming in some nasty river in Africa and picked up something.    Isn’t the body an awesome thing?

You hit the nail right on the head -- every one of them! I love your humor!!

You crack me up!!!  You are so right on the money with all 10 points.  Unless a person has been where we were and are where we are now they probably do think we're a little "crazy"!!!  LOL  Let them think it!!!  You've done an awesome job my friend and traveling this journey with you has been such a blast. 

Debbie

Amen to so many of these!  You DID hit the nail on the head and I love your attitude and humor :)  I'll add on a couple of the ones that I thought were a big deal~

1.  Being able to buy "One size fits all" pantyhose and they actually FIT! ... without cutting off my blood circulation!  When I was gaining all my weight, I was very much in denial about it and would still try to wear sizeB pantyhose and that was a trip trying to keep them over my fat rolls, let alone breathe lol.

2.  No more seatbelt extenders on airplanes!!!!

You know, I forgot about the panty hose.  I hated that too! 

You are HILARIOUS! Isn't it nice to be able to laugh at it all now.

I also got experience the airplane seatbelt 2 months ago and not only could I buckle it...I had about a foot of slack! Crazy!

Micheal - you are too funny.....What a cool post!!

Love it!  I especially like the booth one, I remember not even getting up to go to the bathroom at a restaurant because squeezing myself in the booth to begin with was such a chore!!!

How about:  People telling you how 'skinny' you look.  Even though I really don't believe I will ever be skinny, it's funny how that word affects you when people tell you that.  What a great feeling!

You know, I feel skinny compared to what I used to me, which is a big accomplishment for me, but I wonder what ordinary people that don't know me think.  Am I still fat to them?  Am I chubby?  What?

Well, I guess it just makes me feel like 'Wow, what a whale I must have been' when people call me skinny at 247 lbs!  I feel definitely lighter but still have a way to go to even be considered chubby.  I know lots of people who have WLS at my weight or even less!
All in all, I think it matters how we feel related to health & that words like 'skinny', 'chubby', 'chunky', or 'thin' don't really describe the great feeling we get when the 10 things you wrote or anything else happens to us as we work toward our goal.