Shrinking Stella

All about my journey to a healthy life…

I am a married working mom of one. I started this journey to be healthy in January of 2008 after going to my OBGYN and being told that I was horribly overweight and had a BMI of about 56. My Dr. told me that I would be a perfect candidate for WLS since I was motivated, hard working, dedicated, educated and intelligent. I left his office with the name and phone number for my surgeon, needless to say I felt like crap that day. I thought I was a total failure at life and just so pathetic, I even doubted how I would raise my daughter properly.  I went home cried, ate and did research on gastric banding and the surgeon who was recommended to me.  I found out that the first step was to go to a seminar; I called and went to the very next one.

After going to the seminar I was so happy, I thought this is my end to the mess I was in. I could really be normal for the first time in my life.  Ok let’s back track a bit, I have been overweight to Morbidly Obese for as long as I can remember. I even recall a teacher in the second grade telling me that boys don’t like fat girls. After the seminar I was totally sold on WLS, I thought I was going to be banded but that all changed, we will get to that later. I went to see the Surgeon and his insurance specialist and discovered that with my size and personal situation that a band would not be what was best for me, I did have things deflated a bit since I was told that I had to do a 6 month medically supervised diet before the stupid insurance company would approve me. I then went to my PCP (cried) and told them what I wanted to do, he was very happy for me. He said that he would highly recommend my surgeon and would support me if that was what I wanted to do.  Some time had elapsed between the Surgeon and PCP visit since I was a bit pissed off at the insurance company, but in the end I decided they would not win.

I had surgery on Monday 11/10/2008, it was very un-eventful. Things went well; I went home two days later after my RNY. After two days or so felt so good it was hard to believe that I had just had surgery, I went to my 10 day follow up and asked to go back to work but he didn’t let me till my two weeks were up.  Fast forward and I am a year plus out and down over 150lbs since I started the process and feeling good. I went from a size 28 or 30 to a size 12, I still have about 30 lbs I want to lose but this is a marathon not a sprint.. Ok, I will be honest I have to tell myself this at least once a week cause when I have weeks that I lose one pound or nothing I feel miserable but at least I look halfway decent… I so want plastics since I have so much skin hanging around, I really mean so much!!!! I have already spoken to two plastics guys and they both say I could use a lower body lift and my PCP agrees but my lovely insurance company covers no skin removal ~ regardless of need…. I don’t like them much at all!

Anyway, this site is really a way to keep me honest. I find that if I am always talking, I sometimes think it is obsessing, about my surgery I tend to eat better and loose better… so here goes. I plan to post my meal creations and my thoughts and insights about life in general and hope that someone else can find the information useful.

Stella