A Weekend Away ... and Me

Well I was in Truro this past weekend with TOPS and I had a great time.  I ended up being a Provincial Winner for Division 9 which is the Weight Loss Surgery division within TOPS.  I know I am not the same as everyone else and I needed the surgery, but it felt odd being the only person as the Provincial Division 9 Winner.  I didn't think there is anyone else in the Weight Loss Surgery division at all, but I have to stop thinking that this is a bad thing.  I don't know if I will be there next year, but I hope to be.  I hope that this surgery works properly for me and I know that I can not lose weight like everyone else so I am working hard at this.

Some people have been asking what the Lap-Band looks like because just talking/writing about it doesn't truly explain it.

Below is a picture of a stomach and around it is the Lap-Band  You will notice that it makes a smaller pouch at the top but that the rest of the stomach is left in tact.  There is a small tube that goes from the band down to a port.  My port is sewn to a muscle just to the right of my largest incision and that is what is used to add fluid (saline) to the band each and every time I go to Dr Stalker's office in Halifax.

Each time I go to Dr Stalker's office he adds saline to my port which travels up the tube to the band itself and it tightens it just a little so that a small amount of food keeps me satisfied for 4 hours or more each and every time I eat.

I have a 10cc band and I currently have 3.7cc's in my band.  I go for another adjustment on June 20th and I am hoping that this is the last one for a while.  I am close to my "green zone" but it feels so far away sometimes.

I know 100% I am not like everyone else, I used to eat to keep from doing other things. I have been on every fad diet known to man and been to more doctors and dietitians than I can even count. But no matter what I was doing I couldn’t take weight off for longer than a month or so and each time I thought I found my stride I gained every bit of the weight back and then some. 

At my highest weight I was barely living life but to the outside world you would never know it, I was good at hiding how I felt. 

Before my surgery in September 2012 I was so large I didn’t fit into a standard MRI machine that I
desperately needed, I was forced to view Walt Disney World from a wheel chair because my
legs just couldn’t hold me up for any length of time, and while camping I had to take my car
from the campsite to the bathrooms because I knew that walking there would have me so out
of breath and sweaty I’d feel horrible. 

 I feel amazing as of today but I have to keep realizing that I am NOT everyone else ... I will stumble and fall .... I will have good days and bad ... but I am me and I will lose this weight!!!