Nearly 2 Years Post-Op

A lot has happened since my last post! I will be 2 years post RNY in a month. I have met so many goals and overcome SO many challenges. Life came at me fast and I haven't been very active with blogging. I am going to try and recap everything that has happened since my last posting. I was living with a relative in SC while my husband was deployed during my last post. I was preparing for my husband to return to me and see the amazing transformation that was my body. I can say that we were both very pleased with the results by the time he got home. I had reached my surgeon's goal weight of 150 lbs when my husband returned 1 year ago.

I am happy to say that I have maintained that weight and feel very good about myself and I know that I am much healthier! When Anthony returned we celebrated the holidays together and just enjoyed the time that we were given post-deployment together. We both got tattoos when he returned, mine signifying my weight loss and reaching my goal of living in "Onderland" and his to mark the end of his first deployment. Things started to go back to our normal routine in January of 2014. I even attended my first military ball!

I started working at a new job in January where I had a lot of fun! It was a doggy daycare and I fit in really well! 

Unfortunately I wasn't with the company very long because I had another surgery scheduled for March 13th, 2014. I had maintained my weight loss for long enough that my surgeon thought that it would be a good idea to proceed with reconstructive plastic surgery on my breasts and abdomen. Our 

main goal from the beginning was for me to be healthy enough to have a baby, and unfortunately we didn't have any luck in the months following my bypass and homecoming. We decided to wait to try for a baby and just enjoy being together without added stress, and we could always proceed with our pending adoption if we weren't able to conceive later. At this point our main focus was my impending joint breast lift / reduction and panniculectomy. The photos below show my weight loss before and after the bypass, right before I went under the knife for the plastic surgeries:

My surgery went very well and I was sent home the day after. I didn't have any of the same complications that I had endured after bypass and I was up and moving around from the time that I got home. My surgeons made sure that I didn't get another MRSA outbreak and everything went according to plan. They ended up removing 5 lbs of fatty tissue from my abdomen and were able to cut high enough to remove the puckered scar that was left behind from the infections I got in my main bypass incision in 2012. My surgeon also did a phenomenal job at reconstructing my belly button! They used a purple adhesive across my abdominal incision that took probably two months to fall off revealing a perfect scar. I am so happy with the result of my incisions! Having a flat stomach is not something I was used to!

After my weight loss and new body I was dying to do something REALLY different to my hair, so I dyed it just before my cat Peeky's 4th birthday.

The color didn't last very long because it was continually fading to pink and the purple was just too much upkeep so I dyed it back brown just before I was given the OK to fly home to visit my family in April of 2014. My sister had just had her baby in March and I was so disappointed that my surgery was that same month. I was so happy when I finally got to meet my nephew! I was also comfortable enough to wear a bikini for the first time in my entire life!

I was still going through a phase where all I wanted to do was change my hair to match my new body, I have had the same haircut and style for YEARS! So whenever I got home from my trip, I decided to cut it...

I absolutely loved the new look. It was something that I had never had and my confidence was really great at this point! My relationship with Anthony was as amazing as it could be and I think that my confidence really made our relationship better than it has ever been. 

Then we had some struggles. It was nothing we couldn't handle... I had started experiencing mood swings which led us to arguing much more frequently than normal. This is what led us to some VERY BIG news! On May 27th, 2014 we found out that we are expecting! This was my whole health goal from the very beginning, and despite it being SO close to my recent plastic surgeries, we were absolutely thrilled with the news! I have only gained minimal amounts of weight through pregnancy so far and my surgeons are confident that I will have a health pregnancy and then be able to return to my pre-pregnancy weight with minimal effort.

One of the coolest parts is that she is due to arrive on my 24th birthday! It was a long wait from May 27th to August 15th when we found out the gender of our precious baby!

We are expecting a beautiful baby GIRL! Just what we have always dreamed of! We had also decided on a name for our precious little one!

The next appointment was in September. This was our anatomy ultrasound but she was shy and wouldn't let us get a clear view of all of her organs. We have another one scheduled in a couple of weeks!

I traveled to SC again for my baby shower on Saturday October 11th thrown by my family for our sweet Dahlia. We received so many generous gifts to prepare for her!

Anthony and I look forward to meeting our little girl, after all, all of this blog was made possible because of our desire to become parents. I am now currently 25 weeks pregnant. I can see and feel Dahlia moving around and I am so thankful to be carrying life inside of me. Only 100 days left in our countdown until she is due to arrive!

7 Months 1 Week Post-Op

My posts have become far and few between as my progress gets farther and farther from my surgery date. Overall I feel successful thus far and I am happier with the healthier me. I have gotten a new job as a Pet Counselor at Petland and it is helping to pass the time while my husband is on a deployment. I am excited to finally see him and to reveal the progress I have made since he has been gone. I do feel as though I have let some of my old bad habits creep back in and I am on a mission to stop it in it's tracks. I am determined tomorrow to get back on track with my plan and regain full and total control of my weightloss tool. Slider foods have allowed me to start eating more than I should be able to and being on the go with a new job and busier lifestyle than followed surgery has allowed me to start making poor food decisions again. I am going to get back on track tomorrow starting with waking up early and hitting the gym for an hour. I have slacked off this week and haven't been to the gym since Monday and I feel like that was because of me working a full time schedule this week. I have lost a little over 75lbs so far, but I want to lose 25 more lbs in the next 3-4 months to prepare for deployment homecoming. To do so I am really going to have to crack down on my eating habits and exercise routine. I am determined to get back on track and promote my health. Below are some pictures of me on my journey. I don't have any super recent ones- but I plan on taking some tomorrow and updating again soon. I am about 50 lbs from my goal weight of 130lbs.

This is my 5 month front and back comparison photo:

The first photo was day of surgery, the second and third are of the swelling from my infections, the fourth was at 3 months post op, and the 5th was at 5 months post op:

The first and third photos were before surgery - the second and fourth were at 5 months post op:

4 Months 1 Week Post-Op

Wow! A lot of time has passed since my last update! I have been so busy with moving and deployment and spending time with family to notice! to those of you who read often, I apologize. Since my last update my wound is completely healed! It healed enough the day that my husband deployed for me to stop packing it! It was very lucky timing for us! God was definitely watching out for us and gave me and my husband just the amount of time we needed together before his departure. He has been gone a little over a month now. I have also gotten a membership to the YMCA and have been working out with my sister. I have started doing upper body workouts to focus on the loose skin that I am beginning to accumulate on my arms. I am also doing cardio exercises and got a sweet pair of Dr. Dre Beats headphones for working out. I will be scheduling my second personal training session this week to learn about which lower body workouts will be best for me and in a few weeks I will begin focusing on my abdomen. I am still a little sensitive when doing crunches and things of that nature with my incision site, so I don't want to push it too early. I had to get a doctors clearance for my Y membership and I was so happy the day that they allowed me to start my personal training! At this point I have hit a bit of a plateau, maybe it was the stress from moving, or my husband's absence, but I am sitting on a loss a little under 60 lbs at the moment and I am finally below 200 lbs! I feel good about myself and I am gaining more confidence. My scars are starting to fade and I am noticing that I have more endurance when it comes to walking long distances and uphill. I can even climb stairs without getting winded! I also had quit taking my vitamins for a few weeks because they were making me sick, but I found a new one that I like much better and I began taking them today. I got the Strawberry-Pineapple multivitamin, the Grape Iron, and the Berry calcium from Celebrate Bariatric Vitamins and they are really good. I also got the Chocolate protein and vitamin powder, but it's not as good as others I have had. Mainly due to the fact that they make you mix it with milk as to not add extra calories and fat. It is tolerable though. I will post some photos of my progress at the bottom of this posting and will be sure to update more frequently!

3 month 3 week comparison photo:

You can see my "pucker" where my incision was and also very vague scars, I am also accumulating some loose skin at the bottom of my stomach:

This is a view of my incision all healed up!