Post-op 5 months + 15 days

Hello there friends!  I has been a long time since I’ve checked in here…but that doesn’t mean anything other than I have been B-U-S-Y finishing my first semester of grad school.  And I made it out alive!  Better than alive really.  I thrived this semester in ways I hadn’t in a long time.

Onward!  My progress has been great so far as far as my doctor is concerned I’m doing really well.  This makes me very happy.   I think I'm doing pretty great too!

 

Drum Roll please… to date I have lost 117 pounds.

WHAT IS THAT??  That’s crazy really.

It’s great, but it’s crazy too.

5 months out from surgery and my brain is still trying to keep up.  I’m doing better, but it is still a struggle to see myself as I am.  Here’s the problem.  I don’t feel like I look any different, but I do ( I mean maybe I do a little bit seeing as though I chopped my hair off and bleached the shit out of it—love it!).  The thing is-- MY BRAIN is telling me “This is what you always looked like” when I look in the mirror.  Guess what…I DIDN’T.

We took the picture on the left in May 2013, the one on the right this month-Dec 2013.

Looking at old pictures I’m actually shocked at how fat and unhealthy I was.  I am doing so much better now, so much.  

+ My high-blood pressure is under control with the help of one medicine, not three.   

+My sleep-apnea has become more manageable (I even fell asleep the other day without my mask on…and did not gasp).  

+I am able to walk for as long as I need to.

+My husband and I have begun hiking again, and not just the really easy ones.  

At Mary's Rock Summit in the Shenandoah National Park

+We have been riding bikes in a few local-ish places, trails near the quarry in town, and in the battlefields.  In fact, we went on a ride Christmas day and decided that was a new tradition for our little family!  (my husband & I)

Me riding (and almost running my husband over as he took the picture) on Christmas day 2013

+++We are having more healthy fun than we have had in years…all because I am ABLE to participate again.+++

Make sure you check out My Progress in Pictures page, I've put a few more shots up.