Anywho.. Alright. I guess I'll just get right into it. As far as surgery goes.. Still no complications. All of my bloodwork is perfect.. Vitamins, A1C, Insulin.. My fasting glucose is usually pretty low.. However generally speaking my blood sugar runs in the 80's most the time, so it's not too much of a stretch. My thyroid last checked was slightly elevated, so my endocrinologist bumped up my dose of Synthroid from 75 to 88.8 and if it's still high in a few weeks I'll go to 100. The nurse practitioner was surprised with my bloodwork.. usually they don't see patients who's vitamin d levels are perfect, and mine were.... It was funny because a week prior she had bumped my vitamin d from 1000 to 5000 because of other kids levels being low, then mine turned out fine... Admittedly, I don't hardly ever take my vitamin d supplement because.. well.. I don't really have a reason. I just typically don't bother with it since there's some combined with my calcium citrate (800iu) and then my multivitamin has some as well. Probably not the smartest decision on my part, but I mean.. it's been 2 years.. If I was going to go deficient in something, don't you think it would have happened by now? -- My LDL (bad cholesterol) is within normal range, and my HDL (good cholesterol) was actually elevated last checked, which is a good thing. And... yeah. I think that's about it as far as bloodwork is concerned.
I can eat about a cup of food at any sitting.. give or take, depending on the density of what I'm eating.. I generally eat 4-5 times a day, unless I'm an idiot (like this past weekend) and only eat once a day because I'm on a road trip and don't want to spend the money (and since I'm never physically hungry, I usually feel like I can get away with it until it's 2am and I feel like absolute crap.) No food intolerance's or issues with things getting 'stuck' in my esophagus or stomach.. Honestly, as far as my stomach goes, it's as if nothing had ever happened aside from how little I'm able to eat. Which is an awesome thing! Whenever anyone who doesn't already know asks and I don't feel like explaining it, I just say "I had surgery on my stomach when I was fifteen and it's left me not being able to eat very much at one sitting. No worries. I'm totally fine." and people seem to accept that as an answer. I used it the other day with a guy who asked, and given, he asked more questions.. which was totally fine. But I didn't have to elaborate too much. It was more along the lines of "Are you okay now?" as opposed to "Why?" Haha.
As far as weight loss goes.. Oh boy... Well, here we go. At my 2 year post-op appointment a little over a month ago, I hadn't lost weight since the last year appoitnment.. I think I lost like half a pound. Which is kind of ridiculous, because I don't eat junk... (I think I had frozen yogurt twice this past summer.. That was all the 'pigging out' I did.) I've never had much of a sweet tooth, you know? I've mentioned this dozens of times. That was never my issue. and I think everyone on my bariatric team finally decided to listen to me as far as that's concerned.. and my surgeon asked if I'd be wiling to be his 'guinea pig' and be the first patient of his to try this new diet of his, called the 5:2 diet.. which I had actually researched a bit before the appointment but hadn't tried.. So I was like, sure, why not. You think this will help me? Let's try it.. and I went all out.. did it for a few weeks, no issues.. But.. I gained 5 pounds... and immediately, I was freaking out. I had already had an appointment with my endocrinologist set up so I brought it up with her and asked why she thought that was and what she thought I should do.. She said the 5:2 diet works for a lot of people, but if my body didn't react to weight loss surgery like most other patients, clearly I need something slightly more extreme than excess calorie restriction 2 days a week... So she had me try the Atkins diet.. or, a modified version of it.. She wants me to aim for 100 grams of protein a day instead of 60 like I had been, and I'm currently still on phase 1 so I'm still consuming less than 20 net carbs a day as opposed to the 40-50 i was allowing myself during the 5:2 diet and I've already lost almost 10 pounds in 2 1/2 weeks... I'm down to 180-ish... So I'm pretty happy, and I'll probably be sticking with that for the time being.
I was supposed to have a follow up with my bariatric team about the 5:2 diet last week and I skipped out.. and I feel really bad about it. Because they wanted to use my results with this diet so to speak to help other kids but.... clearly, I'm not like all of the other kids they treat.. and I don't want them to base how they treat other kids after me.. I mean, if they find one with the same issues with me than great but.. So far no ones mentioned any so.. You know.. I'll leave it at that. Every other person I've talked to loses weight and eats junk.. given, they may not keep it off but.. I've worked my ass off trying to lose weight in the first place... and I've had enough trouble doing that, you know? I still don't have a real answer for why... but.. it is what it is. I'll continue going to my yearly appointments for the research study I signed up for,.. I feel like I need to.. there needs to be documentation that this tool isn't as much help to some people as it is for others..
As far as medications, my birth control has been switched a few times.. I'm on Sprintec now.. Also, Metformin 1000mg twice a day, Aldactone 50mg twice a day, and Synthroid 88.8mcg once a day.. I switched from monthly to yearly b12 injections, and I take a mutli-vitamin and my calcium citrate twice a day.
So yeah, I mean.. I don't regret having surgery. The benefit of never feeling hungry helps with some of these diets I've been doing, and it helped me find some amazing doctors who have worked with me and helped me figure out what I need to be doing as of right now.. just.. I was under the impression going into this that my Insulin Resistance would be gone after I had surgery, that I'd drop all my weight pretty quickly since I started at a lower weight than most, and that it'd be a relatively easy process as long as I stuck to my diet/exercise regimen.. and well, none of that happened. I didn't know going into it that I'd be talking to other patients the whole time who were doing so much better than me, and finding out how one of them was eating fried oreos and still losing 3 pounds a week.. Like... It's hard. It's been really hard. Also very frustrating. But it's made me a strong person, so at the end of the day I don't think I'd change anything. If I did, I don't know where I'd be today and that thought is a little unnerving.
As far as sizes go, I'd say what size shirt I am but it depends on the store.. and I like wearing things a lot loser these days.. I'm usually a medium or a large though. 40c bra, 16 pants (however I'm wearing a lot of leggings lately, and I'm usually a 'large' in those.)
Here are some pictures of me lately:
On my 18th birthday I drove up to Cleveland to see We The Kings (and a bunch of other bands) with my two best friends. :) (I'm on the right... a lot of people think me and my friend on the far left look a lot alike, haha.)
Road tripped with my brother and dad last weekend up to Kent to see another band at my friends house. :)
This was me earlier today (9/23/13) when i was about to leave for my brothers soccer game.
VVV
Soccer game. :) (Yes, I had 1/3 of a smoothie.. It was still in my carb allotment for the day. Shh.)
New tattoo I got a few months ago. :) It's on the back of my right shoulder.
No makeup. You can tell my skin is a lot healthier than it used to be. Not as much acne (however close up there's still a lot of scarring from it.)
Oh yeah, and this is from the bariatric team's 'Summer Event' support group thing they held a couple months ago. I'm in the front on the right. Everyone there is doing so well and I'm really happy for them. I'm not a frequent support-group-goer because I live kind of far away and They're always friday nights, which I'm never able to get a ride for. But it was still nice catching up with some people, and meeting some new people as well. :)
and yeah, that's about it. :)
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I hope this update filled some of you in.. and seriously, if anyone still reads this blog... Message me on facebook or twitter or email me! I'd love to talk to some of you, hear your stories.. If you ever need someone to vent to, I'm here. Need advice? I'm here.. I'm always checking my e-mail and facebook and what not (yay for smart phones) So just shoot me a message! I know what it feels like to be alone going through this.. not just surgery, but the metabolic issues seeing as those are mainly what I'm dealing with now anyway.. But either way.. You don't need to feel alone. You might feel like you are.. I always did. But you aren't. And you shouldn't feel that way going through something this important.
I hope you all are having a fantastic day and I'll try and update this more often. :) Until next time.. Bye guys. <3
-Ashley(:
P.S. I had this song on repeat while I was writing this post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLiUJyKdy3Y&list=FLN2Zuo7rzGnOe4f0e6EcQXQ&index=1 .. just in case any of you were curious. Which you probably weren't.
