Another year, another surgery

In one of my last posts, which was a really really long time ago, I said something about if I were to find myself gaining my weight back substantially at all, it would be time to consider going back in for surgery.

Well...  I did, and I did.

After I had surgery to remove my lapband, I gained some weight pretty quickly and then managed to hover around the 300 to 320 pound mark for quite awhile.  I believe my low after the first surgery was 267, though part of that was having a week to week and a half of not really receiving any food or fluid because my lap band had slipped down around my stomach in such a way as to cut off everything.  So I would say maybe 285 would be closer to what I really got to.

For close to a year, I did really pretty well.  I took to running, ran the 5K in April after the surgery, felt good...  I was working a commuter job and managed to work a lot of exercise into the commute, including some 17 mile bike rides, and that definitely helped.

And then I changed jobs.  It was a job I enjoyed more, I worked as a field technician for a telecom company starting August of 2010.  The job did require a fair bit of activity from time to time, but also a lot of driving, and it was a time I got into some old habits.  To the point I was getting back to where I was before my surgery and remembering how I swore I would never go back.  So...  here I was, back again, and this time deciding that I needed to go a more permanent route.

So, on Novermber 20, I was back at it again.  I mentioned before the only other option was a gastric bypass, but that was not accurate.  At least with my doctor, it appears that they have begun doing a lot more gastric sleeve procedures than lapbands due to the higher rate of complication with the lapband.  In the sleeve, to put it simply, they lop off a fair bit of your stomach, creating a smaller space for food.  I foudn that preferable to the bypass because of the nutritional concerns with the bypass, and so....   here I am again, post surgery once again.  And...   feeling better once again.  Today just passed my six weeks since surgery meaning I'm pretty much full speed as far as recovery, eating, etc.  So....  we shall see how this goes eh?

Pre-surgery I got back up to about 375.  I'm about 342 right now.  I think the weight loss has been slower this time around, and maybe that has a lot to do with how involved I got in the walking portion of my commute to work after the last one...  and I think I can eat a bit more than I could after the last one, so that also makes a difference.

That said, I feel great.  I'm starting to feel like walking more again, actually wanting to start running again, have a lot more energy, and...   very optimistic.

Not a bad place to be to start a new year eh?