[kitty56]

Yesterday was the first day of our 3 party rumage sale. We are going to run the rumage sale for 3 days straight, so I thought I would stop in and update you on my wow yesterday. First off, I stopped at my folks to pick up my mom to take her to the rummage sale that is at my daughters house. When I got to my moms house, they had company and I did not know who it was, well it was my cousin who I have not seen in over 35 years and I did not recognize her but looked familiar. Now if my aunt would have been at the table I would have known who it was then but she was in the bathroom and so I only saw my cousin. I wanted to give her a hug but I had my shoes on and they were not clean becasue it just had rained, and I had to get going to my daughters house. They said that they would bring my mom over to the house so that we can visit. About an hour later they came to my daughter house and then we got our hugs in. My Aunt has not seen me for over a year and wow was she surprised when she saw me and was so amazed by my weight loss. They saw pictures of me at my folks with my weight loss, but it is not the same as seeing you in real life. My aunt and cousin where so full of questions about my surgery and weight loss and what I can eat now and how I feel now. They were just so amazed. Just before they left my aunt said to me that she wishes me lots of luck and to keep up the good work and wished that her son would have done as good as I am doing. My cousin told me that she thinks her brother only had the stomach stapling done and I told her that I was stapled and cut and small intestines rerouted. He did fine for a while and went back to his old eating habits and as much as he eats I think he broke his staples becasue he eats such large amounts of food. I said that their is no way that I could even eat 1/10 of the food he eats at one meal. He weighs over 500 pounds. He is such a sweet person but the weight is going to kill him. I asked her if he was eating right and she told me that when he came home from the hospitol that he ate toast. I told her that I could not eat anykind of bread at that stage and that I still do not eat any type of bread unless it is the snack toast, which is so hard and crunchy and breakes into millions of pieces when I bit into that and one piece or two makes me fell so full , like it sits at the bottom of my stomach and feels like a ton on the bottom of my stomach. So hardly eat any of that hard toast. I told them that I eat lots of meat and some veg and I try to get in a fruit every day. They looked at me and said lots of meat and I said yes for protein, so from their expression I figured he did not eat right way from the start. Then I told them that I do not think he was eating right, right from the start. I then told them that I have a wonderful support group on the internet(meaning this support group) and that they were my life savers for me losing the weight. Just the fact that they all know what I am going threw and that most had the same surgery as I did and we know what we all go threw and help eachother out. I told them that I have learned so much and lots of wonderful recipes from here. She asked me, you mean you even get recipes for the way you eat from the site and I said yes and lots of other help too, plus I said that my daughter had the surgery really helped me out too and that she was some delicious recipes and I am not deprived of any type of food that her and I are determined to eat what we want but just revising it to where we can eat it. My daughter has been working on a pizza dough recipe for quite some time now and she told me that she finally perfected it to where it tastes just like the real thing and has no carbs in the crust what so ever. But it is not doughy but it is a crisp crust. Just before my aunt and cousin left we had to hug eachother again and told me to keep up the great work and that I look wonderful.
Then during the rumage sale people who I know came and have not seen me since surgery and I got lots of wows from them too and asked how I am doing and are happy for me. Talk about a full day of wows. My side of the family is so dfferent compared to my husbands side of the family. I felt lots of jealousy on my husbands side of the family but not all of them just a few. Are they scared that I am going to get thin as they are. Now when it comes to my side of the family they are all so tickled pink about me losing all this weight. They have all seen me heavy most of my life and struggling to lose it for many many years. To see me so happy and getting thinner now, they are all so happy for me and so interested in my journey. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family & friends, and wow do they ever support me.
Sorry for such a long post but I am just so excited about everything and just for life itself.
I love you all and all of you have a wonderful day, I know I am!!!!!!!

[DocSanae]

Congrats on all the compliments you received!!
About your cousin, when did he have his surgery?
If it was a while ago, then there may not have been many support systems in effect then, as there are now.
If his staple lines really have been broken, he probably can get a revision done if he wants to. I sure hope he can make the best of this surgery yet, so long has he has the tool, the only thing that keeps from realising his dream is how he works on the tool.

[kitty56]

I think he had his done around 15 to 20 years ago. But I was wondering how can he get his stomach back in order when he can sit down and guzzle a 2 litter pop down in a meal and eats huge amounts of food. His stomach has to be back to normal size. He cannot even lay down to sleep and that he sits to sleep. I just feel so sorry for him and he is such a nice person and always bubbly person. But I do not see him very often but my parents do and told him what i have done and tried to say some things like, maybe if you ate this like Diana and it might work for you, but it is like my mom said he just does not care. His legs drain constantly from being so overweight. He is so sweet, he even lives with his mom to take care of her but I think it is the other way around now and his mom has to take care of him now. So I hope his sister and mom talk to him about me and the wonderful progress I have made and maybe have his redone, I sure hope so. His mom lost her husband and two of her children already and if she is going to lose him, that would be so sad for her to go threw another lose of a child. The whole family is such sweet people and the two children and her husband that she lost where just wonderful people. I have to get going to the rummage sale and you all have a wonderful day.

[Trulykath]

I just love your posts girl....you are so full of life and you can tell how this surgery has REALLY impacted your world...!!

Congrats on your wows...keep up the INCREDIBLE work!

[judijo]

My HS BFF had stomach stapling over 20 years ago. She gained all her weight back, plus some. You are right, doc...no support for her at all. She paid a ransom out of pocket for the procedure and had no clue as to what to do next.

She said to me last time I saw her, 3 weeks pre-op, that she is now on WW and she will consider lap band if I am successful with my RNY. (no, I didn't think that made sense either. LOL)

[beckamarie]

Diana I am so happy when I read your posts, especially when you talk about your families reaction, they always see so positive. I am so happy you are getting the congratulations you deserve you have worked hard for this. You are such an inspiration to all of us. Tell us how you mak out at the rummage sale

[greensgirl19]

CONGRATS!!!! I too love your posts! And your family should be that happy and surprised, look at you!!!!! Keep up the great work and those wow's will keep piling up!

[DocSanae]

Originally Posted by judijo

My HS BFF had stomach stapling over 20 years ago. She gained all her weight back, plus some. You are right, doc...no support for her at all. She paid a ransom out of pocket for the procedure and had no clue as to what to do next.

She said to me last time I saw her, 3 weeks pre-op, that she is now on WW and she will consider lap band if I am successful with my RNY. (no, I didn't think that made sense either. LOL)

There was a newbie post yesterday in another thread who said she had surgery in the '80s and gained back, no support, no follow up at all-- been lurking here for a while, learned the rules, following them, and have now lost 17lbs--so you see, the tool works always, if you work it right.

[kitty56]

I am going to have to mention that to my folks so they can pass that onto my cousin. I hope he trys at least to lose weight, for his health.
As far as the rummage sale goes we did pretty good, my beautiful red winter coat sold, it was so sad to see that coat go and the lady who bought it said it was such a beautiful coat, I hope she enjoys that coat as much as I did. Now as far as my pants go, none of them sold becasue there where no people as heavy as I was that came. My daughter told me that she thinks that they are not going to sell, just the fact that they are so big, I mean HUGE. I had to hold another pair of pants in front of me and still hard to wrap my brain around how heavy I was. Now people did come looking for larger cloths, but these people where not near as big as I was. My daughter told me once the cloths I am wearing get big on me, those will sell. The lady that bought my red coat tryed on one of my tops and she wanted it so bad but it was so big on her and that looked terrible on her. Then she said if she knew someone who could sew them in she would buy those two tops. That same lady who bought my red coat asked me how I lost all that weight and told me that I look so good. Well when I told her that I had gastric bypass, all she said was "OH". But she was happy that I lost all that weight. My mom had alot of stuff you hang on the wall and she sold alot of that and my daughter had some things you set around the house, lots of cups, candle holders and childrens cloths and she sold alot of that. Today we marked the prices down. We have to sell stuff real cheap or it will not sell, for instance childrens cloths started out at 50 cents and today we marked it down to 25 cents. My red coat sold for 5 dollors. So if my cloths do not sell tomarrow I am going to take them to my parents church and they will cut them up and make quilts out of the material, which they send the quilts over to countrys that need quilts. I could not believe how the time flew today nd yesterday. While my daughter, my mom,granddaughter and I stayed at the rummage sale all day the men,my son-in-law,my grandson,my son,and my husband all went out to Greenlake to fish. They got 8 Walyee fish and 3 Northern Pike. Guess what, my grandson got two fish on his fishing reel but his dad helped him reel in the fish for my grandson. So everytime he got a fish he had to call me on the cell phone to tell me he got a fish and he was so excited. My dad did not go fishing becasue he wanted to get his grass cut in his yard and he got some tomatoe plants from the greenhouse and he came and got my mom to plant them in their garden. In a while mom come walking back over again and later on my dad drove over to my daughter place and we visited until they came with the fish and my dad told them to clean the fish in his back yard, so off all the men took of to my parents house to clean the fish. My folks house is only two blocks away from my daughters house. My son and my son-in-law fryed the fish for all of us and we had a delicious fish fry. Oh were those fish good. My daughter made some french fries in the oven for the other people and my mom brought over a apple pie and my daughter went and made a rubuarb desert for the others. My daughter and I had fried fish and I had about 4 french fries and 2 chips and I was full. Oh I forgot that I tasted moms apple pie about one teaspoon of the filling of the apple pie. Then we took our grandkids home with us and we will take them back home tomarrow after dinner. They were so tickled pink that they could go home with grandma and grandpa. By the time we got home my grandaughter was sound asleep on the pickup, so I carried her into bed and is going to sleep till morning and my grandson is wide awake yet and is busy watching cartoons. My daughter asked if I would take them with us so that she can go to work tonight for a few hours and then tomarrow morning she said she can take care fo the rummage sale till we get in. Tomarrow is the last day. We are going to have another rummage sale in August, my daughter,mom and I want to go threw our house see if there is more that we want to get rid of in August. My daughter said she has lots more and my mom said she did not go threw her basement and upstairs are some more things to get rid of and I do also. And what did not sell this time around we are going to put it out again in August. So that what went on the last to days and for tomarrow.
I am glad you enjoy my posts, I get so lost in my writing and then my posts get so long and I am always afriad that I am boring you all with my posts, but I feel like I am so full of life now and that I have so much to say, and I love sharing my wows with you all, I mean, its like a brand new life for me, I could not handle much of anything for many years and always watched everyone else doing things that I could not do and now I can do it.

[Cheryl24]

I too enjoy you posts. Congratulations on your wows. You are an inspiration.