Follow-up with the surgeon

I went to see my surgeon on Tuesday for my nine month follow-up. I can't believe it's been that long since I had my surgery! As I said in my last blog post here, progress is being made and I'm happy with that.

He said I'm doing GREAT and obviously doing the right things. He said I look good and so far he sees no problems. He always checks me for a hernia. I don't want one, but he did say should I develop one, the insurance company would then pay for my stomach skin removal at the same time as the hernia repair. Otherwise, there is 14 pages of rules and hoops to get through (for my insurance company) and it isn't even a guarantee that they will pay then. You'd think if they approve gastric bypass, they would allow skin removal. I mean, how do they expect a person to go from 530 lbs to 200 lbs and not have hanging sagging skin? It's beyond conceivable to me!

He also said that I should set my goal at 220-240 lbs. Then when I do have skin removal surgery I would end up weighing about 185-195 lbs which is right about where I would like to be. So ... if that's the case, I'm about 40-60 lbs from my goal instead of 90 like I had thought. Woo hoo! I'm pretty sure I can live with that.

Exercise this week has kicked me in the butt. Since water aerobics on Monday I've had the muscle burn going on. Tuesday added to it with squats on the wall using our fitness balls. Egads! And then water aerobics again last night where she really worked our abs and we actually did circuit conditioning. It was fun but gosh I'm feeling it this morning.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot ... Tuesday night at class I decided to give it a go to run on the treadmill. This time, I didn't startle anyone. Some of you may remember the last time I tried to run and scared my hubby as he thought I had fallen off the treadmill there was such a pounding noise. LOL I warmed up with a slow walk and then cranked it up to 4.0 mph and was off and running. I only managed to run for 30 seconds before I thought I was going to crumble but it was running. I slowed back down and then about five minutes later, I did it again. It felt kind of good to run. Surprise, surprise, surprise! (said Gomer Pyle style) My fitness instructor said that was progress and next time to try to run three times. She said 30 secs was a good start and in no time at all I'll be up to 45 secs, then a minute, then building on that. I don't know that I'll ever like to run but knowing I can is doggone exhilarating! Gotta watch the knees, though, which is why I'm taking it slow.

Okay, enough rambling ...