quote:

Gastric Bypass .. I would do that if I could afford it. Well maybe not now - but before for sure. How fast did you lose the 120lbs?

Hi Holly.......

I'm doin...OK...at least at this moment.

I'm just popping in to answer your weight loss question. The first 100 pounds came off pretty quickly. It took me about 9 months to hit that mark. Since then...it has taken me another 9 months to consistently keep off the next 20-30 pounds. Because my liver is insane...or at the very least, dysfunctional.... LOL..... I have some problems with fluid retention.... ie: edema. Sometimes it's difficult to know what my weight truly is because I may be carrying up to 15 pounds of excess water. (maybe I'm a camel?) *chuckling*

Anyway....I would not recommend gastric bypass to anyone if they have the option of lapbading. I did not have that option because of some of the other problems a bad liver causes. It was a choice of doing the bypass....or prepare myself for liver failure and death within the next 2 years. That is what the hepatologist told me.
Anyway...that all happened over two years ago....so I guess I'm still alive!!! NEENER---NEENER--DOC!!!

Congrats on your weight loss!!! It doesn't sound like you should ever consider such a serious surgery if you can lose weight by other means. You're doing GREAT!!!
I do feel much better than I did. The gym is the thing that the hernia will not let me do. I clearly need to work "core" group muscle...but can't do that with my guts hanging outside of my body...and if I strengthen the muscle group (abs) around the hernia, it strangles my gut and causes all kinds of problems with digestion and just keeping s**t moving through my body. If I do eat....I frequently have to lay down afterward so that my guts will fall back inline and allow the food to pass through.

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The only crappy part of losing weight is having to keep getting new clothes, and getting rid of things you hardly had a chance to wear! LOL

Can you say...eBAY??? LOL.... I understand what you mean. I have a bunch of clothes that are practically new and too big. So the best stuff I sell on eBay and the rest is donated to the local womens shelter.

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a psychotic werewolf could attack you .. tomorrow. LMAO Keep your eyes open out there!

LMAO...I see this image every morning when I look in the mirror. It doesn't scare me so much anymore... too funny Holly.

To return to your topic. I had been on Wellbutrin...and it worked very well for me. I stopped taking it when my insomnia was too intense. I always had to temper the effect of the Wellbutrin by taking Xanax with it. By discontinuing the AD...I found my migraines lessened so I have not started it again.
In my therapy it is more productive to be off as many of those drugs as possible...and deal with feelings that are unmasked by pharmaceuticals. In addition to that...with my dx, the way that drugs work for me can be very unpredictable. (I'm an anesthesiologists worst nightmare!) LOL....they are not people oriented and become pretty agitated when they can't put someone to sleep.

In reading this thread it occurred to me to ask you if you are taking any over-the-counter medications? More specifically...do you have seasonal allergies that you are treating?
I ask this because I have them. Twitching and jittering are often related to whatever I am taking for my allergies. Just a thought.
Do you have trouble falling asleep? Or is it more a problem of staying asleep/waking frequently? Sometimes a Benedryl will help you to fall asleep.

SD

Okay, I have to tell you that I'm pretty butch and nothing gross gets to me, I love the sight of blood - even watched a surgery being done on my hand when I said I did't want to be put under for something they could do by cutting off the blood flow in my arm, people call me to clean barf up for them because it doesn't bug me (other than being a pain in the ass). I'm sick - I know! But you talking about your hernia - that actually made me raise an eyebrow and say EWE! LOL Don't apologize .. I'm exaggerating (but only a bit!).

Selling stuff on e-bay sounds like such a pain in the you know what. I'd rather stick it in a bag and send it off to some charity group than have to be bothered with posting things, shipping things .. sheesh. I have important things to do like sit at the computer or check out all of the chicks (and even some of the guys) at the gym! Basically I wear something till it falls off instead of getting things to fit every few weeks. But I imagine dropping 100 lbs so fast you had to keep up with the wardrobe.

So are you a Camel or a Werewolf .. you can't possibly be both! LOL

Mmm Wellbutrin. I've been okay on it, so I'm not in a rush to get off of that one too. I think my Dr. wanted me to stay on it until Fall and then get off just before I go to school in September (something about having to be on it for at least nine months for it to be beneficial .. I dunno).

I try not to take any drugs whether prescribed or OTC so I'm pretty sure the symptoms are from the Effexor .. but thanks for suggesting another option. I'll work through a headache rather than take a Tylenol. I used to use Benadryl a lot when we had a cat and I found that I was very allergic to it - but she was family, so I lived through it. After she was gone I stopped taking them and realized how sedated I had been on with them! Craziness.

When I had my lil breakdown last summer I wasn't able to get to sleep because my head wouldn't shut off, and if I woke up for some reason in the night I would take forever to get back to sleep because my brain would start going again. So I was given some prescription for sleeping, but I have to take it with my supper (it takes forever to kick in), and I always forget about it until it's too late to take. Anyway, with therapy, the decision to finally quit my job, and with some balance in my life I was able to get too sleep pretty well with playing a crossword until I was too tired to keep my eyes open, So it seemed to preoccupy my thoughts so I could sleep better.

That worked fine until last week .. now I feel like I could stay awake forever! Hours of reading finally relaxes my brain to sleep. Once I get to sleep I seem to sleep for a few hours then wake up raring to go.

Chat at ya later Gater .. Camel .. Werewolf .. I'm so confused LOL

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Okay, I have to tell you that I'm pretty butch and nothing gross gets to me. But you talking about your hernia - that actually made me raise an eyebrow and say EWE! LOL Don't apologize .. I'm exaggerating (but only a bit!).

YUP...that was pretty gross. I read it back and had the same reaction....ewwww..... But...it is what it is. It is not as graphic as I made it sound...since I do have skin. *chuckling* My guts pretty much stay in place....I just look a little pregnant.

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But I imagine dropping 100 lbs so fast you had to keep up with the wardrobe.

ROBE is the operant word there. I lived in my robe, it took me 2-3 months to recover enough to really leave the house much. So I didn't buy many new clothes until I got past the 100# mark.
(People were starting to raise eyebrows at my tattered robe...and the rope that was holding up my jeans.)

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So are you a Camel or a Werewolf .. you can't possibly be both! LOL

OHHH....yes I can!!! Camel...Werewolf...Gator....BP, OP...ISH... Whatever...I can be them all...at the same time!!! I just morph into what I need to be at any given time...LOL...
*hmmm.....maybe she forgot who she was posting to....hmmmm*

Thanks for the laugh Holly...it was a good one!

SD

LMAO

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*hmmm.....maybe she forgot who she was posting to....hmmmm*

SD my dear ... you are somewhat unforgetable so there isn't a fear of that happening!!

LOL I had kind of 'assumed' that your GUTS were just flopping around under your skin .. but the thought of it NOT being contained by skin was just too much for this hard a-- to swallow! Gives me shivers just talking about it here! I think this forum is turning me into some kind of ooey gooey pile of mush! Where oh were did my pile of concrete and rocks go!?!?!?!?!

Anywhooooo - will catch up to you later. I need to go buy some new boxing gloves .. I'm apparently over using them and burst a seam. I never should have put that picture of my P on the heavy bag! HAHAHA

Be cool!

Holly

Hi all....slightly off topic post but just wondering if any of you have had any experience with Lexapro? I was prescribed it 3 months ago (10mg) dose. I've come to the end of the course now and after discussing it with my T he recommended going up a dosage for now.

I'm not really sure how I feel about that. Though my T does seem to be quite wary of giving anti-D's the ok so I think he's not taking the decision lightly.