The payoff

Before (May 2009) After (August 2009)

When I started working with my personal trainer, and putting extra effort into strength training, I hoped to develop muscles and muscle definition, but I didn't expect to reduce my batwings - I figured that skin was stretched out for good. But when I compared before and after photos of my arm, it looks like the muscle definition has increased and the batwing area has decreased. I realize that my arm is bent at a different angle in these photos, but it looks a lot better to me now. I'm thrilled with this payoff for all my hard work!

Band Failure?

Every single thing I have read (or heard) that was written (or spoken) by a bariatric medical professional confirms that patient non-compliance is the most common cause of band failure. That failure can take many forms, anything from disappointing weight loss to serious medical complications. If you don't follow your surgeon's and nutritionist's instructions, don't return to your surgeon for follow-up visits and fills, ignore negative symptoms, don't change your lifestyle, and don't address the things that made you fat in the first place, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Despite careful patient screening, pre-op education, and post-op education, sometimes the band just doesn't work. This can be a function of unrealistic expectations, inability to make lifestyle changes, failure to participate in aftercare programs, and plain old bad luck. A solution is to revise to a different weight loss surgery procedure, but if you can't or won't do the hard work of following up with your surgeon and changing your behavior, you might be disappointed once again.

Getting strong!

I had a personal training session last night. As usual, it was hard...not because the moves or weights were totally beyond my capacity (as they were when I started with my trainer 2 months ago), but because I'm getting stronger and Crystal is challenging me more. More weight, more repetitions, more exercises. On a machine where I could barely manage 6 repetitions with 10 lbs of weight, I can now do 12 repetitions with 40 lbs of weight - and do that three times - a total of 36 repetitions. I can actually see muscle definition now, in my legs but even more in my arms. Unfortunately the batwings remain and probably always will, but I can live with that. It would be nice to have arms (and other parts) like the woman in this photo, but she is a bodybuilder who makes a business out of muscles. I just want to be strong, and I'm getting there slowly but surely. The other day I had to pick up one of our puppies (part Rottweiler - weighs about 45 lbs) and didn't have to struggle to do it (other than dealing with his vigorous efforts to escape).

Lean Jean

Like most of us, I've acquired a lot of nicknames in my life, including:

Miss Green Jeans (from the Captain Kangaroo kids' show)

Jeannie Beanie (from the Beanie & Cecil cartoon that was popular when I was a kid)

Jean Jean the Dancing Machine (from Gene Gene the Dancing Machine on the Gong Show)Randy, a guy who works at my health club, knew me when I was obese (we both used to work for the same company), but he didn't recognize me when I first joined the club. Later when he realized who I was, he exclaimed, "You're THAT Jean?!"

For several months now he's been calling me "Mean Jean." He thinks it's funny. It does make me wonder if I have a sour expression on my face every time I walk through the door. Today he said, "It's really Lean Jean now, not Mean Jean, isn't it?"I smiled. "Lean Jean. I like the sound of that."

Though I'm a pretty mean dancing machine, too.

Does a fill hurt?

I've had 15 adjustments in 2 years, and none of them hurt. A few times I went away with a bruise, but so what?

If a fill hurts you, ask for a numbing shot (or spray) the next time. In my experience, the numbing shot hurts worse than the adjustment needle, but again, so what?

And doesn't the pain of a fill compensate for the pain of all your medical problems?

Would you enjoy giving yourself insulin shots 4+ times a day?

What could be worse? How about chemotherapy? How about a broken leg? Or a brain tumor that makes your body disobey the most basic commands?

A band adjustment takes maybe 10 minutes. Your life takes you maybe 87,000 minutes? That works out to .000149 minutes per adjustment. A small price to pay.

Jean

My upper GI

On Tuesday I had an upper GI study done to determine if my band has slipped. Unfortunately, my band's position is not mentioned on the radiologist's report (even though "band slip" was written on the doctor's order as the reason for the test) except for the information that I gave the x-ray tech. So I'm in the middle of a ridiculously difficult battle to get an amended report. Since the radiologist for some reason won't talk to me directly about the findings and my PCP says, "If your band wasn't mentioned on the report, it's safe to assume that it's OK" (huh?!), I went to the hospital and got my own copy of the report plus the x-ray images on a CD.

As frustrated as I am with this situation, it's really cool to have these images. A lot of them don't make sense to me, probably because the shots were taken at many different angles and locations as I turned over and over on the x-ray machine. My port shows up clearly in several shots. I could only find my band in 2 shots, and in one of them, it looks like the band is too far up - sitting on my esophagus instead of my stomach.

The first image posted above shows my port and tubing at the lower lefthand corner. The second image shows my band at the lower righthand side.

Now I'm waiting for an amended radiologist's report that at least describes the position of my band.

Lessons learned from working with a personal trainer

When I first started working with my personal trainer in June, I had been doing aerobic workouts for 14 months with very occasional free weight work. I could barely manage the smallest weights on each Cybex machine. Three-pound free weights were my limit. But Crystal kept pushing me to do more reps, more weight, and I managed to do far more than I ever would do on my own. Even when I was repeating the workout by myself during the week, I would hear Crystal's voice saying, "Three more, two more, one more."

In 6 weeks, I've come a long way. I have gained weight and inches...not my intention! Crystal says that's muscle gain but I know in my heart that it's plain old fat because I've been eating so much more since my unfill. The gain is inches is in my abdomen and hips, where fat so often goes in women my age. But I'm still very pleased with my progress, because I'm beginning to see real muscle definition in my arms and legs, I can handle 3-4 times the weight, and my endurance is better.

At the same time I have learned not to overdo it. There is indeed such a thing as too much exercise. When I overdo it, my body hurts, my energy flags, I feel like crap, and the fun goes out of it.