Fourth doctor's visit last night. I'm down to 178, and it's the first time I've been below 180 for about 15 years. A loss of 11 pounds. Doctor tells me from now on, it should be two pounds a week as I eat more "real" foods. Okay by me.

Anyway, he quizzed me about the meds which I've taken faithfully. (I also did the Heparin shots on myself at home for 10 days after surgery - an action that tore a whole in the Ozone over here because in this culture, they hire a nurse to give insulin shots! ) I'd had blood tests after the last checkup, and the doctor gave me a copy "for your records" (like THAT would ever happen in Canada) and we went over the numbers together. And how lovely they were. Upshot is that I can stop taking the iron tablets (yeah!!!), don't need to take calcium separately anymore, and I can stop the nightly Pariet. If I have occasional heartburn, I can do like everyone else and eat an antacid. All my left with is the Centrum multivitamin. No biggie.

I had a few questions about my hair loss which is becoming more obvious, and he confirmed the research I've done. The hair loss is in fact the result of the surgery and the wls. Ensuring I get enough protein is to prevent Ketosis and to ensure I lose fat, not muscle mass. The side-effect of enough protein is that the hair loss lasts for a shorter period and the regrowth starts sooner.

After we were done, the doctor told me I didn't need to see him for two months, and that he wished all his patients were like me. He talked a bit about compliance - how difficult it is in this culture to ensure his patients do as they need to do for optimum health. (Think the insulin thing) There is no psychological assessment here prior to surgery, and no one is turned away except for grave medical risk. He told me that the consequence of that is the majority of his patients lose the weight but end up with severe nutritional deficiencies which have a life long impact on their quality of life. Yikes. He ended by telling me that I've been the perfect patient and he wished he had the opportunity to work with more expats. A nice little bit of validation, considering that I'm pretty forthright and demanding in my encounters with the medical profession, having been a patient advocate for years. My husband insists I'm the worst patient EVER, and sometimes I agree with him. But in this case, it's all good.

So I'm basking in the happiness of being "perfect" at something. As an added bonus, I got the doctor to give me all the stats. I don't have a scale and I never wrote them down, so he gave me the record of original weight, weigh-ins, and goal weight. I've adjusted my ticker, and I'm halfway! I hope on Thursday when I see the cardiac specialist, I'll get off the BP medication after four years.

Fingers crossed.