It's the struggles in this process that make you realize how strong you are. What struggles have you overcome? What helped you to conquer them?

The struggles I have overcome in the past year were being sedentary and almost bed bound for 7 years. I had to relearn how to walk more than to the bathroom! Had to learn to stand longer than 3 minutes! I had a low ejection fraction and fluid in the sac around my heart and a fibrous growth attached to it and the pericardium. It made it hard to move and catch my breath. I was always winded and always exhausted and had very high pain levels for multiple reasons. I also had bad MSSA infection and out of control lymphedema in my left arm. And my blood sugar had gone to pot. My blood pressure was routinely 180/110 despite being on 2 medicines--and then a third med. I couldn't sleep longer than 1-2 hours at a time and usually slept less than 4hours per night.

I began by just getting up! Making myself cook rather than eat crap food from a dollar menu. I then started walking--first 5 minutes, then 10 and so on. I put myself on a ridiculous post op progression! So at first was eating 360 cals a day from 2 protein drinks and then progressed up the diet ladder as a post op would. So I've now done that progression twice, once pre-op and once as an actual post-op.

In the past year I went from bed ridden MSSA, no activity level to walking for 1 hour a day 7 days a week (2, 30 minute intervals where I walk 1 1/8 mile per interval), and PT that lasts for 1 1/2 hours -- 3 days per week. I now cook about 99% of our meals. And I can now sleep in 4-5 hour stretches. I'm now averaging about 6-7 hours of sleep per night. I'm about 4 lbs shy of having lost 100lbs during this last year (May 3, 2017). Although technically, my highest weight ever was 325. So I've already lost 134lbs.

(Oh, and I'm about to have my echo for this 6 months, but the last one showed a 10% improvement in my ejection fraction. )

Edited May 2, 20188 yr by FluffyChix

3 hours ago, FluffyChix said:

The struggles I have overcome in the past year were being sedentary and almost bed bound for 7 years. I had to relearn how to walk more than to the bathroom! Had to learn to stand longer than 3 minutes! I had a low ejection fraction and Fluid in the sac around my heart and a fibrous growth attached to it and the pericardium. It made it hard to move and catch my breath. I was always winded and always exhausted and had very high pain levels for multiple reasons. I also had bad MSSA infection and out of control lymphedema in my left arm. And my blood sugar had gone to pot. My blood pressure was routinely 180/110 despite being on 2 medicines--and then a third med. I couldn't sleep longer than 1-2 hours at a time and usually slept less than 4hours per night.

I began by just getting up! Making myself cook rather than eat crap food from a dollar menu. I then started walking--first 5 minutes, then 10 and so on. I put myself on a ridiculous post op progression! So at first was eating 360 cals a day from 2 Protein Drinks and then progressed up the diet ladder as a post op would. So I've now done that progression twice, once pre-op and once as an actual post-op.

In the past year I went from bed ridden MSSA, no activity level to walking for 1 hour a day 7 days a week (2, 30 minute intervals where I walk 1 1/8 mile per interval), and PT that lasts for 1 1/2 hours -- 3 days per week. I now cook about 99% of our meals. And I can now sleep in 4-5 hour stretches. I'm now averaging about 6-7 hours of sleep per night. I'm about 4 lbs shy of having lost 100lbs during this last year (May 3, 2017). Although technically, my highest weight ever was 325. So I've already lost 134lbs.

(Oh, and I'm about to have my echo for this 6 months, but the last one showed a 10% improvement in my ejection fraction. )

Thank you for sharing your inspirational story! Best wishes for continued success!

p.s. I don't know what several of those issues are, but I'm pretty darn sure that I don't want to know!

I only share a few that she has, but believe you me, somecshe has are real E-V-I-L dudes you never want to,mess,with, like the song She's" still standing after all these Years" She has made sweet tea out of her life and you gotta salute her for it. And she keeps coming up with tasty appropriate,food recommendations. When I get my surgery (finally) I am going back, pull them up, and use them.?