How is everyone doing?!

Almost at Christmas now! This is my first Christmas post-surgery, and I am actually feeling alright about it!

I know that I won't eat anything at all like I did last year, and I will feel a little strange when everyone else around me is eating normally ? But other than this I am feeling kinda prepared!

I am going to buy some Lindt 90% dark chocolate so I can have a little "sweet" treat if I feel like it and bring that with me to my parents!

I am also so happy that I am close-ish to my 1st goal of 12 stone - even if it does feel like miles off still - but I am celebrating the fact I got into a new stone bracket this morning ❤️

On a more serious note, I do have a check-up in the new year for suspected breast cancer as I have found a little lump - but I am not sure if it is just because I have lost so much weight that my breasts feel different, or if there is actually something there - either way! Best to get it checked, especially as I have a strong family history of breast cancer. Kind of just putting it out of my mind until I need to worry about it!

Hope everyone is feeling good, and looking forward to the holidays ❤️

Edited December 21, 20241 yr by Bypass2Freedom

Fingers crossed the lump turns out not to be a concern. I had to have a biopsy earlier in the year for a suspicious finding on my mammogram but so far so good, they just plan to monitor it. Best to get everything checked, but I do wonder if weight loss can lead to some of these irregular findings.

I'm a little stressed with Christmas just around the corner. Not quite ready for it and it's gotten so cold I don't want to do anything for the next few days except sit under an electric blanket! Got to get the motivation up for wrapping gifts tomorrow.

Sending you good wishes for your Brest check and that they find nothing untowards. Hoping it just is finding out more about your breasts since they’re likely smaller and you can feel things more easily now.

I remember finding a hard lump as I was doing a self check of my deflated breasts only to realise it was a rib bone as I felt around more.

Congratulations on your continued weight loss and getting into the next stone bracket. Yay! And yes, I’m for a little Christmas treat too. Enjoy your dark chocolate and have a most wonderful Christmas.

PS. You’re not alone in feeling a bit flat about Christmas @NickelChip. A few friends and I are feeling the same. Can’t be bothered putting up a tree, hanging a wreath on a door, …Can’t blame it on the cold, or the heat in my case. Just a bit bah humbug. Though we had an early Christmas dinner with my younger brother’s family last night and watching his children (7-14yr) be so excited about opening their presents did boost my spirits. Oh & we did a little drive around to see the local Christmas lights. Hope wrapping your gifts will brighten your Christmas too.

16 hours ago, Bypass2Freedom said:

On a more serious note, I do have a check-up in the new year for suspected breast cancer as I have found a little lump - but I am not sure if it is just because I have lost so much weight that my breasts feel different, or if there is actually something there - either way! Best to get it checked, especially as I have a strong family history of breast cancer. Kind of just putting it out of my mind until I need to worry about it!

Good for you for being brave and going to the doctors right away. Fingers and toes crossed for you. I found a cyst in my stomach area whilst feeling the new me. It weighed in at 3lbs. It was attached to a ovary. My fat hid that ! For years I had a dull ache, trouble with my bowels and water works and never bothered about it. When I did, they fast tracked me and I know how you feel, its a bumpy ride. The surgeon who took it out said it was memorable.

I just can not get into the Christmas spirit either. I have no grandchildren so that doesn't help matters. My husband got the tree and the decorations out yesterday and this kind of forced me into putting them out. I did it in a foul temper but last evening with all of them lit, the house looked 'proper bonny ' as we say in these parts. So I am glad I was pushed.

For my sweet treat I buy the little bars from Aldi that come in a 5 pack or have a Clif protein bar, Chocolate chip is my fav. Just enough to satisfy the sweet itch and I dont have an already open bar to tempt me.

10 hours ago, NickelChip said:

Fingers crossed the lump turns out not to be a concern. I had to have a biopsy earlier in the year for a suspicious finding on my mammogram but so far so good, they just plan to monitor it. Best to get everything checked, but I do wonder if weight loss can lead to some of these irregular findings.

I'm a little stressed with Christmas just around the corner. Not quite ready for it and it's gotten so cold I don't want to do anything for the next few days except sit under an electric blanket! Got to get the motivation up for wrapping gifts tomorrow.

I am hoping it is just hormonal or just normal lumps and bumps - but you just never know! I am glad that everything is okay so far - good that you got it checked! It is definitely harder to tell, like when my boobs were bigger nothing felt strange, but now they are saggier and smaller everything feels strange haha

I feel that on the cold front!! I have also had this Christmas flu that has been going around and I have been unwell for the last 2 weeks so I just want it to budge before Xmas!

I hope you get your wrapping done!

9 hours ago, Arabesque said:

Sending you good wishes for your Brest check and that they find nothing untowards. Hoping it just is finding out more about your breasts since they’re likely smaller and you can feel things more easily now.

I remember finding a hard lump as I was doing a self check of my deflated breasts only to realise it was a rib bone as I felt around more.

Congratulations on your continued weight loss and getting into the next stone bracket. Yay! And yes, I’m for a little Christmas treat too. Enjoy your dark chocolate and have a most wonderful Christmas.

PS. You’re not alone in feeling a bit flat about Christmas @NickelChip. A few friends and I are feeling the same. Can’t be bothered putting up a tree, hanging a wreath on a door, …Can’t blame it on the cold, or the heat in my case. Just a bit bah humbug. Though we had an early Christmas dinner with my younger brother’s family last night and watching his children (7-14yr) be so excited about opening their presents did boost my spirits. Oh & we did a little drive around to see the local Christmas lights. Hope wrapping your gifts will brighten your Christmas too.

Thank you ❤️ I am definitely hoping it is just that!

Oh my god my ribs confused me too!! I was in the shower just soaping myself off and felt a hard bump and I was like...wtf is that?!?! only to realise it was my rib ?? Glad I am not the only one!

Thank you so much! Everyone definitely needs a little treat! I actually found some 0 sugar biscuits today so I am very excited for that!

Have a lovely Christmas ❤️

15 minutes ago, summerseeker said:

Good for you for being brave and going to the doctors right away. Fingers and toes crossed for you. I found a cyst in my stomach area whilst feeling the new me. It weighed in at 3lbs. It was attached to a ovary. My fat hid that ! For years I had a dull ache, trouble with my bowels and Water works and never bothered about it. When I did, they fast tracked me and I know how you feel, its a bumpy ride. The surgeon who took it out said it was memorable.

I just can not get into the Christmas spirit either. I have no grandchildren so that doesn't help matters. My husband got the tree and the decorations out yesterday and this kind of forced me into putting them out. I did it in a foul temper but last evening with all of them lit, the house looked 'proper bonny ' as we say in these parts. So I am glad I was pushed.

For my sweet treat I buy the little bars from Aldi that come in a 5 pack or have a Clif Protein Bar, chocolate chip is my fav. Just enough to satisfy the sweet itch and I dont have an already open bar to tempt me.

Oh wow that is madness!! It is so strange and quite shocking what excess weight can hide that we don't even think of! Really glad that they got it out for you!

I am glad you are feeling it a little bit more with the tree up - something this year does feel a little lackluster doesn't it? I hope your Christmas turns out to be proper bonny though

Oooo they sound lovely! I may need to check them out! I got some sugar free vanilla wafers and some sugar free digestives & oatmeal biscuits from Sainsbury's today!

Well not to scare you but I felt something in my breast about 2.5 months post op and when I got the call I was 3 months post and it was breast cancer. I think I honestly may not have found it if it hadn’t been for the weight loss though so at least now I have a fighting chance. ?‍♀️. I truly do hope yours is absolutely nothing but i just wanted to mention that it’s always best to get anything like that checked (as you are). I had my mammograms annually and even had my breasts checked at my Pap smear only ten days prior to feeling it myself and the Dr had missed it so I really had to go with my gut to get it checked out anyways. It was hard to believe that she wouldn’t have felt it and I figured that they were going to just laugh at me because it was supposed to be there but it wasn’t. I would probably be stage 4 instead of 3 if I had waited until my next mammogram instead of trusting my gut.

Definitely don’t worry about it until you have a real reason to, but also for anyone else reading this don’t ignore it because it does happen. Just get it checked out and enjoy your life. All we can do. Maybe when you go ask the radiologist to do a self exam with you and tell you what things you feel are so you know what’s normal and what’s not. I would only trust the radiologist that has the imaging in front of them though because my gyno when I went to tell her I felt something said that she was 99% certain it was just fibrous tissue but would send me for mammogram anyways. I actually almost cancelled the appointment because she made me feel like it was a waste of time and money. Thankfully I didn’t.

I finally got into the Christmas spirit when we took my five younger cousins out for a night of Christmas Lights and Hot Cocoa. That’s usually the end to our big annual Christmas crafts day with the kids but with chemo I can’t do a whole day and night of five kids right now energy wise so we just did the lights part. I usually don’t get into the spirit until I’m around the kids. My Christmas treat is the Ghirardelli peppermint chocolates. They are individually wrapped so you can easily have just one and they have it in dark chocolate. It’s definitely off plan and a splurge but you can freeze them to make it less tempting to not waste.

2 and a half months post op. I survived Thanksgiving, but there wasn't a lot of snacks like there is with Christmas. I did however have a small mince pie and was able to stop at just one so I'm definitely getting better at self-control. Since I'm going to see friends Christmas Eve and Christmas day (only one last day at work until then) I'm bringing a dish that I can eat and I've asked if I can bring a container so I can take home any of my left over portion of turkey etc. I just had a stall that finally broke so I'm feeling confident again.

OP you're absolutely doing the right thing getting that lump checked out. Everything crossed for it being nothing at all to worry about.

How amazing that you're approaching your first goal - that time has flown! And crossing into a lower stone is such a boost, every time.

It's weird how your tastes change. Often I actually want more savoury treats like crisps (potato chips for the USians!) I will have a little pudding/dessert on xmas day though - just a taste or two. After that it'll be back to the cheese board, LOL.

I posted this in my surgery date group:

I feel like Christmas has been harder than Halloween and Thanksgiving as far as making healthy choices. I think Halloween, I still wasn't eating completely normal so it helped me avoid candy. Thanksgiving, I don't really like pie so that helped. But Christmas, there have been all types of goodies around (including the baked goods I made for my neighbors) that its easy to take a piece of a cookie or a little chocolate and not think much of it. I for sure eating less than I would have in the past and only taking a 1/3 or 1/2 of a cookie still feels like a win, but I hope I can kick this habit after Christmas, because I don't want to get too comfortable again with grabbing sweets when I'm craving one.

First post in a very long time-I’m enjoying the Christmas season except for one thing. If I hear one more time I need “more meat on my bones” or that I need to put some weight on I’m going to lose it. Ironically, some of the comments come from overweight family members. I would never think to tell them they need to lose weight. 7 years out and I’m happy where I’m at!!

Hope all goes well with your health concern.

37 minutes ago, 336Mike said:

First post in a very long time-I’m enjoying the Christmas season except for one thing. If I hear one more time I need “more meat on my bones” or that I need to put some weight on I’m going to lose it. Ironically, some of the comments come from overweight family members. I would never think to tell them they need to lose weight. 7 years out and I’m happy where I’m at!!

Hope all goes well with your health concern.

I think the best reply to that is just that your doctor is pleased with your weight and your fitness. And if they keep pressing that you’re going to defer to the one with the medical degree. I honesty believe that some people are just a tad jealous.

18 hours ago, ShoppGirl said:

I think the best reply to that is just that your doctor is pleased with your weight and your fitness. And if they keep pressing that you’re going to defer to the one with the medical degree. I honesty believe that some people are just a tad jealous.

Definitely this! People only care about how you look when they can feel superior to you. When you change your health, they have to start focusing on fixing themselves and God forbid they should do that.