I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you….

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you….

I can’t believe that you guys were in Seattle and you didn’t let us know! Kaycee was just asking after you all. She wanted to know if Max was in the same grade as her. I reminded her that Max is a year ahead.

Cool that you saw the Dalai Lama here. Kaycee was supposed to be there with her drumming group, but group plans to get all the kids there got messed up.

TTYL!

I do still struggle with my weight, but I’m working on myself more holistically now. My health is a package deal. And that works for me.

If “God” or who ever is up there would just spare my health I would not drink today.That was the deal I made. I tried to keep busy and distracted. Around 7 PM I poured a glass of wine and left it on the counter. Just left it there and kept walking past it.

Then I decided to google alcoholism and gastric bypass for the umpteenth time to remind myself of all of the deadly health problems it can cause. I am really terrified of the physical damage I may have already done. I’m already suffering a great deal from the personal damage. I read some more to scare myself and then went in and poured out the glass of wine without drinking a drop. Good for me I guess.

I’m gonna try to get through tonight but I don’t know about tomorrow. My boyfriend loves me but doesn’t understand.

I didn’t have a single drop of liquor until about 8-9 months after my surgery. I was actually encouraged by another patient to “try a little vodka”. I was shocked and quite hesitant and told her I thought we weren’t allowed hard alcohol. She assured me with a wink and a giggle that there was no harm in it and told me that she had cocktails every weekend and she was one of the bariatric programs biggest success stories. Trusting her (she is actually a leader in the support group and the same person who introduced me to my surgeon! She is very active in the Post-op community and that is why I trusted her) I tried it. Now I want to go find her and slap her silly for the horrific advice that she gave to me and who knows how many others. After what I have been through and am now experiencing I would NEVER pressure or even suggest drinking to any one post-op. NEVER.NEVER. NEVER.

I know I made the choice to take that first drink but her reassurances that it was “fine” did factor into it. (Fear can be a healthy thing, remember?)
Well, thanks to my poor judgement I now have a whole new set of fears.

I want so desperately to be happy and “normal”. I hate my butchered -looking ,sagging skin and stretch marks and it deeply affects my self image and my ability to be intimate with my boyfriend but there are worse things right? I know logically that drinking won’t help these issues. It only makes things worse. Much worse.

II have no real support system but I am strong and tough and have always gotten by on my own so I guess this is no different. It just gets lonely sometimes. I just need to get a handle on this stupid drinking before it kills me or something terrible happens.
Well, that was probably way more than you wanted to read but this was a huge step for me as I am an extremely private person so it must be pretty bad for me to admit this stuff in a forum. Even if it is anonymously, it is at the same time very “public”.
I basically just announced to the world my greatest shame and now there is no denying it.

Please don’t judge me for my weaknesses. I’m not here to get into a debate. Desperate for help I broke down and called called AA’s local hotline and tried to explain to the counselor about the surgery being a special circumstance that factored into my drinking and he basically went off on me saying ‘I don’t know anything about this surgery you say you had but a drunk’s a drunk you don’t have any special needs and are no different.” I tried to explain that I was in fact physiologically different and therefore my disease in relation to alcohol needed to be addressed differently. I made the mistake of asking if there were any specific AA groups formed especially for people who had WLS. He became very abrasive saying that I was no different than anyone else and insisted that my surgery not be factored into it. I was not making excuses, and was not in deniaI, I was only desperately looking for help and trying to explain how my drinking began.He made me feel even more alienated about my surgery. For those of you that AA works for I am really happy for you but the counselor I spoke too really turned me off to it when he said we should not address my surgery when it is so obviously something that needs to be dealt with in my recovery.So I decided that wasn’t the place for me.
I guess maybe here is the place for me? At least , for me to take my first real steps toward helping myself by relating to other people with similar issues instead of trying to do everything totally on my own and in secret. Because it isn’t working.
I just saw your stories and finally felt like I was not alone. I guess that’s really the most important thing that I had to say.

Thank you.Thanks to all of you for sharing your stories and private pain. You have helped me a great deal. I hope I can give that back somehow.

(And I say go for the wild haircolor! )

And, honestly, I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to let people know about the real risks involved with wls. We’re certainly not going to get the doctors who are getting rich to start warning patients about the very real and unexpected dangers after gastric bypass surgery. And most researchers aren’t looking at the real medical data behind addiction and alcoholism. I don’t buy the whole “trading one addiction for another” mentality. It’s a cop out….an easy answer to a very complex problem. I’m not sure what the answer is, but I know that sharing your story with someone else helps. I thought I was the only one, but I’m not. And you aren’t either.

Soberchick, I can’t even tell you how totally thrilled I am that you’re sober and working your program. I just adore you and know that you can have a wonderful and rewarding life in sobriety…free from alcohol, bulimia and cutting. Stay strong, hon, and keep doing the next right thing.