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Hello everyone, I'm Stephanie and I've been on this journey for a little bit over a year I had my surgery April 24, 2023 weighing in at 291. I started this journey March 7, 2022 at my heaviest weight ever 382 lbs. All my life I had always been overweight but never had I ever been given the diagnosis of morbidly obese. September of 2019 I had the biggest scare of my life, I almost died. My heart was in Congested heart failure, I was going septic, and was put into a ketamine trip so they could shock my heart. After that I ended up having atrial flutters on the right side of my heart. I was put on Lasix and while I was still in the hospital I lost 13 lbs of water weight. I've had tachycardia for years, was a smoker and extremely overweight. The doctor didn't sugarcoat it for me at all he flat out told me my smoking and my weight was killing me. He said I qualified for bariatric surgery and that I should look into it. 2020 I had an ablation done to fry the nerves to the right side of my heart so it will beat normal and it worked I haven't had any issues with my heart since. I've been on a beta blocker; and I had to do a sleep study and I have sleep apnea. I stopped breathing 13 times in an hour. Which brought me to bariatric surgery. November 13, 2020 I quit smoking cigarettes, before my surgery I had lost 82 lbs had the duodenal switch surgery and as of May 5, 2023 I have lost a total of 100 pounds. The most weight I have ever lost in my life. I don't regret my decision at all about getting surgery cause I feel better and healthier and I want to get out of bed and I want to exercise and I just love the way I'm feeling everyday. Stephanie Ellis

The early stages are truly the hardest part, a million changes happen all at once & it's a lot to handle. Just remember it will get better soon, you will fall in love with your results & wonder why you didn't do this sooner!

I'm learning this is a go with the flow journey.

So, today It's been officially one year since my surgery. Yay! I am very happy about how much I lost. I started at 264 and am now at 154 and still want to lose a little bit more so my doctor can refer me to plastics. It's slow going but it's going. I wasn't sure what I was going to write but decided to just go with how I was feeling. One of things I love is I'm much smaller and have more energy but I am also a bit resentful. Bigger people aren't taken seriously sometimes by doctors. I complained of chest pain before the weight loss and was told your blood pressure is too high. Now that I am smaller I was told well that shouldn't be happening and got a CT scan done on Thursday. I had to take prednisone and Benadryl because I'm allergic to the dye contrast. Well they did find two blockages in my arteries one at 70% so tomorrow I have to go in and get a stent put in and I'm a bit pissed off that this could have been taken care of earlier if they had taken my concerns seriously. I haven't done any exercise in a month cause I'm too scared I'll keel over with a heart attack. The moral of this story is to pay attention to your body and if you have concerns speak with your doctor and be insistent if you need them to listen.

My doctor just called me and told me that my insurance approved for my surgery . I’m so happy and nervous I can’t wait for a June 6th

My loose skin is still very new & I will agree with this 1000%. Loose skin is A MILLION times better than obesity. I'd pick my loose skin while wearing smalls/mediums over being a 4x & filled out ANYDAY

Thanks, everyone. It's so hard right now but it's nice to know it's part of the process and me not flying off the rails.

its very unfortunate that fat-phobia is very prevalent in the medical field. I have had friends that have had OBGYN appts coded as weight consults and their insurance denied the visits, even though the visit was birth control and the doctor commented on weight...

old-ish timer here. not sure if my info fits the vibe here, but here it is anyway: 4.5 yrs post and am 114 lbs lighter today than i was when i started. i eat all foods like a "normal" person, but at much smaller quantities per sitting.

I will never understand this bizarre notion people seem to have that an "easy way out" for weight loss is a bad thing even if it did exist. Like... why does it need to be a struggle to be ok? Do we need weight loss to be some epic f***ing crawl across a flaming desert of despair to be acceptable to people who aren't involved? Does my head in. Makes me inclined to answer "my own hard work" when asked how I lost so much weight. It's not anyone's business anyway. Also: you look AMAZING! Seriously. And that top you're wearing is gorgeous on you!