The journey has speed bumps…

Well I have been pretty busy over the last couple weeks. My stress level reached an all time high, but finally settled down a little bit last Friday. I changed careers with little to no notice, went out of town a couple times, posed for a photo shoot, got sick and scared myself senseless, and the list just keeps on going.

So I am a big believer now that stress and bariatric surgery do not mix well. I went to the Bariatrics support group a couple weeks ago and was not feeling all that well. I talked with our dietician Jaime Bass about what was going on and she suggested that I give Dr. Lorimer a call the next morning. Little did I know that before I could make it home that all hell would break loose and I would start panicking enough to make me call the doctor. For those who don’t know me very well, I avoid calling doctors at all cost and very rarely will even take aspirin if I can help it.

On the way home, I started feeling worse than when I was at the hospital so I pulled over on the side of the road to give myself a moment. Next thing I know I was vomiting uncontrollably on I-30 and feeling like I was about to die right there next to my truck. After calling my dad (who is also a bariatric patient) to get his thoughts, I got back in the car thinking the worst was over. This was probably a very bad idea, as it got worse the longer I drove. I got home and called Dr. Lorimer and talked things through. I took it easy all weekend eating mostly soup until I got a chance to go see Dr. Lorimer this last week. Last Wednesday, I got in to see the good doc and we talked everything through further and then I went over to see a gastro doc. The appointment was short and sweet and I am now scheduled for Friday September 16 to have another procedure to get to the bottom of some of these recent issues. I am a little nervous about it just because I am a little worried about knowing what is really going on inside. I will admit though that I am excited about potentially being able to expand my diet further than soup menu!! I will update everyone after I find out more on Friday.

Another exciting thing I did last week was I became a model (Fashion Week, here I come). Only temporarily, but I drove to downtown Dallas to pose for photos for an upcoming article the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star Telegram are doing in a special section for Texas Health Resources. There are going to be some amazing articles in the section. I brought in a bunch of my old clothes from before surgery and diligently stood between them, laid on top of them, and manipulated myself through them for about an hour. It really made me take a look back at how big I had really gorwn just over a year ago. One of the biggest eye openers during this experience was holding a photo of my son and I this past spring from our t-ball team. I don’t think I really ever realized how big I looked until last Friday. I am proud to say that I can now see a huge difference from before.

-Casey Armstrong

Bariatrics Patient