By: Jerry Cote

Jerry Cote — Sun, 03 Aug 2003 19:13:05 +0000

Hi Barbara: I haven’t been overweight all my life,
only since 1996. At that time I weighed 120 lbs.
Several life altering things happened to lead me to
find comfort in food. At my surgery date I weighed
217 lbs. I’m striving for 115 to give myself a little
leeway. I didn’t see Leslie this time and the new
nurse forgot to give me the print out from the tanita
scale but she agreed 115 might be a good compromise to
reach for, although she said I look great at my
present weight. Leslie has always said to keep a
close eye on the scale once you reach goal weight. Let
the scale go up and down by 4 pounds. Gaining muscle
weight would naturally put on more pounds, so would
you say she is obsessive about the scale rather than
gaining muscle mass? Food in no way rules my life nor

does the scale. I go by how my clothes fit, how well
I can walk and breath and just plain feel healthy.
Don’t worry yourself that I may become aneroxic. I
prefer to look and feel healthy. I don’t obsess about
working out but I do swim everyday and walk/run my dog
every day.
About the Nioxin… what can I say, it was coming out
by the handfulls in the end of November, I used it and
within days hair loss completely stopped and began to
grow back the beginning of December. It’s rather thick
right now. That was enough to convince me. By January
no one could tell I lost any hair. I was skeptical
too, but it’s working for me so I’ll continue to spend
the money on it, and still have money to shop for
clothes. So just as you tell me to save my money, I
say save your opinions.
BJ

By: Nanette Zora

Nanette Zora — Sat, 02 Aug 2003 12:52:01 +0000

From: awchihuahua Question: When you went for your follow-up, what was the read-out on the
Tanita scale? Each month at Alvarado, we are put on the Tanita scale that
tells us our individual fat/mucle/water weight in our bodies. I am also
5′2″ with a tiny frame (who knew!), yet, with ZERO fat on my body, I weigh
131 pounds. The charts all say I am supposed to weigh 126 pounds. Will I
ever see 126 pounds? Not likely unless I want to lose all muscle mass and
find my anorexic self. The low end of the fat my body should carry is 23%
which would put me, on the thin end, at about 160 pounds.
WARNING: Many of us who started out with eating issues, continue having
eating issues. Having been fat for years and years with no control, finding
control via WLS is certainly empowering… to a point. When it borders on
obsessive control over the scale, red flags dot the horizon.
How we ever came to think that numbers on a piece of plastic (scale) were
more important than numbers on lab results is beyond me. Why we would allow

that same scale to control our goals instead of, like Carrie Elm, allowing
snow boarding success to be the *true* gauge of WLS success, is beyond me.
Who says, BJ, that you will be finally happy with the scale reading 115
pounds? What if then your new goal is 105 pounds? Then 95? Where does
this goal setting end? (I not only have seen several posties play this
Move-The-Weight-Goal Game, but my own anorexic sister has done this for over
3 decades.)
Enough preaching on that end.
The next thing you mention is your hair loss. Hair loss happens if it is
going to happen no matter what you do. You say your hair began falling out
in November and December… 3 months after your WLS. You say it is growing
back because of Vioxin, but, you are now 6 months post-op. Hair loss begins
3-6 months post-op and ends 3-6 months after that… whether you take
Biotin, wash your hair in every Nioxin hair product ever made, take Zinc
until your taste buds fall asleep, take in 100 grams of protein a day, or
pack zebra dung on your scalp… if you are destined to lose hair, you will
lose it… if not, you won’t. You will hear of folk remedies galore… a
waste of money, all of them. Use your extra money to buy new clothes!
(oooo, I can surely hear the backlash coming!)
Barbara Herrera
San Diego, CA (temporarily residing in El Paso, TX)
40 years old
Open RNY April 5, 2001
Dr. Julie Ellner, Alvarado Hospital, San Diego, CA
4/5/01: 344# BMI 63
2/10/02: 179# BMI 32.7
No more Diabetes, GERD, IBS, PCOS, stress incontinence, sleep apnea,
snoring, joint pain, or immobility
Continuing to discover a life I never knew existed!

Comments on: 6 month follow up

By: Jerry Cote

By: Nanette Zora