{"id":9663,"date":"2013-01-24T15:40:54","date_gmt":"2013-01-24T14:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/wordpress\/?p=9663"},"modified":"2013-01-24T20:38:11","modified_gmt":"2013-01-24T19:38:11","slug":"the-things-you-dont-expect-post-wls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/archives\/9663","title":{"rendered":"The Things You Don&#8217;t Expect Post-WLS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A friend of mine posted a video on our little WLS group today and I literally laughed out loud.\u00a0 I can relate to every single thing the girl says in this video and I applaud her for making things that suck so damn bad be so funny.<\/p>\n<p>Though she goes about it in such a funny way, you may think she is exaggerating&#8230; but sadly, she isn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n[youtube id=&#8221;f8dbITs2R-w&#8221; width=&#8221;600&#8243; height=&#8221;350&#8243;]\n<p>Be prepared, because when I showed this video to my husband and asked if it seemed familiar?\u00a0 He said yes, especially the swearing.\u00a0 So yeah, there&#8217;s going to be swearing. I try to hold back usually but I am not going to bother in this post because it&#8217;s stuff that irritates the shit out of me.\u00a0 It makes me sigh, whine, scream, cry and yes, sometimes I just can&#8217;t do anything but laugh!<\/p>\n<p>Let me say, before I get started ranting about these things, that none of it is so bad that it has EVER made me regret my decision to have the surgery.\u00a0 That doesn&#8217;t mean that the whole experience is rainbows and lollypops either.\u00a0 People who think that this is easy, that you have surgery, lose weight and suddenly are free of all body issues?\u00a0 Oh boy, how little they know!\u00a0 So while I am about to rant about the issues I have after losing weight, it by no means bothers me to the point of not absolutely LOVING where I am at the moment with all of this.\u00a0 It&#8217;s just those &#8216;another day in the life&#8217; type of things that come along with having WLS or losing a large amount of weight.<\/p>\n<p>So here we go&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Ass Pain<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh god help me!! Not only have I had to see a physiotherapist because after having lost the weight my core muscles settled weird, thus giving me a tilted pelvis.. which irritated my SI joint&#8230; but if I sit on my ass too long (especially on a hard chair) it makes me want to weep from the pain.\u00a0 The lack of cushioning is most definitely noticed and it&#8217;s exactly the way she described.\u00a0 SO FUCKING PAINFUL!!<\/p>\n<p>This past weekend I went away for a sleepover with some friends. It was a three hour train ride and while it wasn&#8217;t so bad on the way there, thanks to having to switch a few times, the direct train back was like torture.\u00a0 I tried not to whine too much, but after about two hours I got VERY shifty and complainy.\u00a0 There was no way to get comfortable and I could not get off that train quickly enough. OW OW OW FUCKING OW!!<\/p>\n<p>In fact, it hurts right now.\u00a0 Right at this very minute my ass hurts like a mofo.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Space Between the Thighs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This one is kind of funny because I still have really big thighs and they still touch. I think they will still touch until I have them corrected with surgery someday, which will be absolutely necessary.\u00a0 My legs were one of the biggest parts of me when I was heavy, so incredibly big.\u00a0 I will be able to tone up to some extent but there is a lot of skin that must be dealt with.\u00a0 I have a gap at the top but then just below my thighs do meet up again.<\/p>\n<p>That said, how can I put this delicately.\u00a0 There are certainly feelings I&#8217;ve had, like&#8230; breezes? and been like &#8220;WHAT WAS THAT?&#8221;.\u00a0 Not having -as much- going on in the thigh department and having a gap there definitely feels different and there is, for sure, that moment where you suddenly realize it.\u00a0 It sounds bizarre but there is a moment where you move a certain way, whether you are getting dressed, having a pee or getting out of the shower&#8230; when it all sort of just comes to you. It feels weird, so incredibly weird, and you have to stop and process it.<\/p>\n<p>I had a moment just like she did &#8220;What was that?\u00a0 Why am I feeling this certain thing?\u00a0 What is wrong? Is there something wrong?\u00a0 No, wait&#8230; I think this is happening because I now have a gap at the top of my legs&#8230; that is SO FUCKING WEIRD!!&#8221;\u00a0 Then I ran to my husband to show him my &#8216;gap&#8217;, because that&#8217;s what you do, you drag your spouse through all the crazy changes with you.\u00a0 They escape nothing!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shaving Legs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This one really gets my hackles up.\u00a0 At over 300 lbs, shaving my legs was always such a pain.\u00a0 Firstly, I could either bend over or breathe, not both.\u00a0 So I would have to bend over and hold my breath while I shaved some, then stand up and catch my breath, bend over again and hold my breath and stand up again.\u00a0\u00a0 Since we don&#8217;t have a bathtub I couldn&#8217;t do like I used to and just sit on the side, so this all had to take place in the shower.\u00a0\u00a0 This would go on for what felt like ages because, as I said, my legs were huge!!! So I had a lot of surface area to cover.<\/p>\n<p>I remember thinking to myself that if I could just lose weight it would be so much easier. I could bend and breathe at the same time, my legs would be smaller so I could shave them easily.\u00a0 Heck, maybe I&#8217;d even wax them since I wouldn&#8217;t need 10 yards of fabric and 5 liters of wax just to get it all done.\u00a0 It made sense, right?\u00a0 Weight loss = smaller belly \/ legs = easier bending \/ easier shaving.<\/p>\n<p>What I wasn&#8217;t thinking about was the skin.\u00a0 Just like the girl in the video I also find myself swearing and exclaiming how fucking ridiculous it is!\u00a0 Instead of having these small, smooth legs to shave&#8230; I have legs that are still big and SAGGY.\u00a0 Imagine trying to shave a peach, not so bad, right? Now imagine trying to shave a prune!<\/p>\n<p>I think I have the larger equivalent of what it&#8217;s like for a dude to try to shave his balls.\u00a0 YES, that&#8217;s exactly what it&#8217;s like.\u00a0 Not quite as bad on my lower legs, but my thighs? Forget it.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a lost cause.\u00a0 I have to actively grab them, stretch them out to make a flat surface and then try to shave them and who in the hell can be bothered with that?\u00a0 I just thank my lucky stars that I&#8217;m not a hairy person, that&#8217;s all I will say on that.<\/p>\n<p>As for shaving anything else?\u00a0 Don&#8217;t make me laugh&#8230; I&#8217;m not even going there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Finding Bones<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh this one is hilarious! It&#8217;s happen to me so many times and it&#8217;s not really annoying or painful, it&#8217;s just FUNNY.\u00a0 I remember the first time I noticed my wrist bone, you know that lump that sticks up on your outer wrist.\u00a0 I noticed it on my right hand and without thinking I just yelled out to my husband and told him something was wrong.\u00a0 He looked at me like I was growing another head, rather than just a wrist bone, and pointed out that I had one on the other wrist too.<\/p>\n<p>Uhh, yeah, a little embarrassing.<\/p>\n<p>That has been followed by moments with things being said &#8220;That&#8217;s a RIB, honey&#8221; and &#8220;Yes, it is supposed to stick out like that! It&#8217;s normal, look&#8230; I have one too!&#8221;.\u00a0 You sort of assume that having seen loads of other people&#8217;s bodies that we&#8217;d be more in touch with what bones there are and what sticks out where, but nope.\u00a0 When your bones have been covered in a thick layer of fat for your entire life, suddenly having these foreign things sticking out of you is a very bizarre, and sometimes scary, experience!<\/p>\n<p>By the way, I totally do that collarbone thing she was doing as well.\u00a0 In front of the mirror, moving my neck and chin in a really exaggerated way to make those hallows.\u00a0 It&#8217;s been almost a year and the novelty hasn&#8217;t worn off yet!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Armpits<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Any long term reader or friend knows I have a crazy armpit phobia. I don&#8217;t know if phobia is the right word but just a hatred of them. I don&#8217;t want to see anyone&#8217;s armpits, I don&#8217;t want anyone seeing my armpits.\u00a0 Just the whole armpit thing turns me off, so there is no way in hell I&#8217;d be showing off my armpits like she did in the video.<\/p>\n<p>THAT SAID, I can agree 100% that shaving armpits has become a total pain in the butt.\u00a0 It was the easiest thing to shave when I was heavier. I put my arm up and it was just flat in there&#8230; now it&#8217;s all <em>concave<\/em> just like she said.\u00a0 Now, maybe the average woman reading this would be like &#8220;So? So is mine, what&#8217;s the big deal?!&#8221; well, my answer to that would be that yours has been like that forever, it didn&#8217;t suddenly just <em>become<\/em> that way.\u00a0 It&#8217;s like suddenly having two less fingers and trying to function the same&#8230; or having your feet on backwards.\u00a0 It doesn&#8217;t seem right somehow, it&#8217;s foreign and doesn&#8217;t feel like my body should feel.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t get how women shave their armpits with that big dent. WHY ARE THERE NOT CURVED RAZORS FOR THIS?! WHY??<\/p>\n<p><strong>Skin Routine<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is where she has me beat, because I really think I SHOULD have a routine.\u00a0 I shit you not, just yesterday I was talking to my husband and said I need to look into some of the old lady creams for wrinkles because now that my face and neck are deflating, I&#8217;m left looking all wrinkled and saggy.\u00a0\u00a0 I may have even mentioned possibly adding a chin lift to my growing list of possible future plastic surgeries.<\/p>\n<p>There are no words for what is going on under my chin right now.\u00a0 You remember that freaky dude from Ally McBeal that loved the waddles (the turkey necks on women)?\u00a0 He&#8217;d get a stiffy just standing in the same room with me, because I&#8217;ve got a waddle like you wouldn&#8217;t believe.\u00a0 I have an honest to god turkey neck and it drives me crazy.\u00a0\u00a0 Now I get why the older women slather their face and neck with cream, I really really get it.\u00a0 I must find a &#8216;tighten up the wrinkles and turkey neck&#8217; cream &#8211; PRONTO!<\/p>\n<p>Like the girl in the video, each and every time one of these things, or one of the many other annoying things, happen&#8230; I just make a face, shrug and think to myself &#8220;Well, at least I&#8217;m not fat anymore&#8221; because it&#8217;s true.\u00a0 I&#8217;d take any one of these things any day over what I used to have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A friend of mine posted a video on our little WLS group today and I literally laughed out loud.\u00a0 I can relate to every single thing the girl says in this video and I applaud her for making things that suck so damn bad be so funny. Though she goes about it in such a &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[875,617,132,349,877,624,522],"class_list":["post-9663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-weightloss","tag-funny-shit","tag-gastric-bypass","tag-videos","tag-weight-loss","tag-weightloss","tag-wls","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9663"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9679,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9663\/revisions\/9679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}