blast from the past

So here's a little background on me for those who may not know. When I was 15 I was in a car accident that would forever change my life. I was a passenger in a car that was hit broad side at about 45-50 mph. I almost lost my life that night, but you wouldn't have known by looking at me, because all of my injuries were internal. I was rushed into emergency surgery to remove 2 1/2 feet of necrotic bowel that had been damaged from the seat belt and was threatening my life. I woke up 2 days later in ICU with a colostomy bag. If you don't know what that is, google it, its not a cute or fun thing for a VERY active 15 year old cheerleader. However, fate be damned because I had worked all summer on my cheers and I would NOT be put down. I told my surgeon on my check up visit that I was cheering with my bag turned sideways, he said to me "girl, you must be superwoman!" Thankfully the colostomy was not a permanent thing, only 8 weeks. So 8 weeks later I went back and had it taken down, leaving me with a big ugly scar that no 15 year old girl who desperately wants to wear a bikini should have to deal with. However, always the trooper I sucked it up and dealt with it, thinking that this ugly mess would forever be behind me. Little did I know that this one car accident would cause several subsequent surgeries! (By the way they took my appendix out on the second surgery because it looked like it was "going bad"

Now living without 2 1/2 feet of colon and an appendix is not really a very big deal, you hardly realize it most days. Fast forward several years (and 2 pregnancies) later I started feeling bloated. It felt like every time I would eat something that my stomach was trying to come out through my throat. Finally after several months I knew something was wrong. I went to the Dr and said I don't think this lump *pointing to just below the left side of my ribs* is supposed to be here. They sent me immediately for an ultra sound. Side note here kids, when your ultra sound tech puts her hand over her mouth and says "oh my" or "what the" under her breath, its not usually a good sign. After I left I got a call from the Dr, pack my bags and go to the hospital. Why, in his sweet words "we aren't totally sure, but it looks weird".... you never want to hear your doctor say WEIRD in a sentence either by the way.

Ok so long story short I had an 8" "Traumatic cyst" attached to my spleen. Now once they figured it was a cyst I knew I could deal with it. Cysts usually have a very low percentage of being cancerous. They tried for 2 days to drain the cyst to avoid removing my spleen but in the end decided it would be best to remove the whole big ugly tangled mess. Another side note for the kids following along, any time they open your stomach for surgery it not only cuts through EVERY abdominal muscle you have, but they literally take out ALL your intestines to move them out of the way, makes for really fun recovery. So living without a spleen wouldn't be much different than before right? Wrong. Bring on the weight gain....

We are fast forwarding again here, several years, another baby, a bad marriage and depression ensued. I started feeling "ick" again. Damnit, I had learned by now when my body started to act weird that I better go to the doc. Well one night after dinner I threw up... bloody and had terrible pain under my sternum. A trip to the ER revealed that once again I would need something removed, this time my gall bladder. Joy of joys. Now the doc had said it would be laproscopic.. meaning I wouldnt have yet another recovery from yet another cutting open of my stomach.. not so lucky, you see when you mess with insides and then try to pack them all back in, its like trying to put play dough back in the canister, it never looks as pretty as when you opened it the first time. My small intestine had wrapped itself around my gall bladder so they had to cut me open, again. This time my recovery took much longer than before because I was at my highest weight to that point, 200lbs. After that my weight started to steadily incline.

I knew that I needed to eat healthier, not only because of all the bull I'd been through, not only because I weighed WAY more than was healthy for my size, but because that was NOT the legacy I wanted to leave for my kids. My mom had weighed 300lbs most of my life, and we were very limited on the things we could or would go do. I was not about to drag my kids through all of that.

Luckily for me the winds of change were a blowin.. my friend Kattie who I've known since we were like 6 years old was an Herbalife Wellness Coach, and she would post on facebook almost daily about her clients and their weight loss results and I would think oh wow good for them, la dee da.. as I was shoveling terrible, fat riddled foods into my compromised digestive system. It wasnt until the day she posted that her client had reported a month without a headache... HOLD THE PHONE... this stuff COULD help with my migraines? My insane life altering, want to kill people migraines?? I called Kattie that day and said ok, I'm in, lets do this. You can read more about that in my other blogs but its been 3 months and its been an incredible ride!

*Workin on my "after" picture!! (CANNOT BELIEVE I AM POSTING THESE PICTURES, but if it helps ONE PERSON feel this amazing I dont care!!!)

 Before (July 24, 2012)

 During (9/26/12) THATS 2 Months!