Lab Report: 9 Months (Part 1)

The Deal with D

Well, friends, it looks like I've found my ideal D dosage at 100,000 IU per day.  Here is a chart of my labs:

Component	Your Value	Standard Range	Flag
Vitamin D 25 Hydroxy	51.4	31-80 ng/mL
	Classification of 25 OH Vitamin D status: Insufficiency/Moderate Deficiency: < or =" 30" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: auto; ">Sufficiency/Optimal Levels: 31 to 80 ng/mL Toxicity: > 100 ng/mL Test performed by RIA methodology

Here is a historical report:

Name	Standard Range	8/26/08	11/6/08	3/13/09
Vitamin D 25 Hydroxy		44.7	37.8	51.4

As you see, I am uptrending.  This pleases me.  Now, to break it to my doctor that I tore up his prescription, bought my own D, and doubled the dosage.

Time to nix some bacon?

My cholesterol is still ideal and lower than most people's is.  But, it has jumped quite a bit.  I need to exercise more, or I could cut back on my bacon consumption.  Anyway, here is my cholesterol report.  I'll just give you the history here:

Name	Standard Range	8/26/08	11/6/08	3/13/09
Cholesterol		131	122	156
HDL Cholesterol		31 L	40 L	44 L
VLDL Cholesterol		18	12	12
LDL Cholesterol		82	70	100

Note the standard ranges are: 

Cholesterol is 100-199 mg/dL  HDL is >45- mg/dL, 

VLDL is 6-40 mg/dL, and LDL 60-129 mg/dL.

I am iron man

I hate iron supplimentation.  It makes me ill.  So, I avoid it.  Thank goodness I am can put it off for a while now.  I'm trending up - thank goodness!  Here is my current Iron test:

Component	Your Value	Standard Range	Flag
Iron	93	30-140 ug/dL
TIBC	243	210-415 ug/dL
Transferrin Saturat	38	11-46 %

And History:

Name	Standard Range	8/26/08	11/6/08	3/13/09
Iron		59	79	93
TIBC		187 L	228	243
Transferrin Saturat		32	35	38

Note: Ferritin pending.

Oh, how I love not being diabetic

As you guys know, I was diagnosed with type II diabetes three months before my Duodenal Switch and virtually woke up from surgery without it.  Hemoglobin A1C tell you what your blood sugar has been like over the past three months.  Here is what mine has been doing at my last three tests:

Name	Standard Range	8/26/08	11/6/08	3/13/09
Hemoglobin A1C		5.3	5.1	4.6

Note:  Standard range is 4.0-6.0 %

That's right... DROPPING!  God bless the Duodenal Switch!

And finally...

Citrical is GOLD!

If you suppliment calcium, and try to skimp by buying the off-brand or (GASP!) calcium carbonate and are unhappy with your labs... do try Citrical Maximum Strengh.  My labs are maxed!  I take eight Citrical Max pills a day.  Here are my calcium levels:

Name	Standard Range	8/26/08	11/6/08	3/13/09
Calcium		8.7	9.9	9.8

Note: Standard Range is 8.5-10.5 mg/dL

Still to come after a talk with my doctors:  "what the Fuc-vitamin k?," magnesium, ferritin, and other general lab musings.

Alone with 8,000,000 people

I woke up one day two weeks ago at goal.  I didn't make any posts about it.  I didn't really know what to think.  So I ran away to New York City.  It was a wonderful mind-clearing experience.  I road the subway; I saw an opera; I walked, and walked, and walked without getting short of breath.  I was alone by myself with 8,000,000 other people and that felt really good.  A bit of a meditation.

Anyway, time for a new goal.  I'll have a normal BMI in 21 pounds.  Goal set.

Name Calling

The Bar Exam is behind me and... I'M BACK FRIENDS!

I am making great progress with my weight loss and am feeling wonderful.  I have appointments with my surgeon and doctor this month.  Plus, there will be blood work!  So, I'll have an update on the vitamin front for you all then.

For now, I have a "WOW" story for you.  A little over a year ago, in February 2008, I was shopping at CostCo.  As I was leaving, a little girl sitting in her mom's shopping cart exclaimed "mommy, that man is FAT!"  Now, any plump man or woman knows the embarrassment that can flow from the mouths of babes in public places.  We blush, we smile, we laugh it off.  But, in all actuality, it hurts.  For me I'd always think "you know kids are just really honest.  They're just saying what everybody is thinking."  This time was different.  This time, I had already planned to have my Duodenal Switch.  I knew that this would be the time when I would be successful.  And it was!

Fast forward by almost exactly a year.  I was shopping at CostCo the other day.  Past me comes two little boys in their mother's cart.  One of them turns wide-eyed and I know he's about to say something smart.  "Momma, that man's tall, he is very, very tall.  Momma how do you get that tall?"  I couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

In a year I have gone from the "fat man" to the "tall man."  In a few months I will be one year our from my surgery.  I am 7 pounds from my first end-goal and 30 pounds away from my new goal - "normal" body weight.  Some people feel successful with a weight loss surgery where they loose 50% of their excess body weight.  I have lose 50% of my entire body weight and 90% of my excess body weight - WOW!

I love my DS.

The Things We Leave Behind

I am told that from the back I look "skinny."  I am told that one cannot tell when they look at me how very much I used to weigh.  With half anticipation and half trepidation I ask "but, I still look fat, right?"  Their responses reveal that, in the course of the past few months, a huge part of my self identify has     slowly           faded                   away.

My obesity was a badge of my struggle.  A sign that I had baggage.  A signal that there was a little place in me that somebody had broken a long time ago and which I had never taken the time to put back together.  Now there is no announcement of my scars.  They are hidden beneath clothes.  The more important ones are found beneath flesh in the intimate places where the soul resides.

Recently, I was spending time with friends I just met.  They did not know me eight months ago.  They have not been with me through this journey.  They saw me in my new body.  They assumed I did things like cross country ski and snow board.  They invited me to go rock climbing.

Without my weight, I have no external mechanism that notifies people of my faults.  Nothing to say that I've still got baggage.  That I'm still a little broken.  I've decided not to tell them.  I've decided to join them.  I've chosen to be the man they see, rather than the one I feel like.  And, perhaps, along a hiking path, or on my way down a sloping hill I'll loose a little baggage and heal a little.

A Brief Intermission...

I wanted to give an update to you guys, lest you think that I have abandoned my efforts here.  I have not been posting often and will not be posting regularly again until March.  Why you ask.  I graduated from law school!  HOORAY!  But, now I am studying to take the bar examination.  BOO!  This process is time consuming and not fun.  I would rather be here, but I know I need to stay diligent and on-track.  I'll post major updates from time-to-time.  I'm coming up on a major milestone.  Also, I'll give you a 9-month update once my labs are in next month.

I leave you, for now, with my graduation picture in all my silly regalia (minus the oh-so-silly cap).  I hope the new year brings great things for you all.

                                    - Justin                                              

Holiday Comparison

With its cookies and pies, roasts, turkeys, stuffing, potatoes, and other fare, the holidays can be a time where we try not notice the extra pounds we've put on.  The scale becomes a no-no place.  If we can get through the month and a half between Thanksgiving and New Years, we can deal with the damage later.  This year, however, has been a different experience for me. 

I have taken time to reflect on Christmases past, and I celebrate myself.  As I was uploading this year's pictures I came across a testament to how far I've come.  Observe:

(Click here to see this image in full size)

I feel so much better in body and spirit than I did last year.  And, yes, I did have pie, and cheesecake, and stuffing, potatoes, roast, turkey, and cookies... oh, the cookies!  I also managed to LOOSE about 15 pounds during this period of feasting.  If I haven't said it recently, I LOVE MY DS!

Doctor knows best, but he don't know D!

Well, folks, I have fallen victim to something we have been told to do since we are children but which DS'ers are often cautioned against - I listened to my doctor. His coat was so white, and his degrees so prestigious. So, when his eyes when wide when I told him I was taking 50,000 IU of Vitamin D per day, I followed his advice and cut back to 50,000 IU every other day. Here are the results:

At three months my Vitamin D lab was:

Component Results

Component	Your Value	Standard Range	Flag
Vitamin D 25 Hydroxy	44.7	31-80 ng/mL
	Classification of 25 OH Vitamin D status: Insufficiency/Moderate Deficiency: < or =" 30" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: auto; ">Sufficiency/Optimal Levels: 31 to 80 ng/mL Toxicity: > 100 ng/mL Test performed by RIA methodology

At six months my Vitamin D lab was:

Component Results

Component	Your Value	Standard Range	Flag
Vitamin D 25 Hydroxy	37.8	31-80 ng/mL
	Classification of 25 OH Vitamin D status: Insufficiency/Moderate Deficiency: < or =" 30" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: auto; ">Sufficiency/Optimal Levels: 31 to 80 ng/mL Toxicity: > 100 ng/mL Test performed by RIA methodology

I know what you may be thinking: "Wonderful, he's within the standard range."  No, my friends, I don't see things that way.  What I see is that my Vitamin D level dropped 15.4% in three months.  That's 5% per month and, to me, an unacceptable declining trend.

From here forward, I will be taking no less than 50,000 IU PER DAY.  I will speak with my surgeon (Dr. Lane) to see how he feels about 100,000 IU per day.