Laurie Unblocked: My Bariatric Journey

  My skin has been a mess for the past month or so. I sought out the help of a dermatologist at the beginning of April because my skin was red, blotchy and I was waking up with tiny white heads every morning. So fun!  It turns out I have rosacea. I have spent the last month slathering on a treatment gel in the morning, a treatment lotion before bed, and added a weekly heavy duty acne wash to my normal Cetaphil face washes. My skin is a little less red, but its still super blotchy and I have more acne now then I did at 16.  In addition to my face being out of control, my skin is sooooooo dry! I slather my hands in heavy duty dry hand lotion at least 4 times a day. It seems to help my hands overall, but the skin by my nails is still extremely dry and full of hangnails. I added an oil body wash to my shower routine and follow up with a healthy slathering of body butter with added oil. That has helped some of the dry itchiness.  I'm also starting to notice that I have so...

Here I am about to go into surgery.  February 11, 2025 was the day of my gastric sleeve surgery. It took about 9 months from the time the doctor suggested the surgery to get to the actual operating room. Those months sometimes felt like the longest months of my life, and sometimes they flew by faster than I could process. I can tell you I went into it fully expecting to be found an unsuitable candidate.  I have struggled with my weight since my 20's. At 23 I was diagnosed with complete heart block and had a pacemaker put in that I have since been 100% dependent on. After that my weight started to creep up. I did lose weight occasionally, but not when you would consider it normal, and it was definitely not sustainable.  I had 2 pregnancies after my pacemaker surgery (1 before) and lost weight during each of my pregnancies. After delivery I would put weight back on. I had many difficulties during my pregnancies including cholestasis of pregnancy, which explained why I had d...