Yesterday I had an appointment at Dr. Mo’s office for my three month check up with the physician’s assistant Tiffany.  It’s about a week short of my actual 3 month “Surgiversary” but close enough.  This appointment was to go over my first round of post op blood work to ensure that all of my various counts were in order.

The things that they focus on most post op are your Iron levels, your vitamin B levels, your protein levels, and your Vitamin D levels.  Numerous other things are checked, but those are the ones that we focused on during yesterday’s appointment.

I’m actually doing better in every one of those categories post op than I was before surgery.  My protein levels are right in the middle of the normal range; My Calcium is on the high end of normal (score); my Iron is almost twice the number that it should be greater than (you want a score >60, mine was 117); my Ferritin (a specific type of protein that bonds to Iron) and my B12 were both marginally over the normal range; and finally my Vitamin D is right in the middle of the normal range.

I asked Tiffany if I should worry about my Ferritin and B12 being higher than the normal range and she recommended to not worry about it at this point.  They’d rather see me a tiny big high than low.  We will re-evaluate in three more months after my next round of blood work.  FYI-I have to go in for blood work every three months for the first year.  There’s a lot of focus on keeping Iron levels up post op to avoid becoming anemic.  Vitamin B12 is another worry since B12 does so many things for the body, it supports brain and nervous system functions, and aides in the production of blood.  Low B12 counts can cause chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression, etc.

I also got to meet several wonderful ladies who either are just beginning their process to becoming sleeved or are already making progress towards their surgery date.  Everyone in the waiting room were sleeve-to-be patients, I am so excited for them!  I even showed them the scars on my stomach since they were interested in what they looked like.  That is so completely unlike me, but I’m so happy with my sleeve that I’m willing to share a lot!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare