Ah yes, the truth comes out; comparing my weight loss to Mother’s success, Russ said that I wasn’t even trying.  I asked, “What do you think I’ve been doing for these past few months and checking out my revision options.”  He said that didn’t count and that I was just looking for a magic wand.

Oh, I see. 

He then goes on about gal we meet who had a hernia problem after my first month appointment where I lost an astonishing 14 pounds, and that I just need to work on it like she did.  Well if he’d been paying attention:  The past few months I was actually losing weight I rarely ate and when I did, I threw it up, however I did have the courtesy to turn on the fan and sink so’s ya wouldn’t have to hear me hacking up in the bathroom all the time.

This type of opinion is fine coming from a stranger but someone you love is really a low blow.

These are the photos from some of the previous endoscopies just to give you an idea of what a stricture and ulcer look like.

This would be my first stricture; you can read about in detail here.

10/7/2003: About four weeks after my surgery and my stoma had closed to the size of a pinhole. The doctor had trouble getting the scope inside because it was so small.	Because the stricture was so severe and I was only four weeks out of surgery, the doctor was very cautious and only dilated my stoma partly for fear of damaging the still fragile tissue.

Second stricture you can read about here.

10/22/03: This second stricture was inevitable since the first could only be partially dilated.	This time around he was able to dilate the stoma to about the normal width.

Finally we have the fun filled Christmas stricture adventure you can read all about here.

12/28/03: This was a naughty lil stricture that developed slowly.	Ya see that big nasty white guy? That's an ulcer that most likely helped in the process of producing a stricture.
And once again here's a happy and dilated stoma.