Weight loss journey update.

Still struggling to keep food down but am getting more energy, feeling better and better and 7 weeks in have lost 4 stone and 2 lbs. Am still swimming and can now manage to swim 1km 2 or 3 times a week.

Weight Loss journey...

Okay, I've had health problems for ever, I'm now 41 and it started about a month after I was 30, I had a severe bout of Gastro Enteritis which did untold damage to my bowel and so it started... 14 operations in 11 years, each op meant bed rest for up to 3 months, each op meant weight gain, weight gain meant less and less mobility until I weighed 24 stone and 12lbs or 348lbs or 158kg, more than Frank Bruno on a fat day carrying a couple of weight lifters!


I had further bowel surgery on 24th July 2009 where they removed several feet of bowel and far more stomach than they had originally planned due to severe ulceration and having to detach my liver & spleen from my stomach wall.
My stomach is now about 2.5cm's diameter x 20 cm in length. The average human stomach is approximately 10-15 cm's at it's widest point so I've probably lost 90% of my capacity.


This is great news for weight loss and great news for all my stomach and bowel problems but it is major surgery to both go through and recover from.
Although it is early days (6 wks at the time of writing this) I am struggling hugely with both the physical and emotional problems.


Those who know me very well, know that with anti-depressants I can function almost normally but without I have a tendency to try and do away with myself. Since the surgery I find taking & keeping tablets down long enough for them to make it into my system very difficult, so am battling quite hard to keep my spirits up some days.


As for the physical, I'm doing okay had to go into hosp for 3 days as my operation sites had swollen and no food or water was getting through so I needed to go on a drip whilst the swelling was going down.


I can only eat about a quarter of what I was told I'd be able to and am sick an awful lot.
I have been told that (in order of importance) I have to to drink 1.5 - 2 litres of water a day, eat protein then Calcium and anything else after.
I roll 1 piece of wafer thin ham into a cigar and nibble that for breakfast with about 125ml lactase free milk as I can no longer tolerate milk sugars!
Lunch is a slice of chicken breast about 4x3 cm's and a wafer thin cheese cracker and dinner is a couple more cheese crackers and half an oxtail cup-a soup with a teeny bit of marmite melted in and if I'm lucky it all stays down!


I seem to have gone backwards over the last three weeks because initially I could manage a little yoghurt, porridge, mashed potato, toast and marmite but I can't keep any of that down now.
I wonder if I tried too much too quickly and am now paying the price for pushing myself too hard.


Some days I'm pretty lethargic but others I'm buzzing with energy, I've been swimming 3 or 4 times since and the last time I managed 3/4km which is amazing!
I can walk around town without stopping, I'm sleeping better, still 5 to 7 hours but I'm not waking and my husband tells me the snoring is getting less and less! (shame his isn't). Things are improving in the bedroom ;-)

I really can see a future whereas 7 weeks ago I was terrified I was going to die in my sleep from a heart attack or a stroke. Two things have allayed this fear, the battery of tests they performed before my operation showed that my heart had no fatty tissue or enlargement due to my weight gain and all other organs were functioning perfectly and since starting to lose weight I have been able to do more and more each week.
They did find however that I obviously hadn't developed terribly well whilst in the womb, I knew I had small kidneys very low down in my pelvis and I knew I was missing the lower third of my left lung but my spleen and liver were found to be attached to each other and attached to my stomach which meant my operation took a couple of hours longer than it should have done!


I have lost 52lbs (3 stone 10lbs or 23.5kg) in 6 weeks which is a phenomenal amount, I still can't see it when I look in the mirror but I've dropped two and a half dress sizes and can certainly feel it in my clothes and in the increased energy!


Will hopefully post again in a few more weeks with news of more weight loss and a less gloomy outlook! Kx

What my Grandmother has taught me.

The above picture is of my Sister Lucy with our grandmother who is an amazing, redoubtable and sagacious lady of 89.

Our Granny fell yesterday and broke her hip, she is now awaiting surgery to replace the joint.

Whilst lying in bed last night fretting about her and spending today in a pensive mood I decided to write down all the ways in which she has made her mark on my life, thoughts, attitudes and general conduct, apologies if it reads like a list.

It is with thanks to my grandmother that I can:

Sew on a button, Iron a shirt properly (rarely practiced), "do" hospital corners & play scrabble. It is my grandmother that taught me to roller skate, do cartwheels and ride a bicycle.

She taught me to swim & dive, to sew by hand and machine. She attempted to teach me to knit without success.

She showed me the correct way to hold a bird so it caused no injury, how to pick up a hen and collect eggs. She taught me to recognise and name different birds and trees.

She taught me my times tables, how to roll my R's and the "Queens English" there were many elocution lessons, "How now Brown cow" and "Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran"!!

She taught me that a "pitcher is a type of ewer dear, not something one hangs upon the wall" and "It's drawing dear not draw-ring, there is no R in the middle"!

It is thanks to her that I shudder at bu-er as opposed to butter and I say to people "Kate/Katy has a T in the middle please use it"!

My grandmother instilled into me a love of Art, museums, antiques and National Trust properties.

She taught me that one never says "I don't know" but "I'll find out", she introduced me to the art of research from a young age, how to look up a word in a dictionary, use an encylopaedia and go on fact finding missions to libraries and museums. If I had a school project she would help me gather the information and take me to a museum to show me some exhibit pertaining to the project.

My grandmother instilled in me a love of research and a life of endless questioning and a thirst for knowledge.

It is never enough for me to know how a word is spelt, I need to know it's etymology, antonyms and synonyms.

I want to know the who, how, why, where and when about things, I share her love of History and Science and Politics (though not the same party, much to her disgust)!

I used to love our trips to the "cinema" which involved a bag of toffee bon-bons, a row of dining chairs, drawn curtains and a Disney film on the television!

We used to play "post offices" and she would get out paper, envelopes, green shield stamps, an ink pad and one of those old fashioned date stamps.

She used to empty her First Aid box so I could play "Hospitals"

It was through games like this that I learned the correct way to write and address a letter, tie a sling and put on a bandage.

Without realising it Granny was very forward thinking with her "learning through play" ideals!

I used to roll down hills and swoosh my feet through piles of leaves with her whilst out on walks.

It is from spending time in a car with Granny that I learnt how to swear and how not to drive!

It is because of my grandmother that I was about 14 before I realised that cider was not a soft drink to be served to children with Sunday lunch but was in fact rather alcoholic, when I think of the (not very) small sherry prior to lunch and the cider during I must have been useless at school on a Monday from a very young age!

It is due to my grandmothers culinary skills that I thought gravy was a lumpy, highly viscous goo and pastry was very dry and an inch thick and also that stuffing came out of packets and had unpalatable pockets of unmixed dry bits.

It was in fact her expertise in the kitchen coupled with Guide camp food that meant I believed all food tasted of charcoal and that food was never burnt just "a little bit brown dear"!

My grandmother taught me that the woman of the house is always in charge and always right until her husband puts his foot down!

I was fostered at 3 1/2 and then adopted by my parents at 6 1/2 Granny was always "hands on" as Mum was very ill and when our parents divorced and Mum's health deteriorated further Granny took on more and more of our day to day care until finally "being mum" full time.

Mum's death aged just 36 when I was 15 and my brother and sister almost 7 and 5 devastated her but still she cared for us despite and through the early days of her grief until My brother and sister returned to our dad and I left home aged 16.

Granny did and does grieve for her daughter - our Mother every day and cannot speak of her without tears in her eyes even now, 25 years on.

Despite my adoption I was never viewed as a usurper into the family by her, she has never left me in any doubt that I was/am wanted and valued.

Granny put up with endless unsuitable boyfriends, hairstyles, fashion faux pas and attempts to shock. She was polite to the boyfriends, complimentary about the hair styles and complicit in the fashion disasters, she took in my jeans to make them skin tight, bought me a ra-ra skirt and a boob-tube. She bleached my hair, henna-ed it and once neatened up the badly shaved sides!

She used to stick up for me, fight my corner and take my side much to Mum's chagrin - particularly when Granny took my jeans in after Mum refused to let me have "drainpipes" and bought me a fuddy-duddy pair of M & S jeans!

I have inherited nothing from my grandmother in the genetic sense but everything I am, all that I know, my beliefs and values have been inherited from her by observation, teaching, love and a fair few clips round the ear!

I chose my husband because I fell in love with him but also because the man I was looking for was the man that my Granny had also chosen, her husband, my lovely Pa.

The man that my Grandmother has loved through rich and poor, sickness and health and now his alzheimers is loving, kind, funny, hard-working and loyal and thank God I found one the same!

I thank Granny for everything she has taught and shown me and hope and pray that she continues to do so for a few more years.

Maltby Family Newsletter 2008

St. Ives Bridge at night (Huntingdonshire, not Cornwall!)

Rebi was very despondent at the beginning of the year, she had missed a lot of her A’ level course due to gallstones & a gall bladder operation and was falling behind. The decision was made in February to leave college and start a more suitable course at college in Cambridge in September 2008.
Rebi worked in a charity shop as she was having difficulty finding a job and felt it may help her find a permanent post, we just thought it would keep her occupied!
A job at Next followed keeping her busy until September, but they weren’t willing to let her work part time around college. She is now looking for a part time job that does, we gave her this term to settle in at college first!
Rebi started a Btec National Diploma in Forensic Science at Cambridge Regional College in September & loves it. The course comprises of Math’s, Forensic Photography, Biology, lab techniques, Criminal Psychology, Crime scene techniques, Chemistry, Computing & Industrial science to name just a few!
Rebi was asked to be a Godparent to a friend’s son in September which she did with great pride.
Rebi passed her driving test in October and we’ve barely seen her since!Our daughter has grown into a fantastic young lady who no longer needs us, this new found freedom is liberating for all of us!

Archie posing rather Begrudgingly!

I had just two operations this year! The wonderful news however is that after 10 years of ill health (believe me no details needed!) in June I got the all clear, Hurrah I am healed at last!
Thankyou to my good friends & family, who have helped out, prayed, visited, cajoled, bullied, pushed and dragged me through the last 10 years.
Lifetime achievement award goes to Kevin who without complaint been by my side throughout.
Honourable mentions go to:- Angela, Sue, Carol, Audrey, Ann, Sally, Dr’s Tobin & Doyle & my consultant Mr. Bekdash whom I hope never to clap eyes on again!
And finally Rebi who from the ages of 8-18 has fended for herself far more than it was reasonable to expect and has been wonderful.

David & Liisa's Wedding day.

We went along with lots of friends & family to Tallinn, Estonia for my brother David’s wedding to Liisa in August. Our sister Lucy and her fiancé James also came from Australia.
It was a beautiful ceremony in the grounds of an old manor house & the weather was glorious. The reception was inside the manor & there were some odd (to us, not to our Estonian friends & family) customs upheld, one my sister & I would rather not have witnessed was our brother running around the grounds in pants & a bow tie in order to win back his “kidnapped bride”.
Rebi was one of the bridesmaids and will resume her duties for my sister Lucy next June!

We spent a lovely couple of days with the family en masse although we missed our cousin Ric who had died suddenly in June and is much missed.

At the end of August Rebi and I had a 58th Birthday party, to celebrate my 40th in March and her 18th in October which was great fun. I spent the summer & up until October feeling better than I can remember.
I was enjoying fabulous health, was full of energy and had joined the gym, I was going for an hour every day, losing weight, & feeling that life really did begin at 40!
Then… Pleurisy hit and I spent a couple of nights in hospital at the end of October & 3 weeks feeling very poorly, I was just starting to feel better when I got a nasty flu virus at the end of November resulting in a trip to hospital yet again. I have been unwell ever since & seem unable to shake it. It would appear that I have just been particularly badly hit by the virus & it’s going to take time to recover, Kevin enjoyed 10 days of my completely lost voice however!

We received the unpleasant news at the beginning of December that Kevin will be redundant as from the 31st December which after 18 years with Cemex (previously Rugby Cement!) came as rather a shock.
Kevin has had a couple of interviews, with some more over the next couple of weeks; & has given his C.V. to every agency within a 50 mile radius!
As you are probably aware the current climate is not a great one for job searching but we are hopeful that the search will bear fruit soon.

Millie posing very happily!

Not wishing to end on a gloomy note, we have much to look forward to in 2009; My sister Lucy is getting married to her Australian Fiancé James in the U.K. in June. They will be embarking on marriage just six months before Kevin & I celebrate our 20th anniversary!
Another close friend is getting married in October; there will hopefully be a new job for Kevin & a return to good health for me.

We wish all our friends and family a very happy Christmas & a healthy 2009.

Much love from Kevin, Kate & Rebi xxx




Kevin in Estonia!