Ok so here are the pics of my sister Brandy...I know she had sugery and yes that was a GREAT help, but I have to say she is working her tail off by a healthy lifestyle and exercise to make sure the surgery is only a TOOL for her, it does not control her success.

These may not be her "biggest" pics or her "smallest", but these are the ones I have available. She was talking in 1/2 of them Maybe soon I can get one of her all made up.

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Thats awesome! WAY TO GO!

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Wow Brandy is doing so great! That is awesome of her to take control of her life like that. It can't be easy, she is amazing.

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Cassie that is great that she is doing so well.

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Thanks girls! Its a struggle every day. She cant eat or drink over 2oz at a time or she gets sick.

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Wow, Cassie! She looks AMAZING! Almost like a totally different person at the end. What an inspiration!

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2 oz is crazy small amount. I can't even imagine.

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wow your sister looks great. I am having Gastric bypass on Aug 13th I hope to be as successful as your sis

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Renee that's wonderful! I wish you much success. Her main thing is that you remember that it's only a tool and just like everyone else you can gain your weight back. You have to make a healthy lifestyle to maintain it. I can tell you it has changed EVERYTHING about her. From the way she talks, moves her hands, sits, and the way she treats other people. I'm excited for you! Good luck and after you have it you should keep us updated on your success!!

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Cassie she looks great! Way to go sis and Renee good luck to YOU! Keep us updated! As someone who went through a body changing surgery it isn't easy and is a emotional thing too but so great to see the results!

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Cassie - wow, she is doing awesome! Now I see how people can lose weight in their necks. She is working hard to keep that up.

Renee - Good Luck! Please check in and let us know how it goes.

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Cassie-She has gone through an AMAZING transformation. That is really really awesome for her, hopefully she keeps up the great work.

Renee-My husband had gastric bypass 3 years ago I think? It really is an amazing TOOL. He still eats great and goes to the gym almost daily but coming from someone who has seen it up close you are gonna feel like a whole different person. I'll see if I can't find his before/after pics. He went from 425 to a rather muscular 225. He also went through a tummy tuck last october to remove the excess skin on his abdomen and repair the muscle damage(his weight gain was scary fast due to something, i'll ask what it was called) so the skin was really damaged by it. But congrats and best of luck!!!!!

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Cassie- WOW...your sister looks great. Congrats to her

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So I am going through my photobucket looking at all the pics in there...

My sis...12/24/2005



Most recent pic I have, she is smaller now...she is about 193 lbs now.

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cassie-your sister looks incredible. how is her overall health after the surgery? my dh's uncle did I and had major issues from it. But I have heard for many it is wonderful.

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Cassie - she looks great!

Vicki - my aunt had gastric bypass about ten years ago. She lost a ton of weight, but went on to have other addiction issues afterwards because the source of her food addiction (sexual abuse as a child) wasn't dealt with. She's now an alcoholic, a smoker, and a chronic cheater on her husband. It totally messed with her head. She should have had mental health counseling afterwards, but didn't.

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Vicki - so far so good. She is very adament (sp) about taking her vitamens and protien. She knows that her hormones and emotions are all crazy! So she went to the doc and they put her on Lexapro. She is still working out and eating the low/no carb diet. She cooks big meals for her boyfriend, but it doesn't seem to bother her one bit not to eat it.

Emily - Gosh that is so scary.

I really hope with my sister what we see on the outside is what's going on on the inside or behind closed doors, because you just never know. She hasn't gone to counceling or anything. I think there were required evaluations after surgery...maybe she still has those, I'd have to ask. Everytime I find a pic of her, I am so proud.

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Cassie - I don't think that everyone who goes through gastric bypass will have those types of issues, but I do think it's a good idea for her to consider counseling. I know even just from losing a lot of weight on my own once the impact it can have on your mental health. In one sense, you're so happy because people treat you differently and you feel differently about yourself. In another sense, you think to yourself that you're the same person inside, so is it just your physical appearance that now makes you loveable? It can make you nuts and question your self-worth.

I think it's called "addiction transfer" what happened to my aunt. She went through some awful, awful things in life though to get to where she was weightwis