My Dramatic Weight Loss

It's been over a year now since I have been diagnosed with achalasia. Since then, I have lost over 75 pounds--nearly a small child. I kind of look at it as a blessing in disguise.
Here I was at my biggest moment:

(I'm the one on the very right.)

Here I am now:

Right after I had the surgery, my appetite totally changed. I wasn't used to the way I was swallowing. About 3 months ago, I've kind of gotten back to eatting like a normal human being does. I'm a little worried about gaining more weight again, so I think I might start to try eating better--more fruits and veggies.

For a while, I was eating portians that a gastric bi-pass patient should have been eating. I would literally eat 4 bites and be stuffed. I'm finally learning that the reason I felt "full" so quickly is because the food was not going down. After several months, I realized that as long as I had some water or noncarbonated beverage, I would be fine.

If I do not have a drink at my side when I am eating I will be miserable. I get that horrible feeling from the food not going down. See, that "full" feeling I was talking about earlier, it's not so much a "full" feeling as it is more like a "vommiting" feeling.

There was actually an instance where my windpipe got blocked because the food was building up in my esophagus and not going down. It was the worst and scariest feeling I have ever experienced. I was getting ready to perform the Heimlich maneuver on myself and in all my state of panicing, the food went down.

Although I had surgery to correct my swallowing, it still doesn't mean that my esophagus will actually act as a normal one would. I have to do all the work. Don't take your body's involuntary actions for granted. One day, they may just stop working involuntarily.