 Hi, YouTube family. I cannot believe that it has been a whole month since I sat down and filmed for you guys and Was able to talk to you guys. I missed you guys so much. I Am here today and it's the 1st of August and I am so excited to be able to Tell you a little bit about my journey and the things that have been going on with me If you're new to my channel, my name is Melissa. Welcome. I'm so glad that you're here Don't hesitate to subscribe if you like what you the content that I have I do beauty videos I try to do them three times a week But I promise two times a week right now because I am still Recoverating from some major surgery and going through a few things But so two times a week will be this schedule and that will usually come on Wednesdays and Saturdays That is what I hope will happen. Although today is Thursday, so we're doing it a little bit different now Let's get into this story. My name is Melissa. I'm a 51 year old beauty blogger blogger Here on YouTube. I've been doing this for about three years I have over 350 videos up if there's anything that you would like to see about the mature woman her skin her makeup Little bit of hair in there I have just about every video that you could imagine Especially I try to gear everything towards the mature woman But a lot of these things my tips and tricks they always apply to just about anybody So I would love to have you here no matter what your age is. I Wanted to sit down today and just have a chit chat with my community because everybody that has been here for a while knows that I recently had a bariatric surgery I went through gastric bypass and I just did that on July 1st And I went to Mexico you guys I'm gonna just spew that all out there. Here we go I went to Mexico to get it done in Mexico the bypass cost $5,500 in the United States the cheapest actual price that I ever got for it was about 18 to $25,000 so I figured that you know this particular one that I went to had Such good reviews and he has such a good track record that I would go down there and get it done I will say that the facility was very clean. It is in Tijuana just so you guys know. Yes, Tijuana is very scary place But what you do is you get picked up at the airport in San Diego and they take you over the border You are never out of their care in the whole entire time that you're there you do have a companion go with you which is my husband and They take care of them as well So you get a ride straight to the hospital and then you get a ride to the Marriott Hotel in Tijuana Which was luxurious and beautiful and then and you get taken care of like a queen there, too And then you get taken right back over the border to San Diego to fly out So it was an adventure to say the least it was very something that was very scary You know thinking about going to a different country to do this But I did all of my research you guys know I was talking to you guys all the time about everything that was going on I was also in touch with people that could help me with my emotional part of it Which that journey is still continuing and as a matter of fact I'm kind of looking for a better therapist right now for that what kind of fits me if you guys know have ever been to therapy You know that you need to find somebody that kind of fits you better So that's what I'm going through right now But the surgery went really well I had of course the gas pain that you get with it because you know They have to fill your abdominal cavity full of gas in order to be able to look around there So I had that and you just walk you walk your butt off So for three days you're in there at the hospital and then you transfer in your two days at the Hotel that's right close to the hospital So if anything happens they can still keep an eye on you and then you go ahead and you fly home And I flew home on a Friday and everything was going well. I was doing my walking and everything But on Monday, I was exactly seven days post-op on Monday. I After the surgery. So this was Monday, July 8th. I Couldn't keep anything down. I was vomiting and I was hurting really bad and couldn't figure out what was going on So I went back into the emergency room just thinking, you know I was dehydrated or something like that was wrong Didn't really think anything except for you know, everybody says that you'll have some nausea some some stuff like that and Went back in and sure enough out of blockage and the little town that I live in well It's not really a little town, but they don't have the they don't have a bariatric surgeon here per se so they took me over to Seattle and When I got to Seattle, I had this blockage that they were continuing to try and see if anything was pasted I had the lovely You know hose up my nose down into my stomach so that they could pump my stomach and keep my stomach clear So that everything wouldn't you know make that worse that blockage worse So they had me over there the first day when they transferred me by ambulance and then the second day I just was meeting with doctors having tested on that kind of thing and The doctors and I decided that they might as well go in instead of just trying to do a scope down my throat And you know, they might not be able to get to where they needed to get or see what they needed to see that We would just go ahead and have another surgery to be able to correct it because it probably wasn't going to be able to be corrected Through a scope going down my throat. So we went in that was Wednesday I believe was the day I had this surgery and Sure enough, I had a kink and there was also some tissue that was not tissue, but fatty tissue Kind of laid over and it had kinked it and then there was a stitch one single stitch that apparently my body Particularly just didn't like and it was just kind of forming some scar tissue around there so they cleaned that all up and You know, I had another surgery and yes, it just sounds like oh my gosh You went to Mexico's and you had to have another surgery. I don't believe that for a minute I think that no matter where you have this surgery at there is the Possibility of complications and I just happened to be one of those people that had a complication and So it was a difficult thing. I am not going to take this lightly and say oh people go out and do this. No problem It's no big deal. I'm not gonna say that because it was really hard on me and I was scared I was so scared. I was scared going out of the country I was scared having surgery because I haven't been put under since I had my daughter 20 Almost 23 years ago a by-sea section So, you know, all of those things were they were scary and then again It was scary when I went ahead and you know had the second surgery I do not like being put out. It is one of those things that scares me to death I know that you just go to sleep and then you wake up and you're there, but it really does scare me and But I made it through so I'm okay as far as all that goes I Was not able to take pain medications leaving the hospital because I have a very Low tolerance to those pain medications and they make me very sick and so I didn't want to retch I didn't want to get sick and you know have that nausea feeling and not know whether or not it was my actual Surgery or whether it was you know just pain medications So I kind of have a high tolerance for pain anyway, so I kind of you know just suffered through that I'm not you know not trying to get any sympathy here anything, but it was hard. It was traumatic But I am doing so much better It is a very life-changing thing and so many people say this was the easy way out I don't believe that for a minute because this is forcing me to change every The whole entire way. I think about food You have to be on a soft diet at first you have to follow the plan very rigidly Otherwise you risk, you know ripping your staple line open ripping You know sutures open that kind of thing and then you'd have another mess and you also have to be very Strict about how much you eat each time not just what you eat that how much you eat and Follow the guidelines and then of course just choose healthy living, you know choose to be more active Choose to you know the right things to put in there not carbs You know you have to have protein protein is the building blocks of our body. You have to have that So it's just been a complete makeover for me. So but up and up and on how much have I lost? I have exactly lost 53 pounds to date since I started the pre-op diet and I started the pre-op diet May 1st It's just kind of a low carb Very high protein diet But you're not you don't go crazy on it and then three or four days before You have to go on strictly liquids and then you can't have anything to eat of course the day of surgery So that is the story so far and I've lost 53 pounds I feel like a completely different person. That's like a small child that you're carrying around So yeah, that's a lot of weight. I do have a lot of weight still to lose Believe it or not guys I still have almost a hundred pounds to lose and I know everybody's gonna like flip out at that number But I do I was in the morbidly obese category and that's why she chose to do this is because I had tried everything I had tried every diet you can imagine. I had done keto for two years. I had done low carb I had done weight watchers. I've done nutrition systems. I I mean if you if you can think about it I've done it and I just wasn't able to get a hold of it partly because I had so many other things going on I also have fibromyalgia as most of you know I have trigeminal neuralgia which affects the nerve right here that goes across your face and I have chronic depression anxiety of PTSD and Panic disorder if that's enough Anyway, I know that so many of you suffer with so many of those things and I know that We have talked over and over again about how difficult it is when you start gaining weight And you already have a chronic illness that causes you pain And that's really the reason that I decided to be so drastic about it was because I knew that my pain was being caused by my weight you can't carry an extra hundred and fifty pounds around and Feel okay or do okay in life. It is just really hard on your body, especially as you get older I know that a lot of people, you know, there are a lot of TV shows and stuff I'm not fat-shaming in any way whatsoever I've been a fat girl my whole life and I know how hard that is to live that life But I needed to change in order to change my health all together and just be a different person So that's why I chose to do it. If any of you have any questions whatsoever Please find me on Instagram. Please find me on Facebook. You're welcome to private message me I will be happy to answer any questions about going to Mexico about doing bypass versus sleep for me or you know, what happened to me after in a little bit more detail I'll be happy to answer any of those questions for you. I'm still a newbie though I don't have my gears of you know success under my belt yet So hopefully I will be one of those in the long term that you can come to also and ask those kinds of questions And be able to you know, we can chat whatever you need to do. I know that it is a very scary thing I was scared out of my mind personally, but here I am and I made it and everything is fine So please reach out to me if you if you need to in any way This community that I have right here. I want to speak on that for just a minute I I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry. I promise I was absolutely blown away at the amount of Love and kindness and encouragement And like I had this huge cheerleading squad behind me and this huge support system behind me and I I feel so blessed to have each of you in my life and the hundreds and hundreds of comments that you guys have given me And let me know, you know that you were thinking about me and the prayers and all of that And I I thank you from the bottom of my heart And I I felt so much love and so much joy during that time even though I was hurting I just felt so good about having this Little community that I have and I just want to say thank you over and over again and tell you how much I do love you. I don't say that lightly. I know that every youtuber feels that and unless you're on this side of the camera, you don't quite understand because It's it's powerful in an age of When we see so much hatred in the world and so much violence towards people it's really powerful to have that kind of Reassurance that there are really really good people out there and by and large the majority of people are amazing And you are all amazing to me and you will always hold a special place in my heart And there are so many of you that I have made just such a good such a huge bond with and I just want to tell you that you're And I just want to tell you that you are amazing. You are Wonderful You are you take my breath away because I feel like at times When I couldn't breathe on my own when I felt like I couldn't go on I went on because of all of your encouragement So I just wanted to tell you that And by the way my go fund me page my what happened on that second surgery is my husband had to take off A whole week of work and my kids were taking off from work And it was so expensive over in seattle and we just had prepared for that. We had prepared for Mexico We were all you know, we we took vacation time all of that stuff But we weren't prepared for the second bout of it. And that's when I did the go fund me page on facebook and I was just absolutely I still can't believe what happened I still can't believe the outpouring of financial assistance that you guys gave me and It wasn't just the assistance behind it. It was that The care and I felt like, you know, it helped me Not only realize How many friends I have and how blessed I am and how joyful that makes me but it also made me realize that I want to be there for other people too more. I mean, I try really hard to always be there for people But I want to make sure that when other people are in need that I can do the same and pay it forward If you guys watch that movie, I love that movie But definitely pay it forward and be able to give back When there is a time of need, I'm not somebody that likes to ask for help But I just didn't know what else to do and I could I was just I'm still absolutely I in awe of what happened when I when I did that And so I I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for that as well And so let me just bring you up to date about my son because I did post just a few days ago That my son also had to have emergency surgery I can't go into too much detail about it because it is kind of His story not mine to tell but he did have a really super bad abscess infection That had him to have to have some pretty drastic surgery But he came through it beautifully and after the surgery because the abscess was causing so much inflammation and causing The swelling to be so great that after the surgery He actually did get a ton of relief. It wasn't just an outpatient surgery And I was able to bring him home in a few hours. And so this is two days later and he is doing so Good. So yeah, that's my son and he's off from work now, which was unexpected too But at least he's here with us and we can help take care of him. So we're glad about that And thank you again for all of your love and support towards him as well because I was Planning on filming the day that he went into surgery and then it was like boom And so I'm so glad that July is over with to tell you the honest truth. Goodbye. Goodbye, July It was just one of these months that was just like topsy-turvy and there were other things going on in our personal life But I want to leave you with a thought During all of this my husband and I Even though we've only been married about seven years. We've known each other for about seven and a half years we've only been married about seven years and My husband and I grew so close so much closer and we have a good marriage to begin with anyway But we grew so close during this because anything that we Hit up against we would say to each other how much we treasured each other I did that with my son, you know, and I I think sometimes we take for granted the people in our lives and how Important they are to us and how much they mean to us and we forget to just step back for a moment And just say I love you. You're important to me. I couldn't live my life without you and That has really been a huge deal in our family right now. We're trying to just Reinvent ourselves and and make sure each person is treasured and knows that how much they're loved and treasured And so that's what I'm going to leave you with is that You're important to me. I love you so much and you're a treasure and I want to tell you that over and over again Thank you for supporting my channel. Thank you for supporting this little community We have and thank you so much for everything that you've done for me in this past You know while when I've been struggling so much and before I do start to cry I am going to say goodbye, but I love you all Take care of yourselves and I will see you next time with a real beauty video. Take care. Bye. Bye