ssflbelle

Thank you both for replying. I was very tempted to through out the container but did hold onto it just in case someone replied. I do not want to use the milk so I will try room temp water and adding it to the coffee afterwards and see if that makes a difference. I do like the flavor so I will give it a try tomorrow.

Notgivingup2 and Gradycat I am in a similar situation as the two of you. Maybe as a threesome we can help each other. I was sleeved Jan 26 2016 along with a hernia repair and gallbladder removal. I got down to 217 and was told by my back Doctor that skin removal might help my back. Not being able to walk due to 6 herniated disc, spinal stenosis and radiculopathy he thought getting rid of the excess skin would help. So I had 4 excess skin removal surgeries from 2017 till 2019. The last surgery in June 2019 resulted in 3 months of complication including MRSA. I was on 2 IV's of Vancomycin of 2 to 5 hours a day and could do nothing and I started gaining weight. By the time the pandemic hit I was up about 15 pounds to 232 pounds and now I am up another 25 to 257 After all my hard work to lose over 280 pounds I never dreamed I would have a regain. What a fool I was, however I am thrilled I have managed to keep off 240 pounds. In Nov I went back to another surgeon and he gave me a diet pill which has caused ringing in my ears within 2 weeks of taking it. I did lose 7 pounds but as soon as I went off the pill I gained that 7 pounds back. I have got to get this under control and head back down. Have you both started doing anything to see the scales going down? With Christmas coming I need to really watch as I will not let myself get to 260.

Has anyone been drinking the 15.31 oz. container of Click all in one Coffee & Protein Drink Mix. I made a cup of percolated coffee and added the drink mix to the coffee twice. Both times it did not stay dissolved. I stirred forever and as soon as I stopped it was all clumpy again. This also happened to the Pumpkin Spice Latte drink mix. Both drinks were gross and I had to strain them three times and what was in the strainer was gross looking too. Does anybody know did adding these drink mixes into the coffee cause this problem? I have not tried just making the drink mix without the percolated coffee. I get the Hot Chocolate drink mix and put it into the coffee and it completely dissolves and is delicious. I thought these other two drinks would do the same thing. They were expensive and I would hate to have to throw them away.

Hi Everyone It has been 3 years since I last posted. During that time I had 3 more Plastic Surgeries despite the fact that I never got to my goal weight. The Dr felt that with all the excess skin from having lost 280 pounds it was best to get it off and see if maybe I would be able to walk again. So in May of 2018, I had an extended Brachioplasty. Within 1 hour of waking up, I was sent home and within less than an hour of being home, I was rushed back to the hospital as I had blood pouring out of my left upper arm. The Surgeon's assistant was called when I got to the hospital at about 9 pm. He came right away and said I had a baseball size hematoma and c would have to go back into surgery. No room was available until 4 a.m. so I remained in the ER until an Operating Room was available. I remained in the hospital for 3 days and almost have to have a blood transfusion. I was released but was told I immediately had to go to the PS office. As I was being loaded into the van my arm started bleeding again. The Dr greeting me at the door and I was immediately taken into a room. I remember him saying I looked like death warmed over. He called insurance and they approved for a nurse to come every other day to clean and rewrap my left arm. It took me 10 weeks to recover from that surgery. I must say I am glad I had the surgery but even though he took off 7 inches of skin from each arm he could have taken off more. I have Micheline Tire Baby Syndrome and the excess skin removal did not take all the rings away. I still have one roll on each arm and some excess skin as my arms are 14 inches instead of 21. To this day I still cannot wear sleeveless shirts and added sleeves to my bathing suits. Insurance will probably never approve another surgery on my arms. After this surgery and complications, I had two more. In early Dec of 2018, I had my panniculectomy and a second hernia was repaired. I had no complications with this surgery and was thrilled to get 10 pounds of skin off my tummy and not have the huge overhang any more. Wearing the binder was not fun as it kept riding either up or down my butt. By the end of January, I was able to buy my first compression garment and was back to work 2 weeks later. Despite the 10 pounds being gone I still was not able to walk without a cane or a walker. All this excess skin being removed is not helping my 6 herniated discs, yet there is one more surgery and this I am told this one may be the one that allows me to walk. In late May of 2019, I had a belt lipectomy. The first week was very painful but by week 3 I was doing great. Two days I had terrible pain on the V spot on my back all the way around to my left groin incision. I was in terrible pain, my skin was hot and I had become so swollen I could not sleep on my left side and I had developed a blister. The Dr had been called the weekend I had terrible pain and felt so sick but I was not able to see him until Wednesday. He Popped the blister and over 5 Emesis Basin of fluid came out. He sent it for testing and 2 days later I was told I had to go to an Infectious Disease Doctor. The Doctor had no appointments on Friday and by Sunday 2 more blisters developed and I was so scared I went to the ER. It was determined I had MRSA and was in the hospital in an isolated room for 5 days. I had to have a MIdline put in as my veins were collapsing. OMGod that procedure hurt like you cannot believe, I was told I had rolling veins and it took them over 40 minutes to get that midline in. To make matters worse I still had a lot of excess skin in the area they wanted to put the midline. I could not move my arm for at least 2 hours after that procedure. For the next 8 weeks, I had 2 hours of IV Vancomycin 2 times a day. Finally Mid August I was well enough to return to work. This surgery did not help my ability to walk any better. I started going to a pain management clinic and he tried all kinds of procedures I can not even remember what they all were. By January 2020 the pain management Doctor thought that radiofrequency ablation might work. So in late February, he stuck me 4 times on each side of my back with the heat probe that cuts the nerve. I knew within weeks I had not worked and then Covid19 hit us all and I was in South East Florida a very bad hot spot. Even today as I wrote this we are still under phrase one. With my body the way it is I am afraid to go anywhere. My last day of work in the office was March 12th. I have been out of the house 3 times since that day. Thank God I can do remote Zoom lessons with my blind clients otherwise I would be homeless. So where do I go from here? I do not think the pain management Doctor who I went to for over 6 months is someone I would want to return to. In Jan I will be 65 years old and even though I have been on a Medicare advantage plan since 2008 I could change insurance companies and get all new Doctors. The only problem is I have no idea what kind of a Doctor to go to or whether or not these Florida Doctors would do anything for me. I am still obese despite having lost 250 pounds and have another 80 pounds to lose. I am over 4 years post-op for my sleeve surgery and barely manage to lose 5 to 8 pounds a month if I am 100% on plan. I was hoping to be walking by my 65th birthday but it does not look like it will happen. I wish I could say losing all this weight was the cure to my being able to walk but it was not. I am so totally disappointed that it did not happen. But I suppose when you have 6 herniated discs losing weight is not going to help them. Yes, I am thinner but am still in a great deal of pain and cannot do anything without a walker or a scooter. Some Golden Years I will be having. Am so tired of being like this. Jan 2021 will be 27 years since I was so badly injured at the Quiet Waters Park Kiss Country Chili and Band Competition. I wish I had never gone it was the ruination of my life.

Good for you. We are the same age and I have the same goal of 175. You are so close, Do not let anyone or anything stop you. I never made it to my goal. I am dealing with a regain of over 40 pounds and once that is gone I have an additional 42 to go. I hope someday to feel the same as you are feeling today.

Today I started a reset also. Did fine with just liquids today. Hope tomorrow goes as well.

So sorry for being away for so long. Yes, pictures will help as well as letters from the various Doctors who might be treating you for the infections. My PS doctor knows how to fight and got all three of my excess skin removal surgeries approved and is currently working on getting approval for the next one.

Had my third excess skin removal surgery Dec 5th. Have lost over 270 pounds and finally had my hernia repair and 10 pounds of my tummy skin removed. Spent 1 night in the hospital and was up out of bed within 12 hours of my surgeries. Was told my hernia was twisted and encased and the Dr did not want to use mesh because of possible infection. He had to take my belly button for the same reason. I have been taking Tylenol extra strength and tramadol. Have 2 drains and had a followup yesterday. Was told I am healing well but still need to keep the drains in. Was tired yesterday from the trip to and from the followup but overall I am doing better than when I had my Brachioplasty in March.

So glad you finally had the excess skisn of your lower belly removed. It looks real good and should help and motivate you to get to goal. Did you have any drain? If so for how long? I had my breast and arms done but need to lose another 50 pounds before he will do my belly. It looks like yours did. I am hoping even though he is asking for insurance to pay for the lower belly that he will do the top half also. He did my forarms even though insurance only paid for the upper arms. Hope your feeling better each and every day.

I am only 2 1/2 years but I still check in every once in awhile. I came on today as I am sturggling so I came back hoping to find some others whom might be struggling also and maybe we could support each other. If there are any of you interested, will share more later about what has been happening, when you say you want support too. Hope to hear from some of you.

Managed to get into the vest sleeve compression garment for only 7 hours yesterday. The Dr told me to try and get them on Saturday, if I couldn't stand them on to try again on Monday. I had some rubbing and tightness in the left arm pit and at the crease area in my arm. I guess I will try again on Monday with some pads in those areas. In my case the excess skin has to be removed before the back Dr will do back surgery. So if I want to ever walk again without assistance I need all this skin removed.

I know what you mean. I am suppose to have 2 more and am having second thoughts. Maybe by Nov I will be thinking otherwise. What second round are you having done and when?

Congratulations on the weight loss. I don't know of any surgeons in your area. I know how hard the excess skin is to deal with but I would see if you can get closer to 200 before you seek out a Plastic Surgery Dr. Your recovery will probably be better. I waited until I had lost 280 pounds before I consulted with a PS. I went from 497 to 217 and had maintained that weight for about 6 months. Because of my 4 herinated disc and inability to walk without assistance the Dr was willing to do a breast reduction on me in June 2017. Sleeve presurgery breast measurement was 70 I. After losing 280 pounds I was a 48DDD. After breast reduction and recovery I am a 42 B. Just this past March he did a Brachioplasty on me. This surgery was very difficult. I don't know if it was because of my current weight which is still 217 or maybe the Dr forgot to close up a blood vessel. They never told me what happened. I went from 21 inch upper arms to 15.5. However I am still swollen and only 2 1/2 weeks into recovery. Here is the posting on the last surgery I had. He wants to wait a bit longer until Iget closer to my goal weight of 180 to do my tummy.

It has been 2 1/2 weeks now and that left arm is still very painful but healing. The glue is still on it as well as the pad for the location of where the drain was placed. The right arm is not as painful and is looking better. Here are the current arm pic. The Dr on Monday said he still wants to wait until next appt 4/12 before he tries to get me into the vest/sleeve compression garment. However he wants me to try to wear a compression sleeve for a bit in preparation for the garment. The nurse helped me get into it. He said he would be surprised if I wore it for longer than a 1/2 hour. They kept rolling down my upper arm and that hurt so I managed to keep them on for 1 1/2 hours. The vest sleeve garment I think will be easier to wear. What do you all think? Does it look like I am healing?

It has been a difficult 2 weeks but I am finally turning the corner and feeling better. I went in March 19th at 2 pm for my bilateral extended to forearm briachioplasty. Opened my eyes in recovery ay 6:45 and was home by 8 for 10 minutes when the ambulance was called. I was bleeding profusely from my left arm and had passed out in my recliner. Had to walk to the stretcher as they couldn't get it into the house. Got to ER around 1/2 hour later, Plastic surgeon from the Center (not the one that did the operation but had assisted with my breast reduction in June) came a looked at what was going on. Passed out again while he was there. He told me I had a hemotoma the size of a baseball and would need to go back into surgery ASAP. No operating room was available until 4:30 when he went in and did whatever had to be done and gave me a drain. Finally at 7:30 am Tuesday morning I was in a shared room. They tried to send me home Tuesday night started bleeding again. They did whatever had to be done. My blood count had dropped down to an 8 and my veins were blowing every time they tried to take more blood from my hands. I had an IV in each hand in case the right one blew. I was seen by the PS again Wednesday night and finally sent home on Thursday. From the hospital I was taken directly to the PS DR office on Thursday as when the hospital staff was loading me into the van I started bleeding again. The Dr and 5 nurses saw me immediately, did whatever they had to do and bandaged me back up and sent me home with all kinds of meds including iron as I was amenic. I had a horrible weekend with intense pain, not only in my arms but my back as well. I was itching like crazy because of the gauze and ace bandages used. When they discovered I had this reaction they came up with a different way of bandaging up my arms. This past Monday I had my 1 week followup and the drain was taken out. I was still way to swollen to fit into any sleeve compressions so I have just been bandaged. I go back tomorrow for my 2 week followup, hopefully will get some stitches out and into the compression garments. I have attached some photos showing the left arm hematoma area drain area and the right arm. I am so bruised, black and blue and swollen I have no idea of what the outcome will be. I have a feeling this is going to be long difficult recovery. I just hope and pray I will be happy with the final results.