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I wish you would have told her “if you don’t vomit you’re not working out hard enough!”

Another thing I noticed and not just you lots of people are saying oh it took me an hour to eat my meal, my dietician and surgeon and lots of other literature say stop eaten after 20 minutes and throw what you haven't eat in that time away or put it in the fridge for your next meal. The longer you take to eat something the more calories you are getting in. Another thing is you are not meant to eat until the point you feel restriction, it took a long time for me to feel restriction because I was eating the recommended amounts now at almost a year out yes I can eat alot before restriction kicks in and with "slidder" foods I get no restriction so don't rely on restriction to limit your food intake because it won't work long term. The idea of the sleeve is to stop you feeling really hungry and to feel not hungry sooner. Slow your eating down, stop after 20 minutes, eat the recommended foods and portion sizes, separate drinking and eating, make sure you keep hydrated and you will succeed. "I didn't have to take my time. I ate normally because I actually forgot to go slow. And being that I'm only 19 days out, I didn't think I would be able to eat this much this soon with absolutely no issues at all." Just because you can does mean you should,

I had a sleeve done about 10 years ago when I was 40. I went from about 280 to 160 and have put the weight back on. I have seen two surgeons in my area in the last couple of months. One does DS and says I am kinda halfway through a DS procedure. The other surgeon does not do DS so she is recommending bypass. If I really want, she can refer me to a surgeon in the hospital system who does DS but that is 3 hours away. I've had some friends use the DS surgeon and recommend her but her office staff is a hot mess. An overall lack of organization and I send info to the person I am told to but then someone else calls and says I wasn't supposed to send to that person. The by pass surgeon is in my hospital system and therefore has access to all my doctor's records since nearly every one of my doctors is in that hospital system. By pass doctor said that DS wasn't fully "approved" (my word not hers) and is still considered experimental but she wants to learn how to do it and expects it will be much more common in the near future. My husband is asking me what will I do differently after this surgery that I didn't do before. Great question. I am moving through all the insurance required hoops for both doctors at this point but still not sure I want to do either. Anyone have any words of wisdom? Not sure how to proceed. Thanks so much!

I brought a clean change of clothes. Slippers for walking the halls. A long charging cable for my phone. A small bottle of biotene dry mouth spray. (Only needed it waking from surgery, but it really felt good at that time). Toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant. That's it.

I started out that way as well but for some reason I am finding I am able to eat less as time goes on. It's weird I know. I think you should give it time and stay the course. Target smaller meals and make a schedule for yourself. Good luck and stay the course Sent from my SM-S901U using BariatricPal mobile app

@ lee ann yes, a healthy relationship to food. I’m always going to love food. I’ve been daydreaming about cooking fish. A whole fish. A beautiful fish. Red snapper. With Thai flavors. I thought am I obsessing about food? Is this healthy? It’s inevitable really with drinking vanilla, chocolate, and salted caramel shakes. And I concluded that I’m looking forward to eating healthy and trying new recipes. It’s ok. I’m looking forward not back.

@LookingForward22 Thank you! This is super helpful. Agreed you should be 100% comfortable with who is doing the surgery. If I move forward. My husband is super supportive and I'm hoping he hops on board if I make this decision and truthfully, he's really good about asking questions and observing where sometimes I am not... Not for lack of care, but sometimes I miss important things where he catches them haha. I think that'll be helpful when it comes to really digging into who we I'll be seeing and talking with. Happy to hear you are comfortable now with the new option and all the best! @The Greater Fool Thanks! this is very helpful. I read a bit on how some have been able to prove skin reconstruction can be proved as health required with some insurance but hadn't found too much on the more in-depth what insurances/proving other than back and rash issues. I read the tummy-tucks were more likely covered due to the back issues but not as much on other areas. Appreciate the additional info on this. @redhead_che Truthfully, I haven't looked into bypass too much but know someone going for sleeve and also read/head it was a shorter recovery, but as I said, I haven't looked/confirmed this yet since I'm still more in research mode haha. I appreciate the mention, though. I definitely am open to other options to move forward with a healthier lifestyle. Since you have had both, do you happen to have any feedback on recovery, and do you find now that bypass has been more effective in weight loss than the sleeve now? @LilaNicole20 In addition to my post above, definitely interested in your experience with bypass too with any recovery and after feelings. Will look into videos and posts with experiences as well to help educate myself on both. I currently only have a referral in somewhere as of late last week so waiting to schedule something and talk to a dr about options too but I want to kinda soak up info so I can prepare some questions when I can meet with someone. Thanks everyone!! ❤️

During the pre op diet and the post op life do not compare your progress to others. Just stick to the plan your team lays out for you and trust the process. We are all here to cheer one another on but we are all so different that your journey will be unique to you.

When I had the surgery, I was 41, 6'1", HW of 505, CW 490, surgery day weight of 460. I had sleep apnea, prehypertension and a BMI of ~60. I also had to take blood thinning injections post-surgery. I also had bypass surgery (which has a higher risk of complications). So you and I are/were in roughly the same ballpark. I came through the surgery fine. Definitely sore. But it drastically improved my life and I would make the same decision in a heartbeat. Heck, I was able to look down today and see my toes, instead of them being covered by stomach. I've gotten to experience stepping on a scale and having the first number be a 2. I am approaching the nine-month mark and I weigh 295 and wear 2xl/3xl shirts (I'm like a 2.5xl at this point, I was a solid 6xl pre-surgery). Do you have risk factors? Yeah. But here is what I noticed from that list: you don't have a major condition that will obviously cause complications (like some disease that makes it difficult for your blood to clot or something like that). Do you have a higher potential for complications than someone who only weighed 400 pounds? Yeah. But its a generalized risk, not a specific risk. My recommendation, if you are still interested in the surgery, is to determine right now that you are going to follow your surgeon's post-surgery advice to the letter. If you need 28 days of injections, decide right now that you will do all 28 days. Whatever meds or vitamins he tells you take, take them. Commit right now, "I am not going to disobey my surgeon in a way that increases my risks." You cannot eliminate the risks entirely and if I am being honest, those risks will come to mind when you are being wheeled around on the gurney. You have no guarantees about what the other side of the surgery will look like and feel like. And you will wake up from the surgery in pain. But if you decide that you will do everything you can control to minimize the risks, I think you will be happy with a decision to have the surgery.

My hair was pretty much a casualty of WLS. I lost most of my hair and it hasn't grown back. My surgeon speculates that my hair fell out due to the normal telogen effluvium that comes with drastic weight loss. Then it didn't grow back due to age-related hair loss I would have had anyway (I'm 57). So the surgey sped up the hair loss and I lost it all at once, rather than gradually over a couple of years. But my experience is unusual and I wouldn't take back the 130 pounds I've lost to get my hair back!