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No not completely. I may not have the experience that some bandsters do, but I am quickly learning in my 13 short days. I am sooo very greatful I have found ways to enjoy my protien powder without getting bored. I am very happy I invested in a Magic Blender. It's been my lifesaver. I put all my Light Progresso soups in it with some chicken or beef broth...to make it soupier. I add vanilla and/or chocolate protien powder to a cup of ice and a cup of coffee in the morning to make an iced coffee. I bought Lipton diet tea with honey, individual packs, and add unflavored whey protien to it for my afternoon drink and I drink another one at night. So I am getting atleast 75g of protien per day. I am getting in the habit to brush my teeth after EVERY meal, that helps the hunger cravings. Then when my 30 minutes are up the toothpaste taste is gone and I can have my liquids. I am still having trouble getting all my liquids in, but I am trying since the hunger has increased over the past couple of days. The worst time of day for me is suppertime. My family has always depended on me to cook a hot dinner. The first week and a half they did fend for themselves, but I had to help because alot of what they were cooking were my recipes. Now, my husband has stopped helping make dinner and my kids are tired of ramen noodles and frozen pizza's. Actually they are out of them and I refuse to buy those anymore. So, I am cooking chicken and rice for dinner tonight and I have the BBQ chicken in the oven for tomorrow night. The house smells soooo good, and so tempting. I miss eating with my family, but I know if a couple of weeks I will be eating with them and they will be eating healthier since I don't short oder cook. Time to move on and take another walk on the treadmill.

I was taking Biotin & my NUT told me it wasn't necessary. I stopped taking it & noticed more hair loss, Sooooo I'm taking it again, as I feel it helped slow the loss before. It takes a while to get in your system, but I know it works for me! Hope your hair loss slows down. & I hear it's less noticeable with short hair, but I have always had my hair short. Easier to take care of. Good luck.

In less than 24 hours I will be amoung the banded . I am happy, excited, scared all in one....I can't wait to see what is in store for me on this new journey...Keep me in your prayers!

Well me and Oprah have been doing this yo-yo dance for the past 30+ years. At its worst I have been about 90lbs overweight but usually its 75-80. Anyway it is time to stop the madness. I just cannot keep struggling with this and everything lugging 80 lbs I dont need around means. Probably don't need to go into what it means here with anyone reading this, but that is like two forty lb bags of kitty litter!:-). So here I am. Surgery is scheduled for 8-1-12 and even though I am a nurse (or because I am) I'm pretty nervous. Got the WHAT IF's pretty bad. Am trying to focus on the BUT WHENS!. But when this is over I hope I can lose 80 for the very last time. But when this is over I can shop for clothes off the rack!. But when this is over I can sit comfortably in an airline seat etc etc etc,,,,,

Hey I love life and I want to encourage any and everybody. I love my journey. It has not been easy, but truly worth it. Look at my video and you will see why I feel so good about staying connecting and helping others any and everywhere. Enjoy the video: go to you tube: type in youjustwaitnsee. I will get it down loaded on site soon. Once I figure out how to upload video it will here. But any one can see it this way as well. Vblack

Well - this is my first posting and first blog so here goes! I feel lately I have had a lot of firsts....first major surgery, first time putting myself first, first time owning my health, etc I have to say that it definitely is hard to choose yourself first. Anyone with children, a spouse, family, etc knows what I mean. You feel as if you are cheating them out of being there. It has taken me many years to come to understand that what I thought as putting them first was actually an excuse for me to continue to be unhealthy. How was I putting them first if I wasn't taking the best care of myself? This is a VERY hard lesson to learn. As I look around at my family members and family history of chronic weight related issues I put my foot down. There was a voice deep down saying "me, me...did you forget that I am here?" This time I chose to listen. I have not always been overweight...alright "morbidly obese". This is something that has been rolling along pretty much for the past 15 years. You know the story....get married (get comfortable), have children (more comfortable with a few pounds) and before you know it you are a shell of the person you once were. Years go by and you lose a little and gain more and back and forth. Many of us have the same story. My weight loss surgery journey originally began two and a half years ago, Dec 2009 with a seminar for the lap band. I went and listened and then said I will give it another try of doing it myself and bailed on following through. Two years later I found myself at the seminar again with a firm grip on my nerves and actually listened with more conviction about choosing me first. After going through the 3 months of NUT, psych appointment, surgeon visits and pre-op testing...I took a leap of faith with myself and God . I had clear liquids 24 hrs before surgery and was officially sleeved on 7/17 at 10am. I am currently 10 days post-op and completely intrenched in the full liquid diet. What can you say about liquids? Not a whole lot . Anyway, I am just passing time until Tues when I get to start the greatly anticipated puree stage. Never thought I would be so excited about eating food the consistency of baby food. But here I am and readily counting the hours. This past 2 weeks has given me time to do a lot of thinking!! Sometimes I wonder if the liquid stage is just as much for learning to listen to your body and conquering some of your food obsession as it is about letting your body heal. I have found that everyday that voice is getting a little stronger and I can't wait to begin to have NSVs and see the weight come off. I will take each day of passing time to consider the gift I have been given of my life, living longer, spending more time with family and friends. I am 38 years old and have a lifetime ahead of me and plan to make it the best I can!!

I went through similar journey of starting out planning on lap band a couple of years ago, changing my mind, trying diet and exercise again for a year (unsuccessfully) not wanting to do bypass (for same reasons you stated) then deciding on sleeve. I do not have all of your health concerns other than a very lumpy bumpy thyroid with very little function, but so far it does not have to be removed. I did have several scares with chest pain (one that scared me enough to go to the emergency room) that turned out to be nothing, but it was enough to remind me that I want to live to see my children graduate college, get married, have grandchildren, travel etc....but if I kept on my current course, I was surely decreasing my chances of making it that far. Then my friend, who had the RNY operation four years ago, ran the NY Marathon. She looked great, she felt great and now she had accomplished something as incredible as that! Where was I, I was at my highest weight ever, 272 lbs feeling fat, tired, uncomfortable, embarrassed and miserable. I decided enough was enough and I got started on the journey to have the sleeve. It took 8 months of meetings with NUT, getting all the required work done etc, required by my insurance company. I had many moments of second thoughts, especially when I had to go for tests and things I would have otherwise never done in a million years. When my surgery was finally set, I almost cancelled about 100 times, I was so scared. BUT I went through with it on June 4th and I can honestly say it was the best thing I ever did! There were a few times in the hospital and during my first week home that I questioned what in the heck did I do to myself, but now I am getting used to the plan and I am down over 40 pounds since surgery and have never felt better! My point in telling you all of this is that it is human nature to cling to our old way of life because we are scared and it is what we know. It is really scary and hard to face the unknown of how things will be after surgery (and for me I had NEVER had surgery of any kind, so I was also really scared of the unknown of what that would be like). The tests and all the visits are a pain, but need to be soldiered through with your eye on the end goal...YOUR HEALTH! In the end, this surgery has helped so many people improve their health and their lives in unbelievable ways. I just read a post of someone who after 9 months is down 90 lbs and off of her 12 meds! With all of your health issues, imagine what life would be like for you if losing weight nullified or at least alleviated most of them! It is normal to be scared and uncertain, but in the end, don't let that get in the way of taking control of your life and your health. YOU ARE WORTH IT! Good luck to you. My prayers are with you that you can find peace and calm going through this process and that you have a safe and successful surgery.

Best wishes I hope everything go okay, I'm going for my first siminar on Monday

It has been one whole month since my surgery. I unfortunately still feel like I'm a sick person recovering though between eating mushies still, taking liquid omeprazle, and pulling an internal stitch 2 weeks ago. However, today my stomach (where I pulled that stitch) is finally not bothering me as much. I can finally sleep on my side, which has begun to help my back pain a lot. And, so far any mushie food I've feed my sleevie has agreed with me. I went through a phase about 2 weeks out where I was freaked out over the amount of liquids I could handle in one swallow. I didn't need to sip anything by week two, I could take pretty regular sized drinks. I was worried I did something wrong. My doctor assured me, I just healed well and fast, and was happy for it. Now I freak out sometimes when I can eat what feels like it should be a lot, like 1/2 cup of fat free re-fried black beans, and I only feel full there at the end and can eat it in 30 minutes. Like... wow. Um, I thought that this was supposed to be harder? I guess maybe in the end, when all the healing is done, and I'm on regular food again, that I might be happier that I can eat most things. I've been super careful and slow when I introduce sleevie to something new. I take micro bites at first, sort of testing the waters, and then I'm like ok, we're good. And another food goes into rotation. I'm going to be trying tuna and chicken salad this week. I had to mentally get past the mushy meats idea. But, I do want to introduce meats to my system again before I'm eating real food again. I think I forgot that its a actually a goal to be able to eat a little closer to "normal" portions by the time I'm totally healed. I will be able to handle 2-3 oz. of meat, 1/4 cup of veggies, and a couple of tbsp. of brown rice. This amount of food sounds absurd to me in one sitting right now. Speaking of food...I've become pretty on top of healthy alternative recipe hunting. One of my post-surgery changes is cooking more often from home, making clean & healthy whole foods, and experimenting regularly with new recipes. I found cauliflower pizza crust! Protein donuts?! Yes! So long as this stuff tastes as amazing as my head thinks it does, (after 5 weeks of mushies and 3 weeks of liquids it will all taste good! LOL), then we're ready to rock and roll. I'm going to do my best to follow for the most part a low glycemtric diet for the rest of my life. Because I'm human, there will be "normal" food days, and I'm not going to feel food guilt those moments ever again. Food guilt is ridiculous in my life, and I don't need it. I felt guilty when I ate. Period. If I had a healthy sandwich, whole wheat bread, smoked turkey, low fat mayo, loaded with veggies... I'd feel guilty. That is something I feel I'm past now, and I don't want to ever feel like that again. I'm slowly getting past my, "Buyer's remorse." It has been harder than I anticipated for me post surgery. Not the food, I've been disciplined and not even thought about challenging my post-op diet at all. Its been physically not being where I am capable of being mentally. My pulled stitch has slowed me down, and it has frustrated me so much. I still have to take it easy, when I want to go walk a mile. I want to grab my hula hoop and just go nuts dancing, but I can't do that for another 4-5 weeks. Heartbreaking for me. I want to pick up my little dog and cuddle him like a baby, and I can't do that for a while either. I miss drinking while eating more than I thought I would. I was sad to think I can't drink milk and eat a PB&J sandwich at the same time. Is that forever? In a year or two, can I do that again? I'm just mentally past the healing and change part, and feel stunted in my ability to go forward because of this injury, and my back pain I've been suffering since I've been having to lay on my back so much. I'm back at work, but still can't bend over or reach up or move as fast as I did before... I'm ready to feel like myself 100% again and I'm pretty sure I still have a few more weeks before I will. I am rather pleased with my 37 pound weight loss, and don't even mind that I'm in a stall right now. Ah. This getting my thoughts out thing feel good.

Special K as I've said before keep the laughs coming. Maybe a new career is in the making (stand-up)