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Well at the end of 3 days I am down 7lbs. I have found that I like warm broth while family eats dinner. Makes me think I’m eating something good. I have cooked several big meals for the group (5 family members). I am proud to say I have not even cheated once, not even licking the spoon! Good luck to everyone. My surgery will be next week

March 13th had my sleeve surgery. Everything went well. BW -375 SW- 330. I am a little sore but I am so excited.

As soon as I can work you into my budget I'm going to order, you are better than my local health food shops and certainly better than WallyWorld! Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app

We have TONS of unflavored protein powders at the BariatricPal Store. You can view them here .

I was wholly unprepared for the psychological aspects of the journey to bariatric surgery so I sit down to write this in the hopes that you might not make the same mistake that I did in taking this so lightly. When I first started out, I thought this would be similar to the journeys of the other weight loss attempts in my life so I totally discounted the psychology. In fact, I did not even want to think about matters related to the mind. It was the pre-op diet that forced me to take a very long and deep-seated look at the exact cause of my obesity; food is love, relief from clinical depression, and medicine. The realization hit me a week and a half into this pre-op diet that I am no longer going to be able to use the medicine that worked so well. I am a survivor of almost twenty years of verbal and psychological abuse from peers, teachers, parents, and co-workers. Food was what was simultaneous keeping me from suicide and basically killing me. If ever more morbid a paradox existed, I am at a loss for thinking of any. Even the times when I was thin, I always knew if things went downhill, food was merely walking distance away. I have had a range of emotions from anger and hatred towards those whom abused me, to hope and forgiveness. I write this a day and a half before my surgery as I go through a treasure trove of old digital photos of me in different stages of my life. I also went through and organized all of my music. It was something that necessarily had to be done because it's an important part of closure that I never did. I looked at the albums of photos with the two women whom ever had the courage to love me at one point in time or another. I kept them because I was grasping at straws to keep from going over a cliff. I hoped that one day one of them might be a part of my life again. However both are married now, and hindsight being 20/20, they would not be ideal mates for me nor I for them. I looked back on those photos with a mixture of pride, happiness, and sadness. Purging the photos gave me the closure that I needed. Love was possible twice, it will be possible again. I want to stop the cycle of self-loathing. I am not going into the operating room out of self-disgust, I am going out of self-compassion.

Wow. I would say, call your doctor now. Today. This instant! Seriously. This is not normal behavior. Some things that might cause this are low/high blood sugars or swings, low or high blood pressure swings, reaction to pain meds/anesthesia. Even just having an absence of your coping tool (food). It's normal to have mood swings and episodes of depression, especially after gut surgery. Just messing with the guts can disrupt neurohormones that affect mood. BUT, if you are having idiations of violent rage, you need to be evaluated and to potentially have a med on board. Also, you may be seriously dehydrated. So I would immediately (if it was me--I'm not a professional), start invisioning peaceful scenes, taking super deep, slow breaths, and dumping water into my system as much as my surgery allows. And I would remove myself from the family and lay on cool, sheets with low light and lots of air moving. No loud noises or tv. Maybe low peaceful slow music...but only if it doesn't agitate or annoy.

Your primary doctor is suggesting sleeve or surgeon? Reasons you are struggling? What other health problems do you have besides obesity?

Thank you so much i will try that

Yes, you can and I did, as well as the airfare to and from. First, as previously stated, you MUST itemize your taxes, if you fill out the 1040EZ or 1040A then you don't itemize so you get NO benefit. Second you can only deduct the amount that is OVER 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, NOT the whole thing. So gather up ALL your medical expenses and add them up, if they don't add up to MORE than 7.5% of your gross income then you can't deduct them. The deduction is just that, a DEDUCTION. You do NOT get "the whole thing back" or even the amount above the 7.5% (see point above) you get the amount OVER the 7.5 reduced off your adjusted gross income, so that means you don't pay taxes on the amount of money you are allowed to deduct. So if you pay 20% in federal income taxes you won't have to pay the 20% tax on the amount you can deduct. So you don't "take off" the full amount, or even the amount above 7.5% of your gross income you just don't have to pay taxes on the amount you can deduct. Let's say you make $100,000 (we'll use easy numbers even though they don't represent most users real income). IF you have more than 7.5% in qualified medical deductions - that is OUT OF POCKET eligible medical expenses - of MORE than $7500 you can reduce your taxable income by the excess. Say you have $10,000 in medical expenses YOU paid for. You can put a deduction on your tax form of $2500 - that's the $10,000 LESS the 7.5% or $7500. That means you WILL NOT pay taxes on the $2500. So if you pay 20% in taxes you will reduce your tax payment by $500 - which is 20% of $2500. If you already get a refund, your refund will be $500 MORE, if you owe taxes on something else then this goes toward paying that tax bill. There is a way around this for SOME, if you have a qualified HIGH DEDUCTIBLE insurance policy the government allows you to save - tax free - in a Health Saving Account (HSA) and pay for any QUALIFIED medical expenses from in, in essence not pay taxes on ALL your medical expenses that you pay using the HSA. See a tax expert for more details.