Rootman

Congrats! You'll be there before you know it! Best wishes!

Just after WLS the wife got me a new belt. She was sick of my old one with the stretched holes and it bent all up to wrap around my rotund belly. I started out in the third hole, just enough left to tuck under the belt buckle and touch the first belt loop on most pants. Yesterday I had to punch two more holes in it and found the LAST hole was comfortable. The belt now wraps half way around me and touches the MIDDLE BELT LOOP in my slacks in the BACK. Yes, my belt wraps 1 1/2 times around me. Wow! I NEVER thought I'd see the day. BTW: Size 36 slacks are getting baggy, maybe time for some 34s?

I actually got a tad of hunger at 6 months. Not that monster I had within me pre-WLS that DEMANDED I feed it NOW, just a gentle nagging feeling when I needed to eat. I take in maybe 900-1300 calories a day. I also burn off a lot swimming 3 times a week. My weight loss has ground to a snails pace compared to what it was, just 1-3 pounds a week, sometimes it see-saws up and down a few pounds. Most say that at about 6 months you stomach is totally healed and your system has adjusted to the new diet. You will also probably lost a great amount of your weight, I had lost close to 150 pounds by then. We all wish you the best on your journey.

Mine was immediate and a total change. All of a sudden I hardly sweat at all and was COLD all the time. Pre-WLS when I got out of bed the morning it was soaked in sweat and had a sour smell, it was so embarrassing. On dark sheets I could actually see SALT stains around the edges. Just this past weekend I did not shower either Saturday OR Sunday - I'm ashamed to say that I was just to lazy and my wife said that I did NOT stink. So hopefully yours will change too.

Thank the lord NO. I had enough problems without that kicking my a$$ too !

So I've been an insomniac for decades and like 10 years back I went to the doctor and got a scrip for anti depressants and anti anxiety drugs, slept pretty good for a few years. Then it started again. Then he gave me a scrip for a sleep aid - which worked for about 6 months. Now I'm off EVERYTHING - and BTW - it is HELL ON EARTH coming off both Paxil AND Xanax reliance! Then WLS and a massive drop in weight. I slept pretty well for a few months afterward, even got off my CPAP after dropping 100+ pounds. Now I get 2 or 3 hours a night if I'm lucky. I started taking 3.5 ounces of red wine every evening for heart health and in hopes the slug of alcohol would help me sleep. It helped for a few nights - probably all in my head. I lay there and toss and turn and force myself to "rest" instead of getting up. If I get up and do something like read or watch TV I'll be up all night doing it. I've taken hot showers, take melatonin sub lingual. I have a heated mattress pad since I am now cold all the time since losing the weight. I am comfortable in bed, the room is very dark and quiet - I even wear ear plugs. OTC stuff may work for a week or so then stops. So anyone got any tips on how to sleep well?

Prior to WLS I was borderline hypertensive, the doc put me on different meds and both made be immediately and suddenly nauseas - not fun. So this is one of the many things that gave me a kick in the a$$ to go forward with WLS. Now 8+ months out and nearing 160 pounds loss I seem to be swinging the other way - HYPOtensive! I use the BP monitor at the gym and it consistently reads low, I pretty much disregarded it because who trusts a clunky old machine the size of a breadbox that gets used and abused and never calibrated? Well after about the 4th or 5th low reading in a row I finally broke out my own home machine. Idle since shortly after WLS. It's one of the typical home machines, small size, it takes your BP 3 times and then averages them. My result today 108 / 60 ! The result the other day was 102 / 55. So I see a trend. My resting heart rate went from ~90 to 58 also! I don't feel dizzy, no fatigue, no blood in the stool and no pains anywhere - except after a long swim, the I ache all over. Last week during a mini family reunion I went swimming with the kids and was surprised at how long I could hold my breath, it seemed like forever! I swim at the gym 3 times a week and use a snorkel - my neck is stiff from MANY injuries and a snorkel allows me to breath without torquing my neck around, so I seldom hold my breath for long using it. So should I be concerned? Or did I just get that physically fit in 4 months at the gym that I now have incredible BP, heart rate and lung capacity? I always seem to worry about the stupidest things!

Well typically the LENGTH will not change just the width. My size 12 shoes rattle around and I have to tie them up real tight to keep from losing them. I suppose I could try a size 11 but I have a lot of 12's and still have a wide bridge. I DO notice hat my feet are a lot more bony looking, but there never was a lot of meat on them as it was, just slightly less now.

SNIFF! - OK, who's cutting up onions around here? - SNIFF! Man, that has to make all the misery you put yourself through wort it in an instant!

Cool! Look forward to looking down and seeing Mr. Johnson without leaning over too

Congrsts! I too just got belo a BMI of 30 and became "just" overweight last week, it's a wonderful feeling!

I too have noticed a "different" look with most WLS patients, the abdomen is fuller and like you say sometimes a "dunlop" on the belly. The rapid weight loss leaves some sub-dermal fat as well as excess skin. HOW MUCH is determined by genetics, age and sheer dumb luck. I have been very, very fortunate, I have very little belly and not much hanging skin. My belly button droops into a slight "frown" and that's about it. My arms are fairly firm as I have been exercising quite a bit since surgery. YES, you MAY look like you are melting but the benefits of getting rid of so much excess fat are still worth it. There is always surgery to remove it.

I've never heard of it either at ALL as a "complication" of VSG - I mean it can happen for a variety of reasons during ANY surgery but the VSG is done completely BELOW the diaphragm, not ABOVE it in the pleural space where the lungs actually are. I hate to suggest it but I think your doc is goofy

We had a mini family reunion this weekend, me, my wife, my sister, her hubby, her two kids and her 11 grandkids as well as my brother and his 2 kids all met at a local hotel that had a wonderful indoor pool in an atrium - man that made it nice especially in the 100+ degree heat we've been having. I was the only thin male adult there, my 13 and 15 year old nephews actually outweighed me! I can see it's going to be tough hanging around them though, I started grazing / snacking on the stuff they brought with them, Cookies, fruit Snacks, chips - you name it - and GAINED 1.5 pounds! I'm obese again after just dropping below a BMI of 30! Man this sucks! I love them all to death but I just cannot hang around them for long due to the bad eating habits and over supply of fattening foods. Now I know how I got to be 375+ pounds in the first place!

I took pills whole right away, had no problems with any of them. It'll be a month or more before you can eat enough to get enough Protein to stop the shakes, although you will probably drink them for months or years sometimes to supplement your protein intake on days you just don't eat enough.

Yes, bring DVDs books magazines etc and forget live TV, catch up when you get home. You'll only be there a few days anyways. The programs are of course in Spanish unless the place you are staying caters to English speaking patients. There are usually lot of people to talk to and other stuff so you won't get bored. And of course you will sleep a lot too. As far as an adapter for the laptop, are you asking about POWER adapters by any chance? If so then NO you will not need any adapters, MX (Canada as well) like the USA is uses 110 volts rather than the more common 220 found in Europe.

Reading between the lines - and not VERY tween" at all - it appears that sh doesn't want to have you lose MUCH so they reject you on the basis that you don't need surgery and she doesn't want you to GAIN either so that they reject you on the basis of you not cooperating and making an effort to lose weight. Seems that if you were to stay the same weight for 6 months and yet eat dietetic portions you would be more apt to be approved. So judiciously leaving off some food in list may be what she is driving at.

Contrary to popular myths the amount of Water drink does not have to be a set amount. YES it is good to drink plenty of clean cool water but it is NOT necessary to drink "6 glasses", "8 glasses" or X ounces a day. Drink enough that you are urinating a few times a day and you urine is clear or just slightly tinted yellow, it it smells strongly and is bright yellow, orange or heaven forbid BROWN then you are NOT drinking enough and you need to increase your intake. ANY liquid not containing too much salt or otherwise acts like a diuretic (like caffeine) counts in your intake but plain water is the best and is basically FREE and is the basic element you need. If you just can't choke down plain water then try flavoring it with a sugar free drink mix like Crystal Light or SF Cool Aid, flavor to suit your taste.

Yes, virtually any fluid does, as long as it doesn't contain too much salt or caffeine - which might make it a diuretic - it counts.

The ticker below says it all.

Hey now! I resemble that remark! Being a guy I've had plenty of stuff done to me, INCLUDING Lasik surgery - the SECOND BEST think I've done for myself, the first is the sleeve. The sleeve, repeated esophageal procedures, bunion surgery, etc. I've had a bunch of skin cancer frozen and cut off with nary a wince, gave blood till last year regularly and ENJOYED it (had to step back for 5 years because of cancer). I even froze then cut off a dangling skin tag on the back of my thigh all by myself at HOME no less with the wifey watching and she nearly passed out. I've cleaned up some pretty disgusting stuff after children and pets and never batted an eye. I have to give myself a shot every 10 days and I found that sticking myself with the needle reeaal slow hurts LESS to me than jabbing it in does. And I went to my VSG surgery by MYSELF all the way to Mexico. So there are SOME guys out there that CAN take it.

Congrats! If you're anything like me you never thought you would see the day, did you!?! Congrats again - keep it up!

I'm a ways north of you in NW Arkansas, Rogers to be exact.

So I weigh in this morning thinking I have another pound or so to go to get below the magic BMI level of 30 when the scale surprises me with a weight of 220.8. I plug it into my ticker and the BMI is . . . 29.9! I check 4 times just to be sure and it reads the same each time. WooHoo! I am no longer obese and officially just "over weight". Maybe I ought to Celebrate and go out to diner tonight - DOH! - NO! That's hat got me into this mess in the first place. I think I'll go to the gym instead.

Too many issues with the band, erosion of the esophagus, ongoing maintenance with filling and un-filling saline to adjust the size, possible slippage and the fact that I have an aversion to having a plastic thingy floating around in my gut,