meggiep

I am soooooo jealous! I am so sick of Protein drinks and liquids ! Even though I get mushies Monday it seems so far away! I did have some SF pudding last night- just half of a little cup, and it went down fine. OOOH- what are you going to eat first? I'm shopping today to have everything ready for Monday to make the ricotta bake and a few other things I am dreaming of. I jut wish I could sleep until then! Don't forget what I told you about the hormones- as the fat burns the hormones flood. It is not even unusual to need an antidepressant for a time. And lucky you to have your new do and to know everyone at work will be blown away when they see you! ANd hey- no fair being blue when you get mushies! GRRRRR! ;-P

It doesn't even look like the same person to me! HOORAY! I so need to have my hair done. You can see how long my roots are in my videos on You Tube! I wanted to let my hair go back to regular shade and start over- and see just how much grey I have! Soon....

I suffer from chronic pain from nerve pain in my back and problems in both knees. It keeps me a near invalid. My pain management doctor had told me at every visit I could realyl help things if I lost weight. However activity was always the key for me to lose weight and I gained the bulk of my weight now after my back surgery, when I could no longer be active. Having tried every diet in the planet for years before I found woking out, I embarked on another diet last fall with dismal result even though I cut my intake back to extreme levels. The other thing is that I stopped weighing ten years ago- I was active, ina size I was happy with, and felt good in my body. To say I was in denial is and understatement! When I went to my doctor in January to discuss my problems losing, she asked if I had considered weight loss surgery. I was shocked, both because I did not realize I was big enough to have it and because I thought of it as so extreme! I decided then and there to face up and climbed on the scale to discover I was 277 pounds. I believe all the blood drained from my face, Once I saw that weight and confronted the truth about myself there was no way I would not do ANYTHING to rectify this to save my life and hopefully to be among the living again. I went to the next possible orientation of my surgeon and when he talked about all three surgeries it was clear immediately to me that I wanted the sleeve. A good omen happened for me when I discovered a friend in Water aerobics who was always raving about her surgeon for her bypass mentioned his name and it was my surgeon- he had recently moved to my health plan location PAMF. I finally met with him in February and he told me my insurance was wonderful about approvals and when I called my insurance they said they did cover the sleeve and that the only requirements were meeting the doctors requirements. When I actually met with my surgeon in Feburary he said I was a perfect candidate and that without the surgery he could see me in a wheelchair and then dead at an early age. He spelled out a bunch of hoops to jumo through in pre tests, nutritionists meetings, etc. and jumped through those hoops with strong determination, fighting problems that came up that might have delayed me more months and overcoming every obstacle. I even got a cold the week before my May 9th date and they said I should cancel and I fought them and insisted they let me wait a few days and be evaluated by my GP- and I got my surgery May 9th. It is the best thing I ever did. In the time from my 2 week pre-op to now I have lost over 30 pounds already.

Day five was my turnaround day too- but I STILL set my phone timer to remind me to drink lest I fall behind by the end of the day. COngratulations to both of yo on day 4 and welcome to the loser's bench!

This makes no sense. Most insurance companies don;t even require co-morbidities with a BMI of 40 or above so WTF! And I would thing the NSAID would count against you having it- maybe they just want to make sure. FIGHT FOR IT!

15 minutes isn't really "chugging" it. It is common anyway for liquids to be easier and easier to drink. It is when you add food that you start feeling the restriction. That is also when you need to start limiting fluids until at least a half an hour after eating a solid food. Don't worry- you will know you have a sleeve. For now just be glad you can get the fluids in and get a lot in!

by the way be very careful doing things around the house- I am not to lift more than 5 pounds for a month- it can hurt our new thumbys! It can wait.... your stomach is for life.

Kelly- seriously reading your food journey from the start of mushies has me a little worried about my own! Also- have you tried unjury chicken soup? Oh my- I tried it today and it was so easy to drink and one packet was 21 grams. I ordered a container of it and will make 12 ounces/three scoops for 30 grams so I only have one sweet one a day. I figure once I start mushies I can have that to fall back on too. It was such a relief to skip my noon time sweet one! RE: the scales- I decided to take both digital scales over to my doctors tomorrow and weigh on his walk on huge scale (I call it the cattle scale) and compare them! Yep I'm a little nuts that way....

If you saw my thread about day 17 today- that place in your chest is actually where the opening of your thumby is (thumb/tummy ;-P). So anything going on in that area is related to trouble getting the food in , too much in, trouble digesting, etc.

I will keep you in my healing prayers! Remember not to be too hard on yourself after- you wont be able to get much liquid in for a few days and you should just relax and reat and heal and take little walks and just be happy to begin your wonderful journey! My vlog- link below from May 9th on may help as that is when I had my sleeve. RELAX! BREATHE! See you on the loser's bench!

I will keep you in my healing prayers! Remember not to be too hard on yourself after- you wont be able to get much liquid in for a few days and you should just relax and reat and heal and take little walks and just be happy to begin your wonderful journey! My vlog- link below from May 9th on may help as that is when I had my sleeve. RELAX! BREATHE! See you on the loser's bench!

Do a split again? WOW! For ever doing one! I forgot a major one- my engagement and wedding bands were stuck on my hand for years due to my weight gain- and in the pre-op area they managed to get them off using a VERY painful method with wide dental floss tightening the finger and pulling them little by little. I have them on a gold chain now but want to lose enough to put them back on. And I can now weigh on my scale from childhood!!!! 249 today....

Did you guys see the article about the chemistry of stalls? It is amazing- really explains that you are losing even when stalled, http://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss-stall-or-plateau.html

I get to have mushies starting Monday, my three week anniversary and stay on them until six weeks. Then I add more solid foods carefully though some things like hard boiled eggs they recommend waiting until 8 weeks. Seriously if I can have pureed savory foods after all this liquid I am a happy girl! How about scrambled eggs with melted cheese? That is the thing I keep dreaming about.... of course I mean 1 egg and probably half of that but....yummm. I am so sick of Protein drinks!

This answer is for both of you- I found it almost imperative to actually set a timer for every fifteen minutes and then drink 2 ounces. In doing that I was able to get my 64 ounces. As soon as I got cocky and stopped setting the timer I fell behind. I think if you try that it will help and remember the Water is imperative to wash out the burned ketones as you lose and to help avoid stalls!

OH thank you for letting us know- is it nausea? I hope they have strong drugs for that. With her fibro I now she faces more problems than some. Please tell her Meggie is praying and thinking of her. I have been thinking of her constantly since you guys got to Mexico. Tell her it WILL get better- just relax and don't worry about anything but turning her self inward to rest and heal.

I look forward to having SOMETHING for my poor dog- he has been suffering since Mama is the ain one who spoils him- he is losing weight too! With splenda and such being poison for him everything I have no is off limits. If I have a lot left my husband will gladly eat it and serve another important service- getting heavier so my goal of weighing less than him is more attainable! ;-P

So today was my post-op visit (2 weekish) with my surgeon and I woke up excited just to check in with him. I made a list of my questions and synced my fat secret food log to my iPad so he could see I have been logging my food, and weighed just before going as I am always wondrring how my scale compares to his huge walk on platform scale with handles. INterestingly I am always a pound LIGHTER in his office- isn't that odd? I remember at other times in my life always being heavier at the doctors. He was so wonderful today- came in saying "Hello beautiful" and was so excited that I am so happy having had the sleeve. He was really open to hearing some things about my experience that I thought he could perhaps learn from - especially my feeling he could let newly sleeved people know it is perfectly normal to not be able to swallow liquids and that it will turn around- just give it time and don't kick yourself over it. My questions and his answers 1. When can I go in the pool? Answer- NOW! As long as I do not exercise my core- he wants me to wait until four weeks for that. THis means no class but Water walking is ok YAY! 2. Can I put scar cream on my scars? Answer -Yes- the surface skin fell off and they are safe now. 3. When am I basically free from fear of blood clots? This was because my GP told me to elevate my legs on a pillow at ight and that has been hard. Answer- if I am walking every day I can relax about it. 4. I have been having diarrhea every day- is that something to worry about? Answer- some patients have that as their thumbys (my word not his) adjust to things- and it sometimes helps to dilute the Protein shakes too. (Not my fave answer as I tend to put my Protein powder in the least liquid I can handle in order to get it down faster ;-P ) 5. CAN I START COTTAGE cheese AND NON THINNED YOGURT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE AT MY STAGE? Of course this was my most important question- and I got a bad news good news answer- he wants me to stay on thinned liquids and Protein drinks until Monday, my three week mark. But then it is full on mushies, not just adding cottage cheese. That is only five days away and I am not worried- I know I want to heal well and that is more important than what food I get. The most exciting thing was that he said I am so articulate and knowledgeable he would like me to come to some orientation seminars to talk to prospective patients. I was honored and thrilled about that, that will help me pay it forward as I do want to do, and try to with my You Tubes. One other interesting thing- I told him I think the sleeve will be THE surgery before long and he said he totally agrees- he has thought that for nine years but just was waiting for the world (i.e. insurance companies) to catch up! He feels his sleeve patients in the long term do better than his bypass patients and I found that very interesting. SO I see him in a month and will be on mushies until then. I can deal.

I am always joking when the cat walks on a phone and it dials that they are calling out for pizza! I wanted to make sure you know that even a little splenda or any artificial sweetener is toxic to dogs and cats and can actually kill them. Their livers cannot metabolize it. My dog looks so mournful now at not even being able to taste the shakes! Wonderful first post- welcome to the forum! As with above I want to make sure you know Cheech could die if he has artificial sweetener of any kind- his liver will not metabolize it- this means splenda, nutrsweet, aspatamane and xylitol- absolutely lethal to animals. Here's hoping your date comes soon! I am two weeks post op and love my sleeve. I also do You Tubes if you need some encouragement.

Ooh did it go down ok? Tell tell! The funny (or not so funny) thing is I had my afternoon Protein shake really late- thats the one I really hate drinking and have to choke down- and so I had my "dinner" thinned cream of wheat- too soon after it and found myself with something I can only describe as sort of foamies- and enough icky feeling to think it might come up! Very shocking for the thin liquid phase. I took a shower and then felt better, waited a while to drink more liquids. I wonder how Kelly is doing on her mushies?

THis is wonderful! The best explanation of the chemistry of losing weight I have seen yet. Thank you!!!

Wow that is awesome! Did you also do liquids pre-op? Congrats! I am down 11 pounds in 2 1/2 weeks and pleased with that as it combines with 18 pounds pre-op.

That is so funny! I was so sure you would be given the green light today- but I might have known we are cosmically connected. I admit I am thinking of trying ONE spoonful of sugar free pudding- just to see! SO you are on full liquids until Monday too? The Red Velvet gang is so connected. I just wish I could have cottage cheese or yogurt without milk thinning it....something with some toothsomeness!