bilka

Good luck!!! Dreams are weird! I've dreaming about blood and werid things a lot during the last few weeks! 5:30 is great, at least you won't have much time to think about the surgery tomorrow morning!!!

First of all: welcome! Look down on the homepage, there is a section about it! http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/forum/83-total-gastric-vertical-plication-sleeve-surgery/ I personally can't help you, but there are many nice people on this forum who can answer your questions!

Thank you for sharing! It's always good to read that people are doing fine after surgery. About not showing the weight loss yet... Personally it normally takes me around 20 lbs before anyone really notices that I have lost some. Then, everyone can see it!

My BMI is just below 35 and I am getting sleeved in a week. I wasn't sure about it, because here in Italy you don't get sleeved with a BMI that is lower than 40, unless you have diabetes 2 (I have 1). I joined an Italian website where everyone told me it was silly to get the sleeve with such a BMI and I should just lose my weight with a diet. HELLO?! If I could stay on a diet I definitely wouldn't be here! Than I found this site and discovered that I am not a freak. So, I kept reading and decided to go for it. I am now sure it's the best for me, even if I am a bit scared now that the surgery is just one week away from me... I know I won't lose my 80 lbs straight away, I don't expect a miracle. What I want is a long term result which I can keep over the years (and that's what I haven't been able to do in the last 20 years!) and I am now sure the sleeve is the right choice!

Hello! I'll be sleeved on the 8th too, I am starting to freak out, but MY shrink this morning told me the same thing: it is normal. I feel like on rollercoaster: one minute overexcited, the other terribly scared! I am flying to Greece on Friday, I am going to have a fun weekend with my best pal and my sister-in-law and then get in the hospital on Monday at 8 on an empty stomach. The fun weekend is an excuse to keep me distracted and I really hope it will help! I wish you all the best and I'll be reading your updates from Greece (if I can find wireless somewhere!)!

Tomorrow IS February. The time didn't seem to arrive soon enough and now, that I am 8 days away, I am starting to freak out. Not chickening out, oh no, JUST freaking out. I can't really sleep and I am doing things like it's the last time: tryng to say good bye to as many people as I can (they don't know, but I do), trying to solve some of the problems I have here with people and things... Again: I can't help it. I have a phone call to make in 10 to a friend with whom I had some arguments. I need to leave feeling I didn't miss anything! I went to see my mum this morning and fixed her pc. I am going swimming with my sister for the last time tomorrow. Yesterday I had lunch with friends at my place. Well at least I am busy..!

Personally I am not on the "other side" yet... Anyway it's great to hear that your medical expenses will be covered! I wish I could say the same! May will arrive quicker than what you can imagine!!!

I wish you the quickest recovery!

Congratulations for everything! Thank you for sharing your experience, I'll be sleeved in 2 weeks and this kind of successful stories really help a lot! Thank you again!

W-O-W! Amazing. Thank you SO much for sharing your story. This pictures really are an inspiration!

I have a similar story to yours. I too am getting sleeved abroad (greece) on the 8th February, I'll stay a couple of days longer and will come back home on the 12th. My hubby is not really 100% supportive, he is not coming with me, he sent his sister (who thank God is fun and we are kinda friends), so I am going with my best buddy and her. During the last few months I found here all the answers I was looking for and all the support I needed. I have already bought all the stuff I need to make sugar free popsicles and I am going to prepare them before leaving for Greece, so I'll have things ready in the freezer when I get back and I have already bought things to make jelly as well, so he won't have to do anything while I'll be away. I have the feeling too that my hubby feels insecure about me losing weight (and maybe becoming more attractive)... Anyway, I wish you the best and let everyone know how it works out! If you feel down go to the Success Stories section, that's what I do. Read those people's stories and look and the pictures! Tiffykins just posted some photos that really are an inspiration. When my hubby is annoying me I normally show him some pictures of them and he shuts up. -15 days!!! :thumbs_up:

I thought about doing the same. Seriously thought about it. It would have allowed me to get the sleeve here, in my city (here in Italy) with doctors we know. I have diabetes 1, a great insulin resistance and a great fear of the long-term consequences of my illness that I am definitely going to get if things go on like this BUT! I have a BMI of 35 and the surgeon told me that only people with diabetes 2 would qualify, while I should have had a BMI of 40 to qualify. I thought about it. How long could take me to do that? Couple of months? But then I didn't. I wasn't going to put my health more on risk. So I started looking around, joined this website and decided to go to Greece. Not really the same background of this vet lady but not too different either...

Congratulations for your weght loss! May I ask you what you are using instead of the pump? Actually, frst of all: what insulin did you you use in your pump? And what did you switch to? I tried and tred to contact my diabetologist to ask him for an alternative to the pump for the day of the surgery and a couple of weeks after it (I don't know if my beyy will hurt too much for me to put the needle in) but he hasn't got back to me, so I am trying to organize the therapy myself... Thanks...

Thank you for sharing! I normally am a slow loser too and I do not have a much higher BMI than what you had when you started, so it's good to know that everything is working out. Slowly IS much better than not all. I could never ever stay on a diet for 9 months and lose 49 lbs on my own... Thank you again!

I listened to your comments and suggestions. I even tried to go through fears, asked him if he had any, or if he had any questions and he said "Nothing!". Of course. Then, thinking about it a few day later, I guess I'll just have to keep him like he is ... He has gone though a lot with me: frustation, anger, decision to go through surgery, lending me the money (so that I can pay him back month by month),.. I don't know if I could have survive someone like me. And if S.. has to be the solution, sometimes, I guess I can deal with it...

I guess we'll ALL have to prove him wrong, then! :horn:

That's very sweet, thank you! Unfortunately not planning to go to the US any soon, but thanks anyway! No weight loss yet, the surgeon asked me not to gain any, that's it...

it is pretty cool!

8th February. Dr. Nick Valsimidis, Athens, Greece. Mediterraneo Hospital.

On the newspapers online this morning there was something extremely interesting: Starbucks (which we don't have in Italy -of course: we invented the espresso, I can't see anyone over 40 going to starbucks for a coffee) has a new size for coffee, the Trenta, which is larger than what an average stomach can handle. There are even the pictures and it's in English, if you're interested: http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Economia/2011/01/18/pop_starbucks.shtml Of course my stomach could easily handle it right now, but they are huge. Seriously.

Welcome! All on the same boat, I see. I am getting my surgery in 21 days (actually 20 days and 21 hours... I am so NOT counting! ) and I keep thinking: am I really doing it? Me? Really? Alternated to: "Yeah! Happy! Can't wait!". What I do when I feel a bit down or unsure is to go back to to the section Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy Surgery (VSG) Success Stories, just a couple of sections below this. There are new stories everyday. It's such a great help to see what this surgery does to people. Personally I also think about my own reasons: I want my back stop hurting me so much and I don't want to get severe consequences of my diabetes 1 that could make me blind, ruin my kidneys or my nervous system and destroy my legs. No way. This way I always go back thinking that it's the best that can happen to me...

I live in the north of Italy. Italy is on some lists around the 25th country for obesity, or not even there on other lists (here 2 of them: http://www.forbes.co...worldfat_2.html or http://www.nationmas...-health-obesity). This is probably why I feel more "normal" when I travel around and when I lived and worked in Australia could find clothes everywhere, people like me and felt so relieved.. Btw I do not have any overweighted friends for example, I've always been the only one in my class and always am the biggest person wherever I go. So, of course portions here are smaller...