SKCUNNINGHAM

I was in a training class for three days this week. At the first, we had to write some things down about ourselves to use in the "icebreaker" "get to know each other" time of the class. Once of the questions I had to answer was "what is your favorite food"? This stopped me cold. I really had a hard time answering the question. Before surgery, I could have answered this is a nanosecond. Now, I really had to think about it - and the foods I thought about writing down were totally different. Post Surgery A fresh, raw snap pea - nice and cold - and one that is full in its shell. A perfectly grilled scalllop or two Broiled salmon over a green salad Sauteed mushrooms Garden ripe tomatoe Moo Goo Gai Pan Crab Cakes Baked Sweet Potatoe Pre Surgery Brownies Ice Cream Chocolate Cake Lasagne Pasta Primavera Barbequed Ribs Moo Goo Gai Pan Scalloped Potatoes This might be the best NSV ever. My tastes have changed and my portion sizes are radically different. Love my sleeve!

I doing the happy dance for you! Congratulations!

I must be an oddity - I didn't wear spanx type garments before I lost weight - I didn't wear form fitting clothes so I didn't need to hide the jiggles and rolls. Now that I am approaching my goal weight, I ike wearing my size medium shirts and size 10 and 12 petite pants. My skin around my torso and belly is really loose and jiggly, so I wear spanx type camis to hold things in. I also wear a support panty to smooth my belly. They aren't uncomfortable, they just hold things in. I also went to Soma and had a bra fitting. The one that makes my girls look the best is a minimizer bra. The bra kind of compresses my saggy, droopy girls into a really nice shape located where my girls used to be several years ago. Through my losing process, I have gotten rid of a bunch of underwear that I would have been happy to burn. Now that I am the size I am going to stay (the last 7 pounds won't drop me a size) I have decided that life is TOO SHORT to wear anything other than pretty, well fitting underwear and bras. Sharon

I started wearing the Genie bras as soon as I shrunk out of the bras I was wearing when I started losing. I ordered some from the commercial on TV, and others from the "same as on TV" section of a store. I found they had plenty of support for me. If you need more support, it is possible to wear two at a time. I also got some with the pads that slip in the front to prevent the "headlights" from being too obvious. I throw the bras in the wash, but usually hang them up to dry. I always remove the pads prior to washing the bras. I case you wonder if the bras advertised on TV by different names are different or the same - they are the same bra. The differences are in the age market they are targeting the infomercials to appeal to. One commercial has 6 bras for the same price as the other commerical is offering 3 bras for. These bras saved me A LOT of money while I was losing. I still wear this style of bras under t shirts. It is SO comfortable. Sharon

Tiffikins - what great news that you are preggers again! I hope that your pregnancy gets easier for you during the last half. Wow, your life has been crazy pretty much on a continuous basis for the last few years. (WLS, problems, success, pregnancy, baby, pregnancy) You are an amazing strong woman and a great inspiration to me. I wish you the best going forward. Sharon

Irene - I don't mind at all - I am going to put up the link on my facebook, too. Interesting that you and Coops think I have a calm and soothing voice. It's nice to be thought of it sounding that way. Quite a difference from when I was a child. When I was a small child, I had a speech problem. I couldn't pronounce the sound of the letter "R" - it came out like a "W" - like the Elmer Fudd character in the cartoons. I had some speach training to correct it before I went to school. Now, my "R's" disappear only if I have had too much to drink or I am tired to the point of exhaustion. Kind of a good thing to have - it tells me I need to STOP what I'm doing and take care of myself. I do enjoy public speaking - I have done a lot of it in my career. I was pretty relaxed while they were filming - the director made me very comfortable during the proccess. Thank you for all of your support. Sharon

Well, the ad is up on my Doctor's website. Here is the link: http://www.nicholson...nials/#!zoom/4/ Please don't take this that I am trying to convince anyone on this site to use Dr. Nick. He is a wonderful surgeon and I am very happy with him. Picking your surgeon is personal choice - I don't think you could go wrong with Dr. Nick - but there are a lot of good surgeons out there. I am putting this link up here to share my story with you guys here on the site. You are the people that helped me through the pre-surgery and post-surgery process and I wanted to share this NSV with you. I have also attached a couple of pictures that the photographer took. Sharon

I use three flavors of nectar protein: Fuzzy Navel, vanilla Bean Torte and chocolate Truffle. I use them when I make a smoothie in the morning. The Fuzzy navel is great with any flavor of fruit. I also use the vanilla flavor when I need to put Protein in something cold (pudding, overnight oatmeal). I don't get a bad aftertaste at all. I think the nectar protein is by far the best tasting powdered protein mix. Sharon

Hormones, pain meds, and not having the numbing comfort of food can all be part of the problem. Your body is being flooded with extra estrogen right now as the fat cells release the stored estrogen into your bloodstream. You could also be having a reaction to the oxy. I can't believe they gave you the strongest pain med on the market for pain management after this surgery. I recommend you wean off of it and use some other weaker pain med instead if you still need pain management. Are you exercising any? Exercise is a good way to work off all of these "extra" feelings you are having right now. Good Luck. Sharon

Congratulations! You have done great! Sharon

I am glad you found out the problem. If you hadn't had the surgery and the follow-up, you wouldn't have found out. I am sorry you are having to go through this - my prayers are with you. What Sassygirl said about her girlfriend is great to hear, you may have the same positive results. Best of luck to you. Sharon

My size 12p jeans are now so large they fall down. I really can even wear them with a belt. I just bought new size 10 petite jeans. How sweet it is! I am still wearing size either size 12p or 10p in dress pants - depends on the brand. Love my sleeve! Sharon

Have the baby first. Talk to your doctor about eating during the pregnancy to gain the minimum weight, the baby can draw on your excess weight for what it needs. A friend of mine did this and she ended up at a net weight loss after delivering the baby from where she started - and the baby was 100% healthy. After the baby is here - start the prework for your WLS. Why is their a 12-18 month waiting list for your surgery? It only took me a year, and I thought that was about as long as anyone had to wait. Good luck with your choice. Sharon

I had belching after surgery when the bites I took were too large and I didn't chew them up enough, or when I swallowed air as I was eating. Make sure your bites are tiny and you chew them to mush before you swallow them. Are you still on mushy food? I was on liquids for 3 weeks then mushies for 3 weeks. Sharon

Dooter - that is great!

Carrie, Kat Good luck to both of you on your sleeve journey. I am 14 months out, and this is the best thing I ever have done for my health. I got off of both my BP medications, both my cholesterol medications, my CPAP machine for sleep apnea, and got rid of metabolic syndrome (pre-diabetes). I went from a 26W to a 10 or 12 petite. I feel wonderful. Sharon

Fat cells store estrogen. As the fat leaves, the estrogen is released into the blood stream. Then the "fun" stuff starts. It is different with each of us. All sorts of reactions happen - changes in menstrual cycle frequency, changes in how fertile you are, emotional changes due to the hormonal flux. It will moderate as your weight loss slows down (mine did). My recommendation while you are losing is to be careful practicing birth control - you don't want to become pregnant while you are going through losing your weight. Good Luck. Sharon

Yes, it is normal. My garbage disposal was busy early on with stuff that made me green to smell it. Also, sometime I would start to eat something and it was fine, then it would suddenly NOT be OK. It will get better. Now the only things I can't eat now are BBQ, much raw celery, milk, ice cream, fluffy breads, Pasta, carbonated beverages, super spicy food and much sweets / desert. Everything else is OK.

Yes, it is hard to get rid of those sizes that were your goal for so long. My tough sizes were the 16's and 14's. But I have gotten rid of everything that is bigger than the 12 I am wearing now - except for some coats, my wedding dress, and some other dressy outfits I am going to have tailored. It made it some easier to find a couple of charities I believe in to give the clothes to - a thrift shoft that support a women's shelter and a "dress for success" group that helps get women back into the job market. That group really needed plus size and larger size business outfits, and I was happy to help. Think of this analogy - you are on a journey to a new world. The journey is difficult, but you know you never want to go back to your previous home to live. So, once you get to goal, burn the ships that brought you to the new world. Then, you are never able to go back. Cortez did this when he conquered the Aztecs (not that I in any way am saying that part of the story is a good thing). But it is a great image to keep in mind. I didn't wait to get to goal - I got rid of clothes all throughout the process. It was part of a major de-cluttering effort on my part. Good Luck. Sharon

I am 14 months post surgery and am now starting to "see" myself as a normal person. I got rid of all of my fat clothes, and continue to weed things out of my closet to donate that no longer fit (even though I wore them not long ago). When I buy something now in a 12P (suits) or 10P (jeans) or medium petite (blouses) I have this fear as I am trying it on that it won't fit. They do fit and that reinforces to me I am this size. I am also learning how to use my tool in a maintenance mode. I took a break from losing for a while before losing the last 7-10 pounds (I've been conducting a job search and wanted to be easy on myself). I have been maintaining my weight at a +/- 3 pound range - like normal people do. This is real. This is forever. I am a normal sized person. Sharon

Here's the background data. I took an early retirement package from my employer at the end of December of 2011. They were having some tough times financially and wanted to reduce costs - so when they offered the package, I accepted it. I took a gamble on myself and my skills being marketable in the bad economy. Not a fun time to be in the job market. For those of you who haven't looked for a job recently - it is completely different than it was even two years ago. If you don't know how to use social media, have a great "content-rich" resume, and are willing to network almost continuously, you are going to have a difficult finding a new job. I am 55 years old, and am competing with "kids" half my age and willing to take less money than me for the very same job. Here's the NSV - I received four job offers! The first was about 3 weeks ago, for a contract position - which I accepted. That seemed to bring all sorts of other good things my way. I received three additional job offers in the last ten days. All three of them were good offers for permanent positions (if any jobs these days are really "permanent"). I had the amazing task of deciding which one was the one I wanted - because I would have accepted any one of the three. I did a little negotiating with the companies - to maximize the offers - and picked the winner. I resigned from my contract job, accepted the job I decided on, and told the other two companies, "no thanks". I think the fact that I had successfully lost 100+ pounds and am a "normal" weight both really helped me have a successfull job search. I believe the confidence boost I got from having beat my personal demon carried over into my interviews. I know people looked at me differently during the interview process at a size 12 petite than they would have at a size 26W. I didn't have to worry about hiring managers or human resource people worrying about the costs of insuring an obese person. I think I look younger than I did 100+ pounds ago - and younger is definately better in today's job market. It is going to be nice at the new company to just be known as "Sharon - the new woman" rather than "Sharon - the fat woman who is new". I look forward to planning what I will be wearing the first week of work! Sharon

Brandi - what a great line about the earrings - I may use that with friends! I had my feet measured at a shoe store yesterday. My feet have dropped a half a size in length and have gone back to a medium width. So now, I am getting rid of the shoes I bought when I was at my highest weight and going back to the size I was years ago. Too bad I had gotten rid of most of the shoes in THAT size ages ago. DAMN - I am being FORCED to buy shoes - what a burden! (evil smile) Sharon

I have to give these a try!

I did my commercial "shoot" on Wednesday. What a fun experience! It was way more complicated than I expected - I thought there would be four or five people to get the thing done. There was closer to a dozen people there - two for hair and make-up, a director, the ad agency guy, a video photograper, a still photographer, a sound guy, a lighting guy, a camera assistant, and various other assistants. It was an interesting process to observe and to particpate in. Very organized, but still allowed for the creative "stuff". I wish the woman that did my hair and makeup could come by every morning and do my face before I left my house. I didn't look made-up hardly at all, I just looked as good as I possibly could (and ever have). Apparently, since things are now shot to be shown on HD, the way that makeup artist do their job has changed. No thick cakey look (like stage actors use). She used an airbrush and a pallet of subtle matte colors. And, it washed off with soap and Water. The experience has made me re-think some of my makeup choices. I have hated to have my picture taken most of my life, and avoided cameras as much as possible. I found it is possible to sit and have a conversation with the director - looking either right at him or at the video camera, and really forget you are being filmed and that a still photographer is snapping your picture almost continuously. I think I had more pictures taken of me that day than I have had cumulatively in my entire life. He probably took 500-600 shots that morning! I will be interested to see the results of them. Odds are, he should have gotten some good ones. I think the fact that I was comfortable during the process speaks to the skill of the director. He has the ability to make you completely at ease, and give you the impression the things you are saying are the most interesting things he has ever heard. My logical mind told me that was what he was doing, but I still responded to him emotionally. As he had me telling my story, he had me laughing, smiling and even brought tears to my eyes at one point. That surprised me. I am such a logical person (I am an engineer by profession), I thought my decision to have surgery was mostly logic based (health, wanted a longer life) but it also had a lot of emotions tied up in it. That really came out at one point in the morning. I am not sure what all is going to be woven into the finished product. I provided "before" still pictures, some "before" video, pictures as I was losing, and some "after" pictures. When the ad agency shows me the fininshed product, I will provide the link and hopefully a couple of still shots.

I am 14 months after surgery - 103 pounds down - and live east of Dallas. The sleeve is the best decision I ever made!