SKCUNNINGHAM

M2G. You are a beautiful, thin woman! Enjoy living the skinny life. Sharon

Great job!

Think about your NEXT birthday. You will be 96 pounds smaller! When you want to reach out and choke the chicken right out of your neighbor, try to take a longer view. Nothing smells as good as being ~100 pounds lighter. When they give you cake, tell them "wow, thank you - this looks great - just set it here so I can enjoy looking at it - I'll enjoy it in a few minutes - anticipation will make it taste even better." Then, when everyone is gone, go throw it away. Anticipation is, this time next year, you can have a small taste of birthday cake - you will be celebrating not only your birthday, but getting to (or close to) your goal weight. Hang in there! Sharon

Make sure you are getting in all your Protein. Make sure you are getting in your Vitamins - and I expect you will need extra Iron. As soon as you are on food, I imagine your doctor will want you to eat red meat. And, make sure you are getting in your B12. It took me longer than 5 weeks to feel 100%, and I didn't have the bleeding you did. I hope you feel better soon.

What great NSV's! Congratulations on your progress.

I have loose wrinkly skin around my waist, on my lower abdomen, my upper thighs and my bat wing upper arms. I think it is a combination of the fact that I didn't exercise much during the losing phase and my age (mid 50's)

Everyone has to figure out what works for them to be regular. This is what works for me. The more exercise I get, the better. Moving your body stimulates your intestions to "move", too. So walk as much as possible. Next is fluids. You have to drink enough fluids, or things will never be normal. So, if you aren't successfully getting in a minimum of 60 ounces of Fluid, you will have problems being regular. Then, I take one dose of Miralax most every day (mixed in either a smoothie, oatmeal or a bottle of water) and two "packets" of Benefiber (you can take up to three packets of benefiber each day). That works for me. Good luck finding your optimum solution. Sharon

Congratualtions! Your first victory in a long line of them. Good work!

I looked for Center of Excellence doctors that my insurance approved. Then, I researched the literature to see what were the criteria for surgeons that had the least # of problems with bad side effects. The criteria are: # of sleeve surgeries in the last year, # of sleeve surgeries in total, and the same for the hospital they use. Two surgeons were COE and met the criteria. I went to both surgeons' intro meetings and picked the one who I liked the best.

I have occasionally have had a little bit of alcohol since the sleeve surgery. I didn't have any until about 5-6 months after surgery. I have had a small glass of liquor (irish whiskey or tequila) straight - and it takes less than 1 oz. for me to get a buzz. Good that I have practiced those tiny sips! I also have had about 1/4 cup of beer or wine twice. I only drank the 1/4 cup because that was when I felt a buzz and stopped. I haven't noticed any ill effects - but I did have to account for the calories in my daily totals.

I occasionally use a veggie for a snack. I eat my Proteins for meals and one or two Snacks. Sometime mid morning or mid afternoon I might have 3 -5 mini carrots or a handful of fresh snap peas if I either don't have a protein snack, or am going to have my protein only in my 3 meals that day.

I grew up the youngest of three sisters - so I was used to wearing other people's clothes. That is why I have seen more than one resale shop named something like "my sister's closet" over the years. Another good resale shop in Dallas is Clotheshorse Anonymous - some larger sizes, but primarily regular sizes. They have a lot of high dollar designer clothes.

Moonsiren - the way it works at the three different consignment shops I have gotten rid of things through is this. You sign an agreement with the consignment shop. You bring in your clothes, drycleaned an on hangers. Most will have you schedule an appointment to drop them off. They will inspect them to see if they meet the criteria that the shop sets (age of garment, season, style, etc.). Usually, the garments will be on the floor for sale for 90 days. The sale price decreases the longer the garment is on the floor. Whatever the price the garment sells for, the consigner gets 50%, the shop gets 50%. You pick up your garments that haven't sold at the end of the 90 day period (again by appointment). Some shops will donate the unsold garments to charity - those details are in the contract you sign with them. You can get your money paid to you, or you can get store credit.

Go to the section on this forum and look for a buddy to go through this with. Look for someone who is close to you for your surgery date. You could look for someone close geographically or someone close in age or in a similar life-circumstance. A second alternative would be to find a person in a support group that is going through a sleeve program. Call the coordinators of the support groups and find out if they have sleeve people in them. Good Luck!

I started shopping resale years ago and absolutely love it. My best deal ever was a Chanel suit from the shop Chanel shop in Paris at a resale shop in Richardson Texas. Absolutely beautiful. I have been going to a resale shop in Dallas as I have been shrinking - it is called "Larger than Life" and is for sizes 12 and up. A great shop.

I am also experiencing elevated cholesterol levels (total cholesterol 239 - 9 month labs). I am exercising more (to increase the good cholesterol) and doing the following things to lower the bad cholesterol: - eating oatmeal most mornings - adding ground flax seeds to the oatmeal - talking fish oil capsules daily - taking cinnamon capsules daily - taking red rice yeast capsules daily My cholesterol readings are up due to my heredity - nothing I am eating. I am trying this to see if I can get it down by my 12 month readings.

You do look great - give yourself credit for your accomplishments! Since when you are sick, you eat what you have available, it is going to be important for you to always have healthy foods on hand that will fit into your eating plan. Then, when you grab the first thing available, it won't ruin your eating for the day. Good luck with your sleeve journey and your health.

Call your doctor (I would call my PCP - but you might want to call your surgeon) and walk them through your symptoms. They may want to take blood and see what is going on. I do think you probably need iron, and you may also be low on B12 - but I am not a doctor and you will really only know for sure if they do bloodwork.

Peacequeen, I'm sorry to hear you have a leak. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Hang in there.

Yes, there are risks to this surgery - there are risks to any surgery. You can minimize the risks of problems with your surgery by picking a surgeon that is experienced with the sleeve. How many sleeve surgeries has your physician done in the past 12 months? How many sleeve surgeries has your physician done in total? A search of the literature shows, the more experienced the doctor is, the fewer problems they have. I would be looking for 50-100 in the past 12 months (for me personally) Second thing to consider - the hospital where you will have your surgery - how many sleeve surgeries have they had in their facility this year? Same kind of thing as above - the more surgeries like yours the hospital has done, the fewer problems the patients have. OK - so if you pick an experienced surgeon and he/she does your sleeve at an experienced hospital, you have minimized your risk of a problem caused by the surgeon or the hospital. The way you can minimize risk of problems post-surgery is be 100% compliant with rules your doctor lays out. The pre-op diet is there to shrink your liver (which lessions the risk of damage to your liver during surgery). The rigid post-op diet (Clear liquids, then full liquids, then mushies) is to give your incision line time to heal before you put solid foods into your stomach. Many patients who have problems post surgery bring it on themselves due to non-compliance with the strict after surgery diet. (Not all - some problems that the surgeon caused aren't discovered till the swelling subsides) So if you choose your surgeon and hospital carefully and commit to following the program he/she lays out for you - can you eliminate ALL risk? No - but a high % of it. Then, you are left with a choice - would you rather take a short term risk of having the surgery and getting the long term gain of being a much healthier, happier mom for your 4 year old; or minimize the short term risk (NOT have the surgery) and have a much higher long term risk of being in poor health or dying from weight-related problems when your son is older? Only you can make the choice. And the psychiatrist was only being prudent about making sure you have your paperwork / wishes for your son clear before surgery - that is something you would need to do with any kind of surgery - in fact any time you undergo anesthesia. I did that each time I have had surgery - will, living will, medical power of attorney, and a sheet for my husband telling all of my bank account #'s, insurance policy #'s, keys to this or that, and my wishes for specific things. That kind of planning is again just prudent behaviour. Good luck with your decision. Sharon

Congratulations! My thoughts will be with you for a great surgery and an easy recovery.

I believe anyone who works the sleeve correctly and follows the rules will get to goal. Some lose fast, some lose slow. You determination to stick with the rules and what works for you will be what gets you to your goal. You may need to shake up your body - it sounds complacent with what you are doing. How about going on LilMissDiva's verison of the 5 day pouch test to shake things up, then after that - go back on 600-700 calories for 3 weeks (continuing to exercise). I bet that will get the scale moving in the right direction. Somewhere LilMissDiva has her getting back on track / 5 day pouch test "pinned" on one of the forums.

cottage cheese and applesauce. tuna with mayo bean and bacon campbells soup pureed chicken with chicken broth protein smoothie with strawberries yogurt pureed hot and sour soup (i was craving FLAVOR)

If you don't take calcium, your bones will suffer. If you don't take B12, you can have all sorts of serious problems, including "brain fog" and memory issues. If you don't take Iron, some people (me included) get badly anemic. Since I take iron I take C along with it to improve the absorbtion of the iron. I had a nutritionist tell me that if you eat 20-30 different foods in your weekly diet (difent colors of food - good healthy foods - can't count junk calories) you might not need a multi Vitamin. But I tend to eat the same foods repeatedly, so I probably miss some key nutrients. So I take multiple Vitamins. I don't drink milk (that is fortified with vitamin D) and I don't get in the sun much, I take Vitamin D supplements. Since I don't use a lot of salt, I take something to give me the necessary iodine (for a healthy thyroid). And I didn't realize about thyamine being in bread flour - makes me glad I take a multi vitamin that covers it. I had a family member die of thiamin shortage. A deficiency there is for-real serious.

I caught the stomach flu the week before Christmas. I had major intestional uphevals for 3-4 days. Couldn't hardly get out of the master bedroom suite. Got really dehydrated from losing all my liquids and not being able to hold anything down. I was close to being hospitalized. My electrolytes got all out of whack. I was drinking 80 ounces of G2 a day for several days to get things back in order.