hugsamber

I am in Natomas. I know that there is a support group that meets at the point west kaiser the last Sat of the month, I believe from 11 - 1pm. But I am down to meet up and compare notes and all of that fun stuff!!!

Good Luck Pam! I am also going through Richmond and my Doc is Dr. Baggs. I met with him this past Friday and I have 4 pounds to lose still. I still have to go to my psych appt which is on Nov 12th. I am doing all of my lab work and EKG next week. He thought it was likely that I would get a late Dec or early Jan date. I am also out of Sacramento so I have been lucky so far that my orienation and surgeon appt was at vacaville! All my other appts will be at Richmond though. Who is your doc? I started this process in September. It has been very quick so far!

He basically said it was because there was no long term studies but he is fine doing the sleeve on me. He just wanted me to make sure that he can't say what will happen in the future with the sleeve. I still heart him and think that he is a great doctor. He answered all of my million questions and then some!

Woot Woot! Just got finished with my appointment with Dr Baggs. I heart him. He is so nice and wonderful! I have 4 pounds to lose to reach my surgery goal weight!!! My next appointment is with the Psychologist on 11/12. Dr. Baggs has already sent in for my bloodwork and EKG. He wants me to do those next week. He said I should be to my goal weight by the time I meet with the psych so then she will set up the appointment with the Case Manager. He said I will likely have surgery in late December or early January!!! The only thing that concerned me and I don't know if concerned is the correct word, is that Dr. Baggs wouldn't recommend the Sleeve because I am only 28 and there is not enough long term studies for it to see how I would be in 30 years. I told him that I didn't not want to have my intestines moved around with the bypass and he said he understood why I wanted to have the sleeve. I guess I was just suprised because it seems like so many on VST are all young and have had the sleeve done. I'm not too worried about it though. From what I have researched the sleeve is the exactly what I want!

Yay Mom!!! Keep up the great work! You Rock!

Thanks Mom!!!

Thanks! I am hoping to have the surgery around the holidays so it won't seem like I am taking that much time off! I can take as much time as I need but I would prefer to take as little as possible. Good Luck with your post op. Let me know how you are doing.

Good Luck Lemon Drop (aka Mom). I also have my appointment with Dr. Baggs tomorrow! I have lost 16lbs since orientation! I am excited to get this process going!

Grr. I totally messed up this weekend. I am still pre-op and trying to lose weight before my surgery. I meet with my surgeon for the first time on Friday. So last Sat was my 10 yr high school reunion. I was good all day saturday until we left for the reunion. I did not eat much that day because I knew I was going to have a couple drinks. Well I had more than a couple drinks and Sunday I was sick as a dog!!! why did I do that to myself? Then Sunday I did not follow my plan. I was so hungover there was no way for me to eat like I was suposed to. So when I weighed myself Monday afternoon I was up 4 pounds!!!!! WHAAAAAAT??? I am so mad at myself. I am hoping that my body will get back into business and maybe in a few days those pounds will come off. I am doing slimfast today and tomorrow with hopes that will help a little. It is hard to not get frustrated with yourself. So i am trying to just keep swimming. I wanted to be down almost 20 pounds when I meet with my surgeon. Right now I will be lucky if I am down 10! So bummed. Okay I am over it. I made a mistake and have to move on. Just stay focused on my goals and I can do it. Sorry I needed to give myself a pep talk!

I am just begining this journey and have found a lot of useful information as well as advice from all of the nice and wonderful people on this site. We all go though similar things during this process. Weight loss surgery does not fix everything. It makes us actually deal with things that we used to use food to cope with. I am sure thing will get better for you. Hang in there!!!

I wish that October 15th would come quicker, but at the same time it is good that it is still almost two weeks away so that I can lose more weight before my appt with Dr. Baggs. I weighed in this morning at 279. Hey when Kaiser weighed my a week from today I was 291. And when I weighed myself at home in the afternoon a week from today I was 293. I think that I am doing good!!! Makes me wonder if I can lose the weight with just sticking to this diet? Then I think, I have done this before, lost weight and then gained it all back plus some. I need more help than just myself. I need the sleeve to assist me in making the right decisions and eating less. Though I have to say that I am waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay nervous about having the surgery. I have only been under anesthesia once and that was when I had my wisdom teeth taken out. I am nervous about complications and how much pain I will be in afterwards. Also, is there going to be a drain sticking out of one of my incisions and will my BF be grossed out having to take care of me? He wants me to be home and says that if I can get the surgery during one of his weeks off (he is a teacher) then he will be my personal nurse 24/7. I just don't know that I want him to see me all yucky! I have never broken any bones or any other big injuries so I am not sure how I am going to do with the pain. Why am I worrying about all of this now? When I still have at least a couple of months before I get the surgery? I am a worrywart. I looked at some people posted pics of them after surgery in the hospital with their tubes and incisions and yuck, then I read about how some people were in so much pain. I am only planning on taking a week off work. Then if I have to then I will work half days the following week. So I better not be one of those people who is in pain and misery for 2 weeks straight!!! I mean I know that I am still going to be in pain, but I want to be able to function. I know that I will be getting part of my stomach removed, wow, that is very weird to say or write. I will be getting part of my stomach removed. Easier the second time. So obviously there is going to be pain for awhile. I just don't want any complications or problems....does anyone? Sometimes the more I research something the more freaked out I get. I know its supposed to help me understand what I soon will be going through and to be honest it is better to know than to go in blinded. But still, too much can be a bad thing as well, at least for me. But yet I continue to view this website daily and see what is going on with everyone. It is almost a compulsion that I can't stop! I wish that I was already a year out from my sleeve surgery and I was back to normal and did not have any problems during that time. Don't you wish you could just "poof" and make it happen sometimes? I sometimes picture myself skinny or thinner I should say. I have wanted to be back to a "normal" size before I turn 30. I am 28 right now with a birthday in April. I know that I just need to be mentally tough in regards to the surgery. Right now the eating is fine. I am losing at a steady pace of at least a pound a day. There has been cookies, pizza and junk food around me all weekend long and I did not have the desire to have any of it. So my mind for food in mentally tough I just have to not worry so much about the surgery itself but the results and outcomes of that surgery. A month or two of suffering is worth it!

This is Pre-Op. I have not had the surgery yet. Through Kaiser they want you to start their Pre-Op Diet right after Orientation. That way when you meet with the surgeon you have already lost some weight. I went to Orientation a week ago and have my appt with my surgeon on Oct 15th.

Saturday was not too bad. I was pretty busy. But today...Football Sunday is difficult. I am hungry and I just are lunch!!! I think that it is because we usually have snacks during the games. Plus my BF was eating pizza which is one of my favorite things in the world!!! But I survived. This morning I had Cream of Wheat. It was actually pretty good. I am glad that I found another soft squishy food that I like. Especially for after sugery. I have lost about 12 pounds. Though really that was after I ate on Monday. If I do it by what I weighed first thing Tuesday morning then I have lost 8 pounds. Still good either way you look at it. I have a little less than 2 weeks until my appt with my surgeon. I hope that he is happy with the amount of weight I have lost!

I think that the Pre-Op Diet is different for each doctor. I am going through Kaiser. For breakfast I can have 1 protein, 1 dairy, 1 carb, 1 fruit, and 1 fat. For Lunch I can have 1 protein, 1 carb, 1 fruit, 1 vegetable, and 1 fat. For dinner I can have 1 protein, 1 carb, 2 vegetables, 1 dairy, and 1 fat. Basically 1 protein is 3 oz of meat or 3 oz of fat free cheddar cheese (you can mix and match meats with cheese) and also 3/4 cup of egg beaters or 2 eggs. A carb is 1/2 a baked potato or sweet potato or 1 slice of whole wheat bread. The fat is like a teaspoon of butter or mayo, things like that. Veggies are 1 cup cooked veggies, pretty much everything but corn or 1/2 cup raw. Fruit is one apple, pear, 17 grapes, half a banana. Dairy is 1 cup fat free milk or a non fat yogurt. You are supposed to eat the protein first and then veggies if you are still hungry then you can eat everything else in whatever order. But you don't have to eat everything. So far it has really been helping me. I have lost 12 pounds since Monday.

Thanks mama! I am down 12 pounds since Monday!!! You are doing great as well!!!

Good job mom!!!

Thanks!!! I am trying to blog a few times a week at least, we will see how it goes though.

I am doing much better with my pre-op diet!!! It will be interesting to see how I do after surgery. I still have a bit to go though.

I was bad. I went to starbucks and ordered a tall nonfat green tea frappachino. When I got back to the office I checked the calorie content. There was 200 calories in that little drink. I had a few sips and threw away over half of it. Well at least I have some willpower. I guess I don't want to forever be restricted to things but be able to limit them to small or very small portions. Does this mean that this surgery is still a good idea for me? Do people still have a life of food after surgery? Just a better and healthier one? Or are you so limited to what you have you cant go over to friends houses for dinner or to a restaurant? I know that most people on here can still eat out but I wonder what that really does to your stomach? I weighed in this morning and was at 282. Almost 10 pounds from my weigh in on Monday. Maybe I am feeling nervous because I am losing so quickly that when I meet with my surgeon I am worried he will be like okay you have lost enough, lets get you scheduled. What if I am not ready? Am I ready? I feel like I am, but at times I worry that I am going to alter my life so much that nothing will be the same. Its terrible to say that food plays such a big deal in life but most social activity is done around food or drinks. I still want to be able to enjoy life. I think that I need to make my list of things that will change once I lose weight. Maybe this will help me focus on what is really important and what I hope to accomplish. Is it just me or does anyone else tell everyone about the surgery? I guess I don't keep secrets well and not everyone knows but there are 3 co-workers, my boss, my mom, boyfriend and grandparents...and then of course all of you. I am not embarrassed about it and if someone thinks it is a bad idea they sure don't say it to me. They ask questions and I answer. That is about it. I have not heard anything negative, at least so far. Almost done with the work day. Well 2 1/2 hours to go, that is sort of almost done. We are going to my mom's for dinner, it helps that she is following the same plan so she will weigh out the food for me. Makes dinner nice and easy for me. I am curious to see how I manage during the weekend. Weekends are usually the hardest for me because I don't have any sort of structure during sat or sun. Ah well I am looking forward to the weekend so I will tough it out not matter. I am on the countdown 2 hours and 20 mins left. Hello weekend!

Today is a great day. It is Thursday, which means that there is only one more day in the work week, plus I am feeling good. Since I started my pre-op diet I have lost 4 pounds. Today is day 3. I figure that is pretty good. I weighed myself Monday afternoon after I got my new scale, of course I had just eaten what I call my last meal, Chevy's Chicken Fajitas, YUM!!! Well at that point I weight 293. I am not sure how close my scale is to the doctors but it seems fairly accurate. So if I take that 293 weight from Monday, then I have lost 10 poundsm because this morning I weighed 283. Though I know water weight and time of weighing makes a difference. But hey, I will take what I can get. Eating eggs in the morning is getting more difficult and it is only day 3. I am thinking of switching it up and eating some other type of protein but I am kind of picky. Good news though, I was not tempted to cheat last night when my BF was eating cookies and ice cream (single serving). It didn't bother me at all. I am still struggling getting the energy to exercise. I may just have to do a 15 min walk during lunch today so that I at least get a little activity. Maybe I will do some stairs to get my heart rate up first. I really want to go to my surgeon appointment with a nice weight loss to show that I am ready for this surgery. 9:15-Decided to try the stairs with a co-worker at 10:30. He is in the same boat as I am as far as health and weight loss. I will for sure post how I am feeling afterwards though it may take me some time to get my breath back!!! 10:45- Whew. We did 12 flights of stairs, down and up, in our office buidling. It doesn't sound like much but I sure did work up a sweat and raised my heartbeat. I am still sweating but it only took me a couple of mins to get my breath back. Now I at least feel like if I don't work out tonight that I got a workout in. Another positive thing about working out is that I no longer feel hungry. Though I am sure that will change in 30 mins or so! 1pm- I would love a naptime right about now. At least I only have 2 hours of work left for the day. My body still feels pretty good from the stairs. I am wondering though if the turkey is making me sleepy. I have heard that turkey has something in it that makes people feel tired after eating it, you know like on Thanksgiving day after dinner you are tired. Though that could be from overeating. I guess I will have to look into that. 1:30pm- Just went down 12 flights of stairs and then walked for 10 mins outside. It is warm out there! Felt good though. Woke me up.

8:30am- So I feel fairly good. I had some energy this morning and my breakfast filled me up. Same as yesterday (1/2 cup of egg beaters, 1 oz of fat free cheddar cheese and a yogurt). I am trying to work on sipping my water to get used to how it will be after surgery. Boy it is hard though. I am not sure what a sip really is. I am not gupling water like I used to so I guess that is at least a start. Because I don't have access to the website at work I figure I will update on Notepad and then e-mail it to myself before work ends and then copy and paste into the blog and add new stuff when I get home. This way I won't forget things that I wanted to write about during worktime. I weighed myself this morning and I am down 1 pound since yesterday morning, yay me! 9:45am- The bad thing about drinking a bunch of water is that I feel like I have to go to the bathroom every 5 mins!!! I am starting to feel a bit hungry, not as bad as yesterday around this time though, so I think that is good. 10:15am- First food work challenge. Someone brought in homemade brownies and banana bread cake with frosting. I am behaving and staying away from it, but being a little hungry and not eating lunch until 11:30 makes it difficult. I just have to keep telling myself that I can do it. If I can lose 10 pounds by my surgeon appointment in 2 weeks then I will be a happy camper. 11:45am- Yum. Just had lunch. 3oz of deli turkey, half a baked potato and an apple. My belly is happy right now. I just hope that it lasts until dinner! I am doing well eating the protein first. I thought that it would be hard because I am not much of a meat or egg eater. I only each chicken and turkey and I could go a few days with out having either of them. Eggs are another story. I get grossed out thinking about eggs. I have for awhile, but I was watching Man vs Wild on the Discovery Channel and Bear(the guys name) was out in the wilderness and found a nest with a couple of eggs. So he boiled water and put the eggs in it for a few minutes. He was all excited about having boiled eggs. Then he took a bite out of one of the eggs and it had a partially developed fetus in it. YUCK!!! Even he was grossed out and if you have ever watched that show Bear eats some nasty stuff. So eggs and I are not too friendly. The egg beaters is working for me right now though I am not sure if I can do that for breakfast daily. 1:15pm- Just went for a little walk. About a 15 minute walk, it wasn't fast or anything but at least I got out of the office for a little bit. I am feeling pretty good. It is a bit hot out though, isn't summer over? I do not feel hungry or even have a hunger headache. Is the protein working that well? I have been eating protein first with all of my meals, and I fill up faster! 2:45pm- Last update from work. Feel pretty good. A little hungry but not bad. A co-worker is going to make me do stairs with her on Tuesday of next week. We have 18 flights in our building. I think that she is trying to kill me! At least that will be some good exercise, even if it takes me 30 mins to do it! Home sweet home. Dinner is cooking. I forgot to take the chicken out so we are not going to eat for another hour or so. I will probably be really hungry by then! I notice that I am slightly grumpy and irritable. My boyfriend is going to the store to get himself some dessert for after dinner. He asked if it was okay. Of course I said yes. But damn it sucks! He is not the one on the diet, I am. Almost 2 days down. It will get easier I am sure. Right???

So Orientation was very informative. I weighed in at a whopping 291. Yikes!!! I have an appointment with the surgeon on Oct 15th. So I am starting the pre-op diet to start to lose the weight that the surgeon will reccomend. We went to the store and I got a scale, a food scale, and some food to start. Today was the first day eating smaller portions and goodness I was hungry. Through Kaiser they want you to eat 3 meals a day and NO snacking. So for breakfast I had, at 6am, 1/2 cup of egg beaters, 1 oz fat free cheese, and a yogurt. I was pretty hungry by 9am. So I drank a bunch of water, it didn't seem to help though. For lunch I had 3 oz of deli sliced turkey, 1 green apple, and a yogurt. That was at 11:45. Dinner time felt like it was forever away. I had to wait until my boyfriend got home from coaching flag football, the team won. He got home around 5:30. I know that seems early to eat dinner for some but since I go to work at 6:30 in the morning its not to me. I feel okay right now. I am tired and a little weak feeling. I would think that after a few days of eating this way my body will get used to it. It is challenging but I think that it is good to start early and get used to eating smaller amounts.

Wow! I hope mine goes as fast. I go to Orientation through Kasier Richmond tomorrow!!!

I decided to write this blog as a way to get out my thoughts and emotions during this life altering process. To begin I am 28 years old and I have not weighed myself in awhile. Last time I was weighed at the doctor I was around 280. Wow! Embarassed to even write that down and I am sure that it is more now. I will be going though Kasier Richmond. I have my Orientation on Monday Sept 27, 2010 (I will get weighed there so will update). I have done a lot of research so I feel very confident in my decision. Though of course there are concerns. One of my concerns is my boyfriend. We have been together 5 years and when we met I weighed about 170. We both gained weight over the years, it seems like most new couples do. When I brought up the idea of surgery to him he did not seem supportive. Now he says that he is supportive of whatever I decide to do, but he still doesn't like the idea of sugery. He is worried about complications and me dying, (which oddly is sweet and makes me love him even more). I am not sure what I can do to make him more comfortable with the sugery. I know that there can be complications and death as a result, but then being soooo overweight can cause complications and early death. We talked about the process and what will happen before, during and after. I need him to be my rock during this. Is that so bad? My next concern is...will I have crazy flabby skin after I lose weight? I will have to work out like crazy but I think that losing at least a little weight will make working out so much easier on my body. It is crazy how far I have let myself go. I am also concerned about losing hair. I have long hair and I don't want to feel like I have bald spots. I know that being at a healthy weight is a good thing and my worries are mostly superficial, though I can't help my thought process. I want to start losing weight right after my Orientation. I want this process to go quickly. Though I get really cranky when I am hungry. I think my blood suger level gets messed up. So I know that losing the pre-surgery weight is not going to be easy. And I am thinking that I will probably need to lose 25-30 pounds. YIKES!!! I can do it though. I am worried about the liquids and only being able to have liquids and then mushy foods. I am a texture girl so things are gonna need to change for me. I only eat chicken and turkey for my meats and I have read places that chicken is a no no for awhile. Also, I am a carboholic. Lifestyle changes are coming my way. My mom is going to be going through this process with me. She also wants the get the surgery done. It makes it nice that we can talk about things and we even get to go to Orientation together. Well I think that I am all written out for now. Hopefully I will have lots of new stuff to write about after my Orientation tomorrow. Very excited!!!

Hello, I am going to orientation on Monday at the Kaiser in Vacaville. I am so happy they offer the orientation and some appointments at Vacaville. It is much closer to Sacramento then Richmond is. My mom also wants to get the sleeve done and its great that we were able to get an orientation date together. Does anyone know the average weightloss required pre-surgery? Is it 10% of your body weight? I have seen conflicting numbers. I am sure that I will have more questions after orientation!