Sleevie WonderLand

Yess! Thanks for the website info!

lol @ "I never can trust people who's legs don't rub together...Hilarious!

I dont usually post in the Post-op section, but I figured this would be the best place for me to get some of my Protein shake/drink questions answered. My NUT gave me "homework"...told me to find a Protein shake or drink that has more than 15 grams of protein per serving. I need you guys to help me. I know I'm not the only one who's ever asked for this info, so if there's a link or a post that has all the info regarding shakes and Proteins before and after surgery, please let me know! I want to order some samples. What should I try? What website should I go to? I liked the slimfast shakes when I was on that diet, but realize they probably dont have the proper amount of nutritional values to meet my needs once i'm sleeved. Do the Protein Shakes taste like Slimfast, or are they all gritty and gross tasting? Right now I like sweets stuff. I'm more of a chocolate loving kinda gal, but will tolerate strawberry and vanilla (in that order) if I have to. What's the best chewable Multivitamin out there? Should I just stick to taking Flintstone Vitamins? If you had to pick one protein shake to live on for the rest of your life, what would it be?

It didnt even cross my mind to report her. I think I handled the situation well enough for her to think twice about the way she speaks to her patients.

I just chalk it up to ignorance. Unfortunately she works in the healthcare field and hasnt educated herself enough to know about WLS and feels the need to advocate against it since she lost weight "the natural way". I told her off in a polite way. Eventually she'll run into another WLS candidate soon who wont be as nice as I was!

Last Thursday I went to get a sonogram of my gall bladder as required by my surgeon. I was a little grumpy because I was hungry and couldnt eat until after the sono and felt like I was waiting forever to be called. So finally the tech calls me into the room and tells me to lift my shirt and lower my pants so she can get to my gut region. She asked me why I was having the sono and I told her that I was pursuing weight loss surgery. She squirts that warm gel on my tummy and immediately goes into a story about how she used to be overweight and lost 80 pounds in two years by swimming and changing her diet. She went through a bad divorce and decided that since her kids were grown up and out of the house that she wanted to focus on herself and get healthy and lose weight. She said she went swimming early in the morning counted her calories during meals and went swimming in the evening when she got home from work. She’s telling me all this, and I'm just listening, trying to keep calm, because she's saying it in a sort of condescending tone; almost like she's trying to convince me not to have WLS. She goes on and on about what size clothing she used to wear and what she wears now, and I still listened, but I didn’t say a word. I'm the type that will usually take on a challenge, but all I wanted to do was get outta there and get my bacon and egg english muffin samich. Then she said those effin words..."I would never do the surgery, that's the EASY WAY OUT" and everything started to move in slow motion for me...like in the movies when a bomb is about to explode. I had to do everything in my power not to jump up off that exam table and cuss her out. I dont know what she said after that because I was literally trying to figure out a way to tell her that I wasnt interested in her opinion and didnt appreciate her trying to make me feel bad about having weight loss surgery. I took a deep breath and relaxed. Her opinion was her own and meant nothing to me. However, I did feel the need to put her in her place. I'm so proud of myself....I said to her, "I'm happy that you were able to find a way to lose weight by swimming and counting calories. Unfortunately for me, I dont have the time in my busy day to go swimming in the morning and evening, as I have an entire family to take care of in addition to my full time job. I've tried countless times to lose weight with conventional methods and have failed every single time. You said it took you two years to lose 80 pounds? Well hopefully with my surgery I will lose 80 pounds in half that time, and can focus on maintaining it with my diet and regular exercise, but I know for a fact that it will not be an easy way out." (I was real sassy when I said that last part). She then begins to apologize about not meaning it "that way", that she was just explaining to me that since she was able to put her mind to it and focus she was able to lose her weight “naturally”. My response was "Well, I'm puttin my mind to this surgery and will focus on it and lose my weight “naturally” too. I took one of them huge hospital paper towels, wiped that gunk off my tummy and wished her a good day as I sauntered off into the hallway.

Thank you for that quick laugh (I almost spit out my tea when you cussed about the gastric bypass!). Glad to hear you're recovering well, and dont have diabetes!

I need to broaden my soup horizon. Must find a Vietnamese restaurant so I can try some Pho and Bahn Mi! You give me hope (dont bust out into song here)...I keep worrying that I'm going to "miss" scarfing down massive amounts of food at one sitting once I'm sleeved. You just reminded me that I will still be able to enjoy foods that I like, I just need to be smart about it!

I guess I’m doing this backwards because I should have come to the “Tell your story” section when I first started perusing VST. I can’t even remember how I found this site honestly. I was using Obesity Help and quickly got turned off by that site because there is a lot of unnecessary drama happenin over there. People leaving nasty and negative comments for each other and what not…just wasn’t for me. So I’ve decided to do all my sleevin here on VST. I’ve gotten so much advice, inspiration and insight from the people here. VST rocks. Now, for the “my story” part. What can I tell you about my overweight life that you haven’t already heard from everyone else? My story is typical - heavy as a child and all through my adult life. Dieted endlessly..lost weight, gained weight, had babies, gained more weight, found love, lost love, isolated myself, battled with self confidence, gained more weight, found love again, yada yada yada. So here I am in my 40s heading into Sleeveland, and I’m asking all of you directions on how to get there and stay there. I have four children and a great husband who deserve to have an active Mom/Wife in their lives so I’m not just doing this for me, but I’m also doing it for them. My husband is the only person that knows of my surgery plans. What’s my reason for keeping it secret? I just don’t want to tell people. I don’t want to hear what people have to say about my decision. I just want people to see me and have their jaws drop. Stop looking at me like that. It’s no different than when people get botox or face lifts. They wanna look better, right? Well in my instance, I’ll look better AND I’ll be improving my health. And the big bonus is that I’ll get to re-ignite that inner me that has been hiding for way to long. I’m bringin Sexy back! My official weight loss surgery journey started in late May, and I’m officially on my way to getting sleeved. As of today, I still have a couple of procedures and tests to complete, and I’m doing my best to get those done so my surgeon’s office can submit my paperwork to my insurance company. (I wanna get sleeved in September *fingers crossed*) In the meantime, I’ll be posting, blogging, and researching everything sleeve here with you guys on VST. My ideal story ends with me getting sleeved, slimming down, and living happily and healthierly ever after…. (yeah, I know that’s not a word, but it has a real nice ring to it). So…that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

My nut didnt tell me jack except that I need to take those supplements to get my levels up. She did tell me to take the calcium twice a day as our bodies only absorb a certain amount at a time. No mention of not taking the Iron with the calcium. That heffa tried to set me up! I have millions of bottles of Multivitamins. I KNOW I need to take them, but once they make me feel sick, I throw them in the back of the bathroom cabinet. I think I'm gonna have to just suck it up like Sue said. WHy cant they invent a patch or something? Yeah, I know...I'm always lookin for the easy way out...

I hate taking pills. They always seem to feel like they are stuck between my esophagus and my stomach, especially Vitamins and supplemental pills. I was told by my nutritionist that I need to take Vitamin D, Calcium and Iron supplements. Booo. Hisss. Why me? My Nut had me order some Vitamin D tabs from a website called Biotech. My Vit D is low, she said these are the best supps for me to take to get my levels up in the shortest amount of time. Bleh. I’ve suffered from iron deficiency for quite some time now and I hate taking iron supplements because of the constipation and the nausea that always comes with it. Lucky me I have to take iron AND stupid calcium which will probably increase my discomfort. When I tell you I HATE taking pills believe me. I almost don’t wanna go through with the surgery just so I wouldn’t have to take these pills. *sigh* Guess I need to start eating foods rich in these nutrients so I wont have to deal with this crap for the rest of my life. Why cant they make all vitamins taste like gummy bears or like rocky road ice cream? I’d probably grow an extra foot because I’d end up overdosing on vitamins if they did taste like rocky road. smh

I went to my junior high school reunion this past weekend and was horrified at the aftermath of pictures that captured me in all my 250 pounds of flesh and flab. I’m not in denial, I know that I’m obese, but dammit, I didn’t realize that my arms looked like ham hocks and that I would look like a circus tent in my maxi dress that I thought would be flattering. I have that little piece of fat that almost hangs over my elbow point, and seeing it in pictures brought me to the lowest of lows. I’m fat. I’m obese. I’m so unhappy with me right now it’s not funny. *Note to self* Must remember to disable the "tagging" feature in Facebook. To top things off, my girlfriend who I haven’t seen in about 8 months decided to roll out with me to the reunion. She comes to my house to pick me up, and this heffa has lost at least 75 bleepin pounds. She has on a form fitting dress and she looks like a freakin goddess standing next to big ol hulkin me. This hussy didn’t even tell me that she had lost all that weight! I know what you're thinking..and no, I didn’t ask her if she had surgery. I wanted to, but realized that if she wanted me to know she would have told me. Am I a little salty about that? Just a tad. Wait, no. Because I’m not letting anyone know of my plans for surgery, so I can dig where she’s coming from. I went on and on about how fabulous she looked and was truly amazed at her transformation. She used to be short and round, but somehow she seemed a little taller now that she’s slimmed down. She could have worked hard and exercised and changed her eating habits to achieve this monumentous weight loss, but I really don’t think she went that route. I would bet money that she had some sort of WLS. So just to confirm my suspicions, I watched her eat. There was an abundance of food at the reunion…ribs, burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, Spanish rice, mac n cheese, corn on the cob, fried ckn, bbq ckn, turkey wings, pasta salad, garden salad, fruit salad, cookies, cakes, pies. Before the weight loss her plate would have been piled up with “a little bit of everything” on it. When she got back to our table she only had a bbq rib (a very small one) and about a half cup of Spanish rice. I sat and watched her pick at the rib and chew a small piece of it for the longest time. Then she had a spoonful of rice and pushed the plate to the side. To further confirm my suspicion, I brought her a bottle of water to drink. She told me she didn’t want it, she’d probably have something to drink later on. BINGO! I think after I’m sleeved, I’ll share this story with her. I’m a little disappointed that she didn’t trust our friendship enough to let me know she was planning to have surgery, but like I said before, I understand why she didn’t say anything. The funny thing is that while she got lots of compliments on her weight loss, no one asked her how she did it. Throughout the course of the day we were talking about how one of our classmates resembled Raven Symone and my friend blurted out “I think she had the surgery!”. Everyone nodded in agreement, but my eyebrow went way up into my hairline. That was definitely confirmation for me. I just got quiet for a minute and daydreamed about next year’s reunion and my hope of sauntering my newly found fabulousness amongst my schoolmates.

Gardendiva, you might be on to something. I've been watching "Sister Wives" and am almost convinced that I can live and share Sue with you, but you cant bring yellow oreos to the compound, only the originals will do.

Ok, so I proposed to you in another one of your blogs, but after reading this I realized I may be trying to move to fast with you. How bout we just shack up for a while? You are my kinda chick! Funny, insightful, brilliant, "spiritual", and SLEEVED. Oh, but above all that, you sound like you love to eat good food as much as I do! (except for that McDz fry thing...didnt you ever see the McDonald's food experiment where they tried to see how long it takes their food to breakdown? The fries lasted for MONTHS because they're so full of preservatives). Anyhoo, keep writing and sharing, I can tell it's therapeutic for you because you're so good at it. I'm just wanna thank you for being you and sharing your "battlefield" stories with us. You are the wind beneath my sleeve! (or you will be once I finally get it done)

Marry me Sue...we can run off into the sleeved sunset together...but before we go any further, i must warn you that my credit is shot! My credit score is probably lower than my weight, or equivalent to my BMI....

*bowing down to SeattleSue* I've become such a SeattleSue groupie (in some states it could be considered stalking) since reading your posts about your VSG experience. I can feel your vibe and spirit through your writing, and I'm totally hyped about you saying that I'm your inspiration for your blog. As for singing...I can carry a tune, but I'm definitely not at the Kirk Franklin level! Just promise me that you'll continue to post/blog...you HAVE to keep sharing your writing gift with us. Your sleeve will stop working if you dont.

Thanks for sharing this info. This definitely solidifies my decision to get the sleeve. It makes the surgery seem even more necessary to me now!

Thanks Mrs. J! I'm gonna make an appt with Dutta today, guess I gotta gear up for that treadmill...

Thanks all! I'm hoping my clearance is on the simpler side too, the EKG thing sounds like a breeze.

What should I expect when I visit the cardiologist? I'm in the midst of scheduling all these different appointments, and I'm pretty clear on what the Gastroenterologist, Psychiatrist, and Nutritionist visits will entail. When ever I think of a cardiologist I get visions of an episode of The Cosby Show when Cliff had to run on a treadmill. It started off slow and he was showboating, and as the speed increased he lost his composure and could hardly breathe at the end. LOL I hope I dont have to do that.

I was at a baby shower this weekend and there was an abundant buffet of all my favorite foods. I wasnt hungry, but I couldnt resist heading to the tables to get my grub on. As I made my plate (which could probably feed a small village) I began to talk myself out of pursuing the sleeve. I realized that I would no longer be able to eat to my heart's content (only my stomach's) and would probably have to give up some of the greasier/fried kibbles that were offered, and I was truly sad. I literally stopped in my tracks, looked at my plate and thought "what am I doing?...this is why I'm in this predicament now!"..... I handed the plate off to my hubby, and didnt even bother to eat. I know that I'll still have those greedy/fat brain issues, but if I try to fulfill them when I'm sleeved, my sleeve will definitely remind me that I am no longer capable of living that way. I CANT WAIT to have my surgery....hell, they can take 90% of my stomach if they want! LOL

Oh boy has that word "failure" haunted me for many years. Yo yo dietig is the biggest and fastest emotional roller coaster anyone can ride. I think its terrible that WLS is kept a secret - especially in comparison to all the infomercials and advertisements for weight loss programs that only supply short term weight loss. I'm grateful to have found this tool. I havent been sleeved just yet, but I know this time my weight loss goals are attainable, and I will be able to maintain them because I have no choice but to modify my behavior.

So yeah, I wrote that title just to rope you in. Well it's true, sorta...I've been officially diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Ordinarily I'd be upset and worried about it, but for this situation, I'm happy to have it. You see, this apnea is my saving grace as it helps to qualify me for surgery. I had a 39.5 BMI, no co-morbs, and was worried that things wouldnt work out in my favor. But they did. I'm so glad they did! I met with my NP today and she told me to go full steam ahead with making all the other tests and stuff I need - psych eval, cardiologist, gall bladder sono, upper endoscopy, and chest x-ray. She said the sooner I get those things done the sooner I can schedule my surgery date. I also havent met with the Nut yet, so I made an appt to see her on Thursday. I started looking into WLS toward the latter part of May, so it's only been about two months for me, but I swear it feels like I've been pursuing this forever! I cant think about anything else, my poor hubby has gotten to the point where he just nods and doesnt even try to respond cause I'm like a motor mouth about all the things I'm gonna do when I lose the weight. Back to the sleep study thingy....I didnt think I suffered from it, but now that I think about it, it makes sense. I could sleep 12 hours straight and still wake up tired as ever. Honestly, I thought I was a light sleeper because I havent slept soundly in six years since my first son was born. I'm just accustomed to jumping up in my sleep, but maybe it was/is apnea all along. I'm not looking forward to sleeping with a mask on my face, but I am curious to see how different i will feel after using the CPAP. Oh, I just realized that I didnt mention it, but I have to go back to the sleep study center on Thursday eve so they can check my pressure (that's what the sleep center rep said), and I figured she was talking about the cpap business. So I'm looking forward to another night away from hubby and the kids (stop lookin at me like that, I dont take these little mini vacays for granted) in that cozy little fake hotel room. Today was a good day. Alot of my anxiety was relieved, now I can concentrate on getting these tests outta the way so I can get to my sleeve! Now I gotta figure out how to fix up my signature into a "to do" list so I can be fancy like the rest of you!

Congrats Bryn! The vets say it gets better with time, so keep on pushing. Excited to see you transform throughout your journey!

to not have to sit in the phlebotomists chair for 10 minutes because they cant find a vein in my fat arm (just had this happen to me the other day) to wear an ankle bracelet without an extender to get into a booth at a restaurant in one fell swoop, rather than having to push my self all the way back so I dont get wedged in between the table and bench to wear a pair of stylish boots that can fit over my calves to wear some little panties that dont disappear into all my folds of flesh (the "g" in g-string stands for "gone") to wear my shirt tucked into my slacks with a belt and not look like the Michelen man Take full body photos, not just headshots To wear some color. The majority of my clothes are black and brown and grey. My favorite - I cant wait to finally play that carnival/amusement park game where the man tries to guess your weight. I used to steer clear of that one!