Suzannesh

Hi, Why are you still sitting out there waiting to have surgery. I know for many, it is the fear off failing just one more time. I felt like that too, and I want you to know that "sleeve" surgery was the ONLY thing that has ever worked for me. I had it over 4 1/2 years ago and I lost 105 pounds and I have kept it off. STOP giving days of your life away. Make the choice to do something that is going to save your life. I am always here if you have any questions. Do something NOW, and I promise you, that you will never have any regrets

Hi out there, What are you waiting for? If you are someone who is sitting on this board and you are reading ALL the postings and not saying anything—this is quite normal. I did that for a few months too. I was trying to figure a few things out about weight loss surgery. Having WLS is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make. Right now you are slowly killing yourself with your fork! What I learned once I started asking questions there are an enormous amount of helpful people on this board that helped me along the way and answers my hundreds of questions I had. You can NEVER ask too many questions OK. Two of my mentors gave me an incredible amount of support from each of them and I am so blessed and thankful for their help, guidance and care and endless answers for all my questions. They supported me when I needed it, and just were amazing! Ok here is my challenge for you “newbies” Please don’t give another day of your life away being fat and unhealthy. Start asking questions start the process of educating yourself and maybe set a date to have WLS. I had sleeve weight loss surgery 4 years ago by Dr. Aceves and lost 105 pounds and have kept it off. I have extreme amount of experience and I am more than willing to answer any and all of your questions. So get off the fence and start asking things that you are curious about. Hugs, Suzanne

Hi Everyone, Just checking in to see how things are going with everyone. I am always out here reading the board and checking to see if anyone has any questions. Are you finding the foods that you like to eat? Have you tired any new recipes? I love trying new recipes or taking some of my old ones and making them a little more healthy. I have one that I want to share with you. Sometimes having something new just helps us make it through the day. Zucchini Bread Makes 2 Loaves 3 eggs 1 teaspoon Soda 1 cup Olive Oil ¼ teaspoon Baking Power 2 cups Splenda 1 teaspoon Salt 2 cups Grated Zucchini 3 teaspoons Cinnamon 3 teaspoons vanilla ½ cup Chopped Nuts of your choice 3 cups Almond Flour 1 -2 cups of Blueberries depending on your taste Beat eggs until light & fluffy. Add the next 3 ingredients to eggs that you have already beat—oil, Splenda, grated zucchini. Mix well. Next add almond flour, soda, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Mix well. Add nuts & blueberries into the mixture. I found almond flour in the Health food Section of my local Grocery Store. Almond Flour is a Protein, and it really does taste GREAT. Pour mixture into greased loaf pans—you can use PAM spray if you want to grease the loaf pans with it. Bake at 325 for 1 hour or more depending on your oven. I hope this helps people. Please post how you are doing and if there is anything we can help you with or any questions that you may have. I know this is such a big step to take to have the VSG aka "Sleeve". I had Weight Loss Surgery almost 4 years ago and it was the very best thing I have ever done for myself. If you have any questions about the surgery or want to ask, plase feel free to ask me anything you want to know about it. I am always willing to take the time to help you. I do not have any regrets at all. Hugs, Suzanne

Hi, I am always out here if you have any questions or just need to talk. It can become frustrating jumping through all their hoops, but NEVER give up OK. Hugs, Suzanne

Hi, I am always here if you need anything or any kind of support. The sleeve is honeslty the best way to go. I think you will love your choice. I wish you great success in your weight loss journey. You can always find me here on this board if you get scared--it is very normal to have a bag full of emotions and feelings just before you have surgery. I did and I know all the things you must be thinking and feeling. You can alway reach me at my personal E-mail too. This is my E-mail address: Suzannesh@aol.com Hugs, Suzanne

Hi, I hear what you are saying, and I am also here to tell you Dr. Aceves has done so many revisions. Please call Nina his patient coordinator, she is fabulous to talk to, and will not pressure you in any way. She will give you all the advise and information you are looking for. This is how you can contact her. Her phone number is 1-888 344 3916. It is really normal to have all the feeling you are feeling. This is a big step and change. I didn't have a lapband, but I can tell you that the sleeve is the very best thing I have ever done for myself. I love it, and how I have lost the weight and it has been easy to maintain the weight loss. I am always here if you have any questions. Hugs, Suzanne My private E-mail is Suzannesh@aol.com if you want to send me an E-mail too.

Hi Everyone, I want to know why you are still trying to make up your mind about having Weight Loss Surgery (WLS)? I know what took me 6 months to make up my mind. I was doing a LOT of research checking out everything I could think of. I must have asked at least 1,000 questions to the people on 3 different WLS boards. So, if you are in those stages you are doing all the right things. Keep asking questions until you feel comfortable with where you are heading. If you aren't sure if it will work for you—I thought the very same things you are thinking. I want you to know is DOES WORK. I had WLS almost 4 years ago, and I lost 105 pounds and have kept it off. So stop using that as a justification for not going ahead and having WLS. Next; if you think it is the easy way out—that is such a WRONG way of thinking. WLS is NOT a miracle remedy; it is ONLY a tool to allow you to get to the goal you set for yourself. Every day you continue to do what you are doing ring now; you are slowly killing yourself every time you put that fork in your mouth. Please stop and think about what I just said, you know I am right. I got fat the very same way you did. This just didn't happen to me overnight, it took me time to become fat. So, I want you to care about yourself enough to move forward and GO for WLS. I had the “Sleeve” and I believe it is the very best kind of WLS for me. I do understand if you are a self-pay patient and it is about the money. Here is what I want you to do check out the doctors and their hospitals. There is some OK doctors, some good doctors and some great doctors. What do you want for yourself? I wanted the “great” doctor and I chose Dr. Aceves, and for me he was the very best I could find, after all my research his name just kept coming up as the GREAT doctor I was looking for. There are different ways to finance having WLS too. I know for Dr. Aceves, Nina his Patient Coordinator is a great source of information. Call her and discuss thing with her. I want you to make a promise that you will move forward and have WLS, if this is what you really want for yourself. It requires work on your part and you need to have you head in the right place and want this more than you have ever wanted anything else in your life--it will work for you!! It is YOUR chance to change your entire life and health for the better. I failed at ever kind of diet I ever tried. I could lose it, but only to regain it back in a few months. Then I felt like a failure. What I learned is that I am NOT on a diet after having WLS. I have made a lifestyle change and it is something that I can live with for the rest of my life. I never feel deprived, I eat healthy and I like what I eat. Yes I have some desert now and then, just not all the time. I have learned to bake some really yummy and healthy deserts too. I want the very same things for you too. Exercise is also very helpful once you start to lose the weight. Start out slowly with the exercise. If you have any question or want to talk about any of the things about WLS or just have questions, I am always right here for you. I always promised myself that I would be here for others. I had two wonderful ladies who were there for me every step of the way. They also answered my endless questions as I asked them. We can talk about the good, the bad and the not so nice things. It is always important to have someone who has been there ahead of you. Hugs, Suzanne

Hi, I can tell you that I highly recommend Dr. Aceves. In 2008 I had sleeve surgery and lost 105 pounds and have kept it off for 4 years now. Dr. Aceves is the very best doctor you could ever go to. If I lived closer to Mexicali, I would be going to him for my PCP. He truly cares about each and everyone of his patients. He takes the time to explain everything to you and will answer ALL your questions. His standards are very high. He does 3 leak tests before he will ever let you go home. You do your recovery in a top of the line hospital that is so very incrediably clean. Some doctors send you back to a Hotel room or a so called recovery house--most reconvery house DO NOT have any medical staffing. That is one of the reasons they charge so much less for many of them. If you want the very best there is; then I suggest you have Dr. Aceves do your surgery. I did about 6 months worth of research when I picked Dr. Aceves. He was in Newsweek Magazine May 2012 for all of his skills and what a great doctor he is. You will love him and his entire staff. They speak excellent English. Make a list of concerns and questions that you might have and send them to me. I will be happy to answer any and all of your questions. This was the best thing I have EVER done for myself. Take Care, Suzanne

Hi, When you eat a lot of Protein, that does cause constipation. I use Miralx. It is NOT habit forming. I buy costco brand because it cost less. It has NO taste, so you can mix it with any liquid. Use a cap full EVERYDAY, and this will solve your problem. I had sleeve surgery almost 4 years ago and I take Miralx everyday. I hope this helps you, Hugs, Suzanne

Hi Everyone, I know that when you are fat (yes I say FAT, because that is what I was) it is hard to love yourself. This is where I want you to start first. Love yourself on the inside first. Then as you start to lose the weight you can start to love the outside of your body. We really do blame ourselves for our failures of being fat and not being able to lose the weight. What I want you to know and understand is that I believe we have a disease that is called obesity. If diet and exercise alone worked for everyone, we would have already lost this weight. We all know we have tried MANY times over the years to lose the weight through diet and exercise, only to fail and keeping it off. For me the only way I could cure my disease was having Weight Loss Surgery. It was truly my answer. It is hard to look at our outside body and say “Gee I am beautiful and wonderful.” And the whole world unfortunately does judge us by what we look like on the outside, not who we really are on the inside. So I am asking you to start to love who you are on the inside FIRST. You have so much to offer and you are beautiful, funny, attractive, intelligent, successful, gorgeous, loving, good-looking, inspiring, poignant, stunning, impressive, expressive, spectacular, magnificent, delightful, and caring, sensitive, complex and many more things. You have great value and it is overlooked. I want you to start thinking of yourself in these ways. I know it isn’t easy, but each day. PLEASE say ONE nice thing about yourself. I BELIEVE in you and I want you to believe in yourself too!!!!!! I had WLS 4 years ago and lost 105 pounds and have kept it off. I love myself, I didn’t in the past, but now I know I can meet any challenge that life gives me and be successful at it. I am also 67 years old now and life just keeps getting better. I work at keeping the weight off because I have made a lifestyle change. I am NOT on a diet, but I made a lifestyle change. I eat healthy and I get up and walk about 3 to 4 miles 6 days a week. I love walking and it works for me. You find what works for you and do it. Dr. Aceves and Dr. Compos were my doctors who did my “sleeve” weight loss surgery. I highly recommend them. For me they are the very best there are out there.-I did a lot of research to find them. If you have any questions our just want to talk about having Weight Loss Surgery, please send me an E-mail, I would love to talk with you and see if I can answer any and all of your questions. Hugs Suzanne E-mail: Suzannesh@aol.com Sleeved 10/21/2008 Lost 105 pounds

Hi, I jsut sent you a reply. Hope you find it helpful. Hugs, Suzanne

Hi, Gee thanks, I just want people to know that they can be where I am. It was my answer to a weight loss that I can maintain forever. I wish you nothing but success. I am always here if you have any questions. Hugs, Suzanne

Hi, Gee thanks, you are on the road to success. You are going to be just as successful as I am. Keep doing all the things you are doing right now. Hugs, Suzanne

Hi, Thanks so much. I just want people to know that they can be successful too! Here is something I wrote and I am sending it to you. If you want more information after reading this, just send me an E-mail: Suzannesh@aol.com Hi Everyone, I decided that I would make a list of things for new people who are thinking about having WLS that might be helpful to them. This is long so please PRINT THIS OUT TO READ if you don’t want to read it all at one time. First thing is to start asking people on the board you are on all kinds of questions—make of list of things you want to ask and keep coming back and ask more questions as time goes on. The more questions that ask the more you educate yourself about WLS and the process and what doctor they liked. Don’t rely on just one source of information. It is really normal to have all kind of feeling and emotions when trying to decide if you want to have Weight Loss Surgery. I must have talked myself in and out of doing this at least 50 times during my 6 months of research. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. This is a big step. But if diet and exercise worked for us then we still wouldn’t be fat and would have lost the weight a long time ago and never regained it. It takes a lot of courage to have Weight Loss Surgery. I am very proud of you for looking into this. Don’t give any more days of your life being overweight, and your body hurting along with being unhealthy. WLS really is your answer. How do you select your surgeon? First of all this is NOT a time to price shop for the cheapest doctor to do your WLS—that is just the wrong way to go at this. There are a lot of doctors who advertise on the Internet doing sleeve surgery for a lot less than some other doctors. I found one posting from a person who had the following concerns after having surgery in Tijuana, Mexico. (a) They put NO name band on her to be able to ID her when giving medications or anything else. ( NO one asked if she had any allergies to foods or medications—thank goodness this person didn’t have any. ( The lab did NOT label tubes of blood with the person’s name on it—very dangerous. © Day after surgery they gave this person ice chips, tea and apple juice. The next day (day 2) they gave this person NOTHING so this person asked why and the nurse said this person wasn’t allowed to eat anything. Well, this person then said I had Clear liquids the day before and they wanted to know WHO gave it to this person?? (d) This person was told that they would get a copy of the operative report on their discharge to take home with them—This person has not received it yet and that was about 2 weeks ago. So make sure have positive feedback about the Surgeon and Staff and Hospital that you choose. My choice after 6 months of research was Dr. Aceves in Mexicali, Mexico. What I can tell you in my opinion is that he is the very best you will ever find to do your surgery. I can only speak about my experience and my research that I did before I made him my choice for a surgeon. Pack lightly for your WLS. So many of us have gone to Mexico, so you want a small suitcase with wheels, a laptop & a cell phone. The clothing that you wear to Mexico are the same ones you can wear home—slip on shoes work great too. Make sure that the clothing is loose fitting. Something just comfortable for your ride home. While in Mexico—that is if you go to Mexico for WLS make sure you take GAS-X. They have nothing in Mexico that they give your for gas, and the use gas in your abdominal area during surgery. It is painful after the surgery, so GAS-X STRIPS are easy to use by just placing them on your tongue. Take a couple of boxes with you—you will be glad you did. If you are going to use a credit card make sure you tell your credit card company and your Bank if you use your debit card or credit card. Sometimes if you DO NOT let these companies know you are outside of the US they block your charges. Use a credit card or debit card vs cash it is much easier to use. Take small amounts of cash for tips—I took $45.00 in 1’s for tip money for various things. If you go to any hospital anywhere leave ALL jewelry at home –just a watch and no rings or other jewelry. I never had any problems at all leaving my purse and computer& cell phone in my room while I was in surgery, but they recommend that you leave all jewelry at home. If you are a lady please remove all nail polish—they need it removed to see your nail beds during surgery. The first month you do after surgery is the HARDEST month you will ever have to do. You do 10 days of nothing but clear liquids to start with—that means you have to be able to see through the liquid. Do not panic if you can not get the Protein they want you to have the 1st 10 days—I couldn’t find anything I liked that was clear during the 1st 10 days. They want you to try to drink 64 oz each day, and I don’t think I could ever get that much Water drank—just do the best you can. Your new stomach has just had major surgery and it is swollen and will only hold something about the size of your thumb. The next 10 days gets much better—you are now on creamy liquids for these 10 days. You can now have some creamy Soups, yogurt, and pudding—sugar free and find a protein drink that you like. For me it is Premier Protein Drink and I get mine at costco. When looking for a protein drink, make sure they are low in calories, high in Protein—Premier has 30 grams of protein in each drink box and make sure you have low carbs too. I know there are a lot of other Protein drinks out there that people like. When it comes to carbs I tried to keep mine at no more than 20 carbs per day. Ask others what kind of Protein drinks they liked and where they get them. The last 10 days are mushy foods. So this is a bit of a challenge. How many foods can I make mushy? I even considered using some baby foods. Start thinking about what will work as mushy foods for you. Starting the 2nd month is quite an adventure. You can eat regular food. Here is where the relearning process takes place. You now will take tiny BABY BITES of food and chew each bit about 30 times or until it is like a liquid. From here on out you will need to take small bites of food and chew and chew and chew. I found out that chicken and fish were a lot easier to chew up. I don’t eat much red meat—your tastes will change and things you didn’t like a lot might taste good and something that you used to love don’t taste that great anymore. Keep track of what you are eating and keep your calories at about 800 calories per day and no more than 20 carbs per day—whole grain carbs are the best to have—NO white or refined carbs. I highly suggest that you keep track by writing them down or using some of the Internet sites that offers you this. I suggest this site it works great there are other sites to use this is just a suggestion. http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/ It really is good to write down and track everything you put in your mouth to start with—that is how you know that you have not had more than 800 calories per day. I want you to understand weight loss surgery is just a tool. The fat does not just melt off of you—they is NO miracle cure. Now you have to put a lot of effort into eating healthy and starting to exercise. Everyone has some kind of exercise that works for them. I love walking and try to walk about 5 days a week. For many of us we started to lose some of our hair 3 or 4 months after having WLS. I would find a lot of hair in the shower after washing my hair. That is pretty normal for a lot of us—this does not happen to everyone. There is no magical cure for hair loss—some people use different shampoo’s or take Biotin. It happens and you live with it. YES, it will grow back. For me I had pencil straight hair and mine grew back natural curly and I love it now. I already had thin hair so for me, I got some cute wigs and wore them for about 9 months until my hair looked a lot better. It was worth the hair loss to lose 105 pounds. Because we eat a lot of protein we suffer from constipation. You need to have at least 70 grams of protein EACH day. So I mix my protein drink each morning with MIRALAX. It is NOT habit forming and is tasteless and it is just a good way to start off the day. I put the protein and a cap full of Miralax in the blender with about 5 small ice cubes and that is my breakfast. 3 years later I still have this for breakfast and nothing else, it just works for me. You may have periods where you have what we call STALLS. You may be doing everything right and eating and exercising and you have NO weight loss for a week or more. This is normal—mine lasted 9 days. Don’t panic the weight loss will start up again, just keep doing what you are doing. Our heads play games with us sometimes it is ugly what our brain tried to convince us of—We call these “Head Games” and they really are tough times to work though, but you can do it. Your head is still thinking with your old brain and way of thinking that you have been doing for most of your life. You now are eating VERY small amount of food, but your head is used to you eating LARGE amounts of food and that is what your brain wants—so it tries to tell you the you should be eating more—NOT true at all. So you need to have a talk with yourself. Do I just WAN T to eat or do I really NEED to eat? You are not on a diet, but you are making a LIFESTYLE change and that is good because you can do this for the rest of your life. You will NEVER be able to eat like you used to. That is good because that is how we got fat. You will morn the loss of food—you will look around and see others inhaling all this food and you think to yourself—I used to eat like that. You will notice how fast people eat and inhale their food and talk and hardly chew what they are eating. That is pretty normal feeling to have—because you are now eating such small amounts of food and chewing and chewing. You will never be able to guzzle a bottle of water again—that is OK too. These are all good things. In time you will look at all the food people are eating and thinking to yourself oh my gosh I could never eat that much again—it is way too much food. When you have issues or problems come back to the board and ask others who have already done this. We are here to help and support you. Give or exchange all your fat clothes away. You will never need them again after they become too big for you. This weight loss is something you will be able to maintain for the rest of your life. You have earned the right to have new clothes. Make sure you have the VERY best doctor that has had a lot of experience with sleeve surgery and check his success rates out. Check the doctor for HIGH patient reviews from the people who have gone to him or her. I can NOT STRESSS this enough. Make sure that your surgery is being done in a hospital NOT a Clinic. One clue that it is a clinic is if they send you to a hotel room to recover—that is why they cost less, this is also dangerous too. YOU are worth the extra money that it cost to have this WLS in a Hospital and by the best Doctor you can have. You want to have a happy and GREAT life and having the RIGHT Doctor and Hospital are the key to this. Sorry if this is long, but it is intended to have as a reference and answer a lot of your questions that you might have. For some of you, you are very lucky because your health insurance is now starting to pay for Weight Loss Surgery. For many of this, we did not have your luck, so we are self pay patients. There are companies that loan money for this surgery—be aware that their interest rate is high. Once you pick your doctor ask them about these companies that give loans for surgery if you are a self pay patient. You know we never think twice about making car payments. If you have to borrow the money for this surgery just look at this as “body payment.” It will be the best money you have ever borrowed. Please PRINT this out to read later. If you have any questions for me please feel free to contact me. I had surgery almost 4 years ago, so I do have quite a bit of experience. I really am here to help you along your journey. It took me 14 months to lose this weight and I was 63 when I had the surgery, so it is NEVER too late in life to do this. Hugs, and I wish you great success Suzanne

Hi, That is good news, just remember I am out here if you need anything or have any questions. Hugs and keep up the great work! Suzanne