Lissa

I am a firm believer in therapy for our food issues, but the psychologist who did my pre-op evaluation was and is a NUTJOB. She told me that I WOULD be an alcoholic after surgery, but still gave me a pass for the surgery. F her and the horse she rode in on. I'm not a drunk, not even close. I have other addictions and I'm trying really hard to make one of them exercise. (VST qualifies as an addiction, right?) Your psyche person should have kept her unqualified medical opinion to herself. You and your surgeon are the only people who can decide or dictate what procedure you should have. I'd def tell the surgeon's staff that the psyche person is offering up her unsolicited opinions on medical procedures. That may sway who they use for future patients. You need to do what is best for you.

As I've said before, and will probably say again, VST is my support group.

How many days of liquid diet did you have to do? two weeks How much weight did you lose during it? 13 pounds How many days (if any) did you have to stay at the hospital? I was in the hospital for a day and a half Did you have any complications? No complications at all. How long after surgery did you try to eat normal food? (non-puréed, etc) My doctor allows soft solids at about 5 weeks out. How soon after surgery did you feel mostly or fully back to normal? I woke up with tremendous energy. I haven't lost that yet, so I'm still not back to "normal" (lethargic and tired) at almost a year out! Please share any extra comments about things you weren't expecting or tips: I wasn't expecting to have so much energy. I wasn't expecting the mental journey I've taken...and am still taking. I wasn't expecting the speed of my weight loss, or that I'd feel like such a different person so quickly.

(((Kiki))) Don't give up quite yet. Your body is going to shock the heck out of you in a few days. Everyone experiences stalls, especially when they first start exercising. Add to that that this is a weight where your body was comfortable before and you've got the makings of a grand old stall! Ease up on the workouts a little bit and add a little food to your daily routine for a few days. I'm betting your stall will break and in a BIG way. I lost my first pants size during a stall. One day they fit fine and the next day I walked out of them, literally. Lastly, all that loss has freed up a ton of hormones into your system. You are going to experience wild mood swings and the strangest thoughts. I seriously considered swallowing the lid to a Water bottle one morning...just to see if I could. BTW, I don't advise it...it was just a stray thought that went through my head! LOL Once my hormones calmed down, then the thought process did as well. 18 pounds in a month is fantastic. Add in the two pounds this month and you've lost 20 pounds in less than 2 months! Tell me when you could do that before the sleeve! I hope you feel better soon. Sometimes working out actually produces endorphins that will help you get through being so frustrated. I'm addicted to exercise these days. Good luck!!

Better to have excess skin and be at a healthy weight than to be fat and have no "excess" skin.

Thanks, Coops! I am definitely not interested in getting too thin. He says he can get me back in a bikini if I do all this work, but at what price... and who wants to see a 50 year old in a bikini anyway?!? I'm definitely going to be putting the money away, but I may decide to take a killer vacation instead of having any of those surgeries.

Virgo here My recovery was a 10. I woke up! I've been super high energy since surgery and had no complications. My emotional state is probably an 8. I have ups and downs, but I don't think that's truly related to surgery, but to other issues in my life. I'm in the process of getting divorced. food tolerance is a 9. I'm lactose and spicy food intolerant, but those are small blips on my radar these days. Until this morning, I'd have said my sleeve success is a 10. I had a plastics consult today and I'm very frustrated with his instructions. I have a call in to my WLS about it.

Well, here's the plastics consult results: The doc feels that I would get amazing results from an abdominoplasty and that I should also consider a boob lift with upper arms, then a thigh lift after the first two surgeries are completed. However, he wants me to get to 170 or lower before he thinks about doing the abdominoplasty. All of these surgeries will be out of pocket because my insurance will NOT cover any of them since I went out of network for the WLS. UGH The money is doable, will just take a little extra work for a while. What concerns me is the weight loss he wants before surgery. I don't see 170 as a realistic goal at this point. IMO, 170 will make me look like I died last week and my WLS surgeon agreed when we discussed this at my last visit to him. I'm willing to keep working towards 170, but I don't think even I can make that goal. Anyone have any tips or advice here?

I drink decaf coffee several times a week. TMI, but it helps me avoid constipation issues. I have been almost completely decaf since surgery. I have had maybe 3 cups of caffeinated drinks, including tea. I had a really tough time giving up my diet coke before surgery, so I am avoiding caffeine because I know that was the culprit.

I like the Genie bras at Walmart that someone here suggested. They are very comfortable and much more supportive than a sports bra. Even on my incision sites they sit well. Before I found them, I used the sports bras unless I was working because they didn't rub that top incision. It does get better. Soon you won't even be able to find that incision unless you've had major problems with it.

Great job! It's definitely strange to not be the biggest person around. Now I'm usually not even in the top three biggest people around. Yippee!! Keep rocking that sleeve! You'll be at goal in no time.

Meg is right. Even now, I try to go easy on buying clothes. My surgeon says that I'm near goal, but I've lost the last 3-4 sizes in 20 pounds over the last 6 months. While the pounds aren't going down, my sizes go down quickly. I just bought size 16 jeans 2 weeks ago and I was SO excited to be able to wear them. I pulled them out of the dryer a few minutes ago and I can tell they aren't going to fit for much longer. They will be too big!!! I'm thinking that I'll have to buy the next size down within 2 weeks. They were only $20, but my jeans/work pants are getting loose so quickly these days that they might as well still have tags on them. I'd wait until they were truly falling off me, but I wear both to work in and must look somewhat decent daily. Oh well, there's always Goodwill.

I have some excess skin at almost a year out, but I am also seeing improvement in everything except my upper thighs. I have a plastics consult tomorrow to talk about skin removal and possibly a breast lift. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how everything is shaping up. I just posted a new picture this morning to show my progress.

BTW, I wanted to mention that I love that you are always wearing your best accessory...your huge smile!

According to my WLS surgeon, I should be transitioning to maintenance at this point, but I'm still slowly losing. I work out daily and eat pretty much whatever I want to eat, with an emphasis on Protein. Because I'm working towards building muscle, I'm trying to increase my protein intake a bit. I imagine that maintenance won't be much different than my daily routine now. It will still include daily exercise and meeting my Water and protein goals. I'm more concerned with keeping myself healthy than a number on a scale, but I will probably build in a little bounce weight like Meg and others have done. This is the best journey I've ever taken and I plan to enjoy the ride AND the results!

You look amazing!!! Love the song!!

Great job!! Congrats!!

Yes. It's too soon to do anything more than walking. My doc said walking only for the first six weeks, then I could ease into weight lifting. Jogging would definitely be too much this early.

lmao He didn't give you that gum. You STOLED it!!!

Candy, I think the therapist is a GREAT idea! All of us have issues surrounding food or we wouldn't be here. Your pendulum has swung from eating everything to eating nothing. While that allows you to have rapid weight loss, you didn't have surgery so that you could restrict yourself from life. You had surgery to live a happy, healthy, NORMAL life. Correct? You need to really push yourself to try more foods. You need the nutritional benefits of veggies and your tummy muscle inside the sleeve needs the workout of digesting more than the few foods you've tried so far. I know a woman who had GB and eats nothing but Protein shakes and Water. She has reached goal, but done major damage to her body. She frequently ends up in the ER with dehydration and malnutrition issues. Her skin looks like an old woman's skin and she's only 42. She has no muscle tone and no endurance for physical activity. It winded her to walk less than a block the last time I saw her...and she kept pleading for me to slow down. Please work on this issue so that you can have a healthy, happy, rest of your life! (((Hugs)))

Everyone else has said almost everything else I would say, so I'll just add this. One of my inspirations was an aunt who has had over 20 operations due to her uncontrolled diabetes and obesity issues. She "only" weighs about 250, but she's 5'1, so her BMI is astronomical. She nearly lost a foot to gangrene (may still lose it); she's had numerous operations to save the little sight she has left (can't see her grandchildren's faces); she's had operations on both arms to combat the rigor mortis that's already settling in there. She's ONLY 54 years old! I finally decided that ONE operation to help reverse my morbid obesity was much less scary than 20 to combat the effects of my morbid obesity. I was also under a death sentence of lose weight or die...and the doctors weren't sure I'd live a year. Here I am, more than a year after they predicted my death, happieir and healthier than ever! If that's not a sign, I don't know what could be a sign. Good luck, whatever you decide.

You're right, Barb. It's never too late to start measuring yourself!! I just did my measurements this morning and I've lost another inch and a half from my waist. I'm sure that measurements have kept me sane throughout this journey!! Congrats on 30 inches gone FOREVER!!!

PDX, I think I'm going to up my protein goal to 100g from 70g a day, with a corresponding jump in water consumption simply because it's HOT this summer in South Florida. I will be losing my health insurance soon (pending divorce), so it's now or never for me on that plastics consult.

My PCP, who I've been seeing since I was 11, has always been weight phobic. EVERYTHING got the same answer from him "Lose weight and this will go away". I've been to him once since surgery, for my annual checkup. His nurse (and wife) actually required ID before she'd believe it was me. I had a few minor issues and his answer was "You need to lose weight". Um, yeah, I'm down a very visible 60 pounds (at the time) and you're still saying all my problems stem from my weight. Gee, thanks for nothing. Until last month, my pulmonologist was actually handling most of the issues a primary care doc would normally handle. I'm shopping right now for a PCP with a tad of common sense.

Rock on, sistah!!! You look fantastic and SO much happier!!!