cindyslosingit

Sleeved on 8-31-2011. As of this morning I have lost 100.6 pounds so far. 14.4 pounds of that was from my 2 week pre-op diet.

I hear you... it is weird! I have kept the news that I had this procedure VERY private. Only my husband knows. What is crazy is that there are people who literally cannot stop telling me how awesome I look and then there are people who don't seem to notice at all. It is one way or the other. My kids bus driver tells me every other day how awesome I look and that I am disappearing right in front of her... then I go to a family gathering with my brother and my SIL there and they say nothing at all to me... but my parents (at that same gathering) will be showering me with compliments of how amazing I look. So I know my brother and SIL hear the comments... yet nothing. No big deal. I think weight is a very sensitive issue for my SIL... she is overweight and has been most of her life. I, of all people, can totally understand how it feels to be insecure about weight. And my brother knows how uneasy weightloss talk makes her feel so he probably doesn't want to make a big deal out of it. Totally understandable! Just know that YOU are doing great... and they do see it even if they don't comment

I've lost over 60 pounds, but most people aren't commenting yet. I think that people who don't see us all that often really don't see the difference until the results start getting really dramatic. The folks who see me once or twice a month usually notice the difference immediately, but those who see me every day don't really notice and those who seldom see me don't really notice YET.
Also, since these people are family, there may be other issues at work. They may have noticed the loss, but don't want to say anything because it might jinx you on losing more. Or they are jealous and don't want to say anything because of that.
You just keep rocking your sleeve, girl, and don't let them affect your mood. You are doing a terrific job and the best revenge is when you make goal, and then maintain that goal. YOU get the better health. YOU get the satisfaction of making it to goal and YOU are the only one who counts!
Good luck and keep your chin up!!

I just want to quickly chime in here. I find some of these posts offensive. Generalizing an entire country based on one negative experience is not helping anyone. This is a support website, let's keep it that way.
Mexican people are educated too, and my surgeon is one of the best bariatric surgeons in the entire world. The hospital he works out of is by far one of the most attentive as far as staff and the cleanest I've ever seen. My own Mom who has worked in the medical field for her entire career even agreed.
Not only that, please remember there are many who post here who ARE Mexican, myself included. I come from a very intelligent family, and yes we do live in the United States now but our heritage runs very deep. We still have family who lives in Mexico, even my husbands side of the family too, and they are VERY HAPPY!! Please consider others before making generalizing posts. It's unfair and downright untrue to pool everyone into one instance.
I do understand the litigious side of the argument, I am not referring to that at all. It is a very important matter to consider when thinking of going outside of the country to have your surgery. It was a risk I took, but felt comfortable enough to as I went to the best surgeon and felt the risk outweighed the possible outcome, and thankfully everything went well for me.
Let's stay on topic and offer support to the unfortunate occurrence.
Also, anyone reading these posts, please PLEASE do your own research. Not every ONE every WHERE is the same. That would be just as ridiculous as saying someone in the US had an awful experience with their surgery so that means all US Doctors should not be trusted. People ALL OVER THE WORLD have bariatric surgeries. So does that mean every single one of them should fly out to the US and have it here? No, that does not make any sense at all.

Thank you for sharing your story. I am not sure that the plication is showing very good results so far overall, no matter who does it or what country.
You know this, but I am saying this for any newbies that may be reading this - the plication is a totally unrelated and different surgery then the gastric sleeve.
I hope your revision goes very well. I am a band to sleeve revision patient... it is disappointing when your first surgery doesn't work as advertised.

So this week I went to my surgeon for my 3 month post op visit. 3 months!!! ALREADY! Wow, I cannot believe how fast the time goes when you are so focused on a goal!
So, I went there and first off got weighed by the nurse. She says to me, "Wow, you are down another 26.3 pounds since the last time we saw you just over a month ago!" So I tell her about the hair loss and the little bit of worry that I have about the loose skin, and she gives me some fliers about what other Vitamins I can be taking for the hair loss (BY THE WAY, ANY ADVICE IN THIS AREA WOULD BE GREAT!!!). She then tells me to ask the Dr. about the skin and what he thinks.
So the Dr. comes in a few minutes later. Says to me, "Hello, Kim. I'll tell you, you used to look like someone I would perform surgery on, but not anymore!" So I smile and turn beat red (i'm sure) and then he looks at the chart again and says, "Kim! Do you realize you have lost 90 pounds in 4 months!?! NO ONE has ever lost that much that fast in our program!" Thats when it hit me. I have officially "lost" my 12 year old niece. WOW!
Now for the bad news... My hair is 1/2 gone. Thank goodness I had a really thick head of hair to start or I would be bald by now. It's horrible! Every time I touch my head I loose a whole hand full of hair. I am really starting to worry about it but don't know what kind of vitamins to invest in so that it at LEAST slows down. HELP!!!!
More bad news: I'm on another stall. I wanted to start the new year off in Onederland. I haven't lost in over 2 weeks. I am 10 pounds from Onderland and am stuck. Go figure. I just hope I can be within 5 pounds of Onderland at least by the New Year.
Over all, I am happy as a lark and LOVING my new life! Thanks to the surgeon, their wonderful staff, and the sleeve I am happier than I have been in a very very long time. I finally feel good about myself and therefore am able to tackle the everyday things that used to tax me to even think about.
I don't have a lot of full body pictures to post but I do have just a few to share. The first two pics is from a wedding I was in this last June (5 months ago). The last three were taken just this week.
I will do my best to find some full body pictures this week and get them posted.
ONDERLAND HERE I COME!!!!!!

Do your co-workers know about your previous WLS? If so you can explain to them that the Lap band surgery was not for everyone and due to complications (whether you had any or not) you are having to revise to a different type of surgery. Or you could just not say anything unless you have a very close friend you feel you want to share it with. I personally am not working so didn't have to face this issue. But I also fealt it was no ones business that I had surgery and I choose to tell only people I want to tell and when I want to tell them.
And if you feel shameful about it you could always wait until after you come back from having it done and when people start noticing the weight coming off of you and start making comments you can tell them how wonderful you feel and it's all because of this wonderful tool that you have to help you lose weight.

and thats' ok, cause we all lose at our own pace. . . always remember this isn't a race to see who gets down the first. . .that would drive us all to drink! hehehe. . . slow and steady wins the race. . . always remember that,. . and also, remember you have a great tool working with you. . .all you need to do is help along. . . sorta like a hammer is a great tool to drive a nail, but it can't do it by itself, you have to be the driving force behind it. . . same goes for this sleeve thing. . . you must be the driving force behind it. . . . exercise will come to you and then watch how you'll enjoy it. . . good luck!

Congrats on the loss so far. I had two pretty long stalls where I was pretty sure my body was done. There were a few factors involved.
Log your food. Do it, and do it religiously. Set goals and meet them. When I stalled out and maintained at close to the same weight for several months, I wasn't logging my food. And guess what? I was back to old habits and totally in denial about how much I was eating. I was up to 1200-1500 calories a day, and DUH the scale was hardly moving. I was grabbing a handful (or three) of jelly belly Beans throughout the day, eating almost no Protein, enjoying a soda and popcorn late night snack...just bad habits that I can't allow if I still want to lose weight.
I started logging, dropped those calories right back down to where I was when I was losing and BAM! I'm finally closing in on my goal. I also had to retrain myself and lock the carb monster away again, which was tough for about three days but now I'm fine.
So log that food.
Here's where a lot of folks will disagree with me, though, because nobody can deny that exercise is great for us and helps us to stay fit and fight off cravings and reshape our formerly flabby bodies. But exercise alone isn't going to just jumpstart your weight loss. Look to what you're actually putting in your body first because that's usually where you can find the solution.
Do exercise. You want a nice, toned body when you get to goal and you want a healthy heart so you can live a long life and enjoy your goal weight! But don't think that throwing yourself into the gym for an extra hour each day is going to miraculously get you to goal all by itself.
Look into the external factors. Got stress? I mean, more than usual. :smile1: Did you change any medications or so something different? Make sure you eliminate the possibility that something else is impacting your slow down.
Finally, stop comparing! We inevitably get stressed and frustrated because our scales move slower than someone else's. Well, I had surgery a year ago July. I admit, I haven't been as great about tracking my calories the whole time and I hate exercise. But I've been a slow loser the entire time, no matter what I tweaked or changed or cut out. Sometimes, our bodies just need time to adjust. Sometimes, we're just different than other people and lose at a different rate. I was so happy for my friend that got sleeved at the same time as me when she hit goal after only 9 months - and she had more to lose! But I was also jealous and frustrated because I wasn't there. But I'm almost there now, and that's what matters.
Honestly - take a break for a second and put your expectations and impatience aside. If you got to goal and it took two years instead of nine months would you really care once you got there? I was in such a rush to hit goal by 10 months out, but you know what? Victory is JUST as sweet at 16 months out.
So keep plugging away. Log that food and see if you have a problem. But don't fall into bad habits or give up because you feel like you're not going to lose anything else. If you keep doing the right things you WILL reach your goal.
Good luck!
~Cheri

I actually order a salad portion of chicken. I just ask if I can have a side plate of the chopped grilled chicken they use on salads or I will just order a chicken breast by itself. I haven't really had many restaurants even blink an eye and the last time I did this, they gave me the equivalent of two chicken breasts chopped up and charged me $4.00 for it. This was a nice restaurant too! I had meals for several days! I also take either steak or chicken home and re-season it so I don't get bored.