kyllfalcon

All my life, even when stick thin, I had hips. Got fat, hips got fatter. Got thin, hips went flat. I mean gone. NO BUTT. Don't know where the heck it went. Enough about butts. More importantly, hope you get better soon, amytug!

My pet peeve: People who don't use their dang blinkers when they intend to turn left onto Second Street from Capitol Avenue. Really?? Why you make me wait behind you when I could have gone around you had I known?? Why you make me hurt you??

Everything was much easier than I expected, the surgery, the pain, the recovery, the life style change. I had my one-year checkup just yesterday and told them how easy it had been and that I really didn't have to work very hard at it. They pointed out that I had done all the work mentally prior to the surgery, which I suppose is true. I made myself very much aware of what might happen, and what must happen. Best of luck - you'll do just fine!

This week I will have my one year surgiversary!! It seems like just a few months rather than a year! Please don't get put out with me when I tell you that the decision to be sleeved was absolutely the hardest part - everything else has been really easy since. I am fully aware my experience has been a blessed one! I was sleeved on March 14 of 2012, and hit goal around New Years. I am maintaining easily and can eat almost anything I want. I feel so much better, I get around so much better, I walk quickly, I sleep well. I am just so happy! I truly feel 30 years younger in one year's time. I have regained my interest in girly stuff such as clothes, makeup, hair, whereas before I just put on the next old black thing in my closet and stumped out the door ugly! I wanted to share my success story so that those in the research stage can know that while some sleevers have problems, other sleevers sail through. I was lucky to be a Sleeve Sailor! Thanks for all the help and support y'all have been!! BTW, that's from a size 3X to a size M/12.

I've had just the opposite experience. Instead a bad cold turning into bronchitis every few months as usual, I've been sick only once in the year since I was sleeved and it was much milder and shorter than usual.

As long as there is no comb-over, baldness only adds to the appeal if the chemistry is right. I think I find it attractive because it is a male trait, like hairy forearms. Geez, I love men, hair doesn't matter. I'm glad I got old because that love of men has gotten me in some stink, I tells ya!

The way I see myself changes. When I intend to look in the mirror, I see what I expect to see - an average sized woman. If I catch a glimpse of myself by accident, I am always shocked to see not just an average size woman but a thin person! And I feel so good and healthy that in my mind's eye, I carry myself like a fit and graceful 30-something. Then my husband will make a comment, without malice, that now that I'm thin, he can really see that my spine is curved funny and it throws everything crooked. Dang, I wish he wouldn't remind me of that, because I see myself as graceful as a ballerina!! When clothes shopping, I hold up a 12 or a Medium and think, no way I can squeeze into that, so I take a larger size to the dressing room, only to return for the smaller size. Only you can decide how small is small enough. I am thrilled beyond words to be in a 12. I would look a whole lot thinner without the belly, but that is the only spot on my body that I wish were thinner.

Not every surgeon routinely performs a leak test. There was a thread about this a month or so ago. It seemed about evenly divided. My surgeon did not, but I had a fever for several days, so he ordered a leak test. And I had to have a barium test pre-op. Honestly, it's just not that bad. I never gagged or got sick either time.

But I will add that having been at goal for about three months now, and even with being old, and even with previously wrecked skin, I continue to see improvement in the tummy and upper arms week by week. I don't expect to ever model bikinis (haven't had a suit on in 23 years!), but I am holding off on a plastics consultation for a year. It would probably help immensely if I would exercise...

Look, I sympathize 'cause I got it, but just about everyone will have excess skin to some degree. Excess skin is unsightly. Fat is unsightly AND unhealthy. Easy choice. A previous poster said they don't get the genetics thing. I was stick thin at 119 (5'8" back then) when I got pregnant with twins, at age 16. I didn't even carry them full term, but the skin on my belly and boobs was stretched out enormously, for just a few months, and never returned to anywhere near their former state. So, I was very young and wasn't big very long at all, and the skin just did not recover. And it was riddled with stretch marks. Genetics. My sister in law was a much smaller woman than I, older than I was, carried twins full term, never had a stretch mark and her skin snapped right back. Genetics.

Zowee! You look great!! I am scared to death of a face lift - I wanna look like me, but better. Usually the mouth looks funny - but yours looks awesome!

really greasy stuff soft white bread lettuce raw onions So much for a hamburger, eh?

Show us pictures, please!!!

Well, you don't look older than Keith Richards or Mick Jagger!! The Surgeon General should put a picture of Richards on cigarette packages as a deterrent!

I have learned to listen to "the gurgle". When full, my stomach emits a gurgle. I can ignore it once. Only once. If the second gurgle comes, I had better stop. It means business. I will pay. I have paid.

At least you only have 15-ish! Since puberty I fought a heavy dark manly goatee and unibrow. I plucked and shaved every day, and even got a 5 o'clock shadow. Finally in my 50's, fearing that I would end up helpless in a nursing home and that my sons would just let my facial hair grow unchecked, I underwent about 2 years of painful and expensive electrolysis. Just like VSG, worth every penny and minute! Not a manly hair on my face anywhere!!

This is how we learn. I had to learn from a very large warm soft piece of homemade oatmeal cake... wasn't pretty.

Yes. We are but virtual friends in a virtual world. If it's a medical issue, and "abdomen hurts - nauseous" is, call your actual doctor!!

Showing my ignorance here but don't really care... What's FWB?

I was spilling out of a 42DD and at goal now wear a 38D nicely. I am 60 and expected the girls to look like heck, but they don't. I think it is because I had a reduction/lift some 30 years ago, so they were already in better shape than for most women my age. Just don't ask about the thighs... O.M.G.

I never had to wait any length of time between pills.

I slept in the recliner for 4 or 5 days, then moved to my bed, which is adjustable, so I had it cranked up somewhat like a recliner. It was about 2 weeks before I could comfortably roll over on my side. Soon it will all be just a distant and faint memory...

None taken! I knew it was meant to be funny :-) Just felt the need to explain. It's all good - we'll all take skinny whenever we can get it!