CowgirlJane

I started at 308 pounds and my experience is that weight loss slowly down, but take advantage of the "fast phase". I lost nearly 30 in the first month. By 6 months i had lost nearly 100#. It took me to 14 months to lose 150#. I lost the last bit over an extended period of time while "in maintenance". Some lose faster, some lose slower... the important thing is to keep working the sleeve. Maintenance is basically the same game as weight loss.

I lost over 160#, so yes I had excess skin! It does improve some with time. If you are younger, you will likely have less of an issue. I have seen people using wraps etc and maybe that works if you don't have much, but if you have lots of excess skin, the solution is learning to accept it and possibly plastics. I will add we are much harsher on ourselves that others judge us. Lets be honest, alot of people out there don't have supermodel bodies!

I am sorry Cathy. Life has so many sad things. I try to remind myself that overeating never fixed any of them and just made me feel worse.

Also known as anchor cut. Google it, go to "real self dot com" and search for both terms.

What the heck is a chia egg? My god those chia pets lay eggs?? So what would the carbs be like in that dish?

My opinion is that whether you reach that goal in 6 or 12 or more months you are still a huge success. Time boxing yourself too much may be setting yourself up for failure. Follow the plan, exercise, become more active, minimize carbs, don't eat to "full" eat till no longer hungry... those techniques will help you lose weight and then maintain.

I supposed i should be clear. When I say exclusive, I am really talking about sex. Dating doesn't equal sex, but I would feel safer about stuff if we were monogamous when we get to that. I mean, I worry about safety and "protection" only goes so far so I would rather be exclusive with someone once we jump in that deep. We are a very long ways away from serious committment talk which is why i suspect this will not last given his possible timeline for moving away is faster than my possible timeline for lifetime comittment talk. I sense I am more gunshy of committment than he is, but who really knows, right? You are all right, in this modern day it really isn't his biz if I date others until we have that agreement. He does not take it for granted and asks me out on dates - but about twice a week which actually leaves me no time for anyone else...haha... and I always say yes cuz we have fun! I have a busy social life that I have actively cultivated - I have friends and peeps who expect me to show up and dance, check out live music, have happy hour, go riding or do whatever it is we do. I WILL NOT drop that social circle I have spent a few years developing because THAT is what I fall back on when I am not "seeing someone."

WLS is life changing. Don't do it if you aren't 100% in the game. I would postpone until you have time to get educated and get your head around it all.

My life pattern has been to do very little dating and sort of meet someone, immediately be exclusive with them and then spend 15 years with the wrong guy. I did that twice actually. My counselor advised me to casually date. See different men, don't narrow my focus so quickly. I continue to fail at this. This summer I dated one guy for awhile - didn't work out; then another guy for a few months - didn't work out. Neither one of those relationships became a full physical one and we parted company when the realization that this wasn't gonna work became overwhelming and even I could no longer deny it. Okay, I am seeing someone now that i met in real life (not online) and it is going really well. We have not had the "exclusive" talk and I am trying to decide if I want to bring it up, and what i will say if he does. At the moment, we are both pretty smitten with each other. In truth, I am NOT dating others but if I take a step back, I realize I probably should be. Here is the deal, we seem quite compatible but due to work/life situations he is quite likely to move out of the area in the near term. If he is "Mr Right" i would have no problem moving to a sunnier climate with him.... but... it will take a long time before I feel committed enough to do that. So, the most likely scenerio is he is gone from my life in 6 months so it seems like good self preservation to not dive in too deep, to date others etc. And yet, i am not. I am not really in angst about this, as i am taking things one day at a time, but am trying to decide if I should make time in my life to casually date others and let the chips fall where they may. BTW, i finally feel like I have a clue of how to negotiate the dating waters... before I struggled even finding someone I WANTED to have a second date with so I didn't feel like I had alot of options. I think there has been an internal shift in my readiness quite frankly so I am open to meeting someone that could turn into a long term relationship. Those are my comfort zone anyway. In the meantime, life is really good right now! It feels really good to be seeing someone that I like, he likes me and we just seem to connect well on alot of subjects, activities, lifestyle etc. It feels very comfortable and makes me feel happy.

I haven't considered anything for the scars. When my PCP sees them she thinks they look awesome and will continue to mature for another year. My worst scar is the BACK of my lower body lift. The front is basically invisible, but I think more tension was put on the back (that is my theory anyway). I am going to see about having some face injections done at some point, so when I consult for that i might ask about the redness reduction on the arm scars. Even so, they are incredibly flat, even etc so I am pleased with the results.

I am waiting for him to find out when he get time off work, but we want to go pretty soon... likely December. We are trying to decide between big island and Maui. We are active, hikers, snorkeling, sightseeing, nightlife etc less of laying on the beach types (I burn easily!) Looks like your unit is completely booked for a few months out so probably wouldn't work, but thank you! I will definately keep in mind for the future.

Ava, I am so glad you decided to do it. I love my results from plastics, but I would say the arms and breasts made the biggest impact in my looks - even fully clothed in winter wear! My sons girlfriend was the first to openly say it post plastics - I didn't even recognize you from the back (except your hair!). Your arms are so small now, you look younger and slimmer. I was the same weight, I had just lost alot of hanging skin. Those batwings make us look bigger than we are and make stylish clothing fit odd. I know I said it over and over again but i was the most afraid of the arm scars - almost didn't do the arms over that fear - but it turns out to be a big positive impact on my looks. i am 13 months out now. My scars are flat but redder than I would prefer - especially after a shower etc. Luckily people my age don't have that great of vision anymore..haha.. as no one seems to notice them! I am not the least bit self conscious and go sleeveless alot. I am what i am and if people don't like it, oh well - take your glasses off!

My kids are older... both boys were late teens and early 20s at the time of my surgery 3 years ago. I told them about it, but made it no big deal. I know they were worried sick, but they were old enough to see I was becoming crippled by my weight. They were not openly supportive but I think that was more that they didn't know what to say. The youngest has really changed his eating habits as he is prone to chunkiness. He eats very healthy now - clearly I was part of the problem before bringing junky food into the house. I showed my boys a before picture recently and they didn't recognize me. They have now basically forgotten how obese, how sick I really was. They both tell me I am very "young" - looking and attitude. My oldest is great because he caught me seriously stress eating last week. He wasn't judging, but he just said "mom, you are stress eating" and then went on to tell me what my behavior looked like compared to my "new normal". Anyway, when momma changes it does impact the whole family. It might be a wild ride, might be a calm one, but things WILL change.

I am planning a trip to Hawaii. I am gonna see if I can't leverage that into some motivation!

Ok... A dose of motivation. ..looks like I WILL be going to Hawaii! First time ever for me! I would love to be more like 145 rather than 150. That is good reason to give up bread etc again!

I think my drain was in for a week. I had drains as a precaution as a band to sleeve revision

I had very poor results with lapband, but have been maintaining a huge weight loss post sleeve (over 160# lost). I think there is a real difference between the two procedures, but I also think there were real differences in ME too. I was better educated, less defensive, considerably more desparate for success by the time I was sleeved. I mean, I felt like it was life or death to get some weight off. That level of motivation and unrelenting effort for about 14 months got me to goal. It is pretty easy to slack off once you have had initial success, but if you have alot of weight to lose like I did, you just can't slack off or you won't make your goal.

Okay, I didn't realize you weren't taking supplements. Do that. make sure you get the B complex ones too.

My opinion you are describing a fairly typical post op experience. I did not feel fully human till about 3 months post op. Take your supplements, make sure you are getting adequate Protein, rest when you need to and just accept that this "malaise" is normal for many people. I think my first post op bloodwork was either 3 or 6 months post sleeve. My bloodwork was PERFECT, but I felt like you are describing until I was 3-4 months post op.

I have a very mild case - thank goodness. It is the weirdest condition, it showed up right after the birth of my son in 1992. My doctor thought i had a staph infection but I later found out that it was HIDE. My worst outbreaks were in those early years, and it steadily declined. Like I might have 2-5 sores at a time in those years. About the time I hit goal I was big time into spinning bikes. I would sweat like crazy and then sitting on that seat seemed to trigger a minor outbreak around my butt and thighs. It took a couple of months to resolve. That was like around 2 years ago and since then I don't think I have had any at all. So, I would say for me that losing weight did reduce the incidents of outbreaks. I think that stress might trigger them, although I can't say for sure. I also think that surface irritation might trigger outbreaks (like the sweaty bike shorts/bike seat) but that is just a guess. What I find the oddest is when I first had outbreaks they were under my arms, around my breasts etc... in the last 5 -10 years they have always been below the waist. What is up with that? I do think that leaving them alone is good - like I used to fuss with them and it made them worse. Plastic surgeon told me that one of the treatments for HIDE is removal of the impacted skin, but only for very severe cases. I am just so thank full I do not have a severe case - what a difficult condition to live with if you suffer from frequent/lots of outbreaks.

Well, this is one of the things I like about my bariatric center. For the first time in my life I began to understand obesity as a "disease process" and all the REAL reasons I could not maintain a weight loss without WLS. I agree with you though, and alot of nutritionalists are freaking clueless. Pre WLs, I went to a nutritionalist who apparently thought I was illiterate and clueless because we played with plastic fake food. Like, if only I really understood the difference between a potato and brocoli. If only I could grasp that 1/2 cup is half of a cup.... then i would clearly have control over my obesity. It was all I could do to refrain from saying "I am fat, not necessarily stupid"

I am going to make a counter argument. I CARE about a potential partner/boyfriends health and fitness, so why shouldn't he? i do think we are entitled to unconditional love in a real committed relationship, but doesn't mean I choose to date men that are unfit/unhealthy. I am not a "fat hater" but i do choose to surround myself with active, fit people in general. Actually, I did that even pre sleeve.... I love an active lifestyle and am thrilled that I can lead the pack now rather than barely keep up(sometimes could not participate in things due to my obesity). I have shared before but I am not crazy about online dating.I think alot of it is my age, as alot of the guys online have been doing it forwever, claim they want a relationship but are either so jaded or whatever - aren't really good relationship material. I know there are many exceptions, but I have hit alot of guys with big "issues" with women. Men pick you based at least somewhat on looks no matter what, but the online thing adds all these other "factual" dimensions like your hobbies, kind of music you like etc. i feel like most of that doesn't even matter, it is compatibility. I gave up online dating a few months ago. I am seeing one guy mostly, but we haven't declared exlusive yet... and I get asked out alot more now. It is like I finally figured out how to manever through the social dance of getting asked out. Anyway, the easy way to weed out the ones who only want sex is to not put yourself in position where that becomes a viable option until you are really ready. Meaning, dates are out to dinner, not staying in to cook.... until you are sure this is what YOU want. Of course, i seemed to have the opposite problem, guys in their late 50s not so into sex anymore - personally I think that should be mandatory disclosure on those stupid profiles...ha!

Chelenka, I am sorry you are going through so much. 7 pounds isn't bad, very fixable and you know what... it is what "normal" people deal with all the time! An ill parent is very sad. i feel sometimes like I have had a lifetime of losses already...

RJ, I know our experiences are not the same, but my first plastic surgeon consult was emotionally devastating. I felt... so awful. He pointed out flaws I didn't know I had. He was trying to set realistic expectations but it left me feeling defeated, ugly, and that I would never be able to look "normal". I also believed I could never afford it, the hours in surgery and recovery thoughts terrorized me. In hindsight, and I believe 4 more consults later, I realize he was actually being very open, honest, clear and all sorts of good things. My emotional state however was pretty bad for awhile. I think some of that is because I did my first consult right when I hit goal and I still felt very fat... I still had "fathead" big time. Excess skin also looks a great deal like fat, so that didn't help either! I was emotionally vulnerable about my looks and so some guy pulling my skin around and telling me my boobs were uneven was just more than i could deal with... When I finally had my surgery, the consult was done by email. When i actually arrived in Monterrey Mexico to Dr Sauceda he does the "final" consult and mark up. My friend was devasted by it. She thought he was so mean, said horrible things, was discouraging and all that. She had a very similar reaction that i did to my first consult.... but of course I saw things differently by then. Dr Sauceda is a very kind and gentle man but he also didn't want to over promise (he typically does the opposite, under promises so his patients are generally pleasantly surprised at results!) Anyway, I still don't know why I have such a high drive to eat right now. My leading theory is the carb train has left the station and has been gaining steam! I have been eating both healthy carbs (fruit, whole grains)... and not so healthy (wine, chocolate) - but in total just too many!!!

Actually, I saw an interesting analysis on the relationship between states that legalize same sex marriage, allow medical marijuana and then allow recreational marijuana. It happens in exactly that order... so... is there a casual relationship or causal? Proud to be from WA state where love is recognized regardless of orientation and pot is seen as ho hum... bring on the coffee! :0