CowgirlJane

Replies to this are going to vary ALOT by what stage you are in. The first 6-8 weeks for many of us weren't alot of fun. It is hard to get Water in... transitioning to solid food is hard... all that, it was like a fulltime job! Then, it is AMAZING.. the honeymoon period when the weight is coming off and you feel on top of the world. I can remember all those NSVs (non scale victories). Honestly, I was so happy that it made up for saying good by to my old friend "over eating" Then, most of us face a cross roads... weight loss slows or stops and you need to decide how you will face that. I decided that while I was so much better off weighing under 200# rather than over 300# - I wanted to strive for a more normal size so I pushed hard to get to my goal. I didn't want to look matronly I guess - not really sure, but I wanted to be a normal size. Once you are past the rapid weight loss phase, it becomes alot more about your personal efforts to get the weight off. Then, there is maintenance which is a whole nother headtrip in many ways. Even so, I needed this surgery to get my health under control. Health improvements are the foundation for my life improvements and that is the track I am on.

I appreciate you posting this and I think it is very wise that we all do our research so you know what you are "signing up for". Not every sleever... in fact MOST don't have uncontrolled reflux. It is however a serious problem for those that do. I don't know enough about bypass to know the potential problems... but it is all about tradeoffs. I do think that if someone had reflux before the sleeve, they probably should think pretty hard about it... I never had reflux in my life until my lapband was too tight. That was living hell.

I have only begun to scratch the surface of all this research but, you have inspired me to do something about my Calcium intake. i was really pretty good for a very long time but the last few months I just cannot handle the pills. They make me queasy and if I eat them anytime near a meal - well, i can write that meal off as it will just kill my appetite. I am going to return to buying the chews. One reason I don't like the chews is they are like candy. I feel almost like Protein bars sorta trigger bad ways of eating too... that I don't want to eat Vitamins like candy. I am far enough along now maybe it is worth trying it... and learning how to have things in the house that ***might*** trigger a candy response in me since overall I don't have a problem with overeating. Thanks for all the effort you have put into sharing all this!

I would have to say YES. I feel like I am finally free from being buried in fat and it is wonderful. I would also say it is no walk in the park to go from being a BMI of over 50 to a slim, normal sized woman. It has had huge consequences on my life. However, I would reframe it a little... there were huge changes in my life that really really needed to happen but didn't until I lost some weight. It was like all the weight become in many ways an obstacle to living a full life.

I think I will order the calcium chews... lately every time I take the pills I feel bad in my tummy... the feeling is like I had the first 6 weeks post op. Not like I am going to vomit, but mildly queasy and no appetite. I am having trouble staying hydrated even - not because I can't drink but because I have so little appetite for it. Yesterday I had a whopper of a headache and I realized I hadn't drank anything except coffee. I did eat well yesterday and part of it was I went to dinner at my favorite place and had a shrimp skewer which i always seem to like. What is Bill sick from? Did the sleep doctor help him with the CPAP issues? Sounds like things are overall going very well between you two which is great.

Oh, and I LOOK for the guys on mountain bikes, motorcycles, boats or other evidence they get off the sofa and turn off the TV sometimes..haha! The hooked fish is supposed to be funny and I would say about 40% of the guys on Plenty of Fish have a pic to illustrate the joke. What I guess they don't realize since they don't see other male profiles of just how tired that joke is. I don't see other women's profiles so I have no idea what they typically look like. I have "heard" they are often negative though - like mentioning all the things they don't want. It is easy to go negative after some of the fakers experience. I recently met someone - who knows if it will go anywhere - but it was refreshing that he seems to be exactly what his profile said he is. I told him that, just how pleased that makes me to meet an authentic person and he felt the same about me. What he said is that the online sites are both "silly" and necessary since what a great way to meet compatible people that are in your geographical area. The silly is all the misrepresentation and basically people that seem to play on those sites like it is facebook or something - like they don't seem to be seriously seeking what they claim to be seeking... For example, corresponding with a guy who claims to be seeking a potential wife and by the second email is asking me sex questions. Yeah, right. Anyway, it takes patience and willingness to sort through the duds. For me, the answer is to take it really really slow since I have come to believe that a sizable percentage of guys on these sites are just looking for hookups and lie about their intentions (among other things misrepresented). Or maybe it is just the ones that contact me..haha.... which is why I have done better with the hidden profile and I contact them and I just find a better pool of candidates that way.

My experience was that the nicest guys I met were from POF. and you have to be willing to overlook all the damned hooked fish photos. The worst guy I met (liar,fake,complete player)was from match. I never tried eharmony. Where I live women outnumber men and that is very true on match. I think what works best is to have a hidden profile on POD and then contact the guys that interest YOU. Otherwise you get all theses "what's up" emails from people you would never consider. I get the out of state or many years older than me or otherwise "no way" I got jaded on this process but I am seriously open to a real relationship now so it will happen eventually.

Lapband for 10 years and revised to the sleeve 2.5years ago. For me the sleeve helped me achieve my goals and has been essier to live with. The initial recovery...first 6-8 weeks was much harder though.

I think that something physically has changed for me but I can't put my finger on it and my symptoms aren't strong enough to point in a clear direction. I am working to maintain....to stop losing because I feel less robust, less strong and healthy. I am not exercising. None of it makes sense to me. Yesterday my emotional state went downhill and I am really thinking about the events of the day to know why. It might be pointing to a personal relationship that I need to change. Today will be good though. I am excited about what I have planned. Denise now that I live alone I have to arrange a caretaker for my place....much harder for me to get away. I also no longer have a place to stay in Portland. I do have a dear friend in Salem I want to spend time with. Want to take my horse down and ride with her but she just got a new job and can't take time off. I will go to Oregon someday it just isn't easy for me. We have had a week of summer like weather....love it...though spring seems to be returning.

So, this is an appropriate topic for the rants section... I went through a phase of feeling exactly what you expressed and then I realized WHY people don't search. It isn't laziness it is because they don't recognize that what they are going through applies to pretty much EVERYONE! It is a very personal emotional experience and people want to get a very personal and specific reply - since according to them, in the emotional state at that moment, they feel that they are the first and only person to ever deal with such angst/issue/question and it must be answered directly to them. I remember that when I was trying muster the courage to revise from the band to the sleeve. I was pretty beaten down - I mean i really felt like I had failed and was a hopeless case. It was alot of direct info from Tiffikyns in particular that helped me process and work through my feelings. I happen to know that she cut and pasted info but at the time, her replies to ME felt very personal... like i was the only failure who might take a chance on the sleeve... this crazy "new" thing I had never heard of. That was the first glimmer of "believing" that this might work. So, I cope by not reading or responding to the repetitive topics. I figure there are less burned out people than me to answer them - excited to share their knowledge! For a long time, I made an effort to reply to nearly every band to sleeve forum post... but I don't even do that anymore as there are others who do.

As soon as you move here... about half our little crew here will be in the Pacific northwest - me you and Chim in Seattle and Denise in Oregon!

Florinda, I was banded when I lived in Munich by a doctor in Frankfurt. It was a pain since bands need constant care and attention... Is your surgeon in Cali? Are you having health issues related to your sleeve? I am starting to think it was a bad idea to have swimrunbike post all that nutrient stuff... I am still not 100% on eating well and I keep getting these waves of "ugghh" and wonder if I am dying of the sleeve...lol. Not really dying, but you know what I mean? I used to feel really really really confident in my post sleeve health but the last 2 months has eroded that confidence.

I think that the self loathing of ourselves ... or rather our formerly fat selves... is unhealthy. You mention the obvious impact on others who feel that sting of comparison, but there is also what it does to your own inner life and feelings of self esteem. Looks are a very superficial way to measure ourselves and it seems like at least some degree of self acceptance helps a person find inner peace.

I admit I am overwhelmed in info but didn't it say that women who lost the highest excess weight percentages were most prone to deficiency? What I think about is how little I eat however I don't eat junk food. I have known people who don't really eat veggies and live on Cereal, burgers and fries kind of intake. Seems like even with their high intake of food they would still be deficient. Is one impact of the sleeve micronutrients malabsorbtion??

I revised in December 2011 at 308 and it took 14 months to lose 150 and hit my goal of 158 in February 2013. I have since lost a bit more while in maintenance and weigh about 142 now.

Statistically that seems to be true but doesn't mean it will be true for you! Seems like years 2-3 is when it most often happens.

Those are very high rates of deficiencies - don't you think??? Were these all diagnosed through standard tests - if I understood your previous post sometimes you can test normal and still have deficiencies. Zinc and Iron are correlated with hair loss so interesting... I think Brown mentioned a re-occurance of hair loss, wonder if any of the other long term vets have seen that? vit D - well I was always low no matter how much I supplemented previous to weight loss. I am puzzled by that except it seems that obesity interferes with either Vit D absorption OR the test.

I revised from band to sleeve. Initial consult I did was with a surgeon who really wasn't even interesting in discussing the sleeve with me - he felt gastric bypass is the gold standard and the one to revised to once the band failed. I later consulted elsewhere with a surgeon more biased toward the sleeve and that is where I wound up. I lost 100% of my excess weight - about 160# lost after revision. I would get more consults, read more and in the end pick the procedure you think will best suit you and your lifestyle after hearing more inputs. It seems that surgeons are about as biased as us patients...haha!

Unexpected change is that I used to like good ole plain Water... ice cold. Now, even 2.5 years post op I can still barely choke down plain water. My tastes changed post op... it is mostly returned to normal but I don't love plain water anymore.

I completely support everyone in wanting to keep this group "status quo". I am open to inviting others in the future but only when everyone is comfortable with it and feels that it adds value. So, I read the presentation materials for the local support groups... the carb lecture won't work for me. I think for most of us the recommendation of 130-150 carbs a day is too high. That might be fine for men, perhaps younger active people.... but as far as a daily average I think it is too high for me. I don't track but I so seldom eat bread, pasta, crackers or even most fruits. I get most of my carbs from berries, low carb veggies and my happy hour drinks on Friday night! So, my weight is stable now... in fact I had kind of a salty day yesterday so I was up to 144 this morning. I am definately keeping 5:2 in mind as I like the low 140s and would like to maintain here. Since I didn't intentionally try to lose to get to this weight i am not sure how easy it is going to be to maintain as my appetite returns. I am definately eating more now and haven't really tackled resuming vigourous exercise yet. Ah Steven... yes I love him but he is the worst boyfriend ever. What I mean by that is he works 7 days a week alot of times (in winter he does ski instruction on weekends; this time of year he does public speaking gigs so he is traveling all weekend for them) on top of his day job which is for his own business - so no vacation there. He really isn't available to be what I want. I know and accept that but it keeps our relationship very limited. Besides that, he has issues that are more than I will accept in a long term partner. I know, we have been seeing each other like a year.... but in this very limited kind of way. It is not something that will work out for the long run, but I am being super picky in finding someone new and frankly not really looking too assertively right now. I had a weirdo thing happen at work a few weeks ago. I went to a retirement party for a colleague an a former boss of mine (now retired himself) showed up. He was so weird around me....it made me sad. He would look at me and kind of shake his head, he congratulated me on how great I look but it was unbelievably awkward. He wouldn't make eye contact. It made me sad since he was so influencial to me and I value his opinion so much. I decided that when I am feeling good again I would take him out to lunch and sort of "clear the air". Try to figure out why I make him so uncomfortable now. Then, it hit me. He is attracted to me! HA! I am about 90% sure that is why he was acting so weird. I thank God, heaven and earth every day for being normal sized, for looking like a normal woman, for being blessed with decent health (in spite of some of my issues). I never expected to make it to this weight/size much less be considered attractive. It is a strange experience to find that it influences how people react to me. The surprise for me is that for all the looks and compliments I get - it does not translate into being asked out on dates or anything like that. It's a puzzler - or maybe not. i sometimes think I am pretty good at creating a protective barrier around me even though I don't have a layer of fat to do that for me anymore...

I have been on this site for awhile and have been in maintenance awhile... and lost about 160# so have some observations to offer. what you hear about honeymoon period (ie easier to lose in the beginning) is true. Also, people who start with more weight to lose will lose faster in terms of raw pounds. If you have 10 pounds to lose, it would stand to reason you are not going to lose 30# in the first month, right? If you had 160 to lose like I did, that might be possible (I did in fact lose about 30 in the first month). Men typically lose faster than women, younger people often lose faster than older etc - some of those things are really outside of your control. what can you control? Taking advantage of your weight loss tool - the sleeve - and really maximize losses during the honeymoon phase AND probably more importantly be willing to make changes and shake things up once you are - 6-12 months out and the losses (or even maintenance) aren't quite so easy. What works? In my experience, low to moderate carb is key. Staying active and be willing to change up your workout routine. If for example you go for daily walks... as time goes on you will get better results if you start increasing the intensity (add hills or go faster) or change to something else like cycling. Your body gets very efficient at doing whatever it is used to doing. I think the other key is learning to STOP eating before you are full. Get in the habit of eating until no longer hungry... your goal is not feel full. Eating this way day in and day out helps alot with longer term feeling restriction/feeling like your sleeve has a smaller capacity. also, follow the basic rules of Protein and veggies first... drinking separate from food etc. It isn't always easy... my sleeve was December 11, 2011 - I drank a Protein Drink while everyone else had Christmas feast. You know what, it is so worth it though! These days food just isn't as important to me... but that didn't happen overnight...

I thought Calcium citrate was pretty much the one that is absorbable... which is why I don't use the normal calcium chews. I also hate the flintstone chewables... there is something in Vitamins that make me feel not good in the tummy. The gummies are the only ones that don't do that which is why I switched. I eat pretty healthy - albeit not much fruit so i know I am missing some trace elements. I do eat a fair amount of veggies though.

I liked this article - true words. I think that one thing people don't seem to fully realize is that for the formerly obese, you have to strive harder than someone who was never obese. We need less food, regain easier etc. It is not that you suddenly have the metabolic system of someone who was never obese. My doc put it like this "you still have the disease of obesity even though the main symptom, excess weight, is currently under very good control" That kinda gives you something to think about....

Welcome! I don't think there is a perfect weight loss surgery.. they each have their pros and cons. My advice is to seek out the best reputation surgeons in your area and go to some info sessions and perhaps even initial consults. What I found is that surgeons are biased just like patients are! Initial surgeon I went to told me to not even consider the gastric sleeve so I didn't even get educated on it. He felt very strongly I should get gastric bypass. I wound up going to a different surgeon and have been very successful with the sleeve. I would have probably been great with the bypass too - like I said, they all have their plusses and minuses. I will share my personal experience with the lapband though - I don't think it is well suited for people who have alot of weight to lose/who are more advanced in their obesity. I had the band for 10 years and it just didn't work very well for me - I don't want this to turn into a band bashing discussion that is not my intent AT ALL. For someone who is significantly overweight, you have a better chance of getting to and maintaining goal weight with the other procedures. I have lost about 160# since being sleeved.

For a long time I had "face dismorphia" I would be so happy with my body changes but just hated seeing my face. I had it in my mind I needed a facelift or perhaps a bag to wear over my head. Really, I had a pretty negative internal dialog about my looks. My dear friend S would continually tell me what a pretty face I have (no, I didn't ask, he volunteered it!) and i thought he was lying... or just being nice. Then, it hit me. Last time I weighed under 150# I was 22. I am 49, I look a little older now..haha. I think somewhere deep in my mind I was shocked by seeing the outline of my real face with out my features buried in fat and was shocked that I had aged so much. My features really changed after losing weight. For example, when obese, my eyes just disappeared. My friend S calls me Betty Boop, partly because I have noticable pretty eyes now... who knew? I thought I looked so old, but my friends tell me I look at least 15 years younger with the weight off. I have moved into the being comfortable with my looks phase. It takes time. I think photos help as they are more objective. I think it also helps to realize that looks are nice but they are NOT everything and frankly we over-emphasize the subject.