Vsglass

What's up everyone?
I know I've been MIA for awhile but I had my reasons. I is wants to update everyone on my status and let you all know thy I'm doing much better and I'm enjoy life to the fullest. Like always if you need any information or have any questions feel free to send me a message. I can honestly say that helping you all has been a blessing in disguise. I know I may reply late sometimes but if there's one thing you can count on is that I WILL reply.
With work and starting up my new business I've been on a tight leash trying to live the good. I hope everyone is doing fine and losing the lbs.
When I first started this thread a couple months ago I never expected it to grow this huge, but I'm glad it did.

CONGRATULATIONS! Well done:)

Please remember to respectful to others
And any inappropriate language is against the forum rules
http://www.verticals...tion=boardrules

Wow. I didn't see anything posted here that could have caused that response from you, Cupcake. I'm only 5 days post-op and I'm sure trying to learn the dos and dont's is frustrating. I see nothing but support here. I hate that you had to become so trollish so soon.

Gone? The Attitudes adjusted...everyone on this forum is friendly and willing to offer their experience, support, and opinions. Noone here can offer medical advice nor say what may be right for everyone. They can only offer up what they personally have experienced or have knowledge of. So attacking someone for offering what is exactly the point of this site was rude and unacceptable. All opinions should be read with your own physicians advice in mind. If a post is made that you don't care for, u are not required to respond to it or berate the person offering it. We are all friends in the same boat from all different walks of life and different surgeons. Everyone here deserves kindness and respect. Its what I have found VST to be grounded upon. Love all you guys here. You've become my comfort, my teachers and my friends.

Congrats Kiki

Love this board!
Was sleeved 4/3/12 - lost 6.4 lbs during pre-op diet, so including that, as of this morning, I'm down 35 lbs!!

4/24 sleever. I met with my doctor, therapist and trainer this week. Trainer today actually. Feels great to our weight lifting into my exercise regimen. I have been on a 3 1/2 week stall. All three had the same message for me. Increase my calories to 1200 (currently 800), eat Protein first and get my Water in. I exercise plenty just need to eat and drink. Funny. Seems to be the exact opposite than before. I used to eat plenty and skip exercising. The irony makes me chuckle. Best wishes to all the April sleevers! Keep on keeping on.

Yes, they can and will give you a bigger bougie. Of course, you may want to read some research about success rates vs bougie size. It seems that many surgeons are going to a slightly larger bougie as a matter of course. I guess the standard size used to be about 32, but I've heard of people having a bougie as large as 40. Those measurements are in millimeters so the difference isn't as long as the word difference on your screen.

I did it. I am 299.5 this morning!!!! I made it to the 200's. I can't believe it. I don't even recall the last time the scale was under the 300's. So glad I made this decision. It was so right for me.
Now if we can just know that Jimmy is ok, I would truly have a reason to Celebrate. This is the bad part of our close April group. How far away we are all. I am pretty sure that if we lived close, we would all be there in person for him. Hang in there Jimmy. We are still pulling for your recovery. Hugs via the cyber network.

I think everyone goes through the fears you are experiencing now, I certainly did.
A couple of things my surgeon said, things I've read, etc... The latest thinking is that people's brains tell the body to process food in different ways. For example studies of Prisoners of War should that they were all given the same meagre amount of food and took that same amount of exercise and yet, after years of being imprisoned, on release, some were emaciated and yet some were not. It is thought that in some people the brain tells the body to process food differently, to store more fat than in others. A stressful episode in someone's life seems to cause some people's brains to panic as it thinks the sudden shift might be the body going into starvation mode so again it stores more fat.
Then there is the issue of the hormone ghrelin that sits in your stomach ( the part that gets removed during surgery). In some people maybe because of constant on and off dieting this hormone, which sends a signal to the brain that you are hungry and must eat, goes into overdrive. I know that in my case most of my weight issues started around 5/6 years ago when things were a bit stressful. Since then, doing the same things I did before to lose weight, just didn't work. As soon as I started eating during the day, whether at Breakfast time or waiting until lunchtime, once I started I never felt full so kept eating.
So to my point (sorry a bit long-winded but I'm getting there..). I had all your fears. I was sleeved on 26 April so I am 2 weeks 3 days post-op and the part of my stomach containing Ghrelin has gone. I can honestly say that have an amazing calmness around food. As an obsessive daily weigher, I don't seem to have the same panic about the numbers going down, I just know they will. I have remained the same weight for 3 days now despite eating very little and miraculously it doesn't faze me at all. I feel back in control for the first time in a long time as I know I will lose weight. During this 3 day stall I am changing shape as my body adjusts and recovers from surgery. It's like my brain has been rebooted and the cravings, lack of weight loss panic, mild blues associated with being overweight have just disappeared... I have a friend who was sleeved in September last year who also described all of the above post-op.
So please don't worry. Unless you intend to consume a vat of ice cream at a gazillion calories, you will lose weight. Make healthy choices, walk more and above all enjoy getting this fresh start....

So.... I wrote my first blog. More of a "help me, I'm drowning" venting session, really. But y'all can read it and make fun of any grammatical errors I may have. (I need to utilize spell check more often)... Anyway, thought I'd give myself kudos and brag about my 1st sleever blog.......

I took everyones advice including mine and decided to call my surgeon. After playing manhunt with the hospital they finally located him and connected us. He ask me to come in IMMEDIATELY. Practically face me an hour to get to his clinic. Once I was there they did the usual Pre testings, then I finally got to see him. After touch around my mid section trying to locate my center of pain, he noticed the internal tenderness. He advised me to check into the ER and he would inform the ER of my current state. So I left and proceeded to walk to the ER fatigue, weak, hurting and naseaus. Once I got there they checked me and I had to approximately 20 mins in order for them to check me into triage. The wait was ridiculous but worth it because all my docs and nurses were well-informed about my situation.
First thing this proceeded to do was give me a X-ray to test for leaks... I drank that disgusting liquid sip, sip, sip, gulp. I practically threw up over the guy, I even forewarned him about this potentially occurring. After the test was complete he told me that he found no leaks, but did see a lot of acid reflux in action. I was very excited to hear that because I really didn't wanna go back under the knife for nothing, the no leaks part not the acid reflux part.
After returning from the Xray they drew some blood, flushed me, gave me some nasea meds and some morphine. The stomach pains subsided and I'm actually able to breathe in and out normally w/o any pain. So that's a win in my book. Now I'm laying here waiting for the cat scan to be completed. I drank some ice Water and my god it was the greatest thing to me lol. I've been drinking room temp Water since day 1 of surgery so this was practically a new/missed sensation for me ...
I'll be back with updates a lil later

I think everyone goes through the fears you are experiencing now, I certainly did.
A couple of things my surgeon said, things I've read, etc... The latest thinking is that people's brains tell the body to process food in different ways. For example studies of Prisoners of War should that they were all given the same meagre amount of food and took that same amount of exercise and yet, after years of being imprisoned, on release, some were emaciated and yet some were not. It is thought that in some people the brain tells the body to process food differently, to store more fat than in others. A stressful episode in someone's life seems to cause some people's brains to panic as it thinks the sudden shift might be the body going into starvation mode so again it stores more fat.
Then there is the issue of the hormone ghrelin that sits in your stomach ( the part that gets removed during surgery). In some people maybe because of constant on and off dieting this hormone, which sends a signal to the brain that you are hungry and must eat, goes into overdrive. I know that in my case most of my weight issues started around 5/6 years ago when things were a bit stressful. Since then, doing the same things I did before to lose weight, just didn't work. As soon as I started eating during the day, whether at Breakfast time or waiting until lunchtime, once I started I never felt full so kept eating.
So to my point (sorry a bit long-winded but I'm getting there..). I had all your fears. I was sleeved on 26 April so I am 2 weeks 3 days post-op and the part of my stomach containing Ghrelin has gone. I can honestly say that have an amazing calmness around food. As an obsessive daily weigher, I don't seem to have the same panic about the numbers going down, I just know they will. I have remained the same weight for 3 days now despite eating very little and miraculously it doesn't faze me at all. I feel back in control for the first time in a long time as I know I will lose weight. During this 3 day stall I am changing shape as my body adjusts and recovers from surgery. It's like my brain has been rebooted and the cravings, lack of weight loss panic, mild blues associated with being overweight have just disappeared... I have a friend who was sleeved in September last year who also described all of the above post-op.
So please don't worry. Unless you intend to consume a vat of ice cream at a gazillion calories, you will lose weight. Make healthy choices, walk more and above all enjoy getting this fresh start....

Surgery was 4/2 and I've lost 25lbs so far. I'm working out about an hour a day but starting this week, 3 days a week will be a 2 hour workout because I'm starting Water aerobics as well. I'm very happy with myself. I've been working hard.

Well I finally broke through my 304, 302, 304 pattern. This morning I am 300.4. Yippee. I am so happy. 200's here I come. Once I hit them, I will weigh less than I have in 14 years when I was pregnant and I had to keep taking steroid shots to help develop my girls lungs. I knew she was going to be born early.
I feel almost giddy. I am so glad I had this surgery. Seems like when I add in fruit to my diet, I start to go down. Guess I will keep up the apple sauce and melon.
Happy Saturday everyone!!!

199.2lbs as of today!!!! Yayyyyyyy

Not only do you look great, you look so much happier!

I'm 9 days post op and I fit into my jeans right out of the dryer!!! So happy

Good for you! It is really amazing how fast you 'grow' out of your clothes. I've given away 10 garbage bags full of my morbidly obese clothes and have a very limited wardrobe right now. But.., that is a-ok with me! I'm no longer morbidly obese and soon to be not be obese at all!! I no longer shop in the Plus Size clothing department. It is such a great great thing! I put everything in the dryer now where I would have cringed before if my cloths were put in the dryer.
Congratulations on your successes!

I'm one week out and feeling lots better everyday. Congrats!

Yes!! We did it!! May only good things and fewer pounds be in our future.

I started puréed foods today. So excited!!
Sent from my iPhone using VST