Alithinos

Congrats, Tinfoil. How have you been doing post-surgery? Any advice or thoughts? The Howard U support group might be handy. What is the parking situation like over there? Also, I envy Momoffive and Rainy - I have to wait until the August 24th for my surgery. On the bright side, this gives me plenty of time to prepare.

I just got approved yesterday and should get scheduling information sometime next week. I live in Alexandria but am going through Johns Hopkins for the surgery. It looks like a few people in the area have been through the surgery in the past year (would be lovely to get an update from them), or are on the verge (good luck to the gal whose surgery is on the 25th!). I think I heard that Inova Alexandria has begun a bariatric program and likely has a support group. The ones at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center are great, but it's a haul to get there.

Congratulations! I'm in the pre-op process currently with Johns Hopkins. By any chance, did you do your surgery through them? If so, I'd be curious to hear about your experience with the staff and hospital. It has been hard for me to pin my surgeon's patient coordinator down...

I see these articles every year, but there are estimates that 80-85% of women are not wearing the correct bra size. In fact, they say that you should probably be measured twice a year. I only go about 12-18 months without getting measured, but can attest that my size keeps changing (since I keep gaining weight). So, when was the last time you got measured by a professional? I find that Nordstrom's lingerie staff are really good, unlike most department store staff. Don't feel pressured to buy from them, but if you don't have a local shop that specializes in bras locally, Nordstroms is a great bet. If you are busty, I'm particularly fond of the Elomi brand. They hoist the girls up! As you continue to lose weight, go back and get remeasured more frequently than twice a year. Here is a link to the Oprah site with some info on this: http://www.oprah.com/style/Os-Bra-Intervention_1

By my calculations, your ideal weight would be around 130 to 135 lbs, right? So you're about 35-40 lbs overweight. At 5'6" and 268 lbs (over age 40 and with a BMI over 40 as well), I wonder why you're going the surgery route. If I only had 35-40 lbs to lose, I'd be ecstatic. In fact, 170 looks really good on me and I'll be lucky just to see it again. Do you have any health problems as a result of the weight, such as diabetes or high blood pressure? Both of these health problems would be good reasons to consider a sleeve. Have you seen a nutritionist or had your thyroid checked? If I were you (and could do the last 100 lbs over), I'd be seeing a nutritionist (seriously can't believe I didn't do this sooner), getting your thyroid checked, getting checked for PCOS (if you have any other symptoms), and getting more exercise (which is hard for me to do at the moment). I think you'll be fine, since people can still eat/eat the wrong things with their sleeve. Further, the sleeve will stretch with time, making weight gain inevitable if you don't change habits. I tend to think of WLS as a last resort, and it isn't clear to me that you have run out of options.