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 Happy Birthday! Isn't it wonderful that your new life has begun! I'll bet you are in a better place this birthday than last year! God bless snd have a beautiful day (and year!).

I was sleeved on 9/10 and tomorrow is my birthday! I feel exactly the way you do - I have lost 25lbs since surgery and am very happy about it.
Congratulations to you - and best wishes for the many birthdays to come!

congratulations on your success fellow scorpian sista!!! im getting sleeved on the 6th day after my birthday

I'm doing about 700. I'm 7 weeks out.

Had my first visit to dr after surgery and....down 25lbs!!!!! Dos 271. Today 246! Woohoo! Great news to have on Halloween!! Even more motivation not to have any candy!!

Hello everyone! I was sleeved on September 10th which puts me 7 weeks out. I have lost 40 pounds in 9 weeks and I am do happy! Today is my birthday and I am looking forward to many more with my sleeve. This procedure changed my life in a positive way and I thank God for it! This birthday I felt healthy and normal for once in a very long time!!!! I am looking forward to the rest of my life

Hello everyone! I was sleeved on September 10th which puts me 7 weeks out. I have lost 40 pounds in 9 weeks and I am do happy! Today is my birthday and I am looking forward to many more with my sleeve. This procedure changed my life in a positive way and I thank God for it! This birthday I felt healthy and normal for once in a very long time!!!! I am looking forward to the rest of my life

Been sleeved about 1 month so far 10/3/11. Doing awesome. Starting weight was 247, had type 2 diabetes for 13 yrs since pregnancy of first child, on meds for blood pressure, cholesterol. Surgery was done at Reading Hospital, Pennsylvania by Dr. Ceppa. I am now at 224lbs. I had to post (my first) because this forum has been a life saver for me. I am able to get on here, and look just about anything up. Everyone who had previously posted, was able to answer so many questions. I encourage anyone thinking about getting the surgery to become a member. Especially if you do not know anyone with the sleeve. Very comforting!

I can see a difference not much but at least something.,
 
 

Hey Everyone,
I am a 22 yr old college student and was sleeved on August 22nd. I am a little over 2 months post op right now. I am loving my sleeve!
I had a great recovery right from the start and am down 55 pounds right now. My starting weight was 231 and I am currently at 176. I can pretty much tolerate any kinds of foods - but just very, very small portions of food!
The first picture is me at my consultation appointment on July 19th and the other one is a wedding from the summer. The next one is from this past weekend at a bridal shower.
I have had stalls, but haven't freaked out about them. I lost 12 pounds my first week and then nothing for 3 more weeks. It kinda sucked but then it all started dropping!! I work out 4-5 times a week with friends - cardio, weights, circuits, etc. I just keep doing what I am supposed to knowing that it has to eventually come off! My doctor's goal for me is 130 which I can't even fathom. We will see!!!
I'm feeling way more confident and am so glad that getting dressed is no longer such a depressing activity. I have more energy and just feel happy.
I hope everyone else is doing great. Hang in there new sleevers!

I'll be 4 months post op of friday.. I have lost 60 lbs so far and would like to begin Maintenance.. What can I do

I've lost 53lbs!

Hey Beautiful PPL,
So its been a whole year today! Wow...truly amazing and blessed. 80lbs down, 9 months pregnant....happy, healthy, and loving life. This is definately the best/smartest thing I have ever done for myself. For those of you on the fence about it, go for it....you will NOT regret it

I attended a PARTY IN PINK Zumbathon today (SOOOOOOOO FUN!!!!) and burnt 1,625 calories in one shot (approx 2 hours)!!! My goal was to burn 1,000 at one shot and I would get close burning 866 (approx 1 hour) at a regular zumba class. I AM SOOOO THRILLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And am SO THANKFUL! I could have NEVER done this before sleevie!!!!!!!!!!
Here's a picture of my beautiful sleeve sister Michelle (aka creative teach) and a group of other gals from my Tuesday night class along with my favorite instructor and a picture of calories BURNT WHOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a great weekend y'all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone,
Just a quick note to say that Sunday October 21, 2012 was
my 4 year anniversary for having VSG aka the sleeve on October 21, 2008. Dr. Aceves did my sleeve and from there I lost a total of 105 pounds and have kept it off. I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful Dr. Aceves and his entire staff are. They are magnificent, caring, compassionate, kind, and the hospital is the very best you could ever want to have surgery in. They clean 24-7 at this hospital. When I was there they cleaned my room 3 times a day. I also saw 2 doctors at least 2 times a day while I was there. In my book I feel Dr. Aceves is the finest Weight Loss Surgeon there is out there. I can only speak about my knowledge, but I highly endorse him. You will see that countless people feel the same about him as I do.

I want you to know that you can have this kind of accomplishment
too! Life has changed so much for me. I am 67 years old now and I do things that I would have never done before. If you are the person who is sitting out there reading all these posts and you can’t make up your mind PLEASE step up and do something to change YOUR life. My
only regret is that I should have done it sooner.

I could make a very long list of the things that have changed in my life. I think the 1st thing is for the first time in a long time my health is superior, and 4 years ago I couldn’t say that. My primary care physician said I have set a great example for “older” people. He knows I went to Mexicali, Mexico and is so very supportive of what I have done. He has asked me if I would be willing to talk with some of his patients and explain what I have done to change my life, and I just may do this. I don’t care what your age is, please consider having weight loss surgery, it will save your life, change your life, and all for the better.

I have set some goals for myself. I was the person who HATED to exercise. Now I am the person who wants to exercise. My first goal was to walk EVERY DAY for 30 days and not to miss one day. I completed that goal 10 days ago and today I hit my goal of walking 40
days in a row NOT missing one day. My next goal is to walk 60 days in a row and not miss a day. I walk in the sun, wind or rain, because I can and it feels good—something I NEVER would have said 5 years ago. I walk on an average 3 to 4 miles a day. 5 years ago I was lucky to
walk around the block 3 times a week.

If you have any questions or I can help you with anything, please contact me. You can send me a private E-mail to: Suzannesh@aol.com
or contact me on this site. I am here to help you, support you, cheer you on, or just talk about what you need help with. You can have this kind of success too! It feels so very good!
Hugs,
Suzanne
Sleeved 10/21/2008

We were walking around today and my jeans kept slipping. I decided to buy the sparkliest belt I could find to Celebrate.< /p>

Hello Sleevers!
I wanted to share my one year photos and a bit on how I doing. I was sleeved October 19th of last year. My pre surgery diet took me from 319 to 308lbs for my surgery. I am now 200.5lbs. I am eating around 1200 calories a day with a Protein goal of 100 grams and under 80g of carbs.
I am quite active now and walk between 2 and 5km a day as well I play squash three times a week. Now that winter is here, I will get back to doing weight training and will be snowshoeing too!
It has definitely been a tough year learning how to manage my life without using food as a crutch. I have recieved help from a therapist and am usually have a book on the go about life after weight loss. My family and friends have been very supportive throughout this process.
So any advice for me as I head into year two? The sagging skin is definitely an issue. If anyone has had surgery, can you let me know at what point you had it?
My goal weight right now is 170lbs, so just 30lbs to go!

Ok, I am so ridiculously happy right now! Tomorrow is my 6 month surgiversery. As of this morning, I have lost over 100 lb! Also this morning I am no longer obese, now just overweight! Last week I made it to onederland! I am now 196.6 lb and a size 14. I started at 297, a size 24. I lost 15lb preop. I still have about 36 lb to get to goal. I no longer have a doubt that I will get there. I have had a couple of short (1week or less) pauses in weight loss including our week long vacation in the Dominican Republic where I ate what I wanted including dessert at lunch and dinner (no gain). I have lapsed with the exercise and know if I start back I will loose faster, but motivation is just not there. Anyway, sorry for the long post but I am soooo happy with my VSG!!!!!
The first two pics are day of surgery and the next two are this morning.
Sent from my iPhone using VST

Hello everyone. I am 6 months out and down 126 lbs. I know I love seeing progress photos...so here are mine!
I follow the 600-800 calorie/min 60 protein/min 64 oz water/under 40 carbs plan. I walk 2-5 miles a week.

I had tucked this away in my closet and havent fit into it since 1992. Tada!

My wt. now 196 surgery on 6/25 weight then 247.8
Two weeks before that I was 262 on the jun 11

Both of these are before


These are after.. I was sleeve 8/22. Keep it up y'all! It's really worth it.

Well, i have lurked here off and on and it's time to tell my bit. I get so much help from just reading posts, i feel it's time to give back. I'll try to be concise, but that's not exactly my nature! Bear with me please LOL.
Many moons ago, in August of 2001 to be exact, i got all excited about the upcoming FDA approval of the lapband in the US (where i live - California). I had never, ever considered a surgical weight loss option, even though i was over 300 lbs for much of my post baby life. I was one of those "healthy fat" people...i walked a lot, hiked some, got around pretty easy and my body was preportionate. I had a zest for life and enjoyed it. No high bp, no issues that i could tell were weight related. I had been a chunky teen, at 5'7" i had been about 170 to 190 lbs, and after i had my two children, i just ballooned up...gained 100lbs during the first pregnancy that i never fully took off, then more with the second. Being a housewife, my activity level dropped and i really had no education or thought i was the type of person that could even follow a diet, so i had almost never been on one.
I had found my biological mother and family back in 1997. Out of a huge family, she was the only one that was big like me. We connected really well (it was a fairy tale, but that's another story!) and of course had the commonality of excess weight. For some reason, both of us at the same time started investigating surgical options, even though we had never before considered them! I think we ended up on the phone and realized we were excited about the same possibility...dealing with our weight with surgery. We read up on the bypass and were soon deflated. While knowing many do well, the thought of bypassing anything was scary and well, some people did have pretty negative effects and in some cases, didn't make it. We just weren't ready for that type of surgery yet. But lo and behold, the band!! Not FDA approved yet, but was done a lot in other countries. We scoured the internet, joined message boards, found that many were having their surgery's outside the US by self paying (and it was much cheaper too!) and we found a doctor in France that had lots of experience. We made a snap decision and booked our surgeries and flew to France with Grandma and my bio sister there for support.
We toodled around France and Italy and Switzerland for a few weeks before surgery and while in Provence, 9/11 struck! We were scared and devestated. We were lucky enough to be in a bed and Breakfast with two fabulous English girls that ran back to "take care of the Americans" and translated for us and helped us reach our families. We had to decide whether to get home or to move forward with surgery 4 days later. We couldn't get flights out and decided we would move forward. Dr. Frering was excellent and we were successfully banded, i believe on about the 14th of September. We figured when we came back to the US, we'd be able to get after care once the band was approved and in the meantime we could manage with "underground fills" and/or going to Mexico. Well, as others have said, hindsight was 20/20. When we got back, we expected this tool to work for us, not with us. My mom had horrible pain issues with each fill and while she lost some weight, she unfilled and remained that way. I ran back and forth to Mexico, seeing Dr. Kuri there, who tried his best to deal with me, but my port was hard to access (they didn't secure down back then) and he even had to take me in and cut into the port area to find it. Evenutally my band was full and i was losing weight hand over fist by eating and vomiting for about 10 months. I dropped 170 lbs and was thrilled, but honestly was dying a little. I was so dehydrated that touching my skin left an indent! I couldn't swallow my own saliva and we rushed to a nurse who was also a bandster and doing fills on the side (secretly) and had her remove Fluid so i could swallow again. I maintained my weight for a little bit, maybe 6 months or a year, and one day was attending a Dodger game and took a bite of a hot dog and could swallow it....instead of thinking "uh oh", I thought "abondanza!!" and gained about 10 lbs a month for the next year and a half, eating my brains out now that i was not restricted. I gained all my weight back and even a bit more.
I couldn't afford going to Mexico and getting fills anymore, and frankly, was just done with it and decided i had learned nothing (my own fault for not having good aftercare and not learning about nutrition or proper eating!) and needed to lose weight on my own. I tried Jenny Craig and some other things, lost little bits of weight but always gaining back. At band surgery, i weighed in at 341#. Evenutally, i hit 394#. My blood pressure was high, my back and knees were so bad i was barely walking, i started having chest pain and major anxiety issues...i was a mess for about 4 years. I knew i had to get healthy but really didn't know how. I knew the diet programs weren't for me, although with Jenny Craig i finally saw the connection between tracking food calories and losing weight when staying under a certain limit. I ended up joining My Fitness Pal and actually took off about 50lbs. Kept it off for a year, then regained it. My mom started my fitness pal and slowly lost her weight. It worked! Tracking calories and eating healthy really does work! But i still struggled and kept losing and gaining the same few pounds. My resistance to fun and happy hours and eating was minimal...i just couldn't say no. Eventually i lost about 65 lbs with MFP and felt good overall, that i had the secret to weight loss and maybe, over the next few years would be successful. In my mind though, i still wasn't sure i could ever keep it off.
My primary care provider was convinced my chest pain was anxiety, but i was not. I pushed and pushed for all kinds of tests (found i had a premature heartbeat, a thyroid node, etc. etc.) and eventually asked for a referral to a surgeon who could check my gallbladder and also my band. I knew i had gallstones before band surgery, but they were big and unlikely to cause a problem, but i was at my wits end. I had done some research and chose a surgeon with a good reputation. Dr. David Martin in Pasadena. He was not a doc in my medical group referral system, but i convinced my primary that i needed to see someone close to home due to work time off and we took a chance on the approval and got approved to visit him. On my first visit we decided it was probably not my gallbladder causing pain (it was on the wrong side) but that it was my band. He agreed to take me on as a patient and I was elated! Over the previous 10 years, i either couldn't find a doctor who would touch me because my surgery was out of the country and my band was a MIDband, not the bands approved here in the US, or my insurance was not covering anything. I felt blessed that my insurance covered band fills now, and i was able to see this surgeon!
We worked on filling the band, but at one point my port flipped over. Dr. Martin suggested we go in surgically and flip it and mesh it down so i wouldn't have that issue anymore. I agreed and asked to have my gallbladder removed at the same time as i was having pain issues that i were thinking might be referred gallbladder pain. He agreed and away we went. Had surgery in June of 2011 and everything went swimmingly. We went back to filling the band. But I was in the office every month adjusting, seemed my body just wasn't reacting very well to the band and although some pain did disappear with the gallbladder removal, overall, i was still suffering off and on with shoulder and other pains around the band location. Eventually i decided to talk to him about the sleeve. We decided to put in a request to the healthcare group/insurance to see if we could get an approval since i was already his patient and he knew me well at this point. Lo and behold I got a call a few days later. His office staff asked if i was sitting down, and then let me know i had been approved for the band removal and the sleeve! I really felt so blessed at this point, while i had struggled for so many years with no care, or no insurance approval, here this last year it seemed like i never got denied!! Of course my surgeon did not guarantee he would do both surgeries. My band was an unknown and he really cares about his patients and their safety. If my body was not in good condition, he would remove that band, but we would have to wait for healing before doing the sleeve. I was okay with that. Of course i wanted life more than a sleeve! And his reputation is so good, and he is such a caring doctor, that i trusted his opinions about my health.
Problem was, the though of getting the sleeve was a bit of a whim, i hadn't really thought i'd even get approved...so my brain went a little wonky on that one! Then my company sold and my insurance was going to move over from Anthem Blue Cross to Cigna. I didn't want to take the chance on losing approval, so decided to just go with it...the stars had aligned after all...and picked a surgery date just 2 weeks later. I knew i wanted the band out, and knew i wasn't wanting a bypass and the problems that can come with that. I also knew that while i had lost weight calorie counting, my health still wasn't the greatest and i really worried about losing it all and keeping it off. It seemed to me that out of all the options out there, the sleeve was the most simple, requiring little after care throughout life and very successful. I was going for it.
I was sleeved just 9 days ago, on October 17. The surgery was a little tough...we found a big hernia, and my esophogus was dilated from the band. I had a lot of scar tissue as my band was wider than the bands approved here, so more work for that. I was in the hospital for two days, mostly just because i was so nauseous and had a bit of a fever! But overall i'm doing great. I feel totally blessed to have found my surgeon and get all my approvals so easily. I don't know why i've gotten this lucky, but i have!
I have to say that being on liquids is a little hard. food does smell good, and overall i'm a little headachy and nauseous off and on. My mind is blown that i decided to forever cut off a portion of my stomach LOL, but in the end, i'm thrilled! I truly believe i have my life back, and knowing that my stomach capacity is reduced to approximately 1 1/2 to 2 cups of food when i'm all healed and eating regularly, helps me know that i have more than just my "feeling" of fullness to rely on, i can be sure that i'm not "overeating" by keeping an eye on quantity.
Anyhoo, that's my story! I'm looking forward to support on this site and continuing with MFP once i share my story there. I think that the band works for some, and i definately feel that good support from a care provider is essential, but for me, i believe the sleeve is the right choice and i'm so happy to have had a revision. Feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

Finally!!!!!!!! I finally hit the ONES! And it also makes me officially down 100 pounds! Had my surgery in February and I have done wonderful! I would do it over in a heartbeat!

Sorry been inactive for a while fellow losers, I promise ill attempt to be more active but who wants to stay indoors after losing so much weight and gaining so much confidence? Here is my new video as promised all with a new slide show.
Down 265+ in 16 months, hit a small flat line but I know ill continue losing it.