StrangelyNormal

I am one month out today and down from 295 to 260 including the week of pre-op diet. I am very happy with the progress. Im glad its slowing down a tad bit. I feel in control of my body. I feel victorious over food. Food is no longer a friend, a drug, it is just fuel and I freaking LOVE that. I healed up perfectly. The only hurdle was Constipation, nothing long lasting or serious. My pre- pregnancy " skinny" clothes from 2004 (size 18) are now baggy. Exercising is not fun yet, but its no longer torture. I am loving my sleeve and loving finding myself again!

YAY!! I got a date!! I will be w/ Dr Garcia in september getting my sleeve! Anyone else out there getting theirs in September??!!! AHHH im stoked! Those of you that have gone to Garcia already how you all doing now? any complications?

I'm second in line for surgery today they just gave me my happy pill. I luv it here with dr. aceves it's more like resort than hospital

To NOT be smothered by my own boobs when lying down

To NOT be smothered by my own boobs when lying down

To NOT be smothered by my own boobs when lying down

To NOT be smothered by my own boobs when lying down

Hey there! My highest weight was 337. A year later, I had surgery at 306. Currently, I'm 183. I'm 6'2", so even at that high weight, I'm in a normal BMI and normal weight. :-) Yay Sleevie!!

I had lapband surgery at about 385, give or take a few. Dropped down to around 215.
I was back to about 350 when I had my sleeve (3 mos ago) and am now around 270-something.
I've lost a lot of weight, but I still have a lot left to lose - about 100 lbs. So I'm progress, in the same way your first lap is progress toward a few miles.

Started my journey at 310 and down to 178 now!

It's funny, I think we are the only people to say "I CAN'T WAIT TO BE OVERWEIGHT!!!!" lol

I thought I would get lucky and not have any loss! It hit me literally on the three month mark. I took a shower and lost two handfuls.
Well, today I came home with a new chic bob
I would rather be thin haired and thin than fat and furry

Thanks for the support. Helps me to know I can deal with it..and that I will be able to do this...

I look forward to the day that instead of rolling down BC I'm so fat, that they fall off BC I'm losing.....

I like wearing Spanx, but I know that makes me an oddity.
I wear them with dresses/skirts (to eliminate the jiggle factor), and pants that aren't tailored. I'm really high waisted and have longer legs, so often even tall sizes want to sit below my waist which I cannot stand. To get pants to sit where they should (at my natural waist, I do not buy low rise pants), they're usually going up my butt. Few things look worse than camel toe (except for really bad camel toe, a.k.a. moose knuckle) and pants riding up your butt. So I wear spanx because they make it impossible for my butt to eat my pants.

"I got my tube out.. Woop, Woop, Woop, Woop!"
I am sooooo happy! I was scheduled to get it out on the 28th. I DID NOT want to wait that long. I was barely secreting anything so I decided to call and ask to see if I could get it out earlier. I figured the worse they could say was no and I would be back at square one. Well, they took it out and removed my staples. I feel soooo much better!
By the way, it didn't hurt a bit. Don't be scared!

Omg yes!!!! I might be more inclined to groom her more often lol

I have lost 95 lbs as well, and I have not loose skin, although a few wrinkles on my abdomen. I could care less, its not like I will show my abdomen to anyone besides my boyfriend-- and he thinks I am beautiful no matter what. Luckily my butt, thighs and arms look pretty damn good!

Thanks 2besmallagain

Guess what I saw this weekend! Torani makes BACON flavored syrup! I'm sooo not kidding...
But it's not SF. And I don't really like bacon.

Let's put things into perspective here. A low sugar, liquid pre-op diet shrinks your liver but it does other things as well:

No solids or residues in the digestive tract. Any time a surgeon is going to be cutting into any part of your GI system, you really, really don't want any solid matter in there.
It can have a benefit when dealing with post-op nausea - it's easier and generally more pleasant to expel liquids.< br /> It helps you get properly hydrated before a major surgical procedure.
Better hydrated you are, the easier/quicker your recovery will be.
Reduces liver size AND clears the colon.
Body does not have to work hard to digest whatever is in the system.

Is cheating on a pre-op diet OK? Sure, if you're OK with any of the above having the potential to be compromised. It's your surgery, and your risk to take. But if you ask for opinions, you have to accept that they are going to come from all directions. If you're looking for a particular answer, then save people the time and put that in your topic. That's only fair. ("You" is not a reference to anyone in particular, but just a general comment to this entire thread.)
(To be fair, I have to insert a little warning here - I'm inserting this after the post was all written because I sort of soap-boxed... and lots of people here don't like me very much because I'm blunt/opinionated/know-it-all/adjective of choice... so if "I" am not your "thing" or you don't care for my messages or my body ain't that bootylicious or whatever, then bow out now because I'm sooo going there again...)
I get both sides of it. I really do. On one hand - if you can't even make it through two weeks (or whatever), what are you going to do for the rest of your life? On the flip side, you don't have enforced will power or surgical exorcism to take help with your caloric demons, you're still feeling hungry (physically or mentally), and let's face it -- there's usually a healthy dose of "poor me" thrown in there somewhere. Keeping food away from a fat person is like the worst thing ever! (Said in my best ommigod voice). Yes, that's facetious, but not entirely...
We have this mechanism called "cognitive distortion" that makes not ok things be ok, or ok things be horrible, or whatever. Example: Ugh, traffic was HORRIBLE!!! No. Traffic may have been worse than yesterday, but it wasn't horrible. A building full of babies and puppies and Ryan Reynolds burning to the ground - that's HORRIBLE. Traffic ain't **** compared to that. But when you give yourself permission to tell yourself it is, then you're giving yourself permission to believe it.
What does an enflamed (not flaming!) Ryan Reynolds have to do with us, here, now?
Us obese folks are master manipulators through cognitive distortion. "Well, I've already had a piece of gum... there goes that diet... I'll just start fresh tomorrow and have this cheesecake since after tomorrow I'll never eat it again..." Raise your hand if you've been there, because I certainly have. Most people who have insurance, or can self pay, or have Internet access (which in some way, shape, or form should cover most people here) have no idea what real hunger is like. We've never, truly been hungry. We have felt hunger, but we don't know it the way that people who are actually starving know it (but look how meaninglessly we throw around phrases like, "I'm starving!") But we blow our little NERF hunger pebbles into gigantic boulders. And it's all thank to the "stinking thinking" we permit ourselves to have.
Being faithful to a pre-op diet is hard. But it is finite, and you know exactly when it will end. Haven't you ever thought to yourself, "If I could just do something for two weeks, and know that at the end of it I would ne skinnier/healthier/richer/sexier/whatever, I would do it?" So why is this si hard? It's important to keep away from the cognitive distortions that are going to make "cheating" OK. Is cheating OK? Not really my place to say. But I know that my sleeve surgery was worth the sincere effort & compliance. Pre-op was a great detox, and a good opportunity for a little introspection.
I'm not going to tell someone it's "OK" to knowingly "cheat" in a pre-op diet. I believe in the function/purpose of the pre-op diet, and if I tell them it's OK to cheat, I'm also telling them it's not their fault if their surgery has to be revised to an open procedure, or cancelled, or takes longer because the liver was too large, or... whatever. I'm not that much of an enabler. But I'm also not going to put the smack-down on someone for eating a Cheetoh.
Cheating on pre-op comes up as a topic quite frequently. It's unfortunate for the people who are truly just wondering, because I think they tend to get lumped in with the others who are looking for affirmation/justification of their bad behaviors. The problem is - it's really hard to tell the two apart.

When choosing a Dr in Mexico there are so many different aspects. I had read about deaths, infections, crime... It started scaring the crap out of me... Guess what, most of these Mexican surgeons have performed such a large #of surgeries that of course infections are going to happen. I'm sorry, but when someone has performed THOUSANDS of surgeries compared to MAYBE A HUNDRED AT MOST IN THE USA, then yes...Ur gonna see infections. When a surgeon takes high risk patients (for example someone with a bmi over 50) then the chance of complications increases as does deep vein thrombosis. You have to do your research. Dig dig dig...and then dig some more. Only you know who feels right. Who you're comfortable with. You can ask everyone in the world their opinion of a Dr but that's just what it is. An opinion. Almost everyone you talk to is, of course, going to think his/her surgeon is the best the best thing you can do is compile a list of everything an anything u wanna know and have those questions answered. Good luck and many blessings, April

Girl, I bet you I have watched 200 surgeries lol. I know one for sure was Dr Alvarez, can't remember the rest. type in "fundiplication surgery" for sure. And there were some when I searched hiatal hernia surgery.

First postoperative day... Alive and well! Had my first liquid oral pain med w ice chips. Now having my first Popsicle. Lots of little burps. Taking my walks and using my incentive spirometer. So far so good. Oh and the MD said my liver looked great!