ShrinkyDinkMe22

Thank you all so much. And more importantly than losing the weight (although that's pretty important) I feel awesome. I didn't realize how shitty and unhappy I was prior to surgery. December 10 of 2010 was probably the 3rd best day of my life.

Wanted to share as I've been stalling for well over a month. Today's the first day since my journey that I physically feel smaller. I started this last August when I met my surgeon at 332, DOS (12/10/12) I was 300, today I am 247.2! That's a total of 84.8lbs gone (52.8 since surgery). I'm more than half way to my goal of 165. [ATTACH]12669[/ATTACH] Thank you all for your support! Xoxoxo

When I made my protein pudding I make the pudding according to the directions. Once it's firmed up I add the protein powder and remix it. That way the pudding was the correct consistency.

Good luck to you. The hair loss thing, there is nothing you can do unfortunately. If it's going to happen nothing will help it. Mine started falling out around 3 months postop and is still going. Surprisingly I still have hair. However I did cut it to chin length down from boob length. Seemed like the shorter it was. The less it would like was falling out. My 3 month labs came back absolutely perfect and mine is still falling out. Not trying to be a jerk I'm just being honest. As far as the shakes go try to find one that high protein low carb. Odds are the special k one has a lot of sugar and carbs. Isopure is good. There are also ones like muscle milk light or premiere protein shake that have a decent amount of protein and low carbs/sugar.

No problem! And trust me you're not alone. All these tests were making me a basket case. During my testing they thought I had barretts esophagus ended up being a mistake. I was told I had an enlarged heart, mistake, something else major happened bunch it's all a blur... Or I blocked it out. Oh they found gallstones.... Lots of them. Thanks for the compliment. I've been extremely lucky. I had one small complication which required me to stay in hospital for 4 days. Make sure you read up on the complications just to be prepared. There are many success stories here but also some very scary ones. Don't go into this blindly. Not trying to scare you just want you to be prepared.

I think it depends on your insurance. Prior to submitting for approval I had to see a psych, see my pcp, and do an egd. The egd was not for the insurance but was to make sure I had no damage to my esophagus and stomach from Gerd. But the others were prerequisites for my insurance. Once approved my surgeon required a sleep study, lung Dr clearance, ekg, blood work, and there was something else in the but I'm drawing a blank. So those initial appointments prior to approval are solely based on your insurance requirements. Then after that is based on what your surgeon requires. My office called it a next steps packet. So next step after approval was this, this etc.

Hey Jessica!!! First of all let me say how awesome you look! You look happy and look like you feel great! Secondly our stats are pretty spot on to each other. I am 5'8", was 332 when I met my surgeon last August, DOS I was 300 and 3 weeks ago I was 250. So I'm about half way try goal of 165. Surgery was 12/10/12. Next I wanted to bring up that I'm too having this issue with my husband. He is convinced that I'm going to lose a bunch of weight, get small and super cute and then leave. I too and not sure where this is coming from other than he does realise that I'm more noticeable now to others than I was before. So i am sure that there is a bit of insecurity there for them. For us who may never or rarely had been "checked out" often are now getting attention. That can be scary I think. I just keep reassuring him I'm not going anywhere and try to be a little more affectionate. I wasn't really affectionate or into sex the last year of our marriage. I was so unhappy and disgusted with myself. I really backed off from him. He says it jokingly about me leaving him but I know deep down he is serious. But we are working in it. PM me if you wanna chat more Again awesome job!

I mean TES!

Thank you YES!

Keep up the good work!

You're doing great! And I believe you should keep doing what you're doing! Muscle does not weigh more than fat but it takes up less space. A pound of muscle is MUCH smaller and denser than a pound of fat. A pound is a pound. You could definitely be replacing muscle for fat which is why the scale is not moving.

I stayed 3 nights. Surgery was on a Monday afternoon and I checked out Thursday night. This was due to my sleeve being very swollen and I didn't pass my leak test on Tuesday bc of it. They didn't redo the test until Thursday afternoon. Which at that time my sleeve was still very swollen but the contrast was moving better than the 1st test. My surgery was this past december.

Is that posted somewhere on this site?

I did not have one either. I did have one for my c-section 3 years ago. It didn't hurt even when they took it out. It was uncomfortable but was not painful. Not sure what the big deal is with the catheters.

When are you allowed to start pureed? Definitely ease into it. I think the first thing I tried was refried beans. There is a website called www.theworldaccordingtoeggace.com. Shelly had rny a while back. You may have heard of this site but she has lots of recipes and things. There is a crock pot recipe for a beef stew that is delish pureed. I was skeptical to puree beef but it was good.

I was going back and forth about band, vsg and rny. After talking with my Dr vsg was the best option for me. He too said soon the band will not be done any more. Too many complications. Most either revise to rny or sleeve a few years later. Or just have it removed bc of problems.

I have bcbs of il. It was submitted October 25th and I called on the 29th and it was approved.

Also you can probably ask you Dr for samples. Let them know your insurance may not cover it. Sometimes they can help you out.

They just released a lovenox generic that with my insurance was 10$. I don't know what is costs without it but I know it's way cheaper than the lovenox. Lovenox I was told is 400$ for 10 days. You can call a pharmacy and ask them how much both are without insurance.

I'm almost 5 months postop and had my first drink last night (vodka and cranberry with lime). Like a poster above stated to drink it slow and see how you do. Definitely do that. I too got flushed very quickly and had body sweats. It was very strange and I did drink it slowly. Good luck and have fun at the wedding!

To OP: thanks for sharing your story with all of us. Those that are still researching and deciding on the surgery need to be aware of all the complications that could arise. I wish you the best and I hope you are on the road to recovery. My thoughts and prayers are with our and I'm sorry you had so many complications.

I had no pain after surgery. Although I had the dry heaves for the first few hours and unto the night. Those did hurt and scared me as I thought that jerking of trying to through up would cause a leak. But it didn't. Thanks goodness.