Kristina J.

Love your new profile pic by the way! You are stunning my dear!!!

I tend to agree, we sure do!!! Excited to officially join the club!!

May 11th... Or 69 days if you're counting... Which I'm totally not...

Yeah, if I don't dress up my water somehow, I'll never get through it and my tummy is only banded, not tiny yet!! I feel the water pain!!

Good!! I'm glad to hear you're going to treat yourself!! Enjoy it!! And good thinking on the neon! Haha Really, if someone sees your big white booty, good!! They can kiss it goodbye!!!!!!!!

Sorry Buddy!! That's the problem with food funerals. We are food addicts and as awesome as they sound, we only end up feeling like crap! Hope you feel better soon. You're on your way to a better you!! If you're tempted to food funeral again, come back here, we'll smack some sense into you

96 pounds? My two toddlers combined don't weigh 96 pounds, that's a huge accomplishment and no matter how much I love them, I won't carry them around all day... I'm just too lazy for that. You must feel amazing!! And no one would think you were the same person as your before photo! You look amazing!!

Hey Kelly, I am also on Topamax daily for migraines and I'm not scheduled until May, so this hasn't been as issue for me, so I don't have a solution for you, but, I do know that we can NOT crush or split Topamax! It should say it right on your bottle. I asked my pharmacist about it when I got it because I have a hard time with pills due to my lap band and he pointed it out to me on my RX bottle!!! :-/ I've just been taking that one pill whole. Maybe call your surgeon and let him know you're on a med that can't be crushed or cut and see what he says!! I'll definitely have to bring it up with mine too!! Let me know what you find out if you don't mind?! It'll be coming up for me soon too!!

Holy crap is right!! Lol I've wanted to scream that at my kids and a few threads tonight... I'm just gonna go with that stomach... holy crap... That's inside me still!! Haha no wonder I'm so hungry...

Is it the worst food choice in the world? No. It's a good sensible dessert choice. Later. I failed at a weight loss surgery by negotiating things like this. By introducing foods I really shouldn't eat just a bit too early because they really sounded good. I don't think anyone means to attack you, but maybe a little "tough love." You have gone through a serious surgery. Six days ago. Don't start negotiating your food choices now. Stick to the liquids. Whether is fun to hear or not, you know darn well that frozen yogurt is "ice cream light" ... all the joy without the guilt. Yes, it is a good dessert alternative, but wait for the sweets until your diet has progressed further. It'll be hard now, but you'll be glad you did it down the road. I promise!!

Oh I don't know. Maybe I spoke too soon! Lol I have never had it come up before. I've had pedicures before all of my surgeries (aside from usually having them fairly regularly, I always have one before surgery to calm my nerves) but I've never had surgery in Mexico or with Dr. Garcia before! So Dr. Garcia may prohibit it! Best to check beforehand! Every surgeon has different rules If no polish, get the pedicure anyway, and just go no polish. It's still so relaxing and will really calm your nerves!

I really hope your insurance approves your sleeve! It's hard not to feel cheated after going through all we went through with the band. But I think we can use it as motivation to make the most of the sleeve and really work with it to make the most of it we can. I know because of the band, I am fully commuted to the sleeve. More so than I would have been had I not gone through everything I did to get here!

My story has been a long 10 year roller coaster ride both in weight and emotion! I was banded at 18 in California. I was just under 250 at 5'1". I had an easy surgery and started losing pretty quickly. After a couple years, I was down almost 100lbs and feeling great until suddenly, in August 2005, I couldn't swallow Water. My band had slipped and badly. I went into surgery the next day to have my band fixed, but due to erosion, it was removed and as the surgeon put it to my parents, he "MAY have punctured my stomach trying to navigate scar tissue, but it was difficult to tell what was a puncture and what was an erosion." I was devastated to put it lightly and spent 9 days in the hospital recovering. Insurance refused to replace the band (despite multiple appeals) because my BMI was too low. My surgeon and I worked through the year on appeals and by June, I had climbed back to my starting weight of 250. We found out in March that when my insurance changed at the beginning of the year, they had made WLS a contract exclusion and we had exhausted our appeals. I decided that if I wanted my band back, I would have to pay for it and began looking into options out of the country. For a bunch of different reasons, I ended up choosing a hospital and surgeon in Mumbai, India. The surgeon in Mumbai told me that my first band was placed so high, that my scar tissue wasn't in his way at all. I now wonder if that is the only reason it worked so well. I had a new lap band placed in August 2006 at 269lbs (my highest weight) and went home filled with hope. My hope faded as over the next year I only lost around 40-50lbs or so. Not a small amount of weight, but only half of what I lost the first time and only about a third of what I was hoping for. This band never worked like the first one. By 2012 I was back up to 250. My current insurance has a contract exclusion as well, and instead of going through lengthy appeals (since that worked so horribly before), I decided to self pay again. This time I am going with Dr. Fernando Garcia in Tijuana with Ready 4 a Change. I have my surgery scheduled for April 25th and I'm fearful that I am starting to get my hopes up that this will be the right path for me. I am hoping that this roller coaster will take one final dip (hopefully at least a 100lb dip lol). My kids need a mom that can keep up with them and I know I can't do that on my own. Anyone else struggle with the fear of getting your hopes up before a revision surgery?? How did it go for you? And more importantly, after going from band to sleeve, what would you say were the biggest changes for you? I'm so thankful for any input anyone has to share

Ooh ooh me too!!!!

Yeah, don't freak out!! The other thread really sounded a lot like every surgery I've had in the US except I wasn't put up at a 5 star hotel afterwards! I was sent home to my screaming toddlers!! I've seen other patients naked in US hospitals on accident and I know some have at least seen my big naked butt hanging out of those oh so unforgivingly average sized hospital gowns!!! Lol loose bowels sound way better than stopped up ones and post surgery, you'll have one or the other, I promise! and blue in? Blue/green out! Lol You're just panicking because you're finished with everything else on your list!!! Hahaha Work on that breathing thing we were talking about. Take yourself out for a nice pedicure. You can have some nice cute toes to shove into those sexy $5000 socks they give you!

And I do regret it. Instantly lol. I don't do religion or politics, obviously this just hits close to home for all of us and no one has an easy answer.

Such a tease

Hardly seems fair... The fewer sleeps until its here and the harder it gets to sleep! Lol Like a kid before Christmas!! And you were probably completely packed and ready to go a week ago! Hang in there. It's almost time!!! So so close! I'm so excited for you!!!!

Hahahaha hey hey, it WAS followed by a lecture about how food funerals are bad bad bad!! Lol though it did precede rationalizing that eggs are full of Protein... Come on man... Reign it in... You're makin me look bad!!! hahaha

Yes, please tell me I didn't seriously send you out to food sin in my foot steps!!!!

Ok, and I know that is craziness!!! Lol But, breathe. You are going to do great!!! When is your flight?