InternetAngel

Thank you everyone for posting a reply, especially big THANKS to you Tiff! I appreciate the motivating words and advice! I am going to try to get in more water, some days I slack on the water intake. I was journaling every day. My water, calories, protein, carbs and exercise. I dont know why I quit. I even printed out all these cute journal pages. I think I will start that up again. I need to remember I am human and I will mess up. It took 17 years to get this big. I cant expect to just wake up thin! I NEED to quit beating myself up over this. Again...THANK YOU so much. I will update you soon. Take care. :biggrin2:

Well I am 5 months post op this month. My weight loss has been SLOW. As I have said in the past, I dont want to compare my weight loss experience to anyone elses, but sometimes that gets hard when I read everyone's posts. I have been at a stall for about 2 months now. Frustrated you ask? VERY! People have commented about my weight loss. I always say thank you. I guess on some level, I dont see it. I know my clothes have gotten smaller, but I dont see it when I look in the mirror. I have gone from a size 26 to an 18. By the calculations in my head of the weight loss I felt I was suppose to have by this time, I am behind. Maybe I shouldnt be so hard on myself. I KNOW I need to get back to using the gym. I havent done this for awhile. I have been feeling lazy therefore my weight loss takes the hit. For everyone that says I am SO lucky to have this surgery because they think the pounds will just melt off, I just have to say, you are SO wrong. I now know more than ever, that this really is just a tool. This is NOT a miracle cure all. You still have to work very very hard at accomplishing your goals. Is it worth it? YES, absolutly! Would I do it again? YES, of course! Can someone out there give me some advice on getting back into losing my weight? I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

I am really struggling. I am feeling like a failure here. I have been at a stall..BIG TIME! Its been over 3 weeks since I have lost any weight. My clothes arent feeling any different. I have been hungry lately. I feel disgusting. I eat. I eat. I eat. Then I feel guilty. I dont have anyone where I live that is going thru any of this. Can someone out there please just give me some advice or something. Please.:001_rolleyes:

I just have a question for everyone. Since my surgery, the swelling in my legs has gotten worse. You could just about eat cereal out of the dimples in my leg when you push into them! Has anyone else been experiencing this? Should I be concerned? I have been watching my sodium intake and drinking alot of water and it isnt isnt helping. Any suggestions? Thank you!

There are times when I have a feeling of hunger. Not starvation. Its not like before surgery, when I would feel so hungry I would literally get sick to my stomach. The biggest I ssue I have with hunger, is the "head" or "mind hunger". This can get very bad at times. When this happens I try to drink more water, or suck on a hard candy. Anything to get over it. I think alot of it depends on what size cathetor they used during your procedure as well. Have a good one :thumbup1:

Hello Everyone! I am having a really tough time right now. As some of you may know I experienced a set back last month which forced me to have another surgery. Luckily, I have been going strong since. I see all kinds of post from others who have had this surgery, and by no means do I want to start comparing myself to their personal experiences, however, I see people posting that the pounds are just melting off. This is NOT happening for me. I count calories, keep a food/exercise journal daily. I work out on 1 hour of cardio a day minimum, not to mention the endless walking I do here at the prison for work and I just dont see the results that everyone posts here. Am I doing something wrong? People post pictures of themselves here and I see the amazing transformations, even after a few months.I would like some kind of guidance or reassurance that this wasnt a mistake. Please someone, help me with this.

This sounds like something I was experiencing. A spot by my incision was very very painful. I couldnt hardly stand it. When it first started I went to my local ER. They did a CT scan, ultrasound and blood work. They told me the same thing. A seroma/hematoma under the skin causing me this pain. They put me on anitbiotics. After awhile I was still hurting, went back, they gave me pain meds. The pain meds DIDNT touch this pain. I let this go on for 3 weeks. I couldnt take it anymore. I finally got in to see my surgeon and he thought it was a small hernia with some swelling in the abdomen. We scheduled surgery to go in and take a look. If you search my other threads you will see how serious I felt the pain was. After surgery I was told my DR found a baseball sized mass in my abdomen near my incision. He said when he cut into it, it had a sandy, grainy substance to it. I wont know any pathology to it until my check up next week. Since he removed it, I have felt WONDERFUL! He has improved my quality of life. I am able to walk, sit up, lay down, go to the bathroom, work and have started going to the gym. I am not saying you have anything like mine, I just think you should get it checked out further.

Well I have been home from the hospital for 5 days this time around. I am feeling SO much better. I went in, the DR came in, said we were going to get this fixed. He said he would go in, look for the hernia, and fix it. He said I might have some scar tissue that would need to be freed. He said if he gets in there and finds nothing, he will numb it up and I will have to try to deal with it. I wasnt happy in hearing this, but could understand. I just want to express to everyone the pain I was experiencing was very serious to me. By the end of the 3 weeks of dealing with this, the pain had me suicidual. I was hurting so badly, that I told my family that if this surgery didnt work, I had a plan to end it for myself because I COULD NOT live like this. I explained to the DR that my pain was at a 10 plus, and that was alot for me. I have have a baby naturally before and that took 33 hours. This pain topped that. So, just wanted to let you all know where I stood with this pain. It was very real to me. I went into the OR, they prepped me. Everyone was very nice. I fell alseep. I woke up to my very sweet Nurse, Kay. I asked ifthe DR was coming in. She told me no, that he was out speaking to my family since I was still a little out of it with the meds. I reached down and felt my stomach. I did find some discomfort there. I asked Kay if they fixed the hernia. Kay told me that they didnt find a hernia. I immediatly started bawling. Thoughts of previous plans came rushing into my head. I was determined not to live like this. I asked Kay for some pain meds, then fell asleep for a little bit. I asked for my family to be let in. They came in. I asked what the DR said and expressed to them how saddened I was by the fact there wasnt a hernia. I was told that the DR came to talk with them. The DR found a mass in my abdomen wall the size of a baseball. He said that when they cut open the mass, it had a grainy, sandy substance in it. Dr Helbling had removed the mass and alot of scar tissue from the area. He didnt have an explaination for the mass and didnt know what it was. It was sent to pathology, but he believed this is what was causing my pain. He was surprised that this didnt show up on the CT scan. So, there was something there. Something very real causing my pain. Now that it has been 5 days since surgery, I am feeling alot better. I have no pain expect some occasional incision pain, which is no biggie for me. I go back to work tomorrow. I am very thankful that DR Helbling listened to me when I came into his office and decided even though there wasnt a huge problem showing on my tests, he took the time to find out what was wrong and fixed it. He has improved the quailty of life. I am happy to report that my depression from this pain has ceased and I no longer feel suicidual. Happy Holidays everyone!

Well after a few visits to the local ER, many tests and many pain meds I was finally able to get in to see my surgeon. He ordered a few more tests and finally found out why I have been hurting so damn bad. I DO NOT have a seroma, or hemotoma as diagonsed by the ER. I have a hernia. Right near my belly button incision and that is what is causing my distressing pain. I am scheduled for surgery on Monday, Decmeber 14th to fix this. My DR says I will feel much relief after this surgery. He says the most pain I will have after this will be the incision sites. After this hernia, I can handle the incision site pain. I am so looking forward to feeling good and being able to exercise. I have been wanting to hit the treadmill. Thank you to everyone that responded to my last post about hurting so bad. I appreciate it. I am thankful to finally have an answer here. On a more positive note...my DR said my new sleeve was beautiful! :biggrin0:

I went to the ER last night because I just couldnt take it anymore. They did an ultrasound. Not my gallbladder. Nothing to do with my period since I had a total hysterectomy 7 years ago. They did a CT scan. They determined that I have an abcess near one of my incision sites. They said they would put me on an antibiotic for it. They said if I had signs of sepsis to return to the DR, but they didnt want to do anything with it becuase they wanted me to seek the advice of my surgeon. Soooo....I called him this morning, of course he wasnt available. I spoke to the DR on call from his office. He told me that these types of pockets of fluid are common and that he wouldnt even have given me an antibiotic. He did say they generally dont cause any pain though. Now I am back to square one, because it DOES hurt. Its a stabbing pain that cause me to almost cry. I guess I will just have to wait until Wednesday to see MY DR and determine what the heck is wrong with me. Im a little bummed out by this. I hate being in pain.

Hello Everyone I have a quick question. I am having a very sharp burning pain paralell to my belly button. Its not constant. Its only when I sit down or try standing up. I am able to "poop" (sorry for being so blunt), and I am not experiencing any bleeding from there. I dont feel anything protruding that would feel like a hernia. Im not running a fever or feeling sick. I have been experiencing this for a few days now. I have tried calling my DR, but due to the holiday, there is no answer. The hospital is 100 miles away. Any advice? Thank you.