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I topped out at my very largest somewhere around 280 (I'm 5'1" and some change) but was 242 on the day of surgery. At goal I'm 135 pounds, but I currently weigh 139 pounds (I'm two months pregnant). ~Cheri

Thanks for posting and congrats on not only achieving your goal but maintaining it. I tell people that once your body hits it's "happy place" that maintenance is easy but most people don't believe me. You've done great! ~Cheri

Make it into hot and sour soup. Yum! I use chicken stock for the base, anyway. Oh, or egg drop soup. Yum! I, too, added plenty of spices to my broths in the liquid stage because you'd be bored out of your mind otherwise. The cinnamon on cottage cheese is good. I also stir in a tsp. of preserves sometimes. And don't forget that old ricotta dessert if you get bored of cottage cheese - I think it's ricotta, cocoa powder and splenda. ~Cheri

Go slow, but it's all up to your body. I still have a really tough time with salad if it's made with iceberg. I have to eat actual greens or it makes me sick. Steak took the longest - beef, in general, was the hardest for me to digest for a long time. I could eat it once I was cleared for regular food, but I could only eat a bite or two before feeling very full. Tonight I ate 3 oz. of a good steak, though, with no problem. Of course, if I couldn't do that at two years out I'd be a sad girl. Bread also took a long time. I still don't eat much of it. Not because I think it's bad or because I can't, but why waste my limited capacity on something that doesn't do much for me? I bake fresh bread and if I slice it thinly I can eat a whole grilled cheese on it, or half a regular sandwich (piled high). Bread, Pasta, tortillas and rice all swell in my tummy and it's very easy to go from feeling great to instant discomfort. So take those foods very slowly and stop after just a few small bites until you know how you'll do. Good luck! ~Cheri

It took me six months to drop the last twenty pounds. I stalled out not long before I hit that point for about nine weeks. Tracking is critical because it's easy to slip into denial about our eating habits if we aren't holding ourselves accountable. I sincerely doubt your sleeve has stretched. It's more likely that you aren't aware that you're eating more than you were when you lost best, that's all. I'm also 5'1" and a bit and had a dream goal (like, an "I don't think I'll ever get there but I WANT to goal") of 125 pounds, but I set my goal at 135 - the most I could weigh and be pretty close to a normal BMI. If I round up and say I'm 5'2" it works out better. The reality is that my body doesn't really want to stay between 134-137. It loves being 138. Exactly 138 pounds. I can eat anything I want and stay that weight. But to maintain the lower weight I need to drink a Protein shake every day, keep my protein over 90+ grams a day and really watch what I'm eating. Oh, and drink a ton of Water. If I'm not diligent my body slips right back to it's happy place: 138 pounds. It's incredibly frustrating. The truth is that regardless of what we want and what that stupid BMI chart says, sometimes our bodies are just done when they're done. You can force it to go farther if you really work at it, but sometimes it's a real chore to maintain once you're there. Please don't forget to take any excess skin into account, either. I will easily shed ten pounds with plastics and I know that. I'll be right there at my dream goal once that happens. So for now, buckle down and get real with yourself about how you're eating. If shaving 20% off your total calories for a few weeks doesn't help, you might be at that happy place. If it does help, you have your answer. Best of luck, ~Cheri

I would ask to move on immediately if the next cycle is a bust. If you aren't developing follicles at all, I'm not sure upping the dose will do what you need. I've known women to have success with the metformin added in, so hopefully that will work. Beyond 150 mg Clomid can hinder, not help, fertility. Once you need a dose that high, your doctor should have you move on to injectibles to see if that bumps up your follicle production. At this point, I'd try one more round of Clomid at the high dose , then ask to be put on a split cycle of Clomid plus one or two "booster" doses of injectibles to see if that helps. By the end of that cycle, you'll know if the injectibles boost your production or not. If they don't give you any better results, don't let your doc talk you into several expensive cycles done that way. Injectibles can cost a lot if your insurance doesn't cover them. Best of luck. Infertility is a horrible experience for a couple. You might find something to help you on FertileThoughts.com - their forums can be interesting. ~Cheri

I didn't eat that much for a long while but everyone is different. I could have eaten that much, had I made different choices or forced myself to eat more at each meal. The important thing is to track your food and your weight, and stop when you reach that point where what you're eating (either quantity or quality) is affecting your progress. For everyone it's completely different. Some of us need less calories and some of us need to avoid certain foods in order to lose weight. Not everyone loses the hunger. And many, many people report that exercise increases your hunger. You are burning a lot of calories in a week and it's possible your body simply wants more fuel. It could be either in your case. It's not one size fits all, so if you're simply a slower loser (I lost, on average, just over six pounds a month) but having consistent results with your current program, there is no need to change anything. If you're hungry all the time and can safely add more calories without sabotaging your loss, then do that. The end goal is to find the happy place where you're feeling good about what you're eating and you're still losing. ~Cheri

I had an increased number for, oh, about six months or so. I used to go months and months without one, and in the early months I was laid up with one just about every month. They faded, however, into regular headaches (that lingered) over the first year, and now that I'm two years out I just realized I can't remember when I had my last migraine or headache. I think it's all the wacky in our bodies. Fat cells store all sorts of ugly things and that could be part of it. As your body adjusts, hopefully your migraines will decrease like mine did. ~Cheri Oh, and Imitrex is a great drug for migraines, true. But in both my mother in law and myself it caused tinnitus, which doesn't go away when you stop using the drug.

People do not stall because they aren't eating enough. I see SO many people climb on here freaking out because they're "stalled" and the first thing they do after three whole days of no loss is start screwing with their diet. This is a major shock to our systems. Shedding weight at a rate of more than a pound a week is a shock to the body. It stops and starts and tries to recover along the way because you've completely changed from gaining weight to rapidly losing weight. This has been widely debated here but the starvation mode thing is doubted but a lot of us. Too many people carry those misguided notions from life prior to surgery (we MUST eat 1,200 calories or we'll starve, eat with a calorie deficit and you'll lose every time you step on the scale) and try to apply them to life post op. It's not the same. Diets are NOT all one size fits all, I say this over and over again. Why people who fail to lose the weight following a strict 1,200 calorie diet and exercising prior to surgery but then try to apply that same failed experiment to the sleeve post op amazes me. Calories are fuel. They are neither good nor bad. food in and of itself is not good or bad. Life and diet are not black and white. Food is fuel. The nutritional makeup of your food can be better or worse for your body, and you can certainly waste food space (very limited for a while post op) on absolute crap choices that do nothing to further your nutritional goals. Living like the sleeve is a diet is the biggest culprit I see in stressed out sleevers and regain posts. Everyone's body is different. How many calories you need is based upon how your body does. I was amazed to see that I lost best initially with about 800-900 calories a day. It took me months to get to the point where I could eat that much. I still lost when I ate less, and I still lost when I eventually upped my calories. It's not an exact science for most of us. There isn't a big, bold line we can't cross - it's flexible, and a lot of it is dependent on what you're eating and how your body reacts to those foods. I am a huge advocate of eating normally. That means no foods are off limits and moderation is key in all things. That said, I truly feel that our weight issues start with our brains and our habits of disordered eating. So until a freshly sleeved person learns more about how their new body tolerates things, and until they work on some of the head issues, I wouldn't say that worrying about upping calories, and downing possible trigger foods to do it, is a good idea. It's a process. There is nothing wrong with indulging once in a while - it's normal. But building a habit of telling yourself that you need extra calories, and therefore a bowl of ice cream (or some other such treat) is necessary each day *could* be a slippery slope for a lot of people. I truly believe you'll have such a hard time getting in your basic Protein first calories that you won't have room for the thought of anything else. That's how it is for the vast majority of us. And nothing tops a lower carb Protein shake for nutritional punch. We don't eat them to add to our calories in most cases. We eat them because you can drink pretty easily once you're healed, and drinking up to 50 grams of protein with only 200 calories for a meal is a darn good way to stay healthy once you're sleeved. You brought up some interesting questions. I am not trying to slam you or any of the other responses here, or lecturing you as if there's only one way to live post op. I've just spent a lot of time on these boards in the last three years and I've seen a lot of trends. Best of luck to you, and congrats on trying to work some of this out prior to surgery. It shows you're trying to prepare and that's important. Too many people skip the questions and research! ~Cheri

Anywhere from six months to a year is the norm to get off the PPI. Some folks need them for the long run. I was lucky enough to stop taking mine somewhere between 4-6 months. However, in times of stress I do need them for a short spell again, as I seem to be more prone to acid problems than prior to surgery. Small price to pay for goal weight, though. I hope that sometime in the next few months you can wean off. I started coming off by taking one every other day. Try that and see how it goes. ~Cheri

shake it off. People just don't understand and she probably feels like she was offering good advice to someone she wants to help. If dieting was the answer, you wouldn't be where you are today. Weight loss is not one-size-fits-all or our first attempt at Weight Watchers would work like magic and we'd all be thin. Your friend probably means well but believes what every doctor and media source tries to tell us: if we're not thin we must lack willpower or the knowledge to succeed. Well, it's not always that easy. You have to do what's best for you, regardless of what other people think. I only told a handful of people prior to my surgery. Now that I'm at goal if people ask I tell them how I lost the weight. Prior to surgery you're opening yourself to judgement - and it's nobody's business but yours and your family's. Afterward, it doesn't matter what they think. The surgery will work, you'll lose the weight, and they might think you took an easier or more risky way out but you won't care at that point! Don't let this bother you. You're making a great decision to change your life permanently for the better. She'll come around in time when she sees how happy you are how successful it is for you. ~Cheri

I travel A LOT, especially internationally. I've never had an issue packing a shaker cup and Protein powder with me. I even go out of my way to buy a few individual serving packets of Protein Powder to mix on the plane if it will be a very long flight. I wouldn't try to carry RTD shakes through, nor would I freak out the TSA fools with unmarked baggies of protein powder. Those people swabbed my four year old's stuffed rabbit for explosives - they might lose their minds faced with an unknown powder. Honestly, I just traveled FORTY FOUR hours on four different flights and two different airlines. I had my trusty shaker cup and protein packets (and protein bars) with me the whole time. ~Cheri

To stretch your sleeve you would have to regularly eat to the point of pain. Even doing that it would STILL be tough to stretch this very un-stretchy part of the stomach, because you're more likely to simply toss up those extra bites than keep them uncomfortably sitting in your smaller tummy long enough to do lasting damage. That said, it's important to learn your new full signals and stop before you get to that point. We all take a little time to do this and it's normal to overdo it a few times before learning exactly when to stop. Certain foods swell in the stomach and cause issues. I have a real problem with Pasta and tortillas. Some people have an issue with scrambled eggs or bread. My full signals are a runny nose, the hiccups or a feeling of tightness in my chest. If I go beyond that, I'll toss it back up or suffer discomfort. ~Cheri

A number of women report whacked out cycles after surgery, so don't get crazy yet. First Response Early Response tests as little as 6.5 mlU of HCG in your system and is accurate as early as ten days post ovulation. If you're experiencing actual pregnancy systems, your hormones should be elevated enough for a positive test. More likely, you aren't pregnant. While I'm sure you might want to enjoy another child later, I'm hoping this is just a hormonal fluke, so that you can adjust to your sleeve prior to experiencing a pregnancy. Let us know how things come out. ~Cheri

For me, all day nausea, horrible gas, stomach cramping and discomfort, followed by really bad bathroom issues. It's horrible. RTD Protein drinks, even lactose free ones, make me horribly ill. I used to love Oh Yeah or Muscle Milk but they make me so sick I can't stand it. I stick to Syntrax Nectars and mix with Water, coffee, tea, soy milk or juice. The good news is that my intolerance has gotten much better the farther out from surgery I get. I still can't drink a glass of cow's milk, but I can tolerate cheeses, a small amount of yogurt or ice cream, cream sauces if they aren't too rich, and most important to me: a splash of cream in my coffee. ~Cheri

Yes, get in to a high risk OB (MFM or perinatologist) because of your history and your current medical concerns. It's not the ideal time to get pregnant, no, but there's never a perfect time! Embrace this surprise blessing and do everything you can to take care of yourself and your baby. As for the bariatric surgeon, he's not part of your OB care team. I'm sure he'd be disappointed but the reality is that you're not the first to experience increased fertility as you lose weight. It happens. The most important thing is to be 100% up front with your OB care team about what meds you're on, how often you take them, any health concerns and yes, your sleeve. Get an appointment ASAP - if they try to push you off explain a bit of the situation so they know how serious your situation is. Wishing you the very best. Make sure you're getting in plenty of Protein and water! ~Cheri

I looked at the BMI chart and chose the highest weight I could be and still be in the normal range. I had actually hoped to get smaller but found that once I got there, my body just didn't want to lose any more weight. I'll get to my "wishful thinking" goal of living in the 120s after plastics, I'm sure. My goal seemed insanely low to me since I hadn't been this weight since junior high but I kept at it and got here. Some people exceed their personal goals because their bodies are happier at a smaller weight than they can wrap their heads around. Some of us have bodies that stop when they want, and it might be right at our goal or even a little higher. I can maintain 134-136 but my body loves the number 138 and wants to stay between 138-140 so I have to keep an eye on the scale or it will stick there. ~Cheri

Nobody has been tracking the results of the sleeve as a WLS that long yet. Give it a bit more time. I'm not certain but when I was researching I think someone posted a five year study - you might do some searching and see if you can find anything on VST about it. Regain is possible with any surgery. The big benefit the sleeve has over bypass (what most people are probably thinking of when they talk about regain) is that there isn't a honeymoon phase or window where loss is easiest. Once you're sleeved and healed, your capacity only increases a small amount. Unlike a short window where malabsoption is guaranteed, or a pouch that is likely to stretch (or a band that requires fills and unfills, for that matter), your sleeve is going to restrict you immediately after surgery and for the rest of your life. I am two years out and maintaining beautifully. I'm currently pregnant and while I have hormone bloat and the start of a rounded tummy, I'm not having a problem with weight gain (nothing more than I'd expect at this point) despite the fact that my capacity is increased now that I'm pregnant. All surgeries come with the risk of regain. Using the sleeve like a diet that will someday end is the biggest cause of regain I've seen - people just stop being diligent at goal and fall into denial about bad habits, ones they didn't fix while losing in the first place. That said, I have seen very few regain posts in the three years I've been here. I've seen plenty of "I got out of control over the holidays and gained a few but took it off quickly" posts, though. If you weigh daily in maintenance and actually learn how to eat like a healthy, normal person during the first few months post surgery, there is no reason you can't reach goal and maintain for life. ~Cheri

You really shouldn't have any problems. I agree with Tracey - you get plenty of warning with discomfort. And I think MoreganK's suggestion to introduce new foods at home is a good one. You never really know what will upset your new sleeve until you try it. The only thing I think you should consider, or remember, is liquid in = liquid out, so if you're still on a liquid diet at that point be aware that it's normal and something you should be prepared to handle. ~Cheri

No. Fever could be a sign of a complication, please call your doctor ASAP. ~Cheri

You still could. You never know, and there's no reason to stop trying or beat yourself up. The more we lose, the longer it takes for those last pounds to come off. I hit a rough patch about halfway to goal and those last twenty pounds took me six whole months to shed. I understand being disappointed in not meeting a goal, but the END goal is still to lose the weight, and you're doing that. So don't get hung up on dates on the calendar and forget to be proud of your accomplishments so far. ~Cheri

Yes, change your shake, then. Or mix with Water instead of milk. Or tea, or soy milk, or coconut milk, or coffee, or juice. I've done all of the above. If your shake has lactose you might have lactose intolerance. And if you're mixing them with milk, and intolerant, well, it would stand to reason that you'd have some issues. Try mixing your shake with a different liquid. Still sick? Try a different shake. Keep at it until you find something that works. Some people do like the bullets but I've also seen references to studies that they don't absorb as well. ~Cheri

I went alone. It was just too complicated and expensive to drag DH and the little ones along. I was fine! You'll make buddies with the other patients getting surgery that day and you'll have someone to come visit you when you get out, I'm sure. I also agree that it goes so quickly and there isn't much for a traveling companion to do in such a short time. Good luck! ~Cheri

Everyone is different, but there is a common thread that a lot of us have issues with hormonal BC post op. I don't really know what it is that causes it but you see a lot of complaints. Maybe it's that we're already hormonal post op because of the fat cells that store hormones being burned off. Who knows? You'll just have to find what works for you. If you go IUD do your research. I loved some parts of having Mirena (hormonal IUD) but I could not lose weight on it and it increased my hair loss. I have heard good things about Paraguard (non-hormonal IUD) but for me it wasn't an option, as I needed a hormone to control endometriosis. I had almost no periods on my IUD - very little spotting for a while and then nothing, though, so if that's what you want it might be the option for you. ~Cheri

Everyone is different. I'm not single, but I'm a military spouse. Read: I might as well be single sometimes! I came home and had two days to rest before my husband went on a three week trip. When I had surgery my twins were 2.5 years old. I had a few days where I was just worn out all the time and tired but I managed. And I didn't have any help, so grocery runs, cleaning the house and toting the kids around were all on me. It wasn't easy (it never is!) but I managed just fine, and I'm sure that you'll do fine. Make a few dinners for the kids in advance and freeze them, unless you've got simple eaters that you can whip something up for in a hurry. Do a big grocery run before your surgery so you don't need one right after you get home. Have everything you need post op ready for you - your meds, your shakes, your broth and all that. And just be prepared for it to be challenging at some points. It just is. But you can get through it. I won't lie, even if it had been sheer hell for me post op (and it definitely wasn't) I'd still consider it a good trade from where I stand now. Best of luck! ~Cheri Oh! And DO set a timer to feed the kids. Honestly, my hunger was GONE so some nights I'd forget to feed them dinner until they whined they were hungry. Oops!