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Why are you taking Pepcid at all? I see it's doctor's orders but a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) is far more common and effective. The PPI slows the acid production so that your body has time to "learn" that you have a much smaller stomach and no longer need as much acid. Not everyone suffers it, but a huge number of sleevers have acid problems post op. In most cases it resolves within 6 months to a year. For some people it goes on past a year. But Pepcid (or Tums) will only address the symptoms of the overproduction. It will also interfere with Iron absorption. So I'd caution that if you're taking the pills (because you need them) that you talk to your doctor about Prilosec or a similar PPI instead of the Pepcid. If you find you don't need the Pepcid (and therefore have no need for a PPI), that's great. You're lucky if that's the case. ~Cheri Edited to add: I'm picturing the chewable Pepcid tablets but if you're taking the small pill that you swallow it will not work the same exact way as a PPI but will do much the same thing: inhibit acid production. If you don't think you need it, try a day without it. You'll know for sure if you need it after that.

It's easy for binge behavior to transform into grazing behavior post op because that's what our sleeve allows. So it's good you're asking for help. One - I'll always bring it up first, so don't be offended - check your PPI. Is it really only mental or is it acid, too? Just double check it any time you feel hungry or when you're poking your head in the fridge too often. Two - what's your diet like? Are you low carbing? Fill me in. Because a lot of times, your body will start to absolutely CRAVE those foods it needs for your mental and physical well-being. If you're more freshly sleeved and only really have room for Protein now, consider rethinking your eating plan to incorporate more quality grains and vegetables. That might help with the desire to eat and give you back some control. Men do excellently on Atkins but women tend to need a better balance to feel satisfied. You might also need more calories than you're consuming. I don't know your diet so I can't say, but I'm happy to try and offer suggestions if you are open to that. Three - You have a choice here and you're in control of what you choose to consume. Water always helps. An extra Protein shake will never hurt you. If your body tolerates them well, fibrous veggies are filling and good for you. Do you drink tea? A warm cup of tea will curb your appetite and is comforting to hold and sip over a longer period of time, often long enough for us to forget we were feeling peckish. Find something you can comfortably eat without compromising your nutritional goals. Four - cravings happen. It stinks. During my cycle I could eat paint chips off the walls. It's gotten better as I've gotten farther out from surgery but it's not uncommon. And our hormones are very wacky in the first year post op. So it's possible that you've simply been burning off fat cells (which I've read store our hormones) and are feeling the effects of that. The choice is yours: indulge or distract yourself. Good luck. It's pretty normal to hit these points off and on and you're definitely not alone. Having no physical hunger is great but really, physical hunger isn't why we were obese in most cases! It's breaking all of these habits and food cycles we get into that will really help us change for good. ~Cheri

Once you're healed and once you can tolerate them, yeah, it's fine. Just please, please do not every come here two weeks post op and ask if you can have one or our heads will explode! There's a line to walk here. Eat well, eat quality foods BUT also work on the head game of learning how to eat in moderation. That means not fencing off entire foods or food groups because they're "bad" because it's easy to go from there to temptation to binges and grazing. The idea is to learn how to eat like a normal person. Normal people eat cheeseburgers once in a while. So find healthier ways to incorporate those foods on occasion. But remember that the idea here is to change - not just our pants size but our lifestyles. That means avoiding the crappy McD's burger and going for some quality sirloin you either make yourself or buy somewhere nicer. Don't be surprised if you can only eat a few bites, sans but or no. ~Cheri

I'm amazed that any newbie would ever feel comfortable posting in this childish and hostile environment. Really, people. Can't you keep your personal animosity to a minimum? As for the repeated insistence that the OP is a fake for only posting once, why one earth would the OP post here regularly? Did anyone read the original post? The OP didn't have a sleeve. Why on earth would a family member of someone choosing surgery be an active poster on a forum for a surgery they aren't having? I can tell you, my mom isn't hanging out on VST. Try not to dismiss her off the bat if she shows up one day and posts once! I do not agree with everything iggychic says but she has EVERY right as a patient that has had surgery to share her experiences, positive or negative. Whether or not I agree with her approach every time simply does not matter. The same goes for anyone else. As I said before negative feedback is VALUABLE because complications DO happen. Do not expect that the 1% that experience them are going to be thrilled that it happened, regardless of whether or not they knew it was a possibility. If you want sunshine and rainbows all the time the real world is not a place for you. If you weight your value in life by the number of people that "like" you in a public forum or on a social website, you might have a reason to be so offended when people disagree or have conflicting opinions. But for crying out loud, nobody's value or worth is determined by those things, regardless of what they think. In any case, as we don't have a post from the person that chose to undergo surgery, we don't know how she felt. The reality is that her family could be devastated but she could feel that she knew it was a risk. She could also be angry and resentful. We don't know, because she didn't post. But attacking the OP for sharing a story, even if the method wasn't ideal is ridiculous. I've had my comments watched or topics locked for possibly offending people and making them scared to post. The way this entire thread has de-evolved is exactly what I think the moderators are trying to avoid. I'm certain it'll be locked shortly. People disagree and not everyone words things the same ways. We don't need to revert to our kindergarten selves when it happens. We can still be adults about it, can't we? ~Cheri

I was never a frosting girl but I'm a serious baker. Usually I can sample a small bit of whatever I make and give the rest away. But I made these banana rum cupcakes with a brown butter frosting last week and oh my word - that was the best frosting I have ever tasted. When I have a little left over at the end I normally just give each kid a little taste and then toss the rest...but I stuck this in a small bowl in the fridge for later. I've never understood the spoonful of frosting thing before this, but man...I could really just eat that frosting with a spoon. I wound up frosting some butter Cookies with it and giving it away. It was okay to have a taste here and there but consuming two cups of frosting over the course of a week or two isn't good for me. And my husband has always maintained that I'm un-American because I absolutely hate both Peanut Butter and ketchup. Luckily the peanut butter jar and the Nutella jar hold absolutely no temptation for me. But I do see what you guys are saying about the constant struggle. And I can see how maintenance can make it easy for us to forget that we still really love food. It's easy to get cocky and say we made it to goal and now we know how to eat better, etc. But if I'm not careful it is easy to dismiss a handful of candies or a not-so-healthy snack between meals simply because my choices are really good ones 90% of the time. I never really see an impact on the scale, but I wonder if that's a bad thing. I mean, it gets easier for me to dismiss my food behaviors if I'm not seeing an impact...but then, if I'm not seeing an impact is there an issue? I mean, am I simply worrying and punishing myself because I'm not a "perfect" eater? What's a particular challenge for me is this pregnancy. I am repulsed by meat and my lactose intolerance is worse than ever while I'm pregnant. I don't live in America: I live in the land of grilled lamb, bread and plov. There aren't solid vegetarian options here to sub in for the Protein I'm missing. I eat far more carbs than I've ever eaten since surgery. I don't mind that...but they really do feed the carb monster and they do make it harder to choose good foods. But there are only so many ways I can make Beans and lentils or prepare eggs before I'm going nuts because I'm so bored with my diet. I had my husband's coworker bring me some tuna from the states...ugh. I can't even eat it. This child is making me insane! It's like the first few months post op all over again. All food smells or tastes terrible and I can't eat what I really want! The only two foods I really want and cannot stop eating are chickpeas (which I can't seem to find locally, even though I know they have to be somewhere) and quinoa. I'm out of quinoa and chickpeas now. I actually ate garbanzo bean salad every day last week with both lunch and dinner. What a bizarre food to eat as a craving! And it's easy to say the reason I gained weight last month is the pregnancy. I can't be sure how much of it is my choices and how much of it is the baby. I know I'll lose weight afterward. I know that it will be the same as it was in the second year post op. I'll still have restriction, I'll just have to make the right choices. But somehow it feels like I'll be starting all over again, in more ways than one. After all, my twins are now five and like a crazy couple, we're having a newborn now of all times. Ugh. Anyway, I just got my flights back to the states because they don't let us deliver here. So my time in Central Asia has come to an end. I'll get about a year and a half in the states before we go overseas again. You better bet the first thing I'm doing is shopping at a Whole Foods once I get back! I'll be hitting that salad bar for some chickpea salad and every other vegetable I've missed for the last two years. ~Cheri

Oh, I got bounce back in my thighs, arms and even a little in the chest. My tummy did bounce back some, but mostly the weight redistributed. I also have twins and my skin was a wreck even before that pregnancy. I have very little give. At twelve I broke out in a roadmap from puberty and it only got worse and worse with the yo-yo diets over the years. The twins really did a number on me. I went 37 weeks and measured 51 weeks when I delivered! I was 27 when the twins were born and I'm 32 now, so yes, I am young and that does have an impact on how I've done and how much I recuperated. I have never, ever been a firm or fit girl and even with plastics after I have this little one i'm pretty sure the most I can hope for is "not as soft" because I've just always been curvy and soft. I'd like to see the stomach fixed. If I only had money for one thing that is absolutely where I'd spend it, because I had a long apron even before I had surgery. If I have my way, though, I'll do breasts and tummy and honestly, the rest doesn't matter as much. I was most worried about my face, honestly. The turkey wattle is hereditary in my family and my face gets so plump when I gain weight (and now that I'm pregnant it's puffed up again, ugh) that I was really worried about saggy jowls or chins but I got lucky. I wonder if this might have been a bigger issue if I'd waited another ten years to have surgery. Good luck in any case - I hope we all get the plastics of our dreams at some point. ~Cheri

This is exactly it. This is the real reason behind why the majority of people that regret surgery regret it. Some have complications that make the journey even harder. But this is the heart of it. Because people feel entitled to instant gratification when they follow a restrictive diet and mourn their old relationship with food. But it simply doesn't work that way. The time expectation gets almost everyone at some point or another, but how quickly we lose is NEVER a guarantee. So people vent that they don't see the results...but they're really saying the scale isn't moving and they aren't considering all of the other things that have improved in their lives. And the scale always catches up. If it's worth anything, I've seen some vocal regretters on VST but I'm not sure any of them are out there living life in maintenance yet. Meaning, I can't be sure that they're done with their journey and won't feel differently later. As for Krispy Kreme, there is not one single thing in the world stopping you from eating part of a doughnut. Odds are good your sleeve will stop you from eating a whole one. And yes, you will almost certainly have a reaction from all that sugar and fat. But you don't need to use the word "can't" when it comes to food. You could still choose to eat that doughnut. One day you might. I've been into Krispy Kreme three times since surgery and only wanted a doughnut once. I ate most of one. I felt sick but I also kind of felt that satisfaction of knowing that I made the choice. I am not denied any food I want. I tracked that doughnut and it wasn't worth the calories wasted. By the next time I was in a shop, all I could smell was grease and sugar and it wasn't even a temptation any longer. So learn that balance. That's the real struggle here. Learn when to say yes and when to say no but never, ever give any food or food group a pedestal that builds them up as something you can't have or that you resent avoiding. Odds are good that half the foods you'd do this to don't even taste the way you remember. Trust me on that one! The only foods I have to keep very strict limits on are soda and popcorn. I never cared for popcorn much prior to surgery but it's one of my favorites now so I control my intake. And soda, despite how awful I feel from the sugar (we have REAL sugar here; no corn syrup) if I drink too much, is still a beverage that makes me want more if I have it too often. So I limit it to a small glass bottle once in a while, maybe once or twice a month, and it's not an issue. You're doing this. What you shared is the start of the head work. Keep on and you'll not only reach goal, you'll understand why and how you eat and be able to change/control that behavior for good. ~Cheri

There is absolutely nothing useful or constructive in this entire thread. I'm sorry the OP's sister has had a terrible experience, but I also realize this is a post by someone that did not choose to have the sleeve and who has no first hand experience to relate. I think it's a bit ridiculous to implore strangers on the internet to change their minds entirely about surgery based upon one experience. I think the approach taken was wrong in that respect. Sharing information is one thing. Scare mongering is another. But what's the big deal in the end, really? Look - I appreciate every single person that comes to VST to report their negative experiences. Because people researching surgery sometimes don't understand what complications can arise, even when they're clearly listed and every surgeon should cover them in detail. Heck, ten minutes of your time on VST could outline every single possible negative experience or side effect you could possibly have if you bother to do the search. Most people don't, but then most people undergoing surgery are so "eyes on the prize" that they completely disregard any risks as things that simply won't happen to them. So people that are either post op and had a great experience should not take it personally when someone relates their PERSONAL negative experience here. It's not our job to defend the entire surgery. Some surgeons stink and shouldn't operate and sometimes complications happen even with great surgeons. The people doing research have a right to know about the good and the bad. But much the same way I get peeved when I read an anti-Mexico surgery rant by someone that's never had a surgery in Mexico, I don't weight posts by people that haven't personally undergone surgery as heavily as I would a personal account. Sorry, that's just the way it is. My sympathies to the OP's family because seeing a family member struggle isn't easy or fun for anyone. Everyone else should really chill out and stop making this into an argument. There's nothing to argue about. OP says don't have surgery, lots of people love the surgery, whatever. VST is about sharing our vast breadth of experiences and that goes for positive as well as negative. There's nothing to be offended about when someone has a bad experience. ~Cheri

You're doing a great job! Remember that every pound off is one gone forever if you this the right way. A slower journey can be frustrating but I still feel that it gives us more time to address the underlying causes of our obesity. I had an easier time in maintenance for it. May I also say many will be envious that you've lost less than fifty pounds yet shed several sizes! I don't think I really lost a size until about 50 pounds down. I can tell you from my experience that sizes go down much more quickly once you're out of the plus sizes, too, so you have that to look forward to. You've done great. Stay positive and focus on the goal of staying healthy and at goal for the rest of your life. That's worth however long it takes to get there, ~Cheri

If you still feel symptoms OTC omeprazole (generic Prilosec) is the most common one used here. It's the most effective one I've used. I only needed mine for 4-6 months post op. I was on one pill daily for four months, then slowly started to wean off by skipping days over the next two months. Now that I'm pregnant, I'm back on one as the acid is a killer. Be aware that the signs of needing a PPI aren't only heartburn or acid reflux. If you notice an increase in stomach gurgling AND you feel like you're hungry you'll likely need a PPI for a bit longer. I say both because every new sleeve is noisy. It's a concern if it's accompanied by the feeling of hunger. It's easy for even vets like myself to miss it or mistake it but overproduction of acid in a tiny sleeve feels the exact same as a hungry, growling tummy felt prior to surgery. So keep that in mind if it comes up. Only take your PPI if you need it, of course, but in the case of the sleeve, it's totally normal to need/take a PPI anywhere from 4 months to a year post op. And some unlucky folks need them for the long haul. Good luck, ~Cheri

Yup, scar tissue or stitches. The farther out you are, the more it's likely scar tissue. Once you're farther out, you can massage it a bit to break down the scar tissue. Don't do that if it's painful or swollen right now. Bring it to your doc's attention but it's unlikely that it's a real issue. My "dissolving" stitches never dissolve and usually get pushed out of the area on their own, and this made a lump, too. ~Cheri

It's annoying. If you search hard enough you'll find some old threads about losing "friends" throughout the process. Women can be very mean and very competitive. And I think that every one of us has one "friend" in our lives that isn't a true friend and is in our lives for reasons of their own. Losing weight or making any other big change in your life can make even your close, genuine friends insecure. It's part of the process. They're either going to realize this is for good and get over their own insecurities, or they won't and you'll have conflict and more comments in the future. There's no way to know. All I can say is that if they aren't genuine friends and can't be happy for and with you (once they adjust to the idea of a new you), then it's perfectly okay to dump that baggage the same way you're dumping the excess weight. Changing your lifestyle and cleaning out your emotional closet is the perfect time to clear out toxic people in your life, if they're hiding in there somewhere. If you're not letting them know it annoys you or bothers you, they don't know it. Or at least they can pretend they don't know it. Confront the issue if it gets bad enough, but otherwise, hang in there and I hope everyone adjusts soon. The people close to us sort of tag along on parts of our journey, whether they expect to or not and it can be a challenge for them to adjust. ~Cheri

Search the forums for regain posts. In more than three years here the worst I've seen is about a fifty pound regain (roughly 50% in this particular case) and I've seen a handful of people that only lost about sixty pounds and stopped there. Let me tell you - it's not that hard to put on ten pounds if you, say, go on a cruise or head to Vegas at two years post op and eat like mad. But it's also not that hard to drop the weight again. Gaining a serious amount of weight post sleeve means completely dropping any good habits you've learned, intentionally eating around your sleeve and keeping yourself in denial about it as your pants get too tight. You'd see this type of issue in a serious grazer or someone that goes out of their way to consume calorie laden slider foods. I think regains with bypass are more common because there are more variables at work there. The pouch stretches and we all know that. The sleeve gets bigger in the first year post op, but around that point it's just about as big as it's getting. Stretching it out a serious amount takes real effort and some real pain. We also don't rely on malabsorption. If we eat junk, we don't see a loss. If a bypass patient consumes junk, they dump. For the first year at least. After that, the only guaranteed malabsorption is of the essential Vitamins and minerals we need to survive. I have never, not one single time, seen a post about a total regain or a regain of anything beyond 50 pounds or so. And those regain posts are rare. It could mean that people that regain are ashamed and just don't share. But I think it's more common that while most people realistically won't maintain 100% of their goal weight, many stay pretty close for a long time. It's hard to tell with a newer surgery. I think the oldest sleeve I've seen post here was five years old. After a year, it's more common for us to simply maintain our weight loss and move on. There are no guarantees with any tool. And the sleeve really is just another WLS tool. If you make crummy choices and refuse to confront the underlying cause of your obesity, you won't succeed long term. ~Cheri

Hey, hey folks. I'm definitely a vet (and an old meanie one at that) at 2.5 years out. Saggy skin is a pain but it's the least of my worries. Yeah, it really does bounce back. A lot. Enough that I went from "eww" to "eh" as I looked in the full length mirror over the course of the second year post op. In my clothes? I'm doin' alright. Now that we have a forum, what do we have to talk about? I mean, most of why I come to VST these days is to lead people onto the path of sanity ('cause being hungry and staring at the scale every day makes everyone a little crazy) but what do I do when it's a forum full of folks that mostly do the same thing? ~Cheri

Our family/friends see us in just as skewed a light as we see ourselves sometimes. My husband likes a larger girl. And by larger, I mean LARGER. The man loves me to death but the smiles on his face got bigger the bigger I got. Eh, to each his own. In any case, he wanted me to stop losing weight more than 30 pounds before I did stop. And he still calls me skinny, when if anything I'd say I'm "small but curvy." He'll get over it. I love him and I take his opinions seriously, but this wasn't about him. I lost weight for me. Same goes for you. Stop when you're happy. Be cautious about losing too much but realistically, that BMI chart (that I hate with a passion) will tell you if you're underweight. Keep two things in mind, though. One - your body has a happy place, a natural stopping point. It might not be what you think. It might be larger or smaller. That point will become apparent when you try to lose and can't lose any more and when you can maintain your weight effortlessly. At less than 5'2" I wanted that stopping point to be snugly in the 120s but it wasn't meant to be. My body LOVES 137-139 pounds, though, and I can hang there and eat whatever I want (I don't, but I could) without any issues. If I try to go much smaller it becomes a hassle. So be prepared for that. The second half of that is that it's possible to hit a lower goal if you push it. But many that go beyond their body's comfortable point will experience bounceback and will slowly regain what they lost. This isn't a personal failing - it's that we get so into the dieting mindset and get so focused on our goal that we ignore the fact that it's not what our body wants. So, push it to 140 if you want. Ten pounds will likely drop you another size. It might also make it harder to maintain, or make it impossible to do so. Stop when your body is ready. Pay attention to the signs that you're done. Because ultimately, you want maintenance to be easy. If it's a constant struggle and diet, you've defeated the purpose of having the sleeve over doing another willpower diet. Good luck, and congrats on your success so far! ~Cheri

Lately I've seen a TON of posts about lucky sleevers that drop 100 pounds in six months. Congrats to them and to their loss. And I would never, ever begrudge anyone the right to crow about a fantastic success. It's part of why we're all here, to share the ups and downs of this surgery! But frequently, these posts are followed by folks that feel frustrated because they aren't losing at the same pace. All too often, we forget that everyone loses at a different pace. It's easy to lose sight of the real goal (long term maintenance) in the face of the scale goals we set for ourselves. And it's also easy to forget that this isn't a race and that there's no special prize waiting at the end for reaching goal more quickly. I would like to contribute my loss pattern so that people can see that there is more than one way to achieve a goal. Being successful is about reaching your personal goals, overcoming your personal food demons and maintaining your weight loss for life. It's not about hitting goal in nine months. I encourage everyone else with a slow loss story to contribute their successes here as well. It's hard to research this surgery and find only the stories about extremes - people completely thrilled with surgery or people that regret every minute of life post op. The same goes for loss. When people search out stories on this, it's too easy to only find rapid loss or stall posts but nothing showing the more realistic and moderate journey many of us take. The sleeve is a permanent tool that does not have a special window of easy weight loss. There is no reason to feel discouraged when you haven't reached goal at one year out, or even two. There is nothing preventing you (short of your own body's natural stopping point) from achieving or re-achieving goal at any point post op. I lost 60 pounds in the first five months after my surgery. And I slowly lost 32 pounds over the next seven months. It took me another five months to shed the final 15 pounds to my goal. I lost 107 pounds over the course of 17 months. I stalled twice for nine weeks each time. I had months where I only lost one pound. I regularly experienced a gain of three pounds around my cycle, and often only lost weight in the last week to ten days of the month, after sitting at the same weight for nearly three weeks. I am a success, and at 2.5 years out (and currently pregnant) I still have good, healthy eating habits and maintained my weight loss quite easily. Even 30 weeks pregnant, I am still wearing a size 6/small (in maternity clothes, of course) regardless of how I feel about my expanding body! I learned what was important on this journey and am in better health today (not just physically, but mentally and emotionally), than I have ever experienced as an adult. Good luck to those currently on their journey, and I encourage everyone to share their stories here so that newly sleeved folks can see that slow vs. fast loss doesn't really matter in the end. ~Cheri

No regrets. I am 2.5 years out and pregnant and my biggest complaint is that the lactose intolerance that was making itself known with small inconveniences became a full blown issue post op. It would have happened anyway, but it happened sooner due to the sleeve. And yeah, any of us *could* have lost weight on diets before and likely tried. And likely failed, or we wouldn't have seriously considered the sleeve, am I correct? The difference? My tool is permanent. Everyone is different but you're still fresh out from surgery without even six months under your belt. Willpower and the Atkins diet will only get you so far, even if you cut out most of your stomach. The real difference here is that I had a tool to keep the hunger under control, the portions in check, and the scale moving (albeit slowly) while I worked on the REAL issue behind my obesity. Which wasn't an inability to eat a special diet or hop on a treadmill - it was an emotional attachment to food. I was an overeater (and totally in denial about it) and I had a completely unhealthy relationship with food. Diets? I'd done those for eighteen years and failed before I finally found a way to eat like a normal person who has never had a weight problem. And all the rest of it: being thin, being more active, keeping up with my kids, no longer being diabetic, having great blood pressure, not suffering from joint pain and a host of emotional/mental perks like regained confidence and losing the social anxiety that had plagued me for years - all of that was just the icing on the cake in the rebuilding of my new life. I owe every bit of that journey to my sleeve. Without it, I couldn't have focused on anything but how hungry I felt on the current diet. You're doing great. And I've seen a number of people go back and forth on this. I can't speak to what you could have accomplished without surgery. But I can tell you that in my experience, no diet was going to last the seventeen months it took me to get to goal and it wouldn't have given me the extra tools I needed to not just lose the weight, but the baggage. ~Cheri

For the sake of your sanity try to rid yourself of any scale-related expectations. For those that don't do a preop diet, I think the average first month loss is between 20-30 pounds. I gained weight after surgery and didn't lose anything until the final ten days or so of my first month. The scale is one of the most valuable tools you'll have when you're in maintenance and it's important to weigh at least weekly to track your progress and stay accountable. But in these early weeks/months when your body is still adjusting it's just going to make you crazy. Because you can't count on a loss and you're going to see stops and starts (and maybe even real stalls) along the way. Good luck and congrats on the large loss so quickly and on your new sleeve, ~Cheri

Vitamins are the biggest thing that can help you with this. I could keep up with my normal life (hectic and busy chasing two year old twins) within a week to ten days post op. But I was tired and sluggish for a while due to the lack of calories. That was nothing compared to how I felt around roughly one year post op, though. I was seriously deficient in B12 and Iron - my supplements weren't doing the trick for me, despite that I took them starting immediately post op. Once I was on B12 shots and a prescription iron supplement the forgetfulness and overall zombie feeling went away completely. I felt better than I had in a long while. So, long story short: nobody can really do anything but share their experience with you. How your body handles it is going to be totally individual. But focusing very hard on getting in liquids, drinking Protein shakes (keep trying new ones until you find one you can drink every day) and taking good quality vitamins, not to mention getting panels done more frequently than I did, will help you recover more quickly and keep it together. I spent a few months in misery not even really realizing how beat down I felt until I finally went in and had bloodwork done. If I had known an inexpensive shot that I can give myself and an inexpensive supplement would improve my life so much, I never would have gone through that. Learn from my mistake. ~Cheri

Agreed! The reason I skipped the band and went with the sleeve was the possible complications with the band! You've already made it through a very similar surgery if you have a band and you already faced the complications and restrictions of life post op. You should be an old pro! As with the band, maintenance is all up to how much you learn and apply during the loss phase. For some it is an ongoing struggle because the food demons just won't go away. Oregondaisy has always been up front and open about the challenges she's faced but she has maintained her weight within a reasonable bounce for several years now. Maintenance was easier for me, but there are still the ups and downs and the ability to slip up and fall off the wagon for a few weeks is there for any of us. I'll see how well I'm crowing about easy maintenance when I'm back on the loser's bench after this pregnancy! I'm only 2.5 years out but never ever would have reached my goal weight and hung there without my sleeve. You won't find a huge number of vets beyond 3 years out - they're out there but seldom visit the boards these days. I only visit the boards so I can try to help other people! Most of us reach goal, maintain and move on. The only advice I can offer is to research. I was sure I wanted a band until I saw how hard it was for people to reach goal and maintain with one, and once I saw how many people were having them removed or revising I knew it wasn't the choice for me. At any point you could have an issue that requires surgery from the band already in your body. Get it out of there and move on to a surgery that can actually help you achieve and maintain your goal. Good luck whatever you decide. Be thankful your insurance covers the sleeve, too! So many of us self pay. I don't regret it for a minute but I wish my insurance would have covered my procedure. Having a new lease on life AND not paying a monthly payment for it? That's like winning the lottery in my world. ~Cheri

Yes. This is true. I have a deeply troubled stepdaughter that has used her vegetarianism (and for a while, veganism) as a socially acceptable excuse for her anorexia. By claiming a restrictive diet she avoided eating and when she shed weight she blamed it on her diet. I'm not saying this is what the OP is doing. But always consider every angle. My stepdaughter was convinced that her behaviors were based in a disgust of meat and the animal industries in our country...but those arguments lacked a little something when she was wearing leather shoes and a fur-trimmed jacket as she spoke them. She's still vegetarian now but it took her several months with a therapist to accept that she started this particular food journey because of her disorder. ~Cheri

As I've gotten farther out from surgery I've also considered a return to at least a vegetarian lifestyle. I spent the years from 15-21 & 26-28 as a vegetarian and really only resumed such a meat-heavy diet due to my choice to have the sleeve. It was the easier option, and I live overseas where there aren't mega-marts with a plethora of vegan/vegetarian food options/substitutes. This entire pregnancy meat has completely disgusted me to the point where I can hardly stand to be in the room when it's cooking...and I'm the family cook! The first thing you need to do is get yourself a few books. The biggest mistake vegetarians/vegans make is not educating themselves about a properly balanced diet. It's very easy to be an unhealthy vegetarian or vegan if you're not careful! It's not as simple as avoiding meat. And in America, it's so easy to be a vegan that relies heavily on processed "fake" foods that are intended to sub in for foods you've given up - when these are no healthier (and in some cases less healthy) than the alternative. The more of your food you make yourself, the healthier you'll be and that applies to any style of eating. So get to your local library or bookstore and get some reading materials before you jump into this. It's more of a challenge than just skipping the cheeseburger. Everything from medicine to your Protein shake needs to be considered. One of the biggest and easiest books to read is The Veganomicon. I refer to it pretty frequently. I enjoy quinoa (an easily digestible seed that is a complete protein), lentils are almost as good as meat and I prefer seitan over tofu or tempeh any day. Limit your soy intake and don't trade in a life of meat for a life of soy. Moderation in all things! Go slowly. This is not a lifestyle you can adapt overnight. Transition slowly or you'll burn out and don't expect to live perfectly right away. It's hard to stick to a strict diet and you'll see very quickly how other people aren't as accepting or understanding of the challenges it presents not only to you but to them. Good luck. It's possible to do this but I recommend a slow transition to vegetarian and the on to vegan over the course of several months to a year. ~Cheri

I think it's important to confront it directly. I have four stepdaughters (13, 15, 19 & 22) and one daughter (5) and can say very honestly, first of all, do not blame yourself. I've been through this struggle over and over again through the years with these girls, long before I ever even considered surgery. It's very sad and unfortunate, but the first time my youngest stepdaughters told me they were fat they were seven and nine years old. Girls are mean, girls compare with each other and girls mimic what they hear their older sisters, mothers and favorite celebrities say. So this could have come from anywhere. And let me add that not one of my girls has a weight problem. My daughter is a little stockier but not overweight, and every one of my stepdaughters has a thin build and they're all undersized for their ages. That said, address it immediately. When living with us recently between high school and college, my stepdaughter (18 at the time) immediately started rationing herself to my portion of food. I had to very directly confront her on the topic. I addressed her smaller portions. I told her about my surgery and what it does. And then I did her one better. I asked her to log her food with me on myfitnesspal so she could see how much she should be eating and how much she was eating, and asked her to compare it with my food chart. She was restricting herself to about 400 calories a day. And despite the fact that my meals appeared tiny, I was consuming closer to 1,200 calories a day. We talked about health, our bodies and the detrimental effects of this type of behavior. In her case, I can't honestly say that it helped. She has a host of other issues and one of the ways she tries to stay in control is through controlling her diet. She's seriously underweight right now and struggling with anorexia. We noticed the first indications she might have a problem when she was only 15 and I really wish we had realized how serious it could become and had addressed it directly. A few months later the 13 & 15 year old girls came to visit and the SAME thing happened again. I'll say that they'd already built in habits of skipping meals or overindulging one day only to fast the next day. It's unfortunate that their mother has a history of dieting and negative self image - these girls grew up criticizing their own bodies and the bodies of the girls around them, and seeing mostly poor examples of how to eat. This time, I think I was really able to get through to the kids. I pointed out consistency in a good diet vs. the ups and downs they were using. I showed them how to track calories and really be aware of what they were eating. By the end of the seven week visit, they'd stopped skipping meals, stopped overindulging at meals and were eating more reasonably while not saying anything critical about themselves or their bodies. In my case, I can only do so much. They don't live with me and my example comes from short visits - the rest of the year they're 8,000 miles away. I hope that you can sort this with your daughter. I can honestly say that I started hating my body when I was twelve. By no means was I overweight. One cruel girl made an offhand comment about how I looked pregnant, when if anything, I was underweight. It didn't matter - it triggered self doubt because I already lacked confidence, the next eighteen years of my life were spent yo-yo dieting. As I got bigger and bigger and developed worse and worse habits I got to the point where weight simply wouldn't come off and I was diabetic from my poor eating over the years. With my five year old, we do not talk about body size as anything other than an identifier - no more positive or negative than saying someone has blonde hair or brown eyes. She's a stockier build than her brother, but we're trying to do what little we can to show her that beauty really does come in all shapes and sizes, and that being healthy is the most important thing she can do. In any case, I finally had to tell my older girls that I'd had surgery. They couldn't understand why I eat the way I eat otherwise. My five year old has no clue but if it comes up I'll address it. I'd rather tell her I had an operation than have her feeling like I'm hypocritical when I tell her she should eat normally! It's hard enough getting a teen girl to listen to her mother and I don't want her to dismiss me immediately if she hears me saying something that seems contrary to what she's observing. Good luck, sorry to ramble. ~Cheri

On the one hand I see where you're coming from. I also wish the years of dieting had gotten me to my goal (even just once, even just temporarily!) but it never happened. I was miserable and unhappy and each new diet left me in worse shape than the one before. But on the other hand, I really felt a sense of relief when I decided on the sleeve. I, too, had been asked before by my doctor about WLS and felt that there was no way I would ever need that. But after six months of researching the band and a year of researching the sleeve before actually having surgery, I was absolutely ready to make the step. What I felt was relief. I felt like there was finally an end in sight. I would have this surgery that would be the tool I needed to lose the weight, and for good this time. And while my journey was more complicated emotionally than I expected, and while it took longer than I might have liked, that sentiment was exactly right. It was a tool. Sure, a drastic one that involves surgery and the risks that accompany it. But after the hundreds of dollars and wasted effort I was pouring after various diets, memberships, pills and weight loss remedies for years, not to mention the time I wasted unhappy, depressed and unhealthy...well, it seemed like it was time for a change in approach. In the end, once the surgery is over it's very similar to the old approaches I took to food. All of those things I rolled my eyes at before, like "learning moderation" and "developing a healthy relationship with food" and "ending the emotional dependence on food" were things I was FINALLY strong enough to address. Because I can't speak for you, but I know that I never stopped feeling hungry long enough when dieting to focus on anything except when and what my next meal would be. I was never able to do any head work, the REAL work the sleeve helps you accomplish, because I could never hang with the diet long enough to even make real headway on my obesity. I never stuck with it longer than four months. I was never able to, despite really trying time and time again. Even with the sleeve I had to stay within 700-900 calories a day to lose, and it still took me 17 months to lose 107 pounds. It would have been impossible to lose the weight without surgery in my case. I think that the only issue with feeling so much negativity now is that you could carry it with you post op. It's possible it will color your experiences and make you feel things are worse than they are, especially if you're resentful of the fact that you're considering the sleeve at all. But it's normal for us to have a range of emotions and to deal with things differently. Do I wish I could have kept my stomach? Sure. I miss eating big meals sometimes, even if I don't really miss the role food played in my life. And the fact that I can admit this is the ONLY reason I miss part of that organ speaks volumes to me. I didn't need it, and it was getting in my way. I achieved my goals without it and couldn't be happier. If you do choose to have surgery you'll go through an entire spectrum of emotions, good and bad, in the following year. Accept it, work through it and despite how you're feeling right now you'll still see success in the end if you put in the effort. ~Cheri

Why would you not be able to at least taste the food to check seasoning? I am the family cook and the only time I avoided this was immediately post op, but you're more than a month out. Don't make yourself crazier than you need to! Listen, steak isn't likely to go over well at this point. But it's not gone forever. Depending on where you are in your post op diet (I'm assuming soft foods) there are options out there besides beans! Food is an addiction for many of us. Having the sleeve only controls the portion side of the equation but never addresses the emotions, habits and rituals we have tied up in food. It takes a long time to sort through all that and get a normal, healthy relationship out of the mess. The frustration you're feeling is normal and it will pass more quickly than you think. In the meantime, focus on introducing foods you might not have eaten prior to surgery. Make spices work for you. Get creative. This phase is short, but it will still be some time before you sit down and enjoy what will be a normal meal for you from now on. It takes a while but in just a few more weeks you should be able to sit down and eat a few bites of whatever you made for your family. You'll just have a much smaller portion. And why not prepare part of the meal as something you can enjoy with them now? I made about half of my meals to my family's tastes but half again to suit what I was able to eat. Including a nice, tasty Soup or some soft grain/seed salads each evening could enable you to feel like you're part of the ritual that your family enjoys. At some point you'll be there and able to eat as much as you'd like, but for a long time you'll find that you might pass on a dish they eat or skip over certain foods. So I guess what I'm saying is not to deny yourself this time with your family because it may be a long while before you're eating everything they eat. It's a hurdle you'll have to tackle at some point, so why not now? It's normal to feel frustration but I think that this doesn't need to be as difficult as it is for you right now. If all else fails, you'll still only be in this phase for a short while. Good luck, and congrats on your sleeve, ~Cheri