deletedsally

Can't wait to hear your story!! Yay for you!!

Just read your posts NiceGirl and wondered about the symptoms that make you think you are lactose intolerant. I know that one of the main symptoms that a lot of people have with lactose intolerance is gas--but gas is very common for a lot of people (belching and flatulence) after this surgery for quite a while. Also, when I started my pre-op diet, I was having incredible blow out diarrhea (I know, TMI) that was almost like dumping syndrome anytime I would drink the whey Protein shakes. I knew I wasn't allergic to milk, and I had never been lactose intolerant before. It obviously wasn't related to the surgery, since I was pre-op. I did some research and found that a lot of body builders have similar problems when they use the protein powders. I did some more research and decided to switch to unjury (unflavored) because it is easier to digest and has no artificial additives. My GI problems cleared up. Also, my daughter is lactose intolerant, and there are some tablets you can buy that may help.

Yay! You have less time to have the jitters. Cant' wait to hear back from you!

Congratulations! It's so much fun to feel these clothes get looser!

Mine isn't working either.

Keep writing and stay busy. It will probably help to manage the anxiety. You're gonna be through the worst part before you know it, and you'll be telling us how much more weight you've lost!

Sounds delicious! That will be something to look forward to trying.

Each person is different. I was prepared because I am very prone to nausea and vomiting after ANY surgery. I had Zophran and Phenergan available in the hospital and used both for the first 24 hours. Before I had my surgery I got prescriptions for sublingual Zophran and some Pherngan suppositories, so I had them on hand the minute I got home from the hospital. I still needed the Zophran every 8 hours for a couple days. After that, I was down to one at bedtime, then after about another week, I was down to 1/2 at bedtime. By the end of the 3rd week, I wasn't having any nausea. I'm glad I had the meds available, because I haven't thrown up at all. Without them, I would have had trouble.

Not much longer! Fabulous pre-op weight loss!

This isn't related to portion size: Right after I had my surgery it seemed like I was using spoons and bowls all the time because of the liquids, and I didn't really feel like doing a lot of dishes, so I bought some paper bowls and plastic spoons. Made life a little easier for me.

Hi Brian...I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your wife. My children were 15 and 11 when my husband was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. He had 13 different surgeries over an 8 year period before he died in 2007. I can't begin to describe the costs to myself and my children... It is incredibly painful to experience what cancer does to a family and be powerless to stop it. I'm glad that you are making a choice to build a new life for yourself. Change almost always involves taking risks. I felt like the known risks associated with VSG were a lot less than the reality I was already experiencing as a morbidly obese woman. Same old story..sleep apnea, HBP, exhausted all the time, depressed and unable to think clearly from lack of oxygen at night (couldn't sleep with a mask), chronic foot and back pain, etc... I'm 54, and I also felt like I was 90 years old. It was hard for me to even leave the house because of pain and exhaustion. Hears the good news. It's been less than 5 weeks since my surgery and everything is better. Sleep is better. Starting to have more energy after initial post-op weakness. Off all HBP medication. Thinking more clearly. Much less pain. Took my grandchildren shopping, to the library, and then swimming this afternoon. It felt wonderful to be able to DO stuff and not be constantly wishing I could just crawl back into bed! I'm glad your surgeon was up on the latest research/procedures and talked with you about VSG. One of the things that stopped me from having surgery sooner was that I didn't want the side effects of bypass surgery, and I didn't think the long term results for lap bands were very promising. I think you are going to be amazed at how much better you are going to feel if you decide to move forward with surgery.

You are really an inspiration! You look beautiful and TINY in your photo. It's hard to imagine that you were a size 22/24 less than a year ago. I started out at a size 28. I love to be able to look at my calendar/weight loss graph and predict reasonable goals for when I will be able to wear each smaller size on the way down to normal. Thanks for sharing your stats and encouraging us newbees.

Take a deep breath and Monday will come and go before you know it...Then you can post, "YeeeeeeeeHaaaaaa...I'm melting!"

WhooHoo Nana! Great to hear about your success!

Before I had my surgery, I took the picture that lines up the pens/markers as a comparison for bougie size to my pre-op appointment and discussed it with my surgeon. I did not want him to use a bougie that would interfere with my ability to swallow, cause foods to get stuck, or increases the likelihood of GERD. He said that he typically uses a 40 because that offers enough restriction with less problems than the smaller bougie sizes. I appreciated the fact that he was willing to discuss the options. What may be equally important is the size of the pouch that is created when your stomach is reduced. Until my MD explained it, I was afraid that the bic pen represented the entire size of the remaining stomach. That is not true. As I understand it, the bougie size is the amount of restriction of the sleeve above a small pouch and different surgeons seem to have their personal preferences on how much stomach to remove and how large of a pouch to leave.

Hope all goes well for you. I just had my surgery 4 1/2 weeks ago! Everything is easier now than it was a month ago!

There are so many things that we still don't understand about the complex relationships between neurotransmitters, hormones, metabolism, insulin resistance, exercise, genetics, appetite, food intake, and weight related problems. I've been on one diet after another most of my adult life in an effort to control my weight, and spent a large part of my life feeling hungry. You wouldn't think I'd gone hungry a day in my life to look at me. After regaining weight I had lost numerous times, I began to pathologize myself. I went to overeater's anonymous. I had sponsors. I had food plans. I drove over an hour (one way) to go to meetings several times a week. I went to counseling. I went to graduate school and became a counselor...but none of that could turn off the physical hunger. Until I began reading the research on grehlin several years ago, my experience made no sense to me. For example, when I started a long-term eating plan at 240 pounds using a food addiction food plan and successfully lost 100 pounds, WHY did I find myself ravenously hungry at 140, when I was still consuming the same amount of calories that had satisfied me at 240? I thought I was crazy until I read about ghrelin. When I learned that our bodies produce hormones that increase our appetites in response to calorie restriction and weight loss, the light bulb came on. Rats who are fed until they are completely satiated will go on a feeding frenzy when injected with ghrelin. It is part of the reason that 95% of the people who go on a diet gain all the weight back plus some. I researched every possible avenue looking for a way to turn my hunger hormones down, so that my own body couldn't continue to sabotage my efforts to maintain a weight loss. If I had been able to find a solution to the problem, I would not have elected to have this surgery. Even so, I understand (and share) the other's concerns about your eating history. It's impossible to predict how someone who is used to eating 6 pounds of broccoli would respond emotionally to a surgery that would restrict them to eating around 1/4-1/2 cup of food. There is no changing your mind once it's done. Sadly, I understand your distress about feeling constantly hungry and wanting to find some way to maintain a healthy weight before it climbs higher. I wish I had found an answer when I weighed 119, instead of feeling compelled to have this surgery because I was weighing in at 283 and felt like it was my only hope. I wouldn't presume to know what the answer is for you, since I clearly did not have solutions that worked for myself. It's possible that you have a mental health problem. It's also possible that you are living in a body that has been producing exceptionally high levels of ghrelin in response to all your yoyo dieting, or that you have some combination of physiological problems. It sounds like your first step should be to find a really good doctor who is knowledgable in these areas.

A 6????!!!! And from a 3x????!!!! Wow! What an inspiration to all of us! It's great to hear that you've had a good year. It's only been 4 weeks for me, and I'm just beginning to get a little energy back--so it's very encouraging to hear your story. Keep up the great work!

I haven't had any issues with wiping, but I have a very large friend that has chronic sores and partially healing scabs on her hand because she has difficulty wiping without her hand being scraped on the toilet seat. She hasn't had surgery, but I can see that someone like her that was already having trouble might have a more difficult time after surgery because of the restriction on twisting.

Thanks for your post and congratulations on having the smarts to talk about your feelings rather than chase after someone who didn't care enough to check on you after your surgery. You deserve better than that. I know what it feels like to be alone. I'm 54 and my husband died in 2007 after fighting a brain tumor for 8 years--but truthfully, in most respects, I was without a partner long before he actually died. Losing weight isn't going to guarantee that any of us will have improved relationships or find partners. But it will definitely improve our health, our self-esteem, our appearance, our self-confidence and make it a whole lot more likely not just that we "get picked", but that you have the power to do the "picking" yourself. And it's probably a solid bet that the person you would pick when you feel like a lovely swan is NOT going to be the same person that you might settle for when you feel like the ugly duckling! My vote would be that the guy is going to swallow his tongue when he sees you in a year and you just aren't interested.

I bought a couple 22 oz plastic tumblers. I fill one in the morning and remind myself that it has to be gone by noon, I start a new one at noon, and then have a third one before I go to bed. It feels like I sip constantly to get it all in. If I have to leave the house, the tumblers go with me in the car. Yesterday was really difficult because I had to attend my daughter's college graduation. I took my tumbler in the car, but didn't want to take it into the gym. I should have taken a water bottle instead, because sitting for 3 hours without sipping made it very hard to get all the fluids in later and still eat anything.

I had a severe reaction to every type of tape/bandage I used. I had a dressing longer than some because I came home with a drain for 1 1/2 weeks, and inspite of my trying to move the dressing/tape each day, the skin was breaking down. By the time I was able to stop using dressings to cover the drain wound, I had raw spots all over my abdomen where the skin was just gone because of the tape. I used a lot of polysporin to prevent infections and tried to keep any old adhesive cleaned off my skin. I have heard that there is a hypo-allergenic paper surgical tape (Micropore) made by 3m. If I had know how much trouble I was going to have in the long-run, I would have tried it immediately.

My confession is that I feel like I've spent most of my adult life taking care of sick people, and I feel angry and discouraged when I think about everything that it has cost me. My children have had serious health problems. My husband had a brain tumor and died after 8 years of trips all over the country, 13 specialized surgeries, and proton beam treatments. I closed my private practice as a LMHC to take care of my husband, and now I don't have a job or an office to go back to. So I'm worried about money. I could start over, but I don't want to do mental health counseling anymore. Maybe I have compassion fatigue--but it seems to go deeper than that. I want time to enjoy life and have fun. I'm afraid that the "best years" of my life are behind me, and truthfully, they were so filled with pain, that I want time to live more of the life that I feel like I've missed. I know that I don't "need a man" because I learned to take care of myself and everyone else in the family too. But I don't really want to grow old feeling this alone. I'm afraid that I'll never have sex again...never even hold hands again. AND NOW...I've voluntarily let someone remove 85% of my stomach and I can't even enjoy a meal. I chose this for myself because it was a vote for life and for a better future...but I'm scared that I have made a choice that will steal one more thing from me without really making a positive difference.

I live in Florida, but I didn't use the leave act, so I don't much about loopholes. I do know that when my husband was being treated for a brain tumor, he was out of work for a long time and we were told to fill out all that paperwork to protect his job. Also, I'm a mental health counselor, and I have filled out forms for people who were in treatment facilities for months, and their job were protected.

Good for you! I had surgery for health reasons too, and even though my surgery was only 4 weeks ago, a lot of my problems are resolving already. Off BP medication. Able to walk with less pain in feet. Sleeping better without numbness in hands and feet. Down 31 pounds. Yea!