BZButterfly79

I have come to the conclusion that failure is always there it is an unchanging unmoving possibility, what changes failure is when we ***succeed***, there are people here who have succeeded but there are those who could not overcome the power of food. I want to be a success story but I know that the surgery alone is not "it" I need to find something other than eating to express my emotions. I am hoping that as I lose weight the lighter I become the easier it is to exercise as I love to dance. I don't watch Rachel usually because her voice really annoys me she also is not a very relaxed person (she only has 30min to cook) so when I watch TV I want to relax. When I called to schedule my appointment with the psych lady she told me that if people don't continue with therapy after surgery they get fat again(?her exact words). I have decided that is I am going to risk my life on the OR table I am not going to waste it by slipping milk shakes and twinkies, the abuse HAS TO STOP. If I couldn't commit then I would not have the surgery. I can only imagine the depression that comes with having regained all the weight it must be too hard to bare. Support is important I think finding people locally who want to meet and maybe once in awhile hang out and have fun might be a good thing too.

Forget the people telling you to eat a burger you've just inspired someone who has yet to have the procedure so that's one person I think matters more, as for the drugs....insurance doesn't cover(LOL). Keep up the god work you are on your way to the top thanks for the pics I love to see people who are proud and brave!!!

I have't had the surgery yet, can you drink a glass of water without problems? So that means we don't have to sip sip? Does water go down fast or slow?

I as driving back from a trip to Walmart this morning and this question popped up, it might be best fitted for post-opers sleeve veterans, but remember how before the sleeve whatever emotion you could run to food, be it a bag of carrots or a bag of chips. I hope I am not the only one who deals with things by eating on this forum but more than ever I have watched and paid close attention to my behaviors, I "always" eat when I am upset or anxious and this post was born from my thought of the first time you eat or even thereafter surgery ***what*** has happened to you when now what you used to do can cost you your life. Certainly the wanting to be healthy and skinny is bigger but these unhealthy behaviors that led us here do they subside does it take a long time for the brain to switch and say "we are not going there we can't"? I have read that some of the physiological changes help to keep us from going there(lack of appetite, N&V, pain) and then there are some sleevers who say it is still a mental struggle. Share your insight and your experience in this subject. After surgery anything ever made you cry or feel sad and think for 2 seconds of eating chocolate?

Anyone have a mom like mine in that she comes to visit us and cooks for us and if we don't eat...and eat second she acts offended and says she won't cook again(I know LOL). She will be here next year after I have had my procedure which she is not aware of so girls how do I get out of that situation when it arises...should I put the food in a plastic bag under the table? Or serve a huge plate and eat like a turtle then suddenly say I am full after so many bites? Someone in here has had to deal with this maybe even in social situation with friends who did not know about the procedure. How about the vitamins do you guys keep it a plain view? Kitchen? Bathroom? Shine the light!

"All I want for xmas is VSG!!!" I do not have a date yet but the bariatric nurse said that if I didn't mind doing it during the holidays...I thought WHY WOULD I I've been eating that holiday food my entire life and too much of it so I figured this would be a gift to me, I'll still cook though for the family. Halloween candy was a problem for me this year for sure, I was nibbling on that stuff throughout the day the past years I threw the candy away the next day out of sight out of mind. We are not having family here this year so in a way it works out because I am able to peacefully recover without being bombarded with: "How come you're not eating!!!!!?"

Look at the one lady who has a full body shot she is post RNY and she decided to have breast and tummy done...she has like 6 drains out of her private area but then they start taking them out she starts looking better.

I wanted to share with anyone who is preop this site I just came across where it is everything surgery gallore, if you click on bariatric link you will find lots of goodies like scar creams along with ratings form people who have used it. I am looking at the before and after pics on the site. I also added the site to my favorites in case I want or need anything later. http://www.makemeheal.com/pictures/gastric-bypass-bariatric

I am humbly asking all of the post ops who before surgery had been diagnosed with PCOS, if you have you know all the symptoms which are too painful for me to list here, what I want to know from you is whether or not your symptoms lessened, went away, and do you feel better now in respect to the PCOS. I spent 3 years going to my OBGYN telling him something was wrong and he told me that PCOS was in woman's head that if I stopped being lazy and exercised I wouldn't have any problems(yes I switched doctors). Thank you for your reply and your honesty.

Do you need someone to pinch you!!! Congratulations!!! You've earn it!!!

I already have laparoscopic scars from my gall bladder surgery I've seen a few pics and they look very similar so LUCKY ME!!!!! I get to have them twice more-lol But I figured that even "if" I became so incredibly hot afterwards that Playboy magazine would want me to pose(which I would have to refuse for moral ethical reasons) they airbrush everybody and why not my little scars? Have a great day, and just so you know the loose skin and scars kept me from doing this procedure for three years...yes I know I how sad I wonder how much fun I would be having right now.

I have read a couple of posts that mention being annoyed over celebrities who lose weight through surgery and will not tell the truth. For a few weeks now I have been really bugged by two people in particular one of the is Kelly Osborne. Here is why, she has been overweight her entire life she has talked about not caring on the reality show she was on with her family, then recently I see her on E, stick thin, except for her legs she is stick thin, I thought: "Man!!!!! How did she do this???" Then a magazine came out with her talking about how she did it, no carbs, gallons of water a day. Okay....but for some reason I wonder if she has at least had the lap band. Then yesterday the second one that I thought: "REALLLLLLY" was Wynona Judd, another one who her entire life struggled and now is looking thinner and thinner...she says she is losing tons of weight through electroneuro something therapy. Again I am happy for their weight loss BUT seriously if that's all there is to it then everyone else should be able to do it too. Who do you guys suspect of having surgery in Hollywood? Another thing I wonder is Oprah...she has never even once talked about it and she has the money and insurance I am sure to cover it. What's your take?

Why is it always some super skinny person living off of rabbit food telling the overweight what to do? It's people like that who push young girls into eating disorders!

Hi, you definitely should not undergo any surgical life altering procedure without being sure that it is what you want, for me resolution of cold feet came easy, I said:"If I don't have this procedure what is my alternative?" I had the last seven years of hell run through my mind and the dieting and unhealthy self-medicating relationship with food, shortening my life, heading towards diabetes and a hundred other things, it became clear to me then, but hang out here often I am here looking for support and I sure want to be here to support other like myself. I've got the same fears as you frequently I think of bone problems there is always something you know. Good luck keep us posted. My dancing man up there is happy for you that you have a "date" I am still waiting to see the doc. Oh and sleep...you don't just need it you DESERVE it.

******I heard this in the car and it brought me to tears, so I am dedicating this to anyone who like me is getting ready for the change that's gonna come! ******

Lucky lady!!! I have asked Santa to bring me my sleeve before x-mas but that's now all up to him and the surgeon, it would be great to start the new year feeling like a new hot mamma. Good luck on everything!

Hi, I am in a MTF in FL and having the surgery at the base hospital. This is what they asked of me: BMI>42 Co-Morbidity-for me PCOS but even if I did not have the PCOS they still use BMI Attend a Seminar Attend a nutrition class(mine talked a LOT about gastric bypass...almost nothing on sleeve) Schedule a Psych consult Schedule app with the surgeon(this is my next appointment so I will tell you once that happens what will need to happen) Hope this relieves some of the anxiety.(I am jumping through all the hoops) As far as advice so far is to spend as much time here reading, watch youtube videos of people who have had the procedure, read about it I honestly felt the nutrition class was too fast and did not go into the sleeve if I had to rely on that I would be freaking out.

First and foremost, congratulations for being on a journey back to yourself, a journey to find love for yourself and take control over your life, I am pre-op as well and on that journey. What have some of us done our entire lives that may have led us into the fat suit we wear today? For me it has been putting **everyone** in my life before me and...being co-dependent(well if you are gonna be mad then I won't do this I'll just stay miserable or...I don't want you to be insecure I wanna fix you then me...) this may not at all be you but it was me. Let me ask you this...what is the worse thing that can happen in your marriage? If that happens then will your life still go on? My husband has been the greatest jerk about my weight and at the same time my biggest fan which I consider deadly combinations. I will give you an example: "I bought you a treadmill, when are you gonna start running?" Well...you don't want to know my answer but I will say that coming from a man who despises obese people and at times makes mean comments about them(this is called ignorance) he has grown from telling me all I had to do was close my mouth and run 6 miles a day to asking me how many days he will have to take off to help me out. The more I show him videos of before and afters, the more stern I am that this is the way I am taking the more he is acting like a friend. I am sure he has insecurities but I always assure him that the way he treats me is wayyyy more important than what I weigh because the weight can come off. His insecurity is really his problem, and if you are like me at this point in this journey I just say: "You can go to therapy to work out your insecurities I can't help you there for I am on a journey to save my life!" I have heard at one of the support groups I attended as part of my research into this women saying that once the weight leaves, the self esteem and attention from strangers starts to kick in that they have felt deprived of that and enjoy it a lot which is a problem also that some just realize that their husbands were tools and they deserved better. It can go a lot of ways but let it be your way.

Tonight I read the post about to tell or not to tell. For awhile I have been in that same place, wondering, planning, who, when, and where to tell. What will X, Y, and Z think when they see me having lost so much weight(I am pre-op), will they lift up my shirt to check for incision scars...they will not possibly believe I could have done it on my own(notice self defeating talk). If they ask(whomever they might be) do I admit it or just say: "I took charge of my life and hired a trainer!". Well, this is so difficult for one I though of having this procedure while my husband was deployed next year as a "welcome home gift" I certainly don't want him seeing me looking like death after surgery with drains on me, eating baby food and I don't want to have to explain to my kids that I had so little self control I had to be operated on... I decided to tell my husband because if something happened to me since he would be raising our kids he deserves to know and hopefully he would want to support me, the kids I have not decided on yet they are little not sure if it is a talk to have at this time. That is my immediate family then there is everybody else and the friends and co-workers. So this is what my post is really about. Who do I OWE that to...such an intimate and very painful end and new beginning of my life BUT to GOD and myself. I just don't feel like I need to be treated like ham at the deli or cheese for that matter. The only thing want to focus on is the rainbow the yellow brick road, because nobody who dares to ask me about my weight has truly been there or walked a mile in my 10 1/2 wide shoes(try finding that). Nobody felt the lack of air, the sleepless nights, the looks and stares, the feeling of my self defeat after my next cool diet failed. They certainly weren't there when making love with my husband I prayed my belly wouldn't get in the way, that my back would stop hurting. I can't forget the times when I attempted to play with my children only to feel like bricks were on my chest and I had to keep smiling so they wouldn't see my pain. Hiding in photos, hiding from photos, hiding from myself! Is there a more degrading to self way to live? I don't think believe there is and I don't owe THAT to anyone. I hear about people who after the weight is gone they become part of the skinny world and suffer from selective amnesia, every person who like myself is overweight deserves to know where I came from...and that hopefully a light at the end of a dark cold tunnel showed up and I certainly will want to share. I will not forget where I came from because it is too easy to go back there are too many people suffering because of this slow creeping dark disease which is obesity. They DESERVE to know all others I am giving them something to talk about...a little mystery to figure out.

Tiffykins, you had a great experience, they didn't give me anything and I left there feeling like I don't have a personality but they said that stuff goes to the bariatric clinic. Yes the questions were funny at times: Do you think you are good at anything you do? (Yes I am super confident that's why I ended up overweight!) Do you like being bossed around? (I thought...no...do you? but there was only *true or *false) Are you lying on this questionnaire?(If you can't trust me then...)

So I had my Psych evaluation this morning, I would love to hear how you felt about yours, mine had the "tests" pencil and paper but also a 45 min conversation that felt like 2 hrs. She asked where I was raised then went on to how many times I cry then on to something else then something else then she asked me if I knew what it would take for me to live after surgery and keep the weight off why I felt I could not do this without the surgery...WELL...how do you answer that without giving TMI!!! Lady I need a freaking stop button! The she blurts out of nowhere: "You are too hard on yourself aren't you?" I don't even know what to tell this lady at that point but thank God it ended. I really find therapy interesting but is it normal for them to pick and poke like that, I think I would rather journal or talk to a close friend. Here is my favorite question: "Do you think you overeat to fill an emotional need?" I consider myself deep but seriously I didn't know what to say I don't know what my emotional pit is this was way too deep girls that's all I can say. This Psych eval was exhausting... can't wait to see the surgeon on the 23 of November. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Yes biotin and omega 3 sound good but if we become low on iron then that can cause hair loss. I have had a little bit of a problem because of my PCOS so sometimes my hair does fall which really irritates me but I will do whatever I can, I think going from all the food we normally eat to maintain our bodies and what it is used to then to life after the sleeve it must be a shock on the body I think from what I hear I will be eating as much as my four year old does now. something like a tube of toothpaste that is what I heard we will be able to hold...oh boy......I guess you can't have it all the fat or the hair?LOL Obviously I would rather have my health.

I am in the process of getting ready to go through with the vertical sleeve, I would like to ask the veterans about their experience with hair loss, when does it happen, can it be avoided, can it be lessened and...finally does the hair return? In some of the pictures that I see I see women with a full head of hair so I am confused.

I will be praying for you the healthcare system in this country is completely messed up reason why we are the most expensive in the world and...rank #49 in quality of life!

I had my first class on the 12th of Oct, am meeting with my nutritionist on the 19th of Oct, and then the nurse said I will be scheduling a visit with the doc...meanwhile I will have booked a Psych consult which is due after I see the Doc? Is this the usual course of events I am really praying to start my new life before the end of the year. If you are a military dependent and can share your experience, I am also having it done at a military base(per Tricare) I hope that goes well too. The surgeon seems to do these frequently but the military docs are so young that you get a little scared. And...can you share with me some of the important things your asked the Doc because I am making a list, they told us to write down all of the questions and concerns before the appointment. Thanks