Shanny

15 years ago, I was thin. 15 years ago, I was going through a lot of crap. 15 years ago, my son's donor thought I was was his personal punching bag. 15 years ago, I was strangled, hit, beaten into a stupor, held out a window, raped, terrorized, stalked...you name it; he did it. 15 years ago, I played the role of a victim that had been a reoccuring theme in my life since I was 5 years old and that first predator found me on a baseball team. When I was 18, in college, I guess I had hidden the victim in me, until predator #2 found me, through a mutal friend, and one hellatious night in Philly made me leave college - it took me almost 16 years to finally get my degree after that night. I think all of these things were just shaping me up to be the type of victim that the donor was looking for. Ripe for the picking, so to speak, because in no time flat he was charming me, wooing me, and terrorizing the hell out me. The only good thing that came out of that relationship is my fantastic son! 13 years ago, I decided to gain a bunch of weight. Not only would it make me unattractive, but it would keep me safe. No one would hurt me, if I had this protective suit on. food, I learned, became my friend, my comfort, and it didn't hurt. It didnt' make me sad, but it didn't make happy. It just filled this hole I had. The problem was it was only temporary. So, 125 pounds later, and years of therapy, I started to hate that person that I saw in the mirror. The one that wanted to hide from everything. I thought how weak is this woman that needs to hide behind this suit. I'm not her. I entered into a wonderful relationship with an amazing woman, that treats me like a princess (did I mention that I lied to myself and everyone around me for YEARS about my sexuality? Maybe if I hadn't I wouldn't have gone through all the crap I did). 1 month agao, enter the sleeve. I'm now 49 pounds lighter. Everyday, it's coming off. My clothes are fitting differently and my body is changing. Now, I'm having the hardest time adjusting to my new body. I'm so excited about being able to lose weight. Before it never worked so I expected to fail when I tried. But this works, and I don't know what to do. I went shopping and I'm still trying on clothes in a 22/24, when I'm now a 16/18. Today, I have size 20 pants and 2x shirt. I was all excited because I got my pants at the Goodwill for $2.95 and one my friends said, you could have gotten then in a smaller size. I realized, I'm too self concious to buy clothes that fit. I'm excited as all hell about losing weight but I can't see it or embrace it. Does that make sense? When does the fat girl, hiding myself, baggy jeans and t-shirt, mentality go away? Why can't embrace this change? This is what I wanted. I have no reason to look back anymore. I'm all about looking forward. I talk to my therapist about this every week, and yes, she's helping me cope with my feeling about my past that I never dealt with, but I wonder how many of you go through this, or is it just me. How do I cope the changes that are happening everyday at record speed? Do you fit in your new body?

Though Im not a teacher I'm staff at a school and I sub when I'm needed. I had the same problem. This is my second week back to work. Whe possible, at lunch I take a nap. I also eat at my desk, or if I have to sub, I tend to eat my lunch when I don't have a class. Fortunately, it's a high school so I don't have to walk anyone anywhere. But, I feel your pain. I hope it gets easier for you!

My girlfriend pats me on the back and rubs it like burping a baby until I can burp, usually. But when i'm alone I've been desperate to try anything that may work. This weekend, I had indigestion so bad that I had the hiccups. I discovered that ice water helped. After every sip of the cold water I was able to belch, and it made the hiccups go away! I don't know why it worked, but it did!

SN.................Starting WT................Current...................Goal.............Lbs to Goal Shanny.........205............................198...........................180....................18

Your surgery date is my birthday! I know it's going to be successful!

I'm a month out and I'm the same way. I still have to take naps in the middle of the day because I don't have the energy I used to have. My doc said it's from my body getting used to not getting as many calories as it once had. It's an adjustment. Also, it takes some of us longer to bounce back from being up under. I had a hysterectomy 2 years ago and bounce back faster than I have from this! I've only been back to work for a week, and even last week I only worked 1/2 days because of exhaustion. Today at lunch, in fact, I'm going to take a nap. It happens to some of us. Hang in there. Make sure that you're getting enough Protein and fluids. Hope you feel better soon!

Dispite all of the problems with indigestion, and my stomach hating the hell out of me, I'm now 198 pounds! I haven't been under 200 pounds since I had my son 13 years ago!!!! OMG, I'm so excited! I went shopping again this weekend. I only lasted in a 20 for a week, I'm officially an 18; I can't quite get the 16's to fasten yet. But, the Goodwill has a 1/2 price sale on Saturdays so I'm not really that concerned. I feel good, most days. I'm experimenting with eating "real food", and I'm actually losing weight. I can't tell you how elated I am. Thank you to everyone on this site that has been so supportive! I'm sharing in this milestone with all of you!

I am a smoker(trying to be nonsmoker) who was sleeved. I quit for 6 wks before my surgery, then started about 2 weeks after. I started wearing the patch this weekend. I noticed this weekend, that my indigestion got 10 x worse whenever I smoked. So, as an experiment I stopped smoking on Saturday and started wearing the patch. I still have indigestion, but it's not nearly as bad. I know smoke effects your esphougas and stomach, I'm not sure but somehow only being one month out of surgery and still healing it's doing a number on me. I'd rather not smoke and feel good, than get my fix and feel like crap drinking Maalox all day long. It's not worth it.

The problem is I'm not belching. I just feel the gas move around in my chest/stomach and it's not going anywhere else. Sometimes if feels like regular indigestion, sometimes it feels like something stuck in my throat. I don't know what it is, but it's pretty annoying. Today for example I had 2 Protein shakes, 5 glasses of Water and 1/2 bowl of Special K. Why? because when I try to eat I get indigestion, and it's not as bad when I drink. This sucks.

When I try to do food I can't get enough protein. I can't get enough protein in. I'm still on 1 shake a day and 1 bar and the rest food. When I wasn't getting enough I was tired, and my muscles hurt. I also had deep tissue pain, bruising, and my hair started breaking off. It was horrible.

Okay, so I've posted before that I do take a PPI, and I still have indigestion. I also take Maalox in addition to my PPI and I still have indigestion most of the time. The problem is I need to belch but most of the time I can't. If I have like 1 or 2 sips of Ginger Ale will it do a lot of damage? I have never been really gassy the other way, but I still have a lot of gas that now I can't get to move. Walking doesn't make it come up. I can't make myself belch. Carbonation used to do the trick before the sleeve. I know a whole soda would be terrible, but 1 month out a couple of sips to make me burp won't kill me, will it?

What is sliming? Sorry, I'm not down with all the terms yet. Only a month out and still learning my sleeve. My sleeve hates broccolli, ground beef, and tomatoes. I'm introducing foods slowly. I still suffer from horrible indigestion 50% of the time so I'm scared to try new things. Even with my PPI and drinking Maalox like Kool Aid I still have reflux problems. Doc says it's still really tight and the tests show no hernia or anything just need more time to heal. Oh well.

They are on my doctor's list of acceptable protein bars

I've taken Nexium and am now on Prilosec, neither seem to be working very well. I still get indigestion really bad. My doctor said has told me to take Maalox along with the PPI and that helps, but it doesn't cure. I am to try to the Prilosec for a month, and if that doesn't work I'll try Previcid. I never had reflux problems like this before my surgery!

I use Myfitnesspal.com

I don't know about DC, but if you want to drive about an hour there are 3 hospitals in Baltimore that do the sleeve and take your insurance. Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins Bayview and GBMC. They are the 3 that I know about. I had mine done at GBMC, we're just up the beltway from DC. If you can't find a doc there, I suggest coming up here to see if you can it done. It's definitely worth it. Dr.'s Liao & Mo at GBMC are awesome! Good luck!

You look amazing! Congrats!

That's so awesome!

Oh curse you Sun Chips for being so delicious and going down so smoothly. I was able to eat about 10 chips with no problem. The problem is, that's going to be a BIG problem because I'm addicted to those things. I guess it's a little better than potato chips, but I still shouldn't be eating them. Boy were they good, though.

Has anyone taseted it? I know their protein water is the 3rd circle of hell!

That was a typo. It should be 125-175.

Congratulations! I'm so close to reaching it, too, but I'm stalled! I'm going to live vicariously through you! Congrats!

When I went to my doctor the first time, inquiring about surgery, I was 247 pounds. By the time I had surgery I was 228. Now, 3 weeks after surgery I'm 202 pounds. One of the reasons that I joined this forum and not the support groups at my doctor's office is because the people said to me that I didn't need to have surgery, I didn't have that much weight to lose. Just because I didn't have over 200 pounds to lose didn't mean that I didn't feel like my weight was out of control. I felt as ashamed and like I was spiraling just like everyone else. I'm so glad I found this forum. Everyone is so supportive. Right now, I'm at my 3 week stall, and not getting enough calories. I'm not going to let that get me down. I'm going to figure this thing out. I have a life time of making this tool work for me and I'm going to take it one day at a time, one pound at a time.

So I managed to eat 3 oz of a Lean Cuisine Chicken Carbonara for lunch. It was hard to get it in, but I did it! At least I got more calories in. For dinner, I think I'm going to try some Hamburger Helper made with ground turkey. No noodles, just the sauce and meat. Hopefully that'll give me more calories to where I'm at least near the 700 mark. It seems wrong to not be eating "diet" food right now. But, I don't want to be eating too few calories, either and feeling like crap because I'm so tired because my body thinks it's starving!

I can exercise a little. Usually about 15-20 minutes of cardio. Mainly because I run out of energy. I usually burn about 225-275 calories.