Heather~ Sweetdreams

You are such an inspiration. I'm one month out (my surgeversary is ALSO on the 15th of the month!) and I've already hit a major goal for myself. I can't wait to be where you are! Maybe I will get lucky and be as excited as you at 11 months out! Bless you and your story!!!

I'm late calling "PRESENT!" but I'm here too! Had my surgery July 14, and am 4 weeks out tomorrow. My weight loss is going AWESOME! I've been busy, and we went on vacation last weekend with 15 of our closest friends, so I haven't been around much! Vacation was great, everyone cooked out Friday night, burgers and dogs. Since beef is still a bit of a hard task for my sleeve to handle, I thought ahead and brought chicken, watermelon, and cottage cheese for me for the weekend. We spent an entire day on the river... it was so nice. I'm down 46-48 pounds depending on which scale I get one (ha!) and am absolutely ECSTATIC about that! I've still not had any nausea or vomiting, and my left side pain is FINALLY gone. My sleeve and I have an understanding. I will put lots of protein enriched foods in it, and then I get to have a Breyers 3 carb chocolate fudge bar in the evening. If you haven't tried them, they are AWESOME! I'm so busy during the day that I haven't realy developed a routine, and scheduled my meals. I will have to start soon with school going back into session in a couple of weeks though! Hope everyone is doing great, and good luck to all the upcoming surgeries in August! It's the best thing you will ever do!!

OMG I've become a watermelon junkie...I'm only 4 weeks out, and it's just so good, and sweet, and feels so good in my mouth! My sleeve lets it just pile up in there! LOL... I've had to cut back on it too, but once a week I still get a container of fresh cut watermelon!

it's a personal choice. I told everyone.. Family, friends, my bosses, and co workers! I have struggled with my weight for so long I knew they would be supportive. I've not gotten any negative responses, and everyone had been there for me pushing me, and loving me all the way through this! It's been such an exciting journey so far, and I can't wait til I get to see the new me at the end of loosing all this extra weight!

Honestly, I'm a little shocked at some of the reasons for regret. I'm 18 days post op. I've not had a single regret at any time. Surely you didn't go into this without realizing this was going to change your entire way of eating!? Did you really think that you would lose weight by still being able to eat full meals? Isn't that what got us into this mess? Not all of us, but a mass majority of us had no control over our portions, or the things we chose to eat. So now your regret is that you cannot sit down and eat an entire meal with a friend!? I... well, I'm sad for you about that. I went to dinner with a friend just a couple of days ago, and I was ecstatic that I could only order a piece of fish, and more ecstatic that I could only eat a small portion of it! It was THRILLING! There was a time when I would go to that same restaurant and scarf down an entire meal.... that put me at over 300 pounds! Why would I NOT want to give that up? From what I've read, all the things we go through for the first few months are NOT permanent. Yeah, it sucks that you have to have liquids for a couple of weeks, and pudding, and mushy stuff for a month, but its temporary. This is a long term change that will change your entire life! There is NOTHING embarrassing about eating a small portion of food! If ANYTHING your friends probably wish they got full on such a small amount! Embrace this change... and expect nothing but greatness from it.. because in the end, that is what you are going to have... a GREAT NEW YOU!

Congrats! Your life will change so much! All for the better!!!!

I'm in Tx too and I also have BCBS! I had my surgery in Dallas 2 weeks ago! Wishing you the best of luck!

Sorry you had a rough time in the hospital, mine was smoooooth. I slept so much I felt refreshed! I had a lot of pain after surgery, so they kept me pretty medicated, which is why I slept so much. My wonderful boyfriend stayed with me both nights! I am so grateful to him for that! It was probably the best hospital stay I've ever had!

I had mine out 4 days post op, and it didn't hurt. It was a strange feeling. Once it was out, my doc said, " is your shoulder pain gone?" I was amazed that it was!

I fluctuated with my weight horribly during my 6 months. I ranged between 310 and 292 for the entire 6 months, my last weigh in before sending in for insurance approval on June 2 was 302. I think it is more to prove to insurance that you CAN NOT lose weight on a regular diet. At least, that is my assumption. I wouldn't stress too much. My last pcp visit was June2, I got my approval the following week, and was sleeved July 14th!

I just had my surgery a week ago Thursday, and am going back to work this week. I hadn't planned on taking any time off at all, but my boss insisted that I rest for a full week before coming back. 4 weeks is a lot. Maybe if you ask for 2 they will be a little more understanding.

When I went in for my preop labwork, they gave me a bottle of hibiclens, and told me to wash with it the night before and the morning of surgery. I'm prone to skin infections, so I was still concerned. I'm a week and 1 day out, and my incisions are healing perfectly! I didn't use any cloths I just rubbed it on for a couple of minutes with the water off, then rinsed.

Congratulations! I remember how excited I was to get my date, and the nerves that built up all the way until surgery day! I just had mine last Thursday, and am still excited! Now, it's to see the results that are to come! Good luck!!!

It's the same for me.. I am 8 days out, and noticed that I've had some bad breath. I too can intake a lot of liquids at a time. I think a lot of this is that everyone just works so differently even with the same surgery. I'm sure you are doing fine, and I'm glad you are getting plenty of liquids!

I don't think doctors like to work on Fridays! lol

I'm easy.. I like pretty much anything!

OMG!!! That is UNCALLED FOR! I'm only 1 week out, and so far, just having some pain in my left side that seems to be getting better daily. But, last year I had a hysterectomy. When the doc opened me up they found i had a HUGE hernia.. (not sure how this was missed with preop xrays, mri's and sonograms). They had to call another surgeon in to repair the hernia, and my obgyn did the hyster. They also ended up having to take 6 inches of skin all the way across my lower abdomen because they made hamburger meat out of it with the hernia repair. About 2 weeks late I had a lump just under my belly button that was the size of a cantelope. The doctor said it was a seroma. They sent me to the hospital radiologist, he attempted to drain it, for 4 HOURS! As I laid in an MRI machine. They pulled 2 liters of Fluid off of me. A week later I was back in the hospital. Dehydrated from fever. I had developed a severe infection from the attempt to drain, also, I had developed cellulitus all around the seroma. It was horrible. They did surgery the next day to get rid of it. I was left with an open incision that was packed with gauze. I had to go to wound care daily at the hospital. Eventually they put me on a wound vac.. it took 3 months to heal. IT was by far the most horrible experience of my life! I hope they can drain your seroma with no problems. I'm attaching a photo of the Seroma the day before surgery, and the opening about a month after surgery during wound care. Please keep an eye on it!

You may want to contact your doctor. Anytime there is swelling in your feet and legs it has the possibility to be linked to a medical problem. I'm only a week out, so I can't offer any advise on it other than that. Hope you get to feeling better!!

You know, we aren't that far from each other. When we are both healed up, we should meet up for a lunch!

July 20 2ahealthierme singand_dance LeahG jennifer6791 PollyPoo Dee Dee We have some serious sleeving going on tomorrow!!! Good luck to all of the July 20th guys and gals who are getting your sleeves tomorrow!!! I will say an extra prayer for you that surgery is quick and easy, and recovery is pain free!!!

I'm so jealous!!! I spent 2 days in the hospital, am almost 6 days out ( in a few hours) and am STILL having pain in my left side! Glad you are out and doing great!! Walk, walk, walk, sip, sip, sip!!

Day 5~ Still have significant pain on the left side. Hade my JP drain removed yesterday by the surgeon. That helped a bit, but I still hurt really bad. Still having to take pain meds fairly regularly. The upside, I'm having no other issues. Gas has not been a problem, Everything I drink or eat is staying down easily. If I could just get past this dang pain in my left side I'd be AWESOME! I was supposed to go back to work today, but called and told them there was no way I could manage it. Hope everyone else that was sleeved last week are having less issues than me!!!

I haven't had a BM yet, and I know that it is because I HAVE been taking the Lortab. I had too much pain not too, and apparently I've turned into a wuss, when I have always had great pain tolerance! I can't imagine having to cough all the time with this, bless your heart! I'm with you on the "easy way out" comments. Of course, no one has said that to me yet, and anyone that knows me knows better LOL... but there is NOTHING easy about this!!!

Doc called so I went in and got the JP drain out... THANK GOD!!! A majority of my pain left with it! I'm still "surgery sore" but I think I'm going to live! LOL

I didn't have a hernia repair with my VSG but, last year when I had my hysterectomy that found a SURPRISE hernia! Because of the damage the hernia had cause to my abdominal muscles, it took me about a week or so longer than anyone else I know to recover from that hyst. It was horrible. I also developed complications at that time. I've been sitting up more today with the heating pad either on my tummy, or on my back, about to take a walk, hopefully day 5 will be even better!!!