Lyra

Dooter you just need to keep this mantra in mind:
I am a kicka$$ bodaciously beautiful woman
My fat lipids fear me and shrivel away to nothing
I am the awesome! The world is my 2 oz steak tartare
I am a kicka$$ bodaciously beautiful woman!
On the serious side, everybody's body looses weight at different speeds from different places. Example: My face and thighs lose weight before my chest. And it takes a Herculean amount of weight loss for my stomach to go away. You'll get there, just think positive!

Dooter you just need to keep this mantra in mind:
I am a kicka$$ bodaciously beautiful woman
My fat lipids fear me and shrivel away to nothing
I am the awesome! The world is my 2 oz steak tartare
I am a kicka$$ bodaciously beautiful woman!
On the serious side, everybody's body looses weight at different speeds from different places. Example: My face and thighs lose weight before my chest. And it takes a Herculean amount of weight loss for my stomach to go away. You'll get there, just think positive!

LOL - congrats!!

YAY!!! Congratulations!!!

woo hoo ! I never doubted your eventual success.

Awesome post! Congratulations on breaking 300 and just think how it'll feel when you keep getting closer to 'Mount Doom'. (By the way, I love the comparison). Keep us posted and keep rockin' your inner nerd as I'm a firm believer that they make the best, and most interesting, posts! If nothing else, having a sense of humor about it all makes the journey more bearable!

"I'm not breaking up with you, because I still need you to live"
Hahaha! I was drinking tea when I read that and almost had an accident! Very funny!

Well if you don't want to tell anybody about your surgery you can always say you have ulcers/gastroenteritis and are on a restricted diet for awhile. That way if you do get sick at work people will just assume its from the food and your ulcers.
Good luck with your surgery!

I hate flying. I have watched people do the same thing to me on flights. When I have to fly I pay for business or first class tickets so at least the staff has to be polite. I hope that post my surgery I will be able to fly more without feeling the stigma of being overweight. I also wanted to say great post.

You be one funny lady! And yes, feral chickens must be bad parents - it's who they are.

Stay Focused you can do it!!! They should be helping u not making it difficult for you!

I'm really sorry to hear about that! My dad had a pinched nerve and he would grab a pull up bar and let his body hang so that the weight would realign his back. Would that sort of thing help you? Do you have a GP who might be willing to prescribe you something without having to go in to see him/her? Have you tried something like Biofreeze or Asics gel to help with the inflammation? That stuff is amazing.
Hope you feel better soon! Oh, and I can't wait to do tough mudder too! It's my biggest after surgery goal. Keep us posted about it as I'm really curious! Have you seen their website with that guy's training regime? Woh!

The other day I ranted about my pants falling off and later I had to laugh at myself. lol At the end of the day you have a great group of friends and a tech that has never heard of VSG. Hopefully you will smile later. :-)
PS. By smiling and saying to your friends "I promise I'm good" (or something like that) and changing the subject when they bring up surgery will take care of it eventually.
Po-tay-toe, po-tah-to = HILARIOUS!!!!!!! LOL

It's funny that so many in the medical field have not heard of this surgery. My sister-in-law had the Gastric Bypass 4 years ago and is a registered XRAY techinician in a hospital and she had no idea what I was talking about.
Fortunately, I have complete support of everyone that I have shared with. My family and most of my friends know. And, fortunately they only asked questions in the beginning and that was regarding the procedure and if I was comfortable that I could remain healthy over the long term. This was my explanation to them:
I have done my research for the last couple years and I don't want the by-pass or lap-band, however for about a year I was researching the lap-band and going back and forth on whether I would do it or not, liking that it was reversible. Not liking the re-routing of the RYN. But, then I accidentally happened upon the Sleeve and was at first freaked that they remove that much of the stomach, but it made sense to allow that restriction, since this is one of the main issues....too much food. I struggled with "Am I crazy to have them remove part of my body in order to win this battle?" But, eventually I came to the realization that I am trying to overcome my diabetes, high blood pressure, weight, over working my other body parts carrying the weight and become healthy overall. The Sleeve would allow me to do this. And......everyday doctors are removing parts of peoples bodies to improve their health situation.....gall bladder, appendix, etc.
After that the questions were pretty much gone and they left it alone.
My 16 year old daughter is funny, normally she allows me to fix her dinner and such, but since I started my Pre-Op she has insisted every night that she is good and can do it herself. How sweet that she is silently supporting me and understanding that fixing her food might tempt me!
I will be praying that your approval comes fast and that your friends become tongue tied! LOL

Yup, people go "what do you mean they remove a part of your stomach?"
Your friends are probably in a situation where they are dealing with alot of it too. It might be that you are hearing the same thing over and over, but it is different people. I doubt all of your friends are present to hear every conversation.
It must be frustrating. My Mom passed away just after my surgery, and I went home and had to tell a few more people than I had intended to immediately, and I got alot of questions, even in that situation. Not by the people who didn't know my Mom well, and not by people just being crude - but people who wanted to reassure themselves I was OK.
Many of us have already been the caregivers of the groups we find ourselves in. We are often the peacekeepers, the 'git er done's, the motivators, the picture takers, the event planners, the logistics, etc...Now we are admitting to ourselves we are not OK, we have flaws - big ones - and this can make our friends really lost and scared.
But, yes, frustrating as all heck.

Ugh, bosses. Some are great, and some drive you up the proverbial wall. I transferred within my company to another store and went from an atmosphere where I had full carte blanche in my daily duties to one where my manager micro manages us to death. Her redeaming factor is that she does care about us and is reasonable about schedule changes and whatnot. I, too, will be dusting off the ol' resume in another year . Good luck on your job hunt! I'm sure you'll find something so amazing that you'll want to stick your tongue out at your current boss and go, "na na na na naaaa. I've got a better job! ha ha ha". Juvenile, but oh-so-satisfying to imagine.
Best of luck!
~Lyra

I have done several exercises geared to acknowleding my emotional eating.
I think the biggest step is affirmation of your emotional eating habits, then ownership of your choices and no matter what avoid the overeaters anon that tells you to say crap like " I am helpless". You aren't helpless.
Another thing is to take a stress management class, and learn how to deal with stress BEFORE it becomes emotional, and then emotional eating.
Good luck Sweetie! It's hard - make sure you have a grip on it BEFORE surgery - WLS will not fix this - and you can find yourself dropped into the heart of stress eating with no notice (my Mom passed away unexpectedly a week post op and I had to fly from Houston TX to Appalachian Mts. VA to take care of everything.)
If talking will help you are so very welcome to message me. I am not an expert, I am just offering to lend an ear.

Wow, the time will come before you know it. I know, you already know this. This is a great time to learn and practice all you can for the real thing. Like practic eating a little less food, taking sips of water, and gaining alot of info from this site. I am saving a spot on the BIG LOSER'S BENCH right next to me. Can't wait till you get here!

I just felt like I read parts of MY life story as well! I was skinny as a child, but at puberty the weight just seemed to go up..and up...and up. I haven't been in a relationship for a long time, and have often felt invisible. To combat this I developed the 'big girl' personality. Funny, sarcastic, witty, etc. Apparently I use it so well that my closest friends didn't even realize how much I hate this body that I'm trapped in. When I found out about the sleeve I almsot started crying from relief. I'm hopefully getting sleeved in April and I imagine my emotions will go through the same roller coaster ride as yours are. All I can say is that you're not crazy and you have a right to feel how you feel. Repressing those emotions would be bad in the long run, but maybe you can channel it into volunteering, running, a new hobby, etc. All of those things can make you feel better about yourself and help steady your emotions. If there are any support groups in your area for post-sleevers, then maybe you can try and go to those. If nothing else, you'll know that you're not alone in how you feel.
Good luck and keep us posted!

I agree with you Lyra. I have grown to like the protein shakes. I do feel better without all the crap in my system from the fast food joints. Like you I haven't been sleeved yet. I am in the middle of my liquid diet right now because I get sleeved in five days. Good Luck.....
P.S. When you are out and about and need some fast food go to your local snow cone shop and get a cup of shaved ice. Then pour your premixed protein shake over it and there ya go. A protein snow cone. I really like it.

"I'm not breaking up with you, because I still need you to live"
Hahaha! I was drinking tea when I read that and almost had an accident! Very funny!

You're gonna rock that sleeve! Keep us posted on how you're doing, and try not to stress too much before the surgery!

Well, my surgeon hasn't required me to get the endoscopy test, but I do know that the psych eval is a pretty common exam. They basically want to make sure that you're psychologically sound and have a firm grasp on what it means to go through with this surgery as it's a life changing (and diet changing!) operation. Not all surgeons require the same tests for everyone as my father (who just had the surgery) had to have a sleep test, EKG, chest xray, etc while I only had to get blood work as I'm younger with less health problems.
Hope that helped!
~Lyra