prettysleeved1

Yup.

I'm two weeks out and I still have some pain on my left side. It'll go away gradually day-by-day. A heating pad has worked wonders for me.

Hey! Thanks for the reply. Nothing in life is promised to us-life isn't even promised to us- and when I read people post stuff like, "when I lose all my weight, I'm going to wear jeans and heels and strut my stuff" all I can think is, "what if you die before then?" You would never get to wear jeans and heels and strut just because you thought you were too fat to do it now. Life is entirely too short and fleeting to leave a list of unaccomplished desires that you were fully capable of accomplishing in the time you had.

Not really when you realize it's not 4 pounds of fat but water, food, gasses, etc... I look at it like this: I'm not trying to lose weight. I'm trying to lose fat. So the scale, while a tool that can measure fat, measures everything else as well and cannot give me a 100% accurate story of my overall body composition.

yeah, you have to take account for what you've eaten and drank since you weighed this morning, normal fluid balance, respiration, etc...

Wow. I wish I had had that option.

So you must not be using FMLA if you didn't go through HR.

That's what I'm wondering. How did it go from you putting in for it through HR or your supervisor to everyone knowing enough to ask you why you are going on leave?

Yeah. My uncle's mother-in-law has had gastric bypass twice. The first time, she had her daughter sneak her in a hot dog and was able to eat it while still in the hospital without a problem. The second time, I guess they made her stomach even smaller.

First things first: I'm two weeks post-op today and feeling better everyday. This past Saturday we went to the mall and walked around for about an hour, went to the grocery store, and then ran some other errands. I felt pretty good minus the Texas heat (106 degrees). I'm still experiencing some left-side pain and I've stopped taking the Hydrocodone because it's not doing anything anyway. Inspite of that, last night, I did sleep completely on my stomach for about 4 hours and it wasn't too bad. Today I had an unseasoned egg white. That was a new experience because I'm not used to eating food without seasoning but I figured that was the safest way to go for now. As for the numbers, I am down 29 pounds since surgery and 40 total (I lost 11lbs. pre-op). I attribute that to a couple of things but namely just having some pep in my step and trying to find some way to move around and do the most intense exercise I can do within my doctor's guidelines. My go to protein shake is 220 calories and 32g of protein. During the full liquids stage (first two weeks after surgery), I got about two of those down each day. Of course, it took all day long to do so but where there's a will, there's a way. On to more pressing topics.... When I decided to consider having this procedure, I signed up on a popular WLS blog just to glean some information from individuals who had undergone this procedure. Some of the input was good, and some of it was rather asinine. But, what I did notice was an underlying air of unnecessary desperation. Before I get into this, I want to let anyone who may be reading this know that "mascot" in this case means someone who is the embodiment of negative stereotypes assessed to a group of people. With that said, I was surprised at how many individuals on the WLS boards take on the role of a mascot when it comes to overweight/obese individuals. WLS boards appear to be littered with tales of people who hide Hershey Bars in the closet, don't go out in public, cry themselves to sleep, lament about never having tried out for the volleyball team, didn't go to their high school reunion, can't get a date, don't play with their children, etc....I sometimes read these tragic stories and wonder how and why people end up like that just because of their weight. When I look back at my upbringing, I am so grateful that my parents did not allow us to use our physical appearance and how society may feel about it as a way out of participating in life. I've never been thin. I was always the tallest one and I always had extra weight. But, my parents taught me that I can do anything I want to do. Never once did it cross my mind to not try out for the swim team because of my weight. I was good, why wouldn't I try out? Never once did it occur to me to not sign up for summer Track and Field because of my weight. Never once did it cross my mind to not go to the prom because of my weight. Never once did it cross my mind to lock myself in my house because of my weight. Never once did it occur to me that I should be meek, apologetic, or sad because of my weight. If anything, it was a badge of honor knowing that I was setting an example for other people letting them know that just because you have extra weight on you doesn't mean that you can't excel at sports, go to the prom, date a cute guy, speak up for yourself and all of the other things that unbeknownst to me are supposed to be reserved for people who are height/weight proportionate. This concerns be more because I truly believe that you pass your junk onto your progeny. This became clear to me when I taught Kindergarten. There was an obese child in my class and her mother was obese. The mother had the same tragic thing going on where she only left the house to pick her children up from school because she was embarrassed about her weight (yes, she told me this). On field day, her daughter, a born chatterbox, sat out of every single event by pretending that she needed to tie her shoe. I watched her stand at the start line and by the time the school secretary got to "set", she would bend down, untie her shoe and slowly tie it back up so that by the time she was done, the race was over. We all knew why she was doing it. The saddest part is that at 5 years-old, she had already learned that because of her weight, she should automatically exclude herself from the same privileges of childhood in which every other child gets to partake. Repeat: exclude herself. None of us told her she couldn't participate. None of the games had a weight limit. She placed the limit on herself. That was 4 years ago. I can only hope that in 15 years, she won't be someone who is steeped in regret about what they never did in life because she was/is overweight. As I read through the WLS sites, my long-held thoughts on the matter are confirmed. I read posts and wonder when the individual learned to limit themselves because of their weight and who taught them to do so. To me, it's a tragedy to be 25, 30, 40+ and never have lived out anything you wanted to do because of how much you weigh. We all get down about something every now and then, but to stay down for an extended period of time, that's where it becomes troublesome. So instead of waiting until you're at your preferred weight or until you can wear a size __ to do what you want to do, know you can do, would like to try to do, would like to learn to do, do it now.

Chapstick and a robe.

I don't know about head hunger. I feel real hunger. I can't have anything but mush right now so that's not something that's tempting me so that head hunger is a reality in my life.

That's probably par for the course. How did your insurance find out you went to Mexico?

JMO, I am surprised that cussing is against the rules. I'd probably post more if it weren't but I guess that says something about me

I'm only two weeks out but I do experience less hunger and when I have hunger pangs (from just going several hours without drinking something), it hurts. I assume it hurts because I'm so early out and it'll get better but it's rather painful.

I have it too. Maybe it's a new "discipline" system.

Huh?

I watched a lecture that a bariatric surgeon conducted and he said that they are expecting the sleeve to eventually become the gold standard and replace bypass.

He and his sister had it.

Two weeks post-op and 70-100g of CARBS? From what I've learned, in the losing phase, carbs should be kept below 60g. You're taking in more carbs than Protein.

Before surgery, 1500 cal/day would get me 5lbs/wk in weight loss. Now, I can't imagine being able to get that much in. I can't even take my liquid pain reliever without feeling full.

Mine says AT LEAST 80. What's the dilemma? Are you scared you are taking in too many total calories? Are you keeping up on your water intake?

If it's any consolation, you shouldn't be too hard on yourself. The band has limitations that people didn't know about the first few years it was out there. I read a few weeks ago where doctors are being urged to not even install the band into patients anymore because the long-term issues (weight re-gain, failure to loose, scarring, etc...) just are not worth it. The feds have sent subpoenas to Allergan about the lap band and expect them to testify about the low weight loss results and the complications. It was in the news back in May. If you are convinced that you'll regain, I think it's better for you to act proactively, especially with your co-morbid conditions. Why climb back up when you don't have to?

Take that back. I had to pay about $140 for the nutrition consult but it was only 1 so no big deal.

UHC was smooth and seamless and I didn't have to do all of the long, drawn-out stuff that a lot of people have to do (ie. 6-month diet, etc..). However, I have the PPO so it may be different. They did cover everything 100% though.